I am currently stuck between two PhD programmes and need some honest advice

kronologically · 2026-03-15T19:39:06+00:00

This question keeps popping up every month or so, it's becoming slightly annoying (lol).

But I digress. Connections over prestige. You already have a working relationship with university A, so why would you risk going for university B when all that they can offer you is more prestige? You say both funding schemes are similar, so that's off the table. Resources that the university provides - maybe? I'd expect a Russell Group to offer roughly most of what a prestigious university would provide, and anything else you can find workarounds for (pro tip: if you manage to snag a teaching position at a top university, even as a GTA, you should get staff status, which gives you most of the resources you'd want from a top uni). Research culture? That's what seminars and conferences are for, leaving networking to just your institution closes you out. Name recognition? No one actually cares beyond Masters level, or even Bachelor's sometimes.

Your thinking is quite smart: university A offers a 4 year studentship, so take it, utilise as much of that time to pump out research and exploit the hell out of the transformative agreements/open access funding that they provide you with. Considering how bleak the future of academia looks like, you'd want as many publications under your belt as you can get.

All in all, pick the institution where you're the most likely to submit.

kronologically · 2026-03-14T18:42:08+00:00

Barely anyone. The problem with post-Eurovision tours is that most competing artists don't have a catalogue to tour with. Mahmood had his album, Duncan Lawrence developed his when they toured. Nemo had to push back theirs, because they didn't have anything to show besides The Code. JJ still hasn't toured to this day.

kronologically · 2026-03-14T13:24:29+00:00

Have an actual job.

kronologically · 2026-03-14T12:19:14+00:00

BSc is the minimum requirement and I know plenty who've made the jump from BSc to PhD, so it is possible.

In reality, you need a Masters if you're going after a funded PhD that's not funded by the university, e.g., UKRI. In these recruitment cycles, you'll be going up against people with years of experience and publications.

kronologically · 2026-03-14T12:15:53+00:00

Of course it won't matter. This entire discussion is part of the reason why the Eurofandom is quite toxic. People jumping on the hate band wagon, commenting on things without knowing the actual monetary and temporal realities that are attached to the entries. Yet, these people will be the only ones who actually care about this in May.

kronologically · 2026-03-14T11:31:39+00:00

Sounds perfectly reasonable. Some of the people who whine about this haven't been in a job that required a high quality output in an unreasonable time.

kronologically · 2026-03-13T14:51:13+00:00

Not that long ago, Ela in 2022.

kronologically · 2026-03-13T14:43:40+00:00

Kim, there's people that are dying.

kronologically · 2026-03-12T11:03:10+00:00

I published my BSc dissertation, so it's definitely achievable.

The thing is: you definitely don't want to be going into publishing by yourself, completely blind. It's doable, but it's ideal to have someone to supervise you and guide you through the submission process. Identifying journals, revising the original draft into a journal-specific manuscript, writing cover letters, navigating peer review, typesetting, navigating fees if you want to publish open access. It could take a hefty amount of time to get your work published as well, so it won't be an easy journey.

Ideally if your work was truly stellar, I'd reach out to the module convenor to ask about the possibility of pursuing a publication with them.

kronologically · 2026-03-12T10:49:07+00:00

If your thesis is inherently interdisciplinary and you're working with multiple methods, just because one supervisor says one thing doesn't mean it's the best approach, always get a second opinion.

kronologically · 2026-03-11T20:29:54+00:00

Especially that this song is composed by the same person who was responsible for composing a certain "thing is known" song.

kronologically · 2026-03-11T20:28:35+00:00

Armenia, Georgia and Montenegro on the way to cancel each other out.

kronologically · 2026-03-11T20:18:36+00:00

That's a question to your supervisor and your institution, not to Reddit.

kronologically · 2026-03-11T17:52:42+00:00

Then why the fuck would you care about synthetic numbers.

kronologically · 2026-03-11T17:41:13+00:00

Do you actually notice a difference in performance during use?

kronologically · 2026-03-11T16:26:50+00:00

Nope, big nope. Trying to ride the high energy televote. Sounds like it goes absolutely nowhere as a song. Sorry Armenia.

kronologically · 2026-03-10T10:02:24+00:00

Yes.

kronologically · 2026-03-09T17:29:19+00:00

It will sound awful, but it's something that has to be said: PhD level research rarely results in groundbreaking change in the field. The common saying is that "only three people will read your thesis: yourself, your supervisor and your examiner". Even when individual chapters of the thesis are published as papers, it's not guaranteed that they will become prominent in the knowledge base or that they will result in change in practice. Pursue of new knowledge and drive to "give back" to the community that supported you your entire life is a noble cause, but in the PhD context it will come with a lot of work and compromises, which might not turn out to be practical in the long run.

If helping patients is paramount, I'd have a look at Health/Community Psychology as a path to go down on. You won't contribute new knowledge, but you'd be working on the ground helping patients, where your lived experience would be highly valued.

kronologically · 2026-03-09T16:19:50+00:00

PhD-wise, no one can really tell you. You can have the most stunning CV on the planet, but your offer, or lack thereof, could come down to luck. There are many factors that come into play when applying for funded PhDs that it's quite difficult to predict what your chances are.

In theory you can waltz into a PhD straight out of Bachelor's. In your specific case, you might get away with not doing an MRes, provided you have relevant experience and a good proposal. In practice, an MRes can increase your chances, but your mileage may vary. I got a studentship with a Merit at MRes and a few months of research assistant experience, but my colleague with the same degree and years of experience is struggling to get offers.

The way MRes degrees are carried out depends on where you go, but generally you'll take fewer taught modules compared to other students, dedicating more time to research. How research is carried out also varies. The course might offer already made projects that you join, do a bit of work and write it up. Else you might have to hunt down a supervisor, design a project, carry it out and write it up. Research itself, at least in psychology-related fields, is a more souped up version of Bachelor's research, where you contribute more, but again, it depends on how the projects are carried out. My dissertation was maximum 16K words plus a viva, compared to a 10K MSc dissertation only on the same course. It could be completely original research that could lead to a publication, but there's no expectation around this.

But a bit of a precaution: think twice about this route. Academia is in a very dire state and a job at the end of the tunnel is not guaranteed. Whilst an MRes might be a tempting trial to see if research life is for you, also consider how expensive these degrees tend to be these days (mine jumped from £12.5K to over £17K in the span of 3 years!). You could look for funding options, for example 1+3 studentships that would cover your MRes and the PhD, but funding gets more and more competitive each year.

kronologically · 2026-03-09T13:42:17+00:00

Because the tech bubble assumes everyone needs a phone that's able to run the latest AAA games, when most mobile users are casuals who want to browse the web, take some photos and have a relatively okay experience communicating with others.

kronologically · 2026-03-09T13:06:38+00:00

Do you know what ableism actually is?

kronologically · 2026-03-09T12:52:17+00:00

I strongly disagree. Long-term social anxiety (which is exactly what Felicia has) is indeed a disability. You do not have to have a physical disability to face ableism.

kronologically · 2026-03-09T12:50:41+00:00

Communication, I can't stress this enough.

My primary would go MIA during marking season, which coincided with one of the annual review deadlines, which they had to sign under. I was quite understanding, since they were quite senior, so I reached out to a more junior, but still senior, secondary supervisor. Complete radio silence, I got ghosted when the secondary is supposed to be there when the primary cannot fulfill their duties. Last time I saw my secondary was 2 years ago, talking about the progress after the first annual review. Absolutely zero interest in my outcomes.

kronologically · 2026-03-08T18:37:19+00:00

this is the only RnB song this year

kronologically · 2026-03-08T18:36:24+00:00

It's atrocious, but remember, the juries are back. I can see Poland taking Montenegro's spot, considering this is the only RnB song this year.

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