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When applying for PhDs in the UK from elsewhere in the EU it was hard to get any response to the applications. So I booked a cheap flight to London and contact
by alphydan 4y ago
When applying for PhDs in the UK from elsewhere in the EU it was hard to get any response to the applications. So I booked a cheap flight to London and contacted the head professors of the departments I was interested in:
- Hey, I happen to be in town in two weeks. Can I give a talk at your group and present a paper I'm working on?
I believe it made all the difference, and got me through the door (with a lesser CV).
- jeffrallen 4y agoYou are my hero. If you need to be lucky enough to get something you want, make it (the "luck") happen.
- II2II 4y agoI did something similar. I told that I was not good enough to do a Ph.D., then was contacted shortly afterwards and asked to be a teaching assistant. Without the burden of grad studies, I ended up doing actual teaching, leading a team of teaching assistants, being one of the representatives of the department by doing public lectures, and (incidentally) earning more than most of the lecturers. In the end, I decided they were right about the Ph.D. thing. I learned enough in my years there to figure out that I didn't have the stomach for academic politics.