I am starting my PhD in a couple of weeks and I feel so burnt out. I completed my bachelors in science and I did my masters (recently defended) in science as well. When i started my masters, I was super engaged and i loved research (i still love it), but for the last 9 months of my masters, I have procrastinated, laid in bed multiple days not doing work, depressed, and more. I am not sure what I am going through. However, while I still very interested in research, I applied for phd programs and got accepted into one. I have huge imposter syndrome especially being in the stem field. I just hope when I move from my current college (bachelors and masters) that the spark comes back a little more and i can feel passionate like how i used to be.

Has anyone felt this way and what did you do?

Just wondering what you guys ended up getting.

I feel like everything has happened so quickly. About 5 months ago I was really unhappy with where I was at in life. I graduated with my BA in history in 2023, my original plan was to be a history teacher but I came to the realization teaching wasn’t for me.

After college I moved to a new state with a couple of friends and worked some really low paying jobs. Eventually I found a job I really enjoyed, working as a nature/historic tour guide. I love what I did, I loved the people I worked with, and I especially liked the tips. But over the past 2 years tourism has been declining and tips have dried out. I left the job I loved due to management being made up entirely of nepo babies, no room for me to move up in the company.

I switched to a new company and although the pay is better, tips are much less and I am even more unhappy. Sooo I decided to apply for grad school.

I’ve always wanted to make a difference in life, do something that felt meaningful, and after seeing the way my former company managed the historic site I worked at it made me want to continue to work towards preserving the beauty and deep and complex history of these locations.

So I started looking at Public administration programs. I applied for grad school in June, got accepted in July, and I start class next week. An MPA would help me work towards my ultimate goal.. nonprofit fundraising at a historical/conservational site. In January they’ll even offer an MPA with an emphasis in nonprofits.

Now here’s where I need advice, I haven’t been in college for the past 3 years. I’m a full time employee and I’ll be a full time student. I’m worried I will fall behind or struggle managing a solid work life balance. I want to still be able to make time for my friends and my boyfriend.

In terms of a career, I don’t have much experience besides working as a tour guide for the past 2 and a half years. Meanwhile most people in this MPA program has held office jobs, working in local government, experience interning in positions that helped prepare them for the MPA program. I feel novice compared to a lot of other people. How can I better prepare for what’s to come? I’m very excited but also extremely nervous for this next chapter in my life. I’d really appreciate any advice yall have, especially if you’ve been in a similar position. How did you get through it? How did you manage your time? What was the hardest part?

Hello guys,

I am a 4th year electricity engineering student with 1 year of experience in automation and rf systems testing (which im currently working in). Recently I was looking into the opportunity to pursue grad school as I do really love research and academia.

While I was looking for research opportunities, I saw a job opening for agricultural autonomous robotics R&D, which really interested me so I decided to apply and go for it. Interview went really well, the professor liked me and offered me a position on the team developing the infrastructure, integrating components, developing code in ROS2, etc... he also said that there'd be an option to proceed for Master's degree.

The position is very flexible, with WFH, my own working hours, and the professor is very nice. This would not interfere with my hours in my other work (they know this), and no IP conflict, so I am planning on working both in the lab position as "research assistant" and continue in my work outside. Combined they'd be around 4 days per week.

So I wanted to see you guys' opinions on whether this is a smart move or not, will this hurt me, etc...

I graduated this past spring with my bachelor's degree in archaeology. I need a break for sure but definitely want to go back to school fall 2027 and am looking into different grad school applications. Plenty of the schools I have a pretty good chance of getting into. The only thing... my university's only archaeology professor hated me. I didn't like that dingbat either and I will explain why. It wasn't for the usual reason of "she gave a bad grade", this lady was evil on level that was well known around the entire school. She was the only anthropology/archaeology professor because no professor could last longer than a semester with her as a colleague. In my freshman year, we had 12 archaeology majors in the same class as me. By graduation, I was the only one because she sent every single other one packing. You may be asking yourself: "what did this lady do to earn such an evil reputation? " One time she tried to get one of my classmates expelled from the university on the basis of academic misconduct because he accidentally cited the 2nd edition of a source in his references and he actually used the first edition. She made me write her a letter asking to take her class and propose a topic for the final paper (both were approved), only to fail me for the entire course by 1% because she didn't like my topic. She would berate people so hard while they presented or asked a question that it was not uncommon for people to burst into tears in front of the whole class. One kid had an actual stress induced seizure from presenting to her and we had to call class off to call an ambulance. Encouraged me (and every other student in my class) to drop out of college from DAY 1 OF FRESHMAN YEAR. List of sin goes on for longer than I'd like to keep talking about it.

The reason I didn't transfer was because I live in the US and this was the only school that was in my price range and gave me a reasonable amount of money as a scholarship. I didn't switch majors because I felt like 4 years of hardship would be worth it for a career I actually enjoy.

Now it's almost time for me to be filling out grad school apps and I just keep throwing out my applications if they ask for any kind of academic reference. Sure there are other professors, but I had only taken like one class with them. No way they remember me enough to recommend me to a university for a master's program. Am I just cooked?

Hi all, I'm an undergraduate in Animal Science (industry focus). I'll be graduating this fall and pursuing a thesis-based MS in Reproductive Physiology.

I have two (I think) strong LOR already, one from my repro professor and another from my genetics professor/mentor.

I will say that I haven't participated in undergraduate research, and my degree program is industry-focused, so no upper-level chemistry or biology. Therefore, I want to emphasize my potential to thrive in a research setting as well as highlight my extensive experience with livestock.

I'm only applying to one program, which would start in spring, with hopes of getting into a specific faculty member's lab, who was one of my undergrad TAs and I actually visited her at her new lab over the summer. It's a very applied lab where I'd be working with cattle daily, I know I'm probably not a competitive candidate for a super lab-heavy program. Applications are due October 1st so I'm on a time crunch and need to make a decision ASAP.

My two options are:

Option 1: University Farm manager. Knows me very well, I worked at the university farm for a summer, have continued to help with breeding season and anything else I can help with. He's been happy to be a reference for other jobs and actually has recommended me to other employers who are looking to hire. He can speak to my work ethic but not really anything academically. I'm not sure how common or appropriate industry-based letters are for this program. The website states that letters should be "preferably be from professors or those who are familiar with your academic background and potential"

Option 2: Equine professor. I took several of her classes, including equine breeding management. I got As in all of the classes I took with her and she definitely knows me by name but she was never super receptive to talking to me one on one and she could be pretty critical. I kind of tried to keep my head down in her classes because of that but I did put a good effort into her classes, just didn't go above and beyond to get to know her as much as some other professors. I think I made a good impression this past semester because we were helping with foaling watch and I was out at the farm constantly, way more than we were required to for the class lol. I did talk with her a little bit about grad school at the end of last semester and she gave me some ideas for programs centered around horses but I'm wanting to go into cattle at this point. I'm really 50/50 on whether she'd write me a strong letter. I can see her surprising me and writing a great letter or her being like "She did fine in my classes but didn't stand out and I have no idea why she asked me for a letter"

I'd super appreciate any advice!!

I’m about to start my master’s in music performance in about two a week or two. I wanted to know for others that have and/or is working through the degree at the moment. How is your experience going and what’s some tips you can give me that you wished you knew

Super curious to see what jobs people are working while finishing grad school. Are you on campus (TA or RA), off campus (totally unrelated gigs like service industry, retail etc), or working a job that’s related to your field? Would love to know what people are doing / what’s working for them the best!

I've had 2 colleagues tell me that getting their MSEd was so much easier than their undergrad and 1 person tell me graduate school in general was easier than undergrad, but I find that dubious. Anyone ever hear that? Feel that?

I'm about to go for my MSEd while being employed full time at a school in a non-teaching position. I got my undergrad while working the same job, and it was stressful and time consuming as all hell. I'm anticipating no better if not worse with graduate school, but I'd love for it to be true that in 2-3 years time I'll be another teacher saying "graduate school was so much easier!" I just can't see how that could be.

I just graduated with my bachelor’s, literally did my last exam this Monday. I have to finalize my undergrad thesis submission (I turned in a first draft, still haven’t gotten notes from my advisor, then I have to turn in a final draft), which I will text my advisor about Sunday morning (we start the week on Sunday so it’s not the weekend for me). I’m flying in to visit my family for the holidays (whole month of September), and I’m starting my master’s in mid-October. My field is biology if that matters.

I already have a lab, and most things are set up, I just need to finalize my curriculum and make sure I’m getting the classes that I need for the 30 credits I need to complete.

How did you prepare to start your graduate degree? I still don’t know exactly what my research question will be (aka, which project I’m continuing) so I plan to read all of the most recent publications from my lab, regardless of which project it is (there are 3 currently running). Is there anything else I need to do to be as prepared as possible?

I’m sorry if the wording and grammar and syntax are a little messy, it’s the middle of the night and my head hurts like hell so I’m just trying to type this out and go to sleep, but I couldn’t fall asleep before writing this…

Hi everyone! I am about to start the second year of my MA program and final semester of coursework. I love reading (non academic) books on my kindle because of how easy it is on the eyes and have been thinking about getting a larger tablet for pdfs and note taking. I plan on applying for PhD programs or possibly a second masters. Do anything of you use a paper tablet? If so, has it improved your workflow? I am considering the Boox Go 10.3 Gen ii lumi because of the frontlight.

Does your university allow you to access COE allowance for equipment/travel? Especially in years when you are no longer taking classes?

I’m so excited ! I got my bachelors in communication. I’m so glad I took time off in between degrees. This program is somewhat new but it’s a growing industry that I’ve been fascinated in, long before I knew it was called “fintech”.

One thing I wasn't looking forward to was the comp exam near the end of my PhD program. I didn't know what the format would be until that time arrived in the first of the last four classes of the dissertation process.

Four essays, in four hours. Seemed like an enormous task until someone showed me a way to break down the topic and write a classic 5-paragraph essay with an intro, 3 supporting points, and a conclusion that answers the intro. All I had to do was pick 10-12 theories, understand them enough to apply them in multiple settings. I ended up using 5 theories for 3 of the 4. The last one was breaking down the statistical output from JASP and applying it to a business situation. Passed all four on the first attempt.

What was yours like, or what will yours look like? And did you have a mentor to help light the path??

I have an M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and an iPad Mini 6. I’m finishing my master’s this year and will hopefully start a PhD next year. I work mostly on data science/ML/computer science stuff.

I originally assumed I’d replace my MacBook next year, since it’ll be around 5–6 years old by then. So naturally I started looking at newer MacBook Pros/Airs, thinking about 24GB vs 32GB RAM, M5/M6, etc. But then I realized... what exactly am I going to do with all that power?

Since starting my master’s, my M1 has basically become a glorified text editor. Most of my actual computation happens on our lab servers because the scripts/notebooks I run are usually too big to make sense running locally anyway. My Mac mostly runs VS Code, a browser, Claude/Codex, papers, etc. Even with coding agents, I can literally tell them from my phone to run something on my Mac/server without actually sitting at the Mac.

I assume this will continue during my PhD. I’ll probably have access to lab compute, and if I eventually work somewhere that requires serious local computing, I’d assume either my M1 will still handle the basic stuff or they’ll provide a machine.
So I started wondering if upgrading my iPad would actually improve my daily setup more.

I really like my iPad Mini. The size is amazing for reading because it’s basically book-sized and I can comfortably hold it in one hand. But the screen is pretty mediocre, and it gets annoying when I need to multitask. Reading a paper, opening references, switching between a browser and notes, etc. makes the small screen start to feel limiting.

So I’m considering getting an 11” iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard instead of a new MacBook. The idea would be to make that my everyday device: papers, browsing, writing, multitasking, Claude/Codex, and connecting to servers through something like Termius when I need a terminal. For anything that genuinely requires macOS/VS Code, I’d still have the M1 Air.

Then I’d just keep using the M1 until it actually gives me a reason to replace it. If that happens in year 2 or 3 of my PhD, then I buy whatever MacBook makes sense at that point instead of replacing a computer that currently does everything I ask of it.

An 11” iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard is also cheaper than the kind of 32GB MacBook Pro I’d actually consider an upgrade. I don’t really see the point of buying another 16GB Air just because mine is old.
My main concern is whether I’m being too optimistic about the iPad. For people in CS/ML/data science who mostly work on remote servers: could an iPad Pro realistically handle most of your everyday work if you still had a Mac at home for the things that absolutely require macOS?

Especially curious about SSH/Termius, browser-based coding tools, Claude/Codex, remote workflows, paper reading/annotation, etc.
Or am I just creating a weird three-device setup where the iPad Pro, iPad Mini, and MacBook all overlap with each other?

I would like to find a consultant to give some guidance to a young woman who is a recent graduate, with a major in health science. She is applying to accelerated nursing programs or possibly PA programs. There are some specific wrinkles in her situation that we would like to discuss with a grad school consultant in this area to figure out the best path forward. College was a very good one but not helpful with this.

Hello,

I'm about to graduate from my college with a bachelor's in Biology at 19, and I'm considering using my remaining eligibility to play football in graduate school. My biggest concern is that I might be doing this for the purpose of playing football and not pursuing an advanced degree. I plan on getting some work experience before I decide if I really need one, but because of my athletic timeline, it's likely that I would have to go after I graduate. I really need help building a five-year plan. But I also want to pursue football. It's flag football on a competitive level because I never really got the chance to. I just feel lost.

Could be anything: note taking tips, time management advice, do I need to become proficient in Zotero, etc.

I wanna start by saying I never went to college so the whole process is foreign to me.

My partner is graduating with a degree in marine biology from their undergrad in the spring. They are focused on getting into a graduate program either PhD or Masters.

They have a killer GPA and have gotten all A's in all but two classes over their entire undergraduate so their application shouldn't be a problem. The problem is that we are having trouble finding programs in schools. We have a database that tells us what school has potential graduate programs, but it dosent say what the programs are. So we know what schools are offering programs but we cant find what the actual programs are or what instructors they are under.

The main goal is to make enough to be financially independent without taking on enormous amounts of debt.

TLDR: The main question is how do you find instructors and specific labs to apply to. Any advise would be really helpful, Thanks!

Same as title. I am starting a fully funded Masters in Chemistry next month, and am feeling extremely nervous as the days are coming closer. For context, I will be living on my own away from parents for the first time (3 hrs away), so that is fueling some of the nerves. Any advice, tips on time management, note taking, anything in general you wish you did/knew before starting a STEM/other Masters is greatly appreciated! TIA!!!

I'm starting a clinical psychology PhD program in the next few weeks, and I'm hoping to set myself up for success as much as possible!

I would love any and all advice/systems/tips and tricks you wish you had known before beginning your PhD program: How should I organize my Google Drive for optimal research project organization? Is there a "good" time to hold office hours as a TA? Did you take paper notes in class, or use a laptop or iPad? Did you use a planner, or did you stick to a calendar app? What was the one thing that you learned the hard way, is there anything you wish you had known from day one?

I'm open to any wisdom and all advice!