www.youtube.com/.../watch?v=V1d6US3QYcQ

Hello everyone and welcome to

a different kind of video. Today I'm

joined by Dr. Shayla Vradenburgh,

who is the founder, what would

you call it? Founder of Revolting

Science Resources. And I'm gonna

let her explain what that is. But today,

because I was trained in the UK and

Shayla was trained in the US, we are

going to talk about the differences

between the UK versus US PhD. So

Shayla, do you wanna introduce

yourself? So, yeah. My name is Dr.

Shayla Vradenburgh. I am the founder

of Revolting Science Resources,

which is a company that's designed

to bring the principles of project

management to academic scientists

and researchers. I realized while

I was finishing up my PhD and

afterwards when I kind of learned

a little more about project management,

how vital it is to the work that we

do as researchers. And so I created

a company that's all about kind of

ways that you can implement

some of those principles in the

work that you do.

And Shayla also gives presentations

at conferences and at institutions.

So, you know, please consider bringing

her in. She is great. I did see her

present at the National Postdoctoral

Association. So yeah, that's a bit

about Shayla. You all know me

because you are on my YouTube

channel. I'm Kate, I'm the founder

of EduKatedSTEM, and normally I

talk about education and professional

development. So this slots in beautifully

because at the beginning of your

career you might be considering

whether you should do a PhD. And

also maybe where you should do

one because whether you are

international, whether you're from

the UK, or the US, students come

from each country all the time. And

there are videos on YouTube already,

from various people explaining why

they chose various countries or not.

So I encourage you to look at those,

but Shayla and I will be talking about

our personal experiences and also

the information that is relevant today,

which is in May, 2025 because we

did do a little bit of researching

around this area. So how about we

talk about the application process.

Do you wanna go first, Shayla?

Yeah. So I will say it's been a few

years since I've applied. I applied

back in 2017, so it's again, been a

few years, but for that application

process, most of the time it looks

pretty similar for a lot of different

universities. And also what I'll say

is I got my PhD in neuroscience

and in a lot of institutions in the

US that can be in kind of different

places. For me, most of the places

I applied, it was part of the school

of medicine, but sometimes you

can have it be parts of different

biology departments or the college

of arts and sciences. And so, sometimes

things can vary based off of what

department or school that you're

applying to. For kind of mostly like

these biomedical science school

of medicine things, there's also

sometimes umbrella programs.

So some of the institutions I

applied to, you actually apply to

an umbrella program and then

you kind of select your specialization

afterwards. Some of them will let

you apply directly to a specialization.

So, some of those kind of nuances

are a little different. But a lot of the

time it requires some sort of cover

letter or at least like personal statement,

some sort of, you know, like basically

talking a little about the things

you've accomplished in a CV. Having

letters of recommendation and a

lot of it is really predicated on how

much research experience you have.

They really wanna see some tangible

ways that you've actually gained

some experience that's relevant to

the work that you're hoping to do.

And then there normally is an

application fee. I know when I was

applying, I actually went to a national

conference called SACNAS, and

while I was there, I actually was

able to get a lot of waivers for

different institutions that I didn't

actually have to pay that application

fee. But that can be another thing

that kind of adds up if you're applying

to a lot of different institutions.