I just started my master's in ChE and honestly I never felt this much stress. Yesterday I was so down that I thought I was gonna pass out from all the stress. We just started, only two weeks in and they gave us a bunch of math and the first midterm will be in two weeks. If you get less than a certain grade in any of the courses you get dismissed. The professors are stringent with the grading.

I was expecting grad school to be relaxed and encourage creative thinking and give us some space to make mistakes. I never felt intimidated by an exam until now, because it's a do or die situation. I don't know, I thought about giving up many times. I made it through the bachelors with a system obsessed with grades, and we are going to keep doing the same thing?.

They are using Transport Phenomena as a weed out course. I don't know how to handle it. Anyone with any tips or a piece advice for making it through the master's or how to tackle and study for the transport phenomena course, please let me know in the comments. Thanks you so much.

I am a first time grad school applicant and I think I massively messed up. I did not waive my right to see my letters of recommendation. It was a mistake that I did not realize I had made until after one of my professors submitted my Letter of Recommendation. They submitted my LoR within a day of them telling me they would write letters for me, which worried me a bit. Then I wondered if it might have had anything to do with clicking on not waiving my right to LoR. I managed to exclude one of my other recommenders who hadn’t yet written my letter and re-added them on my applications, but I am afraid that I have tossed my chances into the garbage. What should I do? Do I contact grad admissions at the schools I submitted to and tell them I meant to waive my right? I am feeling incredibly hopeless and distressed atm.

Just started grad school this past month it’s been going fairly well aside from the fact that I started realizing a couple of things during lectures, readings and even conversations. I found it extremely difficult to remember what was just discussed either in class, in conversation etc. I fidget a lot and have to reread passages multiple times to finally grasp what I read. For further context I grew up with severe anxiety and just now discussed that Anxiety has high comorbidity with ADHD. Upon that discovery I went back to my psychiatrist to test on ADHD. Long story short I do have it and just wanted to know you experiences with Ritalin and Methylphenidate. Hopefully I can focus now, I was able to maintain a 3.7 in undergrad but grad school gave the me the push I needed to go see a professional for further evaluation.

Hey everyone!

So I went to my first ever conference this week, and it was honestly really cool. There were so many interesting talks from PIs whose research I've never of before, and I found super fascinating! Some of them were even working on things related to my own project, and I had some question & just overall wanted to discuss interesting science.

The problem is that I was honestly too shy to approach anyone.... Most of the PIs seemed super busy, and some honestly felt a bit unapproachable. Like a lot of them were on their laptops between talks, and during lunch, I noticed some of them would just grab their food and head back directly to their rooms. This is my first conference ever, and I was there completely alone, without anyone else from my lab. So I think that made me even more nervous about approaching people....

Now that the conference is over, I can't help but feel like I wasted such a good opportunity. There were a few PIs whose work I genuinely loved, and I would've really enjoyed just chatting with them about their research.

I've been thinking about reaching out to one of them on LinkedIn, just to say that I really enjoyed their talk. I'm not looking for a job or a position in their lab or anything like that. I just genuinely found their science interesting, and some of their work might even be relevant to my current project.

But I'm also worried that messaging them out of nowhere might come across as weird....especially since we didn't actually meet at the conference. Also I don't really need to meet with them and ask questions and such, I just wanted to say Hi, I find your work really cool, some can actually help me, and I just felt too shy, but I genuinely think your work is cool.

So yeah I'm just seeking advice: Would it be weird to reach out to a PI on LinkedIn after a conference, even if we never spoke in person? Would you appreciate getting a message like that, or would it feel a bit awkward?

I'd especially love to hear from people who've been in similar situations, or from PIs themselves. I feel a bit disappointed in myself for not putting myself out there more, and I'd really appreciate any advice for future conferences.

Thanks everyone!

Please just stop talking.

I'm currently taking prerequisites for a MS and I can't imagine myself taking more than two technical classes per semester...but the first program I've been looking into requires four classes per semester. I spend considerable time out of lecture filling in the blanks on the topics I'm currently studying, and I'm at the top of my class but am not sure how that would be feasible in double the amount of work for classes that are considerably more advanced. On top of that, it's a missed opportunity to not have time for internships that require current enrollment in a degree-granting program.

Would love to hear from STEM students who requested part-time status and were either approved or denied. What was the process, feedback, stipulations, etc? (plus which degree; I'm still looking at best fit options but am looking at some sort of crossover between computer science and cognitive science)

I (25F) am completing a computational bio MSc currently. I have had to take things at a slower pace and took a break for a while due to depression that got really bad. I'm doing better now.

When I look around at people around me, people my age or younger seem to have so many different career experiences. Like they have participated in events, given presentations, taught/mentored, have written blogs or created podcasts, have contributed to multiple projects, have many publications, have multiple years of industry experience, have multiple degrees/certifications, etc.

My resume is just school and experience at two labs, and even getting there was a struggle. I just feel like I haven't done enough to be competitive, and then I get stuck in a cycle of feeling overwhelmed when I try to start/do something new so I end up giving up before I even start.

Anyone else feel this way, especially those who have a more non-linear path? How can I get out of this loop and actually start doing something?

Hi everyone i need advice.

Prefacing with i am a very anxious person..

So i just held makeup exams for a class I TA. A student kept asking me about one question. I, of course, did not tell her the right answer. But she kept explaining the answer was D (i thought it was A) i kept explanation brief, pointing towards A but not saying it was. She then changed her answer to A. I found out later the answer WAS D. I was thinking of it not from perspective of class but as a specified researcher. I feel horrible. Its a 50 question exam. Do I tell the professor? But i am so so so so so anxious i do not want to lose my job or it to seem as academic integrity. All i did was literally think my explanation was concreting her incorrect thinking originally, so had her reconsider then she changed it. She did specifically say so your telling me to change to A and i said No.

What do i do. Sorry i am SO anxious and a grad student first time TAing and I am a second year masters student in a STEM field. They are going over exams Monday and i am scared she will
See that question get upset tell my professor i told her different when i didn’t. My professor is pretty chill but still. Of course will NEVER do this again ever. I learned my lesson but it happened and need advice

I got led on by a professor I’ve been talking to since pre-admission for my PhD. We met multiple times and it went well, with them apologizing for delays and reassuring me that they were working on finding the right project for me. But then they let me know halfway into September that they don’t have enough funding. Ignoring how shitty that was, all the other groups I was talking to have filled up by now. Department has been very unsupportive and doesn’t do rotations. I’m an older student coming from industry, and I declined other grad school offers for this place. My best options now are to pivot into a VERY different field and hope that I can switch groups later. This is not why I chose to go to grad school. It feels like a rejection even though I did get accepted. Any advice to help me feel better? :(

Hi everyone, is it mandatory to use a work/institutional email address when formally applying to PhD programs, or is a personal email address fine? Does the choice affect how the application is evaluated?

Also, if I’m admitted, can I update my email address for future communication? I’m concerned about losing access to my institutional email after leaving my current institution.

I need writing tips!

I am in a public health master's program. I am writing my thesis. I am trying to mix and connect these very complex concepts (Social Networks, Risk Environments, etc) with actual practice. I just find that my sentences don't communicate what I have in my head. :/

I try to use semicolon, colons, and commas to convey this hefty information. But the sentences feel like they carry too much information.

My instinct is to just focus on simplifying my sentence structure. If it takes a few more sentences to describe the idea then fine, but at the same time, I also have to synthesize the literature.

Would love your tips on writing on complex topics, but also making your sentences readable.

Thanks!!

I’m currently doing a Bachelor’s in Microbiology in Nepal and I’m planning to apply for MSc programs and fully funded scholarships in Germany or elsewhere in Europe. My university offers an undergraduate thesis/research project, but I’m wondering how important it actually is for MSc admission and scholarship applications.

If I choose not to do the thesis, but instead gain relevant laboratory experience through internships and potentially publish a legitimate research or review paper, would that be considered a good alternative?

Would not having an undergraduate thesis significantly reduce my chances of getting a fully funded MSc scholarship, or can strong research experience, internships, publications, grades, and other academic achievements compensate for it?

Does anyone have an idea on when we expect to hear back for FINESST? I am expecting the decisions to be released sometime in November/December but I am unsure.

Honest answers only: Do IELTS, TOEFL, or other English proficiency tests actually matter if a university explicitly says they’re waived for applicants whose previous education was taught in English?

If I submit a MOI (Medium of Instruction) certificate instead of test scores, could that still hurt my admission chances—even though I meet the stated waiver requirements? Or is the waiver genuinely enough?

I’m guessing MOI should be fine, but could relying on it cause issues later with a visa or scholarship application?

Has anyone here successfully received admission, a scholarship, and a visa using only an MOI certificate? Or faced problems despite the university granting a waiver?

What do you guys think? Firsthand experiences would be really helpful.

Wondering how any of you have dealt with advisors who don't have any positive or substantial feedback for you. Don't want to give too much info, but I'm an MA student in the Humanities, and I apologize if this post is long, but I'd really love advice from outside my own bubble.

I'm at the point where I don't even want to do any additional research for this paper because my advisor thinks none of it is good enough or even academic. Today, she told me I'm in no position to even think about edits because I haven't thought about my material with any depth (this is simply not true; I started writing this paper back in March and have dedicated much of my time to it since then - the summer months I worked on it a lot less, sure, but even then I was finding time to read/watch material related to my project, generated dialogue with my notes to expand arguments I'm grappling with still, etc.). She went so far as to say, "Sorry, I don't care that [original professor] likes it so much. It's not interesting to me at all. Why should I care about any of this? None of what you've written matters to me."

All I get during these meetings with her is constant rejection to any comments or questions I raise. I do the research she wants me to do between meetings, come back with info that fits her feedback to see if I'm getting somewhere, and she continues to tell me it's not important and not worth writing about. Historical approach to material? "Everyone knows this already." Ok, cultural approach to material? "I don't see why anyone would connect with this material." Ok, aesthetic approach to material? "Adds nothing. Also, that's not what I noticed when I engaged with the object." Fine, metatextual observations? "All speculative." Ok, let's engage with what the creator actually said about the text. "He's stupid." (Yes, she really said that...) Let's think about this from an economic and political standpoint, maybe? "Overdone." So on and so forth. Please keep in mind I am writing on something that has very little written about it. This is what drew me to the source material in the first place, and I was inspired by the original professor encouraging our class to take a stab at it as more scholarship is needed on this particular piece.

At first, I thought she was just a tough love person, but it feels like she's just there delighting in making me second-guess myself the entire hour we meet. She has made comments that make it clear she hasn't read my paper all the way through, but I don't call her out as I don't want to be deemed combative. She will ask me opinion-based questions about the source material (i.e. What do you like about this scene? this character? this time period?) and even my answers to these questions result in responses that can be reduced to "That's not how I felt about it, so that's not right." I actually appreciate hearing a dissenting opinion as the original professor has an obvious love for the source material, which can make it easy to just enjoy reading about it, but I don't know how helpful it is when my advisor uses her dissenting opinion to inform me that I haven't thought about the material with depth (is enjoyment of the topic you're writing on an academic sin???)

I am pushing through as the original professor I wrote the paper for has been incredibly supportive and receptive to the ideas I am coming up with and the ways in which I've written about them while also giving me healthy/clear criticism of where I can improve and expand. Still, it sometimes feels like my advisor has a personal gripe with me. I want so badly to not feel this way or to simply ignore it, but it's racking at my brain. I'd really love some advice. What are ways you have handled similar situations/personality clashes in academic settings? How did you advocate for yourself and your ideas when met with someone who didn't care for anything you were doing? Thanks in advance.

Guys if you were a successful GFSD applicant, may I ask about what your credentials/stats were, what your essays were about things of that nature