Hi,

Can anybody help. I have been offered a phd place at two universities and the scholarship application deadlines for both are this week. On one of the applications it states that by filling out the application form you are confirming that you will take up the place if you are offered the scholarship. Unfortunately, it is the other place that I really want. However, I really need funding so I was going to apply for both just to have an extra chance to get funding somewhere. Also, the one I don't really want has a scholarship that I am elligible for that would provide a stipend, whereas, not being from the UK, I would only be elligible for a fees only scholarship at the university I really want. Should I just go ahead and apply to both to see what happens?

I'd really appreciate some advice on this. Cheers.

You are in the same boat as I was in 2003.

I ended up doing my PhD at Cambridge as I got a stipend from here for me and my family - there is quite a bit of ££ floating around posher unis compared to others - even though they department was sooooo unsuited to the type of philosophy I wrote my PhD about. I would have rather gone to Essex but all I could get here was a scholarship that paid the difference between foreign and home fees - about £6000pa - but nothing to live on. I know I could have written a better thesis at Essex and got more out of it. But if was just not feasible for me.

My point is that unless you have a way to earn more than shelf-stacking burger-flipping wages it can be very hard to get by if you are full-time; and unless it has changed in the meantime I am pretty sure you can't be a part-time foreign student because they wont let you have a student visa, unless of course you come from a country that doesn't require a visa. That means you will have to work - and work long hours if your wage is low - as well as study.

Having said all that; just apply for anything. You never know what you might get offered. If you promise to attend somewhere and then pull out to go somewhere else they aren't gonna hunt you down and kill you.

haha. thanks biddysbottom - that's true. I applied for both anyway and hopefully something will come up. I just felt like I was signing away my firstborn and freaked out.... too much time alone preparing phd proposals me thinks.