I amcurrently a 3rd year student, who has got a 1st in eachof my two previous years.

I have beencarrying out a Studentship over the summer before starting my finalundergraduate year. During this studentship I have been carrying out researchwith a lecturer at my Uni. I have really enjoyed it, both the practical aspectand the associated reading and finding out about the subject area and thetechniques involved. The lecturer has mentioned doing a PhD and him writing afunding bid for this.

It definitelyinterests me but I am worried I will not be good enough to carry this out. I ama hard worker and very motivated but I don’t see how my lecturer can tell if Iam good enough just based on two years at Uni so far.

Any adviceor previous experiences like this would be very helpful

Thanks

======= Date Modified 10 Aug 2012 17:31:32 =======
Well, I'm not sure what to tell you - but if you don't trust your lecturer's judgement after having taught you and supervised you for a summer studentship, then why would you trust anything that a bunch of randoms on the internet have to say?!

Sure, we are PhD students - but even half of us don't yet know "what it takes" or whether or not we have it. Your lecturer has a PhD, so he knows what it takes, and he's probably created more PhDs as a supervisor since then, so I'd say out of everybody in the situation, he's best placed to make this call.

But, my personal opinion on the matter is that pretty much anybody has what it takes to do a PhD, as long as they have the level of motivation, interest and commitment required. Your ability to gain a PhD doesn't rely so much on your natural abilities for academia and research as it does on your will to persevere and put in the hours.

Nobody, on day 1 of a PhD, has what it takes to complete a PhD. But that's what the 3 years are for - for you to pick the skills and knowledge required as you go along. The only thing you really need on day 1 is some enthusiasm and strong will to succeed and do whatever it takes to succeed. From there, everything else will fall into place.

======= Date Modified 15 Aug 2012 00:28:56 =======
I totally agree with GSM and couldn't have put it better myself!

I understand where you are coming from as I had similar experiences myself. I'm not a particularly academic person in that I'm awful @ exams so I'm not a straight A student but I'm interested in research, like my subject, have loads of determination and motivation which you''ll need to get you through especially the tough times when it takes all your effort to go in and do it! Doing a Ph.D. is an emotional roller-coaster as many will say as "the highs are very high" when things are going well and the "lows are very low" when nothing seems to be working especially if you do lab work which is when you just want to give up, go home and go to bed and stay there!

I was having a bad week when I was writing up and got myself so worked up that I managed to convince myself that I had made a major error so all my results were wrong. I was really brooding about it so I didn't get much work done but the following week when I checked again things were not so bad as I had made a mistake but it was not the end of the world and it could be easily put right.

So you just need to believe in yourself especially as this lecturer who has supervised you is offering to write a funding bid for you! This is really something special and big as it doesn't happen everyday and they must see potential in you to do it as it takes up alot of their time to do it! And it's so much easier when you have somebody on your side helping you! I'm having enough problems trying to get somebody to help with writing funding proposals at the mo for further research having completed my Ph.D. so I'd jump at the chance of somebody actually offering to help! They're obviously interested and will make a good supervisor if they're offering to help before you've started! Hang onto them as they are gold dust and very rare indeed!

You can do it! Jump in with both feet and your eyes open - you should know what you've landed yourself in having done a summer studentship but it'll be much more intense as a Ph.D. student as they are a very insecure bunch. Everyone worries they are not good enough so that makes them on edge but once you get that out of the way you can have some fun! I still couldn't believe I was doing a Ph.D. for about 6 months after I had started and wondered how I got there! A lot of it is about managing and prioritising your time so you get everything done as 3 years passes very quickly!!!

I hope this helps and welcome to getting Permanent head Damage should you wish to accept the challenge?!!!

Good luck
:p (up)