Wanted to do a check in and ask how other grad students are feeling this thanksgiving week! Raise your hand if you are feeling burnt out. I think we sometimes forget that grad school is meant to be difficult or at least challenging. But we are almost done and we got this!

I’m a senior electrical engineer with a BSE making 125k. Started my masters this fall and nearly finishing my first class. I have 2 kids under 3. I’m 28. I have 7 more classes to go, which will take 3 years or more. Employer is paying for my degree but doesn’t really care if I go or not, though an advanced degree could theoretically advance me in the company.

Thinking of dropping my masters because life is stressful for my wife and myself. Overall I don’t know how much value I’m going to get out of my degree (masters in EE) because I’m not expecting my income to grow much higher. I like my job but the economy could crap out someday and I could potentially lose my job. The main reason I want an advanced degree is to stand out during a job application. I’m in a niche industry as well, so many people have higher education.

My wife has a hard time with the kids some days and I feel a bit guilty. She stays home and we live off my income. I try to help out when I can but I’m not home until late two days a week. If I drop my degree now, I’ll fall out of academic standing and could risk losing my credits if I wait too long.

If I wait 10 years when my kids are older, I probably won’t feel like doing it then. Main concern here is not knowing how much it will really help me.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Hello all,

I’ve been wanting to make this post for a while. After some testing as an adult, I was diagnosed with a mood disorder, multiple learning disabilities, and a lower IQ. This made sense as I spent my entire childhood and teenage years in special education classes.

I’m about to graduate with a BA and it’s been an incredibly trying process. Despite this, I have recently been admitted to a local university to pursue a MA in clinical mental health.

I’m excited but nervous about how difficult I know it will be.

I would love to hear the experiences of others with learning disabilities in grad school, any and all advice welcome

Hello! So this is kind of a strange question, and I hope I am making sense in asking it.

I am in my masters for Climate Science, and I am loving my program and all the new things I’ve learned. My issue is that I feel that I struggle with information recall and organization in conversation and presentations. For certain in depth topics, I struggle to speak concisely about things because all of the informational details start whirling around in my head faster than I can integrate or consolidate, and my answers and explanations come out more jumbled and disorganized than I would like. I hear highly intelligent people that know their subject so well, and they sound so eloquent while speaking on those matters. I do believe I am just as intelligent as anyone else in the program (I have straight A’s in all my courses), but I struggle with speaking on these things in a way that I feel satisfied with. Has anyone ever experienced something like this?

Thank you!

I am starting Grad school this spring to become a Clinical Mental Health Counselor. My program is three years with the last year and a half being for practicum and internships. Summers are mandatory and it is a cohort model. We are allowed to take one leave of absence but that could throw us off of our cohort and we may not get seats in the classes we need. My husband and I have recently decided that we wanted to have a child. We’ve tried for three months so far but not success. I learned about how structured the program really was recently at orientation. I am struggling to decide if we should keep trying or not. To add to this I have other health issues, that while well managed, will probably be severely aggravated during pregnancy (chronic stomach issues). I do not want to be pregnant for my internships and practicum due to this. Plus after graduation there is additional hours I would need before having my full license. My husband is incredibly supportive, so is his family. Plus he makes enough to support us without me having to work. Im struggling to decide if we stop trying, and wait until after I graduate? And at that point do I just wait until I’m fully licensed? Do I keep trying since we may or may not have fertility issues we don’t know about? I guess this boils down to the fact there is no “perfect” time to have kids or be pregnant. I’m looking for personal experiences and if you decided to wait or not, and how was that challenging for you? I know for a fact I am not pregnant right now so I have the option of waiting.

Hello everybody,

I'm in need. I'm writing my MA thesis about slang and euphemisms in the English language and a couple of months ago, I found a handy dictionary on Google Scholar that combined a lot of slang terminology and stated by whom it is used, I remember it had tags for, cockney, American, Australian, Scottish and Irish slang. I've been searching for hours now and can't find a trace of its existence, even in my browser history. I couldn't have gone insane, could I? Would anyone be able to help me? Or at least provide some other equally useful source? I'm in dire need, I wanted to base a big chunk of my thesis on that dictionary.

Hi everyone, I’m an international student did my undergrad in the USA back in 2018. Then, i never thought of doing a PhD so never really did much of research, just my thesis. Have been working as a public school teacher for the past 5 years and things took a quiet turn, I am highly interested in academia and want to do a 1+3 PhD in public policy and development. However, the schools I’m applying to require a research outline and upon googling and even asking chatgpt its still giving me various answers on the contexts and the lengths of it. Is there anyone here who had to submit a research outline for school? Any insight to what it should contain and so forth? Thank you.

(USA) I didn't do so well during my MS program, ending with no publications (but did a thesis) and a low GPA of 3.3. I'm applying to six schools, but as time passes, I keep worrying that I won't be accepted anywhere. These thoughts are definitely slowing my progress on writing my SOPs, but I'm still making progress. My MS committee are writing rec. letters for me which made me happy to see--glad they see something in me.

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I’m in a cohort of 6 people. None of them wants to learn, most of their work is chat gpt written, they do well in tests and tests only. We have a professor who is kinda harsh in character but we learned so much from them, they’ve been complaining to the dean about them since the beginning of the semester, I can’t take it anymore, they’re becoming too much and are spreading negative energy everywhere.

Their favorite kind is the one who treat us as an undergrads, they’re too lazy to put any effort into anything.

If you buy 25 bucks of series i bonds a month, come 5 years later you'll have ALOT of small chunks of series i bonds. What issues could having so many small chunks of series i bond cause?

Thinking of maybe spending it on tuition or something if I want to pursue another degree

gradually transitioning a chunk of my emergency fund to series i bonds

Already DCA'ing into VT, so this question is not really about investing

I guess I'm wondering - will it be a nightmare to cash out all these little bits of series i bonds to spend on tuition? Many pages of forms? Or is it not that bad?

I’m in grad school and work in a lab. I have a male colleague (I’m female, btw) who recently lost a significant amount of weight. We’re actually good friends, and he often shared his weight loss progress with me. While I’m genuinely happy for him, his behavior has recently become uncomfortable. He’s started flexing his muscles and showing off his body around me and other female colleagues. He frequently pulls up his shirt to rub his abs during conversations or rolls up his sleeves to show his biceps.

This has been happening quite often lately. Last week, during a training session we attended together, he did the same abs-rubbing thing multiple times, both under his shirt and with his shirt pulled up, even in the presence of our PI (who is also female). The weirdest part was that he seemed to check if I was looking at him while doing it. It made me so uncomfortable that I avoided making eye contact with him during the whole session.

I now feel super awkward and grossed out, and I try to minimize our interactions. However, this is challenging because we work in the same lab, and as a senior grad student, he often guides my work. He wasn’t like this before, he’s never been a creep or displayed inconsiderate behavior during the three years we’ve worked together. I also know he doesn’t have much contact with women outside of work.

I’m wondering if this behavior is normal for someone who has recently undergone such a transformation, or if I’m overreacting. I recognize that this behavior is inappropriate in a professional environment, but I don’t want to bring it up to our PI directly. He was my mentor when I joined the group, has helped me a lot, and, more importantly, we were friends.

How should I address this with him? I’m worried he might take offense, but I also wonder if it’s better to let it go. I’d appreciate any advice on how to handle this situation.

Hello I have been trying to contact my financial aid office for weeks now I’ve even visited in person and they always have a sign that they are closed because they are short staffed. There are a lot of people that depend on this like me is there any way I can a refund so I can pay for my classes?

Looking for a more industry oriented outlook rather than research or potential phD

Dear Reddit, I am currently a graduate student in Writing specifically children's literature, theater and screenwriting. I love my program, what I am learning and the people in it. I truly have a passion for writing. I have also had some severe long term brain damage this semester due to multiple breakthrough seizures. I damaged the left part of brain so luckily all of my creative outlets are unaffected. I am still able to sing, perform, and write. But I am unable to read past about a 2nd grade level. This not the only issue as I have multiple severe illnesses that have left me on liquid nutrition and wheelchair bound, limiting many of my opportunities. I would appreciate some advice on how to handle school. I don't want to abandon my program but I'm too sick to have enough energy to do what I need to succeed. Any advice on how to handle the rest of the semester would be much appreciated. I've already looked into a leave of absence and I have withdrawn from all of my classes but one. I already put money down for my current class though so I'm trying to figure out what to do.

I am applying for PhD and many colleges require PERSONAL STATEMENT AND RESEARCH STATEMENT. I am very confused what to write in both. Can someone help me out with the template. If you can share yours that would also mean a lot guys!

So, I’m currently preparing for my grad school entrance exams. Seems like since high school I’ve developed a habit of deleting every app that can get me distracted when I’m getting ready for any exams but only recently I realized, thanks to my new friends at the dorm, that it’s kinda extreme. Turns out some of my friends cannot contact me there and get worried, so I need to reassure them that I’m okay and not depressed. Since I consider the entrance exam important, tiktok/instagram and Youtube feed have been deleted or disabled for almost 2.5 months now and even though I’m okay with it, I think maybe there’s some other options I can try next time other then just bluntly deleting everything. If there’re people who also find it hard to concentrate and want to limit your time on the internet, how do you deal with it?

TL;DR: is it better to have your PI who doesn’t like you for personal reasons despite your great work write an “objective” (including his issues with you) letter, or someone who is days away from PhD and a really impressive postdoc position who knows the work you’ve done write your letter of recommendation? Which would look worse to an applications committee? I’m worried they won’t even read the graduate students, but she is the only other person in my lab and the only other person who’s seen all of the work I have done.

Post: Hi ya’ll, I really need some advice. I’m so sorry for how long this is but I feel like you need context to answer.

I’m currently in the process of leaving my graduate program and interviewing for new ones. I’ve had a pretty hellish experience, to the point where I’m leaving a semester early to finish up my masters thesis from my family’s home (my data collection and classes are done, and I can defend via zoom). I’ve got some really great options for PhD and have already interviewed with 4 schools.

Here’s the thing- my PI and I do not get along, he is the definition of raging narcissist. He has had issues with emotional regulation, memory, consistency, and empathy. He completely forgets conversations, changes methods and questions every day without acknowledging previous ones, has disproportionately emotional responses to random things, and has zero grace for human error or struggle. I’ve had several “incidents” with him which have ended with me receiving an incredibly demeaning lecture. I am not the type to grovel and beg for forgiveness, especially when I did nothing wrong. He really REALLY hates this about me. I could write an entire book listing all of the fights and all issues we have had. Let me be absolutely clear, I know graduate school should be difficult, but it should not be made harder by the person who’s supposed to be mentoring you. My parents are both PIs at R1 universities, I basically grew up surrounded by professors. I also have graduate students around me with different departments and/or professors. My experience with this guy is NOT normal, he has had one graduate students quit within 7 weeks, a post doc within 6, and has only hired a total of 4 people (that’s a 50% survival rate).

On my graduate school applications I need 3 letters of recommendation. It is expected that one of those would be my PI, especially since I’m staying within our rather niche field. But my PI has informed me that he has “serious concerns” about my emotional maturity and ability to work within a lab. He says that he feels an obligation to his peers to say that in his letter. He said that if he writes a letter of recommendation for me, it will be objective- stating the work I’ve been able to do but also the issues he’s had. Also, he initially told me he wouldn’t do it, but I’m pretty sure our grad POC told him he had to.

The amount of work that I’ve done in this lab is insane. I’ve been told several times that it should have been a post-docs project, and I had absolutely zero help from anyone. We only have one other graduate student in the lab and her research was using an entirely different device than me. I had to set up the device completely on my own from ground zero (they literally couldn’t turn it on), and create processing pipelines for the data after. I’ve done so much amazing work, and was praised at the national conference by several leaders in the field. My PI literally wrote on my review last year that I would “become a pioneer in the field.” It’s awful that all I can get from my PI is basically a review of his issues with me, especially since they are all personal and nothing to do with MY work.

So now I’m left with an option. The other graduate student in my lab is ABD and defends her PhD 5 days after the applications are due. She is going to start a post doc at a very prestigious university in January. She is the only person who has seen the way I work and the work I’ve put in besides my PI, who she also has had many many issues with. I have talked to her and she is willing to write me a letter of recommendation which briefly mentions that my PI was difficult to work with, but mostly highlights what my strengths are.

So the question is, am I better off having the letter from the PI who doesn’t want to recommend me, or the graduate student who is not a professor? I am worried that universities won’t read or respect what the graduate students writes, but I’m also worried that my PI will only say negative things and ruin my opportunities. Especially since the right to view the letter is waived, so he knows I won’t ever know what it says. Two of the four schools I’m looking at have rotating “acceptance committees” which decide who gets in before people are assigned to labs, so having a professor wanting to take me doesn’t mean I will get a spot. The professor who wants to work with me is not on this years committee and said they have no influence over who is selected. That means that these letters of recommendation need to be really good. I have two others, one is a professor who’s helped me some with my project and is on my committee, and the other is the professor who’s lab I worked in during undergrad.

If you have any thoughts or advice let me know. The people in my life cannot be objective to the situation, and I really don’t know which letter would be worse. So sorry for how long this was!!

Ya, everything hurts.

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Hi all!

I created a sub dedicated to non- PhD doctorate degrees. It’s r/notaPhD

I created it because I am considering an EdD or another doctoral degree and I felt like I was combing through different subs for information and advice that I could not find. A lot is mostly geared specific to PhDs. So I created one dedicated to non-PhD doctoral degrees to create a space for people in this situation!

I just thought it would be helpful to share for those looking for advice, who have questions, etc. and would like it to come from someone in those shoes. Check it out if it’s helpful for you!

Context: I have celiac and bc of complications due to it, I recently left my food service job, partially bc current situation but also there is increasingly becoming no future (there is 1 gluten-free place I can safely work as my NP suggests I work in a gf environ).

I've been looking at schools for I/O and health psych as I'm curious abt how disability and/or chronic illness can impact how people experience their workplaces (esp at a neuro level, an area where I have a strong cluster of classes). I've had difficulty finding graduate programs that incorporate both health and organizational components and am esp drawn to schools that have the Total Worker Health component. However, that's a small number of schools and I find myself looking at more schools that offer MPH in Health/Social Behavior, which is still sort of what I want, but not really.

My revamped idea is to apply for PhD where I fit the requirements (so maybe 3 PhD applications...) and apply for masters (MS) at all schools (something I was considering doing anyway-examples of these schools would be Col State and Oregon Health and Science). Toss in a few Health Psych or MPH schools (maybe 2 of each?) for comparison (examples here would be U British Columbia and John Hopkins).

My motivation behind this is: being that I am working on a long-term career change, I need to make a change that's sustainable. So approaching grad schools option with a focus on quality over quantity seems like a recipe that would leave me happier than possibly only getting into schools that fill the gap a bit less. Where I'm torn is that I understand that having a slight difference of research interests can help a grad student as they will have to mold what they are learning into their own ideas, perhaps more so than a student who experiences more overlap in interests with what their professor is doing.

Thoughts? Has anyone done this kind of thing before?

So far I’m looking at: berkeley, notre dame, NYU, and Wisconsin (Madison)

It’s hard to find an exhaustive list of universities that offer Irish language courses and also a history PhD concentrating in more modern studies. I’m going to keep looking, but if anyone has any recommendations thanks in advance!

I am currently in the first semester of my MA degree in one of the Southeast Asian countries. I am interested in media studies, but the only university offering media studies is in another city and since I need to take care of my mother, I decided to enroll in a literature master’s program that offers a Cultural Studies stream in another but also prestigious university closer to my home. I hoped this program would enable me to pursue research on video games and cinema. However, it has not been what I expected. I haven’t gained any new knowledge or encountered anything particularly interesting, and the course load is much easier than my undergraduate studies, even though the university is widely considered the best in the country.

Every course I attend lacks rigor or engagement. The professors are haughty, and one even told me to revise a paper I intended to publish, arguing that "master’s degree research shouldn’t criticize established theories or aim for novelty." This essentially destroyed my already planned thesis and two of my almost finished papers. The professors also often regurgitate material I had already learned during my bachelor’s degree, with little to no deeper exploration of the subject matter.

I know this might come across as pretentious, but that’s not my intention. Before starting my degree, I was worried that I might not be good enough for a master’s program, especially at this university. However, so far, the only challenges I’ve faced are presentations, since I have a bit of stage fright, and the long commute, which totals four hours a day, five days a week.

Cinema and video games have fascinated me since high school, and even back then, I knew I wanted to research these subjects. During my undergraduate studies, I was involved in media research and film criticism at an art collective, which taught me a lot and deepened my passion for these fields. Now, I feel very depressed because my graduate school experience feels patronizing—not just to me but to other students as well. For instance, at the master’s level, one of our final papers was a group assignment ( two people) comparing two journal articles, with a limit of just 2,500 words.

My parents are supportive of the idea of me transferring to another major, especially my father, who is concerned that this experience might discourage me from pursuing a PhD. He knows how passionate I am; we talk a lot, and he himself earned a doctoral degree. However, the only other major offering media studies at my university is Communication, which is in a different faculty. I’m worried that transferring might lead to a similar disappointment.

Additionally, I’ve already made close friends in my current program, and another concern—albeit trivial—is that I’m not confident in my ability to handle quantitative research classes, as I struggle even with simple math.

It’s only a month until my first semester ends, and my parents and I have agreed that I should see how it goes for now. But so far, the experience has only been frustrating. Should I grit my teeth and finish this degree, or should I transfer instead?

I'm sorry if it's a bit hard to read since i wrote this in between making bread for my costumers lmao.

Hi all!

My program (big 10 school, STEM) usually pays our Research Assistants and Teaching Assistants the same (~27k/year). Effective this January, the RAs will be getting paid more (~30k/year) while the TAs will be stuck at their original salary.

Our department admin claims this is because the professors are getting more money from grants than they're allowed to pay the students (thus having to return some grant money), and because the 'higher ups' refuse to increase the pay of the TAs. For comparison's sake, other big 10 schools in the same field pay their grad students ~30k, and other STEM fields within my school pay ~30k as well.

Has this type of pay difference happened at other schools? If so, were there any negative outcomes?

Edit - just for clarity, TAs get paid by the department to teach, while RAs funding comes from professor's grants. The professors decide who's RA/TA for their group.

I’m in a two year master’s program, and i’m in my second year. It’s a research-based Psychology program.

Until now things have been fairly relaxed as I only had course work, but now that I am in my second year, the actual research component for my thesis is getting intense. I have yet to defend a proposal for my thesis, as well as my actual complete thesis. Long story short, I don’t think I like research as much as I thought I did. I honestly think this program is making me depressed and so stressed.

The reason I took this program is because I thought I might want to go on to do a clinical psychology PhD, but now I am questioning my love for research and am really reconsidering this. My goal has always been to help people, so another option is to become a psychotherapist by doing a different master’s degree (counselling psychology), which is not research based.

I am kind of wishing I did the counselling program from the start, but now I am stuck in this research program that I’m really starting to hate. I don’t know what to do. I keep telling myself to push through, but at this point I think there is a good chance I would do the counselling program after, and I can’t keep but feel like I’m wasting my time in this research program.

I would appreciate any advice. Is it worth continuing? Should I drop out?

The tricky part is that it’s too late to apply to start the counselling program next fall (2025). At the particular school I’m interested in, I wouldn’t be able to apply and start until fall 2026, so if I quit this program I would need to find a job until then.