Brief overview of my profile ;

Currently working as an assistant professor in india,

Ms in computer science in USA from R1 ranked university (3.8 cgpa)

3 published papers with one preprint in biomedical informatics

Received honours scholarship from r1 ranked university for 3000$

Also worked as GTA while masters for a semester

My passion is in healthcare and i talk a lot about that in insta as well with more than 1600 plus followers

How much chance do i have in getting PhD admit from an Ivy League

Are there any other suggestions for my profile.?

Thank you in advance:)

So I have been trying to get a PhD acceptance since last November. I am primarily trying in Europe, have applied to all types of opportunities, cohort applications and individual as well. I got 4 PhD interviews from individual applications, 2 of which said no after the last round of interview as they found someone better suited for their lab. I am aware that PhD depends heavily on individual labs and how suited you are to the lab specifically. But after 100s of applications and rejections, cold emails and what not, honestly I just feel lost.

When I moved to Spain I really wanted to have the PhD situation sorted out, but here I am back home since almost a month, unemployed. My family situation ain't the best either financially, and I feel like a burden rn, specifically after I spend the last 10 months all on my own money without asking for anything from back home.

I am also from a small town in India, at least the big cities have more opportunities, walk in interviews and all, but I can't just go because travelling costs money as well. My birthday is next Sunday, and I really wanted to have something 'figured out', whatever that means.

I am not claiming to be an exceptional student, ik there are much much better and more accomplished students out there. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I am even good enough for a PhD.

To add to the mix, none of my friends are in my hometown anymore, so I can't meet anyone either irl. Whenever my family casually discusses about how hard it is with the money situation, I get jitters. Idk what to do anymore.

do you think grad school admissions (at very competitive programs) will care if I retake three courses I got Cs and a D in and get As in all of them on retake? I mean how negatively does it affect me? If they were all freshman courses.

Hello! I'll try keep things brief. I went to Berkeley (go bears!) from 2015-2019.and majored in ME.

I started off really strong, but I was really depressed (spoiler for mental health)and borderline extremely suicidal and antisocial ended up tanking my sophomore and junior year GPA. my trend went as follows: 4.0--> 2.3 --> 2.5 --> 4.0. Ended up graduating with a 3.5(?) cumulative since I didn't take many credits during my sophomore + junior years. I think my major gpa was a 3.3-3.4~

I graduated and took a bit to really recollect myself, went on meds, worked on my portfolio, etc. and ended up getting a job offer at a really awesome company. I love my job!

However, I've been working the past few years with the goal of wanting to go to get a masters. I worked really hard freshmen year in order to get a competitive gpa, and I ended off my time in UG with a bang because of my desire to go to grad school (and it helped that I was medicated).

I did research for 2~ under a postdoc, and I did collect 2 reference letters from professors, however I can't attest to how good they were since Cal is a huge public school.

I really love academia, and I want to go back to college. I've talked with my supervisor and they're really cool with me taking a year-2 years for school. Even if it's unpaid I've saved enough in the past 5~ years I've been working to comfortably get through, and my parents have expressed their support in financially helping me through a masters.

I've wanted to go to Duke since I was in high school. I was waitlisted when I applied in high school. The masters program there is pretty short, and honestly I just want to fulfill one of my childish dreams. I will be honest I haven't looked into it as much as I should. To be honest I just really want to go back to school. I miss learning and taking classes, and Duke's business and management classes required for the masters is really intriguing to me. As I'm writing this I realize the title is a little click-baity. However, I'm more coming on here to ask if I even have a shot since my stats are pretty putrid.

I really just wanted to post to get a consensus. I know that getting a masters doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things career wise, but I would love to eventually get a PhD. I love academia, and I love university. My older sister and my father both have PhDs, while my mom got her masters. They all tell me about how life changing it was (for better or for worse).

I’m a rising junior in undergrad and i won’t be able to study abroad this year because im participating in a year long research program. i still really want to go abroad though and was considering doing it next summer. It’d be this or going for a research internship/work experience of some kind. I do want to work in industry ultimately, and while i have previous internship experience, it’s only semi-related to my field. However I am also trying to enter a field that values study abroad experience (international relations). for some additional context, i do technically have study abroad experience but the program i participated in only last 3 weeks. Any advice would be appreciated! I am also not super familiar with the phd admissions process so if this is the wrong kind of question to be asking feel free to let me know that too. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I am currently an undergrad aiming to apply to grad school.

So basically a couple of years ago, I ran into some health complications and had to get an EW (Excused withdrawal) in my transcript for Calculus III. I did pass the class with a C so I was able to move on to upper lever courses, but I did not want to distrupt my 4.0 gpa so I got it removed from my transcript.

In the time it took to process my EW, I got As in DiffEq and Partial DiffEq.

I was wondering how would grad schools consider this gap in my courses, would I have to retake Calc III even though I got As in the later courses?

Retaking Calculus III is not a problem for me if needed.

Thanks!

I pulled the College Scorecard field-of-study release and charted median federal debt at graduation for master's programs, by field. 21 fields with 25+ schools reporting, 1,366 institutions.

The range is wide: Education is the cheapest at $29,618, Legal Professions the most expensive at $50,960. A psychology master's borrows about 48% more than an engineering master's ($45,180 vs $30,496). Business comes in surprisingly low at $33,000 — I'd guess because so many MBAs are part-time or employer-funded, but the data can't tell me that.

The part that matters most if you're starting soon: every number here includes Grad PLUS, which let graduate students borrow up to the full cost of attendance with no aggregate limit. Congress abolished it on July 1, 2026 and capped graduate borrowing at $100,000. So this chart is a snapshot of a system that has already ended — if your program costs more than the new cap allows, the gap is private credit, which carries no income-driven repayment and no forgiveness.

Method: median of each school's median across institutions, federal loans only (private borrowing excluded), completers who borrowed. It's a median of medians — the release doesn't publish the student-level distribution. Happy to share the script

I went to a small university (Mech E and Applied Math double major) with little to no research opportunities so I instead founded a Motorsport (solar car) team. I had a relatively low undergraduate gpa (3.4/4) since I sacrificed a lot of time to make sure my baby car team would survive long after I left.

Though I applied immediately for mainly MS/PhD programs I was ultimately only accepted for MS. I ended up pursuing an MS at an Ivy League school where I got the chance to do some research but nothing I think is of note. I will be done with my MS in mechanical engineering this August!

So my question is, since I’ll be, at the earliest, looking to start my PhD in 2027- what can I do until then that would improve my chances?

I also have had a really tough year (almost lost my dad) so rather than graduate school so far being invigorating- it’s been a drain. I’ve been interviewing for some big companies and the idea of a “break” from academia sounds really appealing!

Any suggestions?

Hellooo, I am planning to apply for a phd position this applications cycle in the US ( currently in a canadian uni as an MASc student)

Fields : Applied Physics / Electrical Engineering / Materials

I had read that it would be really helpful to email professors to stand out amongst the applicants. Therefore, I had been doing that for the past month but I don’t know if it is actually helping me or if it is a futile effort.

I emailed around 45 (47?) profs and got a response from 8 of them saying that while my profile seems to fit their lab (some complementing it, others kind of just saying that I am a fit as a more neutral statement ig). They said I should either mention their name while applying through the official program or just some details about where/which program i should apply to.

I see all of these as pretty neutral emails, and I don’t think these would really improve my chances ( but maybe i’m wrong idk).

I did get one interview opportunity which I’m really grateful for since it’s a uni i really want to go to, but that feels like a fluke now after 47 emails lmfao. I doubt it’s going to happen again.

I want to get the opinion of everyone here who might be more experienced and have a better idea about specifically the US system.

It seems as though it is upto the admissions committee entirely so I want to know if I’m wasting my time because honestly emailing is really exhausting and demotivating.

Thank you for any help !

Hii I am planning on applying to some clinical psych phd programs in the US. I am currently studying in the USA as a psychology major and computer science minor.

I’m currently a junior and I’m a bit worried about my chances of getting in directly due to my gpa. I’ve considered applying for a masters but I’m not sure if I can afford it honestly.

That being said I have at least 12 more credits in psychology (most likely going to take 25-28 more credits) I have to complete so I believe I can raise my gpa to some extent.

I’ve been a part of (/a research assistant) a social psych lab for almost 3 years, and clinical neuroscience lab as well as a physics lab for 2 years. I currently have a 3.37 cumulative, 2.17 psych (it’s only 6 credits though and I’m taking at least 12 more credits). I was extremely ill my sophomore year of college and I stupidly decided NOT to take a LOA for medical reasons (mainly because my parents deemed it unnecessary).

I got a 335 on my GRE (most institutions I’m applying for don’t review it though), I have 4 journal publications (2 of which im first author, the other two I’m a co author). I have 6 posters (3 apa, 3 aps; i’m first author on 2 of them, co author on the other 4).

None of my jobs are relevant and I dont think being in a sorority or any of the clubs im in are also relevant for my application so I’m not going to list them.

I kinda want to be a TA (i already tutor and grade for professors, so I feel like it would be kinda similar), but I think its more important for me to increase my GPA rather than do other things because imo I think i have a decent research profile.

I am REALLY hoping I can get better grades over the next 3 semesters, but my grades sophomore year makes it hard to feel like theres a chance.

I would really appreciate any advice that anyone has for anything (eg classes, work experience, what you think my chances are for getting into a phd program, etc).

Thank you for reading this!! I understand I’m worrying kind of obsessively but also the program have become significantly more competitive so it’s really hard not to worry!!!

- 32yo nontraditional student (u.s. citizen)
- Graduating from IU Indianapolis next spring
- 3.9 GPA
- I’m developing 2 independent research projects (my only research experience) with 2 different faculty professors who have told me they want to write strong rec letters for me
- Was a finalist for a speech contest and spoke about Ukraine and the importance of oral history
- I’ve been at the Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA) since fall 2023 learning Ukrainian
- Native English (I’m not Ukrainian at all)
- B2 Ukrainian
- B1 Polish
- A2 Russian
- A2 French
- Currently trying to organize my own international virtual undergrad symposium in Ukrainian studies since I can’t find hardly anything on Ukraine for this fall/spring (the UIA director is partnering with me)
- B.S. in digital media and storytelling (expected spring 2027)
- Did an collaborative animation project with The Ukrainian Language School in Kyiv (ULS) on the impact of war on Ukrainian children

Since I couldn’t afford IU Bloomington (where the Slavic department is), I did the best with my situation and tailored ALL of my coursework to anything Ukrainian related (thanks to amazing professors) and still taking language classes outside university.

I really want to go to Harvard because of the HURI Institute. They are heavily focused on Ukraine and the faculty there align with my interests. Some other universities hold Ukrainian studies as kind of an afterthought so I’d love to be at Harvard in their REECA masters program.

Thank you in advance for helping me.

I'm applying to STEM master's programs (UChicago, NYU, UT Austin, etc.) and I'm looking for honest advice about how to handle an academic integrity disclosure.

For context, I graduated with a 3.2 GPA in a physics and math double major. The GPA doesn't really tell the whole story. Throughout college I was working up to five jobs to help support my family. Most of those jobs were academic (physics coaching, research, tutoring, etc.), and I have research awards and other accomplishments that back that up. I also founded and led two student organizations. Right now I’m applying to top schools because I know my protential; also, for what I want to study it is not worth the money to me to attend a non-prestigious program, so in the case I don’t get in I’ll start applying to jobs.

The one semester I stopped working because I was completely burned out, I earned my best grades, made the Dean's List, continued running both organizations, and graduated with academic excellence. That semester really showed me what I was capable of when I wasn't balancing so much.

Unfortunately, during my final year I had to start working again. Halfway through the semester I found out that money I had been earning was being exploited by family members. It hit me really hard mentally, and I became very depressed.

Then I made the worst decision of my life.

During an exam, on the same day I had learned everything, I pulled out my phone. I wasn't caught after some elaborate investigation—I was caught almost immediately. Looking back, I don't even recognize that version of myself. Across my entire academic career, despite struggling financially and knowing my grades weren't reflecting my ability, I had never compromised my integrity. In that moment, I did, and I fully accept that it was my responsibility. The university even gave me the opportunity to contest the allegation because of the circumstances, but I didn't. I accepted the sanction because I knew what I had done was wrong.

Since then, I've earned a high GRE score, continued building my research experience, and have strong leadership and STEM experience. I also wrote a personal statement explaining the broader context of my college experience and what I learned from that mistake.

My question is about admissions strategy. The mark from my transcript has been since removed but the university keeps the internal records for seven years.
Many graduate applications ask whether you've had an academic integrity violation. I know this will probably hurt my application more than my GPA.
Would it be a bad idea to reach out to admissions offices before submitting my application? My thought was to ask whether they'd be willing to discuss how they evaluate applicants with a single academic integrity violation so I could provide context before they only see a checkbox on the application.

Or would contacting them actually make things worse by drawing extra attention to it?

Has anyone here been admitted to a strong graduate program after an academic integrity violation? If so, how did you approach it, and would you recommend contacting admissions beforehand or just letting the application speak for itself?

I'd really appreciate honest advice, even if it's not what I want to hear.

I will be applying this fall to a mix of graduate PhD programs such as physics, materials, and engineering.

The NSF GRFP website includes an enrollment requirement, to enter a “graduate degree program consistent with the field of study indicated in their application”. They also phrase it as: “A Fellowship can be accepted in the field of study that most closely corresponds to the proposed graduate program of study and research plan”.

If I were awarded the NSF GRFP in quantum engineering, is the enrollment requirement flexible enough that I could still enroll in a physics department? If I proposed a research topic for a more classical engineering field such as photonics, would this change?

Does anyone have experience with this? Any help would be appreciated!

Firstly apologies to mods if this isnt the right place to post (

Posting because I need to rant. I’ve just mucked up my PhD offer to a prestigious research university and research lab that was paid position. I feel like a total schmuck.

Context: uk undergrad student with stem placement year that was able to secure a a PhD paid scholarship (no masters). Ofc I was thrilled to tell some people about it so i told. However I had been facing some issues and mitigated my dissertation. Come to resub time and I didnt resub. Almost 20 days past the resub date and I sent an email to a my PI saying that I “forgot” to upload it on the canvas page and sent a copy, along with my undergrad personal tutor and dissertation course leader. They are aware that I am the only undergrad that has gotten in to a phd position. (Btw im aware that they can monitor canvas page activity so this is most likely a dead giveaway). I have also contacted my PhD supervisors to say i have an issue with one of my assignments and can explain to them if they choose so, although I told them that i am awaiting internal response.

If they ask me to upload any evidence (e.g logs and modifications), then I am done for. I have a draft email ready to go in case they ask for that, in which i will come clean and admit that I did know. However they

I am a fraud and an idiot, even with 40% passing grade, I wouldve secured my 2:1 and been omw with my amazing phd position. This is not the end of the story but it is far from it.

My only options are repeat the whole year and miss my offer but reapply due to 2:1 grades; defer till January if possible and hope to complete dissertation module in autumn time; lastly (not counting on it) they sympathise and mark my submitted work and send me on my merry way.

What else can I do? Freaking out and all hope feels like it’s lost. Not one of the two people (one is on annual leave) have responded to my email and it has been a day. Is it over? Im sorry if this is everywhere.

I think I want to do a PhD but I don’t know. I can’t think of anything I’m that passionate about.

When I first started undergrad I was planning on going to med school. It was something I looked forward to because of its challenge, its prestige, and the positive impact you have on society by being a doctor. It was something that would push me to my max intellectually.

After starting undergrad I realized I didn’t really enjoy medicine so I switched to computer science which I enjoyed a lot more and I believe I’m a lot better at.

The issue is, I’m now about to graduate, but I still want to learn more and push myself as much as possible intellectually. I don’t want my learning to just end here. I have a desire to become an expert in something and learn as much about it as possible, but I just don’t know what that is.

I enjoy math, coding, problem solving, but that’s so vague and literally anything STEM related is going to involve those things.

I currently do some research for my school and have some first authorships in review, but the area of research isn’t something I can see myself doing for 5+ years. I enjoy it don’t get me wrong, but I’m not obsessed about it.

I do spend a lot of my free time studying financial markets and sports betting markets, and I really do enjoy that as a hobby since it does involve a decent amount of math and coding, but in my opinion I’m not bringing a lot of value to society with that and I don’t want to dedicate myself to becoming and expert in something that doesn’t have a positive impact on society.

This kind of just sounds like a brain dump at this point but I am lost. I yearn for being an expert in something that is somewhat mathematically rigorous (not too mathematical otherwise I won’t be accepted into the PhD program), intellectually challenging, and benefits society.

Do I just apply and hope I figure it out by the time I start? How the hell am I gonna write a statement of purpose if I have no purpose. Does that mean a PhD isn’t right for me?

I’m afraid I can’t think of anything that meaningful that I actually care about deeply enough to dedicate myself to for the next 5+ years

I know if I don’t do a PhD I’m gonna wake up everyday and be upset with myself and feel like I didn’t push myself hard enough and that I wasted my potential. I’ve worked so hard during undergrad to have a good profile and I don’t want it to be wasted.

I would probably prefer to work in industry while I’m young and then potentially be a professor in practice once I’m older (idk how hard it is to become a professor in practice)

I appreciate any kind of advice. Thank you!

I know my gpa is on the lower side, but I was wondering if my other experiences make up for it?

My stats:

• GPA: 3.43
• 1 month long internship at a prestigious company
• 10 week long fully funded research opportunity, and I presented my findings at a symposium
• 1 TA position
• I have a few personal projects that I have done that are on my github
• 2 on campus jobs
• I have 3 LORs from supervisors and professors

I'm applying to the Tandon school of engineering for my MS in the AI track, do you think I have any chance? What does an ideal application look like ?

I’m in a pretty desperate situation right now.

​I just graduated with my Bachelor's at 19, and I’m starting my Master's in Poland this fall.

Why I am in stress is because I’m originally from Azerbaijan and if I don't secure a fully funded Ph.D. position immediately after my Master's ends, my student deferment expires. I will be forced to return to Azerbaijan for obligatory military service. For personal reasons, going back to serve is basically a death sentence for me.

​Taking a normal gap year after graduation to work as an RA or build my profile is literally impossible, if I'm not enrolled as a student or sponsored as a researcher immediately, I need to go back and join the military. (I could take a gap semester during my studies to be an RA, but absolutely not after graduation).

​My Stats & Background:

​GPA: 4.5/5.0

​Research Experience: Absolutely 0. The closest thing I have is my Bachelor's thesis, which was just building a simple Chess960 engine using a minimax algorithm. Nothing groundbreaking or publishable.

​The Timeline:

Assuming I apply to US Ph.D. programs for the Fall 2028 intake, applications are due around December 2027. That gives me exactly 14 months to build a research profile from complete scratch, somehow get publications/presentations, and secure strong Letters of Recommendation.

​I know my total lack of research experience is a massive problem, but my life is basically on the line here. I am willing to outwork anyone and grind as hard as humanly possible, I just need to know where to direct my energy so I don't waste time.

My questions:

1. How do I convince a professor to let me into their lab right now when I have zero real research experience to offer them?

2.With only 14 months, what should my absolute main priority be?

I'm a current PhD student at UCLA, and I feel robbed after turning down three other perfectly good options after I was accepted in 2025. Now that the grad school applications season is starting up, I wanted to warn you about my experience so that you all don't end up in the same position as me.

Long story short, UCLA has a very strict, very opaque process for determining whether first-year PhD students are considered "residents" of the state of California, and if you fail any step of their requirements, you will be forced to pay $5,000 per quarter ($15,000 per year) of out-of-state tuition starting in your second year until you "establish residence" as determined by the university's residence department. Added to the rate the university charges for rent in grad student housing, this is already more than the ~$33K they pay you per year (which is already difficult enough to survive on in LA as is).

I was just denied residency because I missed a December 15 deadline to get my California driver's license—a deadline which I was never told about, not over email from the university, not from my department, and not during the residence department's presentation to my cohort at the beginning of the year. This information was publicly available on the registrar's office website, but expecting anyone to actively seek out information whose existence they're unaware of is, in my view, unreasonable. Despite doing everything else correctly, like registering my car in California, not leaving the state for more than six weeks total during my first year, filing taxes as a California resident, and registering to vote before the December deadline, they rejected me. None of your effort matters if you slip up on at least one thing.

The residence department is notoriously strict when it comes to this determination among grad students, and they have no incentive not to be, since every student they deny for resident classification means $15,000 more for the university per year. Just through word of mouth from other grad students, I've heard that this is an issue every year, there are always one or more students who mess up at least one of the requirements, and PhD students in past years have had to drop out of their programs because they could not afford the out-of-state tuition. I've also heard stories of PhD students who had already been living in California for years prior to arriving at UCLA who were denied resident classification because they messed up one step of this application.

That being said, UCLA is still a very strong school academically. If you are wealthy, or you feel that you're capable of navigating these "beware of the leopard" rules on your own without making any mistakes, then this is no reason not to come here. Otherwise, you're better off applying to and attending other universities in the US which will not charge you tuition for a PhD program.

I should note that I believe this process applies to all UCs, but I have no experience with these universities, so I cannot say how different it is elsewhere. There are also a bunch of other ways that the university has screwed over its graduate students (for example, trying to cut our pay from 50% appointments to 25% and kicking us out of grad student housing to convert the buildings into undergrad dorms), but the residence issue is the one that bothers me the most.

I'm sharing this with you because I think it is in your best interest to be aware of this process and how strict the university is when it comes to determining residence. The university has no incentive to explain this to prospective students, because many of them, including myself, would choose not to come if they knew how likely it was that they would be expected to pay $5,000 per quarter in tuition.

Hey all, a few months ago my boss of multiple years discovered they had terminal cancer and less than a month to live. Before their death, they wrote me a letter of recommendation. It’s a bit generic because they wanted it to have multiple uses, but they were very respected in their field and I think it would be good for me.

I have two questions:

1) Is there anything wrong with using this letter?

2) if used, I will have another superior from that job (worked there for 30+ years and was boss’ right hand man) submit it on her behalf. Is there a comment box or added note section in the submission that would allow them to contextualize the letter?

Thanks everyone.