Hi All

Brand new here and only just starting to seriously think about doing a PhD. A bit of background first : I did a creative arts degree 15 years ago majoring in poetry, a post grad dip in teaching English, masters in education, plus have a few other diplomas in counselling and training and assessment which are I'm guessing are inconsequential. My grades were not great ( I was young and living out of home for the first time etc) so I'm not sure I'll be able to get into a program at all anyway. As I said, I'm very new to this but am passionate about poetry/literature and have found a possible supervisor here in Australia ( I'm Australian too).
I guess my question is about my history...have I studied enough? My masters is not related to my PhD topic (modernist literature). I hope that makes sense! And that I don't get laughed at. TIA.

Hi Sivvyx,

You have 15 years of real world life experience that will look good on any application. They won't care as much about your grades if you can say that you have gained skills or experience that could be useful. Your recent accomplishments and work will be far more relevant, so just focus on them. There are a lot of mature students doing PhD's and the admissions department will consider you on your own merits. So don't worry, I would worry more about finding the right supervisor.

Good luck!

You should contact potential supervisors, explain what you have just posted here, ask for an informal chat and ask them outright whether you have what they are looking for.
Mature students are always treated differently to younger people. You might well find that this is easier than you think.

Do what pm133 said, that is how I got into my humanities PhD as a mature student.