Your Start in a PhD

As part of the “Your Start in a PhD!” program (2025 edition), we carried out:

✔ Two open informational meetings, “ DoctorUS Together!”, attended by over 100 candidates to the SGGW Doctoral School, where they learned about the recruitment process and the realities of doctoral education at the Doctoral School.

✔ Mentoring – this was a key element of the program. Mentors, who were experienced doctoral candidates, provided ongoing answers to participants’ questions, shared tips and stories from their own experiences in the Doctoral School, supported participants in finding suitable supervisors, and helped them prepare application documents by identifying both their strengths and areas for improvement.

✔ Self-presentation workshops – participants learned how to effectively present themselves, their achievements, and their motivations to the recruitment committee. The sessions included practical public speaking exercises, work on delivering a clear and persuasive message, as well as guidance on body language and stress management. As a result, participants gained greater confidence and the ability to consciously build a professional image as PhD candidates.

✔ Workshops on the technical aspects of preparing a doctoral dissertation proposal – the workshops began with a presentation explaining the scoring criteria and the required components of a proposal. This was followed by a discussion panel featuring invited SGGW researchers from various disciplines, who shared best practices for presenting a research plan. The workshops concluded with a practical exercise in which participants analyzed strengths and weaknesses of past dissertation proposals, gaining concrete technical guidance for preparing their own applications.

✔ Q&A series – we prepared a series of Q&A posts on the social media channels of the SGGW Doctoral Students’ Council. These addressed questions related to doctoral funding, supervision, preparation and evaluation of application documents, as well as the recruitment process itself.

✔ Integration meeting – the project concluded with a networking event where participants, mentors, and invited guests had the opportunity to thank each other for six months of work and celebrate the results of the SGGW Doctoral School admissions. As part of the event, we took part in a PubQuiz competition and organized billiards games.

Program in numbers:

44 participants enrolled

17 mentors

15 topics developed within the Q&A series

6 meetings and workshops organized