Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting My PhD
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- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2022
- A CLARIFICATION, since I realize that, at different points in the video, it sounds as if I'm giving contradictory advice ("only do a PhD if you are certain it's your dream" VS "it's OK to be undecided and hesitant"). What I meant to say is,
- It's OK to THINK that academia (or anything, really) is your dream, without being 100% certain about it. (As with anything in life, uncertainty is a sign of awareness - it's blind conviction that you should fear);
- Definitely do not embark on a PhD if you see academia as your Plan B, fallback plan, or side hustle. It's not going to work out.
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Thanks for not making this as negative as many of these kinds of discussions are. As I'm planning on applying this autumn for English in the UK, I've been looking for more tips and ways to understand the kind of world, I guess, but everything's been so "don't do it; it's terrible and the worst experience of my life." Tbh, that messaging is just annoying to me as I'm completely sure about wanting to do this and have been so for years, and the thing standing between me and this goal is the limited spaces and lack of funding. To then just see people complain about my dream and act like nobody should ever do it... I get complaining but it's the only thing I've been seeing, so thanks for a more positive video!
I think, many people are that negative because of the opposite problem to the one discussed in the video: they start their PhD without plan B, and hence feel that they have to finish it at all costs. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in academia (problems with your advisor or with your research topic, too competitive environment, being not able to work with so much freedom), so there is no guarantee that it will work out, but that means that you should treat it exactly that way: a chance to get a really cool and special experience if you're lucky enough. If not, well, you knew it wasn't certain, maybe it's not such a good idea to spend more time on suffering.
Glad to be of help Anna!
Perfect encapsulation of my feelings. I am a PhD student in the US in a (stipended) Romance Languages and Literatures program and i can honestly say: this is the best, and genuinely the hardest, thing i've ever done.
Irrelevant to video topic, but: thanks for shaping me as a reader.
Awwww :3
Great advice - I'm currently on the back end of my English phd and this advice would have been quite helpful a few years ago. Finding the "real world" application of your research interests is super important, especially if you're studying a relatively obscure feild. Simply being able to communicate why what you do matters to a non-expert is an invaluable skill, I find, not only in job interviews and conferences, but in conversations with non-academic friends. Further, finding a support group is so important, even if you're an introvert and think you don't need it! Few things I've done in life is as isolating as writing a dissertation. I'd be really interested to hear about your experience sort of transferring away from academia!
Thank you for being honest and sincere here. I've recently finished an MA in English and an MFA in Fiction, with the exact mindset of having that day job and pursuing the creative interests afterwords. COVID really changed things (family health issues, dealing with the university as a new adjunct on ZOOM, etc.) made me see how so much of the need to pursue PhD in English relies on privileges way beyond my control and perspective. While I am so grateful of the work I've done and the people I've met, it's honestly stunning how often it felt like success was rigged against anyone feeling that hesitancy.
I’m 1 year into mine and what I wish I knew was “you’d be surprised how much you can get out of a small breadth”.
I started mine spanning 17-21 century, and now I’ve carved it wholly to a few decades looking at Romantic Legacies.
I recently spoke to the Head of Humanities in Warwick (yes, networking is king) and he said a good PhD student knows when to change scope. Those who come in and stay with their idea are unwilling to change their mindset which is paramount for a PhD.
Also - 1 point = 1 paragraph
This is so great! I pursued an MFA in creative writing, and a lot of what you share applies there too. I studied part time (in the evenings) while working a day job. I still have a day job but with more responsibilities, a longer commute, and now I'm a parent, too. Yet I am spending significantly MORE time working on my fiction now than I did WHILE studying fiction writing! Also, I wish I had been better at networking. I'm also an extreme introvert, so that piece was hard for me. Your point about making connections is so important, and I wish I had pushed myself to do so. I do feel that had I pursued a PhD, instead of an MFA, I would have a better grasp on the theoretical side of literature, rather than the craft side. I feel ill-equipped to discuss literature at the level I wish I could. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this!
I want to read your thesis!!
It's available here centaur.reading.ac.uk/94861/1/24892876_Ravasi_thesis.pdf but it's frankly quite boring :)!
Your description perfectly articulates what I am going through now toward the end of my studies. I wish I had studied one theorist carefully, Bakhtin for example. A fellow student did that, and she could connect that theorist to nearly any text. It made her able to write papers in classes quickly.
Surprisingly helpful insights even for students doing PhDs in science! Thanks!
Feeling that you are ready to competently begin a PhD upon finishing a PhD must be a universal experience. 😆 (PhD, philosophy, Emory University, 1996)
Great recommendations! I couldn't agree more with the point that after completing your PhD you are finally at least a little bit ready to write a good PhD thesis. I would go even further and say that it's *the whole point* of a PhD: you learn how to dive deep into some very particular topic and to produce something new there. After you do it once and figure out how it works for *you personally* ('cause research practices are very different for different people), you will hopefully be able to do it better and faster next time with a new topic.
Also, the advice about connecting your work with real life is true even inside academia. A part of scientific significance of a piece of work is how it relates to what people around you are doing. Of course, if you're doing something groundbreaking and unheard of, it might be far from existing things, but in general a good work has transparent connections to the fields A, B and C (and ideally even connects them in a previously unknown way). After all, the more people can find something interesting and familiar in you work, the more they will care about you and your work.
Yassss more PhD videos thank you very much for inspiring us 🙏
Thank you for this!
Thanks for sharing, i'm exactly in the same position, phd as a plan B, i thought it would give me time for writing and reading and now i'm always wondering if i wasn't better off when teaching high school.
I would love to learn more about your writing though !
Thanks for this honest discussion! I started my PhD in comparative literature six months ago and I am still learning to navigate the field and what it means to write a dissertation. I have heard most of these topics before. One thing that really struck me was what you said about motivation for doing a PhD. I've wanted to get into research for several years but many people around me have never really understood why and to what end I want to get a PhD. It made me unsure of my own ambition and whether it really was my "Plan A" or not. Starting the position I now have as a doctoral student, I've realised that, this IS plan A, this IS the end goal. This is the same gut feeling I had when doing my MA, which is when I decided to try and get into academia.
My advice (in company to what has been said here) is thus this: If you have done or are doing an MA in your field and you feel like this is want you to spend your time doing - go for it. Of course you need to consider the financial bit (I am super lucky to be employed to do my PhD and earn a salary doing it, so I have no good advice on that) BUT if that is workable for you, follow your passion. Doing my PhD is surprisingly similar to studying for my MA, just more of it, and I felt like a fish in water doing my MA.
One thing I would like to know more about. #TheBookchemist, could you give some more advice on how to plan for conferences. Time is limited so how did you prioritize during your PhD? What has been your experience writing for and presenting at conferences?
Thanks again and best wishes!
Well said Margony! As for your question, most of the papers I presented at conferences came quite naturally out of the research I was doing for my thesis - perhaps presenting a portion of your thesis (or applying the same analytical criteria/the same perspective to a different novel) might be a good way to come up with a paper that won't take you too far away from the work you're already doing!
@@TheBookchemist Thank you for your reply!
Not going into a PhD program, but an MFA in Creative Writing and this video was still pretty helpful! I'll still have to take a fair number of PhD lit classes.
Thanks for this video. I'm currently deliberating about whether or not to pursue a PhD - I'm definitely highly passionate about academia (doing my MA, I really loved simply having the access to the university community and everything in the library etc as well as my actual subject) but as you say, it's a dauntingly big commitment. Esp given that my plan would be to go for the six year (!) part time option
It's definitely a scary (and exciting of course) prospect! Good luck with whatever you decide to pursue :)
I would love a video on how you studied, what technology you used (IPad, Apps like goodnotes or Notability), do you have a Kindle? Do you use old school writing pad and lever arch file etc? Also a day in the life video would be interesting to watch of yours.
How about making a video about
"books you should read before applying to master/phd in english literture"?
that would be helpful🙏
I was hoping for more tips since I'm starting my PhD this fall (English poetry) and most of the advice I found is for science researchers. In my country it's free but one has to figure it on their own. I waited till I'm in my mid 30s cause, being an introvert, I was dreading the social game academia required 🙂 I'm not sure what contribution I'm brining to the field since everything has already been written about. I won't approach a supervisor until I have a proposal ready, but I lack clarity of purpose in the thesis I'll be presenting. Help me! 😬
The feelings you describe (feeling that everything has already been written about a certain topic, or that your own research lacks clarity/purpose) are very common among young researchers - I think I only really figured out what my thesis was about halfway through it :)! Hopefully a good supervisor will be able to support you while you figure these things out and hone your skills as a researcher: best of luck with it all!
i feel weird commenting on a two year old video, but very very nice shirt!
Thank you :D
Thank you for the video, very informative. Can I ask why did you go for English PhD instead of Creative Writing PhD or English PhD with Creative Dissertation since you're interested in fiction writing?
The idea behind my PhD was that it would lead me to a career as a teacher/researcher in literary studies, something perhaps related, but nonetheless different, from my writing. (I never felt compelled to join creative writing classes - but this is just a matter of personal inclination!)
Like how to grow and farm food
Hi! What are your impressions about applying for postgraduate programmes being a person in their forties? And for a mother with children? Would it be too extremely difficult? I don't know anybody I could ask this, and maybe you have seen fellow MA/PHD students in those conditions. Thanks in advance!
I can only imagine how tough it must be, but I've definitely known people who were doing it, so I can say that it's definitely possible :)! What's more, I know some fairly major scholars only got into academia in their forties or later. The specifics of it (e.g., do you have sufficient time/resources) are something only you can assess of course (and it might be worth investigating all options, for instance considering doing the postgraduate degree as a part-time student), but it's definitely not a crazy idea.
@@TheBookchemist thank you very much, Mattia!
Interesting you say it's people in their 20s thinking about doing a PhD these days. Used to be people in their 30s and 40s.
Do you write in English or Italian?I'm bilingual so it interests me.
English!
dottore, I have a friend that's convinced you're part Indian, can you please answer me that no, you aren't, because I want to prove him wrong.
I'm not :)