This is probably a very stupid question, but here it goes.

I have had my heart set on the idea of doing a PhD for as long as I can remember. But recently people asked me why I actually want to do it and if I realise that 1) it's incredibly competitive; 2) it's expensive (especially since the Phd I'm looking at is not funded; and 3) even with a Phd, the jobs are not that well paid anyway.

To be honest, I don't know the answer to these questions. What would you answer?

Thanks for the comment, TreaofLife. I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about taking up a project in something I'm not 100% sure I would enjoy. I tend to be like you - if I spend enough time on something, I end up enjoying it. But it could very well go the other way - I may end up hating it. But I guess I won't know until I have a go.

Silly question, I guess, but there seems to be a lot of emphasis on doing the Phd in something you will enjoy. So how many of you have done/are doing Phd in something that you really wanted? Or did you have to adjust your expectations and take upon a different research question, even though it wasn't what you wanted to do in the first place?

Although I'm on track to getting a First in Bsc, there have been few modules that I messed up along the way. Stupidly one of them is in the area I would like to do the Phd in (I'm interested in neuropsychology and I got grade 3 for Biological Psychology). Do the universities care about the individual grades or are they more interested in the overall classification of the degree?

The reason I got a bad grade is because I was not well prepared - I didn't have the basic knowledge of human body back then. But I have caught up since, and perhaps because of me trying to catch up I realised that biological psychology/neuropsychology is what I want to focus on in the future. But I still have grade 3 on my transcript.

Also, given all the MOOC courses available nowadays (Coursera, EdX, ...), would it be useful for me to take a certified course in the similar area (e.g. neuroscience)? Do the universities even consider such certificates?

Thank you.

Thank you both.

I'm feeling a bit better about the process - I've decided it will be better to just focus on the project proposal and identifying any gaps in existing research. I will note all my questions down and ask the potential supervisors when I see them in March.

If there is anyone doing a Phd in Neuroscience (or anything related to acquired brain injury), I would be very happy to have a chat with them.

All the best in year 2014!

I'm hoping to get a superviser at my local Uni, there is one who is researching my area of interested, but she is not identified as 'one of the potential supervisors' on the University website. I will contact her directly in few weeks, after I have done more research, but I also wanted to be prepared for the possibility of having to find someone else.

I will be working on the lit. review now as a part of my project proposal. I have some time, I'm planning to register for Mphil/Phd in Autumn 2014/Spring 2015. What I meant was, is there a place where I could read about all the necessary procedures, required approvals and applications for a Phd student dealing with clinical data (research areas psychology, cognitive and clinical neuroscience)? I don't know anyone who is doing this kind of research, I've been searching online like crazy, finding snippets of information here and there. I am going to go to the University in March for an Postgrad Open Day, but I want to be prepared, I want to know what to expect before I meet the potential supervisors.

Thank you.

Thank you, K.

so if it would be my responsibility to arrange the access to the data, it shouldn't matter if my supervisor (and the University) is located on the other side of UK with me collecting data where I'm located, right?

I was just worried that if I start establishing some informal links with the potential research sites now, but don't find any suitable supervisors at my local Uni and have to find one elsewhere, I don't want the potential supervisor telling me to collect the data at their local research site instead.

By the way, is there some sort of timeline of how the research process progresses? Once a student is accepted onto Phd, what happens next?

Thank you.

Hi!

I'm working on my Phd project proposal and have few questions to ask.

To what extent is data collection directed/controlled by the Phd supervisor and the university? Or is it up to the Phd student to arrange access to data they will need for their research?

My local university doesn't seem to have the right potential supervisor (the available supervisors are researching different topics and I don't know if they would accommodate my proposal). I will be looking elsewhere for a suitable supervisor but I'm not sure how data collection would work. My research proposal will require clinical data from patients with acquired brain damage - so I will need access to a hospital or some sort of a research centre. My understanding was that the local university probably has established relationship with the local hospital allowing some kind of access to data for Phd students.
But what would happen if I found a supervisor elsewhere? How would the data collection work? Would I still be able to collect data locally (and if so, would I need to approach the hospital/research centre, or is it done via the academic channels), or would I need to collect data from the setting appointed by the supervisor?

This is possibly a stupid question so I do apologize but I'm trying to get my head around the whole application process atm.
Thanks.