Hello,

I applied for a couple of PhD positions in astronomy last year but was unsuccessful. This year I hope to improve on my application and secure a position.

So with that in mind, does anyone have any exemplar PhD personal statements for astronomy, or maybe physics in general?

Thank you both.

I still haven't heard back from any of the universities and I think considering the deadline to accept an STFC funded studentship is 31 March, I probably would have been notified of an interview by now if my application was successful.

I was wondering if you could offer up some advice:

I graduated from my integrated master's degree in 2018 with a low 2.1 (62% or 63% - I can't remember exactly), but with strong results in my dissertation (module code shows that it was a master's level dissertation), master's research project, another research project in my second year and computing projects (at master's level). After this, I went on to do a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) but found the behaviour in inner-London schools too hard to cope with so I now work in the education team at the Institute of Physics. I manage a research project into children's misconceptions and a couple of websites, along with various other responsibilities; however, it is not all that relevant to astrophysics research.

I can't afford to do another master's degree and I'm not aware of any research internships open to people who have already graduated and entered the workplace. Do you have any ideas for how I could improve my application for next year?

Hi everyone,

I applied for 3 Astronomy PhD positions in January (at QMUL, UCL and Imperial) but I haven't heard anything back from them yet about an interview. I can track my application through their portals but all it says is 'decision pending' or 'under assessment'. I know interviews are normally held at the start of March and the deadline for STFC funding is the end of March, should I be worried that I haven't heard anything?