Let us guess, you’ve debated with yourself over and over again as to whether you want to do that postgraduate course; Can you afford it? Will it be worth it? Do you have the time? Will it be too difficult?

It doesn’t matter if these questions have crossed your mind or not, we asked ourselves similar things on our run up to our postgraduate degrees. We like to try keeping our information for you as concise as possible, so we’ve squashed our experiences of going onto postgraduate degrees into 3 brief tips. Hopefully you can apply them to whatever you intend to go forth and do:

1. Decide

You would have taken plenty away plenty of knowledge from whatever studies you completed prior, and maybe it left you with so many ideas for your postgraduate course that you’re a little confused. We’d strongly advise you to do 2 things, and that’s decide exactly what you want to study (even if it’s a taught course), and decide where you want to go.

Of course there will be financial stipulations that may pact your decisions so make sure you keep that at the back of your mind. The last thing you want is to start the postgraduate course stressing about either funding the course, funding life, or even both.

It’s highly likely that the discipline you choose is the same or relatively similar to what you’ve already studied or have been exposed to, therefore you’ll just need to think carefully about what exactly your niche will be for any independent study/research. What do you enjoy? What do you have a passion for? What would assist you in getting to where you want to in life?

If you decide to stay on at your current institution, do it because you want to, not just for the discount/bonuses. We’re strong advocates in ensuring your mental health is well enough when studying (CLICK HERE for last week’s #TopicThursdays on mental health), and so wherever you consider attending for your postgraduate studies, remember there are additional factors that may affect your mind-set i.e. finances, location, the institution itself.

2. Contact

Do yourself a favour and make contact with relevant members of staff from whichever institution you’ve chosen. It is worthwhile to contact whoever’s area of expertise reflects your key interest. On most occasions there are details on the course application profile for a point of contact; UTILISE THIS!

Be sure to make contact by their academic contact details, and not over social media or personally (unless they say otherwise). Why? Because you are not in a position where informal contact is necessary – keep it professional.

When you do make contact, be straight to the point and express your interest in the desired course, and ask for any advice. Remember the contact you’re making is NOT your application, and you are NOT trying to sell yourself, you’re simply seeking a bit of wisdom.

Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get any responses as it’s not the end of the world, and sometimes we guess it’s just the nature of the beast. Continue onto the next step.

3. Proposal

Sorry but we won’t be supplying ou with a entire guide on how to write a research proposal. If you are interested in us supplying you with tips and guidance on how to write one then CLICK HERE.

You should now have fully confirmed what you intend to study, where you intend to study and who your best point of contact is. What we’d strongly advise is that you prioritise completing your research proposal. If you have made the decision to apply to multiple institutions, ensure your proposal is tailored to their specifications.

……Okay so we lied, there are 4 tips and not 3.

4. APPLY (Good Luck)