Hey anyone who reads this, I ve completed a Masters and am graduating in December, i ve taken a bit of time off to save for a PhD. I have a few questions,



1. Is it possible to gain entry with a BA honours 2.1 and a MA of approx 60 (Dont have my results yet) in to a doctoral programme?
2. If your MA thesis advisor does not really have confidence in one getting into a doctoral programme should the student listen to him and give up or not throw in the towel?
3. Is it difficult to find a PhD course to suit?
4. Is it possible to do a PhD without funding?
5. Where are good places or universities to gain funding? (History, Theology or Philosophy) in UK or Ireland?

I realise these may be obvious questions to anyone in the know but excuse my ignorance.
Cheers
Raymond :-)(up):p

hi. iv just got my offer. still so excited. only read the email an hour ago :-)
1) it is possible to gain entry-yes. i have a 2:1 bachelors and a master of science (merit)
2) no-u do not give up. u dont throw in the towel becos he doesnt have the confidence. u can tell him/her to put his opinion+lack of confidence where the sun doesnt shine...lol :-)
3) i dont feel it would be difficult. but u should start researching the universities first. go on their website, check out the staff and their research interests. thats what i did. also their success rate, what on going support they have for their doctorate students. that was very important for me as i like to be part of the university eg going in regularly etc. the uni i did both my degrees in were very poor on the on-going support and i was actually told they have a high drop out rate. so i checked elsewhere, checked the staff profiles etc went for interview and just got my offer :-)
4) im going to do my PhD self funding.
5) Mmmm.... my field is criminology/criminal psychology which also does merge in the sociological arena... as for history, theology etc id say check out the universities and see if they have a strong interest in that area. see if their postgrad staff have the topic u interested in on thier research interest list. thats what i did. u may also get other replies to this. and hey! im just starting out. i start in january xx

Thanx Jade,

I think it is important to get the correct faculty members in a university also as they can add or decrease your marks significantly by the advice and assistance they give or lack of it.

I ve taken your advice and am looking at universities now, hopefully ill get lucky and find one thats right for me.

Good luck with your own research, criminology sounds very interesting :-)

Thanks again

1. Yep, though obviously it is more competitive with the better institutions/supervisors/funding bodies.

2. If you're worried then get a couple of opinions?

3. Since a PhD is mostly your own work, then the biggest factor in getting something to suit is getting the supervisor bit right. But think about resource availability in your area, copyright or big library etc? Training and support networks.

4. It might be more difficult, but its certainly possible. Depending on your field and future institution, there might be some travel, hardship or subsistence funds available.

5. I'm not a historian but I have heard York, Hull, Cambridge are all good. Depends on your research focus though I suppose. Look up the institutions of the people who right all your undergraduate books!

Thanks Coat man will do.

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[quote]Quote From gullpayne:


Coat man [quote]

I know it's a typo, but I like it :-)

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I'm not a tailor.


Luckily, I do have good taste in coats. ;-)

It's a nice new name for you though :-)

These quote boxes are behaving really strangely after editing, too stretched, but I'm glad it's not just me. Maybe it's an IE thing.

Yep, I also put my text at the very bottom, after [/quote] and it still included it in the quote. Hence I had to put it on the top. Don't worry, I bet the admins are stalking this thread and are already on it, right guys?

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Woah, does that look weird to everyone else too? I guess that happened because I put the end quote phrase there as an example without the start quote phrase...

Yep I did the same as you. I also find editing my posts in IE6 makes the spacing weird and stretchy, it adds lots of extra carriage returns or whatever the term is, but it doesn't do it in firefox.