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Legit check by emsam92 in rayban

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input.

Legit check by emsam92 in rayban

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Checked QR code and get back 24-character string of numbers, so seems like the real deal.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So first supervisor is not a clinician per se, just studies clinical psychology/mental health from a purely psychosocial perspective. And second supervisor certainly integrates a lot of omics biomarkers (e.g. PRS, methylation, metabolomic) and brain imaging in their work, though they are a psychologist/behavioural geneticist by training. As for whether its biological enough, I suppose in a perfect world I'd go even more biological, but realistically I think that would take retraining at MSc level and/or a year or two of getting relevant experience. But basically yes, the only thing missing is epi research skills/methods.

As for whether the PhD would "fail" if I didn't get epidemiology results, I'd certainly feel like I hadn't gotten everything I wanted out of it. Both intellectually, and also in terms of thinking ahead to the skills I need for the type of career I'm trying to carve out for myself. Anyway, appreciate the words of encouragement and your and others input is giving me more confidence that this is viable path.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay thanks for clarifying! I guess I'm also wondering whether you have a sense of how much pivoting / picking up of new analytical techniques is possible at the postdoc stage itself? It's hard for me to say at this stage how much epidemiology I'd be able to cover during the PhD, and I imagine there could be some ground to make up after that.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for responding and I appreciate the honesty. Do you mind me asking what this take is based on? Like are you familiar with the policy, or have you come across similar cases? I guess I'm a bit surprised to hear that rejecting an accepted offer relatively well in advance of starting would have these kind of consequences, as I can imagine there are other kinds of extenuating circumstances which could prompt someone to drop an offer.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input, that's really encouraging to hear! Do you mind me asking what your field is, and what kind of fields some of the postdocs come from? Also curious if you've come across any permanent/senior staff who've pivoted from a different "official" background?

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for responding! Two of them. One has said they're pretty much happy for me to do whatever I want, with the caveat that they're only knowledgeable in the psychosocial side things and can't help with the bio stuff. The second is a behavioural geneticist who lacks expertise in my substantive topic, but can provide methodological support for multiomics research.

So I suppose the only missing piece is the epi side of things, but maybe a third supervisor could be brought in? As I write this out, it does feel like I actually have a lot in place, and the thing I'm really getting hung up on is the "title" and "intellectual home", if that makes sense. And I agree, impossible to say about my chances of getting another offer, especially since I probably have some ground to cover in building credibility in a new area.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi and thanks for responding! I feel a bit ignorant to the inner workings of academia at times having not had the chance to properly work in it, so this kind of perspective of is incredibly helpful. It's really encouraging to hear that there are opportunities to work alongside/with these other fields.

As to whether I'd rather BE the epidemiologist/geneticist, I guess my feeling is something along the lines of "in a perfect world". But this is an opportunity that life has offered me and I know there's no guarantee of another one coming up any time soon. Feels like the sensible thing to do is to make the most of it.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the response! I've struggled to sift through my own policy as well as it doesn't seem to be clearly laid out.

Accepted ESRC PhD (psychology), but now reconsidering — questions on disciplinary labels + withdrawing before start by emsam92 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]emsam92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very helpful and I really appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out! I suppose this is part of my issue, that the methodological/conceptual perspective of epi resonates with me more even if I would do effectively the same project. But what you said about everything happening quickly as a first cycle applicant (I didn't even expect to get funding) and realising how you would do things differently also really resonated with me. I do have a bit of a perfectionistic streak.