Hi All,



I've spent a lot of time this year researching PhDs and my ability to do them in terms of life and time etc.



I gained a 2:2 for my BSc and it seems increasingly likely that I'll need an MSc in order to secure a PhD place. That said, I live alone and therefore all bills are of course my responsibility and so clearly I cannot leave work so as to do an MSc full time or even P/T due to the nature of P/T MSc courses i.e. attendance is required on certain days for the majority of courses (well, I can't afford to work P/T!).



So, I have been looking into applying for a distance learning MSc as bearing in mind my current circumstances this would appear to be my only realistic option. This really limits the subjects that can be studied and so my question to you is, does it matter if an MSc is not directly related to the area in which you wish to do a PhD? Ideally I wish to study insects at PhD level and this really is not possible through a distance learning MSc.



The only other option is to wait until my life circumstances change and I'm in a position to do a part time MSc via attendance on certain days of the week...how long that will take is anyone's guess.



p.s. background info: I'm 27 and completed a BSc Zoology in 2003, currently lecturing in an FE College and hate it!

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I think it might be a bit difficult if you do a Masters that bears no relationship to what you want to do at PhD. Ok, it demonstrates that you are capable of higher level study, but I suspect some admissions tutors/funding bodies for PhDs might look at your CV and wonder what the point was.

You say you want to study insects, but that's still quite a broad topic. Do you have an idea of how you might specialise within that? One avenue that might be a feasible way of pursuing the distance learning route without straying too far is to perhaps study something like veterinary epidemiology (e.g. http://www.rvc.ac.uk/PostGraduate/Distance/MScVetEpiPublicHealth/Index.cfm) or infectious diseases (e.g. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/prospectus/masters/dmsid.html), trying to select modules that focus on topics such as parasites and malaria. I guess it depends on how interested you are in the interactions between insects and human/animal health.

On the other hand, perhaps an MSc isn't necessary. You can't get PhD funding straight away with a 2:2, but sometimes several years' worth of relevant work experience is considered an equivalent. If possible, why not try to get a job as a research assistant/technician in a relevant department? A couple of years work there might be considered enough to avoid having to do a Masters. Or at least they might be more amenable to letting you do a Masters part time and fitting your job around it. I'm in the process of changing fields and have been working as an RA for the last few months. I plan to do a full-time Masters in September, but I know that if I wanted to do it part time and carry on working part time, my boss would be amenable to helping me juggle that arrangement.

Hi there! I'm not sure how relevant this is, because I'm in Psychology, which is clearly a different field to yours! But anyway, a friend of mine graduated with a 2.2 and went on to get a place on a funded PhD, and another friend who also obtained a 2.2 has just been offered a funded place to do a PhD here too. Both of these friends also have a pass at MSc, but both have managed to obtain their funding through where they were working, and contacts they made through the workplace. How vital the MSc was, I don't know, but the point I am trying to make is that a lot of funded places are gained through making contacts through research positions, and the MSc wasn't a requirement for either of the positions that my friends were working in. So that could be a way forward, or at least worth thinking about! Good luck!