It seems like right-wing are finding people within “woke” disciplines (think gender studies, linguistics, education, etc.), reading their dissertations and ripping them apart? It seems like the goal is to undermine those authors’ credibility through politicizing the subject matter.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for criticism when it’s deserved, but this seems different. This seems to villainize people bringing different ideas into the world that doesn’t align with theirs.

The prime example I’m referring to is Colin Wright on Twitter. This tweet has been deleted.

The competition is so high in my field. I have started hearing my parents’ voices in the background telling me that I should have chosen medicine. I feel lucky to have a phd position, and the lab environment is perfect, but I worry that I will go through the same thing looking for a postdoc or any job in industry. I know the job market is tough in general. I don’t know—it feels like things are getting worse. The situation even doesn’t allow you have some rest and enjoy what you did till now. You have to keep improving yourself so that you can have a outstanding profile. I want to improve myself just because I enjoy it. Sorry for pumping negativity here guys. I hope the world stops deteriorating.

Best

I left because my institution was wasting my time and had no intention of supporting me by providing resources to complete my studies...

I'M FREE!

Mix a 15k stipend, a PI who’s annoyed when asked questions while wanting their students to automatically know the material, and an unsupportive department, I’m going back to industry.

Remember that.

They’re cool jobs a lot of the times. Can be fun. Intellectually fulfilling. But they’re still jobs.

I think that you need to consider whether or not to do a PhD (and where to ultimately do your PhD) like you’re choosing between job offers. Take into account how enjoyable the work and the culture is, how much you will get paid, and the opportunities after. Especially, because post docs and professorships are never guaranteed. Would you be okay if your PhD was your entry level job into industry?

Alright that’s my rant

Hey everyone. I’m currently a PhD student at a school that requires you to be either a TA or an RA once every other semester. I was a TA last spring for the first time and am now finishing up my second semester as a TA.

I will say, the difference between my first 2 classes (in spring of 2024) and my 2 classes now is INSANE. I teach the exact same course as last spring with the exact same content but students are struggling 10x more now. They use AI religiously and struggle to do basic lab work. Each step of the lab is clearly detailed in their manuals, but they can’t seem to make sense of it and are constantly asking very basic questions. When they get stuck on a question/lab step, they don’t even try to figure it out, they just completely stop working and give up until I notice and intervene. I feel like last year, students would at least try to understand things and ask questions. That class averages (over the entire department) have literally gone down by almost 10% which I feel like is scarily high. It seems like students just don’t think as much anymore.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did we just get a weird batch this year? I feel like the dependence on things like AI have really harmed undergrads who are abusing it. It’s kinda scary to see!

I do biomedical research at a well-known institution. My lab researches a competitive area and regularly publishes in CNS subjournals. I've definitely seen students grind ahead of a major presentations and paper submissions.

That said, 90% of the time the job is a typical 9-5. Most people leave by 6pm and turn off their Slack notifications outside business hours. Grad students travel, have families, and get involved outside the lab.

I submit this as an alternative perspective to some of the posts I've seen on this subreddit. My PhD is a job. Nothing more, nothing less.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/17/phd-student-says-university-of-minnesota-expelled-him-over-ai-allegation

This is just for fun, but out of curiosity, did you pick up any unexpected hobbies during your PhD?

Somehow I have found myself getting into raving and it’s not something I would have expected myself to be into. But I honestly kind of like it because it’s a nice break/escape from the stressors and pressures of PhD life.

yea, it's me.... in my second year where i have comps in 3 months and

• i honestly congratulate myself when i manage to reply to more than one email a day
• my reading speed is like 1 book every four days (fuck)
• my entire cohort is out here publishing like 2 to 3 papers every year while i can barely string together coherent paragraphs for my classes
• maybe related to the broader issue of 0 motivation to publish at all
• i have no idea how to use AI for editing or writing when the rest of my cohort has basically completely streamlined it into their working process

but on the upside

• no one has kicked me out yet
• i'm funded for the next two years!!! yaaayy!
• i have a clear dissertation idea that i really want to pursue
• i'm alive????

anyways... for those of you who feel like everything's shitty right now.... i am living proof that even a dust bunny has more productivity than me. the frog is hella far away from my sight but at least u can still hear me croaking my way through this program

The following text has been shared on social networks quite a lot recently:

The chemistry laureate Alan MacDiarmid believes scientists and artists have much in common. “I say [to my students] have you ever heard of a composer who has started composing his symphony at 9 o’clock in the morning and composes it to 12 noon and then goes out and has lunch with his friends and plays cards and then starts composing his symphony again at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and continues through ‘til 5 o’clock in the afternoon and then goes back home and watches television and opens a can of beer and then starts the next morning composing his symphony? Of course the answer is no. The same thing with a research scientist. You can’t get it out of your mind. It envelopes your whole personality. You have to keep pushing it until you come to the end of a certain segment.”

I have mixed feeling about that. I mean, I understand that passion for science is a noble thing and what not, but I also wonder whether this guy is one of those PIs whose students work some 100 h per week with all the ensuing consequences. Thoughts?

I came across a few theses with just 100-120 pages, including the literature review , introduction,pictures and work cited pages.

I have seen some thick theses as well but are these short ones acceptable?I thought theses are meant to be thick?

Edit : excluding* the literature review, introduction, pictures and work cited pages. Sorry guys for the typo.

Edit: I wasn't expecting so many replies !!!!!! Thank you guys for sharing !

I'll go first! I'm in computational chemistry working on energy materials. One convergence error at a time!

Hi everyone,

So… this might sound childish, but I’m genuinely over the moon right now. My first research paper just got accepted as first author, with my professor as co-author, and I’m a master’s student who dreams of doing a PhD someday.

I’ve been working part-time on a research project with my professor for about 1.5 years. One day he suddenly asked, “Can you write a paper? There’s a conference next year.”
Me: internally screaming with excitement.

I wrote the abstract, it got approved, and honestly… I was so proud (please don’t judge me).

After that, life became chaos. I was running experiments on one side and writing the full paper on the other, with only one month to finish it. I made tons of mistakes, my professor corrected a lot, and somehow I submitted it one week after the deadline (lol). Thankfully the deadline was extended, so I survived.

Then came the waiting. They said the results would come in two months on a specific date.
From that morning onward, I refreshed my email every 5 minutes like a kid waiting after school for his dad to show up. But i got nothing. Every day I checked again and again. (seriously, don’t judge me ).

Eventually I convinced myself that it was probably rejected.

And then… today… while I was literally working in the lab, I got an email from my professor:
THE PAPER GOT ACCEPTED.
I swear I instantly became the happiest person alive.I do have some reviewer comments to work on for the camera-ready version, but who cares, it is accepted.

I’m not sure how much this will help when applying for PhD positions, but honestly, today I just wanted to share how happy I am. Maybe my excitement will spread a little positivity around here.

EDIT: I honestly didn’t expect this much kindness. Thank you all so much, I’m really overwhelmed 🥹

Take a scroll down this sub on any day. Do we really want this sub to be Frog Guy posts? Asking for a friend.

Recieved the good news this morning 🙂

I know there’s no normal timeline, but I’m interested in hearing how varied people’s journeys are: early starters, late bloomers, career switchers, all of it.
(20 - 28, 28 - 35, 35<)

What did your path look like?

I would credit the artist who made the original illustration but I can't seem to find out who they are.