Quote From 4matt:
Hi Chococake (mmm, I'm hungry now!),
The first thing to say is exactly what you're asked - why do you want to do a PhD. You obviously need to be honest, but things to avoid saying IMO are things like "I don't know what else to do", "I don't want to get a job", or "My friends are doing one". I think good reasons are a passion for the subject, interest in research, and of course it's also a stepping stone if you want a career (researcher, lecturer, etc) which requires a PhD. You could maybe talk about something you did as an undergrad which made you want to learn more, and while some stuff is subject specific, I think that a lot of PhDs develop your powers of analysis, critical thought, and also sheer doggedness. I had about four PhD interviews, and they all went fine, so I reckon this is a decent outline, but of course it depends on the subject, and the supervisors too. 5 minutes does seem rather short though!
Thank you so much for your response. The problem is I don't know much about the subject or the more importantly the proposal, so its hard to talk about what I think I would be doing? Maybe I should just ask them for more details before the interview?
