Hello everyone,

I have just been accepted for a PhD at the Royal Vet college (London) and like most others I start in October. I am curious to know what everyone else is/has done the summer before their PhD. Do you prepare with extensive reading of journals? Learn a few techniques? or just enjoy your last 'long summer' before 3/4 years of being tied to a lab bench/desk/library/computer?

I have many current PhD friends and their views have varied wildly from 'go enjoy' and 'honestly, I felt preparation will be a waste of time' to opposing 'get in and read as much as you can'!

Clearly there is some middle ground, let me know your experiences/thoughts.


James

p.s. its a 4 year funded PhD in parasitology so getting a job for future funding personally is not a problem.

Hi, I only had a month between finishing my MSc and starting my PhD. I was continuing with the same supervisor and he said I could do some reading if I wanted to but he actually recommended that I take the month off, so I did. I did absolutely nothing vaguely academic for a month and it helped to refresh me, in fact I didn't really do much of anything other than visiting family.

If you feel that a little bit of light will reading will help you then go for it. But if you feel like you need a break before starting then take the break. It might help to start the PhD with a clear head but it's all personal preference.

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Personally I'd go for somewhere in the middle! My PhD was a July start and I was working til the week before, so I did no preparation whatsoever, even though my PhD was in a subject area I'd never studied before! In hindsight, I wish I'd made a start in the few weeks before, just reading some of the most important papers, and some of my supervisor's most recent work.
On the other hand, I certainly wouldn't do loads of work - you've got the next four years to do that! Just a small bit of preparation will help you to feel settled more quickly once you start. The first month will be filled with reading papers, so a bit of a head start won't do you any harm. So I would say go and enjoy the summer, and use the last few weeks to do a bit of gentle reading.

Thanks for the replies, both of you. Seems like everyone I suggesting a PhD is lots of hard work for 4 years and that maybe enjoying yourself before might not be a bad idea lol.

Hi James,
Congrats on your PhD place.

I found that going over undergrad/MSc material was good. I refreshed my memory of things I had forgotten, some things I understood better second time around and as it was all familiar it wasn't too stressful.

A small amount of study helps keep your brain used to thinking scientifically but like others have said you should relax too.

Your PhD direction may change over the first few months so it is hard to tell this early what would be worth preparing for. What journals have your supervisors/department published in? Make sure you have read anything your supervisor has written/been involved with and is related to your work - don't worry about understanding everything. You would just get a relaxed familiarity to the subject so it isn't all new to you in October.

Don't go mad studying. Have fun and make some memories to keep you going in the depths of that first winter!

The summer before I started I worked in a few projects ( not related to the phd) and put money aside, I travelled with friends and did some preparation (but not as much as I wanted). I mostly focused on general skills like scientific writing and statistics. I assume that these are generic skills you will need regardless direction. Finally I allowed myself time to sort out practicalities - moving to a new place etc.