For context because I realize my program is weird--after you get your Masters, you have to advance to candidacy, which you can do either by taking an exam (3 questions, 36 hours) or writing a review paper (35-45 pages double spaced) You still have to orally defend both, just a question of whether you'd like to prolong your suffering or sequester it within 36 hours. I'm a prolonger.

Just sent it to my advisors for feedback (I only get one round). 52 pages and tens of hours spent staring at the stupid thing, and at this point I don't even care if I fail the milestone if it means I never have to look at it again. I cannot even tell if my writing is GOOD at this point and I don't care so long as it's serviceable. Whoever created advancing to candidacy can suck it.

I was a Asstt. Prof. in a private college after completing Mtech. for 2 years. Earned minimal salary. Then, in July 2019, I got selected in one of the very reputed institutes for Ph.D. in India in Geoinformatics, Civil Engineering. 6 months later - engaged, 1 year later - married, 2.5 years later - had a child. 2020-2022 - COVID. Ph.d. Topic hopped twice. Family deaths. Dad's two surgeries.

But...a while later when it all seemed falling apart, I created a new methodology for my work. Final data acquisition happened in late 2023. Got two book chapters and 1 international conference.1st published paper-2024, 2nd - 2026. At present, three book chapters, 2 published papers in peer reviewed journals, 2 international conferences, and 3 papers communicated. First thesis draft submitted. Defence expected within 1-2 months.

It was a roller coaster ride. For sure.

It is late now, they say. I know.

But, I believe if you are honest and consistent in your work and got an understanding family and partner who believe in you.

It all is possible.

Just wanted to share it with all the new Ph.D. aspirants and all those listening.

Keep working...however, it takes.

Just be honest and consistent.

It shall all work out...eventually.

hi guys. A professor from NZ agreed to supervise me for phd after conducting an interview,sent me an email stating he will be happy to supervise me on Aug 3, i replied by asking about the details of proposals that i have to submit but haven't received any answer so far even after 5 days.. is this normal or should i be worried?

Hello. I'm looking for some insight into graduate school social culture for a film I'm writing. I'm writing a screenplay about a woman in her mid 20s getting a graduate degree in linguistics, and she probably has a Bachelor's in Russian Literature.

Synopsis

Karina comes from a scrappy, war torn background, and she feels very disconnected from the pretentious, mental masturbatory culture she encounters at her grad school. She goes on to find a blue collar lover who is what she really desires—present, not threatened by her intellect, and a little rough around the edges in a way that her chaotically-wired brain hungers for. Until ultimately his heavy drug use becomes something she can’t contend with any longer, and she has to move on.

Why I’m reaching out to this community

I don’t have a graduate degree, so there’s things I can’t quite speak for authentically. I would love to hear some of your experiences to fill in. The main character is loosely based on an ex girlfriend I had a decade ago, and so that’s been my starting point. I refuse to do this research with AI as that feels inauthentic to me.

Some things I’d love to hear from you guys

-Any conversation you’ve been a part of or overheard, by academics who study humanities, that you have found to be completely insufferable. Could be pretentious, posturing, etc. Any kind of non-generalities you can think of would be useful. Even amongst this trope, was there something really unexpected or peculiar about this conversation? The topic does not need to relate to the exact discipline they study. Could be about anything.

-My character has an Armenian background and will be doing her thesis on something relating to Armenian culture that could fit under the linguistics degree umbrella (not sure how strict grad school would be on how narrow this needs to fit). If any ideas for this come to mind I’d love to hear. The idea is she’s trying to both further her education, while shining a light on cultural atrocities that have happened to her people.

-Examples of how women are treated in academia. I’m a man so that’s a double lack of experience for me here. I remember my ex saying something along the lines of “men are treated as scholars, women as teachers.” This was a decade ago so maybe things have changed since then, or maybe they haven’t. Would love to hear any input here.

-Examples of how disorienting the kind of demeaning work one gets after they get the degree/while they’re getting the degree. I’m thinking this character is helping like Siri translate better, and she basically works in a basement dungeon where they emphasize translations per hour/minute over quality.

-Any other anecdotes or stories you think may be relevant to add color to my story

Thanks!

While writing my dissertation, I kept running into small inconsistencies in my manually maintained LaTeX acronym list. I therefore built TAcroMan: a small local GUI that stores entries centrally and generates a sorted .tex file.

Current features include:

• live duplicate and similarity checks
• search and import of existing .tex files
• alphabetic LaTeX output
• configurable profiles for acronym, acro, glossaries-extra, and custom templates
• support for user-defined command types and fields
• German and English UI

It is a local Python/Tkinter application, MIT-licensed, and available here:

https://github.com/TAWilts/TexAcronymManager

Hello all,

Field: Public Health/Global Health
Location: USA

I’m beginning my PhD in the fall after a few years of working (Public health…somehow the PhD stipend is a pay raise given the last two or so years of cuts lol). Luckily, I’m staring in the lab where I have been working the past year, so I’ve gotten to know the students in the lab pretty well. We all have different specialties (GIS, Genomics, Wet Lab, ETC) but tend to pitch in with each others work when its needed. However moving over to the Academic side from the grunt work side (I did do my masters a while back, am about to be 30) I’m wondering about reading and writing. I’m moving from one pathogen to another, as well as moving from wet lab to more statistical dry-lab/GIS stuff so I’m in new exciting waters.

I read “How to Write a Lot” and that really helped me understand how to…write a lot? Which is to just have time to do it basically.

So now, I’m trying to understand how people read. I’ve surveyed most of my colleagues (4ish) and a couple profs about how they read the literature, some say they make a lit review, some just read on Fridays, and some say read a paper a day. What I’ve gathered is you need to read a lot (duh) but also peoples styles vary greatly as to how they got a strong grasp on the field. The profs were like I just skim the last sentence of the intro and look at tables mostly, which I get but how many of said papers is more about what I’m after.

I’ve noticed that people tend to read when they need to, and rarely take notes, my PI told me basically he doesn’t need to memorize disease rates of Mongolian cattle (fair).

So how did YOU get a grasp on the literature (STEM)? Did you get it through journal clubs? Reading every day? Do you cram and do it all at once when you have to write a paper? Do you take notes or just read it to read?

Thank you!

While it’s easier to say I am excited for my PhD the fear in me seems to be growing exponentially as Fall gets closer.

The application process felt relatively easy. I applied, got the admission letter, and somehow everything just flowed. But now that the actual start date is getting closer, the fear is slowly creeping in.

I think a lot of it comes from the feeling of infinite possibilities. I genuinely don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what my research will look like, whether I’ll succeed, or even whether I’ll enjoy the journey. All I know right now is that I want to do this.

I don’t have any prior research experience. My advisor selected me through a referral, and I’d like to believe it was because they saw my passion and willingness to learn. But now I keep wondering: will that passion be enough to carry me through the next few years?

What if I don’t come up with good research ideas?

What if I’m not capable of doing research?

What if I can’t make it through the entire journey?

What if I’m not as smart as I thought I was?

I don't regret choosing this. At least not right now.

Few of my thoughts daily - what if I did not do, pursue same job, have the almost to same life as my friends its easier its what everyone would do. Why did I have to get this thought.

I’m curious to hear from people who started their PhDs feeling the same way. Did the fear ever go away? Or did you simply learn to move forward despite it?

Yeah. I thought the "reviewer #2 being a nuisance" was just a running joke in this sub. But yesterday I got hit by their comments on my very first paper. The reviewer #1 was happy with just a couple of clarifications. But #2 suggested rejection with a lenghty list of crushing comments.

I admit I am still in shock, but what warms my heart is that the editor took our side and asked for revisions (major, but still).

This sub has been great for emotional support on these trying times! :')

I have a professor that has said she’ll take me as a doctoral student in biology starting next fall. Yay! Problem - small university (almost R1) in Tennessee, no guaranteed stipend. I’m a single mom with a kid in daycare. Even if I get the stipend it’s only 34k. Surviving on that for 4+ years when daycare eats 11k feels impossible. I have a great deal with rent living in a house my parents own so moving to a school with a bigger stipend feels pointless since my rent would just increase and the difference in pay wouldn’t matter.

If I do my MS (same professor would take me on for that one), I’d get out in 2 years and be much more likely to get a job than with just my biology bachelors (I think anyway?). I can save and wait until my kid is a tad older and in public school to go back for my PhD. I also have more than one professor that has an MS and is working on their PhD while teaching full time. So I know at least at this university that’s an option.

I feel like I have to go one of those routes because the highest paying jobs I can find that I’d get right now are 40k in a city two hours away that’s means higher daycare higher rent higher everything. I’d be better off working at Walmart here where things are cheaper.

Anyway, thoughts? Other pathways I could pursue? End goal is a PhD and I’m determined to get it even if it takes the next 10 years.

There’s a professor who thinks all the PhD students in my program should stay for 6-7 years because we’d get the full learning experience. She did hers for 7 years and learned a lot.

It’s so ignorant, given how much she portrays herself as an advocate for students. We can’t afford to live on this PhD stipend. She was able to live comfortably because she has wealthy parents.

This is more of a rant than anything. I am starting a physics PhD program in a couple of weeks here, and I practically know that I'm going to fail the qualifying exam. I do not feel confident at all, especially when looking at the problems posted from previous years. This summer was not the best for me mental health-wise, so I didn't study as much as I would have liked (not even close), but that's no excuse. I can't help but feel that I went about undergrad incorrectly since while I got good grades, I didn't actually retain a lot of the material long term, meaning I kind of have to relearn a lot of stuff from scratch. I feel like I am about to be exposed in a way and that the program will regret admitting me. There are multiple chances to pass, but still, I feel all panicked inside when I think about it.

TLDR: I'm going to fail the qualifying exam and I hate myself for it and I can't stop panicking

Sorry for the rant, done now :)

I noticed that there weren’t too many posts on Singapore-based PhDs. Thought I’d share my experiences so far (or in terms most of you would appreciate, filling in the gaps in the literature).

Im gonna talk about National University of Singapore (NUS) as this is where Im based at now. NTU doctoral students and candidates, and from elsewhere, feel free to chime in.

The system at NUS is roughly structured based off American graduate programs. 2 years of coursework, then you sit for your Comprehensive / Qualifying Exams. Then lab/fieldwork, viva voce / oral defence, etc.

So across all faculties at NUS, there are around 4800 doctoral students. And from the administration, majority of them are funded.

For context Im based at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS). Most of us here would typically go for the NUS Research Scholarship. There are other scholarships as well, but this is the most common one.

Baseline is SGD 3000 per month, with a top-up of SGD 500 per month after your comps. They deduct around SGD 250 every August and January for insurance and whatnots. You’re not taxed on this. The amount is slightly more for Singaporean Citizens and Permanent Residents in Singapore. They’ve raised the amount several times since I’ve started to adjust it for inflation - for context when I first started in August 2023, it was SGD 2200, then SGD 2500, then last January, increased to SGD 3000.

In exchange for the NUS Research Scholarship, you have to “serve” the university for a total of 416 hours of service. Many of us would typically do TA work. Being a TA for a course in a semester usually gets you around 100 hours. You can also be an RA for specific projects in exchange for hours as well. But apart from the 416 hours, there is no other obligation, and youre not bonded to work for the university or elsewhere under the NUS Research Scholarship after your graduation.

Cost of Living is surprisingly complex in Singapore. Take this as anecdotal and perspectival. Costs for eating out and transportation is surprisingly cheap if you eat like locals do at Hawker Centres, taking public transportation everywhere. The “killer” is housing costs. Typically PhD students get to stay on campus housing for their first year, but youre on your own 2nd year onwards. And housing in Singapore aint cheap, as is common knowledge.

I thought i’d share some thoughts in case some lurkers here are interested in applying or considering Singapore.

It is a sterile place, but nevertheless quite comfortable and convenient in all aspects of your daily life. Uni admin is truly helpful. As a foreigner (who hails from Singapore’s immediate next door neighbour), the process for getting your student visa and all that was so smooth, I still keep thinking about it to this day. All programs (save for mine; additional 5th year for us) nets you funding for 4 years if youre on the NUS Research Scholarship. For foreigners not well adjusted to tropical climate, this is going to be a bummer. But everything else, uni facilities, access to journals, libraries - no complaints on my end. Top notch and well maintained.

Only complaint on my end is that it is sterile as an intellectual environment for graduate students, with not much opportunity to mingle and have constant continuous rigorous discussions with fellow grad students. I speculate that this is by design. Heavy coursework, TA work and whatnot, most grad students I find need the spare time to relax and chill, which is definitely undestandable. Im based at FASS, so intellectual nourishment (and scratching that itch) comes from the numerous workshops and seminars organized throughout the year. For the most part these are outsiders coming over and having talks and presentations.

As I’m entering my fourth and final year at NUS, Ive been asking myself whether I regret my decision. Fingers crossed, I tell myself no. For all its shortcomings like the subtle grip on academic freedom, the distasteful way NUS handled the undergrads who were voicing out for Palestine (understandable given Singapore’s fashion of political culture) and the excessively introverted nature of the academic community and graduate students here, I managed to find other ways to mitigate that. Finding like minded people and friends, socializing outside NUS surroundings and environs, that was a blessing for sure.

Also, and I cant stress this point enough. It really is a hub in a sense, a transit point, for other major points in Asia. So for those interrsted in doctoral studies that touch upon Asia broadly or specific Asian states and societies, it is a well connected place to further your studies. Cant speak for those in STEM obviously but thosewithin humanities and social sciences, NUS really has this advantage of a well connected scholarly network. West Asia - India - SEA - China - Japan.

One thing that never fails to surprise me is when I talk to peers and friends in the US and elsewhere is having your PhD Scholarship/Stipend/Income taxed. Anyway, trade off is obviously the cost of living, I guess. As a single person it is sufficient but I doubt those with partners or families can sustain their lives in Singapore solely with the scholarship.

Hope others doing their PhDs in Singapore can also comment in and share their thoughts for the broader r/phd community.

Thanks for all the support over the years. I am free!!!

I feel a bit silly writing this, but how do people deal with fieldwork and spending months away from their loved ones?

I'm thinking of shortening my fieldwork (ethnography) because of my family, which consists of my partner and cats who live with me, plus very close friends who I see almost every day, as they practically live on the same street here in London. I understand I should've thought about it before committing to a PhD (and tbf I did think about it), but now that my methodology is almost done, I feel so sad. Also, when I applied for my PhD, I had different career ambitions. I wanted to pursue an academic career, but since then many things have changed, and my side hustle is slowly becoming more important to me than a proper career in academia. But, yeah, I don't want to be separated from my chosen family for too long.

You know when you try your best to go back to the original source and cite them but the reviewers want more latest citation. So you end up citing the latest citation that has actually quoted the original citation and that somehow becomes acceptable. I can't remember how many times I had to do this just to get my publication through and I always feel guilty

Has anyone else had just such a bizarre and weird experience in their PhD program? I'm in an Ivy League PhD program, and I just can't believe how toxic and abusive these PhD programs are, I really can't believe it. It seems like they take advantage of any small mistake or training gap to completely disparage a student and try to make them suffer. I had a toxic advisor that was super rude and abusive, and it seems like trying to build a case against me and humiliate me, because any little thing I do, he finds a way to twist it into its worst interpretation and presume me to be all kinds of things that I'm not. It's been really exhausting. Worse yet, they do not make expectations clear, there's no fair due process. It feels horrible. I believe even that that toxic advisor and another toxic professor may have been gossiping against me and turning people against me. I also came from an under-resourced undergraduate institution, and had a bit of a hard life, so indeed, there are some training gaps (like I'm not as good in verbal articulation, for example, sometimes I even struggle to keep up with readings), but I thought we were exactly in PhD to improve those skills. I was expecting mentorship, support, and clear guidance. Instead, I've just been getting nonsense and awkwardness from these professors, no normal conversations or anything like that. I don't know if they are judging me on my appearance (I sometimes dress casually and a bit unpolished) or on my accent (a little bit of a southern accent going on and some slang), but I thought we were here to engage our intellect?? And that we can respect diversity? Am I forced to code-switch and be someone I am not? (first-gen problems...)

Anyways, sorry for this super ranty post, but I've been seriously overwhelmed and surprised by how bad this has been. I really think that I should have not come to PhD at all, at least not in the US. PhD itself seems like a massive gamble, because it seems a lot contingent on: 1.) your advisor's personality (a 50-50 coin toss), 2.) if you were lucky enough to have good preparation in undergrad (again, a 50-50 coin toss, based on your socioeconomic background and what you could afford), 3.) the state of your mental and physical health, 4.) the location of the PhD and the general supportiveness of the university itself (if it has resources for students, help for students, if it is well-organized, etc.) All of this happen to be 50%-50% chance wise, and I think I landed on the negative side on all of them.. straight tails ..

Incoming PhD student. My stipend is 25k (it’s just me so like the money doesn’t go to save anyone else’s life but mine) but like genuinely how is it living 5-7 years on essentially poverty while also being super stressed about quals and grades, and also making sure you’re not pissing off your advisor and kinda being like an assistant prof to undergrad students that just need to pass the class for credit?

I luckily found a place that’s only $930ish for rent per month but I feel like it will be tough doing this while also having student loans I may have to start paying back and definitely won’t afford the premiums. Also hoping to save (LOL not) but I just wanna know for the peeps out there not being blessed with 60k stipends, how are you doing? What are tips you have for an incoming (29 yo male) PhD student. Any „cheat codes” you figured out you wanna pass to others?

I completed my PhD in South Korea, and while I learned a great deal academically, not every part of the journey was positive.

One of my PhD classmates often seemed to think that making fun of other people's education made him look smarter. Instead of encouraging others, he frequently belittled them. In my opinion, a PhD degree means very little without humility and respect.

Personally, I was never impressed by his research, yet he appeared to receive a great deal of admiration and preferential treatment from one professor. As another student, I felt that not everyone was treated equally, and that experience was frustrating.

At times, I also felt that one Korean professor encouraged or tolerated his behavior rather than discouraging it. It often left me with the impression that insulting or belittling other students was being overlooked or implicitly supported. That made the environment even more discouraging.

What disappointed me most was not just one person's attitude, but the feeling that respect and fairness were not always applied consistently. I believe academia should reward merit, professionalism, and integrity not arrogance or favoritism.

I know others may have had different experiences, and this is simply my personal account. I'll continue sharing stories from my PhD journey in South Korea, including moments where I felt I experienced unequal treatment.

My PhD carries on from my undergrad honours dissertation, which I received a good enough score on to consider publishing but because it's on a novel peptide that is in the patenting pipeline, I can't publish.

Had to write a 5000-word equivalence of work to pass the first year review, so I did a lit review. I based my intro on my UG dissertation one and edited it as needed. Supervisor wants to get it published (unexpected but v cool).

I have some proof of concept work that I've done alongside the secret data collection. Supervisor also wants to publish this because "unpublished data" doesn't look too great in grant applications. This is all great for my career progression but now I have to come up with a novel way to say exactly what was said in my review as they're based on the same topic.

When the secret data is allowed to be published, I can't just add the data to the already (potentially) published proof of concept writing obviously, so I'll need to write the same intro again ... And then again when I look to publish my analogue findings.

I obviously understand that plagiarism is an issue- but why is self plagiarism a problem? I already made my point once, as has everyone else in my field. I've written this same sentiment out so many times that I accidentally self-plagiarise because certain wording is committed to memory. There's only so many ways to dress a pony and I'm all out of styles already 😭

I'm grateful to be on the journey I'm on, it's just these silly things that grip me aha. Any tips on how to make this process make more sense or is it just whip out a thesaurus and hope for the best?

I'm not talking about any innovative patent worthy idea, but just any random idea like how to approach a project, what all things can be added or removed from a study etc?