Continuing with the title, let's think about it differently, it's actually a question of "if Shenbo doesn't want a portfolio, then which one is better for me or not".
Well, if Shenbo relies on doing it all by yourself, collecting information and materials in advance, choosing a school by yourself and preparing a series of essays and materials, preparing papers by yourself, etc., this is inseparable from two words: yourself.
The advantage is, of course, that it saves money, saves money, saves money.
But the disadvantages are also ...... Let's talk about them one by one.
Is your time management and energy really OK?
Basically, overseas doctoral applications have to go through a series of processes, and it is normal for it to take a year to go through the entire process.
One of the most time-consuming is the setting of magnetism and writing RP. Magnetism is a summary of a series of actions, from finding the right project, to selecting mentors, to the process of contacting the target mentor. Writing an RP is a mental job, and it is difficult to apply for a PhD without an excellent RP.
Therefore, students who want to do it themselves need to have strict control over the progress and planning of the entire application, and reserve sufficient preparation time.
For example, students who are studying for a one-year master's degree must start writing RP as soon as the year of graduate school starts if they want to catch up with the batch of Shenbo in February. However, this is very difficult for many students, because you still have to adapt and complete the master's school coursework with high quality this year, and if you are in time for the year-end batch of PhDs, you will actually need to start the RP just after the first semester, and the time is also very tight.
And if this matter conflicts with the normal classes of the school, graduation project, etc., or encounters obstacles large and small, it is easy to feel anxious. Originally, studying abroad should be a thing that people yearn for, but if you are in a high-pressure environment for a long time, you will be overwhelmed, so there is no need for this.
At this time, "relying on yourself all the way" will become a double-edged sword,
Therefore, instead of spending a lot of time on searching for information and preparing paperwork, it is better to entrust these to others.
Student W, a student of Hanyi International Education, received an offer from the University of Plymouth with a Ph.D. in Design
Do you have a clear research direction and writing skills?
You need to have a clear idea, such as: ??...... The 2024 Full-time Doctoral Degree Program Enrollment Guide of the Central Academy of Fine Arts mentions that your "Future Research Plan Report" must include thoughts on these aspects.
2024 Enrollment Guide for Full-time Doctoral Degree Students
If you have a clear idea of your PhD research direction during your master's degree, such as those studying for MRes, and you can make sure that you produce a good research proposal (again, this is really important), you can do it yourself.
But again, for those of you who are studying at institutions that place more emphasis on practical outputs, although everyone.
After all, the doctoral thesis and the master's thesis are not quite the same, it is a technical job, it has its own framework and skills, we,.
Therefore, for students who have not been trained in academic output and have a PhD plan, they can come to Hanyi to discuss the research direction and learn how to write a research proposal during the first year of fashion design at Kingston University, just like student G, who is a student of Hanyi.
Student G of Hanyi shared that he is studying for MA in Fashion Design at Kingston University
Do you have the resources to get poor information?
We can talk about this in several ways:
One is the set of magnetism. We know that if you want to study at another prestigious university and meet a mentor you have never met, you need to put more effort into obtaining information, not only to fully understand the cutting-edge trends in the research field, but also to find out the research direction of the supervisor.
However, in the era of information explosion, when you collect the above required information, you will find that there are too many things that need to be integrated and summarized, at this time, if there is an experienced doctoral teacher who can take you to complete it and can provide you with the cutting-edge information and technology of the design industry at any time, it will really make your journey to the Ph.D. twice the result with half the effort.
Take the example of W, a student of Hanyi and a PhD student in design at the University of Plymouth, who chose to play an immersive serious game about autism, but she encountered a problem at the beginning - because she was an interdisciplinary PhD in interior design, and she had been separated from these cutting-edge technologies in the design field for too long, she did not understand what the current hot trends were, which led to a slightly old-fashioned way of expressing how to interact with the autism community.
。 Later, with the joint efforts of the tutor and her, W's tutor was very satisfied with his work.
Records of lessons with the teacher
The second is the poor information on the doctoral program. With the in-depth development of education globalization, more and more schools have developed doctoral programs that are more in line with the times, such as the Ph.D. of Polytechnic Hong Kong and the Doctor of Design jointly funded by the seven countries of COD. In the face of a new doctoral program, how to grasp the characteristics and requirements of the program has become another challenge for successful application.
Source: codesign4transitions.eu
Not to mention that if you want to apply for a PhD in Europe, and a lot of websites such as university websites are all in French, German, and Italian, do you have the ability and patience to spend dozens of hours reading these complex texts and picking out key information from them?
Not only that, among the materials that need to be submitted, those that can most intuitively show their abilities, in addition to research proposals, papers, and professional designs, are awards.
All of the above, this is where the role of the institution is reflected. Under a relatively complete and mature system, each level will have a special teacher in charge, such as a professional translator to help fill in the form and check the application materials, so as to improve the success rate of the application, and the network in art and design will help you keep an eye on the design competition, and naturally you will have more opportunities to participate.
So, if you want to Shenbo, if you can't handle it alone, you can-
Come to Hanyi, find professionals, and do professional things