Posted: Aug 08, 2011 1:13 pm
Sonoran Lion wrote-
Yup, talk your box off. It is not wasted time. It is better to spend a few months in coffee shops and pubs, and getting into the grad students confidence so that they tell you things. With very few exceptions, a PhD will take at least three years, probably four. That is if you have honours already. If not, then you do a Masters and then convert. So it is worth spending a considerable amount of time writing to potential supervisors and schools, and trawling around getting the gossip.
I am not sure if this is universal, but at my uni the school gets PhD funding for 4 years, not 3. They will try and get to to finish in 3. This helps them balance the books because they lose money from drop-outs.
Schools are also getting obsessed with rubrics [performance criteria] for grad degrees. You have to do a progress report every six months. Lots of hoops like that, or at least more than the old days. It might differ depending on what country or uni you go to.
Thank you, I know very little of what experience to expect as a graduate student. Would you recommend talking to graduate students in a program before entering that program to get an idea of what the culture is like and who would make a decent supervisor?
Yup, talk your box off. It is not wasted time. It is better to spend a few months in coffee shops and pubs, and getting into the grad students confidence so that they tell you things. With very few exceptions, a PhD will take at least three years, probably four. That is if you have honours already. If not, then you do a Masters and then convert. So it is worth spending a considerable amount of time writing to potential supervisors and schools, and trawling around getting the gossip.
I am not sure if this is universal, but at my uni the school gets PhD funding for 4 years, not 3. They will try and get to to finish in 3. This helps them balance the books because they lose money from drop-outs.
Schools are also getting obsessed with rubrics [performance criteria] for grad degrees. You have to do a progress report every six months. Lots of hoops like that, or at least more than the old days. It might differ depending on what country or uni you go to.