PhD - Acceptance!

I'm in! Woohoo! I received my acceptance letter from UTS today, signed it and returned it.

I've decided to take a two-prong approach to the first few months.

First, I need to get started doing a ton of reading, some of which unfortuntately has to wait until I'm fully enrolled and have access.

Second, I'm going to take some of my initial ideas, code up a prototype and kick the tyres. I feel it's important to get a good 'feel' for the problem space so that my reading has some grounding, and I'm someone who learns best by doing.

Time to take a deep breath, gird my loins (whatever the hell that means) and prepare myself for the climb ahead.

PhD - First Steps

So today I submitted my proposal for a Research PhD at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). I've been liasing with my potential tutor over the past few months to flesh out my ideas, and it's now in a form I can send off.

Having been out of academia for over 10 years, it's with both excitement and fear I take the plunge: I'm very aware I'm out of touch with how to write and research academic papers, so that's going to be quite the learning curve. Also, being a mature-age student and juggling study, work and family life will no doubt throw an interesting perspective on things!

However, I'm really committed to furthering myself in this way, and have no doubt I will come out (all those years down the track) all the better for it.

Now to wait...

Update: you can read a copy of the proposal here.