Today I got few questions from a student who is interesting in applying for the same PhD as I am doing. I though it will be good to share my thoughts on this in a blog post. (I got a permission to upload his questions on my blog).
1. Would it be valuable for me to try and schedule a meeting with potential advisors involved in the scheme before the deadline?
I do not think this is necessary. However, if you were invited for an interview try to contact Jenny Cockitt to arrange a lab viewing. She will ask one of the current PhD students to show you around. If you are coming from far, this can be made on the same day. Also don’t panic if you can’t attend the interview in person, one of my classmates had an interview through Skype. As far as I am aware most of us have scheduled lab viewing and I think it is really useful as you can bring it up during your interview.
Let me explain why I wouldn’t recommend to contact a particular supervisor. There are some weird rules set up by university, that if one of us takes a project with “X” supervisor the next year the cohort can not do the project with the same supervisor. However, there are ways around this if you know what project you want to do you can talk with a supervisor and you can also bring it up during an interview. I actually was asked If I know which projects I am interested in. But I feel that this was more of a general question and they want to know what area you want to do your project in. Also I think that the main advantage of this PhD is that we have (this year) around 30 PhD projects available to us, so you can go into different labs and figure out what fits you best. For example, when I started to discuss projects with supervisors my opinion has completely changed regarding some projects.
2. What appeared to be the single aspect/focus that the admissions team were looking for in an application?
I will cover this question in more detail this Sunday and I will explain what I had in my CV as well as the Cover letter, plus will go into details about my interview. But If I had to pick a single factor that would probably be your personality. To do a PhD you need to have specific characteristics for example: you have great motivation, you know some other PhD students so you understand how the life will be like, also how you deal with stress and etc. Looking at my cohort I would say that we all are extremely different and we were also discussing our interviews and came to a conclusion that they are looking more for a particular personality rather a set of skills. I never expected that I will get this PhD as I though I don’t have much to show, but supposedly I did impress them. So I would encourage you not be afraid and just show to them that you are determined and you know what you want and how to achieve it even if you don’t know much about the particular project.
3. Have there been any surprises for you with the scheme so far? Was there anything you expected to happen on the scheme that has not occurred yet?
This is a really good question. I was also scared as I didn’t have an amazing experience during my MSc, so I was really hoping that my life will not be as miserable anymore. So far, I can say that they take really good care of us. For example, last year (whilst doing my MSc) the cohort said it would be nice to have someone helping throughout the first year so this year each of us has a 1st cohort student attached to us. If we have any questions we can email them and get help, obviously we have course administration, etc., but you don’t always want to bother them so having a student buddy is a great decision. We have regular meeting and as a student representative I can say that whatever we bring up is taken really seriously and usually implemented shortly. For example, last year there was no “Project day” where all supervisors presented but this year they began doing this. You have to understand that this program has started only 1.5 years ago, so there will be little things that need to be changed, but we are making suggestions not only for our self but also propose our ideas for the upcoming years. Overall I would say I am very satisfied with the way the course is run. If you want me to tell you what I didn’t like I can do that, but its not related to the program. For example: some lectures are held in really cold rooms, some lectures are repeated in different units and that’s it. I wouldn’t say that this had any negative impact on my experience. Also you have to understand that some lectures will be together with different MSc courses so you shouldn’t be surprised if you hear the same talk as the audience might be different.
4. You've mentioned in your blog how vital your Masters year was to your current success on the scheme, however I will be graduating with my BSc. this year in Biochemistry... will this be enough?
For me MSc was vital because I finished BSc in University of Bedfordshire which is really low on the rankings (around 100). Even though I had really good grade I felt like I had to compensate by doing an MSc in a respected university (UCL in my case). I personally believe that this has helped me to get accepted but I never tried to apply without MSc, so don’t feel discouraged if you are not from top university. In addition, this PhD is designed in a way that you will get good understanding of tissue engineering, biomaterials, nanotechnology, etc. I had most of this covered in my MSc, so you can consider that I had an advantage but in some cases it was boring to learn the same topics.
You can apply to this program with different backgrounds and levels of education. We have: physicists, molecular biologists, bioengineers, biomedical scientists, medics, etc… I wouldn’t say that we have more people who have MSc degreed that BSc. Basically, it doesn’t matter what background you have, this program is known for their multidisciplinary approach and they like to take people from different backgrounds. We also have a broad range of projects available to us, if during taught component you realize that you don’t particularly enjoy biomaterials then you can do projects in molecular biology with a focus on regenerative medicine. I truly believe that there is a project for everyone.
5. Is an industrial placement considered an advantage?
We have quite a few guys who had industrial placements in different places and countries while others haven’t. I personally never had one. So if you have done it, great it might be your advantage depending on how you present it to the panel. Its all about presenting everything in the right way.
To conclude, if you finishing you BSc or MSc don’t be afraid to apply. It might be hard to do a PhD after BSc, but think that you will be able to do a Post-Doc at 25 while I will finish my PhD only at 29. However, if you are unsure if you want to do it or you don’t particularly like lab work then try to speak with a PhD student to get their opinion as it is worse to start and not finish a PhD than not have it at all.
I will try to ask my administrator if I can upload the project list that was available to us, so you can get better understanding.