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Flemingo’s Oxford Bioscience DTP DPhil (PhD) Blog

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Original post by Flemingo
Had a really nice and relaxed first day in the lab of my supervisor helping me to find all the things I might need and showing me around and generally making me feel very at ease! Super looking forward to the rest of the week! :h: :h: :h:


Yay! :woo:

Original post by Flemingo
Thanks! Aww, that's nice - it's always good to have a holiday and take a break from work!! :h:


Indeed :h:
Original post by Flemingo
Had a really nice and relaxed first day in the lab of my supervisor helping me to find all the things I might need and showing me around and generally making me feel very at ease! Super looking forward to the rest of the week! :h: :h: :h:


Aww :h: sounds like a great start, have an awesome rotation!
Hi,

It's been great reading all your blogs on here. I'm going to be starting on this course later this year and am both excited and nervous. It has given me a really good insight into the first few months on the course and while it does sound challenging (specially the programming bits!) I'm sure it will be great. Do you mind me asking which research areas you are doing your rotation projects in?

Hope your project has been going well :smile:
Reply 43
Finishing my 1st Rotation

TLDR; I had a great time on my first 12 week rotation :smile:

I’m finally coming to the end of my first 12 week rotation. I have about a week left in the lab and then I have to write a 5000 word report. It’s really been great and I’ve sooo enjoyed being back in the lab again! My supervisor has been wonderful as has the group and although, as always it seems, my project hasn’t gone anywhere near as smoothly as I would have liked, I have learned lots of new techniques and sciencey things.

As well as working in the lab, the DTP has also been organising occasional lectures and events for us to attend (often at odd times of the day making scheduling my lab work a bit difficult...). Last week I gave a presentation on my rotation project to the DTP cohort and attended a day-long series of lectures by a wide variety of different people with links to the DTP (yay free lunches!).

Doing the project has given me loads to think about in terms of what is important to me when deciding on my PhD project: how I’d like my supervisor and group to be, what kind of practical techniques I’d like to use, how important it is to time my lab work around other things such as reading, seminars, friends and societies, lab demonstrating etc. I will be sad to leave, but there is still the possibility that I’ll be back for my PhD. I’m keeping an open mind about it so I will have to wait and see how the next 12 week rotation goes (which I am very excited about starting!).
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 44
Original post by FristyKino
Hi,

It's been great reading all your blogs on here. I'm going to be starting on this course later this year and am both excited and nervous. It has given me a really good insight into the first few months on the course and while it does sound challenging (specially the programming bits!) I'm sure it will be great. Do you mind me asking which research areas you are doing your rotation projects in?

Hope your project has been going well :smile:


Hi Fristy,

Congratulations on being accepted on to the course, I’m sure you will have a great time here! The course has definitely been challenging, but certainly nothing to worry about as they are very accepting of everyone having a different academic background. You get as much out of it as you put in and a lot of the stuff could actually be really useful in the future!

My rotation projects are both in microbiology which is an area I became interested in at the end of my Undergraduate degree.
Reply 45
Finishing my Second Rotation and starting my DPhil!

My second rotation went a bit differently than my first. It wasn't really terrible or anything, but it showed me again how important it is to have a supervisor that you click with and a group that you get on with. The biggest pro of a DTP scheme like this one is that you get to try out the lab for 3 months before you make a commitment!

In the end I decided that the lab environment at my second rotation wasn't really for me, but I had really enjoyed the topic and the work I had been doing. So mostly through complete luck I managed to arrange a brand new project with my first rotation supervisor, which pretty much follows on from the work I was doing for my second rotation project! Yay! :grin:

I started my DPhil properly a couple of weeks ago, and things feel much more relaxed and supportive! In the next 6 weeks I now have to write a DPhil Proposal which outlines what I plan to do for the rest of my 4 years, which feels like quite a big ask! And in the mean time I've been starting to apply for internships too!
Original post by Flemingo
Finishing my Second Rotation and starting my DPhil!

My second rotation went a bit differently than my first. It wasn't really terrible or anything, but it showed me again how important it is to have a supervisor that you click with and a group that you get on with. The biggest pro of a DTP scheme like this one is that you get to try out the lab for 3 months before you make a commitment!

In the end I decided that the lab environment at my second rotation wasn't really for me, but I had really enjoyed the topic and the work I had been doing. So mostly through complete luck I managed to arrange a brand new project with my first rotation supervisor, which pretty much follows on from the work I was doing for my second rotation project! Yay! :grin:

I started my DPhil properly a couple of weeks ago, and things feel much more relaxed and supportive! In the next 6 weeks I now have to write a DPhil Proposal which outlines what I plan to do for the rest of my 4 years, which feels like quite a big ask! And in the mean time I've been starting to apply for internships too!


Glad you managed to make it work ok for your DPhil project! :yay: Proposals like that are a big ask, aren't they? :afraid:

Good luck with applying for internships :h:

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Original post by Flemingo
Hi! :h:

I’m new to this site, but I thought it would be fun to join in with starting a little blog about my upcoming Bioscience PhD at Oxford! :smile:

I’ll be starting in just 2 weeks from now and I’m pretty much just a mess of nervous, excited and packing! :s-smilie:

I’ll update this as I go along, but feel free to ask any questions in the meantime.

1. Freshers' Week as a postgraduate
2. Week 1 and 2 Far too much maths, a matriculation and a bop
3. Weeks 3, 4 and 5 - Programming with C, Python and MatLAB
4. The Interview
5. Weeks 6, 7 and 8: Bioinformatics and Biological Technologies (FINALLY some actual Biology!)
6. Weeks 9 and 10: Data Management, Analysis and Statistics
7. Choosing a project/supervisor for my 12-week rotation projects
8. Finishing my 1st Rotation
9. Finishing my 2nd Rotation and Starting my DPhil

Hello flemingo. I am trying to apply for the above program. In my application form however, there is a section where it asks for proposed field and title of research project. Here, I got confused, since the DTP doesn't expect you to have a project title in mind. I thin it only expects you to have an area of interest. Please enlighten me about that. Thanks.
Reply 48
Original post by Soulhighman
Hello flemingo. I am trying to apply for the above program. In my application form however, there is a section where it asks for proposed field and title of research project. Here, I got confused, since the DTP doesn't expect you to have a project title in mind. I thin it only expects you to have an area of interest. Please enlighten me about that. Thanks.


Hello Soulhighman! I don't know how the application process has changed since my application (2 years ago!) but I wasn't asked to give a project description when I applied. You should email [email protected] if you have any questions about the application process. Good luck with your application!
Original post by Flemingo
Hello Soulhighman! I don't know how the application process has changed since my application (2 years ago!) but I wasn't asked to give a project description when I applied. You should email [email protected] if you have any questions about the application process. Good luck with your application!


Thanks Flemingo. I later found the answer to that question in the email I was earlier sent.

Sorry to bother you again. I know you must be very busy. Can you still remember if you included the name of any professor (of interest) in your personal statement?

Thanks
Reply 50
Original post by Soulhighman
Can you still remember if you included the name of any professor (of interest) in your personal statement?

Thanks


I don't think I wrote any names down in the application, but in the interview I was asked if there was anyone in particular that I was interested in working with.
Reply 51
Internships!

A 3 month internship is a requirement of the Interdisciplinary Biosciences DTP funding, so I decided to get it out of the way early on in my DPhil so that I can spend the next 2-and-a-bit-years uninterrupted. I’m back at the lab bench now, after spending the past 3 months doing an internship in Science Policy. Luckily, the University allowed me to delay my Transfer of Status exam, and my funding body covered my travel costs to and from London. It’s been a really great experience to see science research from a completely different perspective, but I do feel a bit guilty for taking so much time out from my DPhil project!
Original post by Flemingo
Internships!

A 3 month internship is a requirement of the Interdisciplinary Biosciences DTP funding, so I decided to get it out of the way early on in my DPhil so that I can spend the next 2-and-a-bit-years uninterrupted. I’m back at the lab bench now, after spending the past 3 months doing an internship in Science Policy. Luckily, the University allowed me to delay my Transfer of Status exam, and my funding body covered my travel costs to and from London. It’s been a really great experience to see science research from a completely different perspective, but I do feel a bit guilty for taking so much time out from my DPhil project!


I'm glad that you had a good experience :smile: Would you consider working back for them at the end of your PhD? And how was it working there with the current political climate?
Original post by Flemingo
Internships!

A 3 month internship is a requirement of the Interdisciplinary Biosciences DTP funding, so I decided to get it out of the way early on in my DPhil so that I can spend the next 2-and-a-bit-years uninterrupted. I’m back at the lab bench now, after spending the past 3 months doing an internship in Science Policy. Luckily, the University allowed me to delay my Transfer of Status exam, and my funding body covered my travel costs to and from London. It’s been a really great experience to see science research from a completely different perspective, but I do feel a bit guilty for taking so much time out from my DPhil project!


Sounds positive. Don't feel guilty for taking time out of your DPhil project, especially if the internship is a requirement! Being able to come back to the project with fresh eyes and perhaps different perspectives sounds good for the project overall :yep:
how is it going ?
I am hoping to do a phd at oxford.
Reply 55
Original post by Slowbro93
I'm glad that you had a good experience :smile: Would you consider working back for them at the end of your PhD?And how was it working there with the current political climate?


I'd definitely consider working there, although I don't think they have a high number of jobs going as there were only a few permanent employees. I really enjoyed doing research that was outside of the lab, so it's given me some ideas for my future :smile:

When I arrived in February, the big question everyone was trying to answer was Brexit, and how it will affect different areas of science policy. Unfortunately, as far as I could tell no one really seemed to have any answers, just different possibilities... But then the snap election was called, which no one was at all prepared for! Everyone had to drop what they were doing, and I think a lot of people were quite upset about how it affected their work! Lots of things have had to be delayed or cancelled completely!
Reply 56
Original post by bobby147
how is it going ?
I am hoping to do a phd at oxford.


Hi! My PhD work is getting back on track again after my internship :smile: What subject PhD are you aiming to do?
Reply 57
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Sounds positive. Don't feel guilty for taking time out of your DPhil project, especially if the internship is a requirement! Being able to come back to the project with fresh eyes and perhaps different perspectives sounds good for the project overall :yep:


Thanks! :smile: :smile:
Original post by Flemingo
Hi! My PhD work is getting back on track again after my internship :smile: What subject PhD are you aiming to do?


This is a far in the future dream,since I am only starting my biomed understand degree this year! :tongue:
I would hope to do a PhD in medical science at Sommerville college.
What is the topics of your thesis and in which field did you choice it in?
What grade did you need for your degree to apply to oxford and what other preparation did you make?
Are you getting to use either CRISPR Cas9 or optogenetics as part of your training?
Sorry,I have loss of questions to ask you! :smile:.
Reply 59
Hello, hoping you're still watching this thread.

I am thinking of applying to Oxford's BBSRC DTP. I'm not completely sure that it is well aligned with my interests. I want to do research in food security & sustainable agriculture. From your experience, are there people on the course that do research in that area? Would there be suitable supervisors for me?

Thanks in advance!

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