No problem. Good luck with the application!

Hi

I applied for a DPhil (Law) at Oxford starting in 2010 and was accepted. My writing samples were 2,377 (2,747 with footnotes) and 2,468 (2,827 with footnotes) words. In hindsight this seems a bit cheeky/risky, but luckily it turned out fine in the end.

Hope that helps.

Thanks so much for the replies so far - I'm feeling a bit more secure. Now I just need to actually crack on with the work of writing a proposal! Although I've been thinking about it for ages, I haven't actually read that much / done much research or properly formulated my thoughts. I'm pretty sure I can do it, it's just a case of actually getting started!!! I'm a terrible procrastinator, especially when I am worried the task will be difficult or that I might not be able to do it.

The reason why I want to do the PhD even though I'm already a solicitor is because I want to move into an academic / research-based environment and career. I've never been too keen on being in practice and have always wanted to get back to academia/research.

Thanks again everyone for replying!

Hi all. This is my first ever post, although I have been reading other posts for quite some time now. Finding all the info amazingly helpful! I am really hoping to start a PhD in law in Sept/Oct 2010. I have been planning on doing a PhD for as long as I can remember, but it's taken me a little while to get to it. Now that the time is getting closer, I'm really worried about my chances of being accepted and of getting funding.

I did my master's at LSE and missed out on a Distinction by 1% in one subject - very frustrating, but really my own fault for not working hard enough. However, I did get a distinction for my dissertation. In my undergraduate and LLB degrees I got good marks - plenty of distinctions in specific subjects and for my final dissertation, but again missed an overall distinction by a whisker.

I have published one article in a peer reviewed journal (not a UK journal though - but the main journal in the field in the country where I'm from). I also have some teaching experience - I worked as a teaching and research assistant at the Uni in my home country. Got very good student feedback and think that the prof I worked for would give me a really good reference.

I'm a qualified solicitor, but have been working in a different area of law to the one I want to do my PhD on for the last 2.5 years (financial reasons), although I'm about to start work in a firm that is more in line with the PhD subject. Although my master's was in the same general field as my PhD, I have not actually done any work on the specific area/topic of my proposed PhD topic.

I'm not a UK citizen, but hoping that by June next year I would qualify for home fee status.

Unfortunately there is no way that I would be able to self-fund - I really need to get funding.

I'm hoping to do the PhD at LSE or Kings but will apply to UCL and Edinburgh too. And am toying with the idea of applying to Oxford and Cambridge, but don't fancy my chances!

I know it's impossible for anyone to predict, but I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to my chances of securing a funded PhD?

I have an idea for my proposal and have been thinking about it for over a year now and am currently reading up on it with the intention to write something over the next month or two and then approach a potential supervisor (who was my lecturer at LSE). But I'm terrified that my proposal will be hopeless (not original, too broad, not PhD worthy) and am very nervous about approaching the supervisor. How detailed and good do they expect first attempts at proposals to be? Do you think I could get some help from the supervisor with the proposal? The actual proposal writing process is terrifying me - I'm worried I won't have enough time to do it while working full time. And sort of feel lost as to where to start.

Sorry - this must sound ridiculous and very anxious ..... and very long!!! I'd really appreciate any advice though. Thanks so much!!