I heard some people talking about “Top 10 Econ Phd program” and how it is useless to go anywhere below them. I am a first year Phd student and it really confused and demoralized me. Firstly, I am not from US and best universities are there.

Also, I don’t understand how it is possible to rank Phd programs. Are they talking about university rankings? Phd is a very unique journey highly dependent on research area, supervisors and individual research projects. Do you think prestige really matters?

Does anyone know if the following biomedical informatics PhD programs are funded for international students in the US: -University of Pittsburgh -Ohio state University -University of Florida -Arizona state university -University at Buffalo

The information is not straight forward on their website and Monday is a holiday and I need the information asap

I've seen people discuss here that there's hundreds of people applying for a position and that the competition has risen a lot in the last years but I've also read that the vast majority of applicants(like over 90%) are underqualified people from third world countries and that professors feel like their getting overwhelmed by the number of applications.

Many profs whom I follow on social media have in the last years stopped responding to emails or posting jobs publicly because they get too many applications(someone also mentioned that they had people search them on Facebook and contacted their family and friends about the posting wtf).

is it really harder to enter now as a successful European student than in the past? (considering that even if the number of applications is significantly higher the overall average skill of an applicant is lower than in the past).

*Please mention the field and the university you're at(or at least the region)

Most people in this sub seem to be doing their PhDs in the natural sciences / STEM subjects.

For those of you who are not doing lab-based research, because your research area is in the social sciences, humanities, or the arts , rather than in the natural sciences or in tech/engineering, I have a few questions:

1) Are you expected to write and submit research papers to academic journals throughout your PhD? Or is this more of a STEM thing?

2) Do you attend conferences at all and is this mandatory?

3) Do you have any other work that you are expected to do (essays, papers, or whatever) other than your actual PhD thesis, or is your PhD thesis the only thing you actually research and work on ?

This is probably something that has already been talked about a thousand times on here before, so i apologize for the redundancy of this post. I got a full ride scholarship overseas for a PhD in media studies, but i just feel like i don't deserve it. My writing skills are subpar, my critical thinking skills are average, and i generally feel like i was chosen out of thousands of applicants by mistake.

I am also young in age, which is adding to my stress. many graduate students doing their masters' here are my age or older than i am, so i constantly feel judged, as if they can see through my inadequacy.

Many people talk about "imposter syndrome", but what if what you're feeling is not that at all? What if you're actually just not good enough for this?

I have a research in STEM, I use open source software and data, (from my perspective) the methodology section along with the other sections describe the algorithm, the metrics used and other to show how I got the results, and how I've got to the conclusion. Still, I feel that I need to be more transparent, and, also for reproductability, I should also make the code repository public. My concern is that, the project is more of a PoC, rather then a mature project, and contains a fair amount of spaghetti code*, my fear is that this could turn against me as criticis might find this an issue.

When I say "spaghetti code", means that the scripts might have print statements, here and there, I might have a structure which of folders and files, not as clean as it should be, or simply I don't follow the best practices. Still, is functional, and this shouldn't affect the results.

In a way I feel, good that is raw, because, If you got personal projects you know what I am talking about, and, it is what it is, rather than showing some project which has it all, every variable is well wmdefined, the indentation, documentation and everything is perfect, because let's face it, in real life scenarios, you wouldn't find this.

Form another perspective, the issue that I am addressing is not something sensitive or inovative in a revolutionary way, so that others would need to look into this closely, probably if It was more sensitive, I wouldn't hesitate to make it public and also be more careful with the project design from the start.

Hey folks,

American here. I made the wise decision to start my Masters in Plant Biology in the spring of 2020, which, given that I was high risk at the time, caused a whole host of problems:

• forced my entire program (classes and thesis) to be remote
• increased my two year program to 3.5 years
• prevented me from learning any lab skills
• prevented me from developing an academic or professional network
• forced me to do my thesis on a topic unrelated to my research interests so as to remain entirely outdoors

Despite these personal challenges, and the challenges the university went through with such things as trying to teach tenured professors how to use Canvas, I was able to maintain a 4.0, defended my thesis, and presented my research at both a remote conference and an in person conference.

Now, I'm applying to PhD programs in horticulture, plant biology, and plant breeding, and a few of the applications are offering a prompt like the one below

[UNIVERSITY] understands that individual, family or community circumstances may have affected your previous academic record or educational experience, and that the materials you submit with your application may not be a full reflection of your potential for success in graduate school. If your education has been affected by such circumstances and you wish to provide a more detailed explanation about them, please respond below and use the space to share more about your experiences. For example, you might wish to add an explanation if your grades were impacted by COVID-19, or if you took time off of school to manage a personal or family challenge.

Would it be prudent to discuss my challenges during my application if prompted? I know they're asking, but I dont want them to think I'm whining or unable to operate under tough conditions without complaining, and my challenges seem mild compared to people that were truly impacted by COVID.

Any advice would be welcome!

I work for a big company. I am feeling less efficient (besides having severe imposter syndrome already) since it is expected I bring in projects and funds, which means socializing, doing high level talking as well as being super technical (almost know everything), and I'm absolutely hating this part of my job. I'm regretting doing PhD just because of this, but very much like the technical and research side of it. How do I go about this problem? My company is pushing me into supporting proposals, communicating eith universities and vendors, and coming up with project ideas. I assume this is expected when you have a PhD degree?

Hey everyone. So I completed my Physics bachelors degree this year. My college wasn’t that research focussed, but I managed to get research experience in varied fields through external internships. I have 3 internships with around 9-12 months of research experience.

I thought about apply for my masters, but I have seen a lot of PhD candidates coming straight from undergrad. If I wish to do the same, what shall I do? Shall I apply for CS PhD programs without concrete research topic or experience towards it?

The research internships covered projects related to data analysis in ocean sciences and basics of quantum computing, so yeah, varied fields indeed.

Hey everyone. So I completed my Physics bachelors degree this year. My college wasn’t that research focussed, but I managed to get research experience in varied fields through external internships. I have 3 internships with around 9-12 months of research experience.

I thought about apply for my masters, but I have seen a lot of PhD candidates coming straight from undergrad. If I wish to do the same, what shall I do? Shall I apply for CS PhD programs without concrete research topic or experience towards it?

The research internships covered projects related to data analysis in ocean sciences and basics of quantum computing, so yeah, varied fields indeed.

whats your schedule like? how many hours a day do you study and how many hours a day are lectures? What do yall do if you dont get a concept and it takes longer for me to understand, altering my schedule. Do you have any study tips? im in canada

(Crossposting from r/AskAcademiaUK) Am I supposed to get personal/creative or keep it strictly professional? What kind of stuff am I supposed to focus on (as in my academic or extra-academic achievements, or my personal reasons for interest in my research topic, or my background etc)? What makes a PhD application SOP different from other kinds of SOPs?

For context, I'm an international applicant from the arts and humanities, applying for a PhD position in the UK. I'm not self-funded, so looking to secure funding as well.

Hi everyone! I'm applying for a few STEM PhD programs in the USA. What are some of the pros and cons of having an assistant professor as your advisor who is totally new to the department (they just got their lab space) and you will be their very first grad student?

Hi folks,

No, not what you think. I'm in my 5th (and hopefully final) year, pursuing dual degrees - PhD and masters. I have been fairly successful, high passes on both my PhD and masters comps, sailed through the coursework and dissertation proposal process, won a bunch of awards and fellowships, published a handful of papers, have a good teaching record etc.

All I have left is a capstone project for my masters and half of the dissertation (results and discussion). But, I feel like I've run out of gas. Instead of working, I'm choosing to nap, play games, go for walks, and hang out with friends. I live in a big city so it's easy to get distracted. The elections results have sent me spiraling (gay, immigrant, studying things Trump's people don't like...) too.

I know I'm very privileged to be in the posiiton that I am in but just here seeking some encouragement from kind strangers to keep pushing. I feel like I really need to push over the holidays to be able to hit my graduation goal of May 2025. I'm not going into academia after I'm done so I really just need to graduate and find a job in the meantime.

Many thanks!

Edit: I’m in the USA.

Hi all,

In 2023 I began a PhD studying the poetry of William Blake, however I had to drop out as I did not secure funding for it, and the cost of living was simply too high. Every day this eats away at me, as obtaining a PhD is my dream -- so dropping out was about as hard as you can imagine.

I'm looking to start another PhD, but this time, with funding. I was wondering if anyone has any advice about obtaining funding for a UK PhD in English Literature. I'm aware of the White Rose fund for Yorkshire based universities, but I'm open to studying anywhere through distance learning.

Since dropping my PhD (hopefully, temporarily), I started my training to teach in a secondary school, which is what I'm currently doing. If I was to obtain funding, I have no problem with putting my teaching on hold to pursue it, but if not, I'm more than happy to study my PhD part time while I work. If anyone has any experience or advice with this, that would be great to hear too.

Thanks a lot!

I'm from the USA and currently looking for phd programs internationally. Some of the programs(humanities area) in Canada have caught my attention and seem interesting. But when I looked at the fees, even the phd students are charged huge international fees and the scholarships/assistantships they offer don't even fully cover tuition, let alone offer a liveable income.

Am I reading these websites correctly? Or can you still get paid enough to survive on a phd in Canada?

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking mentorship and collaborative research collaboration in AI, particularly in areas like Multimodal Machine Learning, AI agents, RAG, Knowledge Graphs, and Reinforcement Learning. With over five years of experience and 2 masters degree, I’m looking to contribute actively to projects aligned with my research interests and commit meaningful time to the work. I am eager to transition into research from industry

I recently applied for PhD programs but didn’t get in, likely due to a lack of published work a gap I’m eager to fill through collaborative projects. I’m especially interested in memory-augmented models, reinforcement learning for adaptive agents, and enabling AI to perform structured, experience-driven reasoning across various data types.

If you’re working on projects in these areas or know someone who might be interested, I’d love to connect. I’m ready to contribute, discuss ideas, and start with small, focused tasks that could grow into impactful work.

Thanks for reading

Hello everyone,

Getting a PhD is hard and sometimes you need a little bit of support.

This thread is here to give you a place to post your weekly "Ups" and "Downs". Basically, what went wrong and what went right?

So, how is your week going?

I really wanna do a PhD, I've loved the research aspect of the modules I've done so far (I'm in AI). I'm currently working as an ML engineer and as fun as it is quite repetitive, maybe it's just my company. Where the client gives you a requirement and you just build upon it with no authority of your own.

Secondly I'm in to a lot of humanities aspect of Ai and am keen on Sustainability with Ai as broader topics, and interms of a technical one, RL and MARL. However none of that is in the industry as much. I want to go into Sci communication and/or industry research maybe like the Google labs or sumn.

So yeh I'm 20 so I've got time, but looking at everything I'm kinda uncertain. My parents haven't had any formal education after school.

I have never submitted to a journal. My work looks complete with just 7 to 8 pages. However, I've never seen a paper this short in the targeted journals. Would the combination of being short and not ground breaking mean a likely rejection or an even longer review time that asks me to provide further details?

I'm a PhD student and time is important. Field: AI/ML & its Applications

Note: conference papers are usually 50000 characters, journals at least double that.

(using a throwaway account for obvious reason...

so i am finishing my phd in biology and i notice that whenever i am super busy, engaged with experiments, paper writing etc. i am 100% fine - fully functional, smart and shape (kinda lol

but when i am in a "dryer" spell, like i have less exp going on, fewer papers to write/read, my life is chiller prob weird to say, i become quite "unstable", for example i def get hornier, and also my emotions are less stable, like i feel like getting upset or annoyed much easier.

i am single atm and doing my research oversea, i have some friends but generally it's a bit hard to tell them about this - they might think i am not just a wild scientist but also a weirdo i guess lol

anyone can relate or could give some insights ?

thanks

TLDR: I feel horny, upset, uncomfortable when i am free and don't have work to do, how to cope with that ?

So I have an annoying mental game comparing myself to every PhD and ECR I meet to see “how I fare”; searching publications and quality, check out thesis etc. Usually it’s to gauge if I’d be competitive for funding in postgrad or rationalising my imposter syndrome.

More often than not the result is me feeling my work is so simple compared to others and it just bums me out and makes me see myself as less valuable. I know I have strengths in my field and my work is genuinely good and that this is just an unhealthy mental game.

It’s also super annoying to have that in the back of my mind when celebrating lab members success.

Anyone else struggle with that? Any advice? It’s feels like anxiety safety checking, and I can probably control my behaviour by not searching researchers, but it’s eventual that I look at peoples work, so any advice is welcome. Thanks!

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Hi! I’m currently applying for PhD programs in the US. I don’t often see people post about pursuing a PhD in media, so I wanted to connect with anyone applying for similar courses. I did my undergraduate in India where I got a 6.5 CGPA, after which I got a masters in the UK where I graduated with a 2:1. I was wondering in terms of grades how competitive would my application be? I have teaching and research experience, with a paper in review currently. Overall I am applying to 6-8 schools, however I don’t technically have any ‘safeties’, although it is my understanding that for PhD applications there are no safeties per se. Would love to get some insight on this aspect - particularly regarding how many schools should I roughly apply to and how to select a ‘safety’. My research interests are aligning with that of pretty high ranked universities which is where my apprehension comes from 🥲

Hi all,

I recently made a post here about how much I don't like working for my PI. After giving it some thought and having several stressful weeks, I have decided to switch to another PI who said they were more than delighted to take me on as a graduate student. However, I want to make sure I am doing this process correctly so that I am not somehow fucked by the end of this.

Here's the gist: I've drafted up a very professional and neutral email to my PI explaining the lab isn't the right fit for me, but that I would be happy to collaborate in the future; I just need a different lab atmosphere and mentorship style. I think that email is fine to send at this point, but I also want in writing from the other PI that they are going to take me on. Is there anything else that I should get together before I inevitably send this email? Unfortunately the university I attend has a culture of not switching PIs.

I've also learned that basically every other PI in my area really, really dislikes my current PI for many reasons; this made me a little bit anxious that the PI I'm swapping to might be doing this to get back at my current PI.

I just want to make sure my ass is covered if this ends up somehow backfiring.

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.

I was in grad school back in 2016 to 2019 and was booted out with an MA in Chemistry. Since then I have started a business and then sold it recently. Now I am a little bored and the new owners have me working here making them an R&D department. Long story short we have been very productive with 10 publications since 2022 but I can tell that having the doctoral degree would help tremendously with getting external funding. I have applied to SBIR grants and gotten impact scores in the 50s but no funding yet.

Does anyone know of any US industry PhDs similar to Northeastern or WPI or any chemistry PIs that would be interested in helping our research chemists with masters degrees wrap up a PhD using our company R&D?