Aibu to ask here about Cambridge PhDs?

[Pepsthedog]

Does anyone have any insight into the PhD application process? I’m waiting to hear if I have been successful. Everyone I know has had an offer. My application has not moved from received on the portal. Am I in for a disappointment?

There's a student MNer section and an academics' corner type area in the work section where you might get answers.

Is this for a funded position? Or one where you pay yourself.

I'm a phd student but not at Cambridge.

It took approx 2 months from my applying to my interview to my offer. But everything from my supervisor was going into my junk folder. So I was in the dark somewhat.

Thank you. I’ll try academics corner. I’m still not used to the idea of being an academic rather than a student

In my experience (but not cambridge) I had to apply for a PhD position with the specific academic I was applying to work for and they moved the paperwork through the process after interview. Is there a specific academic you are applying to work with?

@usethedata

In my experience (but not cambridge) I had to apply for a PhD position with the specific academic I was applying to work for and they moved the paperwork through the process after interview. Is there a specific academic you are applying to work with?

This was my thought - I’ve no experience of a doctoral application but could it just be a case of the most appropriate staff member to look at your proposal not being available for some reason?

Yes. She’s my MPhil supervisor too. I’m just worried that people around me are getting offers but my application doesn’t seem to have moved forward at all

If you have applied through a doctoral training programme, there should be contact details of an administrator and I recommend contact them to check that everything is ok.

If you applied direct to the academic who will be your supervisor then just email them.

Thank you. I was worried a direct email might be too pushy.

Sounds early to me. DD1 is a 1st year PhD student there. She was still being interviewed for possible jobs in March 21. I seem to think her application for a PhD happened at roughly the same time. However, DD did her integrated Masters there, so perhaps their deadlines are later. I remember she had to nominate 2 colleges and I was surprised that she chose the college she did her BSci/MSci at as one. However, her rationale was that she knew the college and staff well, it was handy for her department and better the devil you know...

Thanks Malbecfan - a glimmer of hope!

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to contact your MPhil supervisor in that case and just ask if there are any issues since your friends are receiving offers. Most likely either because some academics are more organised than others, or because sometimes they have to wait for the specific funding to come through.

It can be so variable. I’m an academic at another RG uni and we certainly are still making offers into the summer. Typically, you apply after developing a project with a faculty member as supervisor, so you might be in touch with them if you know them well enough. Often it’s more about when someone gets around to looking at it, and right now everyone seems to have COVID so we’re all being pretty slow.