How do I apply?
We accept applications only by e-mail, to the address: opticalbiologyPhD@ucl.ac.uk
Make sure you receive an email from us confirming arrival of your application.
We very strongly advise you to submit your application at least one week before the deadline, to allow time for e-mail corruptions, tardy referees, lost documents and other problems to be sorted out. We will not extend the deadline for receiving readable applications and references under any circumstances. Applications received earlier in the year than November will be processed in November.
Please ensure that your surname (i.e. family name) is the first word in the subject line of the e-mail, both for your application and for references sent by your referees.
When applying make sure that you and your referees agree on what your surname (family name) is(!) and make sure that all documents for your application arrive with the same name - this is particularly important for applicants with Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese names. Sometimes applicants' documents arrive with a variety of last names, making it easy for them not to become associated with each other here, and thus preventing us assessing applicants properly.
You need to ask your referees to e-mail their references to opticalbiologyPhD@ucl.ac.uk and to check with them that they have done so by the deadline. If your references arrive late, they cannot be considered when assessing your application. We strongly advise you to arrange for your referees to send their references at least 1 week before the deadline. Each year some applications arrive without at least 2 academic referees having submitted references; these incomplete applications are usually simply rejected. After asking your referees to send in their references, please do not email us to ask if they have arrived - instead ask your referees if they received an acknowledgement.
What is needed in my application?
Your application should consist of a CV, a statement of why you want to do the 4 year PhD in Optical Biology at UCL (1 to a maximum of 2 pages long), and at least two academic references (the references should normally be sent by the referees, separately from the CV and statement).
The two (or more) referees should send their statements directly to opticalbiologyapplications@ucl.ac.uk but, if this is (in exceptional cases) impossible, then you can send them yourself with an explanation and we will check their validity later. Please combine the CV (first) and statement (second) into a single Word file (strongly preferred) or a pdf file. When naming the file, make your surname the first word of the file name and do not include any punctuation in the file name (other than .doc or .pdf). Do not compress files - we do not accept zipped or RAR or SkyDrive files and you will have to submit your application again.
Please make sure that the files you submit are not larger than 1MB in size, because they cause problems with our automated email system. Thus, it is not necessary to include ultra high resolution pictures of yourself on the CV, and scans of transcripts (if provided) should be adjusted in resolution to be less than 1MB).
How do I prepare my CV and statement?
Please follow these instructions carefully.
Start your CV with your name and all your contact details, including e-mail address and phone number. Give your date and place of birth.
Next, give your educational history, starting with your university degrees and running backwards in time to your school exams. In this section you must state the dates and grades obtained in both your final undergraduate degree exams (if you have finished them already - state your degree result both as a class and a percentage grade or GPA) and grades for individual exams at the end of each year. Please state the grades for your degree (and components of it) here, even if you append a full trancript with all your individual grades. For non-UK degrees, if possible please include an estimate of what percentage of students attain the grade that you got (e.g. top 20%, 10% etc). Please include your final school exam subjects and grades. If English is not your first language include the results of any English tests that you have taken.
Then include other items you want to have in your CV, including any previous experience relevant to the application.
Note that we strongly discourage submission of a "Europass" style CV, in which information is detailed in a different order to that specified above.
Append your statement of why you want to do the PhD to the end of your CV, so it is all in one file.
E-mail the merged file to NeuroPhD@ucl.ac.uk and ask your referees to send their references to the same address, as soon as possible and before the closing date (ideally at least one week before - see above).
At this stage you do not need to fill in the online UCL application.
Are transcripts necessary?
They are optional: as noted above, you should include in your CV a summary of the grades you have got in your final school exams and university courses, but you may in addition send a scan of your transcripts (no file over 1MB please). Note that legally certified transcripts are not needed at the application stage (they will be checked later if you are selected). If English is not your first language include a scan (<1MB) of the results of any English tests that you have taken.