i am a phd student at university

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"Studying PhD at the university" or "studying PhD in the university"?

Which of these two sentences is correct:

I am studying PhD at the university. I am studying PhD in the university.

Should I use "at" or "in"? Or is there no difference?

word-choice
grammaticality
prepositions

2 Answers 2

In the above, both sentences are wrong. Inserting for a between studying and PhD would make sentence 1. correct. Sentence 2. would still be wrong, as in is the wrong preposition to use in this case:

I am studying for a PhD at the university. [Correct] I am studying for a PhD in the university. [Wrong]

This is not to say that the construction in the university is inherently wrong. There are certainly some contexts where this would be the correct form to use. For instance:

The monument is in the university. He is in the university.

It is not always easy to come up with a rule to determine the choice between at and in . Some cases are clear cut, as in my first round of examples below. Others are not always so, as in my second batch of examples, for speakers tend to leave a lot of things implied in speech and in writing. Hopefully, you will be able to infer these rules from my examples.

In academic contexts, use at when referring to the institution in general or to a specific one. Note, however, that one would use in for graduate school or college (largely American context). The construction in university is also correct (largely British):

I am studying for a PhD at the university. I'm at Oxford for a PhD. I'm studying for a PhD in graduate school. I'm currently in grad school for a PhD. I'm a sophomore in college. I'm in university for a PhD. I am studying for a PhD at Harvard. I am studying for a PhD at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. I'm a PhD student at ETH, Zurich. I'm at King's College, London. I'm a junior at Williams College.

I should point out that in college and in university are rather colloquial constructions, but that's why they're used in everyday situations! In more formal contexts, it would be better to use at college/ at university .

More examples using school , department and faculty both explicitly and implicitly. Generally, in is used for department , while at is used for faculty :

I'm studying for a PhD in the physics department. I'm in physics at MIT. He's a professor in the Department of Biology at Harvard. Are you the only assistant professor in this department? I'm a PhD student at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the University of Copenhagen. She's a professor at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. My son is a lecturer in criminology at the Faculty of Law. I'm a PhD student at the Cape Town University Faculty of Law. I am in the School of Engineering for a PhD. He's a professor in Biological Sciences at Cambridge. I am a PhD student at the Yale School of Architecture. I'm studying for a PhD in the law school at Harvard. I'm a PhD student at Harvard Law [School].

NB: I did not look up information from any grammar book. These are just examples I came up with based on my experiences as a native speaker, general observations of usage, and what sounds right!

2 (Although if they're at Oxford, they're studying for a DPhil rather than a PhD.) – dbmag9 Commented May 25, 2017 at 6:47
It's quite difficult to find a pattern in the above. Especially "at Harvard Law School" vs "in the law school at Harvard" : this would tend to show that at would be used when we give a name that is specific to the place? Your examples only make the difference for a name of place, which doesn't completely solve the issue. If the law school takes a unique name, would one say "at the Barack Obama Law School"? And then would you add "at Harvard", or rather "in Harvard [University]", and would it be not to duplicate the "at" or because it is this specific named department/school which is "in" it? – Joce Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 16:56

In the UK we'd be most likely to say:

I am studying for a PhD at the university.

Furthermore, the the would be dropped if we weren't emphasising a specific university.

" In the university" would usually be understood to mean "physically inside the university buildings".

1 United States usage is precisely the same, though we generally lack "at university"...we would say "at college". – Chris B. Behrens Commented Dec 23, 2010 at 15:37

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged word-choice grammaticality prepositions at-in or ask your own question .

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PhD Candidate vs Student: What’s the Difference?

Many people use the terms “PhD student” and “PhD candidate” interchangeably. However, these terms actually mean something quite different, including a different status level at universities.

We’re here to define the differences between a PhD candidate vs student, as well as other essential information, before you continue your educational journey.

Table of Contents

What I s a PhD student?

A doctoral student is anyone who is enrolled in a doctorate degree, also referred to as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program. PhD students are typically required to complete a certain number of course credits and sit qualifying exams. Next, they can move on to conduct research and present it in the form of a dissertation.

A PhD is centered around self-directed research and possibly teaching/running tutorials, but they typically also involve a substantial amount of coursework and require attending classes, either online or in person.

Unlike candidates, PhD students are in the process of completing the required coursework for the degree. They haven’t passed the relevant qualifying exams yet.

What Is a PhD Candidate?

A PhD candidate has completed the required coursework and passed the qualifying exams for their doctorate program. They are currently working on their dissertation.

Most PhD students need to go through an application process and show they meet certain requirements such as a relevant master’s degree . To become a PhD candidate, doctoral students need to pass an internal application process, typically involving a set of exams.

This stage involves significant research usually in innovative areas and incorporating this into a dissertation (this stage is sometimes referred to as “all but dissertation” [ABD]), as they’ve completed all other aspects of the program and satisfied these requirements. To complete their doctoral journey, a PhD candidate must defend their dissertation. Once they’ve successfully done this, they will be awarded their degree and move from PhD candidate to doctor of their chosen field.

PhD Candidate vs Student: 6 Key Differences

view of students in lecture hall from above

There are a number of key differences between a PhD student vs PhD candidate, from their status to the structure and nature of study.

Note: Some universities have recently started adopting hybrid approaches (where there is no clear difference between PhD students and PhD candidates). These programs don’t involve any qualifying exams and students typically begin the dissertation as part of their coursework. Most schools, however, continue with the traditional distinction between a PhD candidate and PhD student.

1. Program Stage

A PhD student could be at any stage of the doctoral program . Coursework still needs to be completed and qualifying exams must be passed. Students may be in the initial stage of the program or about to complete the coursework (before beginning their research).

On the other hand, a PhD candidate has completed all coursework and has at least started their research. They may have completed their dissertation and are preparing to defend it.

2. Research Progress

A PhD student may not have selected their research topic or settled on a particular research question. A candidate’s research is in progress and they should already have a clear research question.

3. Relationship with Advisors

A PhD student may not yet have an advisor. A candidate has an established working relationship with their advisor and works closely with them to complete their research and dissertation.

4. Level of Support

Although they work closely with an advisor, a PhD candidate is generally expected to work more independently than a student enrolled in a doctoral student. Once candidates reach this stage of their doctorate, they typically won’t receive as much direction or supervision.

5. Flexibility and Structure

Understandably, PhD candidates have more freedom and flexibility in their work. Most candidates choose their area of research, as well as the methods used to conduct their work. As part of their coursework, PhD students usually have to work within a set structure (e.g., completing core subjects, meeting deadlines).

Being a PhD candidate comes with a certain degree of status. If they’ve demonstrated a degree of expertise through completing qualifying exams, candidates can put the letters PhD(c) after their name.

Tips for PhD Candidates

view of library stacks on all three sides

A PhD is an advanced degree designed to demonstrate expertise in a given field, as well as high-level skills and abilities in various areas (including research and writing). As such, earning a doctorate can be a challenging process.

The following tips for doctoral candidates will help you put your best foot forward and set yourself up for success.

Stay Organized

Because PhD candidates have to balance many competing priorities, organization is essential. Using organizational tools such as calendars, note-taking apps , and project management software can help you keep track of deadlines and meet your targets.

Focus on Your Research

PhD candidates likely have busy schedules with plenty of demands (such as teaching commitments and crafting a dissertation). As it’s the backbone of any doctoral program, be sure to prioritize this part of your work and monitor progress to stay on track.

Actively Seek Out Feedback

Because PhD candidates often work independently, there’s a risk of feeling isolated. Ask your advisors, mentors, and fellow candidates for feedback and advice. This will help ensure that you’re considering all aspects of your research question and multiple solutions, rather than focusing too intensely on a single area.

Take Advantage of Networking Opportunities

Networking is one of the biggest benefits for PhD candidates, so take full advantage of these events. Use this time to build a strong network of professors, advisors, fellow candidates, and other professionals you meet at conferences and events.

Take Care of Yourself

A PhD program can be taxing, and it’s easy for your mental and physical health to take a backseat. Make sure you exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep . Remember: Resting and recharging is crucial for working on your dissertation.

How Long Is a Typical PhD Candidacy?

view of ivy league building with autumn leaves

Most PhD students require 1-2 years to complete their coursework and pass their qualifying exams. However, the length of a PhD candidacy is much more open. In most cases, programs take between two and five years, depending on:

the complexity of the field of research
the candidate’s other commitments, such as teaching load
other abilities, such as a candidate’s level of organization.

Once a PhD candidate has completed their dissertation, they have to defend it successfully before a panel of faculty members before they can earn their doctorate degree. This process of defending a PhD dissertation can take several months.

Some universities specify a maximum length for PhD candidacy duration. For example, Carnegie Mellon University limits this to six years .

Benefits of Being a PhD Candidate

Being a PhD candidate can be rewarding for several reasons:

1. Research Opportunities

You’ll be exposed to vast research opportunities in your field. You may contribute to valuable discoveries while developing advanced knowledge and skills.

2. Networking

Through your PhD candidacy, you’ll also be in a great position to build gain a stronger network of fellow professionals.

3. Critical Thinking

A PhD candidacy can help you develop high intellectual independence and critical thinking skills.

4. Career Opportunitie s

A PhD is an advanced degree that allows you to build a rewarding career in the academic, government, and private sectors. PhD-holders can also expect to earn more than other graduates and are most likely to find a job.

5. Salaries

According to Northeastern University , professionals with a doctorate degree earn an average annual salary of $99,290 on average (and much more for the highest-paid PhDs ) and have a 1.5% unemployment rate. For master’s degree holders, the average annual salary is $81,867 average annual salary and a 2.6% unemployment rate.

6. Personal Fulfillment

Being a PhD candidate can help you pursue your passions. This advanced qualification will allow you to become a specialist in your chosen field, allowing you to hone in on the exact subject thatl fulfills you the most.

Qualifying Exams to Become a PhD Candidate

While requirements vary by program, to become a PhD candidate, most students will need to pass a set of exams. These will test students’ knowledge in the field, measure their research skills, and ensure they’re ready to start their dissertation research.

Traditionally, qualifying exams for PhD candidates involved a written test and an oral exam. These will cover a range of topics related to your field of study, with the oral component designed to demonstrate your level of understanding.

Some universities have recently started to issue doctoral students with a set of questions and have them submit the answers within a set timeframe (usually around two weeks). Other schools ask prospective doctoral candidates to submit a dissertation proposal instead of an exam.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a phd candidate be called a doctor.

In most cases, a doctoral candidate cannot be called a doctor until after they successfully defend their dissertation and receive their doctorate.

Can I Put ‘PhD Candidate’ after My Name?

Once you’ve passed qualifying exams and embarked on dissertation research, you’re technically entitled to put “PhD candidate” or “PhD (c)” after your name. However, this is uncommon and not always recommended. It is generally more acceptable to mention that you are pursuing a doctorate (along with the field of research and university) or that you expect to complete your PhD in a certain year (on your CV and online profiles).

How Long Can You Be a PhD Candidate?

There isn’t a set length of time that a person can be a PhD candidate. The length of candidacy depends on a range of factors, including the subject of research and program requirements. Most PhD candidates complete this phase in around 3-5 years (where some university programs have set limits).

Do PhD Students Take Classes?

Yes, most PhD students must take classes and complete coursework as part of the first 1-2 years of their doctorate program. Once they’ve completed this coursework and passed qualifying exams, they move on to work on their research dissertation. At this stage, they’ll be considered a PhD candidate.

Key Takeaways

Now that you know the differences between PhD candidates vs. students, you’ve got a deeper understanding of how to obtain a doctorate. However you slice it, both will help you build your knowledge and skills to become an expert in your field.

However the program is structured, a PhD is a highly valuable degree that allows you to become a high-level professional and build a successful career.

If you know a PhD candidate who’s celebrating their accomplishments soon? Take a look at this guide to the best PhD graduation gifts .

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What is the Difference Between a PhD Candidate and a PhD Student?

Pursuing a doctoral degree is a significant academic achievement that requires years of dedicated study, research, and intellectual rigour. Within the realm of doctoral studies, the terms ‘PhD candidate’ and ‘PhD student’ are commonly used, often interchangeably. However, a closer examination reveals that there are nuanced differences between these two designations. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for both prospective doctoral students and those seeking to comprehend the various stages of the doctoral journey.

In this article, we delve into the disparity between a PhD candidate and a PhD student, shedding light on the roles, responsibilities, and progression associated with each stage. We explore the specific criteria that differentiate a student from a candidate and the various milestones marking the transition. Additionally, we delve into the responsibilities and expectations that accompany each designation, illuminating the unique experiences and commitments faced by PhD candidates and students.

Furthermore, we acknowledge the variability in terminology across international boundaries, academic institutions, and disciplinary fields, providing insights into how different contexts might influence the usage of these terms. By the end, readers will have a comprehensive understanding of the contrasting aspects between a PhD candidate and a PhD student, facilitating informed conversations and a deeper appreciation for the intricate nature of doctoral education.

Introduction

Who is a phd student, when phd student attains status of phd candidate, variation in terminology.

Pursuing a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree involves conducting original research in a specific field of study, making a significant contribution to knowledge, and demonstrating a high level of expertise. It is the highest academic qualification one can attain and is highly valued in academia, research institutions, and certain industries. A PhD signifies a deep understanding of a subject area, advanced analytical and critical thinking skills, and the ability to conduct independent research.

While the terms “PhD candidate” and “PhD student” are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences between the two.

A PhD student typically refers to an individual who has been admitted to a doctoral program, actively engaging in coursework and other program requirements. They are in the early stages of their doctoral journey and are working towards completing the necessary academic components of their degree. On the other hand, a PhD candidate is typically someone who has progressed beyond the coursework stage and has advanced to the research phase of their program. They have usually completed comprehensive exams, passed a research proposal defense, and are actively engaged in independent research for their dissertation or thesis.

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the distinction between a PhD candidate and a PhD student. By exploring the criteria, milestones, and responsibilities associated with each designation, this article aims to clarify the unique experiences and progression of doctoral students. It also seeks to address the varying terminology used across different contexts and disciplines, enabling readers to grasp the intricacies of the doctoral journey and fostering informed discussions around this topic.

Through this article, readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of the journey from being a PhD student to becoming a PhD candidate and the distinct roles and responsibilities associated with each stage.

A PhD student is an individual who has been admitted to a doctoral program and is actively engaged in pursuing their doctoral studies. They are at the initial stages of their doctoral journey, seeking to expand their knowledge, skills, and expertise in a specific field of study. PhD students play a vital role in academic research communities as they contribute to the generation of new knowledge and the advancement of their discipline.

PhD students are required to complete a set of coursework specific to their field of study. These courses are designed to provide a foundation in the discipline, enhance research skills, and broaden the student’s understanding of relevant theories and methodologies. Coursework may include seminars, advanced classes, and specialized topics. The specific coursework requirements can vary between programs and disciplines.

Example: Imagine a student named Alex who has just been accepted into a doctoral program in psychology. At this stage, Alex is considered a PhD student as they begin taking relevant coursework, attending seminars, and collaborating with faculty members. They are laying the foundation for their research and acquiring the necessary knowledge in their field.

Who is a PhD Candidate?

Advancement from being a PhD student to a PhD candidate typically involves meeting specific requirements set by the doctoral program. These requirements may vary depending on the institution and field of study but often include successful completion of coursework, exams, and other program-specific milestones.

One of the primary requirements for transitioning to a PhD candidate is the successful completion of coursework and exams. PhD students are expected to complete a designated set of courses, which provide a broad understanding of their field and research methodologies. They are also required to pass comprehensive exams, which assess their comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their research area.

As part of the transition to becoming a PhD candidate, students typically prepare and defend a research proposal. The research proposal outlines the scope, objectives, methodology, and significance of the intended research. The proposal defense may involve presenting the proposal to a committee of faculty members, who evaluate its feasibility, rigour, and contribution to the field. Additionally, PhD students often have to pass comprehensive exams, which test their knowledge of their research area and related disciplines.

If you are not familiar with writing PhD proposal and making PhD proposal presentation, then visit my articles on “ How to Write PhD Proposal Presentation to the University ” and ” How to Make a PhD Proposal Presentation to the University Panel” . These articles will guide you through the process of preparation and presentation of PhD proposal to the University panel.

Upon successful completion of the requirements, PhD students are often granted candidacy status. Advancement to candidacy signifies that the student has demonstrated the necessary knowledge, skills, and potential to conduct independent research and contribute to their field. This status allows students to focus more exclusively on their research and dissertation work.

Once students become PhD candidates, there is a shift towards an increased emphasis on independent research. They are expected to dedicate a significant portion of their time and effort to conducting original research, collecting data, analyzing results, and making novel contributions to their field. The focus is primarily on their dissertation or thesis work, which serves as the culmination of their doctoral studies.

Example: Let’s consider a PhD student named Alex in the field of computer science. After completing their coursework and passing comprehensive exams, Alex develops a research proposal outlining their intention to investigate the applications of machine learning in cybersecurity. They present the proposal to a committee of faculty members, who assess the feasibility and potential impact of the research.

Alex successfully defends their research proposal and is granted candidacy status, transitioning from a PhD student to a PhD candidate. With candidacy status, Alex’s focus shifts towards conducting independent research. They spend considerable time collecting and analyzing cybersecurity datasets, developing and refining machine learning algorithms, and testing their effectiveness in detecting and preventing cyber threats.

As a PhD candidate, Alex works closely with their advisor, regularly discussing research progress, seeking guidance, and receiving feedback. They collaborate with other researchers in the field, attend conferences to present their findings and contribute to the scholarly community through publications. The focus is now on producing an original and significant contribution to the field of computer science through their dissertation.

The transition to PhD candidacy marks a critical stage in the doctoral journey, as it signifies the ability to independently drive research and make scholarly contributions. PhD candidates like Alex are immersed in the world of research, expanding knowledge, and pushing the boundaries of their field.

Terminology related to PhD candidates and PhD students can vary internationally and among different academic institutions. In some countries, the terms “PhD candidate” and “PhD student” may be used interchangeably, while in others, there may be specific distinctions. For example, in the United States, “PhD student” is commonly used, while in the United Kingdom, “PhD candidate” is more frequently employed. Additionally, different universities or institutions may have their own terminology preferences, which can create further variation.

Terminology can also vary based on the disciplinary field of study. Different academic disciplines have their own conventions and terminology for referring to individuals pursuing a doctoral degree. For instance, in the sciences, one might encounter terms like “graduate researcher” or “doctoral candidate.” In the humanities and social sciences, the terms “PhD candidate” and “PhD student” are often used. This variation reflects the specific linguistic and cultural norms within different academic domains.

In Canada, for instance, doctoral students are commonly referred to as “PhD candidates,” regardless of their stage in the program. In Australia, “PhD candidate” is the preferred term for those who have completed the required coursework and have advanced to the research phase. In contrast, in the United States, “PhD student” is frequently used to refer to individuals at all stages of their doctoral studies.

Disciplinary variations can also be observed. In engineering, individuals pursuing a doctoral degree are often referred to as “PhD students” or “doctoral students.” In contrast, in the field of education, the term “PhD candidate” is commonly used to denote those who have advanced to the research and dissertation stage.

It is important to note that these examples represent general trends, and there can still be variation within specific institutions and programs. The usage of terminology can evolve over time and may be influenced by regional or institutional preferences.

The distinction between a PhD candidate and a PhD student holds significant importance in the realm of doctoral education.

While these terms are often used interchangeably, they represent different stages and responsibilities within the doctoral journey. A PhD student is in the initial stages of their program, actively engaging in coursework, research, and academic requirements.

On the other hand, a PhD candidate has advanced beyond coursework, passed comprehensive exams, and is focused primarily on independent research and the completion of their dissertation.

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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.

6 Things I Learned from Being in a PhD Program

Being in a doctoral program brings its own share of challenges and rewards. Currently, I have completed almost two years in my PhD program. Looking back on my progress, I can proudly say that every challenge I encountered has helped me grow both academically and non-academically.

Here are six valuable lessons I learned from being in a PhD program and am still applying to my life:

Learn to Trust Yourself

This might sound simple, but for many people (especially graduate students), trusting yourself can be hard to do. There are moments where you might question your own capabilities and feel you are not up to par, but this is completely normal. Try to avoid dwelling on negative thoughts for long periods of time. The key in getting through a PhD program is to stay focused on your goals and to work on them every day. Making any kind of progress is crucial to getting things done. One thing that I do every day is write down what I am grateful for and what I want to achieve by the end of the day. By doing this, I feel more positive, and that positivity is reflected in everything I do.

Listen to Your Advisor

I admit I was extremely scared and felt vulnerable when I met my advisor for the first time. I was scared because I did not know what I had gotten myself into, and I felt inferior because my advisor, Dr. Middlestadt, is an expert in what she does. My field of study is health behavior and although I have a master’s degree in nutritional sciences, I quickly came to the realization that even though these two fields were related, they had different approaches. One of the things I love about doing my PhD is having a mentor who pushes me to my limits and makes me think critically when taking appropriate actions that are essential to my progress as a student.

Start Your Research as Early as You Can

After two months of being in the PhD program, I remember sitting in my apartment and asking myself, “Where should I start?” The words of my advisor immediately came to my mind: “Just start and try!” I believe that was a turning point in my life when I finally realized that any kind of research study is not perfect, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Even if the idea might seem abstract in your mind, work on it, develop the idea, and implement it. I began collecting pilot data in the spring of 2016 and that summer, I was confident enough to go into the field and work on my study. I am currently analyzing my data and planning to take my qualifying exams in the next few months.

Engage in Opportunities Outside of Your School

Do not limit your knowledge to the realm of the school you are studying at and volunteer in your community . It took some time for me to network outside of school, but I eventually found the right opportunities. Talking to my professors and getting advice from the Office of Career Services helped me tremendously in networking with other people. Putting your knowledge and skills to practice in a real-world setting is a must in the health behavior field. Understanding health issues from the public’s perspective is eye-opening. Moreover, I was able to work with a multi-disciplinary team and learn from the rich experiences of my team members.

Stay in Touch With Friends and Family

I teach stress prevention to college students and one of the things I regularly preach and apply to my life is to nurture the relationships that matter. As an international student, no matter how busy I am, I always dedicate time to talk to my parents at least one to two hours every week. I am constantly in contact with my siblings and my best friend, Natacha. These people may be far in terms of distance, but not by heart. Aside from my family, I have a few close friends in Bloomington who I meet with and talk to on a regular basis. For example, my dear friend Debbie gives me the same kind of advice my mom would, and if I need help or find myself in a difficult situation, I know I can reach out to her.

Find and Maintain Hobbies you Enjoy

People who live in Bloomington can vouch for the harsh winter. One of the things I love doing is knitting and I keep myself occupied with other projects to stay warm. I try to exercise as much as I can and I enjoy gardening in the summer. I also spend a significant portion of my time cooking meals that remind me of my home country and my family. Being far from your country does not mean you cannot enjoy its flavors and spices!

One of the most important decisions I made in my life was to pursue my PhD and I do not regret it. I have had a productive journey and I know the skills and knowledge I am acquiring now will remain with me for the rest of my life. Being a doctoral student is a lot of hard work, but it is totally worth it!

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What is a PhD? Advice for PhD students

How long does it take to get a doctorate degree how do you get into grad school are you qualified to do a phd answers to these questions and more.

What is a PhD?

A PhD, which stands for “doctor of philosophy”, is the most advanced academic degree. It’s earned through extensive research on a specific topic, demonstrating expertise and contributing new knowledge to the field.

What does “PhD” mean?

The term “PhD” is often used as a synonym for any doctoral-level qualification. Doctorate degrees can often be split into two categories: MPhil and PhD.

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An MPhil is similar to a PhD as it includes a research element (which is usually shorter and less in-depth than a PhD thesis, and often more akin to a dissertation undertaken at undergraduate or master’s level).

MPhil students focus more on interpreting existing knowledge and theory and critically evaluating other people’s work rather than producing their own research. The precise nature and definition of an MPhil can vary among institutions and countries.

A PhD, meanwhile, follows a more widely known and traditional route and requires students, often referred to as “candidates”, to produce their own work and research on a new area or topic to a high academic standard.

PhD requirements vary significantly among countries and institutions. The PhD, once completed, grants the successful candidate the title of “doctor of philosophy”, also called PhD or DPhil.

What is a professional doctorate?

A professional doctorate is a kind of degree that helps people become experts in their fields. Instead of focusing mainly on theory and research like a regular PhD, a professional doctorate is all about practical skills and knowledge.

This kind of doctorate is great for students who want to get better at their jobs in areas like teaching, healthcare, business, law or psychology. The courses and projects in these programmes are designed to tackle real problems you might face at work.

For example, you might have heard of the doctor of education (EdD), doctor of business administration (DBA), doctor of psychology (PsyD) or doctor of nursing practice (DNP). These programmes combine learning, hands-on projects and sometimes a thesis paper or essay to show you’re skilled at solving on-the-job challenges.

How long does it take to study a PhD?

The time required to complete a PhD can vary significantly based on several factors. Generally, a full-time PhD programme takes around three to six years to finish. However, it’s important to take into account individual circumstances and the nature of the research involved.

1. Full-time vs. part-time: If you’re studying full-time, dedicating most of your time to your studies, it usually takes about three to four years to complete a PhD. However, studying part-time while managing other commitments might extend the duration. Part-time PhDs can take around six to eight years, and sometimes even longer.

2. Nature of research: The complexity of your research proposal can influence the time required. Certain research questions may involve intricate experiments, extensive data collection or in-depth analysis, potentially leading to a longer completion timeline.

3. Field of study: The subject area you’re researching can also affect the necessary time. Some fields, such as sciences or engineering, might involve more hands-on work, while theoretical subjects might require more time for literature review and analysis.

4. Supervision and support: The guidance and availability of your academic supervisor can affect the pace of your research progress. Regular meetings and effective communication can help keep your studies on track.

5. Thesis writing: While the research phase is crucial, the stage of writing your thesis is equally significant. Organising and presenting your research findings in a clear and cohesive manner can take several months.

6. External commitments: Personal commitments, such as work, family or health-related factors, can influence your study time. Some students need to balance these alongside their PhD studies, potentially extending the duration.

7. External Funding: The availability of funding can also affect your study duration. Some funding might be linked to specific project timelines or research objectives.

So, although a PhD usually takes between three and six years of full-time study, with potential variations based on research complexity, enrolment as part-time or full-time, field of study and personal circumstances. It’s vital to have a realistic understanding of these factors when planning your PhD journey.

How long is a PhD in the UK?

In the UK, the length of a PhD programme typically ranges from three to four years of full-time study. As explained above, there are many factors to consider.

How long is a PhD in the US?

Similarly to the UK, in the United States, the duration of a PhD programme can vary widely depending on the field of study, research topic and individual circumstances. On average, a full-time PhD programme in the US typically takes between five and six years to complete.

Why does it take longer to study a PhD in the US?

PhD programmes generally take longer to complete in the US than in the UK due to various factors in the education systems and programme structures of each country:

1. Programme structure: UK PhD programmes often emphasise early, focused research from the first year, leading to shorter completion times. In contrast, US programmes commonly include more initial coursework in your first and second year and broader foundational training, which can extend the overall duration.

2. Course work requirements: Many US PhD programmes require a lot of course work, which can lengthen the time needed to finish. UK programmes tend to have fewer or no course work demands, allowing students to concentrate primarily on research skills.

3. Research funding: In the UK, PhD funding is often awarded with specific timeframes in mind, motivating completion of the research degree in the agreed duration. In the US, funding approaches can vary, requiring students to secure funding from multiple sources, potentially affecting their progress and completion time.

4. Teaching responsibilities: Some US PhD students take on teaching roles as part of their funding, dividing their time and potentially prolonging their studies.

5. Research approach: Differences in research methodologies and project scopes can affect the time needed for data collection, experimentation and analysis.

6. Academic culture: The US education system values a well-rounded education, including coursework and comprehensive exams. This can extend the time before full-time research begins. UK PhD programmes often prioritise independent research early on.

7. Part-time and work commitments: US PhD candidates might have more flexibility for part-time work or other commitments, which can affect research progress.

8. Dissertation requirements: US PhD programmes generally include a longer and more comprehensive dissertation, involving more chapters and a broader exploration of the research topic.

These variations in programme structures, funding models and academic cultures contribute to the differing completion times between the two countries.

What qualifications do you need for a PhD?

To be eligible for a PhD programme, certain educational qualifications are generally expected by universities. These qualifications serve as indicators of your readiness to engage in advanced research and contribute to the academic community.

First, an undergraduate or bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is typically the most common requirement. This degree provides you with a foundational understanding of the subject and introduces you to basic research methodologies. It serves as a starting point for your academic journey.

Do you need a master’s degree to get into a PhD programme?

In addition to an undergraduate degree, many PhD programmes also require candidates to hold postgraduate or master’s degrees, often in fields related to the intended PhD research. A master’s degree offers a deeper exploration of the subject matter and enhances your research skills. Possessing a master’s degree signifies a higher level of expertise and specialisation.

The combination of both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees demonstrates a solid academic background. This background is crucial before you engage in doctoral study because pursuing a PhD involves more than just knowledge; it requires advanced research abilities, critical thinking and the capacity to provide an original contribution and new insights into the chosen field of study.

While these qualifications are usually requested, there are exceptions. Some institutions offer direct-entry programmes that encompass bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in a streamlined structure. This approach is often seen in scientific and engineering disciplines rather than humanities.

In exceptional cases, outstanding performance during undergraduate studies, coupled with a well-defined research proposal, might lead to direct entry into a PhD programme without requiring a master’s degree.

Admission requirements can vary between universities and programmes. Some institutions might have more flexible prerequisites, while others could have more stringent criteria. Make sure that you thoroughly research all admission requirements of the PhD programmes you’re interested in to ensure you provide the right information.

Are PhD entry requirements similar in other countries?

PhD entry requirements in Canada and Australia can be somewhat similar to those in the UK and the US, but there are also some differences. Just like in the UK and the US, having a bachelor’s degree followed by a master’s degree is a common way to qualify for a PhD in Canada and Australia. However, the exact rules can vary, such as how much research experience you need or the grades you should have.

In Canada and Australia, as in the UK and the US, international students usually need to show their English language skills through tests like IELTS or TOEFL. And, like in other places, you might need to give a research proposal to explain what you want to study for your PhD.

But remember, even though there are some similarities, each country has its own rules.

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How much does it cost to study a PhD?

The cost of pursuing a PhD can vary significantly between international and home (domestic) students, and it depends on the country, university and programme you choose.

United Kingdom (UK)

Home students in the UK often pay lower tuition fees compared with international students. Home students might also have access to government funding or subsidised tuition rates.

International students typically pay higher tuition fees, which can vary widely depending on the university and programme. Fees can range from around £10,000 to £25,000 or more per year.

United States (US)

PhD programme costs in the US can be quite high, especially for international students. Public universities often have lower tuition rates for in-state residents compared with out-of-state residents and international students.

Private universities in the US generally have higher tuition fees, and international students might be charged higher rates than domestic students.

Canadian universities often charge higher tuition fees for international students compared with domestic students.

Some universities offer funding packages that include tuition waivers and stipends for both domestic and international doctoral students.

In Australia, domestic students (Australian citizens and permanent residents) usually pay lower tuition fees than international students.

International students in Australia might have higher tuition fees, and costs can vary based on the university and programme.

Apart from tuition fees, other aspects play a role in the overall financial consideration:

PhD studentship: Many universities offer PhD studentships that provide financial support to research students, covering both tuition fees and a stipend for living expenses.

Stipend and housing: Stipends are designed to cover living expenses. Stipend amounts can vary depending on the university and location. If you’re studying in London in the UK, stipends might be higher to account for the higher living costs in the city. Some universities also offer subsidised or affordable housing options for doctoral students.

Tuition and stipend packages: Some PhD programmes provide funding packages that include both tuition waivers and stipends. These packages are to help relieve the financial burden on students during their doctoral studies.

Research the financial support options provided by the universities you’re interested in to make an informed decision about the cost of your PhD journey.

What funding options are available for PhD candidates?

PhD candidates have various funding options available to support their studies and research journeys. Some of these options include:

PhD scholarships: Scholarships are a common form of financial aid for PhD candidates. They are awarded based on academic merit, research potential or other specific criteria. Scholarships can cover tuition fees and provide a stipend for living expenses.

Bursaries: Bursaries are another form of financial assistance offered to students, including PhD candidates, based on financial need. They can help cover tuition fees or provide additional financial support.

In the UK, specific funding options are available:

Regional consortium: Some regions have research consortiums that offer funding opportunities for doctoral candidates. These collaborations can provide financial support for research projects aligned with specific regional needs.

UK research institute: Research councils in the UK often offer stipends to PhD candidates. These stipends cover living expenses and support research work.

University-based studentship: Many UK universities offer studentships. You can read more about these above.

In the USA, there are also funding options available:

Research assistantships (RAs): Many universities offer research assistantships where PhD candidates work on research projects under the guidance of faculty members. In exchange, they receive stipends and often have their tuition waived.

Teaching assistantships (TA): Teaching assistantships involve assisting professors in teaching undergraduate courses. In return, PhD candidates receive stipends and sometimes tuition remission.

Fellowships: Fellowships are competitive awards that provide financial support for PhD candidates. They can come from universities, government agencies, private foundations and other institutions. Fellowships can cover tuition, provide stipends and offer research or travel funds.

Graduate assistantships: Graduate assistantships include a range of roles, from research and teaching to administrative support. These positions often come with stipends and sometimes include tuition benefits.

External grants and fellowships: PhD candidates can apply for grants and fellowships from external organisations and foundations that support research careers in specific fields. Examples include the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Fulbright Programme.

Employer sponsorship: In some cases, employers might sponsor employees to pursue PhDs, especially if the research aligns with the company’s interests.

You can read about the current available scholarships for international students of all education levels on our website .

What does a PhD Involve?

How does a PhD work?

A PhD includes thorough academic research and significant contributions to your chosen field of study. The timeline for completing a PhD can significantly vary based on the country, college or university you attend and the specific subject you study.

The duration of a PhD programme can vary based on factors such as the institution’s requirements and the academic discipline you’re pursuing. For instance, the timeline for a PhD in a science-related field might differ from that of a humanities discipline.

UK PhD timeline example

Looking at a typical PhD degree in a London higher education institution, we can consider this example timeline.

In the initial year of your PhD, you’ll collaborate closely with your designated academic supervisor. This collaboration involves refining and solidifying your research proposal, which lays the foundation for your entire doctoral journey.

This is also the time to establish a comprehensive plan, complete with well-defined milestones and deadlines. A crucial aspect of this year is conducting an extensive literature review, immersing yourself in existing academic works to understand the landscape of your chosen research area. It’s important to make sure that your research idea is original and distinct from prior studies.

As you begin the second year, you’ll actively collect data and gather information related to your research topic. Simultaneously, you’ll initiate the process of crafting your thesis. This involves combining your research findings and analysis into sections of your thesis document.

This is also the phase where you might have opportunities to share your research insights at academic meetings, conferences or workshops. Depending on the programme, you might even engage in teaching activities. Some PhD candidates also begin contributing to academic journals or books, showcasing their findings to a broader audience.

The third year of a PhD programme often marks the final stage of your research efforts. This is when you dedicate substantial time to writing and finalising your complete thesis. Once your thesis is completed to the highest standard, you’ll submit it for thorough evaluation.

A significant milestone in the third year is the viva voce, an oral examination where you’ll defend your thesis before a panel of experts in your field. The viva voce is an opportunity to showcase your deep understanding of your research and defend your findings.

Why should you do a PhD?

For many people, acquiring a doctorate degree is the pinnacle of academic achievement, the culmination of years of commitment to higher education.

However, the act of pursuing a PhD can be a complex, frustrating, expensive and time-consuming exercise. But with the right preparation, some sound advice and a thorough understanding of the task at hand, your years as a doctoral student can be some of the most rewarding of your life.

People choose to work towards a doctorate for many reasons. If you are looking to pursue an academic position, such as university lecturer or researcher, then a PhD is usually required.

Many people obtain a PhD as part of a partnership with an employer, particularly in scientific fields such as engineering, where their research can prove useful for companies.

In some cases, however, PhDs are simply down to an individual’s love of a subject and their desire to learn more about their field.

What are some benefits of studying a PhD?

Pursuing a PhD can have many benefits that extend beyond academic achievement, encompassing personal growth, professional advancement and meaningful contributions to knowledge.

One of the most notable benefits of a PhD is the potential for tenure in academia. Attaining tenure provides a level of job security that allows you to delve into long-term research projects and make enduring contributions to your field. It signifies a stage where you can explore innovative ideas and pursue in-depth research, fostering your academic legacy.

While not obligatory, the opportunity to collaborate on research projects with your supervisor is another valuable aspect of a PhD pursuit. These collaborations might even come with financial compensation, offering real-world experience, skill development and practical applications of your research. Engaging in such collaborations can enrich your research portfolio and refine your research methodologies.

A pivotal aspect of a PhD journey is the chance to publish your original research findings. By disseminating your work in academic journals or presenting it at conferences, you contribute to the expansion of knowledge within your field. These publications establish your expertise and reputation among peers and researchers worldwide, leaving a lasting impact.

The pursuit of a PhD can provide a unique platform to build a diverse network of colleagues, mentors and collaborators. Engaging with fellow researchers, attending conferences and participating in academic events offer opportunities to make valuable connections. This network can lead to collaborations, expose you to a spectrum of perspectives and pave the way for future research endeavours.

What is a PhD thesis? And what is a PhD viva?

A PhD thesis will be produced with help from an academic supervisor, usually one with expertise in your particular field of study. This thesis is the backbone of a PhD, and is the candidate’s opportunity to communicate their original research to others in their field (and a wider audience). PhD students also have to explain their research project and defend their thesis in front of a panel of academics. This part of the process is often the most challenging, since writing a thesis is a major part of many undergraduate or master’s degrees, but having to defend it from criticism in real time is arguably more daunting. This questioning is known as a “viva”, and examiners will pay particular attention to a PhD’s weaknesses either in terms of methodology or findings. Candidates will be expected to have a strong understanding of their subject areas and be able to justify specific elements of their research quickly and succinctly.

In rare cases, students going for a PhD may instead be awarded an MPhil if the academic standard of their work is not considered fully up to par but still strong enough to be deserving of a qualification.

Can you do a PhD part time?

Many PhD and MPhil candidates choose to pursue their qualification part time, in order to allow time to work and earn while studying. This is especially true of older students, who might be returning to academia after working for a few years.

When applying, you should always speak to the admissions team at your university to ensure this is possible and then continue to work with your supervisor to balance all your commitments.

Can I do a PhD through distance learning?

This is something else that you will need to check with your university. Some institutions offer this option, depending on the nature of your research.

You will need to be clear how many times you will need to travel to your university to meet with your supervisor throughout your PhD.

Your PhD supervisor

Choosing the right PhD supervisor is essential if you want to get the most out of your PhD. Do your research into the faculty at the institution and ensure that you meet with your proposed supervisor (either virtually or in person) before fully committing.

You need to know that not only do they have the right expertise and understanding of your research but also that your personalities won’t clash throughout your PhD.

Remember, to complete your PhD, you will need a strong support network in place, and your supervisor is a key part of that network.

Coping with PhD stress

If you do decide to embark on a doctorate, you may well encounter stress and anxiety. The work involved is often carried out alone, the hours can be long and many students can suffer from the pressure they feel is on their shoulders.

Ensuring that you check in regularly with your emotions and your workload is crucial to avoid burnout. If you have other commitments, such as a job or a family, then learning to balance these can feel overwhelming at times.

Give yourself regular breaks, speak to your supervisor and ensure that you know what university resources and support systems are available to you in case you need to access them.

Post-doctorate: what happens after you finish your PhD?

Many PhD graduates pursue a career in academia, while others will work in industry. Some might take time out, if they can afford to, to recover from the efforts of PhD study.

Whatever you choose to do, undertaking a PhD is a huge task that can open up a range of doors professionally. Just remember to take some time out to celebrate your achievement.

How does a PhD affect salary and earning potential?

How much does a professor with a PhD make a year?

Professors with PhDs can earn different amounts depending on where they work and their experience. In the UK, a professor might make around £50,000 to £100,000 or more each year. In the US, it's between about $60,000 and $200,000 or even higher. The exact salary depends on things like the place they work, if they have tenure, and what they teach.

How much does a PhD add to salary?

Having a PhD can make your salary higher than if you had a lower degree. But exactly how much more you earn can change. On average, people with PhDs earn more than those with bachelor’s or master’s degrees. The increase in salary is influenced by many things, such as the job you do, where you work and what field you’re in.

In fields such as research, healthcare, technology and finance, your knowledge and skills from your PhD can potentially help you secure a higher salary position.

In the end, having a PhD can boost your earning potential and open doors to well-paying jobs, including professorships and special roles in different areas. But the exact effect on your salary is influenced by many things, so ensure you weigh the cost against the benefit.

How to choose a PhD programme?

Choosing a PhD programme involves defining your research interest, researching supervisors and programme reputation, evaluating funding options, reviewing programme structure, considering available resources, assessing networking opportunities, factoring in location and career outcomes, visiting the campus if possible and trusting your instincts.

How can I find available PhD programmes?

You can find available PhD programmes by visiting university websites, using online directories such as “FindAPhD”, checking professional associations, networking with professors and students, following universities on social media, attending career fairs and conferences, contacting universities directly and exploring research institutes’ websites.

How to apply for a PhD programme?

To apply for a PhD programme:

Research and select universities aligned with your interests.

Contact potential supervisors, sharing your proposal, CV and references.

Prepare application materials: research proposal, CV, recommendation letters and a writing sample.

Ensure you meet academic and language-proficiency requirements.

Complete an online application through the university’s portal.

Pay any required application fees.

Write a statement of purpose explaining your motivations.

Provide official transcripts of your academic records.

Submit standardised test scores if needed.

Some programmes may require an interview.

The admissions committee reviews applications and decides.

Apply for scholarships or assistantships.

Upon acceptance, review and respond to the offer letter.

Plan travel, accommodation and logistics accordingly.

Remember to research and follow each university’s specific application guidelines and deadlines.

How to apply for a PhD as an international student?

Many stages of the PhD application process are the same for international students as domestic students. However, there are sometimes some additional steps:

International students should apply for a student visa.

Take language proficiency tests such as TOEFL or IELTS if required.

Provide certificates if needed to validate your previous degrees.

Show evidence of sufficient funds for tuition and living expenses.

Check if you need health insurance for your chosen destination.

Translate and authenticate academic transcripts if necessary.

Attend orientation sessions for cultural adaptation.

Apply for university housing or explore off-campus options.

Familiarise yourself with international student support services.

Ben Osborne, the postgraduate student recruitment manager at the University of Sussex explains in detail how to apply for a PhD in the UK .

Giulia Evolvi, a lecturer in media and communication at Erasmus University, Rotterdam explains how to apply for a PhD in the US .

Finally, Samiul Hossain explores the question Is it possible to do a three-year PhD as an international student?

Q. What is a PhD? A. A PhD is the highest level of academic degree awarded by universities, involving in-depth research and a substantial thesis.

Q. What does “PhD” mean? A. “PhD” stands for doctor of philosophy, recognising expertise in a field.

Q. What is a professional doctorate? A. A professional doctorate emphasises practical application in fields such as education or healthcare.

Q. How long does it take to study a PhD? A. It takes between three and six years to study a full-time PhD programme.

Q. How long is a PhD in the UK? A. It takes around three to four years to study a full-time UK PhD.

Q. How long is a PhD in the US? A. It takes approximately five to six years to complete a full-time US PhD.

Q. Why does it take longer to study a PhD in the US? A. US programmes often include more course work and broader training.

Q. What qualifications do you need for a PhD? A. You usually need an undergraduate degree as a minimum requirement, although a master’s might be preferred.

Q. Do you need a master’s degree to get into a PhD programme? A. Master’s degrees are preferred but not always required.

Q. Are PhD entry requirements similar in other countries? A. Entry requirements are similar in many countries, but there may be additional requirements. Make sure to check the university website for specific details.

Q. How much does it cost to study a PhD? A. The cost of PhD programmes vary by country and university.

Q. What funding options are available for PhD candidates? A. Scholarships, assistantships, fellowships, grants, stipends are all funding options for PhD candidates.

Q. What does a PhD involve? A. PhDs involve research, seminars, thesis, literature review, data analysis and a PhD viva.

Q. Why should you do a PhD? A. There are many reasons to study a PhD including personal growth, research skills, contributions to academia and professional development.

Q. What are some benefits of studying a PhD? A. Benefits of graduating with a PhD include achieving tenure, collaborations with colleagues, publication of your work, and networking opportunities.

Q. What is a PhD thesis? A. A PhD thesis is a comprehensive document that showcases the original research conducted by a PhD candidate.

Q. What is a PhD viva? A. A PhD viva, also known as a viva voce or oral examination, is the final evaluation of a PhD candidate’s research and thesis where the panel asks questions, engages in discussions and assesses the depth of the candidate’s understanding and expertise.

Q. Can you do a PhD part-time? A. Yes, part-time options are available for PhDs.

Q. Can I do a PhD through distance learning? A. Some universities offer online PhDs; you can find out more on their websites.

Q. How to choose a PhD programme? A. You can find PhD programmes through research, by contacting faculty, checking resources and considering location.

Q. How can I find available PhD programme? A. You can find available PhD programmes on university sites, through directories and by networking.

Q. How to apply for a PhD programme A. To apply for a PhD programme, research suitable universities and programmes, get in touch with potential supervisors, gather required documents like transcripts and reference letters, complete the online application, pay any necessary fees and submit a statement of purpose and research proposal. If needed, meet language-proficiency criteria and attend interviews. After acceptance, explore funding choices, confirm your spot and get ready for the programme’s start.

Q. How to apply for a PhD as an international student A. To apply for a PhD as an international student, follow similar steps to domestic students, but you need to include securing a student visa and passing language requirements.

Q. What is a PhD dropout rate? A. The dropout rate from PhDs varies but is approximately 30-40 per cent.

Q. How does a PhD affect salary and earning potential? A. A PhD can boost earning potential, especially in research, technology, healthcare and academia. Impact varies by job, industry and location. Experience, skills and demand also influence salary.

Q. How to address a person with a PhD? A. When addressing someone with a PhD, it’s respectful to use “Dr”, followed by their last name, whether they have a PhD in an academic field or a professional doctorate. For instance, “Dr. Smith”.

Q. Is there a difference between a PhD and a doctorate? A. The terms “PhD” and “doctorate” are often used interchangeably, though a PhD is a specific type of doctorate focused on original research. A doctorate can refer more broadly to any doctoral-level degree, including professional doctorates with practical applications.

Q. What is the difference between a PhD and an MD? A. A PhD is a doctor of philosophy, awarded for academic research, while an MD is a doctor of medicine, focusing on medical practice. They lead to different career paths and involve distinct areas of study.

Q. What is the difference between a PhD and a professional doctorate? A. A PhD is an academic research-focused degree, while a professional doctorate emphasises applying research to practical fields such as education or business. PhDs often involve original research, while professional doctorates focus on real-world application.

Q. What is the difference between UK and US PhDs? A. The difference between UK and US PhDs lies mainly in structure and duration. UK PhDs often have shorter durations and a stronger emphasis on independent research from an early stage. US PhDs typically include more initial coursework and broader foundational training before full-time research begins.

Q. What is the difference between a PhD student and a candidate? A. A PhD student is actively studying and researching in a doctoral programme, while a PhD candidate has completed programme requirements except for the dissertation and is close to completion.

Q. What’s the difference between a PhD and an EdD? A. A PhD and an EdD (doctor of education) differ in focus. A PhD emphasises research and academic contributions, while an EdD focuses on applying research to practical educational issues.

Q. What’s the difference between a PhD and a DBA? A. A PhD and a DBA (doctor of business administration) differ in purpose. A PhD emphasises theoretical research and academia, while a DBA is practice-oriented, aimed at solving real business problems.

Q. What’s the difference between a PhD and a PsyD? A. A PhD and a PsyD (doctor of psychology) differ in emphasis. A PhD focuses on research and academia, while a PsyD emphasises clinical practice and applying psychological knowledge.

Q. What’s the difference between a PhD and an LLD? A. A PhD and an LLD (doctor of laws or Legum doctor) are distinct. A PhD is awarded in various disciplines, while an LLD is usually an honorary degree for significant contributions to law.

Q. What’s the difference between a PhD and an MD-PhD? A. A PhD and an MD-PhD differ. An MD-PhD is a dual degree combining medical training (MD) with research training (PhD).

Q. What is the Cambridge PhD? A. A Cambridge PhD involves original research guided by a supervisor, resulting in a thesis. It’s offered at the University of Cambridge .

Q. What is the Oxford DPhil? A. An Oxford DPhil is equivalent to a PhD and involves independent research leading to a thesis. The term “DPhil” is unique to the University of Oxford .

Q. What is the PhD programme acceptance rate? A. PhD acceptance rates vary by university, field and competition. Prestigious universities and competitive fields often have lower acceptance rates.

Q. What is a PhD supervisor? A. A PhD supervisor guides and supports a student’s research journey, providing expertise and feedback.

Q. What is a PhD panel? A. A PhD panel evaluates a candidate’s research, thesis and oral defence. It consists of experts in the field.

Q. What is a PhD stipend? A. A PhD stipend is a regular payment supporting living expenses during research, often tied to teaching or research assistant roles.

Q. What is a PhD progression assessment? A. A PhD progression assessment evaluates a student’s progress, often confirming their continuation in the programme.

Q. What is a PhD defence? A. A PhD defence, or viva, is the final oral examination where a candidate presents and defends their research findings and thesis before experts.

.css-185owts{overflow:hidden;max-height:54px;text-indent:0px;} Pursuing a PhD in neuroscience

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Phd candidate vs student, published by steve tippins on may 19, 2020 may 19, 2020.

Last Updated on: 2nd February 2024, 03:03 am

You make the transition from PhD student to PhD candidate after you complete all your coursework and your comprehensive exams (if required). A PhD candidate’s sole task is to conduct their research and write their dissertation.

In other words, a PhD student is still completing their coursework. They could be on the first day of their PhD program. A PhD candidate has completed all of the requirements for their degree except their dissertation (yes, that’s the infamous “ all but dissertation ” status).

PhD candidacy means you’re a PhD in training. Now you’re ready to spread your wings a little–with some guidance.

Your time as a PhD candidate is your chance to demonstrate that you are ready to be an independent scholar. It’s also your chance to screw up and have that be okay–to have support. Your committee will help you. Since it’s the first time you’ll go through the process of creating and performing a study on your own, there’s no reason to believe you’ll be perfect at it. That’s why the process is designed so that your committee can give you guidance.

But besides the simple definition above, what are the implications of being a PhD candidate vs student? Turns out, there are many important differences. Without keeping these in mind when you become a PhD candidate, it’s easy to spin out and get off track and not understand why.

PhD Candidate vs Student: What Are the Differences?

colleagues comparing notes inside a library

While “PhD Student” and “PhD Candidate” are both steps on the journey to getting a PhD, there are significant differences between them. Here are some of the differences between PhD candidate vs student.

Lack of Structure

When you’re doing coursework, there is structure; there are assignments and deadlines. Of course, in graduate coursework teachers aren’t on top of you to turn in assignments like they would be in an undergraduate program. However, there is a deliverable (final project, test, etc) that you have to complete each quarter. You have things to complete by a certain time in order to move forward.

Once you become a candidate, there’s no syllabus and there are no due dates. It’s completely up to you to move forward in the process.

Some people find it hard to make the transition to the lack of structure that comes with being a PhD candidate.

Academic Writing

Academic writing skills become really important when writing your dissertation –more important even than they were during the coursework phase of graduate school. Academic writing is essentially a new language, with very specific meanings and requirements.

focused student studying on his laptop in a library

For example, you can’t just say “people believe x or y,” you have to say who they are and how you know that, giving citations to back it up. Many words (like “significant”) have very specific meanings and can’t be used the way you might use them in speech.

As a PhD student, your professors should be teaching this language to you, so that as a PhD candidate, it will come as second nature.

How Many People Do You Have to Keep Happy?

Here’s another difference between being a PhD student vs PhD candidate: as a PhD candidate, you reduce the number of people that you have to keep happy.

As a student, you have to keep in mind the requirements from each professor teaching your classes, as well as matriculation requirements from the department, preferences and advice given by your advisor, and even the research interests of the people for whom you’re writing papers.

Over 50% of doctoral candidates don’t finish their dissertations.

Once you become a candidate, it’s just your committee that you have to keep happy, meaning that those are the people who will hold you accountable and outline the requirements for completion of the degree. For that reason, you’ll want to choose your committee members with care.

Hopefully, by the time you need to choose your committee, you’ll have encountered professors who are intrigued by your research interests and with whom you feel personally and professionally compatible.

Freedom to Choose

woman smiling and taking notes on her laptop

When you become a PhD candidate, you get to work on what you want to work on. You can pursue the topic that interests you instead of whatever goes with the course you’re in. It’s a time to really apply all those skills you were accumulating in the classes. For example, the statistical procedures you learned in stats classes and theories you learned in the courses for your discipline.

This is the stage of culmination, when everything you’ve learned becomes not the goal, but the foundation for your own body of work. It’s one of the exhilarating (and sometimes intimidating) parts of being a PhD candidate vs a student.

Expectations and Support

Faculty often use the “go wander in the woods” approach for PhD candidates. It’s essentially like hearing, “Go find things and come back to me when you’ve got something.” They’ll usually tell you when it’s not enough, but they might not give you much direction about what they’re looking for beyond that.

The reason for this is to encourage independent scholarship. They want you to have the opportunity to build your own case for why and how this topic should be studied. But this first foray into academic independence can be quite a challenge.

When they tell you to “go wander in the woods,” they’re not even telling you what kind of tree to look for. Sometimes you get specific directions, but sometimes you get vague answers like “go look for more.” This can be frustrating. Many clients come to me because they need more direction, which is understandable.

morning sunlight passing through trees in a forest

In your coursework, you were often given studies to read or asked to find studies on particular topics that relate to the course topic. Dissertation research is more nebulous. Your committee members want you to decide which directions to go in and which kinds of studies best relate to your research questions.

They won’t be asking you for the “right answer.” They’ll be asking you, “Why? Justify what you did or plan to do.”

Here’s another difference between PhD candidate vs student: a PhD candidate can put “PhD(c)” after their name, indicating that they have achieved status as a PhD candidate. However, I suggest using caution with this designation. The APA has expressed concern that its use may be misleading to the general public and cause people to believe you have a PhD.

PhD Candidate vs Student: An Interview With a PhD(c)

woman with red hair working on her laptop in the office

Did you notice a change in how professors viewed you, once you moved from “student” to “candidate”?

Yes. It actually happened during my comprehensive exams. Before that, when I had been asked a question, the professor already knew the answer and was asking to see if I knew also. In my comprehensive exams, I had become the expert and my committee members were actually asking questions out of interest.

We were all pieces of a puzzle at that point. Instead of them saying, “tell me about John Dewy’s influence on education in the 1920s,” they asked, “How do you think Dewey influenced the school system’s openness to parental involvement in schools?” The professor who asked that was genuinely interested, because she was an expert in educational history but had not specifically studied parent involvement in schools, as I had.

That moment represented a big shift for me; it meant that as a PhD candidate, I had to then take responsibility for my own learning, because nobody knew as much as I knew about that particular thing.

It’s exhilarating on one hand, because you suddenly realize you’re the expert. On the other hand, it’s scary because we’re used to somebody else knowing the answer, being able to correct us if we’re wrong.

A Narrowing of Scope

woman with a denim jacket holding a stack of books in a library

It sounds like your topic was centered on something very particular, so maybe not a lot of other people have studied what you want to study?

Yes, that’s true. When you go through a PhD program your research area is pretty narrow. You start out with a general interest in something, but as you go through your classes, specific areas start to stand out.

I started out with an interest in egalitarianism in public education, but my own past experience combined with some seminal texts to direct me toward parent involvement in schools, specifically. Some books and articles showed me that how schools treat parents can be an indicator of egalitarianism, maybe a clearer one than any rhetoric about the students.

So, there’s this winnowing effect, as you move forward. Your professors love to watch this, too. Especially in the smaller, seminar classes, they seem to be waiting to see what makes your heart beat faster.

woman in a yellow shirt holding folders outside college

Speaking of your heart beating faster, is one distinction of the candidacy phase to have more passion about the work you’re doing?

I think that’s ideal, for sure. It doesn’t always happen, because some professors are really after students who will jump onto their research platform, because they can piggyback on the students’ research to get more publications. Good committee chairs, though, will want you to find your own path toward something you can happily spend a lifetime studying.

I suspect that one of the reasons people don’t finish their dissertations is because they weren’t really passionate about the topic in the first place. It’s only one possible reason, but it should give a doctoral student pause.

It’s really hard to finish a PhD, so you want to knock down any barriers to finishing. Being passionate about the topic will keep you going when things feel onerous. It’s like marrying someone with a sense of humor — even when you’re not getting along very well, there’s something you can always appreciate about your spouse.

Imposter Syndrome

What about “ imposter syndrome ”? Does that come into play when you become a candidate?

It sure did for me! To be one of the only people who’s an expert in that field feels like a huge responsibility because people are depending on you. Your research has to be accurate because people will be making policies based on your conclusions.

Even with good intentions, your conclusions can be erroneous, and there are plenty of historical examples of policies being made on the basis of erroneous conclusions. The consequences can be enormous. And that’s all on you!

So then the questions become, “Am I really up to this?” “Who am I to drive policy?” “I’m just a fallible human being, so why would (or should) anyone listen to me?” Especially right after comps, I was thinking, “How could I be the expert? Nothing really has changed about me; I’m still the same person. Yesterday, I was a student, but today I’m an expert?”

woman in a brown jacket holding her laptop and smiling

My observation is that this happens with women more than men, probably because women in authority positions are more often questioned than are men. But even for men, this seemingly sudden transformation can make you worry that you’re not qualified for the responsibility you’re being given.

The thing is, It’s not really as sudden as it seems. You’ve been studying something for, say, four years, so you have a claim to expertise. And you’ve been narrowing your interests all along the way, so you’ve been slowly building up your expertise.

Besides, in many good schools, you get warned a lot about how easy it is to make a mistake in research and how easy it is to make false conclusions. They beat that into you so much that it can become a constant doubt.

In most primary and secondary schools, and sometimes even in college, they teach you to sit down, shut up, and learn something. For people to suddenly be saying, “tell me what you think,” can be challenging. I suspect that that’s another major reason people who finish their coursework don’t complete their dissertation: they’re not sufficiently prepared for this shift in roles.

Suggestions for PhD Candidates

two women having a conversation at a window side table

Having been through this shift yourself, do you have any advice for students in this stage of their process?

Mostly, I think it’s a matter of taking personal responsibility and seeing yourself in a new light. It helps me to consider this process as a transformation — like a caterpillar into a butterfly. The “student” stage is the caterpillar stage, where you’re eating the milkweed, the knowledge, to nourish you.

Then there comes a time when you’ve got to stop being a consumer and transform into a real researcher. That’s like the metamorphosis stage when the caterpillar is in the chrysalis, melting down. (And I have had plenty of meltdowns myself in this stage!) That’s when you’re on your own, writing the dissertation.

That chrysalis stage is a real slog. You try as hard as you can, and your proposal still gets rejected — twice. Or the IRB wants you to structure the study differently, after your committee has already approved it. Or you can’t get enough participants for your quantitative study or enough data for your qualitative study — whatever. It’s the biggest challenge of most people’s life!

two women discussing details on a laptop in an outdoor coffee shop

But if you stick with it, you actually do get this huge reward. As a butterfly, or a PhD, you bring something unique to the world. You have an important role in society that can potentially change the course of history — even if you don’t envision that in the beginning.

And that’s why the committee makes the process arduous. They want to be sure you’re great at what you do, because there is potentially an awful lot riding on your shoulders. I’m actually grateful for the rigor they demand. I want to feel ready for the role I’m taking.

Ultimately, candidacy is time in the chrysalis. It’s a time of transformation, built on one’s time as a student. It’s a time in the dark and alone, which makes it challenging, for sure. But I trust I’ll eventually emerge strong enough to spread my wings.

Steve Tippins

Steve Tippins, PhD, has thrived in academia for over thirty years. He continues to love teaching in addition to coaching recent PhD graduates as well as students writing their dissertations. Learn more about his dissertation coaching and career coaching services. Book a Free Consultation with Steve Tippins

female phd student laughing at the laptop

Dissertation

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Sometimes you can’t dissertate anymore and you just need to meme. Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Here are some of my favorite dissertation memes that I’ve seen lately. My Favorite Dissertation Memes For when you Read more…

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The process of earning a doctorate can be long and stressful – and for some people, it can even be traumatic. This may be hard for those who haven’t been through a doctoral program to Read more…

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PhD by Publication

PhD by publication, also known as “PhD by portfolio” or “PhD by published works,” is a relatively new route to completing your dissertation requirements for your doctoral degree. In the traditional dissertation route, you have Read more…

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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.

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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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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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What is a PhD student or PhD candidate? [Updated]

For those that are thinking about doing a postgraduate degree, it’s not always clear exactly what a PhD entails. You may have heard the stereotypical PhD motivation as “doing research to progress humanity”. However, the actual day today life of a PhD student isn’t as nearly as grand.

A PhD student is someone who is enrolled in a postgraduate doctoral degree program. PhD students will typically perform original research and write up a dissertation to communicate the results to their peers. Some countries also require PhD students to take exams as part of their course.

This article will help you understand what a PhD student is, what they do during a typical day and what the benefits are of getting a PhD.

What Is a PhD Candidate?

A PhD Candidate is an individual who is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at a university or other tertiary education institution.

They are usually referred to as “ PhD students” or “PhD candidates.”

In order to qualify for the PhD, a candidate must complete all of the program’s coursework requirements and write and defend a dissertation that presents original research.

The dissertation must be approved by their faculty advisor or dissertation committee in order to complete the degree. The dissertation committee is made up of other experts in the field that are looking for an original contribution to further the academic field.

Candidates may also be required to take additional coursework beyond the general requirements of their program in order to qualify for the PhD. Doing coursework is very typical in universities in the United States of America.

After completing all of these requirements, they will officially become a PhD student and will receive their diploma after defending their dissertation and receiving approval from their faculty advisor or committee.

What a typical PhD program involves

A typical PhD program involves a combination of coursework and independent research.

Students are expected to build upon their existing knowledge by taking advanced courses in their discipline or related areas, while also conducting original research that contributes to the larger body of knowledge in the field.

A typical PhD student schedule is dependent on the field and subject area. However, there are some things that are common for nearly every PhD student. You can find out more about a typical PhD student schedule in my other article – click here .

Depending on the program, students may be required to complete seminars, comprehensive exams, and/or a dissertation.

In more modern PhD’s you are able to prove that you have generated significant contributions to a field by publishing your results in peer reviewed papers. This is known as PhD by publication. It is typically comprised of five or more peer-reviewed publications presented together with a literature review and joining chapters.

Traditionally, a PhD dissertation is composed of several chapters exploring an area of study in-depth, and must be defended before a panel of experts in the field. During their doctoral studies, students may also have opportunities to gain teaching experience and participate in internships or other professional development activities.

Ultimately, completing a PhD program culminates with the publication of one’s research findings and a public presentation of their work.

The PhD dissertation

The PhD dissertation is a substantial document that presents original research and analysis in a specific field.

It is the culmination of years of hard work, dedication, and focus on a particular topic and research question.

The average length of a PhD dissertation submitted at the University of Minnesota w as been created by Marcus Beck :

Generally, theses and dissertations in the mathematical sciences, economics, and biostatistics are usually brief due to utilizing mathematical equations to substantiate their findings as opposed to illustrations and extended explanations.

On the contrary, English, communication studies, political science, history and anthropology normally consist of more pages and words since they require a larger number of words to verify and go into detail regarding their results.

The dissertation should demonstrate the student’s mastery of their chosen field of study and their ability to communicate their findings effectively.

A thesis should also present an innovative contribution to the existing body of knowledge on the subject.

The dissertation should be organized in a logical manner, with an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion and conclusion sections.

Furthermore, it should adhere to all relevant academic conventions for structure, citation style, grammar and referencing.

Ultimately, it should be a piece of work that reflects the student’s academic excellence and future potential as a researcher in their chosen field.

The success of your PhD is also very much dependent on your supervisor. Let’s take a look at the most important things about choosing your PhD supervisor.

The importance of PhD supervision

Choosing a PhD supervisor is an essential part of the research process.

They act as a mentor and provide guidance to help guide their student’s research, ensuring that it meets the necessary standards required by the University.

The supervisor also provides support in developing research questions and methods, and can give feedback on drafts of your thesis and peer-reviewed papers.

This feedback helps keep the student on track with their project and prevents costly mistakes in the future.

A great supervisor also acts as a sounding board; they can discuss ideas with their student, helping them to develop deeper understanding of their topic.

Ultimately, a good supervisor can make all the difference in achieving successful results from a PhD program. With their experience and knowledge, they can ensure that students are tackling their projects in an efficient and effective manner.

If you want to know more about choosing a PhD supervisor check out my YouTube video below.

How to become a PhD candidate

Becoming a PhD candidate is a rigorous process that requires dedication and hard work just to get admitted to the degree.

Here are the steps that you need to complete to become a PhD student or candidate:

The first step is to complete a bachelor’s degree in the field you wish to pursue your research in.
Next, you will need to apply for admission into a PhD program, which typically involves submitting an application, providing letters of recommendation from professors or employers, and often taking an entrance exam.
Once accepted, you must then create a research proposal outlining your proposed area of study and submit it for approval by the university’s Graduate Studies Committee.

Finally, after completing any required courses and passing an oral examination to defend your PhD, you can be officially awarded the title of PhD candidate and begin your dissertation research.

Will a PhD degree give you an advantage career-wise

Having a PhD degree is a mark of distinction that can give you an advantage career-wise.

As a degree holder, employers and recruiters will recognize your level of academic achievement and that you have made a significant commitment to the study and research of your chosen field.

With a doctorate, you can open up more opportunities for higher-level positions with increased responsibilities and better pay.

You may also be able to pursue research or teaching positions in universities, as well as leadership roles in private businesses.

A PhD degree can also provide you with the skillset to become an expert in your field, allowing you to become an authority on certain topics.

How long does it take to finish a PhD?

Completing a PhD, or Doctorate, is no small feat.

On average, it can take four to seven years of hard work and dedication to finish one. I know of one PhD student who took 10 years to complete his PhD.

The length of time it takes to complete a PhD varies depending on the field of study and the

Regardless of the field, completing a PhD is an impressive accomplishment that requires tremendous effort over an extended period of time.

Do you need to write a full dissertation as a Ph.D. Student?

As a Ph.D. student, it is almost always necessary to write and present a dissertation as part of your doctoral program. Although, it is now common for a PhD to be awarded on the basis of publication in peer-reviewed journals.

A dissertation is an original research paper in your chosen field of study that you must complete in order to obtain a doctorate.

Most doctoral programs will require students to complete their dissertation and defend it orally before they are awarded their Ph.D.

The research topic must be approved by the doctoral committee and should reflect the student’s understanding of the chosen field of study while presenting new findings or theories within that field.

Once completed, the dissertation must be defended at an oral examination before a panel of faculty members from the university who specialize in that particular field of study.

The successful completion of this oral defense allows for students to progress towards obtaining their doctorate degree and fulfill all requirements for graduation from the PhD program.

Can you complete your PhD degree online?

Completing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree online is becoming increasingly popular. But should you do it? Here is my YouTube video about finishing your PhD online:

With the advancement of technology, students can now study from their own home and have access to quality education with no need to travel or attend physical classes.

With an online PhD program, you can make progress towards your doctor of philosophy degree at your own pace while still being able to maintain a work/life balance. However, it comes with some drawbacks that include its perceived prestige.

Part of the PhD experience is interacting with your peers and having rigourous academic debate. Make sure that you choose an online PhD program which allows you to interact significantly with your fellow students and helps you be part of your field.

Attend conferences, seminars, and other academic presentations so that you don’t miss out on any of the important aspects of training for academia.

Wrapping up

This article has been through everything you need to know about what a PhD student is and what they do.

Deciding to do a PhD can be a very challenging decision. Many people make the decision without really understanding or knowing what a PhD student is or does.

It is a very challenging time in many people’s lives as they are embarking on a multi-year research challenge. This failure and overcoming issues are the number one factor in people deciding that they are going to leave academia stop

Speaking to current PhD students, choosing your supervisor carefully, and ensuring that you are actually interested in the research questions that you will be investigating go a long way in ensuring that you get the most out of your PhD experience.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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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:

The Five Most Powerful Lessons I Learned During My PhD

8th August 2024 8th August 2024

5th February 2024 4th July 2024

The Benefits of Having a PhD

7th September 2022 30th January 2024

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Resources 15 Tips on Surviving Your PhD Program

15 Tips on Surviving Your PhD Program

15 tips and advice on making it through a phd.

It can be extremely challenging to complete a PhD program while maintaining physical and emotional health. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 50 percent of all doctoral students drop out of graduate school without completing their degree. Some schools report a 90 percent attrition rate. Common reasons for dropping out include academic shortcomings, students who change their career path, or those who lose interest in their pursuit. Some students have the ability to complete their degree but opt not to. One cause is the discovery of a poor job market for professors or private organizations in their fields. The Chronicle reports that math and science students leave in their third year. Some 25 percent of dropouts in Arts and Humanities occur after three years, potentially leaving candidates with high student debt and despair. This guide offers examples of concrete, accessible, and practical actions that can alleviate many problems that overwhelm doctoral students.

15 Tips on Surviving Your PhD

There is a legion of experts that offer advice on making it through the years of your PhD program. Many agree on the necessities of maintaining a balance of academic pursuits against routine personal outside activities that foster physical and emotional health. Here are 15 suggestions:

1. Establish a routine you can follow.

It’s crucial to stay on track. Your best option to do so and keep peace of mind is to create a schedule that you can follow – and commit to following it. Get up and do your work on schedule, just as you’d report for a job. Devote segments of your routine for research and reading pertinent literature in your field. Add time in your schedule to include sound sleep, good nutrition, exercise, socializing and recreation. Remember you’ll have other obligations such as attending lectures, symposia, commuting, parking, cleaning your living space, shopping for supplies, meeting with study groups and peer collaborators. At the same time, build a realistic schedule so you won’t work yourself into fear frenzy.

2. Start writing from day one.

Your writing practice and research methodology can put you ahead of schedule on your dissertation. That’s because learning to write comfortably in a scholarly fashion should become a second nature. To eliminate last-minute furies, organize your research times, round up and cite sources properly, and create a number of drafts. Writing at least 30 minutes daily can allow you to consolidate your notes and findings, and note discovery of areas that require additional research. Plus, much of what you write goes directly toward your understanding of your subject matter. Because of your other commitments to teaching, collaboration, and outside activities, keep a writing routine and stick to it. At the same time, read smarter, understanding how the literature fits to your purposes. In reading and writing, look for key points, not bulk.

3. Create a positive community.

Decide from the begging that you can’t afford to collaborate or socialize with friends or peers that exude negativity. Braggards or chronic complainers can sap your energy or even cause you to adopt negative thinking or comparisons with the progress of other PhD candidates. Lead your own research, but seek advisement from people that you can trust, who have your best interests at heart. Join groups involved in your major field of study with which you can share academic as well as social issues. A positive community can bring you out of isolation, and isolation can foster fear or despair.

4. Build effective networks.

Along with creating a positive community, get on with networking from the very beginning of your program. You’re going to spend four or five years at the university, giving you ample time to forge and grow partnerships with working professionals, educators, junior faculty, and peers that contribute to your evolving knowledge base. They can offer suggestions to explorer literature, research trends, and potential opportunities for publications, conferences, and workshops. Remember to investigate online tools and communities as part of your networking as a way to make yourself known as a colleague. Create your professional/research profile at places like LinkedIn or join a LinkedIn Discussion Group. Speak with presenters at seminars. Connect with authors you discover in your literature research and participate in career groups outside your usual sphere at the university. Finally, consider taking informational interviews as a means of understanding the workplace, getting your name out there, and connecting with potential employers.

5. Put money woes to rest.

Having ample money to get you through your program can be difficult, even excruciating. But just knowing solid funding resources can give you some comfort and save precious time. Have a financial plan and do the legwork vital to your economic survival. Don’t let finances overwhelm your primary purpose of discovering your interests, focusing on your expertise, and making progress. Financial aid options for doctoral students are available at the U.S. Department of Education . You may need to combine several opportunities to cover your total expenses, including grants, scholarships, loans, fellowships, housing costs, and securing teaching and research assistantships. Some grad students make money tutoring but you’ll have to consider the time against your routine and academic schedule. GoGrad provides detailed PhD cost estimates broken down by professional field, along with scholarship/grant/fellowship search tools.

6. Make sound nutrition your ally.

Rutgers University advises students to find other ways to palliate stress than by overeating – even healthy foods. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables and all your meals at the right portion sizes. Cut out junk food and sugary treats that create the craving to keep eating them. That goes for alcohol, too, which can contribute to a decline in your health and create another source of worry. Student and faculty events often include drinking, so proceed wisely, even if peers call you a wimp. Vary your meals and include a free day for eating what you want without guilt. WebMd suggests that students include berries, oats, milk or yogurt, salmon, dark green veggies, walnuts, beans, and dark chocolate. Coffee is okay in small doses (8 oz) and without lots of sugar. Latte and mocha drinks are satisfying but often contain large amounts of sugar. Green tea can wake you up, if you don’t want to overdo coffee, but eschew energy drinks or other stimulants that make you jittery.

7. Add exercise to your routine.

Exercise, even moderate, can do wonders for both your physical and emotional wellbeing. Among its benefits, regular exercise fights stress, improves memory retention, and boosts your mood (particularly in winter). Researchers at Colorado Tech report that exercise increases “the number of brain cells in the hippocampus, which controls the formation, retention and recall of memories – all essential for student success. In most adults, the hippocampus starts to shrink in the late twenties, leading to memory loss over time.” Exercise can also add to your social bandwidth if you have regular workout partners or participate in intramural team activities. Remember to stretch. Consider taking a yoga class or Pilates workout. Do some running, weight lifting, swimming, or join a rowing group. Hike with friends or colleagues. Get out the mountain bike. For best results, get in a 30-minute workout at least three times a week. Time Magazine reports that cardiovascular exercise can positively affect depression, anxiety and mood disorders. And you’ll sleep better, too.

8. Learn how to deal with rejection.

Rejection in an PhD program is a routine, unwanted emotional downer. But how you react to it is crucial. Unsolicited advice can feel abusive. Competition for internships, fellowships and publications can stress you out to the point of collapse. Coping tools include not taking rejection or undue criticism personally and chalking it up to experience. It can soften the blows as they come. Comparing yourself to other candidates can be toxic. As with athletics, there will always be someone better than you. But you’re not pursuing your colleagues’ goals, dissertations, or even the identical degree – you’re pursuing personalized knowledge and skills for your life after the doctorate. Barbara Robson, an Associate Editor for two academic journals, writes in Quora that most papers (80 percent or more) are rejected and that there’s an element of luck in getting published. If your paper is rejected by a journal, find another suitable place to submit it. If you’re passed over for a conference, don’t sent a hate letter or academic rebuttal. Move on.

9. Choose a qualified graduate advisor and mentor.

Finding the right mentor and dissertation advisor is pivotal to your academic success and survival. The Gradhacker Blog at Inside Higher Ed suggests that you choose an advisor that shares your research interests and career path. Ask about their success rate in graduating students that they mentor. Check out whether they walk the walk by viewing their list of publications, conference presentations, and other research accomplishments. Find out if they’re available for ongoing advising. Explore their aptitude as a mentor and the personal chemistry toward working together. Are they hard to communicate with, abusive or condescending? Are they unable to otherwise maintain a productive and respectful relationship during the time you’ll be in the program? Not all accomplished professors make for good advisors. Some may be too wrapped up in publishing or attending conferences to meet with you. You should leave advising sessions feeling more focused, energetic about your research and dissertation, and armed with strategies for accomplishment.

10. Build in time for family and friends.

There’s an old joke where a friend asks if you can hang out and you say, “I’m in a PhD program so ask me again in five years.” It’s vital to maintain relationships with family and friends. They can sustain you and keep you from deadly isolation. At the same time, they can be distracting. It’s useful to maintain balance by scheduling time with family and friends while sticking to the need to bear down on research and writing. The PhDStudent Forum says when possible to combine family or friend events around studying. For example, take study time for yourself during a longer visit to family to keep your academic momentum. Visit a coffeehouse where you can study along with family and friends that also like reading in public. Be sure to communicate clearly about your schedule and find ways to book in indispensable phone calls and visits. Join friends for exercise or recreation.

11. Set aside time to pursue non-academic interests.

Yeah right, when is that supposed to happen? It happens when you make it happen. To maintain a sane equilibrium, devote some time to routinely indulge in things you like doing. For example, work in the garden, take a massage class, learn photography, play live music, go kayaking, join a cooking class, volunteer in civic or advocacy activities or learn a foreign language. Build something with your hands. Play scrabble. Paint to indulge your playful or creative side. Take a dance class. Learn meditation or improve your ping pong game. Because it can be near impossible to turn off your PhD brain, relegate it to background noise. That way you might have breakthroughs or discoveries that emerge when you return to work.

12. Arrange and maintain a peaceful learning environment.

Living alone may create a peaceful learning atmosphere, but not if you have noisy neighbors above, next door, or below you. Yet you can develop a horrible sense of cabin fever if you isolate at home. Wherever you reside should be comfortable and workable. Clutter can be a source of stress. According to Inside Higher Ed , living with roommates can save on expenses, but comes along with its own set of challenges. Roommates can have other routines and schedules that introduce unwanted noise, emotional drama, unwanted guests, or social habits that can send you off the edge. Research potential housemates carefully, allowing a back-up plan for dealing with inevitable problems. Developing a friendly but direct communication strategy can help. Or, you can create a work zone in your bedroom that lends for privacy. If necessary, you can find a quiet study environment in a library carrel or small café. The same suggestions apply if you’re living with family.

13. Address your emotional health.

According to Inside Higher Ed , there is a mental health crisis in graduate education. Grad students are six times more susceptible to anxiety and depression than in the general population. The study found that “transgender and gender-nonconforming graduate students, along with women, were significantly more likely to experience anxiety and depression” than their straight or male counterparts. A poor work-life balance can be a powerful contributor to burnout and depression. The worst thing you can do when you experience mental health issues is to keep them to yourself or feel like a failure for having them. Seek out the campus counseling center (student health center) or a trusted outside mental health organization for personal counselling. Join their emotional support groups. The National Grad Crisis Line (877 472-3457) provides free intervention services, confidential telephone counseling, suicide prevention assistance, and referral services. Look into NAMI on Campus Clubs which are student-run mental health support organizations.

14. Deal with expectations

Who you are, ultimately, is not a PhD student. Your grad program is what you’re currently pursuing. The Indiana University guide to thriving in graduate school suggests that you shrink overwhelming expectations into bite-size challenges. It’s normal for doctoral students to think that they’re an imposter among experts. Johns Hopkins University found that striving to meet your expectations can cause low self-esteem, procrastination, guilt and depression. You may find yourself unable to meet your expectations for perfectionism, so modify your plans to hit deadlines with your best effort. The guide further advises to straighten out the expectations that others may have for you. This can be especially true with families and people who provide financial or emotional support.

15. Make conferences a part of life.

Opportunities to attend conferences and presentations are richly rewarding. First, you become part of the greater community in your research niche and you can build a lifetime network of colleagues. You can also gain a greater understanding of the professional options available to you. Even attending conferences out of your niche area can stimulate ideas and send you home refreshed. Participating in panels is a great way to network and demonstrate your expertise. Attending job fairs is another way to network while exploring the professional environment. By networking at conferences, you can set up additional meetings with experts by phone, virtually, or before the next conference. It doesn’t hurt to cite conferences and your own presentations on your CV.

From the Expert

What are PhD students afraid to talk about?

The number one thing that PhD students are afraid to talk about is the lack of progress that they are making on their PhD dissertation. This was certainly true in my case and also in the case of many of my classmates whom I spoke with. The dissertation is such a big project with different stages in it and requires such self-discipline over a sustained period of time. When I got past my embarrassment about it and started speaking to others about it helped a lot and I found a way forward.

Another thing that PhD students are afraid to discuss is their ambivalence about being in a doctoral program and whether they've done the right thing and whether they should continue. These are all important questions that such students need to be aware of and speak to others (counsellor, friends, etc.) about.

What was your greatest challenge and how did you succeed?

As mentioned, my greatest challenge in relation to completing my PhD was getting through the dissertation process. Two things really helped me get over the line (and came from speaking to friends and classmates). (1) Since my dissertation was quantitative, I hired a statistics advisor that I met with on a regular (weekly or fortnightly) basis and this helped me make good progress in that it served to provide much needed structure (and assistance with statistical analysis). (2) I fired my dissertation chair and found a new one that I had a much better working relationship with. My new chair was more knowledgeable about my dissertation subject area and also he was much more supportive. I made significant progress with him and thereafter completed my dissertation in a relatively short time frame.

What are good ways to alleviate stress and anxiety?

There are a number of ways that I think will help with stress while working on one's phd. The usual suspects are approaches such as regular exercise, good diet, fun activities (e.g. movies), counselling and/or talking to friends and/or family.

However, I think the best approach that one can take is to get steadily work through each aspect one-by-one of the PhD program towards completing it. A useful way to think about it (with both the dissertation and the PhD program itself), is to not get overwhelmed by the size of this enormous project but instead cut it up into separate pieces and focus on each piece at a time, complete it, and then move on to the next piece.

How did you handle the challenges of extreme competition?

My tip for students who are experiencing high levels of competition is to try put it all into perspective: Do your best to get the finest resources (internships, grades, etc) that you can but know that once you're out in the profession, some of those things might really matter that much in the bigger picture. So, one can be just a 'pass' in your doctoral program but then get out into their profession and make a big splash.

What can you recommend to keep interest or inertia up so you’ll finish the PhD/Dissertation?

‘Cut up the sausage' and focus on/work on it a piece at a time; Locate assistance or supportive individuals and meet with them regularly and ongoing throughout; Create 'deadlines' and milestones for yourself to work towards and have these other (helpful) individuals assist in keeping you accountable.

Find ways that work for you that help to bring structure into this enormous unstructured (or scantily structured) project called a PhD -- and especially its dissertation. At the end of the day, it's really about just getting through it and into the next (and bigger) stage of your profession. Just do your best while you're in it and don't get too caught up in the moment.

Additional Resources & Help for PhD Students

You should realize that you can’t do everything on your own. To do so is a recipe for financial despair, insurmountable academic challenges and poor overall wellbeing. At the same time, you may need to sift through the wealth of outside resources to find the one that addresses your concerns. The following links will connect you with financial options, bulletin boards in your field, and academic resources. Find tips for time management, exam preparation, and help with emotional issues that can and will arise:

GoGrad Guide to Paying for Your PhD : Students are currently paying upwards of $80,00 in tuition to complete their PhD. Use our guide to research your financial aid options.
PhinisheD : This free, comprehensive bulletin board is devoted to PhD students struggling with completing their degree. Find links for reference guides, financial aid, health and well-being tips, and writing guides.
National Grad Crisis Line : It’s for when the going gets rough. The National Grad Crisis Line at (877) 472-3457 was founded in 1988 to provide free mentoring, confidential counseling, and referral services.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention : The CDC offers a pithy, wide-ranging college resource for maintaining wellness through sound nutrition and exercise. It offers diet plans, activity guidelines, and stress-prevention tips.
U.S. Department of Education : Learn about financial aid for graduate or professional students including grants, loans and scholarships. The page links to government sites for applications and additional financial resources.
ThoughtCo : This site is packed with articles on graduate school written by experts. Topics include prepping for comprehensive exams, time-management skills, and dealing with procrastination.
Meetup : Student Meetups provide free, online listings for students to connect PhD candidates seeking peer support. Join an existing group or start one at your university.
GoGrad : Discover tips for PhD students who want to complete their degrees online. Featured affordable online doctoral fields include business, computer science, criminal justice, education, nursing and psychology.
The Grad Café : As host of graduate-school forums, the Grad Café operates a peer-run group that discusses the advantages and negative aspects of living alone or sharing housing.
PhDJobs : Register for free and post your VC. Search among 1,600 current listings for PhDs and sign up for job alerts or information about post-doc programs.

101 Health and Wellness Tips for College Students Rutgers University

12 Tips for Surviving and Thriving in Grad School PsychCentral

CAPS Grad School Survival Guide Indiana University

Mental Health Crisis for Grad Students Inside Higher Ed

Modest Advice for New Graduate Students Medium.com

Surviving PhD and Postdoctoral Programs: Tips to Guarantee Success! Enago Academy

The Crucial Issue of Doctoral Non-completion The Chronical of Higher Education

Top 10 Smart Foods for College Students WebMD

A guide for first year PhD students: Expectations, responsibilities, advice

The first year of a PhD can feel like a rollercoaster ride. First-year PhD students are ambitious and want to fulfil expectations. At the same time, they may be unsure of what these expectations and their responsibilities are. This guide aims to provide first-year PhD students with some directions and advice.

The first year as a PhD student: Excitement, ambition, overwhelm

Starting a PhD is exciting. Securing a PhD position is a major life event, and often something that first-year year PhD students have been working towards for a long time.

First-year PhD students want to do well, make progress with their projects and meet their supervisors’ expectations. However, it is not always clear what that means.

Questions like these, and insecurities, often develop early on in a PhD journey.

What to expect as a first-year PhD student

Succeeding in academia has many facets, including your thesis or dissertation, but also learning new skills, and developing relationships with supervisors, colleagues and scholars in your field. All of that takes energy.

Set realistic expectations for yourself in the first year of your PhD. Not everything will work out as planned. Research takes time, and setbacks are inevitable.

First-year PhD students can also expect to read and explore a lot. At times, this involves going down the rabbit hole of academic literature: processing new information, frameworks and perspectives before discarding them again.

Responsibilities of a first-year PhD student

However, frequently a key responsibility of a PhD student is to develop a firm research proposal in the first year, which is often coupled with an extensive literature review.

All in all, a first-year PhD student is responsible to get organised and create a feasible plan for the coming years. The first year is meant to set the foundation for the PhD trajectory .

Unless the PhD programme is followed online, and unless there is a pandemic raging, first-year PhD students are additionally often expected to actively participate in the research group, lab or department in which they are based.

A supervisor’s expectations of a first-year PhD student

While this can certainly happen, I dare to say that this is not the norm.

For instance, PhD supervisors tend to appreciate some levels of regularity and consistency. While it is absolutely normal to have periods where you make more progress (for instance in writing) than in others, it is not good to contact your supervisor every day for a month, and then fall off the earth for half a year.

Lastly, supervisors often expect PhD students to take matters into their own hands. Instead of simply waiting for instruction, this means that first-year PhD students should be in the driver’s seat of their journey. Therefore, it is no surprise that proactiveness is one of the 10 qualities of successful PhD students.

25 things every first year PhD student should do

Thesis/dissertation, academic skills, relationships and networking, health and well-being, master academia, get new content delivered directly to your inbox, deciding between a one- or a two-year master's degree, email signatures for phd students (content, tips and examples), related articles, a comprehensive guide to part-time phds, the 30 best determination quotes for students, journal editors: what they do, and how to become one, sample emails asking for letter of recommendation from a professor.

Why Would You Want to Do a PhD?

Student perspectives on the value of a graduate degree

May 16, 2018 | Richard Z.

If you are reading this blog post, there is a good chance that you are thinking about a PhD, possibly at MIT. But MIT or not, almost every doctoral program would ask you why you are interested in their program and how it fits into your career goal. A typical answer would be:

I am interested in your PhD program because I want to do research in my area. My career goal is to become a professor at a university or research institute.

Indeed, doctoral degrees are by default the training programs for academics. You would presumably spend five years or so learning how to become a capable researcher in your academic field before applying for postdocs and eventually assistant professorships.

Things may not be so simple. The latest Doctoral Exit Survey by the MIT Career Services reveals that close to 50% of the PhD graduates in 2017 do not work in research institutes or universities immediately after graduation. Instead, they work across private and public sectors.

The “mismatch” between the program’s design to train academics and the non-academic careers pursued by many PhD graduates calls for us to revisit to the question: why on earth would you want to do a PhD? To that end, I interviewed a group of prospective, current, and graduated PhDs. The following themes popped up

Intellectual Curiosity If you are doing a PhD, you probably enjoy the subject of your program so much that you are willing to spend five or six years on it. Indeed, intellectual curiosity is common to most PhD students that I spoke with. Often it comes with little consideration to specific career choices. On this topic, Dr. F. shared his thoughts

“When I was considering my options after undergrad, the idea of getting an advanced degree and learning a topic at a deep level is very attractive to me,” said Dr. F., who got his PhD in atomic physics at MIT.

However, I asked if he had any postgraduate careers in mind when starting his PhD.

“I did not have a clear plan for what I wanted to do after graduation,” Dr. F. admitted, “But I did think that the jobs that I could pursue with an advanced degree were much more interesting than the ones with only a bachelor’s.”

After having worked at the MIT Lincoln Labs for a decade, Dr. F is now a CEO and founder of a company.

“I feel that with my PhD degree, I’ve got not only the technical tools but also enough confidence to analyze and solve the problems and deal with the unknown in my daily job.”

Non-Academic Careers It is a myth that a PhD degree only prepares you to succeed in academia. Since a doctoral program helps you develop a field specialty, it is not hard to imagine people who use their PhD training to sharpen their skills in order to work in industry. Abbas Shikari is no exception. A master’s student in mechanical engineering at MIT, he plans to extend his current program to a PhD. During our interview, he said it loud and clear,

“I would like to be a software architect for autonomous vehicles, and a PhD would help me achieve the depth of knowledge necessary to becoming a strong contributor to the field of robotics and self-driving cars.”

Formerly a supply chain manager at Fitbit, Abbas nonetheless grew unhappy with the business path that the position put him on.

“My daily job involved lots of email exchanges and small managerial tasks, and I found them quite boring,” said Abbas, “after speaking with the Fitbit engineers, I found robotics to be very interesting and technically challenging.”

“Robotics and autonomous vehicles are about to get into every aspect of our lives. I want to ride the next wave of the robotics, maturing the industry and making it more accessible to everyone. To do that I need acquire sufficient technical skills, and a PhD is my best bet.”

Feeling like the Only Choice Sometimes, pursuing a PhD can seem to be the only available choice after undergrad.

Clubs is a current PhD student at Harvard Medical School. Already featured in my previous article , she happily accepted my second interview, this time on why she pursued PhD.

“Graduate school was kind of a choice by default for me,” said Clubs, “I did not really explore different career options in undergrad. So close to graduation, I didn’t know what kind of jobs were out there for me.”

“I also didn’t feel the urge to join the workforce after my bachelor’s study, maybe because I was young and naïve,” said Clubs jokingly. “At the same time, all of my friends were studying for the GRE and applying for US graduate school. So I just followed suit. Later I got into Harvard, which was the best outcome I could have hoped for.”

During her time at Harvard, Clubs actively tried out different careers, including venture capital, biotech, and management consulting. Currently, she is interning in Shanghai at the Boston Consulting Group, one of the world’s premium consultancy firms.

“The flexibility of my PhD program leaves me lots of room for other stuff, and I did take the luxury of time to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life.”

So why do you want to pursue a PhD? I should note that I am not issuing personal judgments on anything or anyone above. After all, everyone has his or her own personal reason to pursue a doctoral degree as well as a unique expectation out of the program experience. What I’d like to mention is: it is one thing to convince the admission committees that you are a good PhD candidate, but it’s another to convince yourself that starting a doctoral program represents your best professional, intellectual, and personal interest.

So why do you want to pursue a PhD?

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Can a PhD student apply for another PhD program in some other university?

Would it make a negative impact on my PhD application if they get to know that I am already enrolled in PhD and now applying for another program in their University?

international-students

2 Short answer is yes. We do not usually accept transferring students readily. This usually indicates that a student is weak. There are of course, exceptions. – Prof. Santa Claus Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 20:21
I was an exception. – JeffE Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 21:11
@Prof.SantaClaus not always. There are A-hole PhD advisors and many good students could fall prey to them. Smart ones are more likely to transfer out or change the field without loosing a chunk of their life. Example of A-hole advisor: there was a PI in my department who used to publish all papers from his lab as a first author and the department had a minimum of 2 papers requirement to graduate. Two of the students from his lab got out only after eight years and the department had to waive the requirements for them. I know many advisors being charged with racial descrimination/Title IX.. – MAPK Commented Nov 2, 2019 at 0:53

2 Answers 2

Yes, you can apply, just as anyone else. But yes, it is possible that people in your current program would take it as a negative. And, yes again, that the other university or program might rank you a bit lower if you already have a "suitable" position in a doctoral program. But I doubt that the last would be a large factor in most cases.

But there are a lot of reasons to switch. Some of them are very important. If you have a serious need to switch, either for personal or academic reasons, don't hesitate to explore your options and follow up on good ones. This is especially true if you don't think you have a good path to success where you are now.

People understand that others change their minds and their directions. They understand the need to move locations and situations. They understand that some qualified students are in a bad situation.

Not really. There are people doing more than 2 degrees at the same time. That is relatively common for people that want to end up at the same time with extra certifications and there are universities that offer a discount on the second degree's payments. However, it is understood such is extremely demanding.

If what you are planning is a switch on PHD and you care what others may think, then there shouldn't be a problem either, but I advise you to say (and only if you are asked) exactly that, that you wish to pursue 2 PHD's simultaneously, and then, when you are on the other you can say that it was indeed too demanding and need to drop 1 to be able to finish the other. Otherwise, you are the paying client of the university (most PHD's around the world are paid for by the student and only so few are by scholarships), so if you want to switch then there shouldn't be a problem. And in the rare case its not a paid PHD (whihc can be the case for some european PHD's) , then just check your universities regulations to see if there is any type of penalty.

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Working While you Study for Your PhD

Written by Hannah Slack

It's possible to work during a PhD with careful time management. You might choose to do this if you need a job to help cover the cost of a postgraduate degree. Or, you may want to learn industry-based skills to benefit your future career. This page will take you through the different types of work PhD students often undertake, and the pros and cons of maintaining a job alongside such an intensive degree.

Depending on the amount of work you plan to undertake, you will have to consider whether it would be better to do your PhD part-time or full-time. It’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to do a full-time job alongside a full-time PhD. However, it is possible to work part-time alongside a full-time PhD (or vice versa).

What type of work can you do during a PhD?

There are many different types of work PhD students can apply for. When someone says that they work alongside their PhD, most will assume that they have a stable, permanent contract. However, many PhD students work short-term contracts.

Contract work

The most common job for doctoral students is teaching undergraduates. Most departments will offer teaching opportunities to second-year and above researchers, paying you for training, seminar time, prep work and marking. Usually, you'll be able to decide how many seminar groups you wish to take on, allowing you to schedule work around your research. Teaching is an excellent chance to experience the other responsibilities that come with working in academia .

Another popular type of contract work is assistance roles . Many academics run outreach programmes that require more hours than they’re able to put in. Usually, emails will be sent around the departments advertising a short-term role. Jobs often include data entry, content management and research assistance. Again, these can be a great opportunity to build up workplace specific skills and receive a small financial boost.

Permanent roles

Some PhD students may also work more permanent roles. Often, self-funded students have to seek employment in order to financially afford tuition and living expenses. These students usually work part-time in industry . This can be both within and outside of the university. The types of roles students may undertake include admin, hospitality and even marketing. It’s a good idea to search for roles that match up with your skill set and future career goals .

Given the academic pressures of a PhD, many universities advise students not to work more than 16 hours a week . Otherwise, they may find themselves falling behind on a full-time PhD programme.

Pros and cons of working during a PhD

Working during a PhD can be a great opportunity to learn new skills and refine your current ones for future job applications. In fact, many Research Councils often require their funded students to undertake some form of work experience in order to build industry related skills.

However, managing a job on top of your own research can be stressful and limit the amount of free time you have available. Here are some of the most important pros and cons to consider before applying for a job.

Gain more industry related experience
Helps reduce financial pressure
Regular forced breaks from your research can help refresh the mind
Make connections with work colleagues, reducing the isolation often associated with PhD research
Less time in the week to work on your PhD
Schedule clashes could mean you miss out on academic opportunities, such as conferences
Potential feelings of isolation from the academic community if you’re committed to an industry job

Tips for working during a PhD

#1 prioritise workload management.

The main thing to consider before applying for a job during your PhD is how you’re going to manage the workload. The PhD already comes with a hefty amount of work and so adding to that can cause additional stress.

The key is to set your priorities and manage your time effectively , taking regular breaks. Just like a job allows you to take holiday, do the same for your PhD. If the workload gets too much, be willing to consider the necessity of your job or whether it would be possible to reduce your PhD from full-time study to part-time .

#2 Talk to your supervisor

You should also discuss your situation with your supervisor so they’re aware of your wider responsibilities and time restraints. They’ll then be able to better advise on your progress. Additionally, you should make your industry boss aware of your PhD commitments. They too may be able to assist you. This might mean offering flexibility to your hours in case of last-minute academic events or allowing extended holiday to prepare for the viva .

#3 Don't forget to get involved in the research community

Working while studying can be time-consuming, but it's important to stay in touch with the wider research community nonetheless! Make sure you still find the time to attend conferences, seminars and networking events. This will help you form academic connections and get the most out of your doctorate.

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What international students should know before starting a PhD

Becoming a PhD student is no easy feat — even more so if you are an international student.

During this period, you are a researcher. Imagine being responsible for forming your hypotheses and defending them in front of your supervisor or peers.

This can be a drastic change of pace from studying for your bachelor’s or master’s degree — which is more passive and comes with less accountability.

What’s more, you might not have time for your friends, family or even yourself. Instead, you’ll meet with supervisors, craft your PhD research proposal and interview people. You can expect to write a lot — and to meet the deadlines that come with it.

It’s a huge commitment, so knowing what to expect can help you adapt to this change. Don’t worry, though, as we will guide you through all you should know before starting your PhD:

Starting your PhD with the right expectation and mentality can help you put your best foot forward. Source: David Ryder/Getty Images North America/Getty Images/AFP

What does PhD mean?

A PhD, or Doctor of Philosophy, is the highest possible academic degree you can obtain as a student once you submit a thesis or dissertation.

These are academic papers that you write based on extensive and original research done in a chosen field.

On average, it can take you up to eight years to complete your PhD. This will change according to the programme, the subjects you’ve picked and the university offering the programme.

What does PhD stand for?

PhD is short for (Ph)ilosophiae (D)octor in Latin. The word “philosophy” comes from the Ancient Greek philosophia, literally translated as “love of wisdom.”

Are PhD students doctors?

You are entitled to use the title “Dr.” once you graduate with a PhD.

They are different from the doctors you see in the hospitals as PhD graduates as social and physical scientists who have conducted and evaluated published research.

Do PhD students get paid?

Yes. They receive a salary, which is also known as a stipend. A higher stipend can help you to cope with an increased cost of living.

Currently, the average cost of living is around 1,000 to 1,600 pounds per month, including rent. This range can change depending on your lifestyle and whether you are staying with a friend.

The increasing cost of living, however, have pushed stipends below the living wage, The Guardian reported.

This has resulted in some candidates struggling to pay rent and forcing them to work part-time jobs.

In June 2022, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced that the minimum stipend for UKRI-supported students is due to increase by 2.9% for the 2022-23 academic year.

4 things to consider before studying abroad as a PhD student

1. choosing your research topic.

We get it: you want to write something impactful that you can bring forward in your career. It’s normal to feel stuck when thinking about a research topic .

Lucky for you, there are many ways to be inspired. You can start by attending conferences.

Even if you don’t have a paper to present, these events can help you source research ideas and connect with experts in the field.

Linkedin is a great alternative, too. Some faculty members share bits of their research topics on the platform. Try typing “#researchtopic” in the search bar and you will be able to filter through the relevant post.

2. Applying for the right student visa

Give yourself ample time to apply for your student visa. We recommend that you read up on how to apply for an F-1 or Tier 4 student visa if you plan to do your PhD in the US and UK, respectively.

This handy step is crucial to help you avoid any visa delays that can jeopardise your study plans.

One student had his offer to pursue a PhD programme at a Canadian uni withdrawn after being forced to defer his admission for a third time.

At the time, he had been waiting for his Canadian student visa to come through for 18 months.

Generally, most international students would require a student visa to do their PhD. Do check if there is an agreement between countries that allow citizens to move freely between them.

For example, a PhD student from New Zealand will not need a student visa to study in Australia.

As a PhD student, you will teach or become a research assistant. Most unis will pay you for this work in the form of stipends. Source: Tolga Akmen/AFP

3. Look for scholarships and financial aids

Lucky for you, there are scholarships for PhD students. Countries like the UK value a strong research culture, so it’s no surprise that many UK unis offer good scholarship packages that cover your cost of living plus an annual stipend or maintenance grant.

Some scholarships even offer you an allowance.

Those studying for their PhD in the US can consider applying for financial aid .

4. Know how to protect your mental health as a PhD student

Mental health among PhD students is poor, according to a survey done on postgraduate students in the UK.

As a PhD student, it can often feel like your wellbeing is slipping away.

Whenever this happens, feel free to reach out to your supervisor.

Aditi Paul wasn’t afraid to do this while pursuing her PhD at Bowling Green State University.

“I took a course on statistics for social science. Since it was my first time studying the topic, I would visit my professor during office hours every week,” Paul shares.

“Here, I would ask for more clarification of my weekly assignments to ensure I was on the right track.”

You can also talk to a friend or walk into your uni’s wellbeing office if you feel overwhelmed.

Use an on-campus mental health service, such as counselling, if you need professional help.

Always remember that there is always someone you can talk to on or off campus.

You can also listen to mental health podcasts or download apps like Headspace to relax your mind.

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Another Degree of Success
Graduate School Blog

How to Read Like a Grad Student

Title of the article with a picture of the actual book Grad School Essentials

If you follow our Instagram stories, you know that we are fans of Zachary Shore’s Grad School Essentials. Your interest is peaked, and you’re now here to dive deeper.

Congratulations, you are already thinking like a grad student!

Now let’s get you reading like a grad student!

Understanding how to dissect and critique texts efficiently can be a huge time saver in grad school. Professors assign so much reading, and you’re left wondering if there are enough hours in the day to read them, especially if you’re expected to read every single word. What happens if you try? In Shore’s words, you're likely to become a “book zombie.” How often have you read a page, or even several pages, stopped and thought, “What did I just read?” That is the entryway to becoming a book zombie.

Whether reading a scholarly book or an article in a research journal, the following tips will help you comprehend more and save time.

Read for the thesis. The thesis is the author’s main argument. Your goal as a grad student is to find the argument and, ultimately, to critique it.

1. Analyze the Title & Subtitle: The title provides a first clue to the thesis. Subtitles can dig a little deeper into the direction the author is heading. Think actively by dissecting the meaning behind the title and subtitle. Ask yourself what the author might be trying to convey.

2. Scrutinize the Table of Contents: Review the titles of each chapter next. Just like the title of the book, they provide clues as to what the author is arguing. Each chapter serves as a key piece of evidence in the argument, with the chapter titles identifying the main point.

3. Read the Conclusion First: Conclusions summarize the big idea that the author has worked so hard to convey. Once you locate the thesis within the conclusion, restate or rephrase it and write it down in the simplest terms possible.

4. Read the Introduction: Now it’s time to start from the beginning. Find the thesis in the introduction. It will likely be worded differently than the conclusion, but the point is the same. Restate or rephrase the argument and write it down. Compare your intro summary to your summary from the conclusion. If they match, you found your thesis. If they don’t align, it means you need to take a look again. You may have misidentified the thesis or misunderstood it.

5. Target Key Chapters & Sections: Once the thesis is clear, it’s time to identify and understand the evidence the author uses to back up the argument. The evidence is found in individual chapters and sections of the book or article. Write down the big claim being made in each chapter, later you can review and determine if each claim is supported with sufficient evidence and logic. Now you’re thinking about the bigger picture. How does the thesis and evidence link to a larger question?

6. Concentrate on Subheadings & Topic-Sentences: Analyzing a text needs to be done in an efficient way to save time. Actively skim the chapters with an eye to the argument and evidence. Read subheadings and topic sentences to determine how much to give to the entire paragraph. As you identify the key evidence, restate or rephrase it and write it down.

After identifying the thesis and supporting arguments, focus on the sections and evidence that matters most.

Adopt this approach, and you’ll be ready to discuss the assigned readings. Whether in class or in a written assignment, your professor will have no doubt that you understood what you read.

A key strategy for Shore is to restate or rephrase what you read in your own words. Doing so helps you understand and retain the thesis and supporting arguments. Plus, being able to articulate the thesis and evidence in your own words is essential when critiquing the text.

Next Up: How to Critique Texts Like a Pro: A Summary From Grad School Essentials

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Admission Steps

Chemistry - phd, admission requirements.

Terms and Deadlines

Degree and GPA Requirements

Prerequisites

Additional standards for non-native english speakers, additional standards for international applicants.

For the 2025-2026 academic year

See 2024-2025 requirements instead

Fall 2025 quarter (beginning in September)

Priority deadline 1: December 9, 2024

Priority deadline 2: January 15, 2025

Final submission deadline: July 15, 2025

International submission deadline: May 5, 2025

Priority deadline: Applications will be considered after the Priority deadline provided space is available.

Final submission deadline: Applicants cannot submit applications after the final submission deadline.

Degrees and GPA Requirements

Bachelors degree: All graduate applicants must hold an earned baccalaureate from a regionally accredited college or university or the recognized equivalent from an international institution.

University GPA requirement: The minimum grade point average for admission consideration for graduate study at the University of Denver must meet one of the following criteria:

A cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the baccalaureate degree.

A cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the last 60 semester credits or 90 quarter credits (approximately two years of work) for the baccalaureate degree.

An earned master’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution or the recognized equivalent from an international institution supersedes the minimum GPA requirement for the baccalaureate.

A cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for all graduate coursework completed for applicants who have not earned a master’s degree or higher.

Applicants must earn and submit proof of earning the equivalent of a baccalaureate degree in chemistry, biochemistry or a related field from a regionally accredited institution prior to beginning graduate coursework at DU.

Official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), C1 Advanced or Duolingo English Test are required of all graduate applicants, regardless of citizenship status, whose native language is not English or who have been educated in countries where English is not the native language. Your TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test scores are valid for two years from the test date.

The minimum TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test score requirements for this degree program are:

Minimum TOEFL Score (Internet-based test): 80

Minimum IELTS Score: 6.5

Minimum C1 Advanced Score: 176

Minimum Duolingo English Test Score: 115

Additional Information:

Read the English Language Proficiency policy for more details.

Read the Required Tests for GTA Eligibility policy for more details.

Per Student & Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) regulation, international applicants must meet all standards for admission before an I-20 or DS-2019 is issued, [per U.S. Federal Register: 8 CFR § 214.3(k)] or is academically eligible for admission and is admitted [per 22 C.F.R. §62]. Read the Additional Standards For International Applicants policy for more details.

Application Materials

Transcripts, letters of recommendation.

Required Essays and Statements

Other Required Materials

We require a scanned copy of your transcripts from every college or university you have attended. Scanned copies must be clearly legible and sized to print on standard 8½-by-11-inch paper. Transcripts that do not show degrees awarded must also be accompanied by a scanned copy of the diploma or degree certificate. If your academic transcripts were issued in a language other than English, both the original documents and certified English translations are required.

Transcripts and proof of degree documents for postsecondary degrees earned from institutions outside of the United States will be released to a third-party international credential evaluator to assess U.S. education system equivalencies. Beginning July 2023, a non-refundable fee for this service will be required before the application is processed.

Upon admission to the University of Denver, official transcripts will be required from each institution attended.

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required. It is recommended that these letters be submitted by individuals capable of assessing your ability to succeed in courses and research in graduate school, for example former chemistry professors and/or research advisors. Letters should be submitted by recommenders through the online application.

Essays and Statements

Personal statement instructions.

A personal statement of at least 300 words is required. The statement should include information concerning your life, education, practical experience, special interests and specific purpose for applying to the University of Denver. Describe your goals for attending graduate school. What areas of chemistry or biochemistry are you most interested in? What do you hope to do after you complete your graduate studies? Why do you enjoy chemistry or biochemistry? Describe any research or teaching experience you have had. Have you been involved in an undergraduate research project during the academic year or in the summer? Have you had a summer job or internship in a commercial lab? Have you had experience in teaching as a grader, a lab teaching assistant or a lab preparatory assistant? Specifically mention research groups at DU that you would be most interested in joining, and why. Share anything in your personal statement that you believe will help evaluate your application.

Résumé Instructions

The résumé (or C.V.) should include work experience, research, and/or volunteer work.

Additional requirements for this program:

Applicants may be contacted to schedule an admissions interview.

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Financial Aid Information

Start your application.

Your submitted materials will be reviewed once all materials and application fees have been received.

Our program can only consider your application for admission if our Office of Graduate Education has received all your online materials and supplemental materials by our application deadline.

Application Fee: $65.00 Application Fee

International Degree Evaluation Fee: $50.00 Evaluation Fee for degrees (bachelor's or higher) earned from institutions outside the United States.

Applicants should complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by February 15. Visit the Office of Financial Aid for additional information.

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Graduate student spotlight: alexa pérez torres.

September 3, 2024

As an MCO graduate student in the Murray Lab , Alexa Pérez Torres is investigating what happens when you break the cell cycle rules in yeast. She also serves as the MCB department’s Media and Design Fellow (MDF) in the Bok Center’s Learning Lab .

“Alexa is a fantastic young scientist,” says MCB faculty and Pérez Torres’s adviser Andrew Murray . “She has the courage to work on a risky project, the dedication and technical skill to make difficult experiments work, and she gives some of the clearest and most engaging talks that I’ve heard.”

Hailing from a small town in Puerto Rico, Pérez Torres has been curious about science and the natural world for as long as she can remember. At age three, she was already wearing a lab coat and safety goggles to peer through a microscope. Her scientific curiosity led her to major in biology as an undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey .

Determined to continue in science, Pérez Torres did a post baccalaureate research project in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. There, she joined Loyal Goff’s lab and studied the effects of cell cycle length on developing mouse embryos’ brains. “It was really helpful for me narrowing down what I did or didn’t want to do,” she says.

MCB’s diverse research was part of what drew Pérez Torres to the MCO program, as well as the focus on communicating science clearly. “When I came here to interview, one of the components was this journal club where the students instead of having digital slides, they made these hand drawn slides,” she recalls. “And that was also aha moment for me. The design of your slide, because it’s hand drawn, has to be very intentional. You have to extract all of the salient points from the topic that you’re trying to talk about. It made a difference for me thinking about MCO and Harvard versus other programs.”

Pérez Torres is a member of the Murray Lab. “I feel like Andrew and I are a pretty daring duo, and we had to choose a project that matched that energy from us,” she says. For her thesis research, Pérez Torres chose a project that “breaks all the rules in the game.” She is investigating what happens in Saccharomyces yeast cells when a type of gene regulation called phase-dependent transcription is shut down. She likens cells with phase-dependent transcription to a Ferrari, while cells without it are more like a 1996 Nissan Sentra. One has more “bells and whistles” than the other, but both are cars that will get you to a destination, she says. Thus, her project is to turn “a Ferrari of a cell” into a “1996 Nissan Sentra” and see what happens.

“We want to know how much of the complexity of biology is essential as opposed to things which aren’t necessary but conferred an advantage as they evolved,” explains Murray. “It’s like asking which of the things that induced you to buy your last car (from heated seats to video screens for kids in the back) could you remove and still be able to get from Boston to the Cape. Because some cells, like frog and sea urchin eggs, don’t have messenger RNAs whose abundance goes up and down in the cell division cycle, we wanted to ask what would happen to yeast cells if you removed the fluctuations of the messenger RNAs that do go up and down in the yeast cell cycle.”

What happens in yeast cells without phase-dependent transcription resembles some cancer cells. “All restrictions are lifted, and everything starts kind of operating in a way that everything’s happening without consideration for what’s happening in the rest of the cell,” Perez-Torres says. “All hell breaks loose, and it’s really fun to look at.” When she’s not studying yeast cells, Pérez Torres often works on graphic design projects in her capacity as a Media and Design Fellow (MDF) in the Bok Center’s Learning Lab . MDFs are typically graduate students from various departments who look into ways to apply different media in learning. They experiment in the Learning Lab and share strategies and tools they’ve learned with their home department. MDFs typically serve for one academic year, but some, like Perez-Torres, choose to re-apply and work as MDFs for multiple years. Applications for the position are handled through the Bok Center. Perez-Torres says working in the Learning Lab is “incredibly challenging and so fun.”

Pérez Torres has taught herself graphic design as a way to make science more accessible. Her accomplishments as an MDF include designing the template for the 30th anniversary MCB lab posters. The posters remained on display in the BioLabs first floor hallway throughout the summer. “This poster session was quite different because it addressed the big-picture questions: ‘What do you—the lab do?,’ ‘Why do you do it?,’ How do you go about it?” says Director of Scientific Graphics and Communications Renate Hellmiss.

“The viewer didn’t have to be a scientist to grasp the overall concepts of the posters,” Hellmiss continues. “Since my office is down the hallway from where those posters were hung, I saw how many people stopped by the posters and most took time to walk from poster to poster. MCB should consider having a permanent display of lab posters and update them on a regular basis. It is a wonderful way to share the wide range of research that is conducted in MCB, but also to make it understandable to a wider audience. These posters will not replace the research posters that are geared towards scientists because data needs to be shared, and conclusions need to be drawn. However, Alexa did a great job to make this happen. I would really like to thank her for spending the time to design this poster session and for guiding the labs through the process of creating their posters.”

Alexa next to the Murray Lab poster

Pérez Torres has also hosted a workshop to help graduate students prepare for Chalk Talks and will throw a workshop to train MCB scientists to use graphic design tools like Blender. Another key project was collaborating with MCB faculty Amanda Whipple on the course MCB 197 , where they incorporated graphic design into assignments such as posters and graphical abstracts.

She will continue on as MCB’s MDF for another academic year. “Alexa excels at aligning her designs for a workshop with the course’s goals for students,” says Assistant Director of the Learning Lab Christine D’Auria , who works closely with MDFs. “Alexa is consistently willing to try new things in the service of getting to this future of academic communication, and she collaborates with other MDFs and with our Learning Lab staff to ensure that the experience for students is as academically rich and engaging as possible. She’s a true team player and an innovative instructor, and we’re beyond lucky to work with her.”

Going forward, Pérez Torres plans to stay in academia but says she wants science communication and design to remain major aspects of her career. She sees being intentional about communicating science as essential to the practice of science.“We can really even out the playing field for me if you put it in a way that’s digestible, simple to understand, and really neatly packaged,” she says. “Not only do I see a direct correlation between how well you’re showing me your research and how well I’m understanding, but I see that across the community.”

Alexa Pérez Torres

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The Graduate School

Welcome graduate students.

Dear UConn Graduate Students,

Welcome to UConn at the start of another academic year. During this semester, you may be pursuing advanced credentials in one of our graduate professional schools or engaging in research as you work towards a master’s or Ph.D. degree. Simultaneously, you may be working on or off campus, including by teaching, training, or mentoring other UConn students. Through your various roles, you are advancing UConn’s institutional goals . Thank you for the many contributions you will continue to make on behalf of UConn.

By virtue of your many roles, both professional and personal, you may feel pulled in different directions this year. You are a valued member of our academic community with important obligations to others. But do not forget that you came to UConn primarily to learn, to train, and to be mentored yourself. First and foremost, you are a student. I encourage you to keep your own academic, professional, and personal goals clear in your mind as you face the challenges ahead.

And speaking of challenges, please also keep in mind that The Graduate School is here to help you, together with our partners in the schools and colleges and various student support offices at UConn. The Graduate School has dedicated staff to assist graduate students who are facing academic, interpersonal, or other challenges. So please reach out. Below, I list some reminders and helpful links.

Best wishes for a healthy, happy, and successful academic year.

Leslie M. Shor

Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School

KEY RESOURCES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS AT UCONN

Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Affairs, The Graduate School

All new graduate students are encouraged to complete an online orientation experience. The orientation provides important information about academic and everyday life at UConn and is the first step to ensuring your success and getting you connected to our community. Our online orientation materials include videos and modules designed to help you navigate the various opportunities at UConn and to help you gain valuable skills and experiences that will enhance your graduate education. To access orientation: 1) Log in to your Application Status Portal ; 2) Open your matriculated application; and 3) Select the Orientation tab.

Current students should bookmark our Resources for Current Students page where you can find information on Guidance and Support, Career Support, Financing, and Getting Involved.

The Graduate School’s Network for Enriched Mentorship (NEM) is a UConn-wide interdisciplinary mentoring network, open to all graduate students, but with a special focus on minoritized graduate students and those who come from backgrounds that may disadvantage them. Through NEM, graduate students can find mentors to help them navigate issues that arise outside of their coursework and dissertations. We hope that by connecting students with mentors who have experience navigating obstacles (e.g., systemic bias, personal hardship, alternative career trajectories), or who can be effective and accountable allies, more students will feel supported and empowered in their graduate careers and beyond. Graduate students interested in NEM should sign up to be a mentee !

The Graduate School’s Fall Timely Topics Series now includes sessions specifically designed for graduate students. These sessions focus on financial literacy, time management, how to have effective conversations about difficult things, and information about accommodations through the Center for Students with Disabilities that will be relevant to both graduate students and graduate students who hold a TA role.

The Graduate School staff is available to answer questions about both academic and non-academic resources that are available to graduate students and advise on strategies for navigating challenges. If you need additional support, email [email protected] and a staff member will help you.

The Student Code

Responsibilities of Community Life: The Student Code has been updated recently, as were policies for Posting Signs , holding Outdoor Activities , and utilizing Amplified Sound . The updates were done primarily to lend clarity to policy, rather than to establish new rules. If you are planning any gatherings, or posting signs, we strongly encourage you to consult Student Activities , or your Campus Dean, and review these policies. Students should also be aware of InForm which collects UConn reporting and support resources.

Graduate Student Senate (GSS)

The Graduate Student Senate is a representative body comprised of and serving graduate students at UConn. Contact GSS directly for more information.

Upcoming GSS meetings:

Orientation Meeting-Mandatory In-Person Meeting for all New and Returning GSS Members- September 18, 2024, 6-8PM in Student Union 221
Regular GSS Meetings- September 25, 2024, 6-8PM in Student Union 221

Center for Students with Disabilities

Graduate students may want to explore the possibility of accessing accommodations with the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD). To begin the process of requesting accommodations, visit csd.uconn.edu and click on the MyAccess button to get registered. You will then be assigned to work with a Disability Services Provider who will engage with you to discuss your concerns and appropriate accommodations. Students requesting accommodations will need to provide supporting documentation. Please share the guidelines with your external medical, psychological, or educational professional to obtain appropriate documentation. Contact Timothy Smagacz, Program Assistant, at (860) 486-2020 or [email protected] with questions regarding documentation.

Student Health and Wellness – Mental Health

For Storrs students (undergrad or graduate) who pay the SHaW fee, students may access SHaW-MH by calling 860-486-4705 or by scheduling a screening appointment here . SHaW provides mental health services to promote the emotional, relational, and academic potential of undergraduate and graduate students. SHAW-Mental Health offers:

Rapid access screening appointments
Emergency/Crisis assessment
Individual and group therapy
Medication management
Mindfulness/Meditation/Yoga workshops
Referral and off-campus support services

Regional campus students (undergrad or graduate) seeking mental health resources will find campus-specific contact information here .

Medical, dental and graduate students at UConn Health will find mental health evaluation and treatment resources here .

Ombuds Office

The UConn Ombuds Office serves as a neutral resource providing confidential and informal assistance to members of the UConn and UConn Health community. Professional and graduate students may meet with an ombuds officer to express concerns, identify options to address workplace conflicts, facilitate productive communication, and surface responsible concerns regarding university policies and practices.

Contact Information

860-486-3617

[email protected]

The Whetten Graduate Center, Second Floor University of Connecticut 438 Whitney Road Extension, Unit-1152 Storrs, CT 06269-1152

8:30am to 4:30pm Monday through Friday

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‘Breach of contract’: Indian student at Oxford University takes legal action; alleges racial bias over PhD rejection

The student who hails from tamil nadu, said that she has ‘initiated legal action’ because she has ‘not received justice’ from the appeals and complaints mechanism from the university of oxford.

Oxford (United Kingdom), August 31 (ANI): An Indian student enrolled at UK's Oxford University has accused the prestigious varsity of racial bias, harassment and injustice. Lakshmi Balakrishnan who hails from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, said that she has "initiated legal action" because she has "not received justice from the appeals and complaints mechanism" instituted by the university.

As per her claims she had joined Oxford university in October 2018 to pursue a PhD on Shakespeare in the English faculty.

"In November 2021 during an internal assessment process known as confirmation of status in the fourth year of my studies my assessors at Oxford failed me by reasoning in the assessment report that Shakespeare does not have the scope for doctoral level studies," Balakrishnan said.

She alleges that this constitutes a "breach of contract" by the university.

"It is actually a breach of contract because when I applied to Oxford I clearly mentioned in my application that my PhD thesis is going to be on Shakespeare. The scope of my PHD thesis has continued to remain the same since the time of mu application to Oxford and therefore I believe that this constitutes a fundamental breach of contract when the university failed my PHD exam," she said.

The student said that she has "assiduously followed all the appeals and complaints process and shown respect to these procedures" but felt let down by these procedures.

"I want justice for my PhD confirmation issue," she said.

"Since December 2021, I have filed several appeals and complaints in various stages both within the university as well as in the Office of the Independent Adjudicator of my PhD problem," Balakrishnan added.

She stated that the university and the OIA refused to uphold the appeal because they said that the assessors are credited scholars and their decision "academic judgement" must be accepted.

"I am not challenging the academic judgement of the assessors on their academics, I am challenging the judgement on the basis of racial bias and procedural irregularity," Balakrishnan alleged.

She said she had spent over 100,000 pounds by "making immense sacrifices."

"After spending such an enormous sum of money which is 100,000 pounds the least they could do is to allow me to submit my PhD thesis and undertake my final viva, that is all that I am expecting," she said.

The graduate student said that after the appeals and complaints procedure of the university failed to grant her justice, she has initiated legal action.

"The university's actions have disadvantaged me financially and affected my job prospects," claimed Balakrishnan

She said she has also started a Go fund page appealing to the public for "financial support to seek justice."

She further said that she has appealed to the Vice Chancellor and the Pro Vice Chancellor of the university.

"I have requested meetings from them. Unfortunately, I have not had a positive response from them," she said.

"My own college at Oxford has testified about severe irregularities as had happened in my case. I would appreciate it if they could positively resolve my case," she said.

The Indian student has also alleged that she believes her assessors were "motivated by racial bias" in failing her PhD thesis.

"There were two white students in my October 2018 cohort who pursued their PhD thesis on Shakespeare and their thesis were accepted while mine was not," Balakrishnan alleged.

She has alleged that after the assessors failed her PhD they forcibly transferred her to the Masters course without following due process.

"Without my consent. They have violated the principles of natural justice by transferring me to MA before I could even appeal the decision and have the outcome of that appeal. So this is discriminatory," she alleged.

"Throughout my case I have been denied procedural fairness. and decisions have been made in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. I have faced systemic bullying and harassment issues from the Oxford English faculty," Balakrishnan alleged.

‘Felt ostracised’

She claimed that in 2019 one of her confirmation assessors who had failed her bullied her at a seminar event and she had to stop attending all the seminar events.

"Because I felt ostracised after being subjected to harassment in a targeted manner by a senior academic," she said

"I think race was certainly a motivating factor behind the professor targeting me in that manner," she said adding that there is a "deep bias and discrimination against Indian students."

Balakrishnan said Indian students are disadvantaged seriously as a result of the deep bias.

She also claimed that "there is a reluctance from Oxford's English faculty to allow students of colour to thrive in the field by making original contributions."

‘Academic misconduct and plagiarism’

Balakrishnan has claimed that there is evidence of one of the assessors engaging in "academic misconduct and plagiarism" of her work and this she said raises serious questions about the "academic integrity of the November 2021 confirmation decision."

The student said that she has felt let down by the appeals and complaints process.

In September 2023, Rashmi Samant who had scripted history to become the first Indian to be elected as the President of the Oxford Student Union (SU) came out with a tell-all book, 'A Hindu in Oxford'

Samant detailed her harrowing experience of being allegedly targeted and singled by her professors at the university claiming that they questioned her holding the office of president citing her religious and ethnic backgrounds. (ANI)

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Professor Kimberly Rios and PhD Student Alexis Morales Receive Adversarial Collaboration Grant

Professor Kimberly Rios, PhD student Alexis Morales, and collaborator Michael Zarate at the University of Texas at El Paso have received a grant from the University of Pennsylvania's Adversarial Collaboration Project. Funded originally by the Koch Foundation (which gave a sub-award to UPenn), the project brings together researchers who have competing/opposing hypotheses and provides funds for the researchers to investigate which of these hypotheses is supported by the data. This project tests how Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans perceive political candidates and organizations who use the new terms "Latinx" and "Latine" to communicate with potential voters. Preliminary data suggests that Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans, particularly those who are cisgender and heterosexual, do not identify with the labels "Latinx" and "Latine," and view these labels as primarily used by non-Hispanic White people. The team is interested in extending these findings to the political realm and determining when the use of the terms "Latinx" and "Latine" is most likely to induce backlash. We asked Professor Rios to tell us more about this fascinating project. Could you provide some background on the motivation behind this project or pursuit?

All three of us (Alexis, Dr. Zarate, and I) identify as Hispanic/Latino(a). However, we differ in the extent to which we refer to ourselves and our communities as "Latinx" or "Latine". In our conversations about when Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans might find "Latinx" and "Latine" especially egregious, we found that we had different predictions! On one hand, Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans might be most averse to a non-Hispanic White politician (or primarily White organization) that adopts the terms "Latinx" and "Latine" if they perceive such terms as being imposed onto "us" (the ingroup) by "them" (the outgroup). On the other hand, Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans might be most averse to a Latino politician (or primarily Latino organization) that adopts the terms "Latinx" and "Latine" if they view doing so as pandering to White Americans' interests and, in a sense, betraying the ingroup. We look forward to learning which of these predictions is best supported by the data! Were there any collaborative efforts or partnerships that played a crucial role in the success of this project?

I'm grateful for the interesting and informative discussions my student Alexis and I have had about issues related to our identities and associated terminology. Without these discussions, our project would never have come to fruition. Additionally, not only has Dr. Zarate been a source of ideas (and sometimes opposing hypotheses!) for this project, but he is also my longtime friend and mentor in the field. I thank him for inspiring me to pursue identity-related research and providing constant encouragement (e.g., positive feedback on publications or reviews, going out of his way to make sure we connect at conferences) throughout my career. Major projects often come with challenges. Could you share a key challenge you faced and how you overcame it? What did you learn from this experience?

Despite that our initial data show overall resistance to the terms "Latinx" and "Latine" among the Hispanic/Latino(a) community, Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans who identify as LGBTQ+ may see "Latinx" and "Latine" as more inclusive than "Latino." (And we do have some evidence that this is the case among LGBTQ+ participants in our studies.) As a result, it is challenging to balance the needs and preferences of the Hispanic/Latino(a) community and the LGBTQ+ community. Because Hispanic/Latino(a) LGBTQ+ Americans belong to two different minority groups, they are perhaps especially sensitive to cues as to whether their identities are valued in different situations... and such cues can include language and labels. Thus, from a practical standpoint, we definitely wouldn't recommend using "Latino" instead of "Latinx" or "Latine" even if that is the preference of most Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans. Instead, the context and audience matter! Based on your experience with this endeavor, what advice or insights would you offer to others who might be considering similar opportunities?

Disagreement with other researchers can be healthy and constructive. Sometimes the most interesting ideas are borne out of competing theoretical perspectives and predictions. So, if you are chatting with a colleague and you can't agree on which of your perspectives is "correct," perhaps it is worthwhile to turn that chat into a research collaboration! Looking ahead, how do you see this project evolving or expanding?

We hope this project sheds light on the identity-related terms Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans prefer for politicians and organizations to use, and under what conditions. Perhaps more important, however, our results could have implications for the factors that mobilize Hispanic/Latino(a) voters and increase political engagement among this community. In the future, we'd like to assess such outcomes. We also are working on a separate set of studies assessing how Hispanic/Latino(a) college students' sense of belonging and motivation in school is affected by administrators' and professors' use of the terms "Latinx" and "Latine."

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"Studying PhD at the university" or "studying PhD in the university"?
I am studying PhD at the university. I am studying PhD in the university. In the above, both sentences are wrong. Inserting for a between studying and PhD would make sentence 1. correct. Sentence 2. would still be wrong, as in is the wrong preposition to use in this case: I am studying for a PhD at the university. [Correct] I am studying for a ...
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#2 It's a training programme. At the start of my PhD, I felt pressure to be perfect and to know what I was doing. I lost sight of the fact that I am still a student and am on my PhD programme to learn to become an independent researcher: my supervisors weren't expecting that from day one.
What is right: PhD student OF or IN? [SOLVED]
When you are trying to work out the preposition after the word PhD you have an option of using "of" or "in". In my experience, most people refer to their PhD being IN a particular subject. For example, I have a PhD in chemistry. It does not come naturally to me to say that I am a PhD of chemistry. Colloquially, you might say that you ...
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Students may be in the initial stage of the program or about to complete the coursework (before beginning their research). On the other hand, a PhD candidate has completed all coursework and has at least started their research. They may have completed their dissertation and are preparing to defend it. 2.
Difference Between a PhD Candidate and a PhD Student
A PhD student is in the initial stages of their program, actively engaging in coursework, research, and academic requirements. On the other hand, a PhD candidate has advanced beyond coursework, passed comprehensive exams, and is focused primarily on independent research and the completion of their dissertation.
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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."
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A PhD, meanwhile, follows a more widely known and traditional route and requires students, often referred to as "candidates", to produce their own work and research on a new area or topic to a high academic standard. PhD requirements vary significantly among countries and institutions.
PhD Candidate vs Student
Last Updated on: 2nd February 2024, 03:03 am . You make the transition from PhD student to PhD candidate after you complete all your coursework and your comprehensive exams (if required). A PhD candidate's sole task is to conduct their research and write their dissertation. In other words, a PhD student is still completing their coursework.
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PhD students are all mature students, as they have already completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees already. Most PhD students will have done a masters in preparation for starting a PhD , this is often an MPhil or a Masters by Research. All of this previous study means that PhD students have strong study skills and have spent time ...
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What is a PhD student or PhD candidate? [Updated]
A PhD Candidate is an individual who is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at a university or other tertiary education institution. They are usually referred to as " PhD students" or "PhD candidates.". In order to qualify for the PhD, a candidate must complete all of the program's coursework requirements and write and defend a ...
What's my professional title while working full time on my PhD?
Your educational status is "graduate student", "PhD student", or the like. You could also use language like "PhD (in progress)" or "PhD (expected completion 20xx)". You might be a "PhD candidate" but defer to your institution's rules as to if and when they consider you to have that status.
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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 ...
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What to call someone that is currently studying for their PhD?
9. The title would likely be "Mr." / "Mrs." / "Ms.". There is no prepended academic title that means "will likely have a doctorate at some point". In other news, a PhD student is probably not a good reference in the first place. You should look for somebody who has been in the game a bit longer and provide a reference that more plausibly ...
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Professor Kimberly Rios and PhD Student Alexis Morales Receive
Professor Kimberly Rios, PhD student Alexis Morales, and collaborator Michael Zarate at the University of Texas at El Paso have received a grant from the University of Pennsylvania's Adversarial Collaboration Project. Funded originally by the Koch Foundation (which gave a sub-award to UPenn), the project brings together researchers who have competing/opposing hypotheses and provides funds for ...

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9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD

1. Actively seek out information about PhD programs.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

9. There are no real breaks.

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6 Things I Learned from Being in a PhD Program

Learn to Trust Yourself

Listen to Your Advisor

Start Your Research as Early as You Can

Engage in Opportunities Outside of Your School

Stay in Touch With Friends and Family

Find and Maintain Hobbies you Enjoy

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