Hi all, I have applied for a few Competition funded PhDs in Psychology/Nursing beginning 2011. The deadline was April 4th and I know they have to make a decision by 15th April. I spoke to two of the supervisors, and they seemed quite positive and told me to apply. But now I am getting nervous..... I assumed if they were interested they would be in touch as soon as the deadline closed as they would want to discuss the interview to increase the chances of getting the project funded. I was wondering if anyone had any experience of going through the competiton funded application process. When can you assume you have not been selected etc.?
Thanks so much!!,-)

I applied for a competitively funded Phd in January. The deadline was 28th January and I was told that the candidates for all the projects needed to be considered. I got an email on 9th February with my invitation to interview so I don’t think you should start to worry yet. Maybe they have to make a decision as to which projects to interview for rather than a final decision by 15th April. My interview didn’t take place until 3rd March. Good luck :-)

Thanks so much for your reply. I will chill out for a while then!!
How was your interview?

It was very scary! There were four people - three of whom will be my supervisors because it multi-discipline. I had to give a 10 minute presentation and then answer questions relating to the project for 30 minutes. I thought it went really badly - my answers were all really short! They asked me what training I thought I would need and I said that I needed to learn more about statistics and one of them said they could help me improve my presentation skills which was a bit off-putting! But I got offered the position and I start in October. I am switching between being really excited and completely terrified about what I am letting myself in for!

Wow, congratulations! Sounds like you had a real grilling! That is super exciting, I have heard they are really competitive so you should give yourself a huge pat on the back!!

Hi Rachococo,

I have just replied to your reply in a thread I started ages ago haha. But I literally applied for a competition funded PhD at Manchester last time around and it's quite confusing. My understanding is that the University has got funding for so many projects and then supervisors who have projects in mind advertise for a candidate. They then contact you if they're interested and decide who they're going to put forward to represent their project to the postgrad coordinator. They then decide which candidates are strongest and pick who they'll interview. Then once your interviewed they'll pick who will actually get the funding... so it's really hard in all! I got put forward by the supervisor but didn't get the interview which was a shame! But whatever the outcome just keep your chin up and you'll get there in the end! It's all useful experience... or so I keep telling myself haha! Good luck xx

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. It does seem like a really full on, hard process. What did you decide to do instead? It looks harder than ever to get on to a PhD studentship. People I know who are completing theirs say it was much more simple, especially going straight from a Masters in the same department.
Anyway, hope you are happy doing whatever you are doing.
Thanks!

Found out I was unsuccessful for the one I thought I had most chance in. Still waiting to hear from the other two....
:-(