I'm two months into my second and final year, and I'm having such a hard time. My program has genuinely given me so much, and my teachers are fantastic and top in their field and I'm lucky to have the chance to work with them. But the favoritism and subjectivity of grades is slowly getting to me.

It doesn't truly affect me or my professional outcome. I will have no problems graduating. But I'm watching the students who get preferential treatment continue to get more and more special attention from the teachers, because they get more experience from having more opportunities.

It's just really hard. I'm working to stay detached and just focus on learning and improving myself. But it sucks.

Any kind words or advice for how to deal with these feelings welcome.

I'm in an MSW program and working 40 hours on top of that. Weekends come and I get chores done and spend a little time with friends. I have a few hours on the weekends to get extra work done but I am having the hardest time getting myself to do it. My brain is just tired. I eat and sleep pretty good, not getting a ton of exercise or sunshine though.

I have one research methods paper in particular that is seriously like pulling teeth. Idk what to do. I've tried going to the library or a coffee shop. I've tried the pomodoro timer. I just can't get myself to do stuff until it's like the day of the due date or late.

I (24f) graduated from university last year when I was 23, but the last year of my bachelors was too hard on me for several reasons and I couldn’t apply to the masters degree for 25/26 educational year back then. I took a gap year worked on my psychology, did some field work (nothing too impressive), spent time with my family and friends. This year I applied 6 masters degrees for 26/27 educational year and except 1 of them got rejected. 1 of them wanted extra documents and I sent them immediately but the masters office tells me that the process can take until the end of November and it is not even certain that I will be accepted. The semester started 2 weeks ago and I am already missing lessons. If I cannot make it this year, I feel like a total failure and think I will be losing one more year of my life. This gap year was not a total wreck but I feel like my life is on pause until I achieve the master study I yearn for. And I feel like I am losing so much time on nothing…

Im considering taking this MS program online but I can not seem to find anyone who has been enrolled and is able to give me their two cents. Any advice would be appreciated.

STEM background student here.

Okay, first I would like to clarify my question. I have read up a lot of posts online everywhere to not do a PhD and how big of a slog the work is. I am in my senior/final year of my engineering degree in India. Quite lost in what to do. I wanted to write something so that I understand things myself and maybe get to talk to some people too.

I've always wanted to work in academia. I'm currently taking some graduate level courses this semester and working under a prof. And after spending quite some time on research and high level courses, I have a feeling that everything seems so gloomy? Don't get me wrong on this, I love the work, however it seems like everyone is extremely burnt out.

On top of that, I wanted to go for fields that are more applied math oriented. It seems that the clankers are doing so much that I might not even produce good work alone. However, I still have hope? I feel there will be some wall that clankers will have their own hurdles and human creativity will still thrive. Idk how the human spirit works. Idk enough. Of course you can go ahead and correct me for being gloomy. I think I should still be realistic before I commit my 20s and early 30s to a PhD/Postdoc life.

Honestly, I feel like I do not want to deal with the stress and uncertainty in academia at all. Which is a shame I feel because I'm doing extremely well in my courses, considering my cohort consists of PhD and Masters students who know way more than me. I have a few friends who want to go to academia who do get "less marks" than me, but I know that's not a good enough indicator for success in research. I told them that I do not want to go for research anymore, and they get disappointed. It's because they think I am wasting something.

I'm really not sure anymore. I had a fire to learn more things and discover something new in a niche research field before. But now I feel like it's all but gone away. I think I should just start preparing for a stable industry/defence sector jobs with what I want out of my life. I feel that I want to stop pigeonholing myself to just academics and explore more. But I still honestly really doubt if I want that or is it just some other people's idea of success.

PhDs take a lot of commitment and grit. I don't think I have what it takes for that.

I just wanted to have inputs from actual graduate students about this. Any insights would be appreciated.

Hi everyone!

I'm applying to Chemistry PhD programs in the US for Fall 2027 as an international applicant.

One university I contacted told me to convert my GPA to the 4.0 scale, but I'm unsure how to do this correctly. I now WES is an option but I don’t have the money.

Would a simple proportional conversion be acceptable, or is there a specific conversion method I should use?

I'm also unsure how to present the conversion. Should I edit my transcript to include the converted GPA, or should I leave the official document unchanged and submit a separate page explaining the conversion and the method used? If a separate page is appropriate, should it be an informal statement prepared by me?

I'd appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with this, especially international applicants

Thanks in advance!

I’m a current masters student in mechanical engineering from canada looking to apply for PhD programs in the US. I have a letter of recommendation from my current masters supervisor and one of our academic collaborators who I worked with directly in the past.

I asked my undergraduate thesis supervisor, who said that he would probably not be the best letter writer. I really struggled in his lab that year and he does not think he can write an outstanding letter for me which is why he recommended I find someone else.

Would this raise red flags for an admissions committee that I don’t have a letter from my undergrad thesis supervisor.

Also for a third letter writer who of the two options would be best:

1. another prof who I haven’t done research with or taken a class but she is a personal mentor of mine and I did a summer research skills program with

. We’ve also been on the same faculty committees in the past

2. professor from one of my classes probably would be from undergrad since I haven’t gotten to know any of my grad profs very closely.

Hi guys I’m about to go to grad school soon. My path will be getting a master’s degree at a CSU school and hopefully getting into a PhD program at a UC school. I will be studying mathematics.

My reasoning is that I enjoy abstract algebra, although in undergrad it’s very introductory and probably not representative of the actual field. But my most important reasoning is that I want to push the boundaries of knowledge and work with other mathematicians to tackle interesting problems. Im not absolutely obsessed with mathematics in the sense that I do it in my free time outside of school, but it is the most satisfying academic field to work on.

Yes I know that IA is rising within mathematics, but I have a fairly optimistic view about it. Only thing I’m pessimistic about is really just funding issues. Last year my school’s math department’s funding got cut and we didnt have TA’s for a whole year.

My ultimate goal is to do some sort of IA or cryptography research in the industry. I don’t really have plans to stay in academia. And yes I am aware of how insanely competitive those industries are.

Im just wondering if my reasoning to get a PhD is somewhat solid. Money is not really an issue for me, but obviously time is. Dont wanna waste it. Let me know

Background: I have been working at a top IB in NYC for 3 years now (I was working in regulatory capital and now I am a Trader). I already hold a Master’s in Econ degree from a relatively top school for my program.

My work even though it’s paid alright, it is not intellectually challenging enough for me (though I am up for a promotion as a VP next year). I also want to pursue a career which is close to political strategy and economic advisory in the long run.

I am the sort of person who really likes to learn but I am worried about incurring severe debt (I am currently debt free but professional schools aint cheap). I am also 27 and if I start the program in 2028, I will graduate by 33 or so. The worry about age discrimination for jobs is also present.

I could really do with some advice! Appreciate in advance!

I recently contacted the graduate chair of University of Nebraska-Lincoln to ask if I could submit a cold application prior to a supervisor approval here's what he said.

1.  You can submit your application but must have an advisor prior to being admitted. 
2.  Yes you can apply to our program without an advisor. I aggregate each applicant's information and send it to all faculty for review. Those interested in an applicant will then set up an interview with the applicant.

Should I consider applying anyways or is it still better to contact the faculty first.

Hi all, I'm a master's student in HCI doing user research (mods OK'd this post). I'm studying how researchers verify a claim in a paper against the source it cites: finding the relevant passage in the original paper, and getting back to where you were reading.

I'm looking for grad students and researchers for a 20 min online chat (Zoom/Meet, camera optional) about how you do this today. It's just me asking questions. No survey, no product, nothing to sell.

If you're up for it, you can pick a slot here: https://calendly.com/erikgelcich/interview-1on1 or comment/DM me. Thanks!

Hi all,

I am working on applying to MFA programs this fall mostly in digital design programs. I was not an art major in undergrad (i got an art minor) and also took half of the art classes for my minor abroad at a "study abroad" university.

When it comes to rec letters, I feel kind of lost. I can think of only one professor who can speak to my work in the art field that I was actually close with. There weren't really any other art professors at my home university who wouldve seen my work in this capacity. I have been out of college now for two years working as well so I'm not exactly still well connected in that community.

What should I do? I reached out to a professor I had while abroad but thats not really my ideal letter either.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been really lost lately about what physics field I wanna pursue in my masters.

When I first started with my physics degree, I had the same ideas we all have about it. Like, we love space and physics and this stuff... and I thought I loved theoretical physics. Now, in my first year of fundamental physics masters, I’ve completely changed my mind. I am looking for masters abroad, and I want to choose an applied physics field that will help me do some work not really related to theoretical physics. I don’t want everything to be math and that stuff, also programming is something i dont really like or even good at...

But I always wanted to do a PhD, not to stop at a masters.

So it will take me around 5 or 6 more years, which is okay, but I am thinking if I could study medicine, that would take the same time, but maybe with better rewards for me, especially that the job is something i would love to do.

I am asking here because I wanna hear different points of view. I asked med students, but I am not sure if it’s a big risk. Are there fields in applied physics that have better opportunities? Better jobs?

Thanks for any advice.

Im currently pursuing an MA in theology and planning to apply for PhD applications next fall (religious studies). I'm really struggling to keep up with the workload and the pressure is affecting my mental health a lot. I also struggle with time management and work life balance. I work on coursework 6-7 days a week, and I try to take advantage of as many opportunities as I comfortably can (a research based study abroad, presenting at conferences, etc) but im really having a hard time staying sane and balanced throughout this. Especially when I'm getting assigned several hundred pages a week of dense-ish material, on top of my own research projects and language courses plus 8-10 hours of translation homework a week and writing/research CE classes on the side to improve my writing 🥴 my BA was a double major in philosophy and poli sci so I'm used to reading and writing intensive work I just never got the hang of balancing everything and now in my 2nd year of a 3 year MA program and it's just got me feeling totally overwhelmed. Also just got engaged and there's a wedding underway which is amazing personally but stressful academically because it's just adding more to the plate. It's as if my sole focus can only be school in order to compete for top phd programs. Any advice?

What the title says. I’m a 25F legal assistant who graduated college in 2023 with a BA in English Creative Writing. I graduated honors with thesis.

I desperately want to go to grad school, but I’m going to have to wait another 5 years or so. By then, I’ll have been out of school for ~8 years.

How do you even approach letters of recommendation. Sample essays from 8+ years ago? Anyone know what to do when you go back to school later in life?

Let me know if this should go elsewhere and thank you in advance for your advice!!

Although the title is pretty dramatic, I won't lie and say that I am not absolutely being emotionally over run by having to write personal statements and research of purpose statements for applications. I told myself I was going to finish everything well before the end of October, and here we are with a bunch of drafts still in bullet point phase. I really suck at self flatulating writing and personal statements have always been my weak point. But now, I just feel embarrassed as I write them because it feels like I'm just revealing how unprepared I am for the PhD program I want to pursue and don't know how to make the research I have done even sound good for them.

I am applying to astrophysics/scientific computing PhD programs despite having a menial computer science background ( I can code competently, just haven't done any for astro-related programs) and my school only has a standard physics degree, with zero astro-related faculty/courses. My research experience is all over the place and not a single job I've had has been topic related either. I don't even know who to ask to read my statement of research purpose because no one in my department would even know what the hell I'm even talking about. I want to finish applying strongly but don't really know what steps to take to get the advice I need in the area I am applying to nor how to make me look good as a candidate.

I spoke to the head of my department and he was very encouraging that I am already doing well enough since I've made it this far but I know deadlines are coming sooner than later and want to get things moving quicker and to not stress out about this more than I should. I'm debating doing some online courses as well just to try to supplement my knowledge a bit but I don't know if that's too late to do at this point. Thoughts? Advice? Will appreciate literally anything at this point lol.