The long road to PhD

Having finished my MA a few weeks ago I took a much needed break to recuperate...until I found myself itching to research again. I have already decided to apply for PhD study -or in my case I will be aiming for a professional doctorate- and it is time to begin that journey already. I am blogging almost like a journal for the purposes of getting everything out of my head, and hopefully containing the process for someone else to follow. I aim to document everything from this stage, throughout, because I have found the process to be somewhat overwhelming if not confusing. I will also be censoring a few things surrounding my university, supervisor and thesis topic choices so that I can keep a little privacy and safety whilst documenting my journey. I should also mention that this journey is taking place in the UK and the process may differ elsewhere.

...And we begin

PhD's are less about grades and more about your idea, although a good GPA doesnt hurt. I began this journey like any other I made however, in the search for the right University. I made a spreadsheet with the titles shown below and essentially trawled through Google listings of PhD programmes. My area is in illustration or design and so remember to search a little more broadly as 'illustration' brings up far less than 'design'. My spreadsheet immediately made a list of uni's that I wouldnt be applying to because I understood factors that I wouldn't enjoy. For example a constant presence on campus wouldn't suit me at this time or very little supervisor time could be an issue. Whatever your personal parameters make sure you are firm with them or you will be miserable. Once my shortlist was complete I was able to look into the supervisors themselves and find some places with great potential.

Another thing to consider is the type of docterate that you wish to join. I am open to a couple of options but my preference is with a professional docterate. This means that my professional practice will work alongside my research and I can use it for experimentation or even to prove my theories. This works for me in a creative field and is a relatively new way to complete doctoral research. All of this alone can be fairly overwhelming but is an important stage