A door closed, but another one opens....

I haven't been posting for the past 1 week because my life has taken a 180 turn now. I was busy trying to decide on my MSc dissertation project when I received a surprise email from my office in Malaysia (OGP). This very important email has just turned my life's direction- our beloved OGP will no longer be operational in PETRONAS. Staff without projects (that's me! since I'm floating to do my MSc) will be deployed to other OPUs within the company. So, my dream of becoming "Ir. Adita", the professional engineer/consultant of OGP will definitely not come true.

Though the door for becoming an Ir closed in front of me, I realised that a new door opens just at the right time - this was the week I was supposed to decide on my project, which inevitably gave me the opportunity to think about continuing my PhD. If I return to Malaysia after my Masters, I will be "deployed" to another OPU and risk having to start all over again climbing the corporate ladder, plus my MSc will not add any value. However, if I return with a PhD and request to be deployed into Universiti Teknologi Petronas instead, I'll definitely stand a bigger chance to make it big in Petronas. Thus, after so much thinking and seeking advice from friends and family, I have decided to stay here and pursue a PhD.

My only concern though is obviously $$$. I met up with Dr Kapas and he told me that there is an opportunity for partial funding. The whole day today I was googling on funding sources and I found the best option - the Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards (DHPA). Its full tuition fees paid for 3 years PLUS maintenance fees of GBP12,300 per year! Also, its specific to my department AND only students from China, India and MALAYSIA can apply. How cool is that ;)

I definitely thought I stand a good chance in it and was so excited to apply..... UNTIL I found out that the deadline for 2006/7 was last 8th February!!!! I'm so mad!!! How can they set such early deadlines??? Furthermore, the uni just had a postgraduate open day on the 8th Feb itself! That is so not cool >:/

Thus, I have to find other alternatives, though I'm not giving up with DHPA. I'm going to push for it if there's still hope... If it's meant to be, it's up to me!!!