Current understandings of the expectations and educational needs of commencing PhD students are based on research focusing on the retrospective recollections of middle or late-stage candidates about the extent to which their expectations at entry were met. This article explores the prospective expectations of 199 commencing PhD students at the point of entry into doctoral study. Students' expectations of PhD study, of being a research student, and of supervisors' expectations of them were collected at doctoral orientation events in an Australian university. The study found that commencing students reproduce institutional discourse about the doctorate being a high-stakes test of the individual's preparedness for membership of an academic discipline, and they envisage a difficult trial involving hard work, initiative, self-sacrifice, and intellectual innovation with little outside support. The implication for institutions is that the same narrative does not need to be placed centre-stage within orientation and induction. Rather, institutions need to bring narrative and practices surrounding PhD commencement more into line with the contemporary doctorate emphasising to incoming students that, undertaken within a networked and supportive environment, the doctorate can involve both enjoyment and work-life balance.