Just thought I'd update this thread I started in case someone finds my experience of any benefit to their situation.

I found a couple of departments that interested me (in terms of their research environment and area od specialisation) and I contacted their postgraduate officer. I explained that I have decided to stop at MPhil where I am currently studying for financial/ funding reasons, and whether I could apply to do a PhD (from scratch with a new proposal) at their department. In both cases, I got a positive reply saying that an MPhil is not considered a failed PhD under these circumstances & they encouraged me to apply for their PhD programmes.

It was stressful coming up with a new proposal from scratch, but I somehow managed! I got offered a place at both institutions, and am now waiting to hear nack regarding funding.

Thank you all for your encouraging words and support without which I would have perhaps never plucked the courage to do what I did :-)

======= Date Modified 21 Apr 2010 13:16:30 =======
Thank you all very much for your comments, explanations and words of encouragement. It really helps to get a third person perspective on this :-)

I've been decline - so far - for one (out of the four) different funding that I applied for; they told me they have 500 applicants!! So I'm happy - at least - that I'm on the reserve list. Not much may come out of it, but at least - from what you've said - things could change and someone else may decline the offer so I just might get lucky - who knows... Also, I haven't heard back yet from the other funding places, which makes me think it's a no-go since they would've called me for an interview by now (and which they haven't).

Guess I have to defer the place they've offered me on their PhD programmes for a 2010 start, and try my hand again at funding applications next year (2011 start). Perhaps I'll apply to more places - I applied to two institutions this time - so I can increase my chances of getting funding.

Thanks once again & I'll keep you posted if anything short of miraculous does occur ;-)

======= Date Modified 21 Apr 2010 12:25:21 =======
Iano, Sorry to hear about your experience; it must be very frustrating. Please don't let it discourage you from applying elsewhere to do your PhD at another university, perhaps. I agree with what the posters have said below. In the job market - and I speak from plenty of experience - they don't often give feed-back on their selection process. To some extent, it's the nature of the game. Don't fight it, just go with it ;-)
You can take some positive steps to make the most of your current situation. Take the initiative and be proactive. Here are a few things I'll suggest:
1) Like everyone else said, get someone with plenty of experience (preferably someone who has supervised PhD students who've gone on to get their PhDs) who works in the same field/area to look at your whole application (CV, covering letter, personal statement). But most importantly, get them to also look at your research proposal. I'm not sure what sort of PhD you've applied for, and whether this relevant to your field, but in my field a research proposal will account for at least 30-50% of your chances of getting offered a place. There are other things that count: a good first degree, and preferably an MA; excellent supporting statements from your two referees (choose your referees carefully: someone who believes you can do it and thinks you’re capable, and not someone whom you’ve not particularly got along with!).
2) Get some guide books on the PhD Application process. Not everyone like these, but I got plenty of practical tips that helped me with my application.
3) Do some research - if you haven't already - about the relationship between the topic of your research proposal, your MA area of specialisation, and the faculty's research expertise and interests where you were rejected. Do all three sit well together? Ask yourself: is there someone in that department who definitely knows enough about my proposal topic to supervise me? If the answer's 'No', then you need to look for departments or faculty members elsewhere who share your area of proposed research. Plenty of apps get rejected because the department doesn’t think there’s someone suitable there to supervise the applicant.
4) Also - I’ve not always done this and it’s certainly not necessary - but it’s definitely worth it: email some potential supervisors BEFORE you apply. Send them your research proposal telling them (very briefly) why you think they’d be perfect in terms of supervising your project, then attach your proposal, and if they give you the go ahead then you’ve pretty much completed 50% of the application process (the rest is just bureaucracy).
5) Last but not least – apply early. Start now to do research on potential supervisors, email them, getting chatting about your proposal and ask politely if they’d suggest any changes (stay flexible but not too compromising!), and then get your application under way in the next few months for a place next year. As some people have said here, sometime ‘first come first serve’ does work ;-)

======= Date Modified 10 06 2010 11:06:28 =======
======= Date Modified 10 05 2010 11:05:55 =======
Hello,

I hope this is not too off topic but I was wondering if anyone could give me some advise as I'm going bonkers playing the waiting game.

I applied for 'internal' funding for a PhD at my department of choice and was offered a place immediately. Hurray, Right? Not so I'm afraid. I had mentioned in my application that I couldn't possibly afford to do it unless I also get funding, and which I had applied for. I understand that these 'internal' / departmental fundings are highly competitive, so I was keeping my fingers crossed.

I got an email last week telling me that I was not successful in getting the funding, but that I'd done well in the competition so I was on a 'reserve list'. Should someone secure external funding, or change their mind last minute and withdraw their application, then I might get a chance of getting the funding which they turned down. They also said I won't know for sure until late August when the funding councils have announced their results, so till then I just need to sit tight and hope that someone will drop out so I can get in!

In the meantime my MA dissertation is due soon, my exams are looming, and I can't get my head straight to concentrate because the suspense is killing me........Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgg!!!

From experience, do any of you know whether people on funding 'reserve' lists do actually get any where in the end? I mean, is it quite common for people to apply to do PhD at more than one institution, be successful at being offered funding at both, such that they turn one down? I just want to know what my chances are so I can get on with my MA and my life! Please help, your thoughts would be appreciated =)

======= Date Modified 21 Apr 2010 14:16:25 =======
Hi Jenny_Pepper,

Much depends on what you mean by your 'speciality' and hence what could be said about swapping 'specialisations' after your PhD. If you're doing a PhD in History, for example, or in Sociology, Linguistics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, etc. then yes. Once you finish your PhD you can conduct research on different areas. So if you specialised in, say, the history of the French Revolution, then you can specialise in the Rise of Nationalism, or Communism, in Europe after your PhD. With a PhD, you're either a Historian, Philosopher, Sociologist, etc. and you can expand your research area and change interests. Many academics work on areas not related to what they did back when they were doing their PhDs. This would constitute a change in the area of specialisation/research, but it's not a change of 'discipline' because you're still staying within the same discipline (i.e. History, for example).

If, however, you are currently doing a PhD in Sociology, but would rather be doing Psychology or Philosophy, then obvoiusly the swap after the PhD won't be easy (although not impossible; I was looking a few days ago at a faculty member's CV who was an economist and is now a historian because alongside his original position within an Economic Department, he started doing research and writing + successfully publishing papers on History. After a string of successful publications, he now works as an historian in a History Department). It's not impossible, but it's very rare; and so I assume that there must be good reasons why it's so rare. Change of discipline after a PhD is hard because each department who you apply to work for will require that you have a PhD within that discipline. So if you apply to work in Sociology you need a PhD in Sociology.

As for quitting your PhD, and how this will look on your application, again this depends on what you want to do later. Having an MPhil is no sin - it's a prestigious research degree in its own right. However, should you wish to then apply for a different PhD after you finish your MPhil, then you'd better have a good answer to the question: 'Why did you stop at the MPhil?' Recruiters are interested for various reasons to find out why you didn't finish your PhD. Not the least because MPhils are often (though certainly not always) awarded to those whose research didn't quite match the quality required for a PhD.

So here are your options:

1) Finish your PhD (and do reserach on other areas that you're interested in after you become a doctor, but which are still within the same discipline),

2) If it's your discipline you want to change (i.e. you're doing Finance or Business and now want to do Geography) then finish your MPhil, and apply after that to do a PhD in a  discipline you're really interested in (be prepared though, when you do apply again for a PhD, to have a very strong argument for why you've changed disciplines),

3) If you want to stop and start a new PhD, make sure you've already got a new research proposal in the discipline/field you're interested in, and you've already approached someone (a potential supervisor you're interested to work with) at another institution who's happy to supervise you and has given you the green light to apply for a PhD.

4) You might simply not be sure if a PhD is the right thing for you - its normal for PhD students to have doubts at this stage, and not all of them are well-founded. You might be just going throud 2nd year blues. Try and talk to friends and family as this may be just a passing phase.

Will give it a shot. Thanks once again Jojo! :-)

A friend of mine did her Masters in International Relations at Sussex after having done her BA in Humanities, so it can be done with a degree in English & Philosophy - it all depends on which Uni you want to apply to, and what they require for entry onto their MA degree.

Best thing to do is make a list of universities (where you want to do that MA), and then check their MA International Relations course details online at their website, they will often state the requirements there.

Failing that, email the department's postgrad officer and ask if your BA allows you entry onto their MA in International Relations. They are generally very helpful & respond quite quickly.

Good luck!

Hi,

Thank you both so much - it's so nice to be able to get feedback on this :o)

I haven't spoken to my supervisors about the fact that I'm considering applying somewhere else. I've spoken to my supervisor who has promised to see with our Head of School if they could give me a fee-waiver this year (as a member of staff), but he told me not to hold my breath since the budget's quite tight at the moment, hence my current state of panic!

Adding to this, my scholarship (which is 50% of my fees) has a proviso: it's a 'postgraduate research scholarship', so it doesn't specify if I come out with an Mphil of PhD, but it does state that it can only go on for a maximum of 3 years 'continuously', and only if I am registered as 'full-time'. If I go part-time, or take a year out then I won't have 1/2 my fees paid for, leaving me a worse situation than now.

Jojo -- what do you mean when you say I should 'transfer my thesis'? Do you mean it is better to transfer to another PhD programme at another uni now, and that this is a better option that trying to do it after my MPhil? I can't take a year out for work since I'll lose my 50% fee scholarship. Going part-time is no different since I'll lose my scholarship, effectively paying exactly how much I'm paying now (i.e. because part-time fees are generally half of full-time fees). But I've seen a few fully-funded PhD scholarships advertised recently at other universities, for a Sept. 2010 start. Could I apply for these, or would they be reluctant to take me given that I've started an MPhil/PhD at my given uni?

Bewildered -- my relationship with my supervisor is excellent - he's the only reason I came to this uni in the first place - and in so far as supervisors go, I think he's great. It wouldn't be a problem explaining things to him since he knows how much trouble I've been put through, but I guess he won't be happy about my decision to move on somewhere else. Though I do think that if I finished my MPhil he'd write me a good reference because that way, at least, I got my MPhil and made it worth his, my, and the university's while (giving me the scholarship and all).

The worry is, will getting an MPhil be worse off (in terms of getting me on a PhD & funding at another uni)? Will I be better off just transferring elsewhere now, or should I get the MPhil first? I’m really confused and don’t know which option to follow.

Hi,

I was wondering if I can get some help.

I enrolled onto an Mphil/PhD degree in Philosophy at a UK institution about a year and a half ago (Oct. 2008). Before I enrol, I explained to the school/department that my application is subject to funding and other financial assistance (i.e. I would only enrol if I managed to get the "50% fee-reduction scholarship" the university was offering + if I was offered enough teaching hours at the school where I was to do my degree, as a means of paying for the other 50% tuition fee remaining, and which my scholarship didn't cover).

I was delighted to hear that I got the scholarship (equivalent to 1/2 of my tuition fees), and that the school would allow me to teach enough hours so I can earn enough from teaching to pay the remaining 1/2 of the tuition fees.

When I enrolled and started the Mphil/PhD degree, they told me I wasn't going to get the teaching hours originally promised (some excuse was made up!). I finished my first year but had to borrow £2700 to pay the remaining tuition fees myself. I am now in the second year, and have been informed that not only will I not be able to teach enough this year to avoid borrowing money again, but that next year (my 3rd year, which is normally when I should be transferred from Mphil to Phd) I won't be getting any teaching at all!

Given the circumstances, and the school's change of mind, I am left with no option but to borrow another £2700 to pay this year's (2nd year) remaining fees myself, but since I'm already in debt from last year, I'm not sure I'll be successful in getting a loan. My only option is to pay this year's £2700 in installments, and apply for the Mphil exam, and try to come out with an MPhil in Philosophy as opposed to the originally intended PhD.

My dream has always been to have a career in Philosophy as Lecturer, and in my filed, I absolutely need a PhD to do so. Given that I can only contend with an Mphil for now, I was wondering what my prospects would be if I were to apply for a PhD in Philosophy at a later time in the future, at a different institution, when finances permit. Would my Mphil from this university help me to apply for a PhD later, or will it look like a failed PhD? My question is, can I get my MPhil from this uni I'm currently in, but apply for a PhD later at another uni (i would even be prepared to do the whole 3 years over again if necessary).