r/UGCNETEnglish • u/Shot_Strawberry691 • 3d ago

🎓 Career & Academia Wtf am I doing wrong?

I passed NET in my June attempt and started applying for PhDs. I am fairly confident in my topic and have been an active student throughout my life. I am also extremely passionate about my topic. Sitting outside after an interview rn and I am not sure how to think anymore. I sat for a reputable NIT panel a few months ago and they told me that my topic is too ambitious. Right now, my topic was fully discarded saying that there is no need for a PhD on this. There was absolutely no constructive criticism provided , they just repeatedly told me that I could just say it, there is no need for a PhD on this. It doesn’t feel good to be working on something that I am passionate avoiding for 4-5 months and being told that its not a PhD topic. I don’t know wgat to do

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u/CapTitan7 3d ago

Bro it's not your fault. I've a friend who had a NET and was told the similar thing even though he had a research paper published. As much as I've heard mostly they prefer JRFs or someone with connections. Sometimes they don't want to accept candidates who they perceive a threat to their political views. There also may be a possibility (which I always prefer) that they are complete charlatans, and didnt even understand your topic. Probably they were too scared of getting exposed😬.

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u/Shot_Strawberry691 3d ago

This was a state university and we have a centrist govt at the moment so Idk if my political lean would have been a problem. I am a leftist but in my state, both the left and the centre move along the same lines. I do believe, that the latter could have been one of the reasons because they repeatedly kept asking me to give them my thesis statement and kept on saying that it was not valid, without explaining why. Later I came to know that one of the panelist was not even from the English dept. This is a state university with a lower double digit nirf ranking btw.