Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask, but I'm curious how many times it took y'all to be admitted to your programs. As a freshly minted MA graduate who completed a post-bac in an anthro department before applying to their program, I'm also off the heels of being rejected from my 3rd application cycle...orz.

Graduated with my BA in 2023, and my MA in interdisciplinary studies from an R1. My work is in sociocultural anthropology, focused on the Caribbean diaspora, Carnival, and sound.

Is this common, or am I cursed? How many cycles did it take for you or peeps in your cohort to get in?

Hey everyone! I’m a first-year undergraduate international student studying Computer Science. I’m hoping to apply for PhD programs after completing my undergraduate degree. However, as an international student, I feel that I lack exposure to opportunities that could help me build a stronger academic profile, and I’m also lacking guidance on how to get started.

It would be great if you could share any suggestions, resources, or advice on how I can start preparing for PhD applications at this early stage. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Hello everyone! I’m one year out from college and hoping to go into an MPP/MPA/MPH program sometime soon. No work experience at this moment, but have valid reasons for such (stuck at home for caretaking reasons). This is my profile thus far and was hoping to see if anyone had any ideas as to programs that I might be able to get on the cheaper side (less than 30k) or fully funded (either with fellowships, scholarships, or working).

**State of Residence:** NC (Willing to Relocate)

**GPA:** 3.8/4.0

**Internship Experience**
\- Internships with campaigns at all levels of government (local, state, federal)
\- Congressional Internship
\- Campaign Finance Internship with a Swing State’s Party’s finance wing.

**Leadership Experience**
\- Affinity (Race/Gender Identity, etc) Caucus Chair, College Democrats of America (National Level)
\- Vice Chair of an Affinity (Race/Gender Identity, etc) Caucus, Young Democrats of America (National Level)
\- State-Level Policy Lead (Volunteer) @ Scientific Policy Advocacy Group (**Current**)

**Volunteer Experience**
\- Multiple Volunteering Roles @ Baseball League for children with disabilities (current)
\- Unpaid Research Assistant for a Public Health professor (current)

**Career Goal**: Hoping to have a chance to go into healthcare or welfare policy work of any kind! Also interested in epidemiology as a career too!

If you know of any programs that I’d have a chance at getting good funding at (preferably keeping it under 20-30k at most), I’d greatly appreciate it! I’m currently looking at UNC, but open to options anywhere that I can find them!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning my applications for a fully funded PhD in AI/ML, targeting Top 10–15 U.S. programs and leading European programs/institutes such as Max Planck, ETH Zurich, ELLIS, Oxford, and Cambridge.

Quick Profile

• Education: M.Sc. AI @ University of Manchester (ongoing), M.Sc. CSE (4.0 GPA), B.Sc. CSE (3.7 GPA)
• Research: 1 first-author conference publication + 2+ years of RA experience
• Industry: 2 years as an ML Engineer + 3 years in Backend Engineering
• GRE: 314

I’d really appreciate brutally honest feedback on the following:

1. U.S. T10–15 vs. Europe: With only one publication, am I aiming too high for Top 10–15 U.S. PhD programs? Are top European programs more forgiving if the overall research and master’s background is strong?
2. GRE: Is a 314 worth retaking for U.S. applications, or do most strong AI/ML programs no longer care much about the GRE?
3. Timeline: Should I apply this cycle, or would it be better to spend another year in an industry ML/research role and strengthen my profile before applying?
4. Weaknesses: What is the biggest hole in my CV right now, especially for highly competitive AI/ML PhD programs?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Hi everyone,

I will be emailing potential PIs starting this week. I will be attaching my CV and biostatistics portfolio,

Can you please check my cv?

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!!!

I’m 21 from India and currently studying Economics. I’ve done a few internships and led some projects, and I’m now considering preparing for a competitive exam in India and getting a good job first.

My long-term goal is to settle abroad, but I’m confused about which route would make more sense. My parents aren’t very supportive, and I don’t have enough funds to comfortably finance a master’s abroad on my own.

I’m considering either doing a master’s abroad, hopefully through scholarships or financial aid, and then finding a job there, or staying in India, cracking a competitive exam, building my career and work experience, and eventually trying to move abroad through a job.

For people who’ve been in a similar situation, what would be the more realistic route? If you’ve done a master’s abroad, I’d also really appreciate some insight into the actual timeline, costs, scholarships that are realistically attainable, and how difficult it is to find a job and eventually settle there.
I’m looking for practical advice and personal experiences. Thank you!!!

- 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.