Ph.D Studentships...

TrollHammaren

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to do a Ph.D in Psychology, and I'm just wondering about the studentship selection criteria. Obviously I'm aiming for a I or a high II:1, but is selection based solely on academic achievement, or do they also take into account socio-economic background and contribution to the college community?

Cheers in advance!

Sir Ophiuchus

As I understand it, they take into account:

- your academic record
- your references
- the viability and originality of your research proposal

The handbook for the School of Psychology states that requirements are "a good undergraduate degree (first or upper second class honour), competence in, and motivation for, research, identifying a supervisor on the academic staff who is prepared to take you on, and available resources in the School".

Gileadi

I can't speak for Psychology, but I know in the Engineering departments the number of applicants has gone up significantly in the last few years. A good first and excellent references could still fall short of the required mark.

Doug Cartel

TrollHammaren wrote: »

Obviously I'm aiming for a I or a high II:1, but is selection based solely on academic achievement, or do they also take into account socio-economic background and contribution to the college community?

Look at it like you're applying for a job. Post-grad studentships aren't given out for the same altruistic reasons as undergrad ones. They're basically paying you to do research for them, and get their publication rate up. As such they don't care about your current financial situation -they care primarily about your ability to get work done, and then about your ability to fit in with the rest of the people in your office, that's about it.

If you want to get in, get researching, and get pally with your potential supervisors. Find out exactly what they're doing and what kind of work you can do for them. There's going to be shedloads of people applying for each place, and they're all going to have reasonably good grades. You'll get the place based on your cover letter/provisional research proposal.

I got in with not so fantastic grades, and it was because I managed to convince them that I had the exact skillset and interests that they were looking for. Talking to one of the guys who interviewed me a few months later, he told me that they had something like 80 applications for my position, but the vast majority of them, he reckons they just threw in the CV without giving much attention to what it is they were applying for.

TrollHammaren

Thanks guys; very helpful replies. I have a decent amount of research done, and I'm currently talking to a particular professor, so it hopefully should stand to me. I hope to get good results, anyway.

Cheers!

Piriz

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/mr/academic

make what you want to of this article but its some thinking to perhaps be aware of..

may i ask what are your aims post PhD in Psychology? lecturing? clinical? obviously a PhD would be necessary for these roles...but otherwise...?

TrollHammaren

Piriz wrote: »

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/mr/academic

make what you want to of this article but its some thinking to perhaps be aware of..

may i ask what are your aims post PhD in Psychology? lecturing? clinical? obviously a PhD would be necessary for these roles...but otherwise...?

Thanks for the article - I only skimmed it at the moment but I'll be back to it later tonight.

I'm looking to work as a post-doctoral researcher in neuropsychology, particularly neurorehabilitation, but a lectureship would also be something I'd like to achieve.

Piriz

TrollHammaren wrote: »

Thanks for the article - I only skimmed it at the moment but I'll be back to it later tonight.

I'm looking to work as a post-doctoral researcher in neuropsychology, particularly neurorehabilitation, but a lectureship would also be something I'd like to achieve.

awesome...im studying occupational therapy at the moment i'd be very interested in those areas too..

TrollHammaren

Piriz wrote: »

awesome...im studying occupational therapy at the moment i'd be very interested in those areas too..

Good areas to get into! There's a lot of potentially excellent research to be done in those areas!