Pursuing PhD in Physics: Finding Opportunities from Nepal

[pravin_dahal2003]

I have completed my graduate in physics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Now I am finding difficult to pursue PhD. I think the primary reason behind this is, people find the profile of students from the universities of underdeveloped country unattractive. But individuals passion and enthusiasm isn't reflected by the universities, in some situations. So how can I get an opportunity for PhD research that suits me?

 

[ZapperZ]

Now I am finding difficult to pursue PhD.

What exactly does that mean? Did you apply to several schools and received all rejections? If you did, where exactly did you apply and what was your undergraduate scores/grades/etc.?

Zz.

 

[pravin_dahal2003]

What exactly does that mean? Did you apply to several schools and received all rejections? If you did, where exactly did you apply and what was your undergraduate scores/grades/etc.?

Zz.

I have completed graduate with first division (60%) in physics, on the basis of our University scoring system. I have also completed my undergraduate course and one year graduate course in mathematics. I personally have a view that I could have done better, but I didn't favor our examination system because I found it much like a memory test rather than physics test (I am saying this although this is irrelevant). I have got most of my interest and motivation from the materials in internet and couple of teachers of mine.
I have recently applied to Albert Einstein Institute, Germany and The Institute of Theoretical Physics IFT, Spain. I have also written to some professors, who have made publications in the region of my interest. For eg. studying general relativity I have reached to the conclusion that it would be very fruitful to study the elastic nature of space-time to understand gravity through a different perspective. I have written to the professor who have contributed in gravity as elastic nature of space-time. So far, I have found my efforts useless. At present, the only thing that matters to me is the good research experience, not the country or institute. And I don't have preferred to waste early stage of my research career worrying with the problems I have mentioned before.

 

[Choppy]

Many professors have email boxes that fill up faster than they can clean them out. There is a lot of semi-academic spam, much of which seems to originate from developing countries... new "open access" journals, conferences, opportunities to join editorial boards, post-docs and students who spam half the continent with their CVs without any regard for what the professor actually does. I'm NOT suggesting that you're one of these, but it's quite possible that if you've only tried contacting a handful of professors directly, you're either getting screened as spam or just plain ignored as a result of association.

Most schools will have a point of contact for prospective graduate students - sometimes it's a graduate advisor or a department associate chair. The point is that there is a person who has at least some time specifically dedicated to interacting with prospective students. You may have more success getting a response from someone like this. They can also be in a position to arrange for you to speak with professors who work in the field you're interested in or give you insight into whether a particular professor is even taking any students in the coming year. Remember, they don't always have the capacity to take on a new student.

Getting into graduate school is a highly competitive process, even among applicants from within the school's country. So if you're not successful there could be many reasons for it that have nothing to do with where you were educated.

 

[pravin_dahal2003]

Most schools will have a point of contact for prospective graduate students - sometimes it's a graduate advisor or a department associate chair. The point is that there is a person who has at least some time specifically dedicated to interacting with prospective students. You may have more success getting a response from someone like this. They can also be in a position to arrange for you to speak with professors who work in the field you're interested in or give you insight into whether a particular professor is even taking any students in the coming year.

Thank you for information. I will also try to go through this way in coming days.

 

[f95toli]

Here in the UK it is almost impossible to get funding to employ PhD students from outside the EU unless you can get access to some funding scheme specifically targeting countries from the developing world or the student is already at least partly funded via some form of scholarship (quite common for students from Asia) .

Hence, sending email directly to professors in Europe is very unlikely to succeed, irrespective of how good you are most of them are simply not in a position to hire PhD students that way.

 

[pravin_dahal2003]

It would also be good getting involved with research in the subject of interest for temporary period of time, in the form of visit to the active research groups. This, if possible, gives chance to work the field of interest and obviously increase the research experience. I would like to know if this can be achieved instead, before being enrolled for PhD?