How would a PhD be funded?

It would be a longish process. In Classics it will be very difficult (I assume this is what you would be persuing) There are organisations that give grants out, and offer full time funding. In history in Ireland for example there is a very well funded organisation in NUI Galway which gives a 16,000 Euro stipend as well as covering fee's. 16 grand is a lot of money for a PHD student. There is also the Irish council for the humanities, which pays for PHDs and Masters programmes - a lot of students have availed of this over here.

However, it would involve excelling in your chosen field. A first class honours undergrad. degree would be a simple starting point - and a first class honours degree in a good university in a subject like history or classics involves a LOT of work, reading, and wall-punching.

Good luck in your endeavour though. You might be youn (As in, you haven't even went to college yet) but I like to live by the maxim 'If you want something enough, you can make it happen.'

Either you are lucky enough to have parents who will support you, or your work your rear end off to qualify for a corporate or government scholarship, or you do your PhD part time and you work part time concurrently, or you take a few years off from uni during which you work and save very hard and then do your PhD full time while living off those savings. Those are your options.

Getting a few academic papers published as an undergraduate wouldn't be a bad idea either. Getting that opportunity is pretty easy in my department but I'd have no idea how to go about it anywhere else.

You bet!

though it could take even longer, you may need to apply for extensions if your project ends up taking longer to do than you anticipated in the research proposal you submit to your graduate school. This, of course, is a possible scenario faced by both full and part time PhD students.

Well, I have a lecturer for the Crusades who never even finished his undergrad. degree until he was 34! In fairness, in history above all other subjects, age is a virtue.

Meh. I guess it's just persiverence - it's just that my sister went straight from doing her undergrad to her PhD and so I thought that was the norm. So did most of these people do their PhD's part time?

Whether you go straight into your PhD from your undergrad or honours year just depends on what course you are doing and your personal circumstances. I was half seriously considering doing the PhD when I finished honours year. Had I begun immediately and done it full time without delays, which was possible because I had secured a government scholarship and might have applied for a corporate one also, it would have meant having 2 undergrad degrees, an honours year and my PhD barely a month after turning 25. At 25, that makes you overqualified and is a liability if your field is commerce - companies have to fork out more money for someone with not a lot of actual full time work experience. They want you to have more industry experience to back up your academic prowess. I imagine in arts there is a similar hope that you would finish your PhD with at least a few years of specialist field work behind you.

Some of my colleagues did go almost directly into doing their PhD after doing their undergrad, with the result one finished at 30 and another at 28. They are having difficulty finding work with suitable pay for their qualifications. I am glad I put off doing the PhD for now, it can wait a decade or two.

Still, if your field is arts then a PhD might be exactly what is required to give you some pre-eminence.

Originally posted by Aster Thrax Eupator Would a part-time PhD be more realistic? However, I can't see how working part time would bring in the money required for a PhD... I'm just really worried about it because its what I've wanted to do all my life, and I'm going to uni in less than a year. I've got my Ba and Masters all sorted out, though. What if I was to do a job in the university and do the PhD whilst doing it?

Edited by Kevin - 14-Jan-2009 at 03:58

That sounds great. Here it takes far too long from a personal perspective.