• Question: What did you have to do to get your Ph.D ?

    Asked by anon-176403 to Simran, Mark on 18 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-176574.
    • Photo: Simran Chopra

      Simran Chopra answered on 18 Jun 2018:

      I had to write a meaning full research statement of what I am going do if given a chance. Also my prior work was relevant to what my research topic was.

      It also helps if you have published some of your work, attended conferences and given talks.

Comments

  • Photo: Ali

    Ali commented on :

    You have to find a research topic that no-one has ever looked at and then you spend 3 to 8 years running lots of experiments to learn more about it. Then you write it up in the mother of all experiment write-ups (I thought writing up experiments at school was hard but this thing was 70 to 100 000 words – about 300 pages long!). Then you have an oral exam called a viva where (usually) 2 experts read your work and ask you questions to see if what you’ve done is worthy of a PhD. I did mine looking at whether fish oil in pregnancy would make the baby less likely to get asthma, hay fever or allergies when they were an adult. It was hard work and I had lots of times my experiments went wrong and I thought I didn’t want to do it any more, but I’m glad I did 😁

  • Photo: Mark

    Mark commented on :

    I had to cast the one true ring into the fiery pits of MORDDOOORRRR.

    Oh wait, no, that was my Fellowship of the Ring journey…

    So yeh, same as the other guys, 3 years of degree, then 3 years of intensely studying a very specific research topic, and spending a year writing it up into a 90 page thesis, with painstaking attention to detail. Followed by a half day grilling by my bosses!

    All good fun! And now I have a book to show for it 😀