Categories: uncategorized
Date: 14 March 2005 18:31:33
I was chatting with a friend the other day over a drink (non-alc in my case, sigh), and telling her how I was starting to get really jittery that I might not get funding for the PhD. I was going to blog along those lines yesterday, but then got sidetracked by the excitement of tea and teeth and forgot all about it. Anyway, today I got an email from the UpNorth Uni tutor.
You may remember from past entries that my ideal situation was to be the Department's 2nd best candidate so that I would basically be assured an ESRC funded place without having to do anything else. If the best candidate who is put forward for the ESRC competition place was successful then candidates 2 and 3 could have the other two places, and if the best candidate wasn't successful then candidate 1 and 2 would have the places.
It now transpires that the ESRC have changed the rules, so if best candidate is put forward for the competition and doesn't get it they can't be offered the quota place, which means that being best candidate suddenly becomes more uncertain as funding can't be guaranteed until the competition results which come out at the end of July.
With me so far?
So ... the email. It now transpires that I am no longer 2nd best candidate (as I was after my original uni application). I've been promoted, and am being put forward for the competition. Which, I have to say, I am chuffed to bits with, heartily embarrassed about (as I know what I'm like really) and also now really very nervous that I might still ****** it up despite being THE BEST! (:D) Light at the end of the funding tunnel, in the form of an alternative funding opportunity, is that the Department is applying to the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Uni for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, which would fund a 4 year PhD in return for 6 hours of 1st year undergrad tutoring between October and April each year (meaning fieldwork can be done in the summer months). They've said that they're very confident that this will be agreed, and if it is then I have first refusal if I don't get the competition place. So basically things are looking pretty good, despite being up in the air, so there are a few more months of drama queen moments but at the moment I'm in a good mood about it.
I haven't replied to the email yet. Every time I think about it, I don't get much beyond "Yay! ****! Woo hoo! Aaargh!" I really think I ought to think up a few more intellectual words (perhaps stretching to whole sentences) in case they change their mind.
And oh dear God I've got to get a couple more references. Aaargh.