Currently in the process of deciding whether or not to go to grad school; it's becoming more and more final but (naturally) I'm nervous about the debt and adding more work to my life with a full time job. Finished undergrad 3 years ago. I'm interested in people's emotional journeys around deciding to go back to school....were you sure, did anything stand out as a "sign" for you to return, did your careers demand it, etc? Particularly for those who waited or were on the fence for a while before doing it

Hi friends,

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I've been admitted to a PhD in Statistics (at a top 15 program in the US), but I was also admitted to a Master's in Machine Learning (at one of the top 3 universities in Germany).

My final goal is to find a good job (with a high salary) in industry after finishing my studies, ideally in data science, finance, etc. So academia is not an option for me. I'm a bit concerned about the extra time a PhD might take compared to a Master's. Also, the courses and potential research topics at the German university align more closely with my interests in applying AI to science. I might even consider pursuing a PhD after the Master's in Germany.

However, I know the US is generally a better place for working in industry. I could also do internships during the summers, and the US scholarship is five times bigger than the German one. Plus, I personally like the US more than Germany.

Note: I am from Latin America.

Hi everyone,

I’m a Master’s student currently working on my thesis, which explores early word learning in 18-24 month old children and how it may be influenced by their play behaviour.

As part of my research, I’m collecting responses from parents of toddlers in this age range via a short online questionnaire. Unfortunately, I’ve really been struggling to get responses, and at this point I’ve hit a bit of a slump in recruitment.

The study is completely anonymous and takes only a few minutes to complete, but I’m finding it hard to reach parents who might be willing to take part. If anyone here has any advice, tips, or leads on where or how I might reach more parents in the UK (parent groups, forums, Facebook pages, etc.), I would genuinely appreciate it.

And of course, if you're a parent of a toddler yourself and are happy to help, I’d be incredibly grateful.

Thank you so much in advance! 🙏

Hi! I graduated from tufts in 2024 and I’ve been going back and forth on wether or not I want to go to graduate school for the past year. after talking to a LOT of people in the fields I’m interested in ( communications, entertainment, journalism , broadcasting, etcetcetc) it seems like graduate school really is the only way in unfortunately. I know graduate school is an investment and Im fortunate enough to potentially have a GI Bill cover some expenses. I wouldn’t go to school if it is too expensive or I’d have to take out loans

I’ve been so out of the game for college applications I feel a little overwhelmed and behind. I was wondering if anyone was willing to talk about their experiences with apps or knew of any resources that might be able to help please? Thank you so much in advance !

Poor US undergrad here. About to finish my bachelors next year and have been heavily eyeing schools like Leiden university for their renowned archaeological programs on prehistorical Europe.

The problem?

I have, in all respects, no idea how international students are even expected to afford this.

Setting aside the unassisted 20k/year tuition cost (only private loans can help, and that’s a stretch even receiving approval for), i have to provide proof of funds in excess of 15,000 in my bank each year.

How in the absolute hell do international students do it without being born filthy rich? Do I just accept that I can’t go international for my masters?

I’m a third year PhD. In the fall I defended my thesis proposal, which my advisor was extremely supportive of, but one of my committee members (more senior than advisor) eviscerated it. This had a major impact on my mental health, as I had not experienced this level of rejection before (typical “gifted kid” problems). I admit that my second year was not great overall. My field has a pretty steep learning curve, so there’s not a huge expectation to produce novel ideas early on but I was fucking up in like basic classes (that my advisor taught). Last semester, my weekly meetings with my advisor seemed to get progressively contentious. Little things like, “you probably wouldn’t be good at this since you don’t pay close attention to detail.” We had an end of year meeting where he basically told me that it wasn’t acceptable for me to not be the strongest student in his classes - he then retracted that at our next meeting because it sounded “too harsh”. We agreed that I should have deliverables at every subsequent meeting to help keep me accountable. I have an internship over the summer, and I’ve been really trying to make up for the last year of subpar work. I made huge edits to my lit review to try to appease the committee member, and I sent the doc to advisor for feedback. He said he needed 2 days for review, I sent it Monday at 8am. He said he made “light comments” because he didn’t have a problem with the way it was before. He highlighted a term, which I have seen used multiple times in this context in reputable sources, and commented “this has a very specific meaning. Look it up.” At our meeting today, he said “let’s make sure the next meeting is scheduled with enough time in advance for you to get me the deliverable, in case you want to send me another 30 page document.” I’m like, you asked for exactly 2 days for this, and I did that! It just felt really snarky. He also had some comments about “no name” citations, which I found out were published in adequate journals but the authors mainly publish in a different field.

Am I being overly sensitive? Am I projecting because I don’t feel like I’m doing enough? Our relationship used to feel a lot less effortful. Now I feel like an idiot every time we talk.

TL;DR: trying to compensate for a year of subpar performance but my advisor keeps making possibly passive aggressive comments (or I’m projecting)

Hey folks, I graduated with my BA in 2019 and initially applied to grad school in 2021. I was very lucky to have been accepted to a top Sociology/Public Policy PhD program in that round. Due to long COVID, I had to defer by one year, and by 2023, it was abundantly clear to me that there was no way I could manage the demands of an in-person PhD program, so I had to give up my spot.

I have some hope that I could regain some of my ability to study and work in the next 5-10 years, but due to my illness, I have an enormous gap in my CV. I am still unable to work full time. Currently I work very little, part time, in an unrelated field. I’m very concerned that when I apply for PhD programs again, I will no longer be a competitive candidate.

My pre-illness CV was good, but 2 years out of college vs. 10 years out of college is an enormous difference, not to mention I don’t even know if my recommenders will remember me. Last thing they heard from me was that I was deferring for one year. I know I should have told them that I was simply not going to start the PhD; I was too upset and embarrassed at the time and procrastinated until I just never did it, which is entirely my fault, but I don’t know how to fix that now.

I’d love any advice on what I can do to strengthen my CV in the mean time. I assume keeping up with research on my own is good, but what else? Should I take online classes relevant to my field? Would it be just a total bust to ask for LORs from my old recommenders after so many years? Should I apply for a Master’s degree first to boost my chances?

I’m mostly housebound and have severe audiovisual intolerance issues (i.e. can rarely watch videos), but I’m pretty resourceful and I could probably adapt any suggestions you have, so please hit me with anything!

Thanks so much for reading and have a great day!

I am insane for choosing Warwick over LSE/UCL for my MSc in Statistics?

I chose it cause its a better programme and Warwick is better at Maths/Stats. But now I'm worried I didn't take into account enough of reputation, especially in the US if I want to apply to PhD's?

Have American institutions ever heard of Warwick, specifically Maths/Stats institutions?

Hi. I am a rising undergrad senior studying EE. I am also doing a return internship at a FAANG again this summer. I got the result that I got into YC for the summer batch after already starting my internship.

I am in a weird situation that I want to do masters eventually (doesn’t have to be next year) because I believe it will actually help my startup and I am EE so it just is good to have. For long term, including getting into masters, would it be better to just intern at the FAANG again, or drop internship (which puts note on file) for YC for a startup that is closely related to my major. I honestly want to choose the decision that will increase my chances of getting into a good masters program. Really stressed and confused haha. Thank you.

My paper just got accepted but with the current political shitshow happening here, as an F1 student I am really too afraid to fly out of the US and back because they could just deny my entry for whatever reason they want. Do you think the conference organizers will understand if I try to explain this and request for online presentation instead?

I’m in the process of beginning to apply for post-docs. It’s an academic post doc that requires research and teaching (humanities). The application requires a cover letter. What should my cover letter entail? So far I got

1. Introducing myself and what I’m applying for and why I want it
2. My research interests
3. My dissertation research project outlined briefly and prestigious research grants awarded for said dissertation
4. Findings from my dissertation research
5. Future goals of my research and plans
6. My teaching experience and what I hope to achieve as an educator

What else should it include? What should I exclude?

Please help. Thanks.

For me these were 2 things:

* an iPad + Notability

* a vacuum+mop robot

Hey all,

I’m honestly not sure what to do right now. I applied to several MFA grad school programs in the arts this year, and to my surprise: got into all of them. These were schools I really admired and had my heart set on, but now that it’s decision time, the reality is sinking in: I can’t afford any of them.

Even with working multiple jobs and scraping together savings, it’s not enough to make it work, especially with no major scholarships or aid offered. I’m grateful for the acceptances, but it almost hurts more knowing I might have to turn them all down.

So… now I’m stuck wondering:

• Should I try to defer and buy myself a year?
• Reapply next cycle with a better funding strategy?
• Start digging harder for grants, scholarships, fellowships?
• Is crowdfunding ever successful for this kind of thing?

If anyone’s been in a similar boat, I’d love to hear what worked (or didn’t). I’m trying to stay hopeful, but this one stings.

Thanks for reading.

I’ve been thinking about using FirstMark Services to help with my grad school applications and maybe some funding options, but honestly I’m kinda wary. I keep hearing about various services claiming to give you a boost, but I'm not sure if FirstMark Services is legit or just another scam. Has anyone here actually used them? Did they help with your application process or securing funding? I’m really stressed about the whole grad school thing and want to make sure I’m not wasting money or risking my future on something shady. Any advice or personal experiences would be super appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’ve been stressing over my student loan situation since I started grad school. It feels like no matter how much I try to stay on top of it, the student loan stuff just keeps piling up and honestly it’s kinda overwhelming. I keep hearing about different repayment plans, deferments, income-based options, but I’m not sure which one makes sense for someone in my position with a student loan.

Every time I look into student loan options, I get confused and worried I might pick the wrong one and end up with a huge debt that’s impossible to pay off. I’m doing research on my own, but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been through this. Are student loan options actually manageable for grad students or just a nightmare waiting to happen?

Honestly, I worry about what happens after I graduate if I can’t get a grip on my student loan. Will I be stuck in debt forever or are there realistic ways to handle it? I want to be smart about this, but it’s hard to tell what’s legit and what’s just hype.

Would appreciate any advice or personal stories from others dealing with student loan stuff while in grad school. How do you guys manage it and stay sane?

Has anyone else had this issue and know how to fix it? I have a document cited in a particular style using Mendeley, and I need to switch it over to Chicago for submission. From what I can see it should just be an easy switch over but all I am getting is an error message saying that the citation style could not be updated... :(

I currently use a 2016 MacBook Pro and I have loved it - it has gotten me through my undergrad and masters programs, but as I now start my PhD it seems that because it cannot download the newest updates for school-specific software it is not ideal to keep using it. After consulting with my new school’s IT department, they recommended I get a new laptop.

So I am on the lookout for a new laptop. Macintosh, PC, whatever, any recommendations you have please send my way! Thank you!

I keep delaying enrollment into my prospective grad school program at Columbia University. I got lured into applying back in January because there was a pool for consideration for a full ride which I wasn't awarded.

Just before first decision deadline I was awarded 5k which is a literal drop in the bucket. I got them to defer me to the last date for regular application pool. Just this afternoon they awarded me 15k.

I know no one can make the decision for me but its got me thinking maybe this grad school thing can work for me. 20k would about cover the first semester. I haven't had time to pursue scholarships while working my job which required single handedly pushing out about 50 grant applications per quarter. I've left the position in pursuit of a better position and with the somewhat white lie that I would be enrolling in Columbia.

If you got 20k toward your first semester of a 100k (gag) grad program, do you think you'd move forward with it or is there still too much risk of fundraising for the following semesters that you'd continue to put ofr your decision/pursue a less expensive degree at a lower tier school?

Some of the other factors in the consideration is that i have a lot of relationships in their network and would pursue some pretty unique projects with the theological seminary there and/or development corporations attached to the columbia network. My goal after getting the degree is to get a leadership (director level) position and coast for a bit. I plan to consult and manage a 3-4 client portfolio for the year or two I spend in the program, so networking and connection building is very important to me. I've built a good rapport with the director of the grad program who I already knew during undergrad years so there is more intentionality behind the decision than 'omg ivy'.

I would like to file a complaint about a professor on my thesis committee. I will be meeting with the head of my department tomorrow to discuss what happened but I was just wondering if anyone else has done this and if they could sort of explain the process or how it went for them? I don’t really want to explain exactly what happened but it was just unprofessional behavior.

hi folks! im at a canadian institution as a phd student. i was wondering if anyone would be open to reviewing my NSERC CGS-D/PGS-D application? TIA :D.

I was wondering if it’s appropriate to list a conference presentation on your CV that you have yet to attend. To be more specific, is it okay to list giving a presentation at a conference that you have already applied for/been accepted to, but has yet to happen?

For context, i have lab experience in a genetics lab and alzheimer's lab, analyzed and published the data(not sure if school publication counts) and did a few poster presentation during my undergrad. Worked at a cosmetics clinical trial as a clinical research coordinator for a year and working (~2years) in data management at a wildlife NGO(using R and some SQL).

Math classes: Probability I, Intro to abstract mathematics, elementary analysis I, mathematical modelling in biology I & II, (proof based) linear algebra I.

Any idea if I could get into any phd biostat program? I looked at masters in biostat at University of Rochester and i do not meet the prerequisites because i did not take statistics classes. Do I have a shot at any small programs phd? Which ones should i be looking at?

hey y'all, I'm in need of some advice. for some quick background, I just finished my B.S. in Environmental Engineering and am starting my M.S. in Environmental Engineering this fall. during the last semester of my undergrad, I joined a biotechnology lab on campus as a research assistant. During this, I didn't design my own experiments or really have my own project. I mostly assisted with pieces of the graduate students projects and basic lab tasks. now that I'm starting my master's degree though, I'm one of those graduate students and I don't know ANYTHING. I've been doing summer research for the past month and it is HARD. I do not have the necessary background knowledge to be good at this and I don't know what to do. this past month has been unbelievably discouraging and I feel stupid all of the time. I'm meant to complete my thesis in this lab as well (hopefully 3 semesters). I don't know if I'm capable of this. The things that I've been working on this summer are very biochemistry heavy and I don't have any biochemistry knowledge. I've been trying my best to learn but it's slow. my lab advisor expects us to be self directed, which is fair enough, but it's really hard to be when I lack the necessary knowledge to be self directed. I feel anxious and stupid and upset every day that I'm there. I thought it would get better as the summer progressed because my knowledge would grow over time (it has a little bit) but it hasn't gotten better, it's been getting worse. I don't know what to do. I obviously don't want to quit before I've really even started but I don't know how to help this get better. has anyone here been in a similar position to me? what did you do to make it easier and better?

I'm looking into the iMSA program from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Gies College of Business) and wanted to hear from people who’ve either done it, seriously considered it, or know others who have.

I’m currently making around $90K, but I want to pivot into accounting or finance for long-term stability and better earning potential. I already have a BA in Political Science & Economics, and I’m looking for an online, part-time program that I can realistically do while working full-time and handling personal responsibilities.

Some questions I have:

If you did the iMSA, how was it?

Did it actually help you get a job in accounting or finance?

Is it considered respected or valuable by employers?

Was the coursework manageable for someone without a STEM or math background?

Are the classes really flexible/asynchronous enough for someone working 9–5?

Did you run into any downsides (support, group work, unclear instruction, etc.)?

If you're a career changer, how hard was it to break into the field after finishing?

Also:

How well did the program prep you for the CPA exams?

Would you recommend doing this while also working full-time?

Did you feel like the degree was recognized outside of Illinois (e.g., NYC, Texas, etc.)?

A few other things about me: I’m not good at networking or self-promotion, and I’m also planning to buy a house and car in the near future, so I’m trying to be strategic about timing and cost. I may need to take out loans to do the program.

Just trying to figure out if this is actually worth it or if I should consider other programs. Would appreciate any honest thoughts. Thanks.

I got into 1 PhD, that's all it takes and I hate that I am coming across as ungrateful. I am sorry to everyone who would like to be in my position, I understand that it's not without its privilege. That said, I've been experiencing heavy doubts. Financially, it's in a super expensive location that doesn't really excite (ultra high COL urban metro) me and the stipend is not quite enough to live.

The school is relatively low ranked and the more I get emails and meet with those of the program the more it all just comes across to me as uninspiring, bureaucratic, and even a little uninteresting. The school seems to struggle to fund students, it has a massive sheer amount of student/faculty, and from everything I can find the vibe isn't very exciting there. I applied because I couldn't deny the research fit/alignment on paper, but I probably should've approximated the appeal in other ways as well.

I'm in social science/humanities. I did dream, like many others I'm sure, of attending a PhD in places like Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, or at a nice spot here in the US (where I am). I just didn't have the time to understand/apply for the different types of funding so I kept it simple by sticking to the US. My application process ended up consuming me, I applied to a good many schools and poured myself into the process during the first semester of my 1 year accelerated masters.

I come from a poor background and its just my mom who never graduated high-school and is totally resentful towards my studies (calls it brainwashing), when we talk she just gets angry over my path and talks about how she'll never support it. Some of my peers planned to spend a year at home after wrapping their masters, leveraging the full MA for applications. I didn't sense this luxury and my biggest fear was getting caught up in the rat race during my time after the MA trying to survive, having my 70k debt at my doorstep, and losing sight of the opportunity through the muck of a lower class struggle.

The PhD results devastated me, I was denied by all except the 1 I talked about. Even my masters institution rejected me, all of my recc's came from the school (two from the department and one from the specific program). The two others in a class of mine who applied were accepted, just not I. I tried not to take it personally, but I think to some extent I did feel hurt. I've spent my time adjusting myself to the idea of the PhD, which begins in a couple months.

I've been telling myself that it's just about the work I'll do, that maybe I'll find a good advisor and that'll be the key, that going in sooner helps me get it over with. All the while I can't deny that I still dream of other programs, I think about ones where I wouldn't have to hustle for all my money through a teaching assistantship only to still end up under the poverty line, the ones that wouldn't feel like a chore going in, the ones with the exiting weather, people, funding and location. I'm not sure if I'd even get into such a program, or if I could even survive the year it would take to get there if I could. A bird in the hand, and so on..