I had a PhD interview quite some time ago for which I didn’t receive a response about the outcome. I initially didn’t worry about it and didn’t want to pester them. Thus, I simply thought that they took so long because they were waiting for references, still deciding, busy, etc. Yet, I wanted to know the outcome and started to think that it was a bit odd that I didn’t hear from them so I eventually contacted them and was told that they had offered the place to someone else.

Now is it childish, or am I right to be annoyed (that's a slight understatement) about the fact that they couldn’t even be bothered to tell me that I’ve been rejected? I always thought that it was the norm to let candidates know about the outcome post interview (especially when there were only a handful of people being interviewed). Well, that’s how it’s been like for me in the past when I was unsuccessful twice after a PhD interview. I know that I cannot do anything about this, but :-(

Hello,

I am about to start my PhD in like three weeks time. However, I've not been in contact with my supervisor since mid July - and even though this might seem really daft to ask - but do I just write my supervisor an e-mail saying I am arriving on bla date and whether we could schedule a meeting before the official start date?

Also, I did some work for my PhD back then and was meant to revise it another time. However, I've not had the time to finish it up until now as I was working full time until last week. Unfortunately, my job required quite a lot out of office hours work so I didn't really have much time to get my head around the PhD. Do you think it is worth mentioning this in the e-mail or shall I just get it done until I start and submit it to him then?

Sorry for asking such daft questions (that are probably common sense) I am just worried about making a bad impression before I've even started and am worried that my supervisor will think that I am not commited to do the PhD.