Feedback from PhD students

[Foreignchick]

Dear All,

My name is Foreignchick and I am South African. I shall soon start a Master in law at Stellenbosch University.

Once I have obtained my Master in law, I wish to do a PhD abroad. Actually, my dream has always been to do part of my studies in Europe.

As organizing a long-term stay in Europe is complicated, I have decided to start my research early enough.

I have been thinking of Switzerland, which seems like a pleasant little country.

I have been checking out different internet sites, including the “releve academique” site. My French is not perfect, but I think I understood quite a lot.

What I would need is feedback from PhD students. If you could tell me about your experience as a PhD student, that would be awesome.

All in all, I would love to know if it is worth it to do a PhD in Switzerland or should I look into other European countries?

Thanks for your help! Hope you have a lekker day :)

Foreignchick

[GenMod]

Hi and weclone to the forum, Foreign Chick.

MY own phD years are long past, and there was little or nothing for the "releve academique" then.

But I found the quality of the work of excellent standard. (best suited in my discipline -anthropology- for the proactive rather than those needing a cocoon frame à la grad school)


I hope that you will receive many fruitful answers and wish you the best decision for your PhD home destination.

Feel free to post / ask any question you feel useful for your decision making process.


Best regards,
Nicolas

[stephanie]

Hi Foreignchick!

You should check out this guide :

http://www2.unine.ch/files/content/site ... DOCTEN.pdf

It might help you!

[pops]

I am going now to my second year of PhD in Switzerland in Biology, I also did my master here. I come from Brazil and I believe that Switzerland offers a very fine and top education/research environment. There are lots of possibilities and interesting projects waiting for a motivated and engaged PhD student.

Additional to that I love the country and specially the life quality you can get in here. Naturally there are lots of cultural differences if i compare to my homecountry, but I appreciate to learn and to adapt to new situations. I also lived in Asia before, Thailand.
if you have more specific questions and want to ask and if i can help, please let me know.

[GenMod]

Thanks for offering your assistance. I wonder whether it would be interesting to create a post listing contacts for questions about countries (for Swiss scholars having mobility questions) and keeping it up to date.


Conversely, if anyone in your network is envisioning (post)doctoral years in Switzerland, you can direct them here. They are welcome to join and ask their questions

[Foreignchick]

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for your replies.

I have been quite busy lately. I haven't had the time to come back to this forum.

I have been checking out European countries as well, but I still haven't made up my mind. I'm not too worried though, because I still have time.

I will check out that guide. Thank you Stephanie for the link.

Thank you GenMod and atauril for your help. It's nice to know that if and when I have questions, I can ask you guys.

I hope you have a lovely day,

Foreignchick :)