how to start my phd

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10 things you need to know before starting a PhD degree

So you want to do a PhD degree, huh? Here we've got everything you need to know about getting started.

So you want to do a PhD degree, huh? Are you sure about that? It’s not going to be an easy decision, so I’ve put together a list of 10 things you need to know before starting a PhD degree. Oh, and don’t panic!

I have recently graduated from the University of Manchester with a PhD in Plant Sciences after four difficult, but enjoyable, years. During those four years, I often felt slightly lost – and there was more than one occasion on which I didn’t even want to imagine writing up my thesis in fear of delving into fits of panic.

On reflection, I realise that – to quote a colleague – commencing my PhD was like “jumping in the deep end with your eyes closed.” If only I’d known to take a deep breath.

1. Are you sure you want to do a PhD degree?

Let’s be under no false impressions, completing a PhD isn’t easy. There will be times when you feel like Wile E Coyote chasing after the Roadrunner – a little bit out of your depth a lot of the time. It’s four years of your life, so make sure it is what you really want to do.

If you want to pursue a career in science, a PhD isn’t always necessary.

It is possible to make great inroads into industry without a doctoral degree. That said, a PhD can also be a very useful qualification with many transferable skills to add to your CV.

By the time you’ll have finished, you can include essentials such as time management, organisational skills, prioritising workloads, attention to detail, writing skills, presenting to an audience – and most importantly – resilience, to name but a few.

2. Choose your project, and supervisor, wisely.

This is  very  important.

Time after time, our experienced scientists at EI, including Erik Van-Den-Bergh (and I agree) say, “ make sure you’re extremely passionate about exactly that subject. ” When I saw the PhD opening that I eventually was offered, I remember being demonstrably ecstatic about the project before I’d even started it.

I was always interested in calcium signalling and organised a meeting with my potential supervisor immediately, which (to quote Billy Connolly) I leapt into in a mood of gay abandon.

Not only does this help you to keep engaged with your project even through the painstakingly slow times, it also greatly enhances your ability to sell yourself in an interview. If you can show passion and enthusiasm about the project and the science then you’ll be that one step ahead of other candidates – which is all the more important now that many studentships are competitive.

You have to  be the best  out of many, often exceptional candidates.

However, as important as it is to be passionate about your project, make sure that the person who will be supervising you is worthy.

Does your potential supervisor have a prolific track record of publishing work? What is the community of scientists like in the lab you may be working in? Are there experienced post-doctoral scientists working in the lab? Who will your advisor be? Is your supervisor an expert in the field you are interested in? Is the work you will be doing ground-breaking and novel, or is it quite niche?

There is nothing more frustrating – and I know many PhD degree students with this problem – than having a supervisor who is rarely there to talk to, shows little interest in your work, and cannot help when you are struggling in the third year of your project and some guidance would be much appreciated.

Personally, and I was very lucky to have this, I think it’s incredibly useful to have two supervisors. My PhD degree was split between the University of Manchester and the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. Between my supervisors, I had two people with expertise in different fields, who could give me some fantastic advice from different perspectives. This also meant that I had two people to check through my thesis chapters and provide useful comments on my drafts.

Make sure you are passionate about your subject before taking it to PhD level. And by passionate I mean  really  passionate.

For a start, you will most likely have to write a literature review in your first three months, which if done well will form the main bulk of your thesis introduction and will save you a lot of stress and strain when it comes to writing up.

At the end of your first year, you will have to write a continuation report, which is your proof that you deserve to carry on to the end of your three or four years. This doesn’t leave much time for lab work, which means time management is incredibly important. If you think you’ll be able to swan in at 11 and leave at 3, think again.

Fundamentally, never, ever rest on your laurels! As tempting as it may be to slack-off slightly in the second year of your four year PhD, don’t.

4. Be organised.

This is a no-brainer but still, it’s worth a mention. Take an hour on a Monday morning to come up with a list of short-term and long-term goals. You’ll probably have to present your work at regular lab meetings, so it’s always worth knowing what has to be done (lest you look a pillock in front of the lab when there’s nothing to show for your last two weeks.)

It’s always good to have a timeline of what will be done when. If you have a PCR, maybe you can squeeze in another experiment, read a few papers, start writing the introduction to your thesis, or even start collecting the data you already have into figures.

The more good use you make of your time, the easier it’ll be to finish your PhD in the long run. Plus, it’s lovely to sit back and look at actual graphs, rather than worry about having enough to put into a paper. Once you’ve typed up your data, you’ll realise you’ve done far more than you had anticipated and the next step forward will be entirely more apparent.

5. Embrace change – don’t get bogged down in the details.

Felix Shaw – one of our bioinformatics researchers at EI – put it best when he said, “ it felt like I was running into brick walls all the way through [my PhD]… you’d run into a brick wall, surmount it, only to run straight into another. ”

You’ll find that, often, experiments don’t work. What might seem like a great idea could turn out to be as bad as choosing to bat first on a fresh wicket on the first day of the third Ashes test at Edgbaston. (Yeah, we don't know what that means either - Ed).

Resilience is key while completing your PhD. Be open to change and embrace the chance to experiment in different ways. You might even end up with a thesis chapter including all of your failures, which at the very least is something interesting to discuss during your  viva voce .

6. Learn how to build, and use, your network.

As a PhD student, you are a complete novice in the world of science and most things in the lab will be – if not new to you – not exquisitely familiar. This matters not, if you take advantage of the people around you.

Firstly, there are lab technicians and research assistants, who have probably been using the technique you are learning for years and years. They are incredibly experienced at a number of techniques and are often very happy to help show you how things are done.

There are postdocs and other PhD students, too. Not only can they help you with day-to-day experiments, they can offer a unique perspective on how something is done and will probably have a handy back-catalogue of fancy new techniques to try.

There are also a bunch of PIs, not limited to your own, who are great to talk to. These people run labs of their own, have different ideas, and might even give you a job once you’ve completed your PhD.

Don’t limit yourself to the labs directly around you, however. There are a massive number of science conferences going on all around the world. Some of them, such as the Society of Biology Conference, take place every year at a similar time in different locations, attracting many of the leaders in their respective fields.

If you are terrified by the prospect of speaking at a full-blown science conference and having your work questioned by genuine skeptics, there are also many student-led conferences which will help you dangle your fresh toes in the murky waters of presenting your work.

One such conference, the Second Student Bioinformatics Symposium, which took place at Earlham Institute in October 2016, was a great place for candidates to share their projects with peers, who are often much more friendly than veteran researchers with 30 year careers to their name when it comes to the questions at the end of your talk.

Another great reason to attend conferences, of course, is the social-side too – make the most of this. You never know who you might meet and connect with over a few drinks once the talks are over and the party commences.

7. Keep your options open.

You should be aware that for every 200 PhD students,  only 7  will get a permanent academic post , so it’s  incredibly unlikely that you’ll become a Professor  – and even if you make PI, it probably won’t be until your mid-forties.

You may also, despite having commenced along the academic path, decide that actually, working in a lab environment isn’t for you. Most PhD graduates, eventually, will not pursue an academic career, but move on to a wide range of other vocations.

It might be that Science Communication is more up your street. This was certainly the case for me – and I made sure that I took part in as many public engagement events as possible while completing my PhD. Most Universities have an active public engagement profile, while organisations such as STEM can provide you with ample opportunities to interact with schools and the general public.

You might also consider entrepreneurship as a route away from academia, which might still allow you to use your expert scientific knowledge. There are a variety of competitions and workshops available to those with a business mind, a strong example being Biotechnology YES.

I, for example, took part in the Thought for Food Challenge, through which I have been able to attend events around the world and meet a vast array of like-minded individuals. Many of the participants from the challenge have gone on to set up successful businesses and have even found jobs as a result of the competition.

8. Balance.

Remember that you still have a life outside of your PhD degree – and that this can be one of the greatest opportunities to make amazing friends from around the world.

A science institute is usually home to the brightest students from a variety of countries and can provide a chance to experience a delightful range of different people and cultures. Don’t just stick to the people in your lab, go to events for postgraduate students and meet people from all over campus.

There are usually academic happy hours happening on Fridays after work where you can buy cheap beer, or some lucky institutions even have their own bar. At Norwich Research Park, we not only have the Rec Centre, along with bar, swimming pool, calcetto, samba classes, archery, and a range of other activities, but there are also biweekly “Postdoc pub clubs” which are very fun to join on a Tuesday evening.

Maintain your hobbies and keep up with friends outside of your PhD and you’ll probably find it’s not that gruelling a process after all.

Plus, the people you meet and become friends with might be able to help you out – or at least be able to offer a sympathetic shoulder.

9. Practical advice.

If, after reading all of this, you’re still going to march forth and claim your doctorhood, then this section should be rather useful.

Firstly, make sure your data is backed up. It’s amazing how many people don’t do this and you’d be bonkers not to. Keep your work saved on a shared drive, so that if your computer decides to spontaneously combust upon pressing the return key, you won’t have lost all of your precious work – or have to go through every one of your lab books and type it all up again.

Secondly, don’t leave your bag in the pub with your half-written thesis in it. I did this, the bag was fine, I was in a state of terror for at least half an hour before the kind person at Weatherspoons located said bag.

Thirdly, read. Read broadly, read anything and everything that’s closely related to your project – or completely unrelated. It’s sometimes amazing where you might find a stroke of inspiration, a new technique you hadn’t thought of … or even in idea of where you might like to go next.

Finally, ask questions – all of the time. No matter how stupid it might sound in your head, everyone’s probably been asked it before, and if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

You’ll probably look far less stupid if you just ask the person standing next to you how the gradient PCR function works on your thermal cycler rather than standing there randomly prodding buttons and looking flustered, anyway.

10. Savour the positives.

At the end of all of this, it has to be said that doing a PhD is absolutely brilliant. There’s no other time in your life that you’ll be this free to pursue your very own project and work almost completely independently. By the time you come to the end of your PhD, you will be the leading expert in the world on something. A real expert! Until the next PhD student comes along …

Related reading.

A PhD, is it worth it? Just ask our students

The realities of doing a PhD

My advice for PhD students? See what bites

COVID and my PhD: to lockdown and back

How does a PhD work and how to find the right one

Building the confidence to take on a PhD

PhD life, 10 things we learned in our first six months

What’s the third year of a PhD like? Tips for navigating your PhD

PhD by experience

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 06 November 2018

Twenty things I wish I’d known when I started my PhD

• Lucy A. Taylor 0

Lucy A. Taylor earned her zoology PhD from the University of Oxford, UK. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at Save the Elephants in Nairobi, Kenya, and a visiting researcher in the Department of Zoology at Oxford.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Starting a PhD can be tough. Looking back, there are many things I wish I’d known at the beginning. Here, I have curated a list of advice from current PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the Department of Zoology at my institution, the University of Oxford, UK, to aid new graduate students.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07332-x

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged. You can get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

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Five tips for starting (and continuing) a PhD

On 4th September 2020

In Advice for other students

Lots of the specific stuff you learn as a PhD student, as well as general approaches to your work, begins with informal advice rather than formal training. I’ve received lots of advice from others during my PhD, since the very early stages of my project. This has helped me both build a PhD project that I’m happy with, and actually enjoy my life while I do my PhD (the two, of course, being closely but not entirely linked!). As it’s the start of the academic year I want to share a few of my own tips along those lines, to help get your PhD off to a good start, and keep it on a trajectory you’re happy with:

1. Keep notes on everything you read

My PhD, like many, kicked off with lots of reading of textbooks and academic papers. My reading has ebbed and flowed, but not really stopped, since then. Reading is a big thing during your PhD. It’s useful to keep track of what you’ve been reading because you won’t remember all of it, but you will want to come back to a lot of it.

My system for keeping notes on my reading is highly unsophisticated, but it works: I have (currently) three Word Documents, called Reading_[insert year here] stored on Dropbox so I can access them anywhere. I’ve got a separate one for each year of my PhD because 1) each document is a bit more manageable than one scary enormous one, and 2) I find it surprisingly easy to remember when-ish I was reading different stuff because my reading has gone through some quite distinct phases (e.g. more stuff relevant to study design early on, more stuff about analysis later) so it seemed like a reasonable and simple way to organise my notes.

The  notes I make on what I read vary a lot: at my laziest, I just copy and paste the paper title, first author and abstract into the doc, and I’m done. If I’m feeling enthusiastic, I make more extensive notes on the paper and my thoughts on it, or copy specific sections that are especially interesting or relevant to my work. I make sure that each paper title or reference is formatted as a heading so that I can scan through the document easily, and create a contents page for each document.  Now, if I want to find a specific paper or read publications on a particular theme, I can Ctrl+F to find key words in my Reading documents.

2. Read a couple of theses

I’m going to disagree with tip #2 in Five Tips for Starting Your PhD Out Right and say you don’t need to read them cover to cover – I don’t think this is necessary in the early stages in your project, unless you really want to do so, or if you feel that every chapter is highly relevant to your own PhD. But I do think it’s helpful to flick through and see different thesis structures (trends in how to structure a thesis evolve over time, and also vary by subject area, so look at recent graduates in your field for ideas of what’s likely to be appropriate for you).

Theses might also contain some specific content that you didn’t realise you’ll need to add to your own thesis (such as more detailed methodology than you usually see in a published paper) or useful references if the PhD is closely related to your own work. I think it works well to look through the theses of recent graduates in your research group, your supervisor, or others working on similar stuff to you. But you can also search for theses online, for example by using EThOS .

3. Start a Word document called “Thesis”

You can use other people’s theses (see previous tip) as a guide to add appropriate headings and subheadings to this document which will act as your own thesis structure / outline. Okay, I did this in third year, not first year, but I reckon it would have been helpful to start this earlier. Since I started this document, I’ve made good progress on actually organising my thoughts and even writing a few things down. And if you’ve got this document ready from early on in your project, you can populate it with notes and ideas whenever they occur to you at any point during your PhD.

Recently, I’ve been going through my Reading documents (remember tip #1) page by page and copying across notes from papers that I have read (and often forgotten about) into the appropriate sections of my Thesis document. It’s surprising how quickly my rough structure has been populated with ideas and material for literature review and synthesis, and how this has helped me link different ideas together i.e. stuff I read in first year and forgot about, with stuff I’ve been reading recently, with stuff that’s coming out of my own analysis. Actually, now that it’s getting quite full, I’ve split my Thesis doc up so that I’m just working with one document per empirical chapter. In first year, a simple thesis structure in a single document is a good place to start.

4. Think about how to make the flexibility of your PhD (and your control over it) work best for you

This one’s quite big-picture, and I’m kind of cheating the list-of-five by squeezing several tips into one. But I think that the general principle of this tip is important, and can be interpreted in different ways to suit different people: PhDs are often inherently flexible, in how you set your daily, weekly and monthly schedule, and I think that you should make the most of that.

The nature of your PhD flexibility and your control over it depend on the details of your project, how you’re going to be working with your supervisors and institution. But there are usually opportunities for flexibility, even if you have to be in the lab most days. PhD-life-flexibility can be exploited for your professional or personal development, to maximise your productivity, to create opportunities that are fun or useful now, or allow you to flex creative muscles you haven’t had the opportunity to flex before.

Below I list the kinds of things you can think about to best use the flexibility of your PhD. These are all things that can work alongside the core research / write / defend thesis requirements of your PhD, and while you definitely don’t have to make any firm plans on day one, I think that it’s really valuable to think about ideas like this (and any more you have) early in your project. It’s all about what you want to get out of your time whilst doing your PhD , including but not limited to the PhD itself, and how you want to structure that time:

• How do you want to set your daily schedule, where do you want to work? What’s going to be most pleasant and productive for you, and fit in with your home life?
• What things do you want to do outside of your PhD (sports, reading non-PhD-related books, joining local clubs and groups, always protecting weekends off) to actively maintain a healthy work-life balance (which is better for both your wellbeing, and the state of your thesis)?
• Are there times when you’re going to be working extra hard (like fieldwork)? How do you want to balance that with rest and recuperation afterwards (an extended post-fieldwork holiday…?)?
• Do you want to take an interruption from your PhD for an internship or job?
• Do you want to practise writing by starting a blog or try a bit of science journalism ?
• Do you want to get involved with science outreach?
• Do you want to build a professional profile and network by making a website or getting on social media?
• Do you want to teach undergraduates or Masters students?
• What training courses would you like to do (and where do you find out about them)?
• Do you want to try turning one or more of your chapters into academic papers?

5. Talk to people, lots, in both general and specific ways

Starting a PhD can be overwhelming, and knowing where to start, or where to go next, can be really tough. Having conversations with other PhD students about what they are working on, how they are finding their PhD, what kind of training they have received, might point you to interesting new research topics, training opportunities, or just give you a bit of a general feel for what it’s going to be like doing a PhD in your new department. These general conversations are important because they can provide you with nuggets of wisdom you didn’t know you needed and, crucially, help you feel connected to and supported by your colleagues and peers.

Asking your supervisor or others specific questions like are there any academics whose work you recommend I look into? / do you recommend any textbooks on [planning a research project], [planning fieldwork], [fundamentals of landscape ecology], [fundamentals of development research] [insert another topic you’re not sure about yet but want to learn about]? / are there any conferences I should look out for? can give you some useful starting points for directing your own learning in the early stages of your project. So, think specifically about what you need at the start of your PhD, and ask for help with it.

…And one bonus tip: read advice from other (ex-) PhD students

There are similar posts to this one with advice on starting your PhD here , and I particularly like the twenty top tips from Lucy Taylor here . There are actual full guides to PhD life like The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory and The Unwritten Rules of Ph.D. Research which can be very helpful to read through at any stage of your PhD (though I guess you maximise your use of them if you read them early!) and to use as reference books as and when you need them. There are lots of people blogging about their past and present PhD experiences, which can offer great advice and comfort at every stage in your PhD. Personally, I love the Thesis Whisperer and like to check in with it semi-regularly. Reading TW feels a bit like my tip #5: it’s about seeking out help and advice, sometimes when you didn’t even know you needed it.

Practical tips on how to be an interdisciplinary individual

It all depends.

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• Doing an internship during your PhD – Ellie Wood

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• The PhD Journey - Stages of a Doctoral Degree

The PhD Journey

Written by Mark Bennett

A PhD typically involves between three and four years of full-time study, culminating in a thesis which makes an original contribution to your field.

The process of getting a PhD is made up of quite a few components and milestones, from the literature review and writing up your dissertation right through to the viva examination at the end.

This section is a guide on how to do a PhD, providing in-depth advice and information on some of the main challenges and opportunities you’ll meet along the way!.

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7 stages of the PhD journey

A PhD has a few landmark milestones along the way. The three to four year you'll spend doing a PhD can be divided into these seven stages.

• Preparing a research proposal
• Carrying out a literature review
• Conducting research and collecting results
• Completing the MPhil to PhD upgrade
• Participating in PhD teaching, conferences and publications
• Writing your thesis
• Defending your PhD results at a viva voce

We've expanded on what you can expect from each stage below.

1. Preparing a research proposal

Strictly speaking, your research proposal isn’t part of your PhD. Instead it’s normally part of the PhD application process.

The research proposal sets out the aims and objectives for your PhD: the original topic you plan to study and / or the questions you’ll set out to answer.

It also explains why your work is worthwhile and why it fits with the expertise and objectives of your university.

Finally, a PhD proposal explains how you plan to go about completing your doctorate. This involves identifying the existing scholarship your work will be in dialogue with and the methods you plan to use in your research.

All of this means that, even though the proposal precedes the PhD itself, it plays a vital role in shaping your project and signposting the work you’ll be doing over the next three or more years.

2. Carrying out a literature review

The literature review is normally the first thing you’ll tackle after beginning your PhD and having an initial meeting with your supervisor.

It’s a thorough survey of work in your field (the current scholarly ‘literature’) that relates to your project or to related topics.

Your supervisor will offer some advice and direction, after which you’ll identify, examine and evaluate existing data and scholarship.

In most cases the literature review will actually form part of your final PhD dissertation – usually setting up the context for the project, before you begin to explain and demonstrate your own thesis.

Sometimes a literature review can also be evaluated as part of your MPhil upgrade .

Research vs scholarship

Research and scholarship are both important parts of a PhD. But they aren't the same thing - and it's helpful to know the difference. Research is the original work you produce with your thesis. Scholarship is the expert understanding of your subject area that enables you to conduct valuable research.

3. Conducting research and collecting results

Once you’ve carried out your literature review, you’ll move from scholarship to research .

This doesn’t mean you’ll never read another academic article or consult someone else’s data again. Far from it. You’ll stay up to date with any new developments in your field and incorporate these into your literature review as necessary.

But, from here on in, your primary focus in your PhD process is going to be investigating your own research question. This means carrying out organised research and producing results upon which to base your conclusions.

Types of PhD research

The research process and the type of results you collect will depend upon your subject area:

• In Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects you’ll focus on designing experiments, before recording and analysing their outcomes. This often means assembling and managing complex numerical datasets – sometimes in collaboration with the rest of your laboratory or workshop.
• In Social Science subjects you’ll be more focussed on designing surveys or conducting case studies. These will produce quantitative or qualitative data, depending on the nature of your work.
• In Arts and Humanities subjects you’ll often have less raw data, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be working with ‘hard’ factual information. You’ll analyse texts, sources and other materials according to an accepted methodology and reflect upon the significance of your findings.

Whatever subject you’re in, this research work will account for the greater part of your PhD results. You’ll have regular meetings with your supervisor, but the day-to-day management of your project and its progress will be your own responsibility.

In some fields it’s common to begin writing up your findings as you collect them, developing your thesis and completing the accompanying dissertation chapter-by-chapter. In other cases you’ll wait until you have a full dataset before reviewing and recording your conclusions.

4. Completing an MPhil to PhD upgrade

At UK universities it’s common to register new PhD students for an MPhil before ‘ upgrading ’ them to ‘full’ doctoral candidates. This usually takes place after one year of full-time study (or its part-time equivalent).

Forcing you to register for a ‘lesser’ degree may seem strange, but it’s actually an important part of the training and development a PhD offers:

• As an MPhil student you’re able to comprehend your field and produce new research.
• As a PhD student you’re able to go that crucial step further and produce the significant original contribution to knowledge that defines a doctorate.

The MPhil upgrade is when you take the step from the former to the latter.

The MPhil upgrade exam

Upgrading from MPhil to PhD registration usually involves a form of oral exam – similar to the viva voce that concludes a PhD. But, unlike a full viva, the MPhil upgrade is less formal and only covers part of your thesis.

In most cases you’ll submit a small amount of the material you’ve produced so far. This could be a draft of your first chapter (or part of it) and / or your literature review. You could also be asked to reflect on your progress in general.

You’ll then sit down with your supervisor and someone else from your department (familiar with your field, but unrelated to your project). They’ll offer feedback on the quality of your work and ask questions about your findings.

The aim of the process won’t be to examine your drafts so much as to confirm that your project has the potential to justify a PhD – and that you’re on track to complete it on time.

‘Failing’ a PhD upgrade is actually quite rare. Your university may ask you to repeat the procedure if they are concerned that you haven’t made sufficient progress or established a viable plan for the rest of your project.

What is an MPhil?

The MPhil (Master of Philosophy) is also a research degree, but its scope is more limited than a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy). And no, just like a PhD, an MPhil isn’t necessarily a Philosophy qualification. Our guide covers all you need to know about the difference between a MPhil and PhD .

5. PhD teaching, conferences and publications

During the PhD process, you’ll have lots of opportunities to take part in extra-curricular activities, such as teaching, academic conferences and publications.

Although it isn’t usually compulsory to participate in these, they can be an incredibly rewarding experience and will look great on your CV.

Teaching during a PhD normally involves hosting undergraduate seminars or supervising students in the lab, as well as marking work and providing feedback.

Academic conferences are an excellent way to network with like-minded colleagues and find out the latest developments in your field. You might even be able to present your own work to your peers at one of these events.

Publishing during a PhD will help you increase your academic profile, as well as give you experience of the peer review process. It’s not normally a requisite of your PhD, but publications will certainly help if you plan on applying for postdoc positions.

6. Writing your thesis

As the culmination of three or more years of hard work, the thesis (or dissertation) is the most important part of the procedure to get your PhD, presenting you with the opportunity to make an original scholarly contribution to your discipline.

Our guide to writing your thesis covers everything you need to know about this lengthy research project, from structure and word count to writing up and submission.

We’ve also written a guide to the PhD dissertation abstract , which is an important part of any thesis.

7. Defending your PhD results at a viva voce

Unlike other degrees, a PhD isn’t normally marked as a piece of written work. Instead your dissertation will be submitted for an oral examination known as a viva voce (Latin for ‘living voice’).

This is a formal procedure, during which you ‘defend’ your thesis in front of appointed examiners, each of whom will have read your dissertation thoroughly in advance.

Examiners at a viva voce

A PhD is normally examined by two academic experts:

• One will be an internal examiner, usually appointed from elsewhere in your faculty and department. They won’t be directly associated with your project, but will have sufficient expertise to assess your findings.
• The other will be an external examiner. They will be a recognised expert in the area you are researching, with a record of relevant research and publication. Most universities in the UK allow you to invite an external examiner of your choice, provided there is no existing conflict of interest.

Your supervisor will help you prepare for the viva and will offer advice on choosing an external examiner. However, they will not normally be present during the examination.

The PhD timeline

Ready to take the next step?

There's lots more information about how to get a PhD in our advice section . Or, if you're ready to start looking at different projects, why not check out one of the thousands of current PhD opportunities in our database?

Not sure how PhD study will differ from a Masters? In this guide, we take a look at how the two qualifications compare, including applications, course structure, assessment and more.

Every student will need to write an abstract for their PhD dissertation. Here's everything you need to know about what an academic abstract is and how to write one.

What can you expect from a PhD? What's life actually like as a postgraduate student? Read our guides to the doctoral research experience.

The viva voce is the final oral exam at the end of a PhD degree. Our guide explains the usual viva format, covers common questions and explains how to prepare.

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Wharton Stories

How to prepare a strong phd application.

Doctoral candidates and departmental coordinators at the Wharton School outline a few tips to help you navigate the PhD application process.

It’s no secret the application process can be intimidating. Where do you start? What exactly are schools looking for on your application? What materials do you need to submit? Doctoral candidates and departmental coordinators at the Wharton School have outlined a few tips to help you navigate the process.

Don’t Delay the Process

A successful PhD applicant starts thinking about their application months or even years before the deadlines. For Alejandro Lopez Lira , a third year student in Finance, the application process began a year before he actually submitted the paperwork. He said, “I spoke to my advisors way before, like one year before, about my letters of recommendation, where to apply, everything involved in the process.”

Each program has different requirements, which can make for a tedious process. Karren Knowlton , a third year in Management, said, “I took a little while to draft a personal statement. I had my mom, who teaches creative writing, and a few other people that I trust just read over it. Then you have to tweak it for different schools because they want slightly different things.”

Taking time to prepare your application is critical. Starting the process sooner rather than later gives you several advantages:

• It allows your letter of recommendation writers enough time in advance to thoughtfully prepare a letter that speaks to who you are as a PhD candidate.
• It gives you more time to review your materials, fix any errors, and proofread, proofread, proofread.
• Finally, it means a lot less stress when the deadline starts rapidly approaching. By planning ahead, you’ll have a much smoother process applying.

Get Letters of Recommendation

Prof. Matthew Bidwell , who previously served as the doctoral coordinator for the Management program , said a common mistake he sees are letters of recommendations from employers. Although he said it is impressive to see work experience, having an employer write a letter is not the best choice.

“We don’t pay very much attention to those because rightly or wrongly, we worry that they’re not looking for the kinds of things that we’re looking for,” he said. “If you have one, it’s not a disaster, but when you see people with two or three — most of their recommendations coming from their work — that kind of heightens our concern. You’re committing to a fairly specialized career, do you really know what that career entails?”

Instead, he suggests getting to know an academic who will be able to write a recommendation attesting to your ability to manage doctoral-level research and work.

Include Research/Work Experience in Your Field

Each program has a unique set of criteria to evaluate applicants, but several doctoral coordinators agree that some research and work experience in your field of interest will strengthen your application overall.

Prof. Fernando Ferreira , doctoral coordinator for the Business Economics and Public Policy and Real Estate programs, thinks work experience can be useful in demonstrating an applicant’s abilities. He said, “Any work experience after undergraduate school is important. If that experience is more related to research it’s even better, but work experience in general is always good.”

Prof. Guy David , doctoral coordinator for the Health Care Management & Economics program , thinks that work experience benefits applicants in terms of giving them a broader view of business. “Work experience creates retrospection about how the world works, how organizations make decisions, and how people function in various situations,” he said.

However, he warns that spending too much time away from an academic setting can have its drawbacks too. “It may lead people to start their PhD later when they are not in the habit of immersing themselves in rigorous studies and have a shorter horizons to develop a name for themselves,” he said.

Although having both research and work experience can strengthen your application, you will not be denied entry because you are lacking either.

Prof. Bidwell said, “I think research experience does give us some confidence that people have some idea about what it is that we do. In terms of work experience, I think we don’t have a strong view. We quite like work experience, but we also take people straight out of undergrad.”

Prepare for the Standardized Tests

Most PhD programs require students to take the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). Having high test scores is a key part of an application as it tests skills learned over the course of many years in school. Quantitative skills are especially important when applying to doctoral programs in business areas. Much like any other standardized test, the GRE requires preparation.

Karren, who took the GRE twice to ensure her scores were high enough, offered advice to those who may be struggling. “I would absolutely recommend practicing the writing beforehand. Look up examples and have your outline structured,” she said. “So much of it is just getting the right structure and how you formulate your arguments so knowing what they’re looking for is key.”

Test prep can be time-consuming, but like anything else, practice makes perfect. There are multiple text books and online sites to help you prepare for the exam. Karren aimed to improve her math scores the second time she took the GRE and recommended this site to help strengthen math skills.

Taking advantage of resources to help you study can limit the number of times you need to take the GRE while ensuring you score high enough to remain in the applicant pool.

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Posted: August 4, 2017

• Admissions and Applying
• Advancement and Transition

Doctoral Programs

Start your doctoral journey.

Whether you’re just starting your research on PhD programs or you’re ready to apply, we’ll walk you through the steps to take to become a successful PhD candidate.

Deciding to get a PhD

You might be surprised to find out what you can do with a PhD in business.

Is an Academic Career for You ? What Makes a Successful PhD Student

Preparing for the Doctoral Path

The skills, relationships, and knowledge you need to prepare yourself for a career in academics.

How the PhD Program Works How to Become a Successful PhD Applicant

Choosing the right program

What’s the difference between PhD programs? Find out how to choose one that fits your goals.

What to Consider When Choosing a Doctoral Program What Differentiates R1 Universities?

Starting an application

Tips for a successful application process.

Application Requirements Preparing Your PhD Application

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9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD

June 23, 2021 | 15 min read

By Andy Greenspon

The ideal research program you envision is not what it appears to be

Editor's Note:  When Andy Greenspon wrote this article, he was a first-year student in Applied Physics at Harvard. Now he has completed his PhD. — Alison Bert, June 23, 2021

If you are planning to apply for a PhD program, you're probably getting advice from dozens of students, professors, administrators your parents and the Internet. Sometimes it's hard to know which advice to focus on and what will make the biggest difference in the long-run. So before you go back to daydreaming about the day you accept that Nobel Prize, here are nine things you should give serious thought to. One or more of these tips may save you from anguish and help you make better decisions as you embark on that path to a PhD.

1. Actively seek out information about PhD programs.

Depending on your undergraduate institution, there may be more or less support to guide you in selecting a PhD program – but there is generally much less than when you applied to college.

On the website of my physics department, I found a page written by one of my professors, which listed graduate school options in physics and engineering along with resources to consult. As far as I know, my career center did not send out much information about PhD programs. Only after applying to programs did I find out that my undergraduate website had a link providing general information applicable to most PhD programs. This is the kind of information that is available all over the Internet.

So don't wait for your career center or department to lay out a plan for you. Actively seek it out from your career center counselors, your professors, the Internet — and especially from alumni from your department who are in or graduated from your desired PhD program. First-hand experiences will almost always trump the knowledge you get second-hand.

2. A PhD program is not simply a continuation of your undergraduate program.

Many students don't internalize this idea until they have jumped head-first into a PhD program. The goal is not to complete an assigned set of courses as in an undergraduate program, but to develop significant and original research in your area of expertise. You will have required courses to take, especially if you do not have a master's degree yet, but these are designed merely to compliment your research and provide a broad and deep knowledge base to support you in your research endeavors.

At the end of your PhD program, you will be judged on your research, not on how well you did in your courses. Grades are not critical as long as you maintain the minimum GPA requirement, and you should not spend too much time on courses at the expense of research projects. Graduate courses tend to be designed to allow you to take away what you will find useful to your research more than to drill a rigid set of facts and techniques into your brain.

3. Take a break between your undergraduate education and a PhD program.

You are beginning your senior year of college, and your classmates are asking you if you are applying to graduate school. You think to yourself, "Well, I like studying this topic and the associated research, and I am going to need a PhD if I want to be a professor or do independent research, so I might as well get it done as soon as possible." But are you certain about the type of research you want to do? Do you know where you want to live for the next five years? Are you prepared to stay in an academic environment for nine years straight?

Many people burn out or end up trudging through their PhD program without a thought about what lies outside of or beyond it. A break of a year or two or even more may be necessary to gain perspective. If all you know is an academic environment, how can you compare it to anything else? Many people take a job for five or more years before going back to get their PhD. It is true though that the longer you stay out of school, the harder it is to go back to an academic environment with lower pay and a lack of set work hours. A one-year break will give you six months or so after graduation before PhD applications are due. A two-year gap might be ideal to provide time to identify your priorities in life and explore different areas of research without having school work or a thesis competing for your attention.

Getting research experience outside of a degree program can help focus your interests and give you a leg up on the competition when you finally decide to apply. It can also help you determine whether you will enjoy full-time research or if you might prefer an alternative career path that still incorporates science, for example, in policy, consulting or business — or a hybrid research job that combines scientific and non-scientific skills.

I will be forever grateful that I chose to do research in a non-academic environment for a year between my undergraduate and PhD programs. It gave me the chance to get a feel for doing nothing but research for a full year. Working at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the Space Division, I was the manager of an optics lab, performing spectroscopic experiments on rocks and minerals placed in a vacuum chamber. While my boss determined the overall experimental design, I was able to make my own suggestions for experiments and use my own discretion in how to perform them. I presented this research at two national conferences as well — a first for me. I was also able to learn about other research being performed there, determine which projects excited me the most, and thus narrow down my criteria for a PhD program.

4. Your current area of study does not dictate what you have to study in graduate school.

You might be studying the function and regulation of membrane proteins or doing a computational analysis of the conductivity of different battery designs, but that doesn't mean your PhD project must revolve around similar projects. The transition between college or another research job to a PhD program is one of the main transitions in your life when it is perfectly acceptable to completely change research areas.

If you are doing computation, you may want to switch to lab-based work or vice versa. If you are working in biology but have always had an interest in photonics research, now is the time to try it out. You may find that you love the alternative research and devote your PhD to it, you might hate it and fall back on your previous area of study — or you may even discover a unique topic that incorporates both subjects.

One of the best aspects of the PhD program is that you can make the research your own. Remember, the answer to the question "Why are you doing this research?" should not be "Well, because it's what I've been working on for the past few years already."While my undergraduate research was in atomic physics, I easily transitioned into applied physics and materials science for my PhD program and was able to apply much of what I learned as an undergraduate to my current research. If you are moving from the sciences to a non-STEM field such as social sciences or humanities, this advice can still apply, though the transition is a bit more difficult and more of a permanent commitment.

5. Make sure the PhD program has a variety of research options, and learn about as many research groups as possible in your first year.

Even if you believe you are committed to one research area, you may find that five years of such work is not quite what you expected. As such, you should find a PhD program where the professors are not all working in the same narrowly focused research area. Make sure there are at least three professors working on an array of topics you could imagine yourself working on.

In many graduate programs, you are supposed to pick a research advisor before even starting. But such arrangements often do not work out, and you may be seeking a new advisor before you know it. That's why many programs give students one or two semesters to explore different research areas before choosing a permanent research advisor.

In your first year, you should explore the research of a diverse set of groups. After touring their labs, talking to the students, or sitting in on group meetings, you may find that this group is the right one for you.

In addition, consider the importance of who your research advisor will be. This will be the person you interact with regularly for five straight years and who will have a crucial influence on your research. Do you like their advising style? Does their personality mesh with yours? Can you get along? Of course, the research your advisor works on is critical, but if you have large disagreements at every meeting or do not get helpful advice on how to proceed with your research, you may not be able to succeed. At the very least, you must be able to handle your advisor's management of the lab and advising style if you are going to be productive in your work. The Harvard program I enrolled in has professors working on research spanning from nanophotonics to energy materials and biophysics, covering my wide range of interests. By spending time in labs and offices informally chatting with graduate students, I found an advisor whose personality and research interests meshed very well with me. Their genuine enthusiasm for this advisor and their excitement when talking about their research was the best input I could have received.

6. Location is more important than you think — but name recognition is not.

The first consideration in choosing a PhD program should be, "Is there research at this university that I am passionate about?" After all, you will have to study this topic in detail for four or more years. But when considering the location of a university, your first thought should not be, "I'm going to be in the lab all the time, so what does it matter if I'm by the beach, in a city, or in the middle of nowhere." Contrary to popular belief, you will have a life outside of the lab, and you will have to be able to live with it for four or more years. Unlike when you were an undergraduate, your social and extracurricular life will revolve less around the university community, so the environment of the surrounding area is important. Do you need a city atmosphere to be productive? Or is your ideal location surrounded by forests and mountains or by a beach? Is being close to your family important? Imagine what it will be like living in the area during the times you are not doing research; consider what activities will you do and how often will you want to visit family.

While many of the PhD programs that accepted me had research that truly excited me, the only place I could envision living for five or more years was Boston, as the city I grew up near and whose environment and culture I love, and to be close to my family.

While location is more important than you think, the reputation and prestige of the university is not. In graduate school, the reputation of the individual department you are joining — and sometimes even the specific research group you work in — are more important. There, you will develop research collaborations and professional connections that will be crucial during your program and beyond. When searching for a job after graduation, other scientists will look at your specific department, the people you have worked with and the research you have done.

At the Asgard Irish Pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Andy Greenspon talks with fellow graduate students from Harvard and MIT at an Ask for Evidence workshop organized by Sense About Science. He grew up near Boston and chose to go to graduate school there.

7. Those time management skills you developed in college? Develop them further.

After surviving college, you may think you have mastered the ability to squeeze in your coursework, extracurricular activities and even some sleep. In a PhD program, time management reaches a whole new level. You will not only have lectures to attend and homework to do. You will have to make time for your research, which will include spending extended periods of time in the lab, analyzing data, and scheduling time with other students to collaborate on research.

Also, you will most likely have to teach for a number of semesters, and you will want to attend any seminar that may be related to your research or that just peaks your interest. To top it all off, you will still want to do many of those extracurricular activities you did as an undergraduate. While in the abstract, it may seem simple enough to put this all into your calendar and stay organized, you will find quickly enough that the one hour you scheduled for a task might take two or three hours, putting you behind on everything else for the rest of the day or forcing you to cut other planned events. Be prepared for schedules to go awry, and be willing to sacrifice certain activities. For some, this might be sleep; for others, it might be an extracurricular activity or a few seminars they were hoping to attend. In short, don't panic when things don't go according to plan; anticipate possible delays and be ready to adapt.

8. Expect to learn research skills on the fly – or take advantage of the training your department or career center offers.

This may be the first time you will have to write fellowship or grant proposals, write scientific papers, attend conferences, present your research to others, or even peer-review scientific manuscripts. From my experience, very few college students or even PhD students receive formal training on how to perform any of these tasks. Usually people follow by example. But this is not always easy and can be quite aggravating sometimes. So seek out talks or interactive programs offered by your department or career center. The effort will be well worth it when you realize you've become quite adept at quickly and clearly explaining your research to others and at outlining scientific papers and grant proposals. Alternatively, ask a more experienced graduate student or your advisor for advice on these topics. In addition, be prepared for a learning curve when learning all the procedures and processes of the group you end up working in. There may be many new protocols to master, whether they involve synthesizing chemicals, growing bacterial cells, or aligning mirrors on an optical table. In addition, the group may use programming languages or data analysis software you are unfamiliar with. Don't get discouraged but plan to spend extra effort getting used to these procedures and systems. After working with them regularly, they will soon become second nature. When I first started my job at Johns Hopkins, I felt overwhelmed by all the intricacies of the experiment and definitely made a few mistakes, including breaking a number of optical elements. But by the end of my year there, I had written an updated protocol manual for the modifications I had made to the experimental procedures and was the "master" passing on my knowledge to the next person taking the job.

9. There are no real breaks.

In a stereotypical "9-to-5" job, when the workday is over or the weekend arrives, you can generally forget about your work. And a vacation provides an even longer respite. But in a PhD program, your schedule becomes "whenever you find time to get your work done." You might be in the lab during regular work hours or you might be working until 10 p.m. or later to finish an experiment. And the only time you might have available to analyze data might be at 1 a.m. Expect to work during part of the weekend, too. Graduate students do go on vacations but might still have to do some data analysis or a literature search while away.

As a PhD student, it might be hard to stop thinking about the next step in an experiment or that data sitting on your computer or that paper you were meaning to start. While I imagine some students can bifurcate their mind between graduate school life and everything else, that's quite hard for many of us to do. No matter what, my research lies somewhere in the back of my head. In short, your schedule is much more flexible as a PhD student, but as a result, you never truly take a break from your work.

While this may seem like a downer, remember that you should have passion for the research you work on (most of the time), so you should be excited to think up new experiments or different ways to consider that data you have collected. Even when I'm lying in bed about to fall asleep, I am sometimes ruminating about aspects of my experiment I could modify or what information I could do a literature search on to gain new insights. A PhD program is quite the commitment and rarely lives up to expectations – but it is well worth the time and effort you will spend for something that truly excites you.

Contributor

Andy greenspon.

The Savvy Scientist

Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

PhD FAQs – A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Doctoral Study

Tempted to do a PhD but have lots of questions? Hopefully this collection of popular PhD FAQs will help you to tick a few off the list!

Note – If you’re already sure that you want to do a PhD, and are looking for guidance on the applications process, check out my post on How to apply for a PhD which includes advice from successful PhD applicants. My post-PhD reflections on the things I regretted from my own PhD may be useful for you too, you can find that post here .

Let’s start with the absolute basics of PhDs!

What does PhD stand for?

PhD stands for Doctor of Philosophy. Doctor of Philosophy ? No matter which subject area your PhD is in you’ll become a Doctor of Philosophy because philosophy derives from Greek to mean “Love of wisdom” which make a bit more sense.

What is a PhD?

A PhD is a type of research degree classified as a doctorate. You get a PhD by doing original research into a topic, typically for at least three years.

There are loads of other types of doctorate and a PhD is simply the most common. EngD is another which is relatively common for industry-funded engineering students here in the UK.

PhD & DPhil what’s the difference?

There is no real difference between a PhD and DPhil, they’re both Doctor of Philosophy qualifications. A small number of historic institutions in the UK such as Oxford and York offer DPhils but the degree itself is equivalent.

How common are PhDs amongst the population?

Approximately 1% of the working population (25-64 years old) have a PhD. This varies a lot by country:

Can you call yourself Doctor with a PhD?

Yes you can. Though to avoid confusion with medical doctors, rarely will PhD-holders use the “Dr” title outside of their workplace.

Sometimes PhD-holders will add the abbreviation PhD after their name if they want to make it clear they are a non-medical doctor, for example “Jeff Clark PhD”.

What have I done about my title since getting my PhD? Nothing so far!

Why do a PhD?

Unlike a lot of other degrees, most PhD students get paid to study . Read more in the finances section below.

There are lots of potential reasons to want to do a PhD. The PhD students from our monthly PhD Profiles series said the following:

Sara found research the most enjoyable part of her undergraduate degree and a PhD was a way to carry on with research.

Ornob wants to pursue a career in evolutionary biology so began with a PhD in the field.

Vivienne has aspirations to be a professor so a PhD is a job requirement to progress in academia.

Jeff (me!) had an interest in the field and enjoyed research. I wrote a whole post with a deep dive on why I decided to do a PhD here .

Floor had enjoyed research during her Masters and didn’t think that she wanted a career in industry, so decided to do a PhD.

It’s important to mention that you don’t need to have a desire to stay in academia to do a PhD. In fact, even if you do want to go into academia afterwards, it’s probably good to know early on just how competitive it can be. Many people sadly cannot make a career out of academia long term.

Enjoy the subject matter and want to spend a few years researching it? That is reason enough to do a PhD. I’ve also now written a whole post about the benefits of having a PhD .

Applying for a PhD

Do you need a masters degree to do a phd.

No you don’t necessarily need a Masters degree to do a PhD as long as you can demonstrate you’d be suitable for a PhD without it.

For a more in-depth answer see the separate post here :

Can You Get a PhD Without a Master’s?

If you don’t have a Masters, I’d recommend checking out Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) which offer combined Masters + PhD courses. We have discussed CDTs with a graduate in Floor’s post here .

What grades do you need to do a PhD?

Entry requirements for PhDs can vary. In regards to the UK system usually you’d generally be expected to have at least a 2:1 from your undergraduate degree, plus some research experience.

My experience : I (narrowly) got first class honours in my undergrad (MEng) which certainly does help. But if you can demonstrate aptitude in research you usually don’t need a 1:1. It would be expected for you to have done well in any research projects. If you can get your name on a publication then even better!

The easiest way to find out what is expected is to check the PhD advert for entry requirements. For details on applying for a PhD, including how to find PhD adverts, check out my guide here :

How to apply for a PhD

I work in industry, can I come back and do a PhD?

Absolutely! I worked for almost four years between finishing my first degree and starting my PhD.

A PhD is more similar to a job than any other point in your education, so if you’ve spent time in a structured role it can provide you with a good work ethic. If your time in industry adds relevant skills and experience to your application, even better!

I’ve met loads of people older than me who are pursuing PhDs. If it’s your dream, it’s never too late to start a PhD!

What is the social life of a PhD student like?

Let me get this out the way first: PhD students should be able to have a life outside of the lab! If a PhD student has no time away from research I would personally suggest that they were doing things wrong.

Even if you really enjoy your project, it is good for your mental health to have a social life!

No matter the size of your research group there are often departmental and university-wide events. Plus, besides everyone you may meet through your research and department, PhD students can still join societies and sports clubs through the students’ union. I spent one of my birthdays during my PhD on the beach in Morocco with the surf club, don’t let being a PhD student put your off getting involved!

Check out the full post I’ve written: Do PhD Students Have a Social Life? Sharing My Experiences Making Friends and Avoiding PhD Loneliness

If you do go on to do a PhD, make sure to make the most of all the opportunities ! Your time as a PhD student is fantastic for personal growth.

How much holiday do PhD students get?

Sadly unlike undergraduates, PhD students don’t follow fixed semesters. This means no more three month long summer holiday, sorry!

However most departments recommend PhD students take 7-8 weeks of holiday a year , which is more than practically any job outside of academia.

I kept track of all the time off I took during my PhD and you can find the details here , including a month by month breakdown:

Do PhD Students Get Holidays? Sharing How Much Annual Leave I Take

Getting a PhD

How much work is a phd.

For a month I tracked how many hours I was working and what I was working on, so you can see a breakdown of my calendar here . I found I was working for roughly 40 hours a week. Now that I’ve recently finished my PhD, I’d say that that amount of hours was pretty representative of the whole PhD.

How Much Work is a PhD?

I do of course know some people who worked much longer hours, but most PhD students were on a similar schedule to me. Working roughly 9-5 on weekdays. Treat it like a job and you’ll be fine. PhD students don’t need to be slaving away long hours.

I managed to be strict with my time, largely avoiding work late nights or going in at the weekends. One of the main perks of doing a PhD is that you have autonomy and can be flexible with when you work. As long as you get the work done, any reasonable supervisor won’t mind when you’re there.

Yes I’ve heard stories of PhD students having to clock in and out with an expectation that they spend a certain number of hours in the office. I personally think this is stupid and doesn’t build trust. Try to speak to current PhD students from the group when choosing a supervisor .

How is a PhD assessed?

What you submit at the end of your research varies between universities and countries. Sometimes it’s a thesis and other times it can be a bunch of published papers. In all situations you give some kind of presentation and answer questions about your work.

In the UK you usually submit a thesis in preparation for a viva voce . The viva is an oral exam where you discuss your research with several academics and at least one will be an expert in your field. My viva wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be, but nonetheless it was five hours ( FIVE HOURS! ) long. At the end of your viva you’ll get told the outcome of your PhD with any changes to be made to your thesis.

There is often no requirement , to publish your work in journals during a PhD in the UK but it does help.

In other countries you may have to publish a certain number to pass your PhD and effectively these can be submitted instead of the thesis. This approach makes much more sense to me.

How long does it take to get a PhD?

In the UK, typically between three and four years to complete your research and submit the thesis. It can then take a few months for the exam (viva voce) to take place and then for any corrections to the thesis to be made.

Nosey about my PhD? For me personally, I started the PhD on 1st October 2016, submitted my thesis on 17th February 2020, had the viva on 25th March, submitted my minor corrections on 30th March and had the email to say it was officiated on 1st April 2020. Yep, April Fool’s Day…

When you realise your degree certificate will forever say your PhD was awarded on April Fools Day! #academiclife @imperialcollege pic.twitter.com/hKsGFyuc0x — Jeff Clark (@savvy_scientist) April 14, 2020

We cover all the stages of a PhD here, including putting the length of a PhD in the perspective of a whole career:

How Long Does It Take To Get A PhD?

Are PhDs really difficult?

No, well not how you might think.

You don’t need to be a genius, but you do have to be smart with how you work. Here I go into how a PhD is pretty different to all the prior years spent in education:

How Hard is a PhD?

Check out my new post covering academic challenges and failures relating to my own PhD: Overcoming Academic Challenges and Failure During a PhD

Money-Related Questions

How much does a phd cost.

If you have funding, which is explained below, all your fees are paid for by the funding source. If you are looking to self-fund, then you’ll have to pay bench-fees/tuition fees, which are usually approximately £4,000 a year for home students in the UK.

Fees vary massively depending on both the country the PhD work takes place in and where you’re from. For example, I believe Australian universities charge around $100,000 in fees to overseas PhD students. Of course ideally you have funding which covers both this and pays a stipend!

Do PhD students pay taxes?

In the UK, PhD students do not pay income tax, national insurance, council tax and student loan repayments. This means that if you can secure funding, even though you may earn less than friends in typical jobs, you get to keep all your earnings!

Do PhD students get paid?

Most PhDs, at least in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) get a stipend: basically a tax-free salary.

How much do PhD students get paid?

At the time of writing, most PhD students in the UK get around £16,000 a year . Doesn’t sound like a lot, but:

• As mentioned above, you don’t pay income tax, national insurance, council tax or make any student loan repayments. My most popular post is this one , comparing the income of PhD students vs grad jobs and the difference really isn’t that big. Plus it’s only for 3 to 3.5 years!
• You’re getting paid to learn science, working on something you’re really interested in. It’s amazing.
• You have a lot more freedom than practically any “proper job”.
• You’re getting paid, to be a student…

PhD Salary UK: How Much Do PhD Students Get Paid Compared to Graduates?

In summary, PhD stipends are really not that different to grad starting salaries. Please don’t be put off from a PhD simply because for a few years you might be earning a bit less than if you were working in another job.

Depending on what you want to do with your career, having a CV may lead to higher salaries. What is 3 years of lower wages out of a 40+ year career? The answer: nothing!

Where do I find PhD funding?

Getting funding will likely be the biggest hurdle for you to secure a PhD. I have a post here detailing the different types of funding and how you can find a project with funding attached.

How to Find PhD Funding in the UK

Can you self-fund a PhD?

Yes you can self-fund a PhD, and some students are in a position to do so. Just be careful that you account for university fees and not just your living costs.

Are you allowed to have another job at the same time?

Most universities encourage you to get involved with work within your department as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA). Some countries even insist that you work a certain number of hours as part of a contract for your monthly stipend.

Working as a GTA you might be invigilating exams, helping in tutorials, marking coursework etc and at Imperial you usually earn around £15-£26 an hour.

If you’re looking to work a full time job in tandem with your PhD (and doing the PhD full time), it is best checking your university’s policy. Some may have regulations against you working over a certain number of hours which could impede you from concentrating on the PhD.

There are extra ways to make money on the side which I address here :

How to Earn Money Online for Students

Can you get a mortgage as a PhD student?

Since I did my PhD in London I didn’t even consider buying somewhere during my PhD. I’m not interested in being tied into a massive mortgage for 25 years to buy a shoebox!

If I’d accepted my PhD offer for a CDT at Leeds I certainly would have tried to buy somewhere with my partner. I found this page useful when doing research. Buying a property with a partner who has a normal job would definitely make the mortgage application a whole lot more successful.

Will a PhD help your career?

This depends on what you want to do with your career. Some example scenarios:

• Staying in academia – a PhD is usually required
• Certain technical jobs in industry – a PhD may be required or a big bonus
• Non-technical jobs – a bonus

I do not imagine any scenarios where having a PhD is worse than not having one. It is true though that for certain careers there may be other things you could do which would be a better use of your time, for example gaining more direct work experience.

If you want to do a PhD that shouldn’t stop you though, and considering the length of your career taking a few years out for a PhD is inconsequential.

Whichever career path you fancy taking, if you are at all interested in doing a PhD I think you should at least apply.

PhDs in London

Can someone afford to live in london as a phd student.

Yes! I lived in London for my PhD and actually was able to save money every single month while taking many holidays and not living in a tent.

I have a few posts sharing my experiences living in London which you may find useful:

For a month last year I tracked all my expenses to get an idea of my costs living in London as a student, you can find it here .

Sharing my monthly living expenses as a student in London: September 2019

Related to reducing costs, I learned to cycle in London and loved it. It saved me about £100 a month too!

Learning to cycle in London: my first 1000 miles

On top of that, for the whole of 2019 (third year PhD) I tracked my money, and the report is here :

My personal finances report for 2019

Where is good to live in London?

I’ve lived in three different houses during my PhD in London and have a pretty good idea now of good places to live in London. You can read this whole post talking about living in London as a student and the associated costs including a breakdown of rent :

London student accommodation: Breaking down the cost of living in London for students

Bonus: Read the journeys of PhD students

Before I started my PhD I had a ton of questions and nobody who I could ask about their experience. The reality is that many of these PhD FAQs have a variety of answers as everyone’s PhD story is different. Therefore if you’d like to hear first hand from people who are going through the journey check out my series of PhD profiles , with a new profile every month. You can also discover some of their top tips for applying!

If you’d like personalised help with your PhD application I am now starting to offer a small number of one-to-one sessions. Please contact me to find out more or click here to book a call.

Is there anything else you’d like to know to help with a potential PhD application? Let me know and I’ll write about it! You can subscribe to stay up to date here:

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How to get a PhD: Steps and Requirements Explained

Interested in obtaining a phd learn more about the steps to earn a phd, careers with phd, list of colleges offering programs and more., college monk — how to get a phd, what is a phd.

A PhD is actually just one type of doctoral degree. PhDs are research-focused. The other type of doctorate is application-focused (also known as an applied doctorate).

PhD admission requirements 

Not just anyone can earn a PhD. Given how well-respected the title is, it takes a lot of work and very specific criteria to enter a doctoral program.

Steps to obtain a PhD

Step 1: complete an undergraduate degree, step 2: complete a master's program, step 3: apply for a phd program.

During the application process, you’ll have to submit the following:

Step 4: Complete your coursework

Step 5: prepare a research proposal.

A research proposal is a document that outlines what, exactly, a PhD student will focus on during their research. 

A research proposal should include the major question or questions someone plans to answer with their dissertation, and how exactly they plan to arrive at that answer. 

Step 6: Complete a literature review

Step 7: research and collect results, step 8: produce a thesis and write a dissertation.

Source:  https://www.wikihow.com

Step 9: Viva Voce

Online colleges offering phd programs.

What can you do with a PhD?

Frequently asked questions.

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

How the PhD Program Works

Program Overview

Completing your doctorate at Wharton requires 5 years of full-time study. The first 2 years in the program prepare you for admission to candidacy by taking courses, qualifying exams, and starting research projects. In the last few years, you are primarily conducting research full-time including writing and defending your doctoral dissertation.

Admission to candidacy.

You begin by taking courses required for your program of study. All programs requires a preliminary exam, which may be either oral or written.

Some programs may have further requirements, such as an additional exam or research paper. If you enter with a master’s degree or other transfer credit, you may satisfy the formal course requirements more quickly.

Beginning the Wharton PhD Curriculum How the first two years of the Wharton program helped students discover their interests, learn the tools of the profession, and fuel their passion for teaching.

The Doctoral Dissertation

Upon successful completion of coursework and passing a preliminary examination, you are admitted to candidacy for the dissertation phase of your studies.

Your doctoral dissertation should contain original research that meets standards for published scholarship in your field. You are expected to be an expert in the topic you choose to research.

You are admitted to candidacy for the dissertation phase of your studies upon successful completion of coursework and passing a preliminary examination, but you can start thinking about and working on research of relevance at any time.

The dissertation process culminates with a “defense,” in which you defend the proposal orally before your dissertation committee.

While working on your dissertation, you interact extensively with Wharton faculty. Together with interested faculty, you create your own research community that includes your dissertation advisor and dissertation committee.

Policies and Procedures

Get more detailed explanation of course requirements, academic standards, the Teacher Development Program, time limits, and dissertation procedures and requirements.

Sample Program Sequence

Years 1 & 2.

Coursework Examination Research Papers Research Activities Field-Specific Requirements

Directed Reading & Research Admission to Candidacy Formulation of Research Topic

Years 4 & 5

Continued Research Oral Examination Dissertation

Hear From Our Doctoral Community

Phd student creates a new pipeline for women in academia, faculty expertise in housing economics attracted this phd student to wharton, uniting great minds, wharton’s stat bridge ma program takes flight.

How to write a PhD thesis: a step-by-step guide

A draft isn’t a perfect, finished product; it is your opportunity to start getting words down on paper, writes Kelly Louise Preece

Kelly Louise Preece

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Congratulations; you’ve finished your research! Time to write your PhD thesis. This resource will take you through an eight-step plan for drafting your chapters and your thesis as a whole. 

Organise your material

Before you start, it’s important to get organised. Take a step back and look at the data you have, then reorganise your research. Which parts of it are central to your thesis and which bits need putting to one side? Label and organise everything using logical folders – make it easy for yourself! Academic and blogger Pat Thomson calls this  “Clean up to get clearer” . Thomson suggests these questions to ask yourself before you start writing:

• What data do you have? You might find it useful to write out a list of types of data (your supervisor will find this list useful too.) This list is also an audit document that can go in your thesis. Do you have any for the “cutting room floor”? Take a deep breath and put it in a separate non-thesis file. You can easily retrieve it if it turns out you need it.
• What do you have already written? What chunks of material have you written so far that could form the basis of pieces of the thesis text? They will most likely need to be revised but they are useful starting points. Do you have any holding text? That is material you already know has to be rewritten but contains information that will be the basis of a new piece of text.
• What have you read and what do you still need to read? Are there new texts that you need to consult now after your analysis? What readings can you now put to one side, knowing that they aren’t useful for this thesis – although they might be useful at another time?
• What goes with what? Can you create chunks or themes of materials that are going to form the basis of some chunks of your text, perhaps even chapters?

Once you have assessed and sorted what you have collected and generated you will be in much better shape to approach the big task of composing the dissertation. 

Decide on a key message

A key message is a summary of new information communicated in your thesis. You should have started to map this out already in the section on argument and contribution – an overarching argument with building blocks that you will flesh out in individual chapters.

You have already mapped your argument visually, now you need to begin writing it in prose. Following another of Pat Thomson’s exercises, write a “tiny text” thesis abstract. This doesn’t have to be elegant, or indeed the finished product, but it will help you articulate the argument you want your thesis to make. You create a tiny text using a five-paragraph structure:

• The first sentence addresses the broad context. This locates the study in a policy, practice or research field.
• The second sentence establishes a problem related to the broad context you have set out. It often starts with “But”, “Yet” or “However”.
• The third sentence says what specific research has been done. This often starts with “This research” or “I report…”
• The fourth sentence reports the results. Don’t try to be too tricky here, just start with something like: “This study shows,” or “Analysis of the data suggests that…”
• The fifth and final sentence addresses the “So What?” question and makes clear the claim to contribution.

Here’s an example that Thomson provides:

Secondary school arts are in trouble, as the fall in enrolments in arts subjects dramatically attests. However, there is patchy evidence about the benefits of studying arts subjects at school and this makes it hard to argue why the drop in arts enrolments matters. This thesis reports on research which attempts to provide some answers to this problem – a longitudinal study which followed two groups of senior secondary students, one group enrolled in arts subjects and the other not, for three years. The results of the study demonstrate the benefits of young people’s engagement in arts activities, both in and out of school, as well as the connections between the two. The study not only adds to what is known about the benefits of both formal and informal arts education but also provides robust evidence for policymakers and practitioners arguing for the benefits of the arts. You can  find out more about tiny texts and thesis abstracts on Thomson’s blog.

• Writing tips for higher education professionals
• Resource collection on academic writing
• What is your academic writing temperament?

Write a plan

You might not be a planner when it comes to writing. You might prefer to sit, type and think through ideas as you go. That’s OK. Everybody works differently. But one of the benefits of planning your writing is that your plan can help you when you get stuck. It can help with writer’s block (more on this shortly!) but also maintain clarity of intention and purpose in your writing.

You can do this by creating a  thesis skeleton or storyboard , planning the order of your chapters, thinking of potential titles (which may change at a later stage), noting down what each chapter/section will cover and considering how many words you will dedicate to each chapter (make sure the total doesn’t exceed the maximum word limit allowed).

Use your plan to help prompt your writing when you get stuck and to develop clarity in your writing.

Some starting points include:

• This chapter will argue that…
• This section illustrates that…
• This paragraph provides evidence that…

Of course, we wish it werethat easy. But you need to approach your first draft as exactly that: a draft. It isn’t a perfect, finished product; it is your opportunity to start getting words down on paper. Start with whichever chapter you feel you want to write first; you don’t necessarily have to write the introduction first. Depending on your research, you may find it easier to begin with your empirical/data chapters.

Vitae advocates for the “three draft approach” to help with this and to stop you from focusing on finding exactly the right word or transition as part of your first draft.

This resource originally appeared on Researcher Development .

Kelly Louse Preece is head of educator development at the University of Exeter.

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Tress Academic

#24: New to the PhD? – 5 tips for a great start!

September 17, 2019 by Tress Academic

New to the PhD? Looking forward to an exciting time in your life? Bet you are! But maybe you’re also feeling a bit anxious for how to get this major undertaking started off right? Do you wonder what things you should be aware of? We’ve got it for you right here: Our 5 essential tips for new PhDs!

Have you started your PhD recently – or are just about to getting started and looking for a way to get off on the right foot? You’ll share this feeling with many other PhDs who start with the beginning of a new academic year. We recently came across the following post in a Facebook group that says what you’re all thinking:

“Hi everyone! I am working on my doctorate in Educational Leadership at Georgia State University, and I just began last week. What tips do you have for someone just starting their journey?”

As academic career consultants, who’ve been advising PhD students for more than a decade, this is the one question that makes us bubble over with suggestions. We could literally give you tons of tips and a quote like this makes us want to pass on all the wisdom we’ve ever gathered about PhD students to you. 

With that said, you would likely be overwhelmed and not get much out of an outpouring of advice. So instead, we thought we’d distill a few solid  tips that will be really useful right from the start and also essential to your success in the long run.

At the beginning of a PhD education, you have a lot of choices and many decisions to make. Your ‘room-to-manoeuver’ is quite large. But later on, this narrows and you become more fixed in every aspect of your project. So it is essential that you put everything surrounding your PhD on the right track now – to get off to a good start and reap the benefits in the long run!

1. Be wary – time flies 

If you are right at the beginning, and you’re in a structured graduate programme, you’ve likely got 3-4 years (or more depending on your funding and country) of PhD time ahead of you. 

Quite understandably, this may seem like an eternity to you. It may seem like you have years of endless freedom ahead of you to work on a topic that you find captivating and thrilling. Right now, your calendar may be nearly empty and your task-list short. The pressure is lowest right at the beginning, so you don’t perceive any urgency to quickly crack-down on your project ideas. But be aware that one PhD student after another gets caught in the trap of losing too much time in the early months, time they can’t make up for later on. This is the no. 1 regret of PhD students nearing the end: they did not take the time seriously enough at the beginning.

• Be aware of the fact that your PhD clock starts ticking from the very first day. What may help you is to have a calendar in your office or phone  with a countdown to your hand-in date (or end of contract if that is more appropriate in your case). This way you’re reminded every single day that time is your scarcest resource.
• Do not spend the first weeks hanging around without any direction. Instead make up your mind very quickly for what the focus of your PhD will be. Zoom in to that, develop a project goal and start working on it. 
• If you are not clear on your topic or your project goals – then to develop this is the most important work for you to do right now. 
• For further advice, read our SMART ACADADEMICS blog post no. 2: So you want to finish your PhD on time? and download our free expert guide “5 Reasons Why PhD Students Delay and How to Avoid” .

2. Gear up your work-ethics

Some of you have just completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree and likely finished it with stellar marks – otherwise you wouldn’t be working on your PhD now. Others may not be coming straight from university, but have had a few years of professional work experience under their belts. All of you have beaten a tough competition to earn a grant, get a scholarship and make it through the job interviews.

Careful: don’t fall into the trap of thinking ‘Hey, I made it, I can relax now’ or  think that the skill-set or mindset that brought you here will make you successful in the coming years! 

This is a new game and the rules are different. The level of ambition and complexity of a PhD project is not comparable to a Masters programme or anything you’ve experienced in the corporate world. A PhD is not meant to be an easy journey, and not everyone finishes in the end. How successful you are in your PhD depends as much on your attitude and work-ethics as on everything else.

Tips: 

• Don’t think this will be easy! Approach your PhD with the right attitude: respectfully and seriously . A PhD is an unwieldy beast and you’ve got to master it in the end. You can do it, and you should be confident that you’ll be successful in the end. But you should also acknowledge that it will take all your energy, strengths and effort to do so. 
• Step-up your work ethics, not just one, but 2-3 gears: Gone are the days of excessive partying, late-night outs and long lie-ins (keep that for the weekend). Instead, from your very first day onwards, try to be as focused and efficient as possible. Work hard and concentrate on the most important tasks every single day that will bring you ahead quickly. 
• Make important decisions early on and move forward with your project rather than postponing out of fear of making the wrong decisions.
• Establish a good working routine: Get up early and work on your most important tasks during the morning while your energy level is still high and you’ll find it easier to focus. 
• For more tips on strengthening your work ethic and efficiency read our SMART ACADEMICS blog post no. 4: “How to make time for research”   and download our free expert guide: “How to boost your productivity as a researcher” .

3. Read, read, read

You’ve got a steep learning curve ahead of you. In just a few weeks (ideally) you have to make a quantum leap to familiarise yourself with the most significant scholarly discourses and current trends in your field.

There’s no way around it. If you don’t know what’s going on in your field, you: 

• won’t know what others have already done (probably resulting in a duplicate of a project)
• won’t know what the most significant and crucial questions are right now – so you can’t judge the relevance and importance of your own project ideas
• won’t know what approaches and methods are standard in your field, so you won’t have a blueprint to approach your own ideas.

This is like becoming fluent in a foreign language: If you’ve never been through the foundations of its grammar, you’ll never be able to speak it without mistakes. 

Towards the end of your PhD, as you become an expert, you’ll need a solid foundation (and keep it updated) so you can challenge existing beliefs and customs, and you can develop a new way of thinking. That is the point where science really get’s interesting and you’ll be able to make a significant contribution to your field. 

The literature you could potentially read today is virtually unlimited, but your time is . If you try to get started all on your own you’ll likely get confused, lost or overwhelmed. 

• Here’s a shortcut that works wonders: Ask your supervisors, plus a few colleagues and post-docs around you for the five to ten most relevant published papers in your field. Mention that you want to get an overview and that you want to use their suggestions to get a head-start. 
• Start with reading those papers or books that everyone has on their list and then make your way through the rest. 
• It’ll be really hard at the beginning, and you’ll find it difficult to understand at times but don’t worry, this is normal, just keep going, because it will get easier the more you read! Don’t hesitate to get back to those who suggested a paper to you and ask them to explain a particular aspect or section that does not make sense to you. You’re right at the start of your PhD, so you’ve got a right to ask.
• Get used to making notes or short excerpts right after you finished a paper – jot down the overall  thoughts and results that are presented. This will later help you develop your writing skills. Over time you’ll gradually move on to spend more time writing than reading. For more great tips on writing see our SMART ACADEMICS blog post no. 5: How to get started with writing papers? and download our free expert guide “5 Strategies to Avoid Initial Paper Rejection”  
• Read every single day and make it a primary activity. Decide on a time-span (e.g. 1-2 hours at a time) and one clear task (e.g. to read one particular chapter in a book or one paper). Stop afterwards and turn to something else. Identify places and times during your workday when you read best and make it a habit: Read in the morning when you commute to your institute, or read before starting your lab work, read in the canteen before lunch, or hide in the library in the afternoon, where you’re completely undisturbed. Find out what works best for you and stick with that!

4. Shed your “I’ll-go-it-alone-attitude”

You’ve taken on a difficult project and not every PhD makes it to the finish line. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to think that you can or have to do this on your own. PhDs often seem to think that those around them expect them to know everything. That is wrong.

PhD students who adapt an ‘I’ll-go-it-alone’-attitude, often isolate themselves. That has consequences, both social and intellectual:

• They concoct their projects in their own chamber, without much exchange with peers which may lead them to develop far-fetched ideas that are not in line with mainstream trends in their discipline, marginalising themselves. They may have flaws built into their research methods that go uncovered for a long time and are difficult to rectify later on. 
• They do not search for or receive regular feedback. So when they finally have to present their ideas or work, they often get much harsher criticism. Since they’re not used to being critiqued,  and because the problems might be serious at this point, it will hurt even more.  

• Resist any temptation to isolate yourself, but try instead to develop a broad network for support. Expose yourself to scholarly debate and scrutiny right from the start of your PhD. Simply put yourself out there at the beginning – you’ve got nothing to lose. 
• It’s too early, I can’t discuss my ideas
• I can’t show my work yet
• I’m not ready
• I’m not smart enough, or I don’t know enough to participate
• The feedback you’ll receive on each occasion will help you to grow. Every little remark from colleagues will help you to reflect on your work and improve it. The quality of your PhD will tremendously benefit from this. It’ll also prevent you from making bigger mistakes or going off on a direction that is not worthwhile. 
• supervisors
• graduate school coordinators
• PhD students, who started together with you
• more advanced PhD students & postdocs
• senior colleagues in your work-group or institute
• international scholars or teachers that you get to know over time as you attend scientific events. 

5. Grow thick skin

Academia is not an environment for the faint-hearted, but an extremely competitive surrounding, where everyone has to fight for their space, jobs, funding or a better place in rankings. After months of hard work, your papers can still be rejected, your proposal goes unfunded, and your best ideas dismantled by your colleagues. You’ll discover that you’ve made a huge mistake in your data-collection that renders weeks of work useless and you’ve no idea how to make up for that! It is also  normal that even the nicest team or cosiest workplace can feel hostile at times. Especially because this is your project and your work, every rejection, setback or failure hits you personally! 

You’ll have your ego bruised more than once, and likely a few setbacks that may feel like more than you can handle. There will be days when you don’t want to show up at the institute anymore, and moments  you’ll be tempted to quit. Those that are overly sensitive often struggle in an academic environment and mental health issues among PhD students is a well-documented and rampant problem. For more information, see “Being a PhD student shouldn’t be bad for your health”  Nature (vol. 569, p. 307) . 

• You can’t avoid every disaster during a PhD, but developing the ability to pick yourself up again after a major setback is a must. Getting your act together and moving on is part of the journey and those who master it will be the successful ones in the end.
• Try to keep things in perspective – you may have been criticised, or failed, were wrong or forgot something, but instead of dwelling on that (and increasing your misery) look on the ‘bright side of life’! Ask yourself positive questions, like what have you achieved recently, what went well, what you succeeded with? 
• Don’t build your entire personality of ‘who you are’ into this PhD. This is your job right now and a big part of your life, but never let it become the entire you! 
• Find a way to disengage. Literally unplugging and not thinking about your PhD, your team, your institute for a time helps! Make sure you have other activities to look forward to in the evenings and on the weekends. Coming back the next morning or at the start of a new week relaxed and with a fresh mindset will help to avoid mistakes, as well as not take things too  seriously when they occur.   
• Support from your network (see point 4.) but also friends, family and loved ones works wonders! They’ll keep up your motivation and show you that there is a life beyond the PhD. 

Conclusion:

We’re really not trying to scare you, but as they say “truth hurts”. There are a lot of common mistakes we see people making at the beginning of their PhD that can snowball into a lot of stress, wasted time and missed opportunities! We do not want your PhD experience to be anything like this – we thought we’d better give you some tough love now! It is essential to start your PhD off on the right foot and avoid the traps that so often befall young researchers with seemingly endless time on their hands. We hope you can learn from our five tips to keep your work on track, your motivation high and your attitude solid. A PhD can be a beautiful thing. Most importantly, we urge you not to forget to….

…enjoy the ride!

This should actually be the sixth point on our list. When we think back to our PhD years, we remember it as a very happy time in our lives! Most days, we were thrilled to come to the institute, and see what  exciting experience lay in store! It’s a time of discovery, where you make connections socially and intellectually at your own institute, but also at national or international scientific events. The highs of this time by far outweighed the lows we had to endure! It will all be worth it in the end when you’re holding your doctor’s degree in hand!

Do you have any personal tips for new PhDs? What advice would you give to PhD students who just started? Share your ideas with us on Facebook or drop us a note at [email protected] . 

Related resources:

• Smart Academics Blog #2: So you want to finish your PhD on time?
• Smart Academics Blog #4: How to make time for research?  
• Smart Academics Blog #5: How to get started with writing papers?
• Smart Academics Blog #46: What makes PhD students succeed?
• Smart Academics Blog #47: Plan your project – save your PhD!
• Smart Academics Blog #112: PhD project-planning quick-start
• Expert guide “5 reasons why PhD students delay & how-to avoid”
• Expert guide: “How to boost your productivity as a researcher”
• Expert guide “5 Strategies to Avoid Initial Paper Rejection”
• TRESS ACADEMIC course: Completing your PhD successfully on time
• Nature (2019): “Being a PhD student shouldn’t be bad for your health”. Vol. 569, p. 307.  

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Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

The PhD Journey: Stages of a Doctoral Journey

Embarking on a  PhD journey  is more than a path to academic achievement; it’s an adventure filled with excitement, discovery, and, sometimes, inevitable challenges. This journey, lasting typically 3-5 years, is not just intellectually taxing but also an emotionally enriching experience that shapes one’s professional and personal growth.

Unlike undergraduate or master’s programs, a  PhD degree  is less structured and more self-directed. This freedom, while exhilarating, can also be daunting. PhD candidates often face pressure to publish and contribute new knowledge to their field, a task that tests both mental and emotional resilience.

Yet, the excitement of delving deep into a subject you are passionate about, the thrill of discovering new knowledge, and the opportunity to work with leading experts are what make this journey rewarding and fulfilling. In this article, we will take a step-by-step look at how to make it to the finish line of your PhD journey.  

• Research and planning: Your doctoral journey begins with identifying a topic that ignites your passion. Develop a research design and proposal, and choose a supervisor aligned with your research interests. Creating a strategic plan will help you focus more closely on your responsibilities and will enable you to map out the direction of your research work.  
• Conducting a literature review: A vital step in the PhD journey; here, you identify knowledge gaps and decide on your research methodology . A carefully conducted, detailed literature review provides a firm theoretical base and enables researchers to contextualize their work and make it relevant. The process can be as exhilarating as it is rigorous, laying a solid foundation for your research.
• Collating and analyzing data: Post-literature review, you’ll collect and analyze data. Whether through surveys, interviews, or experiments, this stage is where your research starts taking shape, offering the first glimpse of potential findings and their impact. Whichever method is employed, it is important to ensure that data collection is done without any prejudice and confirmation bias.
• Managing PhD Responsibilities : Beyond research, PhD students engage in activities like teaching, attending conferences, and publishing. These responsibilities, while optional, are opportunities to grow your academic profile and can be as rewarding as they are challenging.
• Writing a thesis:  Arguably the most daunting yet satisfying part of your  PhD journey . Writing a thesis demands clear communication and meticulous referencing. It’s common to face self-doubt and writer’s block, but overcoming these challenges is part of the doctoral journey’s learning curve.
• Editing and proofreading:  After spending long hours on your research, this stage requires a detailed review of your work. Editing and proofreading are crucial for ensuring clarity and coherence in your thesis.   Look for possible errors in grammar, language, and syntax, weed out potential plagiarism, and ensure that there are no logical loops or biases. Getting your manuscript reviewed by a colleague or supervisor may throw up errors you may have inadvertently missed or may even help you look at some aspects of your research with a new perspective.
• Defending your findings: The final hurdle of your PhD journey is defending your research to a committee. While this can be a nerve-wracking process, this stage tests your knowledge and conviction in your work and is an opportunity to showcase the significance of your research

The pursuit of a doctoral degree goes beyond academic titles. It’s a journey of intellectual curiosity, pushing boundaries, and making meaningful social contributions. Perseverance and dedication are key. For those embarking on this journey, remember to embrace not just the challenges, but also the excitement and opportunities for growth that come with pursuing your dreams in the world of research.

R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that accelerates your research discovery journey by keeping you updated on the latest, most relevant scholarly content. With 250M+ research articles sourced from trusted aggregators like CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex and top publishing houses like Springer Nature, JAMA, IOP, Taylor & Francis, NEJM, BMJ, Karger, SAGE, Emerald Publishing and more, R Discovery puts a world of research at your fingertips.  

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A Guide to Graduate School Applications

• A Guide to Grad School Apps

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Phone: (307) 766-5160 Toll-Free: (800) 342-5996 Fax: (307) 766-4042 Email:   [email protected]

Published August 22, 2024 By Audrey M.

Graduate school can be incredibly intimidating. As you begin thinking about applying to a program, it can quickly become overwhelming deciding where you should even begin. Although graduate programs are incredibly diverse, and application requirements will vary from one to another, I’m here to provide some helpful tips and a step-by-step guide that I used to successfully apply to PhD programs myself. My goal is to break down the large process into attainable steps that you can use yourself to get into the program of your dreams!

1. Before Applying

Contrary to popular belief, the graduate school application process doesn’t begin with your application – it actually starts much sooner. Before you begin compiling your application, take the time to research schools, programs, labs, and mentors. It’s also important to take the time to explore your own interests to ensure that you enter a program that is right for you.

Know what you want: Graduate programs can span years of intensive work, so it’s incredibly important that you’re confident in your decision to begin! Explore your interests and career goals to ensure which program is right for you – a master’s? A PhD? Is it possible that your dream job is achievable with your current education level? It’s also important to identify which program you want to enter early on. For example, a PhD in psychology is broken down into a range of specialties that each lead to distinct research areas and career paths. If you’re entering a research-heavy field, start exploring what sparks your curiosity and which specific topics you’d enjoy researching later on. This knowledge will come in handy once you begin crafting your application materials.

Research the schools: You may be wondering where to start when searching for programs across the country – it’s an intimidating thought! Some easy ways to narrow down your list of potential schools are by analyzing location, cost of living in the area, school/class sizes, and program funding. Inspect what feels most important to you – a specific part of the country? A large program? A prestigious research history? – and use this knowledge to craft a list of potential schools.

Find your fit: One area in which graduate programs may differ is how closely you’ll be working with faculty. In some areas of study, you’ll apply directly into a program where you’ll take courses under a variety of professors. For others, you’ll apply to advisor or primary investigator directly, working closely with them in their lab to earn your degree. Either way, once you’ve identified schools that you can envision yourself at, dive into their list of faculty to learn more about advisors in the program. For research-heavy programs, how well your interests fit with those of your advisor is often the biggest predictor of success in the application process.

Reach out and introduce yourself: Once you’ve compiled a list of potential programs and/or faculty advisors, it’s time to introduce yourself! Send a formal email notifying potential advisors of your interest and plans to apply in the upcoming cycle. Feel free to share information about your experiences, future interests, and what initially drew you to them. This step establishes a rapport with people in your field and can help you form a relationship before your official application is submitted.

After completing these initial steps, you’ve set yourself up for success when transitioning to compiling your application. Application fees are expensive, and crafting materials to specific schools quickly becomes time consuming. By taking the time to analyze your standards and narrow down your list to a few top programs, you’ve ensured that your time and money will be well spent moving forward.

2. Completing Your Application

Now it’s time to do the heavy lifting and complete your application. Applications can differ from program to program, so take extra care in reading through each program’s requests ahead of time. Across schools, here are some common documents that you can expect to provide:

A curriculum vitae (CV): Your CV is the roadmap of all the experiences you’ve gained before entering a graduate program. Your goal in this document is to express interest in the field while highlighting your relevant skills and knowledge. This document can vary greatly depending on the person and the area of study you are entering, but common sections of a CV are contact information, education, research/clinical experience, teaching experience, honors and awards, memberships and affiliations, publications and presentations, certifications and skills, and references. Although you want your CV to convey your depth of experience, avoid padding this document with filler and only include things that are directly relevant to your program.

A personal statement/academic statement/statement of purpose: This document goes by many names, but essentially serves as a complement to your CV and a place where you can speak more in depth about the ways that your experiences have shaped your goals and interests. The requirements for this document often lie in one of two categories: a free-response, comprehensive personal statement, or a brief list of specific prompts supplied by your program requirements. In this document, it’s important to be both personable and professional, and not to simply restate what you’ve already outlined in your CV. This statement should also individually address the program and advisor it is being submitted to, as opposed to sending in an identical document for every application.

Letters of recommendation: Letters of recommendation are a key aspect of graduate applications and provide an avenue for your program to learn about you through the testaments of others. Many schools will request a minimum of three, with others allowing up to five. Ensure that you choose letter writers who are relevant to your program, such as professors, research mentors, or relevant professionals, and who know you well enough to speak to your strengths as an applicant. Individualized, thoughtful letters take time to write, so request letters from your writers earlier than you think!

A writing sample: Some programs will require a writing sample or may suggest it as an optional component of your application. Choose a sample that showcases your strength as a writer, and preferably is applicable to your program – such as a paper related to your specific research interests. Reach out to peers, mentors, or the writing center to proof this sample for any errors before submitting.

Standardized Test Scores: GRE scores are becoming increasingly less essential in graduate applications – many programs have ceased requesting them at all. In my experience, those viewing your application want to get a strong sense of who you are both as a student and a person, and whether or not you’re capable of being successful in their program. Often, your CV, personal statement, and letters of recommendation are more than enough to paint this picture. Regardless, take the time to study and prepare for these examinations as there’s always a chance that the extra boost may help make the difference between an acceptance and a rejection. And again, emphasis on testing scores may vary widely from one program of study to another.

A diversity statement: An increasing number of programs are adding diversity statements as a core piece of their application requirements. These statements are often around five hundred words, and specific prompts will vary from one program to the next. In general, many will want to know more about your lived experiences and how diversity or hardships have impacted your academic journey. Some programs may also ask you to describe how you will encourage and support diversity if you were to be admitted to their program.

Once you’ve assembled the necessary pieces, it is time to apply. Take note of deadlines, paying careful attention to time zone differences, and ensure that your application is submitted on time. You should receive a confirmation email after your application has been received but keep an eye on your inbox in the coming days as programs will be contacting you with updates.

3. After Applying

You’ve submitted your application! First, take the time to decompress and congratulate yourself. Putting together an application is a long and demanding process, and you should be proud to be on the other side. Nevertheless – your journey is not over yet. The next step in the application process is completing interviews with your chosen programs.

Preparing for your interviews: Although it’s impossible to predict exactly what you will be asked in an interview, there are a few areas you can prepare in to feel confident about your future performance. Make sure you are able to articulate your previous experiences, especially in the context of their impact on you as a strong candidate. Prepare an “elevator pitch” consisting of basic information about yourself and your future goals. Take time to research your program/mentor’s history and specialties. It is often also helpful to be knowledgeable of the current research literature in your field.

The interview process: The interview process is another place where programs can vary greatly from one another, but many will follow a two-step process. The first interview is often virtual, conducted over the phone or through a video call service like Zoom. The second round of interviews are more commonly conducted in-person and will require a physical trip to your program’s location as a result. Some programs will only require one interview before rejecting applicants or extending offers. Other schools host “visitation days” in lieu of interview days, where applicants who have been extended an offer are invited to visit the campus and interact with faculty and graduate students.

Managing offers and making your decision: It can be very difficult to decide between programs if you’ve received multiple offers, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer for every applicant. It’s important to ask questions of potential mentors, faculty members, and current graduate students of the program you are considering. When making a final choice, weigh costs, benefits, location, and future potential for success in your decision-making process. Above all, trust your gut, and go wherever feels right for you!

Interviews can definitely be stress-inducing, but your biggest goal at this stage should be gathering information to make an informed decision. Once you’ve made it this far, it’s all about connecting with your potential mentors and determining the best fit for you and your individual goals. At the end of this process, you should feel confident in your final choice of program.

My hope is that this guide to the application process helps clarify the overwhelming thought of beginning graduate school. Setting yourself up for success is a culmination of researching programs, crafting strong application materials, and seeking information to help you feel confident in your final decision. Entering a graduate program after acceptance comes with an entirely new set of challenges to face, but you can rest easy in the knowledge that you’re in the company of many other graduate students just like you . Best of luck!

More From Forbes

How getting a ph.d. prepared me to run a startup.

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Sam Mehrbod (Ph.D.) is a Top Producer Realtor, Investor and CEO at  Roomvu , a Content Factory empowering Realtors with Videos on Social Media

When I started at the University of British Columbia to do a Ph.D. in project management in 2010, I was excited about a shiny path in academia. The path looked solid at the beginning: I'd finish a 4-year program, get a job and live a (somewhat) stress-free life. But one month into the program, it hit me. The reality was that there were too many Ph.D.s for too few tenure-track jobs. Not only did the planned four years take 6.5 years on average in our department, but most graduates also had to stay as post-doctorates (call it a Ph.D. student upgrade) for another couple of years. 

I would have loved to stay in academia, but I wasn't willing to spend a decade being an academic nomad. Right at the beginning, I realized this path was not for me and started learning new skills and doing side hustles. I did everything from DJing at events and weddings to building houses, becoming a realtor and co-funding a mid-size property technology startup. In the end, it took me eight years to finish my Ph.D., and to this date, I am grateful to my Ph.D. supervisor for bearing with me patiently while I finished the program. There were some key lessons throughout the eight-year Ph.D. that taught me how to run a startup. Here are some of these lessons that have helped me build my company:

1. The trial-and-error process and adaptability are key.

Anyone who has done a research project (especially a Ph.D.) remembers those painful moments of learning through trial and error. These are the times when you think you'll never succeed. You keep on driving research questions and figuring out the hypothesis. You go to your advising committee, and they keep giving you the answer "no." Then you have these "eureka" moments that show up after months (in my case, years) of trying.

The same holds true with a startup idea. You have this great idea and keep pouring resources into it, and when the product launches, no one cares. I learned that the hard way. We kept on building great tools in our first two startups that no one used. Even to this day, I always say to our team that adaptability in a startup and particularly in the founding team is the key to getting through tough times. As a team, we set up milestones, and we all excitedly paddle through and launch the products. And then it hits us: Only a handful of our users use the feature and find it helpful. We see the reality that no one cares about our new tool. We get upset, decompress and keep on building something else. The lesson is to keep trying until you (and your team) get it right.

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2. Identify the problems before setting to solve them.

This may sound simple, but trust me, finding a problem is sometimes way harder than coming up with a solution to an existing problem. I remember the early days when my Ph.D. supervisor told me to stop thinking like an engineer and start doing research. Coming from an engineering background, this is among the hardest things I had to do. From the get-go, we learn to solve the problems and most software developers like me want to come up with a solution to the problem almost immediately. Finding the problem in my thesis meant watching a 1,000-hour video series of my research subjects. I documented every interaction they had with various tools and objectively observed while resisting the urge to draw conclusions. 

The very same principle holds true in the startup world. Most of your customers don't really know what the problem is until you present them with a new solution. As Henry Ford has been known for saying, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." Many founders think they have found "the problem." They then start building solutions immediately, and many fail just as quickly. Learning what the problem is requires you to spend immense time with your customers. In my case, I had to observe a lot of realtors using our prototypes, sit through customer service calls, skim through emails and conduct usability studies (just like my Ph.D.) to find the problem. I had to objectively document it and then sit with our team to build solutions. 

3. Success is a marathon, not a sprint.

During the thesis, every single day I needed to be consistent with my efforts. Whether it was studying, writing, researching or analyzing, I just needed to show up and keep going. It does not matter whether you're on top of the world or down in the dumps. You need to be persistent. During my Ph.D., I saw many brilliant students who did a great job and aced a presentation or exam but later found they had been burnt out and were no longer pursuing their dream. The same holds true in business. A lot of our competitors got huge media coverage initially but failed to expand their product and stay in business. If you are leading a startup, you should follow revenue-producing activities and provide value to your clients every single day. It is truly a long haul, and success requires your persistence. 

The bottom line is, if you think you do not belong in academia, a certain industry or even a dead-end job and are trying to start a new business, as long as you are adaptable to everyday changes, willing to go through the trial and error process, keen to find the real problems and are persistent enough on your journey, you can find success in your business sooner than later.

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• Find Your Perfect PhD
• Finding a PhD

Find Your PhD, Fast Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest. Search Now

• When looking for PhD research projects, a great place to start is with our comprehensive and up-to-date database .
• Speak with lecturers within your area of interest about potential PhD opportunities they may have.
• Attend Postgraduate Events . Whilst there, speak to current PhD students and career advisors to get an awareness of what PhD projects are on offer.
• Visit the postgraduate section of university websites and the PhD Research Council section of the GOV.UK website

Finding A PhD

Searching for PhD research projects can sometimes feel like daunting process. Often, it’s difficult to know where to find a PhD position or where to even start.

To make this searching process as easy as possible for you, we’ve curated a collection of the best places to search for PhD projects. By using our recommended collection, you should hopefully gain a greater insight into where your interests lie and which programme is best suited for you.

Our Comprehensive and Up-To-Date Directory

We can’t create a list of great resources and not include ourselves! At DiscoverPhDs, our primary aim is to connect great students to great PhD projects. To enable this, we provide a comprehensive database of PhD projects offered from universities all across the UK.

We regularly add to our database to ensure you’re getting the latest opportunities and the most relevant information and programme details. On top of this, we’ve created our database to be as easy to use as possible; all our PhD listings provide a direct ‘apply’ link or contact email address of the lead supervisor. This enables you to:

• Request further information about any aspect of the position,
• Enquire about the specific applications process,
• Connect directly with the supervisor

Universities Websites

Search on the website of the universities you are interested in as some many only be listing PhD research projects internally or may link you to other opportunities such as Professional Doctorate Programmes. As examples, have a look at the research pages of The University of Cambridge , Cardiff University , University of Leicester , Sheffield University and The University of Glasgow .

Your Current Supervisor

If you’re currently undertaking a research project or dissertation as part of your undergraduate or master’s degree, it would be a good idea to speak to your current supervisor. Not only would you have already built a good rapport with them, but having worked with you they will have a good idea on what PhD positions would utilise your strengths or best interest you. In fact, a noticeable percentage of past and current PhD students came into their PhD programme because of being recommended by their undergraduate supervisor. Your supervisor will be well-connected – make sure you take advantage of these opportunities.

Tip: Don’t just limit your discussion to your own personal supervisor. All supervisors are within their field of work because they have a natural passion for research and teaching. As such, most supervisors will be more than happy to help any student who wishes to follow in their footsteps and make their own impact.

Postgraduate Events

Nearly all universities hold regular Postgraduate Fairs and Open Days. As part of these events, current postgraduate students may be on hand to share their experiences of their projects and university. This is a fantastic opportunity to not only find out what PhDs the university is offering but to find out more about their facilities, research labs and library collection, etc. Given that you will be heavily relying on these resources during your PhD, it’s important that you know what’s provided by each university. Hearing student stories about what PhD life is really like, what to expect from supervisors and some of the challenges that current students have encountered can be really useful in your decision making process.

Besides the above, career advisers may also be available at these events. Speaking to them will help you understand what you can do with a PhD, whether a PhD is right for you, what degree class you’re expected to hold and how best to prepare for research projects. Seeing as they would have helped many PhD candidates through the decision-making process before, they will provide you with some invaluable insight that you would otherwise be oblivious to.

To help bring all Postgraduate Fairs and Open Days offered across all universities together, we’ve created a helpful Postgraduate Events page which we highly recommend you check out.

Research Councils

Research councils are nationally funded agencies which offer sponsored PhD research projects (also known as a PhD studentship). Different research councils cover different areas of research, these include:

• The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC),
• The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council ( BBSRC ),
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC),
• The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ( EPSRC ),
• Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC ).

The GOV.UK website has a full list of nationally-funded research councils available online. You can find further details on these councils on the GOV.UK website.

Although our database includes PhD programmes offered by these research councils, it would be a good idea to regularly browse the website of the ones you are particularly interested in case they list some internal only. These councils play an important role in supporting and encouraging doctoral researchers and they regularly hold calls for applications for PhD funding. If you or your potential supervisor have a PhD project proposal defined but need funding, then applying to these calls may become a key first milestone in your postgraduate research journey.

For example, the EPSRC offers a Doctoral Training Partnership programme in which a research student is given funding to pursue postgraduate study with a research question that aligns with the Councils core engineering and physical sciences themes. These awards often have eligibility criteria linked to them, impacting which postgraduate research students can apply; an international student, for example, may not be able to apply to a certain UK based scholarship scheme but there are several other options that can still help you fund your doctoral research; this may involve taking out a postgraduate loan (or more specifically a postgraduate doctoral loan).

To make this searching process as easy as possible for you, we’ve curated a collection of the best places to search for a PhD. By using our recommended collection, you should hopefully gain a greater insight into where your interests lie and which programme is best suited for you.

Further Resources

As you continue your search of PhD research projects, be sure to check our our PhD advice articles, including how to prepare for your PhD application, and interviews with current and past doctoral students. Many of the people we’ve interviewed have completed degrees within a STEM discipline; they offer a wide range of advice on their individual approaches to applied research and independent study, as well as sharing some the impact their work has had. Many have continued the research of their projects within academia after finishing, whilst some have developed successful careers in industry and business sectors.

It’s worth noting that when you apply to undertake doctoral study, you may first be registered as an MPhil researcher, depending on the specific doctoral programme you apply for, officially become a full PhD student after passing an upgrade viva. At the upgrade stage, some students do decide to graduate with an MPhil research degree rather than pursuing further PhD study however this is less common.

We hope the above list will help you find the perfect PhD position and earn your doctoral degree.

If you have any recommendations besides these resources, please let us know at [email protected] so we can look to add it.

If you’re ready to start your search for your PhD, start now with our  PhD database .

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Preparing for your thesis defence

As you start thinking about the end stages of your PhD, it’s important to understand the processes and timelines related to the thesis defence.

Even if your defence feels far away, there are steps you can take early on in order to ensure that the end of your PhD and defence process runs smoothly.

Jump to: What is a PhD defence? | Who's at the defence? | What happens at the defence? | What are the possible outcomes of the defence?  

What is a PhD defence?

The thesis defence is a unique opportunity to share with other experts what you did as part of your PhD research, what you found or discovered, and why it’s important. Although there are a lot of regulations guiding the defence process, remember that this process is really about you and your work.  

Goals of the PhD defence:

• Allow you to show your mastery of the subject matter
• Prove you are the author of the world
• Demonstrate your ability to engage in scholarly discourse in your research area

Who's at the PhD defence?

The primary attendees of your PhD defence are the Chair of the defense and your examining committee. The Chair is an impartial faculty member from outside your department who is well-versed in the rules and proceedings of thesis examinations. The Chair does not question you and does not assess your work.

Examining committee:

• Supervisor(s) - Your thesis supervisor(s) that have supervised your research.
• Internal member - A member of your department; typically part of your advisory committee.
• Internal/external member - An "internal" member of the university, but "external" to your home department. This person has suitable knowledge of the subject matter, even though they are from another discipline.
• Additional member - Typically a member from your advisory committee.
• External examiner - A person with a doctoral degree and expertise in the subject matter who evaluates the thesis from a fair an impartial perspective.

At University of Waterloo, it is also standard to have defences open to the public, so you can invite your friends, family and colleagues to be there! Check with your department to figure out what options are available to you.  

In some cases, such as when there are intellectual property concerns, a closed thesis examination can be requested. This means that all those in attendance at the thesis examination, including the examining committee members, must sign a non-disclosure agreement.  Closed examinations must be requested as early as possible.

What happens at the defence?

The first component of the defence is the welcome. The Chair will open up the defence, go over the order of proceedings, introduce the examining committee, and welcome the attendees.

After the welcome, the examination will formally begin with your oral presentation. The presentation is no more than 30 minutes, but the exact length and format can vary by department or discipline. It's best to check with your supervisor to confirm departmental expectations, but overall, the presentation should focus on your main contributions and conclusions. 

The final component of the defence is the questioning period. This is not meant to be an interrogation, rather, a discussion amongst colleagues about the subject of your thesis.

• The examination Chair monitors the question period, which goes in "rounds".
• During the first round of questioning, each committee member will have 15 minutes to ask their questions, provide their comments, and discuss these with you.
• After each committee member has had their turn to ask questions, there may be additional rounds for more questions. The Chair and committee decide when the questions will end.
• Typically, the Chair will reserve some time at the end to accept questions from non-committee members.

While there is no set time for defences at the University of Waterloo, they typically range from 2-3 hours. 

What are the possible outcomes?

Once your formal defence has concluded, the examination Chair will arrange for a private deliberation between the committee members. The examination committee's decision is ultimately based on your written thesis, as well as your ability to defend it, as the decision is determined by a majority vote.

In the event of a tie decision, or if the external examiner's vote is not in the majority, the decision will be deferred to the Associate Vice President (AVP), Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs. The AVP will consult the Faculty Associate Deans and come to a final decision. 

Once the deliberation has concluded, the Chair will inform you of your examining committee's decision.

There are three possible outcomes to a PhD defence:

• Accepted: The thesis is completed to the satisfaction of the examining committee. There may still revisions required, but they are likely minor and typographical or editorial in nature. In this case, you would have one month to complete all revisions and submit your approve thesis to UWspace.
• Accepted conditionally: The oral defence and the thesis are acceptable, but content changes are required that are time intensive. In this case, you would have four months to complete revisions to the approval of your committee and submit the final version to UWspace. A re-examination is not required. 
• Re-examination: The oral defence is not to the satisfaction of the committee and/or substantial changes to the thesis are required. In this case, the candidate must be re-examined within 1 year. 

Re-examination is very rare, and the vast majority of candidates have their thesis accepted at their first examination.

Related links

• Thesis and defence
• Timeline to defence
• Successful defence tips
• Remote defence tips

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What Are ‘Thought Daughters’ and Why Are They Trending?

These overthinking girls are actually quite misunderstood.

On the heels of the phenomenon known as “ eldest daughter syndrome ,” a new type of daughter has entered the online chat: the “thought daughter.”

She’s similar to the eldest daughter in that she is responsible, anxious, and prone to people pleasing. But where eldest daughters typically have strong personalities and a penchant for control, “thought daughters” are more introspective, intellectual in their pursuits, and devout over-thinkers.

GettyImages/blackCAT

Experts say that's not always a bad thing. There are ways for caregivers to connect with their "thought daughters" and help them thrive.

How Did the ‘Thought Daughter’ Trend Start?

So, how did “thought daughters,” who by definition don’t love the spotlight, find their viral moment? Well, it was born out of backlash when an offensive internet question resurfaced. 

Street interviewers were asking: “Would you rather have a gay son or a thot daughter?” And yes, that head scratching inquiry was meant to be provocative while highlighting societal prejudices and stereotypes . The term “thot” is an acronym for “that h** over there”—and no explanation is needed about why that's offensive and derogatory to call women.

But, in a moment where the internet actually knew to do better, women on TikTok took control and spun the term on its head, turning “thot” into “thought.” With that subtle shift, suddenly “thought daughters” were sharing on TikTok, seizing the opportunity to introduce themselves.

What Does ‘Thought Daughter’ Mean?

TikTokers who consider themselves "thought daughters" explain they have constant chatter in their brains, ruminate after every situation if they were perceived favorably, and find solace with darker choices in their media consumption that makes them feel seen. Think singers Fiona Apple and Lana del Rey, authors like Sylvia Plath, and books such as Wuthering Heights .  

Nicolle Pacifico, PhD, a clinical psychologist with Providence St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group specializing in pediatric behavioral health, believes that "thought daughter" is a new term for a long-standing phenomenon.

“These are the young women coming of age in a post-pandemic world often feeling misunderstood and socially isolated because people may not understand them as deeply as they would like or need,” Dr. Pacifico explains. “These girls tend to be deeply feeling, conscientious, and caring. They over-analyze every situation and may find themselves wondering whether they said something wrong, did something wrong, or their friends really like them.”  

The heaviness of constantly worrying about everything you say or do sounds cumbersome and overwhelming. But to try and understand the “thought daughter” mindset, Dr. Pacifico believes Taylor Swift's lyric from “Who's Afraid of Little Old Me” sums it up: “So tell me everything is not about me. But what if it is?” 

But the need to be understood is a core characteristic of “thought daughters." That's why many gravitate to books, music, poetry, and movies for fulfillment. It also helps to have people they can talk to.

“These girls have all these thoughts swirling around. They thrive when they find people in their lives who truly understand their deeply feeling selves,” Dr. Pacifico explains. “Talking to their parents, sister, or best friend can be helpful—especially if they're able to validate her emotions.”

How To Connect With a 'Thought Daughter'

The secret to connecting with “thought daughters” is giving them permission to feel without judging or criticizing.

Parents should ask questions, listen instead of lecture, and not catastrophize out of inappropriate parental protection or their own experiences or fears, suggests Don Grant, PhD, MA, MFA, DAC, SUDCC IV, National Advisor of Healthy Device Management at Newport Healthcare.

Remember, being emotional is sometimes just part of being human, but it can feel more intense for teens.

"The underdeveloped teen brain also tends to exaggerate emotion, drive uncontrollable impulsivity, and be overly and perpetually vulnerable to peer and now social media influence ,” explains Dr. Grant. “Many teens also do not yet have the skills to process and regulate their emotions and experiences as quickly as a more mature and experienced brain usually can.”

Overall, Dr. Pacifico’s advice to parents who love their “thought daughters” is to get really good at actively listening and validating their emotions . And most of all, know that “thought daughters” have a gift.

“Being an over-thinker is the same quality that gives them their superpower,” explains Dr. Pacifico. “They think about other people; they think about their needs and their wants; they think about how to say things in such a way as to not be hurtful. They think so much because they care that much. And that is a gift that this world could use more of.”

Nicolle Pacifico, PhD

They think so much because they care that much. And that is a gift that this world could use more of.

When To Worry About Your 'Thought Daughter'

It’s important for parents to understand that “thinking, analyzing, and reflecting” are not “bad” behaviors. According to Dr. Grant, “thought girl” behavior often generates fantastic ideas, maturation, healthy self-discovery, creation, and awareness. But if these traits are not historical and seem sudden, Dr. Grant cautions against blind acceptance.

“Instead, I would suggest non-judgmentally and supportively investigating what may have happened or changed to cause such a profound shift in personality and persona,” he explains. “Consider their current friend group, interests, hobbies, online engagement sources, and identify if any have significantly changed or been abandoned without apparent cause. Explore who and what they are currently reading and listening to, paying attention to any new influences.”

Do not challenge these choices, but rather look into them, with the goal of having an opportunity to maturely and intelligently discuss them.

Also, pay attention to their alone time. While that's not unique to “thought daughters” and a teen's need to be alone can increase as they seek independence, it sometimes may be concerning. Dr. Grant suggests intervening or seeking professional help when alone time becomes “unhealthy isolation," such as abandoning, rejecting, or neglecting friends, social activities and academic responsibilities, significant changes in sleep, hygiene, diet, or weight, or frequent mood swings. 

It's also important to note, overthinking can be a symptom of anxiety. If your child seems to be struggling with anxiety , it's a good idea to seek professional help.

The neurobiology of the emotional adolescent: From the inside out . Neurosci Biobehav Rev . 2016.

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