If you were starting your Ph.D again...

lfqnic

At a conference recently I had fun listening to people talk about the highs and lows of their research - horror stories about supervisors, badly formatted papers, peer reviews etc. People seemed to have completely different ideas of what was an acceptable amount of work to do by day, what constituted an 'original contribution', and where to draw the line between necessary and required reading. Almost all had had some sort of disaster or big learning experience (normally wasting ages on useless material or overlooking something huge).

I know every researcher and piece of research is different, but as at least some of us will be starting out in the next few weeks, I was wondering if you had any 'things I wish I'd known in 1st year' wisdom to share.

Tom Dunne

I think for me, the biggest thing was "it's not unusual to feel the way you do" and "if you are going through this, you are pretty much 100% guaranteed somebody else has gone through the same thing".

Fear, self-doubt, uncertainty are not unusual states of mind.

Fabio

- To have a much clearer direction of where I was going with my research.

- I had a very good project proposal, good enough to get me a fee waiver scholarship, but there is a big difference between a good proposal and a good plan. The good plan is what will steer you along in moments of doubt.

- To be aware that I had to write something every day no matter what. It's like jogging, you need to do it every day for it to be effective and to avoid pulling a hamstring on the one day you decide to do a million laps!

- To have a stable work environment like an office desk is a big help with keeping you grounded to research.

Tree

Take a holiday. A proper one, not a long weekend where you've to squeeze in stressful flights.

lfqnic

Tree wrote: »

Take a holiday. A proper one, not a long weekend where you've to squeeze in stressful flights.

Thank God! Nobody seems to do this! :eek: I can't figure out how they manage without ending up totally stale, I know my work suffers when I need to rest but don't.

Fabio wrote:

To have a stable work environment like an office desk is a big help with keeping you grounded to research.

That makes sense. Unfortunately not very likely in my college. I might have to mark my territory in the library Write everyday seems to one of the few things all students agree about. The plan advice is definitely helpful, thanks!

Tom Dunne wrote:

Fear, self-doubt, uncertainty are not unusual states of mind.

Yeah, it is always strangely helpful to hear other people admit that they also think they might be frauds!

Thanks for the advice y'all

WhirlEsme

Great thread. I'm only starting out, so have nothing to contribute as of yet. However, I will be following this post (eagerly!) - would love to hear others experiences (the good and the bad).........It's all ahead of me.

ilovesmybrick

I wouldn't have spent the first 6 months wandering around like a headless chicken wondering when I was going to get uncovered as a fraud (two years in they still haven't found out ).

Butmore importantly, holdiays. I can't wait for my few days off at the end of the month. At the outset we were all told we should schedule them for ourselves and only now I'm feeling the need for a week of doing nothing. Turns out travelling to conferences does NOT count as a break!

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Take holidays and don't let yourself be forced into something that you don't want to be doing. O and every day will be a heart breaking struggle but that one day in a hundred where everything falls into place makes it worth it.

Jimoslimos

Thanks y'all for the tips and potential pitfalls. Learning from the mistakes of others, I now feel that my upcoming PhD studies will be a breeze in comparison*

*This may not be an accurate reflection on how the next few years of my life will turn out.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Thanks y'all for the tips and potential pitfalls. Learning from the mistakes of others, I now feel that my upcoming PhD studies will be a breeze in comparison*

*This may not be an accurate reflection on how the next few years of my life will turn out.

Its not but thats ok, you'll learn more in your postgrad than you did in all your education up to that point.

Jimoslimos

Ivy Long Popcorn wrote: »

Its not but thats ok, you'll learn more in your postgrad than you did in all your education up to that point.

That excites and frightens me in equal measure!

Uberbeamerman

You mean I'm not alone in all this 'oh god why didn't I finish up at undergrad?!?!?!?!' Phew, that's definitely brightened up my day!

WhirlEsme

As I said above, I'm a newbie :P but I'm really liking what I'm doing thus far - the workload is manageable, and once I get into a routine with it, I'm flying.

Just to put a another spin on it though - has anyone ever regretted undertaken a PhD? A close family member recently told me I was mad to go from undergrad (4 years) to masters (1 year) to PhD (3/4ish years) without a break/travel, etc. I don't feel particularly exhausted as of right now, and I'm 24, so reckon there's a few years of exploring in me yet (I reckon she was trying to get a rise out of me anyway!). Anyone go my route - years of college in succession?

Uberbeamerman

WhirlEsme wrote: »

As I said above, I'm a newbie :P but I'm really liking what I'm doing thus far - the workload is manageable, and once I get into a routine with it, I'm flying.

Just to put a another spin on it though - has anyone ever regretted undertaken a PhD? A close family member recently told me I was mad to go from undergrad (4 years) to masters (1 year) to PhD (3/4ish years) without a break/travel, etc. I don't feel particularly exhausted as of right now, and I'm 23, so reckon there's a few years of exploring in me yet (I reckon she was trying to get a rise out of me anyway!). Anyone go my route - years of college in succession?

Entering my 6th consecutive year of college at the moment, so far no real regrets!

lfqnic

I know it's a trite thing to say, but everyone is different. I took several years out between high school and undergrad, during which time my interests COMPLETELY changed, so I'm delighted that I didn't end up doing a degree in French and using up my one chance at an undergrad. Now I'm going from undergrad to Ph.D which is a scary-ass leap, but things have never been clearer. I think that's the deciding factor; if you have fire in your belly and aren't just going with the flow because you can't think of anything else to do, I reckon you should be ok on the motivation and energy front for as long as it takes. But ask me again in a year

gutenberg

WhirlEsme wrote: »

As I said above, I'm a newbie :P but I'm really liking what I'm doing thus far - the workload is manageable, and once I get into a routine with it, I'm flying.

Just to put a another spin on it though - has anyone ever regretted undertaken a PhD? A close family member recently told me I was mad to go from undergrad (4 years) to masters (1 year) to PhD (3/4ish years) without a break/travel, etc. I don't feel particularly exhausted as of right now, and I'm 24, so reckon there's a few years of exploring in me yet (I reckon she was trying to get a rise out of me anyway!). Anyone go my route - years of college in succession?

About to start my second year of PhD (:eek:) after having done BA-MPhil-PhD without a break. I do sometimes question whether it would have been good to have taken a break, but then I have a 'good day' of research and then I think, naaa I did move university & country for my postgrad though, so I suppose that helped freshen things up a little, and right now I'm in America for research for 4 months, so there are perks to doing PhD study

zl1whqvjs75cdy

How does one do a PhD in an Arts style discipline may I ask? I don't see how you can generate novel data out of something like history or English. Surely its just your opinion on the events/writing. How does that contribute to the overall body of human knowledge?

gutenberg

donkeyoaty0099 wrote: »

How does one do a PhD in an Arts style discipline may I ask? I don't see how you can generate novel data out of something like history or English. Surely its just your opinion on the events/writing. How does that contribute to the overall body of human knowledge?

I will let someone else answer for English, but in history you'd be amazed at the amount of documents etc that have been barely, if ever, read or analysed by other human beings. That's if you're lucky and happen across a little-known archive. Otherwise, history PhDs tackle originality and contribution to knowledge by analysing events we 'know' of through different angles and approaches, and new combinations of evidence. So for example you could examine the Reformation through the gender dimension rather than as a history of the great reformers, or study Henry VIII's relationship with his father and his father's reign to get insights into his reign, etc (those are bad examples but hopefully you get the gist). You can also put evidence together that hasn't previously been analysed together, and it can give unexpected insights. I'm looking at some documents that are well known, but I'm looking at some supporting material which has never been considered alongside them, and it really textures and nuances the well-known material and has told me things we don't know about the period I study. Hope that helps?

zl1whqvjs75cdy

IT does thanks , well explained.