PhD/university solidarity

[judgejohndeed]

Hey, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in here… just musing!

I’ve been thinking about it and.. I would like to go into a PHD. I miss academia so much. I’ve done a BA in English language/lit and a MA in PR media and communication. If I go into a PHD does it have to be within the same field as my MA/BA or can it be different?
I\m worried about the finance side of things as well. I’m currently not in employment due to disabilities (job seeking but struggling to find the right role for me at the moment) so IDK if I will even be able to pay…

It doesn't have to be in the same field but your supervisors will want to know you're sufficiently competent to complete a PhD in a different field. I did an interdisciplinary PhD and I have to say, the half of mine that I wasn't familiar with from my previous studies was a real struggle. It's not impossible, but picking up a new field at PhD level is difficult.
Finance side of things - most people would advise you not to do a PhD unless you have full funding. You can get a student loan if you're in England now (not sure about the other countries - sorry!) but I'm not sure how it works out with living costs etc. The max you can get is 25k and full year fees on a PhD will be about 4k a year, then you might have research costs etc.

 

[ItsDatCuw]

Hi all. I've seen a few other people on here mention they are doing PhDs so thought I would have an anonymous moan to people in the same boat. I'm finding everything so tough right now and everything I write is awful but I'm getting soo behind. Spent all day today on the couch after having a breakdown at 9am at my computer. I feel crap and pathetic and exhausted. Please say I'm not the only one who gets days like this

Currently doing a PhD as well. I love it now but the first few months were really tough and uncertain, and I had serious doubts for a while. There are of course the occasional “off days” still but I think that’s true for any profession/course/job. I hope things improved for you since x

 

[Former_Antelopee]

I'm looking at maybe doing a masters. I want to do some kind of extra course. There's courses that work would pay for but only related to my current job whereas a masters I've found links to other sectors so I'm thinking it might be helpful for a future job outside of the sector I'm currently in?
I'm just not sure how I could fund it as work wouldn't pay. The other courses work would pay for I don't think benefit me much as I don't think it would change my pay but they'd probably want me to do additional work on the back of doing one.

It's just the research project that puts me off a masters a so hated that in my first degree. The course I was looking at lists that as the first module which I find strange? I thought it would be the last so you can get more knowledge of the subjects first and decide what you'd like to focus your research on? I'm wondering if the order they've put them online isn't the order you do them in . Other similar ones the research is in the 3rd year (part time courses) and they list our what modules for each year whereas the one I'd probably do doesn't it just states the modules. I'd prefer to do one of the others as you get a choice of some modules but it's about £5/6k more expensive so I don't know how I'd fund it as I think if I've worked it out correctly and understand properly the one I'm mostly looking at is £9.5k so I'd be able to get student finance for it?