What You Should Do After Receiving a PhD Offer Letter ?
Here’s the scenario. You wake up one morning at the sound of your email notification and to your surprise, you jumped out of bed. Hurray! Your Ph.D. application has just been accepted.
Or your mom has probably left a letter in the kitchen saying “Hey, sweety you just got a letter from the mailman.” When you opened it, the letterhead revealed the name of your dream university. You’ve just been offered a scholarship to study Ph.D. abroad.
Well, the first thing that I can say to you is Congratulations! Your Ph.D. journey is just about to unfold. So what now? In truth, I have received more questions regarding offer letters than how to apply for a Ph.D. degree.
It’s normal to feel a mixture of emotions. You can be excited and happy but also lonely because you’ll be leaving your family soon. Some students even complain about being confused and intimidated. Others don’t have an idea what to do because it is their first time to receive something big.
So in this article, I am going to share with you the things that you should do when you receive
an offer letter confirming your place to study a Ph.D.Tip 1: Celebrate your milestone!
I’m sure you’re very excited right now. Receiving a Ph.D. offer is not something that everyone is lucky to have. If your application is successful and you receive an unconditional offer to study Ph.D. in your chosen university, it means that you’ve reached the first milestone, and it calls for a celebration. 
There are many ways to celebrate. You can do a crazy dance in your own room or sing your lungs out. You can also take this opportunity to spend a decent dinner with your family and share the good news. If you’re living abroad, you can invite your friends over and drink some wine.
Tip 2: Contact your supervisor
Receiving an offer letter is just your first step for a positive start. Don’t wait for a week before cracking the good news to your supervisor. After receiving your offer letter, draft a letter for your supervisor which you can send today or the next day.
The longest time frame to contact your supervisor is three days. Before you get busy with other things, inform your supervisor that your application has been accepted by the university. Ask about the most convenient time for you to meet and set up a schedule.
Remember that students are expected to make the initiative to connect with their supervisors. If you ignore any opportunity to call them, you might not be able to catch up with each other.
Tip 3: Accept your Ph.D. offer
To accept your Ph.D. offer, reply within the school-given timeframe. Inform the university that you have received the offer and you are going to proceed with the enrollment process.
Take note of the deadline for your approval. Most offer letters usually come with a timeframe within which you have to reply. If you can’t reply promptly, there is a high possibility that your offer will be withdrawn.
Tip 4: Confirm your start date
There is no specific date to start studying your Ph.D. degree. Normally, when you study Ph.D., you are given the option to start either on the 1st of March or 1st of April. But if you’re studying abroad, most universities will give you a specific date to start.
If the details of your Ph.D. class schedule is not given, try to connect to the school registrar or department head to confirm your start date. Knowing your schedule ahead of time helps you prepare other requirements that will be needed as you begin with your Ph.D. journey.
Tip 5: Get the ball rolling
Once you’re in, it’s time to start your Ph.D. journey. Prepare yourself on your first day as a 
Ph.D. student by gathering your research materials and meeting with your supervisors.
Attend orientations at school. Don’t take for granted every orientation. Just because it seemed unimportant to you doesn’t mean that you will ignore it. Orientation is a chance to gather ideas on what you will do, meet new colleagues, and share ideas with students who are taking similar Ph.D. programs.
Make sure that you learn how things go around in the university. Most universities have websites and student email accounts, which you can check on for updates. If so, then check your email regularly, communicate with your supervisor, and do your research.
Check out the library for available resources and look for a place where you can be comfortable in writing your thesis. Basically, just get into it and enjoy your journey in getting a Ph.D.
Being accepted is definitely a major success, with or without funding. In case you have been accepted without funding, try to look for fellowship and scholarship programs that will help pay for your Ph.D. You can also check out BioTecNika’s scholarship programs for students who want to take up Ph.D. in Biology or Life Sciences. There’s never a thing too late if you just grab every opportunity.
What if you received a conditional offer letter?
I’ve been asked quite a lot of about conditional offer letters for Ph.D. Unfortunately, not all students get 100% accepted after receiving an offer letter to study Ph.D. Receiving a conditional offer means that you’ve been accepted by the university subject to the completion of other requirements such as your references, follow-up documents, and results verification.
Yes, a lot of students are caught in this situation. But don’t worry because there is a solution to every problem. If this is your case, the following are the important things that you should do.
Tip 1: Gather your references
Some universities place conditions on their offer letter because of the failure of the student 
applicant to provide references. It is possible that your qualifications are superb but you’ve forgotten to fill-up the field for reference. Or you’re probably too-good-to-be-true that the university needed more references to confirm your academic achievements and good moral character.
The best thing you can do is to gather at least two references. Make sure that one must come from your previous school. It could be a colleague or your old professor from your Master’s Degree Program who can share information about your academic performance and character as a student.
Tip 2: Submit follow-up documents
Applicants for Ph.D. are basically required to submit supporting documents to complete their applications. You must provide all these documents with your application or after you have received an approval before the deadline so the university will not withdraw the offer.
These documents can include your transcript of records, proof of meeting the academic entry requirements, proof of English proficiency, and a copy of your student Visa or passport if you are studying abroad.
Your chosen university can require you to submit any other documents. Just make sure that you complete them as soon as possible. Otherwise, your offer can be withdrawn.
Tip 3: Verify your results
Remember when you applied for a Ph.D., there’s a section in your application that requires 
you to declare your results qualification. If you’ve attached your results qualification with your application, you will not have issues today.
However, if you were not able to submit it together with your application for some acceptable reason, you need to submit it within the allotted time after you receive an offer letter.
So there you go. Receiving an offer letter from your dream university is really exciting. I hope that these suggestions will be helpful to you.
At any rate, for students who have been placed on the waiting list or have been rejected, please don’t hesitate to ask me for some insights. Good luck!
Do you have any questions regarding your offer letter to study Ph.D.? Feel free to drop some comments and I’m more than happy to personally reply to you.
Read Also :
- 10 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Getting a PhD
- How to Apply for a PhD in India / Abroad Successfully ?
