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Doctoral Applications

Reading an admissions page honestly, narrowing a research direction, timelines, funding deadlines and supervisor contact.

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Applying to doctoral programmes: what an admissions page does and does not promise, how narrow a research direction must be, application and scholarship timelines, English requirements, contacting and following up with a prospective supervisor.

PhD Admissions articles9 guides · Sorted by Latest
PhD Admissions12 min read

What should you ask after a professor says "send me more"?

A reply arrives after 11 days of silence: 3 lines, friendly, ending with something like interesting, send me more. Applicants treat it as progress, attach the proposal, write a paragraph of thanks and press send.

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PhD Admissions11 min read

Why do PhD application timelines collapse in the final month?

Ask an applicant in October whether they have enough time and the answer is almost always yes. Ask the same person in January, roughly 3 months later, and the answer has changed completely, though nothing dramatic happened in between.

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PhD Admissions11 min read

How narrow does a PhD research direction need to be?

Applicants usually answer it by counting words. They start with "marketing", decide that is too broad, and arrive at "the effect of AI-generated content on consumer trust in online retail".

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PhD Admissions11 min read

When is the real deadline for PhD scholarship funding?

There is a particular kind of message that arrives in an advisor's inbox every February, and it arrives from applicants to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands alike.

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PhD Admissions11 min read

What does a guaranteed PhD admission actually promise?

Three different promises tend to arrive wearing the same words. One is a promise about an outcome, one is a promise about work, and one is a promise about money.

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PhD Admissions11 min read

Why does a PhD offer hinge on your lowest IELTS band?

Look at a Test Report Form issued by IELTS, the International English Language Testing System jointly administered by the British Council, IDP IELTS Australia and Cambridge Assessment English, and notice something easy to miss: the overall…

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PhD Admissions10 min read

What is a PhD admissions page telling you without numbers?

Here is a quick test of how well you have read a programme page. You can probably quote its grade requirement and its language requirement from memory, the kind of thing that reads like IELTS 6.5 overall with no band below 6.0, or a GPA of…

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PhD Admissions11 min read

Does a taught master's qualify you to apply for a PhD?

Usually yes, and the more useful observation is that the question is aimed at the wrong thing. It treats eligibility as a property of the label on your certificate, when the people who decide are reading something else: what you personally…

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PhD Admissions11 min read

Is there a PhD programme with lower entry requirements?

It is the most common question MAAS mentors hear once an applicant has read a few admissions pages and found themselves short on one line of them.

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16 · PhD Admissions

Doctoral Applications

Reading an admissions page honestly, narrowing a research direction, timelines, funding deadlines and supervisor contact.

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Our editorial team publishes two new articles every week, typically on Tuesday and Friday. Every article is written by an active PhD or Master expert in the network, not by freelance writers.

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