Sunday, September 9, 2018

Picking the Right PhD For You

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You’ve taken the plunge and decided that you want to spend another 3-4 years in the university system and change your title to those two little letters, Dr. If you’re looking at various research projects and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the variety and importantly how to make this decision, I’ve put together somethings that may help.

Pick your supervisor before you pick the project – Not all leaders are good leaders. Choose a supervisor who will have time to commit to you and your project. One that will be fair but support your growth throughout your PhD and ensure that you’ll finish within the allocated time frame (with enough data to get your degree). This isn’t one size fits all, so a supervision style that works for person X may not work for person Y.

Have a chat with former students/post-docs – So maybe you’ve got good vibes from the supervisor and you’re inspired and ready to go. Ask to speak to some of their former students, staff or post-docs to get an idea of what it’s really like working in their lab. Some supervisors may want to see their students in the lab by 6am or have hour long meetings daily, you should be aware of that before you start. How a supervisor treats their students and staff will tell you a lot about their personality and whether or not you’ll get along.

Money, money, money – Unless you’ve got a sizeable trust fund somewhere, most students won’t be able to self-fund their studies. The reality is, you’ve got bills to pay and money doesn’t grow on trees. Check into if and how much your stipend (basically your salary) will cover. This may be fully funded or partially funded depending on your nationality and the funding body requirements. External funding may also be an option but be aware that you’ll have to apply for this yourself. Consider your living-costs, will you need to work an extra job to cover these or will your stipend be sufficient? If you’re moving to a new country or city make sure you look up the cost of living in that city.

Picking a project – Obviously pick something you’re interested in. Try avoid projects that aren’t in the main research focus of your supervisor unless they have some amazing collaborators in that field to direct and support you. Consider if the project is a brand new idea or building on current work. A new idea may have more failures or more success. Sometimes you’re lucky, but sometimes it feels like banging your head against a wall, repeatedly. Not all projects will be well funded, this may limit the experiments you can do or force you to spend more time with an older technique, which is fine but be aware of it.

Ultimately, find what you’ll be interested in and motivated to contribute to. Good luck!

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