My PhD Journey - Eleanor

00:00:00 – PhD place first, then scholarship

This is my voice note and finding scholarships for a PhD.

I think my first tip is to talk to people. This is definitely what helped me - talking to other students. PhD students who are maybe a year, two years, three years into their PhD journey and also talking to academic staff. Of course, before you're finding scholarships before you're applying for funding, you will need to have a PhD place first.

00:00:24 – Find supervisors first

You will need your potential supervisors. Whether you know them or you've just sent an e-mail in the last few months, I think talking to your potential supervisors is definitely a really good way to explore the fund options, as often they're very familiar, especially within the internal funding within the university. They understand what options there are for funding, so I think definitely talking to people is the way forward. This can also help with finding the funding, but also applying for it. People might be able to give you advice on that application as well as finding the scholarships.

00:00:57 – Check eligibility

You also need to have decided what research area you are interested in, your university and your potential supervisors before. Like I said, and this is really important. There's lots of potential funding is in specific areas in specific faculties, specific schools, for home students or international students, so checking this eligibility is also really important and often when you go on to funding pages, for example scholarships from universities, they highlight this criteria and so it's something that definitely reads that fine print as you don't want to have all these options and then realise that you're actually ineligible for some of them.

00:01:36 – Be aware of different sources of funding

Also recognising that funding comes from different sources, so funding is not just internal from the university, there are lots of societies, organisations and different groups that offer funding as well, so make sure to check different sources and not just limit yourself to university internal funding, especially at the minute as funding is definitely hard to come by. One way in which I did this was looking at the alternative guide to postgraduate funding. Here you could choose your research area, your gender,

if you're a home or an international student, and this is really helpful there and then it kind of shows you a list of lots of the funding that is available. And that's definitely a really good way to look for it. Another way, so this specifically applies to internal funding, but what I always like to do is you see what faculty you would be part of in your research area for your specific university that you've chosen. 00:02:37 – Contact the Faculty PGR Team

I always contact the faculty PGR team as often these people know what funding is available, so rather than try to scour the web if you want to check that you've found everything that is on offer from the university, then I always contact that team. It means that they might recognise your name in the future, but also they can often offer you an extensive list of what funding is available or give any pointers to you and I think that's really really great as well.

00:03:00 – Keep your options open

I also would say to keep your options unless for example, like me, I wanted to work with specific supervisors, so I wanted to specifically stay at the University of Leeds, but in general, especially if you've kind of not got specific supervisors you've been looking for people in your research area, but your options are quite open, then you can apply to as much funding as you like and I think this is also really important. Like I said, funding is very hard to come by. It is very difficult. And so I would keep your options open and apply to as many as you can. And this way you've obviously increasing your chance of getting funding. So I think this is really, really important. And so again, I'd talk to your supervisors about this.

00:03:36 – Scholarships are competitive

I think finding scholarships is really difficult. Unfortunately, there's not many at the minute within this current market space. And so taking these pointers, keeping your options open, talking to as many people as you can about it is a way to find more scholarships, but also really scouring the web using these guides. This is a really good way to find different scholarships. And yeah, good luck with applying for your funding.

 

00:00:43

This voice note is about handling rejection. I think handling rejection is a key part of applying for a PhD. Unfortunately, rejection is quite common when applying for a PhD, especially when applying for funding. One thing I would always say is definitely ask for feedback and see rejections as a way to build on your application, build on your CV, and the next time you apply, you have a better chance of getting the funding or getting the PhD place. So definitely ask for feedback. I think asking for feedback also looks really great and people know that you've asked for feedback. It's something that if you were applying to me for example, I would look really positively on the fact that you want to improve your application and learn from the experience.

00:00:43 – Have a Plan B

I think handling rejection is also easier, for example, if you have a Plan B, because if you have, all your plans waited on this one source of funding, for example, that you unfortunately do not get it makes the situation a lot more stressful. So not only are you upset that you've not been given the place, so you've not got the funding, but you also are in a much more difficult position because you've not had other options. So I think having a Plan B, whether this is other PhD places other sources of funding or just a different kind of maybe a gap year out a job, anything like this. I think it makes it a lot easier for you to handle the rejection as you're not in then a really difficult place. So I think that's definitely import.

00:01:24 – Rejection is not uncommon

Please also recognise that it is not uncommon to be rejected. The market is exceptionally competitive, there is not lots of funding places specifically in certain subject areas, so it is not always a reflection on you and so I think also bearing that in mind makes it easier to accept rejection as you know that it's not completely on you. And I think it's really important to recognise that it's really, really difficult to get funding, get these PhD places.

00:01:54 – Use other platforms to help with your application

I think also using other platforms like LinkedIn Learning can also help you develop your application. Maybe talk to your potential supervisors and let them know that you're applying for funding and they can help you. They could read through your application. I think it's always really great to get a second pair of eyes over your application before you do it and places like LinkedIn Learning are really good platforms that look through your CV and can help you decide what you should include, what you should and what's relevant.

00:02:22 – Careers platform

And if you're at a university as well, for example at Leeds, we have a resource and a platform called MyCareer and there's people within that that will look over your CV, look over your application and that's always a really, really great thing to do. And so I would go back and do that, especially if you have been rejected, they could maybe point out reasons why.

00:02:43 – Boosting the CV with research experience

I also think doing more experience is really good idea. Sell research experience, for example placements. There's lots of summer internships, but also part time roles. Again, if you're a current student at a university, often the university might offer part-time research roles and this is a really good way to also build on your application.

00:03:03

So maybe see the rejection as telling you to do something like this. Get more experience and decide what maybe was letting your application down. But again, I think it's trying not to be too hard on yourself and recognise that rejection is really common in this market, in academia and to make sure that from this that you can kind of move forward as I know, yeah, it's very, very difficult. So that would be my advice on handling rejection. Good luck with your applications.