Science PhD applicants 2021

Hi,
I couldn’t find a thread for people who’d applied to science PhD’s this year. I’m currently nervously waiting to hear the outcome of two interviews (both DTPs) and I am waiting on a response from another uni and it’d be nice to chat with other people applying/ waiting/ have got offers as I don’t know anyone else who’s applying for a PhD 😊.

hey! i'm a current masters student who applied to a bunch of PhDs this year and received an offer 2 weeks ago. which DTPs are you applying for and how was the process? I really like speaking to other people who have applied too haha because it's such a long and daunting process i found it really comforting to know someone else was in the same position. good luck with your apps!! hoping you get an offer

Hey, I applied to a couple this year! Fully funded projects and I had an interview on Monday actually. I felt it went well but I haven’t heard either way yet... how long after your interview did you get an offer?

hey! i'm a current masters student who applied to a bunch of PhDs this year and received an offer 2 weeks ago. which DTPs are you applying for and how was the process? I really like speaking to other people who have applied too haha because it's such a long and daunting process i found it really comforting to know someone else was in the same position. good luck with your apps!! hoping you get an offer

Hi,
Just wondering which field did you apply to for your PhD? What kind of questions did you get asked in your interviews?

Hi! I applied for and got into the MRC Molecular Cell Biology PhD programme at UCL, so it's a pretty broad programme where I get to specialise after the first rotational year. But I applied to other programmes in cancer research and molecular cell bio areas! In my first interview for another DTP, I had to present for 5 mins on an area of science i found interesting so i presented on a paper i had recently read, they interrogated me on specifics about the paper i presented. Then the general questions consisted of -why do you want to do a PhD, tell me about yourself, where do you see yourself in 5 years, why did you apply to these projects, impact of these projects etc.-, then the second part of the interview was critical analysis of a scientific paper which i had been given a week before. These questions were mainly -why did you choose this paper (i had a choice of 4), can you describe the paper in your own words, describe the main methodology, was this method suitable? what other method could be used? and things like that-

for the MRC interview, i didnt have to prepare anything at all, we just talked about my previous research which i really enjoyed and i think thats why i got accepted? it was much less stressful than the others. i would recommend you know all your research inside and out! they asked questions like -describe your research, what challenges did you experience and how did you overcome them, why do you want to do a phd, which labs are you interested in, have you applied to other places, what kind of supervisor are you looking for etc., they also knew my main interests lay in cancer research and asked why i didnt apply to other programmes more geared towards that area etc. overall it was pretty relaxed and i felt good afterwards.

i only had one more interview after this because i withdrew my other applications following my offer but this was more intense, very specific scientific questions on my research, asked questions like "do you think hypothesis-driven research is the only appropriate scientific process?", asked about my mathematical skills and previous research i carried out 2 summers ago which i got nervous about and struggled to answer eloquently, safe to say i never heard back from them!

this is a very detailed description of my interviews so sorry about that but hope this helps anyone going through the app process, tsr was very helpful when i was applying so good luck!

Thank you so much for all the useful info . I am just slightly worried if they ask about previous research because my masters project got stopped due to covid last yr so i don't have as much research experience.

did you do an undergraduate project? you can talk about that, or any extra courses. it's understandable your masters project was stopped but if you wrote a proposal and knew what you were trying to do (even if you never ended up actually carrying it out) then i still think it's useful to mention it

hey! i'm a current masters student who applied to a bunch of PhDs this year and received an offer 2 weeks ago. which DTPs are you applying for and how was the process? I really like speaking to other people who have applied too haha because it's such a long and daunting process i found it really comforting to know someone else was in the same position. good luck with your apps!! hoping you get an offer

Hey! I applied to the eastbio dtp, the socobio dtp and the MVLS dtp as they’ve got some of the best academics in the field I want to go into. I’m yet to hear if I’ve got an interview at MVLS. I’m also doing a masters at the mo as my course is integrated. I’ve found the process ok so far but I think I’m going to apply for funded projects from now on if I’m unsuccessful as as much as I like the idea of being part of a cohort but I’m not much of a fan of competition funding as it makes it more stressful 😂. That said I don’t think that many fully funded projects come along in plant sciences that often 😂. In my two interviews it sounded promising as they said they liked my answers but since they’re both dtps they said that it might take a month to hear back due to the number of interviews so 🤞

I applied for the MVLS DTP too! Still waiting as well, hopefully we'll hear soon. I'm doing my master's at the moment in the college of MVLS at UofG and I can definitely say that the staff are excellent.

I've had two holding emails so far two weeks apart- I'd very much like to hear but I don't know now if I will hear before the deadline to accept my offer I already have. Ideally I'd like to know from everywhere I applied before confirming an offer but I've come to realise that that's unlikely to be the case. I'm not sure if its acceptable to chase them up or not? I was thinking of maybe emailing them next Tuesday if I hadn't heard as that will be two weeks since the last email. Let me know if you hear anything.

I got both of them too. Very annoying, I must say. I've emailed the admissions person multiple times (first couple were during my application as I had some issues). They're very slow at replying and I haven't had a response to an email I sent over a week ago...

I just found out I’ve got an offer!! I’m now super excited but also nervously waiting for a decision from the other interview I had as I marginally prefer that project- either way I’m super happy!!

I got both of them too. Very annoying, I must say. I've emailed the admissions person multiple times (first couple were during my application as I had some issues). They're very slow at replying and I haven't had a response to an email I sent over a week ago...

Hey- I just heard back from MVLS- I was rejected without interview- I hope you had better news 🤞