{"id":196,"date":"2022-02-11T12:52:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T12:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dok.nawi.at\/?page_id=196"},"modified":"2022-02-11T12:52:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T12:52:29","slug":"being-a-phd-student","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dok.nawi.at\/?page_id=196","title":{"rendered":"Being a PhD STUDENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before you start:
\n<\/strong>You should contact potential supervisors before you start the admission process. In natural sciences most PhD positions are dependent on sources of funding. Because of this, many open PhD positions will be publicly announced and you can apply to them officially. Applying to them and being chosen does not automatically make you a PhD student, even if you already signed an employment contract. You still need to go through the official enrolment process of the university (see Admission process).
\nOf course, you can also contact potential supervisors privately and ask for a position or simply for their supervision of a self-financed project.<\/p>\n


\nGetting started:
\n<\/strong>If you found someone who is willing (and officially authorized) to supervise you, you can start the admission process. This is where it can get tricky, though. An official outline can be found in this PhD Handbook – Navigating your Doctorate<\/a>. We offer some insight into other aspects not discussed there.
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\nWeird rule<\/em><\/strong>: Seeing as your contract is not coupled to you being a student it isn\u2019t always advisable to enroll right away. For all European students the first 8 semesters of the PhD studies are free of university tuition fee (only a very small fee, the students\u2019 union fee, must be paid). A PhD can take a lot longer than that, however. You can counteract by officially enrolling during a later period (e.g. after one year of work on your project). From experience, no one will care. The disadvantage: you will not receive emails by your doc school coordinators and you will not pop up in stats regarding the program during this period. However, you also need to be enrolled for at least 6 semesters (3 years) before your graduation.<\/i><\/p>\n

Admission process:
\n<\/strong>All the details regarding the admission processes are outlined here (for natural sciences)<\/a>, here (for life sciences)<\/a> and here (for molecular biosciences)<\/a>. Generally this process is rather straight forward. All you need to do: submit the right documents and fulfil the requirements for your respective field (e.g. holding a masters\/diploma degree).
\nIt is possible that you are required to complete certain courses to be eligible for the field of studies that you choose. This depends on where and what you studied.<\/p>\n

Timeline after admission:
\n<\/strong>Basically, most curricula are rather similar and consist of:<\/p>\n