What is really expected of a phd proposal?

[blewski]

Hey

 

Apologies in advance if this post may seem immature and annoy you. 

 

I got my MA in IR last fall and now I'm seriously considering pursuing a phd within the discipline. A draft of my proposal is almost ready, however, I have the feeling that it is not good enough as a phd proposal, because I have followed the same "formula" as I did for my MA proposal. I have an original research question etc, and when it comes to the methodology, I have stated that I want to use a logistic regression model, and the dataset that I'm going to use is based on variables I have merged together from different datasets.    

 

My question(s) are;

 

What is expected of a phd proposal? 

 

Does all the data have to be original in the sense that I have to make them from "scratch-scratch"? 

 

Would logistic regression be too simple?  

 

Again, apologies if this sounds stupid

 

 

[rwillh11]

Are you applying to US Schols, UK schools, or continental European Schools? From my experience with the first two, the expectations are quite different. You don't need a "proposal" per se for the US schools, instead you need to write a statement highlighting your past research, your fit with the department and your plans for future research. Going into detail such as the type of regression analysis you are going to use would probably be considered overkill from a US department, because they expect your research interests to change over the course of your study, and they also expect to teach you a good deal of new methodology. On the other hand, it is great to have a research question in mind because it shows the department that you know what you are doing, and gives them a good idea of fit.

 

For UK schools, you need a long proposal. You should explain where you will get your data from (data sets is fine, or field work or w/e depending on sub-field), what your variables are, what your question is and why it is interesting, give a survey of the literature, and explain your methodology. It doesn't have to be insanely in depth from what I can tell (for example, LSE caps it at 3000 words, and when I asked, they said closer to 2000 is better), but you should at least touch on all of those things. You want to convince them that you are worth admitting and funding for several years.

 

Good Luck! Sounds like you have a good start.

[blewski]

Thank you for the reply. I am applying for mainly UK schools. Your information was helpful. Thanks!

[rwillh11]

Glad to help! Happy to send you one of mine if you want to see an example. If so, send me a private message here. Also, if you are looking at the LSE, happy to answer any questions, did my Master's there and I know the department pretty well. 

[shahramfi]

I just join this forum. A PhD student too. It is over a year me and my friend are thinking how can we simplify PhD proposal and we come up with an idea that is orginated from Business.

Any way have a look at PhD model Canvas. It might be usefull to see if you have all section your long proposal too. See image blow or explaniatin in http://cs.joensuu.fi/~seivazi

[bob123]

That is a terribly organized chart.