Hey y’all!
As I promised before, am will be weekly updating y’all on the application process for a PhD in the UK. So far, I have placed my application and gotten a response back from the University. I will let y’all know later if I got in or not, as this post will be all about the research proposal.
To me, the research proposal was second most stressful part of the PhD application process. The first being the waiting game after the application is submitted as I have almost no patience. Starting out with an outline, and finishing up 5 months later with 14 pages including my bibliography show how much I wanted my proposal to be perfect. I wanted the quality of my proposal to impact whoever was reading it. I wrote the first rough draft within a few weeks. It was far from perfect I have several people look over it to make sure it was good in the sense of context and information. My grammar is where my issues lie. I was born in Puerto Rico and English is technically not my first language, Spanish is. While I have been speaking, reading and understanding English since I was 14, I still struggle with some grammatical things. I tend to go on and on about things, and that leads to run-on sentences or clauses being defied. That is why it took so long for my proposal to get do, but it does not have to be an issue you struggle with. Always re-read your work out loud to hear if it makes sense when you speak it. There is a big difference between reading it in your mind and out loud.
Once you have a rough draft done, get people to read it for you and give your constructive criticism. I asked one of my former professors to read over my proposal, as well as the prospective supervisor that I wanted to work with. Both of them helped me get to a point where my proposal was ready to submit. Submitting my proposal was one of the most nerve-raking things I have ever experience. Not even when I submitted my Master’s research proposal was I this nervous. But then I realized that this proposal was the one that was going to change my life and it was going to allow me to fulfill my dream of becoming an academic doctor. That is why this proposal took so long: my future depended on it.
Now 4 months after everything I got a response to my application, I can finally breath or cry. One of the other, my life path has forever changed.
On my next post, you will get to know if I got in or not, and the emotional roller coaster that the PhD application process is.
Till next time! All the love!
Ascenett Stefanie, your freelance unicorn!
Freelance Unicorn 