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RE: Ask for a little counselling: from "The Journey to Ph.D." reader

I'm one of those who have a chance to read your book "The Journey to Ph.D."

As I always have a strong desire to apply for Ph.D. at ANU, your book really inspires me to go for it and study for society. However, scholarship is of a crucial concern for me whether to have an opportunity to continue my study or not.

I found that there are some scholarships available for those who study in health and science or related field but hardly find one for those who study in the field of business. But the problem is I have graduated a Master degree in the field of Business Management from Australia and a Bachelor of Arts, English for Business from Thailand.

Owning to this, I'm not sure whether I can apply to study in the area of public health as I want to as it is irrelevant to the previous field of studies. Topic for research proposal is one of the problem as I do not know which area it should be about and I have no research experience due to the studying as a coursework.

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Thanks for your message ka, I'm glad that the book has reached out to those who are interested in pursuing further education.

As for your question, I also did not have direct experience or degree on public health prior to this PhD. I think that's why research proposal and personal statement is very important as it will communicate why you are interested in this field and what do you want to do in the future. Do you know what area of public health are you interested in? Are you interested in issues in Thailand? There are many aspect so health ranging from epidemiology, infectious disease, chronic disease, mental health, health services, or health economics. Once you know where your interest lies, it will be easier to focus and shape up the proposal.

As I mentioned in the book, doing a PhD is an investment..personal life, money, time.. so knowing 1) WHY you want to do this is very important as much as 2) WHAT do you what to do now and next (in the the future). Then we can look into 3) WHEN do you want to do this, are you ready? 4) WHERE is best to do the degree? and 5) HOW to apply and complete it.

Having said that, one step at a time ka. I took several months during evenings and weekends to make a plan, searched through several universities websites..getting a feel of what are out there, what I can see myself doing. It's an exploration about yourself too ka.

Good luck na ka, hope these are useful. Feel free to write again.

With best wishes,

Vas