Some general questions re PhD.

DemocAnarchis

Hey guys, I'm a bit lost to be honest. I'm strongly considering a PhD in organic chemistry, but I dont really know where to start looking/where to begin! A few general phd related questions I hope you may be able to answer:

I will be entering final year of my BSc in september, when do I need to start applying for projects?

When do universities publish research projects, or do they? Or do I have to contact professors individually?

I've read a bit on this forum about partial scholarships/funding. Is this the "norm" for a PhD or is it difficult to get?

Any input from ye would be much appreciated :cool:

Shiny

Hey,

Earlier this year I was considering doing a PhD in something
engineering related and I was in the same boat as you.

First look and see if you could get an IRCSET grant. You would
need a 1.1 and good lingo to get this and I didn't bother applying
in the end. If you were to get this grant you would get something
like 70k over 3 years. This covers every possible cost. You would
be left with something like 17k a year to live on.

Next down from the IRCSET is a funded PhD offered by the college.
There isn't much difference from the IRCSET other than the fact that
they have the funding already obtained from some organisation.

I don't know what college you are in but I was doing Engineering in
DCU this year and throughout my final year every so often I would
get the odd email from professors and lecturers detailing PhD and research
Masters positions that were available for the subsequent year.

In my final year all the subjects were much more interesting and applied.
As you progress through the year you will get a feel for which subjects
you like and which you don't. You will also get a feel for which lecturers
and professors you like. (More important than your chosen area I think).

Basically you wouldn't be making a decision till either in or after your
final exams but you would need to have met the professor and decided
what you wanted at that stage.

I decided against a PhD due to several bad experiences that a few guys
I know were having while doing theirs. I was also planning to do a research
Masters as apparently this was the most valuable type of Masters but
after alot of research I found that it was too specific, ie you might be an
expert in a certain area but then when you go for a job they could be
looking for experience in a different area thus restricting your options.
So finally, yesterday in fact, I applied for a taught masters. I feel that
this course covered a much broader range of subjects yet only tied me
down for 1 year.

My friend is doing a PhD and he is pretty sick of it. His supervisors aren't
exactly friendly which is making it alot more difficult for him. He was also
probably the top guy in the Faculty and also one of the few in Ireland to
get the IRCSET award. He is now stuck for 2 more years doing a PhD which
like the research Masters is again in a very specific area.

Soooo......To conclude

You wont need to worry about applying till the end of the second
semester but keep an eye out before then.

Some projects are emailed to the final year mailing list, some are
displayed on the website and others you could ask the professor
in your favourate area.

IRCSET is the ultimate funding but very hard to get. Reseach masters
and PhD's offered by the university are usually offered with funding
to the order of around 17k a year or around €350 a week to live on.
Taught masters cost money but are often subasidised and dont cost too much.

Any questions or stuff I said that may be wrong ....attack away. :pac:

passthedutchie

Is it unheard of for IRCSET grants to go to 2.1 <snip>?
What about the fact that different colleges give out different percentages of firsts, and thus all are not equal.

Shiny

No its not unheard of (hence me applying ) but a lower proportion
of 2.1 graduates get it. My supervisor was telling me that he filled out
plenty of applications with people that had 1.1's and they didn't get
anything either.

1.1 != funding, but it definitely helps.

I went to a seminar presented by a representative from IRCSET and
he showed a graph with the funding allocation.
I cant remember exactly but there are around 1000 applications every
year and less than 150 get funding. 15 of these are Non EU so that
reduces it to 135.

Its still a 1 in 8 chance of getting funding which isn't too bad.

passthedutchie

Apologies Red Alert

I suppose self-deprecation is a form of personal abuse, but not one which would offend others, surely!

Shiny

hehe I didn't think it was offensive either.

If you had said the same about someone doing foundation level
leaving cert subjects then it *would* have been very offensive.:rolleyes:

Climate Expert

IRCSET is the ultimate funding but very hard to get

Its fairly handy to get. The year I got it around 50% of those applied got it. its probably more like 30% (I see its less now from the earlier post) now so still not too difficult.
If you dont have IRCSET funding or other funding thats at least as much as ircset then don't bother with a PhD.

Shiny

Good Guide from Postgrad.ie

The IRCEST application process is one that can be frustrating and daunting without the right attitude and approach. Here's a guideline of how to get through it smiling...

First Steps

• Go to the IRCSET website and read the assessment procedures and terms and conditions carefully in preparation.
• Be sure to fill out the application correctly online. This task should not be underestimated as IRCSET will reject applications that are not filled out properly regardless of the merit of the content.

Your application will be assessed under four main headings; you should be aware of these throughout the process:

a) Academic Career (30%): IRCSET almost exclusively funds first class honours students. Position in your class is paramount. Have you received top marks in any continuous assessment component to any of your courses? Have you ever received 100% in an exam? Have you been a name on a paper submitted to a conference or Journal (Maybe an extension to your final year project?) Have you written any software, given any talks, or done anything above and beyond revising for your exams? Have you taken any courses relevant to your research? Did you perform well in these courses?

b) Personal Statement (30%): You need to sell yourself; not a comfortable thing to do for most people but you need to convince these people that you are good enough to deserve funding. You will be up against people of equal ability on paper so you need to differentiate yourself from them.

Why should IRCSET give you the funding? Why do you want to do research? (Do not say because you are waiting the labour market to pick up!) One of the founding principles of Embark is to position Ireland as a knowledge based economy. They reckon the best way to do this is to have as many people as possible with post graduate degrees. You should think about this and mention how your research can contribute to this philosophy.

Management and team working skills are also highly rated. Mention any leadership roles you have held in work, sport, or college. More and more research is becoming a collaborative process so any experience you have had as part of a team structure is worth mentioning. Adherence to deadlines is important.

Assessors also want to see you explain your interest in research and your subject. Be enthusiastic about your subject and mention anything you’ve done on your own bat to further your understanding or knowledge of an area.

c) Referees (30%): Choose your referee carefully. Their report is worth one third of the marks allocated to your application. Give the referee as much time as possible to fill out the report. Make sure they are aware of deadlines and what to emphasise in the report. The referee should be familiar with your work and ideally should be the person whose course you did best on. Again excellence and position in the class will be looked for here.

d) Project Outline (10%): Note the weighting for this! Be definite about the area you are choosing. Identify any possible obstacles you expect to face and give reasonable deadlines for your work. Identify possible collaborators, applications, and appropriate conferences to attend.

Applying for funding: Things to bear in mind

• Things can go wrong with on-line applications. Do not have blind faith in the process. Make sure you have all your documentation in the proper format. This means give word documents when asked. Make sure you know whether to cut and paste or to upload a document. Do a trial run and be familiar with the form

• Make sure you get acknowledgement of your application. Read the assessment procedures on the web page to see what should happen. Note these seem to change from call to call so repeat applicants should still check.

• If it doesn’t go to plan, ring IRCSET. It is no good waiting until weeks after to find your application never got processed. Make them aware of your presence before the deadline. I spent five weeks last year chasing a lost application and it was eventually funded.

• Be careful of the length of your replies on the form. Extra characters will be ignored. The form as it stands is not very user friendly so please take time to go through it well before the deadline day.

• Make sure you have all your results from the registrar’s office. Do not go bothering departmental offices one hour before deadline. They will not have time to give you your results.

• Put in all your results. IRCSET look for consistency. If you have good marks in every year make sure to emphasise it.

• Check with your referee to make sure they have done what is necessary.

• For round one applicants third year results are the important ones. For second round applicants your final results hold more weight.

• Select M.Sc./Ph.D. or Ph.D. in the type of degree box. It shows a bigger commitment than just selecting M.Sc.

Above all make sure to refer to the website on a continual basis to keep abreast of changes…and good luck!

It has definitely been a 1 in 8 chance of getting this for the last 3
years anyway. I tried to find the graph from the seminar but I couldn't
get it anywhere.

But I agree with Climate Expert, if you don't have some sort of funding
then don't bother. You will only end up with a tonne of debt.

Red Alert

I would definitely not consider any research-based postgrad degree unless there was a definite funding source involved. You will definitely get into a serious amount of debt. Even for a masters you can't tell exactly how long it will end up taking, so you could be setting yourself up for some severe hassle.

Have a look at IRCSET, but like the above, I wouldn't waste time on it unless you think you've a strong chance of getting it. Pulling together all the documentation is very time-consuming when you're in final year and need the time for study - if I was doing it all over again I wouldn't have bothered applying to IRCSET at all. I got let down in my referee's report, since I think one of them in hindsight was probably the wrong person to ask.

You'd want to start making decisions about areas you'd be interested in, pick maybe two. Then narrow down and see which members of staff you want to approach... try and have personally made contact with them before the easter break.