PhD position filled before my application was considered

Hi all,

I'm in a very disappointing situation. A funded PhD opportunity that I really had my heart set on has apparently already been filled.

I had emailed the prospective supervisor within 2 weeks of the PhD being advertised, and I was then contacted by a postdoc to arrange a call.

During the call I was informed that this PhD opportunity is no longer available, as a suitable candidate has already been found and they then proceeded to inform me on other opportunities available in the department.

I really appreciated their time, but I would have only considered a PhD given this specific topic and I'm also considering industry (Where I have 3 years experience already). I believe I was a strong candidate.

But how could this position be filled up so quickly (The application deadline is still nearly 2 months away)? I saw the posting was also updated after I contacted the professor with my interest, and the position has not been taken down. Had I known otherwise I would not have written my specific proposal for this project or chased up my referees.

Now I am lost on what to do... should I just submit my formal application anyway? How could this happen? ☹️

Reply 1

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Best off getting a call and seeing what other opportunities the supervisor has. PhDs move & morph so getting into a research group with the capabilities & resources to support the research you want to conduct is more important then the specific studentship title & abstract (ultimately your thesis would probably have a very different title then what you ever imagine).

Reply 2

posthumus

Original post by mnot

Honestly I'm not really interested in a PhD per se or academia, it was just that the topic seemed perfect for me regardless of whatever scope it would have moved towards.

What else can I do to proactively research within the topic I'm interested in? I would consider being self-funded but this is not ideal. Can I be involved in formulating a proposal for funding opportunities as they arise in this area? How do I go about this or get guidance to do that?

Thanks

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