Hi I am currently in the process of applying for PHD's and a few of the applications are asking for covering letters. The problem being i have never written a covering letter in my life and was never shown how to do one in either my BSc or MSc. Can anyone give some advice in what to put into a covering letter when applying for a scientific PHD. There are lots of different websites on the issue but all give conflicting advice.

There may already be a similar topic about this but for some reason everytime i try and do a search for topics i get a timed out message so I hope this posts.

thanks in advance.

Hi ChrisG85! I recently applied for a Phd Studentship and was successful so maybe my tips would be helpful to you! In my cover letter I wrote mainly about why I was applying for this particular phd studentship, what skills I had to enable me to see this research to completion, my research interests and interest in this particular research area and why I chose this particular university to apply to. I have been told that the aim of a cover letter is to sell yourself without being over confident and cocky! Also google cover letters for phd application - I got some useful tips this way! Hope this was of use to you. Best of luck with your applications!