Innumerable forum posts, innumerable threads detailing PhD How-tos, and tons of information available on university grad admission websites.....entirely unsure who will actually detail out an answer to you!.

in a sentence: yes, u can apply before you Masters (or whatevr degree is needed) results are out. Usually offer is conditional till you satisfy that the required conditions including a particular grade for the required exam has been met. Again, every university is bound to have these rules stated. pl do a forum search.

Innumerable forum posts, innumerable threads detailing PhD How-tos, and tons of information available on university grad admission websites.....entirely unsure who will actually detail out an answer to you!.

in a sentence: yes, u can apply before you Masters (or whatevr degree is needed) results are out. Usually offer is conditional till you satisfy that the required conditions including a particular grade for the required exam has been met. Again, every university is bound to have these rules stated. pl do a forum search.

unclear. u want an online phd which has to be from anywhere in the world including India? or u want an online phd which is definitely not in India?

and yes, whats wrong with Indian PhDs? And how useful ARE these online things. India has great places to study, all over, explore any of Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai or Hyderabad....

And especially for science. The IITs, the IIS, and so many more....work out a distance or part time phd, thats a much betetr and well regarded option than doing some random online thing from Timbuktu.

just remembered search the archives for a thread titled something like 3 yr phd a myth? exact same conversation topic there too...

best

Wow Stressed! A pilot study done in the first month of arrival impressively enough to prove academic scholarship wrong already!! AND on the way to publications!

WTG Stressed :)

Seriously, I doubt if any of us out here have done this in the first month. Best, p'bug!

All of us here could go into a lot of details so as to actually guide you "from scratch" literally with this. But before all that, many of us here may be a bit intrigued by the 'reason' for which you 'want to do a phd'.

A PhD is not a waiting room full of comforts, it needs a certain amount of dedication, focus, commitment and a significant amount of planning. And also usually, a reason to do a phd that convinces you yourself. And, somehow, being dissatisfied with the very valid reasons as you state do not seem to be convincing enough a reason to try to take up an intellectual commitment for 4 years.

Others may provide more detailed responses, so hang in there :)

A tip: you could try searching the forum to get an idea of the kind of issues people bring up from their phd journeys, the problems, the joys and above all you shall probably notice a great deal of enthusiasm (and sometimes, if not, very valid reasons for that). That should give you an idea of a PhD.

A PhD you know, is not "I couldnt do anything else so I'm thinking of a PhD". Its that most of us here could do a million other things, but STILL decided to screw up our lives (kidding!)

Best, P'Bug

Key areas of change:


1. Expansion in reading
2. Widening of critical insight
3. Correlation of theories and concepts
4. Nebulous to clear vision of the 'field/s' and 'sub field/s'
5. Comparing and contrasting viewpoints
6. Judgment.

4 major heads under which essays are usually judged: Presentation (stylistic and organizational features, structure, staying on topic, referencing) Content (depth and range of reading evidenced in core arguments) Quality (sophistication of arguments) and sometimes creative/innovative thinking (thoughts for future research etc).

Thats what my school has as a policy, and I suspect most schools. A gebuinely good way to begin is to actually write. And to read widely. Also read journal articles: this needs a fine balance between not setting them as goals right from the start but neither imagining 'I'm too young and inexperienced to write anywhere near these'.

Best

4 yrs full time now mandatory at my school as maximum time allowed, from this year. 3 years is according to my supervisor, highly unusual though definitely not impossible.

It is absolutely a function of how focused and dedicated you are your supervisor are. Everyone enters thinking Oh THIS is what I am gonna be doing. Then it starts and then you often lose focus, expand. Sometimes not. I am thinking if it is a studentship then there is a broad focus already. The rest is entirely on your steam, and your supervisor's too.

You may not even notice weeks just dropping out, with distraction, or you may be able to literally *sit* on your topic with grit and come out in 3.

Hi all,

can anyone here throw any light or any hot tips on the best ways to write essays/writing samples for academic funding bodies? I am not talking of Research Councils, but those odd foundations, award trusts that give moderate amounts (around 6K) for particular disciplines...

If anyone has done these in the past, can they provide any tips on what kind of references one can expect from one's referees, and/or some strategies to make it work?

Thanks guys! :)

Hi all,

This I guess is a specific query for the social sciences guys out here, cos I know this answer may well vary across the sciences/research group projects, or for that matter even project studentships.

For those of you who are individual students, not part of a larger project in the social sciences, when did u get the *precise* fit, the *exact* design for your EMPIRICAL work? I mean, the exact proposal of THIS is what my questions are, THIS is what I need to do, THIS is the time frame precisely in which I aim to do it, and THIS THIS THIS are the specific sub cases, methods etc and etc etc....?

We all enter our PhDs with a proposal but GOD, that changes!! So, around when did this empirical clarity emerge?

Thanks guys!

Its great to see such enthusiasm Jade, and while I was in the exact same place a month ago, I already feel I am "looking back" hehe! Why did u need to order books though? Libraries usually have the stuff, unless u want to possess them for urself which is great! Also do u have journal access yet? most of your stuff may come out of journals. A lit review is ultimately themed and targetted for your research question, and thats why it shifts and morphs as you move along. But we all start it off by reading in lets say 3 to 5 core areas you feel your research topic (i am not saying research question yet) touches upon. Most topics engage two areas at least, sometimes 2 very small sub niches in a larger field of work. Identify which 'bodies' of work should be relevant to you and start by gathering together a list of primary/secondary readings. A great way to do your searches could be through your own library cross searcher, or google scholar, or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in the ISI Web of Science database, provided you have remote access from your library already. Identify some themes as you go along, you dont have to start at A and end at Z as you read, read plenty of abstracts. But above all, think of this phase as a pilot. Maybe instead of going very indepth into one field you could read to a moderate depth in all the fields that concern your topic so that you are prepared for an informed intellectual conversation with your supervisor when you meet. Alternatively you could focus on one area. These are choices entirely upto you. But I have found it does help to identify the following issues:

1. Which fields are engaged in the topic I have outlined?
2. Where is the recent scholarship located?
3. Who seem to be the core, current and potential scholarly voices and do i have a sample of their work?
4. What seem to the areas of consensus? How did they emerge?
5. What are the areas where scholars disagree? Can I generate some fruitful questions out of this disagreement.


These are questions which shall probably continue to bother you even when you finising the PhD, from what i feel of it. And thats the purpose. Enjoy, above all. :)

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Hi, the title of your thread makes a phd sound like a pony lol!!

Uhmm, your records are perfect people come into the phd with all kinds of delays, work, years off etc, so this is not even going to be a factor. Good luck!

Fantastically put Misspacey!(up)

Fantastically put Misspacey!(up)

Absolutely my point. Nobody is speaking of a "rule" or a "statute" lol or something of that sort! It is just the case, that most of the people who post here are from the UK, there are exceptions, spread across other countries, but yes, UK definitely has the most number of people...wow! this is becoming a debate quite different to what Narmada wrote this post for.

As an instance, run a search for the term 'supervisor' and run a separate search for 'advisor' and see the difference...