Hey everyone!

Looking for advice - the prospect of getting into grad school is very exciting and seems necessary for my life to go on, but my perfectionism and being stuck in life for 4 years has made the application process look like the freaking Everest. I feel I *need* to "perfect myself" before I even attempt it, and that contributes to me procrastinating until it's too late, every cycle. And 6 months later, it starts again.

Long story short - I'm looking for advice, see if it'd still be worth for me to attempt sending 3/4 apps this cycle, or wait longer, once again.

Goal: Get into a MA or PhD in Politics or Communications. My final horizon is towards journalism, however I'd rather deepen my expertise in these topics and pursue journalism on the side rather than get into J School. Aiming Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton (+ Oxbridge if time).

Profile
Undergrad: McGill University '17, 3.77 GPA (PoliSci Honours, Minor Mathematics)

Work exp: 3+ years working on extremism and disinformation (6 months research, 2.5+ years in countering online harms programming); 1 year working in media. Extracurriculars in online investigations + activism.

Publications: 1 academic, 2 non-academic, but dated (2016 in undergrad journal, 2016 op-ed, 2021 public report on a project countering disinformation)

LORs: might be a weak point - can choose from 3 profs from 2017 undergrad (two good, one generic but more related to the field), 1 from 2022 job, I believe solid-ish

GRE: starting from scratch, I feel I could get a decent score with 2-3 weeks of prep - esp in quant.

The Catch: I haven't done any relevant work in 2.5 years - which will stretch to 3.5 or 4.5 if I apply next or the following cycle. And, I don't have much to show for for this time - been out of work and on benefits to deal with chronic pain and depression, no relevant work or volunteering - so my resume is blank since 2024. Graduated undergrad 9 years ago. I've been stuck in rumination purgatory for a lot of it, and finally getting to move again, slowly.

Questions

- Do you think it'd be worth attempting to apply this cycle? I'd need to do *everything* - lit review to get up to date, research profs, reach out to them, write research proposal and SOP, pass the GRE. I feel 6 weeks is short, judging from past attempts I made, and my core question is whether it's worth to submit a rushed application in 6 weeks, or instead take this time to travel, get back into life, get a job from the summer and apply in a year or two.

- How do you assess my profile and, should I not apply now, how would you recommend strengtening it?

- Should I wait, would you say the widening gap becomes a problem?

Many thanks!

I have done BSc Economics from abroad and currently working in insurance industry as a insurance advisor with 5-6 years of professional experience
I am considering enrolling in “Master of Management in applied AI and Data Driven Decision Making “ from McMaster university and it is a weekend program
The doubts I am having is that it is $60000 degree and 2-3 years of commitment , will it be worth it at all?

here is how i understood this. if you want to do a PhD, you have 2 ways;

1. Join a project advertised by supervisors OR

2. have your own idea and reach out to potential supervisors to see whether the like to supervise you
   Am i right?

now if it is the 2nd option, is it possible to present your rough idea and ask for their guidance to refine further?

is there anything else i should know?

Hey I was wondering if I could get some advice on getting an internship for the summer not averse to more applied roles looking for big tech

Currently am in a t15 program, have 1 conference paper for robotics and some journal/workshop ones

Hey everyone,

In December 2024, I graduated from a low ranked SEC (Southeastern Conference) school with a BA in Mathematics, originally I had the intention to pursue a PhD in Mathematics, but some life circumstances came up and I have been working in Finance for the past 2 years. I really enjoyed Abstract Algebra and Probability and thought about doing something around there. However, over time and self study, I have gotten extremely interested in pursuing Statistics. The plan as of right now is to return to school by either Fall '28 or Fall '29.

It's an extremely interesting field where a lot of really interesting research can be done alongside nearly every field that has some form of quantitative aspect to it. Personally I have found myself really interested in Mathematical Finance and Econometrics mainly since I work in the area, but I also have some interest in biostatistics, especially related Epidemiology and Public Health.

The main downside is that my formal coursework is fairly limited, having only taken an Intro to Statistics course and a Probability course, but I graduated Magna Cum Laude and have coursework in Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations. The goal for me would be to apply to and complete a Funded MS and then use that as a launch pad into a good program, but I would not shy away from going straight into a PhD, as being a college professor has been a dream of mine.

I would love to connect with Statistics PhDs, Graduate Students, or people just interested in the field. What are some things that I should know about graduate studies? What are some good ways to prepare for graduate studies? What should I know about going into Statistics from a Math Backgrounds?

Thanks all!

I am now currently on leave of absence, awaiting the result of my comprehensive exam before enrolling to dissertation writing course. 

However, during this time, I reflected and asked myself if I would finish my PhD in my current institution OR transfer to another university. For context, I study PhD in Southeast Asian Studies. 

1. You see, during the coursework I only have two professors rotating in teaching 5 major courses. The university policy is that one of them will be my dissertation adviser. Every end of course they would ask to write a research paper that would by my potential topic. Ever since, I stick with gender in media in Southeast Asia. However, both of them seems uninterested (maybe) or not have that knowledge about my niche. I don't blame them since they have their own field of study: one specializes on Politics and International Relations while the other specializes on philosophy and anthropology. 

2. The said PhD program in the institution also does not have any initiatives to provide activities. As a PhD program, I believe that there must some activities, seminars, fora etc that can contribute to the greater body of knowledge. Since the institution does not have that, I have to look and attend other institutions' seminars and talks. 

3. I do not have that mentor to rely on, or to consult with some important decisions in my PhD journey. It's been a rough PhD journey for the past year (mentally, financially, the impostor syndrome) but I am surprised that I somewhat handled those troubles on my own (which is kinda exhausting).

However, here's the catch: It is the only university in my country (Philippines) that offer the said program. Therefore, my option would be:

A.1 - study in other SEA universities

A.2 - find a program that is similar to my current program and/or credit the courses that I taken

B - just finish it

So yah, I am really concerned right now. I do not have any concerns if I would repeat the program, and/or credit some or do not credit the courses that I taken. Financially? Well, let us see what I can do.

Please help your little PhD girlie here 😭

I will take my bachelor's in computer science within the next year. I am thinking about taking a master's degree in Electrical Engineering especially in areas like communication systems and electronics.

Is it possible to apply for such programs ? I do not have any targeted countries or universities right now.

I took math courses (calculus 1-3, linear algebra, probabilityand statistic, discrete math and differential equations) with physics focused on electrostatics and basic electromagnetic force and a course in DC circuits analysis and logic design

Those are the courses I took I think related to electrical engineering.

What are the possible programs for that?

I might've overthought and overplanned my outreach to professors, and I want some advice.

Starting fall 2027, I want to do my MSc in a very niche subfield of computer science. I spent a lot of time since mid-August reading my target supervisors' papers, which was time consuming since I wasn't very familiar with a lot of the concepts and methods in these papers, but the exposure benefited me a lot.

I didn't want to contribute to the noise in the professors' inboxes so I tried to be familiar enough with their work to the point where I would ask intriguing questions in my emails and show that I care. I emailed 2 professors last week (early October) and 1 this week (mid October). They all have not yet responded, which is very discouraging since I spent a lot of time engaging with their work, which might've caused me to develop an unrealistic expectation that I would have a 100% response rate. I also send follow up emails when a week passes.

I know 3 is not a significant number by any means, and it's rather late to reach out for fall semester. I am trying to reach out to 10 more by the end of October, but I don't know if I should be doing anything differently. I never use LLMs for writing. My emails could be too lengthy, at ~260 words each, but I try to communicate everything as concisely as possible, and I read the professors` outreach guides if available. I have 3.3/4.0 gpa and no internships. I spend most of my time contributing to a popular open source project related to my desired field of research, and I don't bother applying for internships because this type of work isn't available in my country. I have a close working relationship with the engineers on that project. We hold meetings every week, etc.

note: universities in my target countries don't have centralized admissions, so I need to have a professor vouching for me.

Where do I go from here? What could I do better? I would really appreciate any advice.

Hi! I'm finishing an MSc in bioinformatics at a Canadian university and am really not sure what I want to do next. I'm currently doing dry lab genetics research and enjoy the coding work, but I wish it was more social and I don't find the phenotype I'm working on that interesting (although I've heard that a Master's is mainly about acquiring the skills and less so about finding and working on *the* phenotype you're most interested in).

This past year, I've been trying to figure out if I want to do a phd or not and I have a few options:

1. Stay in the same lab. (The "easy" option, I'd get a stipend, could travel to conferences, and would have a secure "job" for the time being; but I'd probably work on things that don't interest me that much and aren't that fulfilling for me.)
2. Go to a different lab. (Where? I'm interested in psychiatric / behavioural / personality genetics and am a citizen of the EU, Canada, and the US. not super keen on the US, i like the work life balance in Europe more, but i have family in Canada.) (Also aware that if I want to start a phd in 2027 I would need to start now or last month to find supervisors / apply to programs.)
3. Go into industry. (What jobs are there? What are they like?)

Another issue is that although I find the above genetics fields interesting, I'm not sure if I would actually like working in them, if that makes sense? I've also been looking into environmental / climate change / conservation stuff and have been thinking about going into that too (like analyses of environmental DNA for example). But again, I'm not sure if I would actually like working in this area, and I also have no experience in it really. (This has also been a bigger life issue of trying to figure out what I'm actually interested in and what I want to do with my life, but I don't think I can get help with that from a reddit forum lol)

If anyone has any insights or advice that would be greatly appreciated!

(Additionally, if anyone has any recommendations for good unis / phd programs for the genetics fields above that would be great. I've found some interesting ones at Karolinska Institutet, Boulder university in Colorado, and King's College London (not a UK citizen so very expensive which sucks), but there may be more I'm missing. As well, I would like a program where I can take courses to get a better / more well-rounded genetics education because I feel like I haven't really gotten that in my background (BSc in computer science), but it seems like the most important thing is the supervisor and if they're doing work you find interesting, have grants, and have an active lab.)

Lastly, I'm aware that I could look up and figure out a lot of these things on my own, but I would really appreciate talking to people about these things and getting some advice from people either in these fields or who know more about stuff than I do.

Thank you!

I cant take this stupid bullshit ass class. I understood grad school would be tough but THIS IS FUCKED UP. Like it is fucken insane. I have talked to several people in other programs and NONE of them run it like this. Basically there are these assignments we are given and we have ONE week to master them. One fucking week!

Almost none of my cohorts questions ever get answered and they expect us to teach these assignments to our selves. Then when they give us mocks a majority of us fail it. We fail mocks protocols everything. Anytime we complain to them it’s like “well some people aren’t meant for grad school”. It’s complete horeseshit. Reason why we keep failing is because they keep expecting a mastery level. So it’s not like we do bad on them but if it’s not a 90% FAIL. Then we keep failing over stupid shit. Each time I have failed these mocks it’s because of something I wasn’t taught why? BECAUSE IM TEACHING MYSELF.

I can’t take it I feel like a stupid fucked up failure all because my teacher can’t teach. I am just praying that the cohort above us follows through on their complaint about this teacher to her boss. Because this is crazy. I am feeling depressed, worthless, anxious, I have done everything to pass that stupid fucken mock and it still wasn’t enough. I hope my fucken teacher gets fired and looses her fucken license. I have never in my life had a class that has made me question my self worth and my dream job.

I’m not even the only one each one of my cohort feels this way. It’s horrible what that devil bitch is doing to us

A professor liked my research direction, asked me for a PPT presentation, and asked me to share my materials, which I did. They said they'd get back to me within 3 days. But about a month later, they replied asking if Im still interested, and they want another online meeting.

How do I say that during this period, I have worked on other things, cause ofcourse I'm gonna keep my other routes open for a Master's, and I started preparing for them. And that I'm no longer interested in working with them. This grad school doesn't even require a research plan or proposal. It just requires a research direction that we bring, and a prospective advisor has to agree to supervise that in their lab. I heard that sometimes we bring the research topic, but after admissions, it can greatly change depending on the supervisor. But this one strictly does not.

Now, how can I politely tell them that I am no longer interested? I don't want to sound petty, but I also don't want to appear as if I had a change of heart suddenly. I genuinely thought they had given me a silent rejection, made up my mind, and moved on to other applications, and with everything tightening up (the other schedules, my preferred courses than this one), I don't want to add this to the timeline. I want to do my other applications without rush, and calmly and neatly.

Hello I am concluding my MSc in digital forensics and security and considering a Phd Asap. Considering funded options or one where I would be employed. Any pointers.

Hello peeps sorry for the very long post but I am facing a very odd situation.

To give a bit of background, I graduated back in May finishing two bachelor’s degrees simultaneously in EE and CompE with a very high GPA. During my undergrad, I did research in two different labs and even got a second-author publication in an IEEE journal out of one. I was also very involved with large projects and orgs during my time there.

I always wanted a master’s degree to study IC design, however due to personal and family reasons, I couldn’t afford going full-time right out of school so I accepted a job offer in a semiconductor company (doing device level R&D mostly validation) and decided to pursue an online MSEE at a reputable institution that offered a lot of IC design classes as well.

Fast-forward to today, I am realizing that the learning experience from an asynchronous online program is very poor I hate the lack of collaboration and direct contact with professors and classmates which was a key thing for me during undergrad and I really miss doing research. In addition my current work is very R&D heavy and often times we have late night meetings too because we are a global team.

All of this is making me want to pursue a full-time master’s instead with a thesis and dedicated tapeout track too. I am currently taking two courses and staying in them is causing me extreme burnout so I was considering withdrawal.

Would a withdrawal from a program this early for these reasons kill my shot at getting into a good program? Would it nullify my undergrad record? Keep in mind I discussed with most of the schools I am targeting and they seem to not require I submit a transcript since I would have been there for less than a sem and got no credits if I withdraw but I still plan on mentioning it in my SoP or additional info sections.