Timeline for A potential PhD supervisor wants me to visit campus for an interview before I know if I'm accepted
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
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| Feb 26, 2018 at 20:18 | comment | added | einpoklum | @brichins: If it's reasonable to take out a mortgage for tens or hundreds of thousands of GBP so as to be an apartment or a house, it's reasonable to take out a 200 GBP loan for this kind of a visit. Anyway, OP did not suggest he is so destitute he can't afford it. | |
| Feb 26, 2018 at 18:08 | comment | added | brichins | @einpoklum Even a "small" cost like a train ticket and a day off work may not be feasible for someone living hand to mouth, regardless of the long-term benefit. While it is possible to get the price of a train by borrowing from friends or getting a payday loan, personal debt is a very, very slippery slope if your finances are that restricted, and taking a day off a low-wage for anything but dire emergencies can get you fired. "Just find the money somewhere" simply isn't plausible for many people. | |
| Feb 25, 2018 at 18:52 | comment | added | einpoklum | @brichins: So I'm saying you should just get a quarter. | |
| Feb 24, 2018 at 19:16 | comment | added | brichins | It's not so much a question of "is investing in education a good investment" as "does the OP have the cash flow to do this and still survive the next few months". As my (American) grandpa used to say when someone wanted to justify spending money on something because it was 'a good deal': "Elephants two for a quarter [25p] is a great deal - if you need elephants, and you have a quarter." | |
| Feb 23, 2018 at 22:49 | comment | added | einpoklum | @MJeffryes: That's a fair and valid question, and I'm not sure I have a good answer. But I definitely believe that cost is above the cost of a domestic (rather than international) visit to the relevant university. Probably above the cost of an international visit if you can use low-cost carriers. | |
| Feb 23, 2018 at 15:07 | comment | added | MJeffryes | So what's the limit of costs a student should incur to obtain a PhD position? Should they pay to submit an application? Should they do an unpaid trial week in the lab? Trial month? Should they compensate the supervisor for the time spent to interview them? | |
| Feb 23, 2018 at 0:48 | history | answered | einpoklum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |