I don't know anything about Architecture or Indian schools, but I would say that US academia is very patriotic and favours home-grown graduates that went to certain schools. This is because everything is so interlinked and they will know someone you know etc. I'm sure the quality of a US education will also be better too. I know it will be cheaper abroad, but the low costs may not be such a benefit if it hinders your future career...

Hmm that's a difficult one!. I think that people would definitely 'remember' the talk in some way, so you may want to speak to someone in your department about it to make sure the work is credible and it is a good idea to present it. If it is, then I think it will only support your future career, and it will be a great experience!

Postdocs are just like a job, so they can be advertised at any time, there is no consensus that I am aware of.

People say you should start applying 6 months before the end of your PhD. I think that seems a lot of time will be spent job searching when one should be thesis writing, so I am going to wait until I am close to submitting before I start looking seriously for anything. Personally I want a gap between the end of one lot of research and the start of another because that makes more sense to me (I'm a 'completer-finisher' type of person).

It's often much more about 'who you know' or 'who your supervisor knows' that 'what you know'. You can apply randomly, and sometimes will get the position though obviously.

In some countries, mainly less developed ones, a PhD is all you need to secure a lectureship. In the US and UK, you need teaching experience for a lectureship with no research, and for a research position (where you probably need to lecture too) you need many years of a postdoc and a great publication record to even be in with a chance.

Neither are easy to get in to, due to the high number of candidates with PhDs and decreasing funding.

If you are nearing the end of your research, you may as well carry on now and finish. It may be possible to use your skills learnt in your PhD in a career in neuroscience, if I were you I would find out whether you can do this first. You're right that it will be more difficult to get a PhD in neuro if you have already quit a PhD elsewhere, and I don't you think you can be sure that you won't get bored in that one too.

It may not be a 'well organised' project because as a PhD student you are expected to take responsibility for the work yourself, with the supervisor only acting as a guide. Some supervisors are very hands off and some are hands on, so you might want to find out that.

You need to ascertain what exactly is required from you, the possible techniques that may be used, whether it is funded, how long the funding is available etc.

Hi, there are often grants available on the organiser's website, or you can apply to your university or any society that you may be a member of such as Society for Experimental Biology or equivalent

Hi,

It's not impossible to do a PhD part-time whilst pursuing an alternative career, but it would be very demanding, requiring at least 15 hours of work a week for 6-8 years. Would you be prepared to make the sacrifices in your life that would be necessary in order to complete it?

Also, it can be difficult to publish work if you are not affiliated with a university, and once you finish you PhD you generally won't be.

Only you can decide if this is the right thing for you to do, but if you are that passionate about it, then I think you should probably go for it, because you will likely have the determination to see it through to successful completion, and at even if you don't, at least you may be satisfied that you tried.

You should also prepare for normal interview questions such as 'tell me about a time where you have overcome a difficult situation/been a team player/solved a difficult problem' etc and things like 'describe yourself in one sentence, what are your strengths and weaknesses etc'

Good luck :)

Agree, unless it's a vary basic enquiry, HMRC are pretty useless.

I would say treat this as an informal first supervisory meeting, so have some knowledge of your topic area, your recent work, his recent research, and an idea of what your project involves and its trajectory.

You could ask about frequency of supervisory meetings, other students in the group, things to do in the local area if you don't know it well etc

Sounds good to me. Good luck with it :)

It's kind of hard really, because even if you ask them they might not be honest, or they might have the best intentions but can't or won't fulfil them. In some ways, you are better off talking to previous students of theirs if possible because that might give you a better idea. Be sure not to confuse their outward persona with their potential supervisory style, as these can be vastly different.

That question is way too broad due to the high variability between students, projects, disciplines, countries and supervisors.

You can just be given the PhD, but sometimes they still make you go through to whole application process even though you definitely have it anyway - including applying online and completing an interview. This happened to one of my lab mates and they told him it was all just a formality so there's no need to worry about the interview or how good the other interviewees were - he definitely still had it.

They can probably just give it to you anyway if they wanted to, even without a proper interview.

On the other hand, your supervisors may not be so moral and prefer another candidate over you in the interview and give them the PhD instead.

Bear in mind at this stage this project may not materialize because they haven't even got funding yet - and they might not get it at all.