Straight from BSc to PhD

Hello all,

Just today, I found out that I have been entered into PhD entry for October 2018 as I was offered funding. However, prior to today I was under the impression that I would do a Masters (self-funded) and that this funding would be deferred until 2019. This appears to have been a miscommunication, and so I either accept my place this year or I would have to compete again next year.

I am likely to accept the funding and start my PhD this year regardless as I don't want to risk losing my funded place. My question is whether people have experience with going straight from undergraduate to a PhD and whether they can give insight into the challenges they faced and how they coped.

I'm open to insight from different subjects, but I will be doing Psychology if anyone can tell me anything specific on that.

Thank you for your time!

You might go under...i dont see how without at least doing a masters piece of work, how you could produce the original research at level 8....hoping this infuriates someone a bit more knowledgeable and can add something further.

I'm aware that it will be a challenge for me without the experience of a Masters, I'm more wondering if there's anyone who has been in my position who can provide insight. I have been informed that I will be allowed to take Masters modules during my PhD, so whilst I may be behind other students initially I'm hoping I can catch up.

I do have research experience with the supervisor I applied under, as well as the undergraduate dissertation, which I'm hoping will help me in working independently in the lab as I'm already familiar with the software being used.

The aim of this post wasn't to infuriate people but to ask for advice. I was put-off by the fact that my plans to take the Masters initially seem to have been due to a misunderstanding, and I would appreciate if anyone can offer any practical advice.

Thank you for your response regardless.

No i was hoping someone with more experience would read my statement tear it apart and offer more expert i advice, i wish you the best of luck. Im sure with hard work anything can be achieved.

I actually have a colleague who went straight to PhD from BSc in psychology. His work, as far as I can tell is up to the same standard as the rest of us. He doesn't seem to have any issues.

At undergrad I did an integrated masters where the main difference is I did more high level modules and my dissertation was master's level (i.e. longer and at a slightly higher level). If you're confident if you're in your writing and research skills then you shouldn't have a problem. Also PhD work is so specialised most of your masters / undergrad knowledge won't be applicable anyway.

I think one benefit of a masters is that it's far easier to complete whereas the drop out rate for PhDs is pretty high. So having a masters to fall back on may be beneficial.

I went straight from undergrad biological sciences (Biochemistry) to a PhD in biophysics. I imagine it was even more off a jump into the deep end for me as my undergrad dissertation was bioinformatics based, so the only actual lab experience I had was from an 8 week summer placemnt after 2nd year, and I actually knew very little about biophysics. For me, it felt a little bit like I'd just jumped into the deep end at the start, but now at 9 months in and having just finished my first year review, I don't feel behind at all. It's like, I spent months constantly worrying about not being good enough and not being independent enough and not knowing what I'm doing, and then one day I just was halfway through an experiment and realised that I actually did know what I was doing and I was doing really well with my project. I have also spoken to other PhD students who did a masters in a relevant field, or did relevant work experience for a couple years before their PhD, and everyone feels the same. When you are focussed on a project every day, you will learn things really quickly. An MRes might get you more used to the 9-5 mon-fri after undergrad, but an MRes is basically the first year of a PhD anyway, so you may as well go straight forthe PhD where you will actually get paid to be there