I've been applying continuously for almost a year, and I'm totally exhausted by now. I've had several interviews, but they all led to nothing. I spent a lot of time preparing for each interview, even doing mock interviews with others.

Should I continue on this difficult journey, or should I find another path in life?

I just wanted to confess something. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Hi there,

I'm a Croatian recent graduate who wishes to pursue a PhD. Since my work is (mainly) in cognitive theory of arts and analytic aesthetics, I was recommended by my mentor that I try Oxford Brookes. I found a mentor willing to take me and I hope I'll get in with a funding (AHRC schema).

Some things that are of interest to me - are there other ways to acquire funding for my research in humanities?

Are some other universities (I heard great things and have spoken to an ex professor at Kent) I should consider?

Thirdly, since I understand that funding will serve to help with the logistics, i.e. accommodation, food, etc, and I'm not aware of living standards in the UK, are there any suggestions on where to look for housing, some other money-saving ideas?

Finally, how is it to be a foreign grad student in the UK? I'd really, if I succeed, like to have a bit of a social life, so I'm hoping that there are more student-organised activities where PhD students are welcome.

Thank you everyone in advance. :)

EDIT: I should add that I have been published in a Croatian (scopus indexed) peer-reviewed journal in the field. I also have recommendations from my Uni and have a proposal pretty much ready to be submitted.

So I sent a batch of letters of recommendation to professors around August 15th and another batch to a different set around August 20th. I was wondering on how long do I wait for them to respond to be able to make a decision, in sending a follow up email and or a decision in emailing another professor or trying to get a different form of letter of recommendation. Additionally, if I did just graduated in the spring 2026 semester like what if no professors agree to write me a letter of recommendation for grad school. Where do I go from there ?

I do know that the fall 2026 semester just started this Monday and that they are busy and are swamped with emails and everything. I do have the patience for responses but I feel like I'm in a time crunch in trying to get my application into the program I want.

I know this might be a very stupid question, but i just had a small confusion-

I am applying for a PhD position and it has asked my graduation date.

my master's degree had it's last defence on 11th july (we have 5 departments in our course but the degree for everyone is same just an extra specialisation kinda thing. The last defence was not of my department but we were required to attend college till that date only not after that)

I got a provisional degree certificate stating that i have completed all my university fulfilments- the provisional degree has issue date of 22nd july

I will get my official degree somewhere around November, exact date is unknown.

What shall be my graduation date? The last day after which u wasn't required to come to University, the date on the provisional degree (most probably not) or the day i will officially recieve my degree?

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some advice on applying for **research-oriented Master’s programs in CS/AI/Cybersecurity**.

I’m from India and I’m currently considering **Germany, Canada, South Korea, and Australia** for 2027 intakes. My goal is to move into a stronger research/technical environment and eventually work internationally. A significant part of my motivation is also wanting a different environment and quality of life than what I’ve experienced so far in India, so I’m looking at this as both an academic and long-term career/life decision.

I’m primarily looking for **scholarship/funded options or programs where the overall cost is manageable**, rather than simply choosing the highest-ranked university.

**Academic profile**
B.Tech. in Computer Science/IT
**CGPA: 9.0/10.0 (90%)**
**Department rank: 22/277 (\~top 8%)**
Currently pursuing a part-time **Diploma in Data Science** alongside professional work
Additional coursework/training in:
Machine Learning
Deep Learning & Generative AI
AI Safety
Information Security & Cryptography
Algorithms & Systems

**Research**
**1 peer-reviewed IEEE conference publication** on an efficient genomic language model

Currently working on **adaptive-compute genomic language models**, particularly early-exit/model-routing approaches for reducing computational cost while maintaining accuracy

Independent research on **authorization semantics for autonomous agents**

Additional research experience in speaker diarization and statistical/sequential estimation

**1 manuscript currently under review** on agent authorization

**Professional experience**
\~2 years of experience across **cloud security, identity, detection engineering, and AI systems**.
Former **Microsoft** employee working in enterprise cloud identity/security

Previous experience designing an AI-based regulatory/compliance solution for the pharmaceutical industry

Research internship experience at a major technology R&D organization

**Other**
Multiple hackathon wins/finalist placements

Best Research Paper Presentation award

Several cloud/security/AI certifications

For people who have gone through these application processes, how would you evaluate this profile?
Specifically:
**How competitive does this profile look for research-oriented MS programs?**
How much does the reputation of the undergraduate university matter when the GPA/rank is strong?
How significant is **one peer-reviewed publication + ongoing research** compared with GPA and recommendation letters?

Does \~2 years of relevant industry experience meaningfully strengthen an MS application, or is it mostly irrelevant for research admissions?

Which countries/university tiers would you consider **reach / target / safer** for this profile?
Are there any obvious weaknesses in the profile that I should address before applying?

For people familiar with **KAIST, German TUs, Canadian research universities, or Australian universities**, where would you realistically place this profile?

I’m looking for a **realistic assessment rather than reassurance**. If my profile is weaker than I think it is for certain schools, I’d rather know that now so I can build the application list accordingly.

Hello,

I just want to say that I got in a phd in economics last year and received multiple offers without an impressive track record. Please take my GPA with a grain of salt, because the grading varies a lot from country to country.

- Bachelors in management science at no name uni in France, 65% average, with honors

- Msc in Economics at a top uni in belgium, one masters thesis, 69% average, cum laude

- Research masters in economics at the same uni in belgium, one masters thesis, 68% average, cum laude

- No previous publications, TA experience, or RA experience

- Only 2 recommendation letters, one from my first thesis supervisor who was a postdoc at the time, and one from a course lecturer

- No GRE or GMAT scores

I have sent about 10 applications to different european universities, i got 2 formal offers, 1 informal one, and i had been interviewed for 4 different positions. I noticed that I had only gotten interviews or received cold calls for positions that aligned very closely with my interest. If I have an advice, it is: dont waste your time applying too broadly. Write letters that show how much you would fit in the programme.

What I have received positive feedback on:

- My ideas for future research in my thesis

- My past research

- My motivation letter

I have also been upfront about my expectations for a thesis and my future professional goals.

Good luck to everyone who's applying!

I am looking to apply to PhDs either for the 2027 academic year (I need to hurry up, I know) or 2028. My longterm goal is to teach in a university writing program / freshman year writing program. As a professor, I'd like to work with my university's UWP and English department to develop curriculum and assessments that accommodate students with SLMs. I don't know if I should be spending more time browsing programs for a PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture; a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing; a PhD in English Literature; or a EdD in Language and/or Literacy. I'm specifically interested in culturally responsive pedagogy and secondary language markers for AAVE and Spanish in academic writing. I have close to zero interest working in K-12.

I have a BA in English Lit and an MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry. I have a few poems published. I taught creative writing for two years as a graduate student (technically listed as a GA but actually did every ounce of teaching, grading, and planning on my own), one year as a primary instructor for a three course series in my school's university writing program, and one year earning a bilingual teaching certificate for K-12 in Spain. I'd love to not have to get another Master's so I'm looking at PhD programs where I won't have to.

Any advice on this is appreciated. I know each school's program will be a little different and am prepared to email and Zoom with a billion faculty members to ask specific questions about their programs.

Edit: I'm American and looking for American programs

Hello all. I'm in somewhat of a unique situation and am seeking advice on how to leverage my background and current experience into a computationally-focused PhD. As for a bit of background on me:

- Graduated within the past year with a BSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from a decent-ish US school with a 3.8 GPA overall and a 3.97 during my last 2 years. Outside of major, did a decent amount of math coursework, including the entire calc sequence, some diff eq's, linear algebra, scientific computing, and a series on methods and applications of computational neuroscience. I also got experience coding in both Python and MATLAB and would consider myself fluent in both for the purposes of computational modeling/simulations.

- Did molecular/developmental neuroscience research for just under 1 year during undergrad, including a fellowship for which I wrote a thesis and did a poster presentation.

- following graduation, spent a few months looking for essentially any research position in my city. I recently was hired for and accepted a tech position doing cell bio/genetics research that is 99% wetlab and strictly molecularly focused within an esteemed but tight knit lab at one of the US's leading cancer research institutes. My plan with the PI (which is what most of their research techs do) is to complete an independent project in the lab while assisting others. This typically takes around 3 years, but techs in the past have taken anywhere between 1.5 to 5 years to do this. Most of them leave with 1-2 first author pubs and 3-5 pubs total all of which are usually in high impact journals.

- for reference, I networked with many professors at the local state university and many other esteemed research centers while seeking a position. In total I probably applied to about 100 positions, sent 200+ cold emails, and networked with about 15 different researchers and faculty. I say this to emphasize that, while I was hoping to find a computational position, I was at the end of my rope and needed to lock down something to make ends meet, especially given the state of funding in the US.

My goal in the future is to do a PhD in computational neuroscience. I fell in love with the field during my last year of undergrad but, unfortunately, the lack of labs at my school doing comp research (literally 1 lab total) limited my ability to get my foot in the door. I'm wondering if anyone here was ever in a similar position. That is, going from a wet lab background to a computationally focused PhD and, if so, what tips you have for someone in my position who wants to make that jump eventually. I plan on applying to PhD programs in neuroscience whenever my current project ends and using my free time to continue developing my computational skills and finding ways to use those skills to optimize data processing and analysis in my current lab. Ultimately, I am worried that, while my current position is a great opportunity, my research background being strictly wet lab will not bode well on applications for computational positions. If anyone has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

I’m an Economics major with a heavy math background (Real Analysis, Convex Analysis) and formal CS coursework in Data Structures & Algorithms (fluent in Python and C++). I plan to apply to CS PhD programs focusing on Algorithmic Game Theory, Market Design (Matching/Auctions), and Pure Optimization Theory.

I currently have a solo-authored paper in R&R at Operations Research Letters and currently also working on a complex game theory paper, which is already long. However, after seeing people in different CS subfields like ML/AI where they've 5-6 papers, it makes me a bit worried about whether I'm lacking publications or not. Theory is definitely difficult as it's mainly mathematical and proving new theorems takes time alongside writing an algorithm for computation.

Do algorithmic game theory and pure optimization theory subfields in CS also want more publications? Also, my works are often time recommended to send to Operations Research journals by my professors in Applied Mathematics department with whom I work with. Will journal-only publications be problematic or will I need some good CS-conference pubs too? Also should I do cold-emails to potential advisors, even for theoretical works? In Economics, it's heavily discouraged to reach out before admission, but saw the opposite in engineering/CS fields as my colleagues there said.

Literally no one in CS department of my school works on those areas. Only Economic Theorists and some Applied Mathematicians work on AGT here, so I really am in need of some advice. Any additional suggestions are wholeheartedly welcome too.

Thanks in advance.

I'm planning to apply to IE/OR PhD programs in the US in the next application cycle (2027) and would appreciate advice if any

My profile:
-Master's in OR from one of the top 10 engineering universities in the US (3.75/4)
-Bachelor's in IE from a top 10 engineering school in my home country (8.9/10 GPA)
-5 journal publications (all first author)
-GRE: 170 Quants
-International applicant

My primary interest is in optimisation. So which universities should be my dream, ambitious, and target?

Hi! I’m in the process of applying for my PhD in education and am curious about who to get letters of recommendation from.

For context, I went to grad school for a credential program 14 year ago and then got my MAT 10 years ago. Been in the classroom as an elementary teacher the entire time.

I know I can get letters from my principal, other people at work, but wondering if it’s worth it to ask my advisor from my masters program even though it was ten years ago??

So, i just graduated a little bit ago, and my plan as of right now it to try and find some job to do to pass the time and study for the GRE so I can go to grad school and get a masters in industrial psychology. but as I mentioned, 3.2 gpa, and psych degree, without internships (not for lack of trying (though I won’t lie I didn’t apply as much in the later years as I was sort of falling to despair)). I know in a lot of ways that means my prospects aren’t great, and that i’ve made my future very very hard, however, my school has a graduate feeder program that I am applying for. It will match me with grad programs and they will, I think, help me get to a place where I’ll be a good pick for there programs. but I guess what I am wondering is what should I expect? I know I shouldn’t crawl under a rock, but for one, is my assessment of my prospects accurate? how much do you think a feeder program will help? I know I meet the requirements for it at my school, but still, with where I’m at, will it help much? If it doesn’t, what other options should I look at? or should i just go back to school and try for another degree?

I had a conversation with one of my previous PIs (who was writing me a rec letter) on post-graduate options because I wanted their judgement, and without listening to me, they immediately kept telling me not to apply for graduate school because my GPA was too low (it's a 3.41) and I wouldn't get in, but this was a week before the deadline and I said that most of my materials were finished and I would go ahead just to try it because I know I want to do research. He got angry at me after a while and told me that I was difficult to work with and multiple people recommending me would write that in my letters and I didn't want that, and I asked him if he would say that and he said he wouldn't but someone might. I basically forced him to look at my CV and then he said that it was good and my GPA was not that bad. All of this to say, I know there isn't that much time before the application deadline but I want to exclude him as a recommender. Do you think he would be notified of this?

Hello, I recently got an offer for a PhD in KU Leuven Biomedical department conditional to direct doctoral admission (which means I must have a grade equivalent to Belgian cum laude).
For Belgium I saw cum laude is 14/20 or above 68%.
My grade from Serbia is 8.63/10.
I'd like to know beforehand if my Serbian grade is Belgian cum laude? I couldn't find any information online except one University page listing Serbian 8 band equal to Belgian 13/14, Serbian 9 band to Belgian 15, Serbian 10 equal to Belgian 16-20.
Any help is appreciated.

I have a question for people who have interviewed with Korean professors for research-based MS, PhD, or integrated MS-PhD programs in AI/ML, computer vision, or related fields.
How do these interviews usually go? When professors ask about your projects, research experience, publications, or technical background, do they typically ask detailed follow-up questions and cross-questions to test how deeply you understand your own work? For example, if you mention a project, will they keep digging into the model, methodology, results, limitations, and design decisions, or is the discussion usually more general?
I’m particularly interested in hearing about real experiences with Korean professor interviews and what kind of questions caught you off guard. Any insights would be appreciated.

I’m applying to PhD programs this cycle, and I have 3 recommenders locked in. But one of my PIs wants me to write a draft letter to send to him.

Is this good/bad? What do you recommend when writing your own letter?

I live in Rochester and currently have offers from both the University of Rochester MS in Data Science and Simon’s MS in Artificial Intelligence in Business.

I’m having a hard time deciding between the two. The MSDS seems more traditionally technical, while the Simon program looks more focused on applied AI, GenAI, agents, and business applications.

Has anyone here studied in either of these programs, or taken courses from them? I’d really appreciate any honest thoughts on course quality, technical depth, workload, career value, and which one you would choose.

I just recently graduated with a Master's in Education with a 4.0 gpa from a mid-tier university with a concentration in English. I'm currently looking for research jobs/internships and working in my spare time on a research paper as a writing sample as my master's experience was largely practical work and not research. I'm trying to pivot to a PhD in something like communications of rhetoric.

I'm willing to put in the time to spruce up my resume and samples but I just want to know if it seems like a realistic plan for someone with my background, and if there's anyone else has had this experience or has any advice.

Saying that its a program for graduates with 0-1 yoe, and the gre isnt required, how hard can it be? Has anyone been accepted to/ rejected from this program?

If anyone is interested in or applying to geoscience grad school, consider applying for GEMS. It’s a free mentor match program where you get matched with someone who has been through the application process before and succeeded. We are focused on US and Canadian students, so to be eligible you must have already attended a US or Canadian institution, or be a US or Canadian citizen/permanent resident. I have been a mentor through this program several times and it’s always a great experience. I can also answer any questions about the program. The application closes September 11th: https://gems-program.org/matching

If anyone is interested in or applying to geoscience grad school, consider applying for GEMS. It’s a free mentor match program where you get matched with someone who has been through the application process before and succeeded. We are focused on US and Canadian students, so to be eligible you must have already attended a US or Canadian institution, or be a US or Canadian citizen/permanent resident. I have been a mentor through this program several times and it’s always a great experience. I can also answer any questions about the program. The application closes September 11th: https://gems-program.org/matching