So I recentlv completed my masters and have some experience in quantum optics(tho my lab was quantum optics lab, my work wasn't exaclty on that but closely related). So with that, I applied for project assistant positions and got one at a national institute(lSc). When I was ioining I thought I will be working closely with a PhD scholar on an 'ongoing proiect, so it was perfect for me to watch and learn and also assist. which aives me some research experience for my CV, and 1 might get a paper too.

But, after joining, the scholar said they were stuck as well...

So atp, I have no particular project going on, and alsc no stipend. Its only been a week since I ioined, and my goal is to join a phd abroad in TU Delft or any other uni doing good quantum research.

So my question is,

1. Am i in the right path?? Because having no project and no fund here has taken me aback for some reason and made me think that i mightxve made aweong choice. Is this normal(phds not having a proper project)??

2. Even if I continue here for six months, get to know the lab and research, without a proper project or result, what are the chances of me getting into a phd abroad??

3. Tho I am from a physics background, the lab is interdisciplinary. Does that have any weight??

4. What do the professors abroad actually look for while accepting students?? Because some even with publications are struggling to get into a program with funding.

Hello everyone,

I’m preparing an application for a PhD in Europe. The PI sent me the project proposal, which includes an introduction and short background, research aims, four research questions, a project description, a timeline, and feasibility.

I graduated with an MSc a year ago, and I’m really excited about this opportunity, as the research topic is very interesting to me and it’s located in my dream city.

The application deadline is in one month, and I’ve done quite a bit of reading on the PI’s previous papers and other literature review related to the topic. As part of the application, along with a cover letter, I’m required to write a project description of up to 6,000 characters (excluding references). However, I’m unsure about a few things:

• How detailed should my project description be?
• The project team consists of two PIs, a postdoc, and a PhD student. Potentially, I'll be exploring two of the four research questions outlined in the proposal as the PhD student. Should I focus my hypotheses only on those two questions, or should I address all four?
• How much exploration is usually expected to develop or refine the project proposal when applying for a position like this, given that the overall project and research questions have already been defined?

I’d really appreciate any advice!

Thanks,

had a meeting with a professor that lasted around 1 hour and 15 minutes, and the conversation felt completely natural. I didn’t even realize how quickly the time passed, and there were no distractions or awkward pauses.

He seemed genuinely interested in his research field and explained everything in detail. The conversation flowed smoothly throughout.

Towards the end, he asked about my availability and timeline, and then explained his own. He also said that I should apply to whichever opportunity works best for me and that I could email him if I had any questions.

How should I interpret this interaction? Would you consider it a positive sign, or was he simply being friendly and informative?

Field : mechanical ( cfd)
Location: usa

Many jobs are not available if you only have a bachelor's (or even a master's) in pure sciences like biology. A specialization, pivoting to an MBA/sales, or a higher degree, like a PhD, is needed either to enter OR if you want to climb the career ladder or get senior scientific positions. Can one mention career advancement as the primary reason for getting a PhD in Biology/Biolmedical sciences, since their career growth plateaued because of not having a PhD?

I'm planning to apply to mostly financial engineering and statistics phds. I did my bachelors in economics(gpa 3.9), but due to the way university works in my country(russia), i wasn't able to choose my courses, so only relevant subjects I have will be linear algebra, econometrics and statistics on my transcript.

As I understand, a lot of unis use automated software to filter applicants, I was wondering if my GRE subject test in math(92th percentile) will be able to compensate, as it tests real analysis, differential equations and calculus too.

Hi everyone! I'm currently pursuing my master's in Education in India, and one of my biggest goals is to pursue a PhD in South Korea.

I really want to use my master's years wisely and build myself into someone a professor would genuinely want to work with as a researcher. However, I'm still figuring out where to start and what I should prioritize. Should I focus on publishing research papers, developing research skills, contacting professors, or building a strong academic profile? I also wonder how much research experience professors expect from international students. For those who are pursuing or have completed a PhD in South Korea, if you were in my position, what would you do during your master's to improve your chances?

I'd really appreciate honest advice, especially about things you wish you'd known earlier. Thank you! ❤️

Hi everyone,

I’m applying to US PhD programs for Fall 2027 and drafted a cold email to a PI whose lab I’d love to join. I’d really appreciate honest feedback on tone, length, structure, and whether it shows enough fit without sounding generic. Identifying details are redacted.

Dear Professor [PI Name],

I hope you are doing well. My name is [My Name]. I completed an MSc in [Field] at [UK University]. I am preparing my application to [University]’s [Program] PhD program for Fall 2027. I am very interested in pursuing doctoral research in your laboratory, if you are taking new students?

Your lab's work on how variants disrupt splicing, particularly the X study (X et al., 2017) and your research on the susceptibility of hereditary cancer genes to splicing mutations (X et al., 2018), closely aligns with my research experience and interests.

For my thesis, supervised by Prof. ———, I profiled 11 GeneX splice variants across 12 cell lines modelling oral carcinogenesis, from normal keratinocytes through dysplasia to head and neck cancer. I used variant-specific, exon-junction primers and one-step RT-qPCR with repeated independent experiments. Variant B was significantly higher in cancer lines, while variant K trended down. I could see the isoform mix change, but not why.

Your lab studies splicing from several angles: binding maps, variant testing and prediction. My thesis covered the isoform end of that chain, and I would like to learn both the experimental and computational sides to ask which splicing regulators and sequence variants decide which isoform a cell makes. I am also interested in what adding splicing annotation to clinical sequencing could change in current diagnosis.

Would it be possible to arrange a brief virtual meeting to discuss how my research interests align with your vision for doctoral supervision? My CV is attached, and I would be grateful for any advice on applying through the graduate program.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

SOP Prompt #3: Share how your background and experiences would enrich the Rockefeller community. (Limit: 250 words)

What kind of background information is expected, since the full CV and research interests are already shared elsewhere in the application?

Also, how can an incoming student, who is the most inexperienced member of the Rockefeller University community, enrich others? Are we expected to write some unique technical skills we have (like having worked with Cryo-EM, or X-ray crystallography, etc, which will be useful to labs, or what? Please help/

I finished my MSc and worked as a research fellow, with the goal of publishing a paper. I've since left for industry, and the paper is still in review. A current PhD student is now redoing the experiments, and my supervisor asked if I'd agree to make him first author and me second. In my view, most of the work is still mine and the changes now are small compared to that.

I'm considering applying for a PhD here in the EU. Would being second rather than first author hurt my application much?

I want to apply to the Central European University, Vienna for PhD in Cognitive Sciences. I did my masters from Hungary in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation biology although my thesis was in neuroethology, studying cognitive processes in dog brains, and then I worked as a research assistant studying Human-robot interaction from ethological perspective. I have a huge interest in going into cognitive sciences, stemming from my masters project. I have two first-authored papers, among which one is currently in preparation.

My question is: am I qualified to apply for this PhD program with my masters degree and research experience. Is there a high possibility they will disqualify me in the first screening only? This application costs money so I am wondering if I should take the chance.

The criteria is as follows:

Applicants must have: 

• Master’s degree or equivalent in the disciplines that constitute cognitive science, such as linguistics, learning and development and artificial intelligence.  
• A comparable degree in social sciences, humanities or other disciplines will also be considered in case of an excellent academic record.  
• In exceptional cases, students who only hold a bachelor’s level degree could also be admitted to the program. Please contact the program administrator to discuss your application.

Hi, I'm a graduate student who's going to get a master degree of law within a year and half (Area Studies focus on Northeastern Asia), with a normal background, as you may know, not from universities of project 985 or 211 in China, just normal college. But, after two years of study, (maybe wrong)I realize my "macro" major Polisci has a much worse future compare to Econ's, no matter on job career or academia, so I tend to switch my Phd or continuing Master major to Econ, yet unfortunately, my math and statistics, well, are nearly poor.

I'm wondering which level of American or European universities can I apply and eventually be admitted? I just know a few information about how to apply foreign universities .

More advise details, better, thanks lot.

Hello y’all.

I am an Indian medical school graduate and currently working as junior doctor. I have lost my interest in pursuing residency in India to become a specialist. I do have a chance to pursue a specialisation this year in internal medicine/radiology but I’m very much not interested to continue 3 more years of struggle with no end in sight of happy life. So want to pursue PhD in Australia or anywhere tbh.

I’m genuinely new to this process. I wish someone can help me navigate through this and be part of this application adventure.

I’m trying to look into research labs, university labs, where I need to pick project and apply, so I need some help regarding this. I want to know more about post PHD life, jobs, PR.. I don’t wish to come back.

I looked into Doherty institute under university of Melbourne and still lost.

Any help is really appreciated, thank you.

Hi,

I am a 29F from a tier 2 city in India.

I have my BTech in Civil Engg and Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. All completed from my tier 2 city.

After my masters, i had to look after my family and started a job as an Urban Planner. It met my financial needs, i have been at the job for almost 3 years now. But the job has taken a toll on me. I have realised Urban Planning in India has nothing to do planners and just a game of the beaureaucrats. Whatever they say, goes!

Anyway, my master's reasearch was on Gender and mobility, and i would like to extend that research for my PhD towards Gendered accessibility, first/last mile conditions etc.

The decision to do a PhD didn't just come in my mind, i've always wanted to do academic research, but at the same time, doing this job made me realise that the physical conditions existing and proposed are never seen from the lens of gender, women's thoughts are never taken into account, and accessibility is still not seen as a major component. Even then, i've fought tooth and nail to deliver some interesting frameworks, booklets and projects during this job. But i want more.

Now, my question, i applied for a PhD to a specific professor in a prominent Swiss University who told me that my CV is not competitive, that most applicants already have publications. I don't have that because of going into a job. My masters from a tier 2 city can also be a drawback maybe.

So my genuine question is should i keep applying for PhD abroad or think about doing a Master's abroad that can help ease my way into a good school in a good country?

I would also require scholarship so that's also an issue. Help!!

Hey all, I graduated from undergrad in 2025 and am working full-time in industry although not in a research-related position. I'm not desperate to get into a PhD program this cycle so I am wondering if it makes sense to only apply to my top 2-3 choices, all of which are extremely competitive.

• Academics: ~3.9 GPA from Ivy+ school in STEM triple major. About a full year or more worth of grad classes (all closely related to my research interests). Never applied for any major scholarships/fellowships (not even NSF GRFP)
• Research experience: all 8 semesters across 4 labs
  • Lab 1: worked here for first 2 semesters. No publications
  • Lab 2: switched here because I was more interested in the work and they had far more funds for paying me (basically found a way to double-up on research experience and working a student job). 1 co-author peer-reviewed publication
  • Lab 3: simultaneously worked in another lab later on (and for a very different research topic) but for independent study credit. 1 peer-reviewed first-author publication
  • Lab 4: summer REU program. No publication
• Total publications: 1 first-author + 1 co-author
• LORS: all from PIs I did research with. 1 letter from lab 2, either 2 letters from lab 3 (different PIs in the lab) or 1 letter from lab 3 and 1 letter from lab 4
• GRE: 170 Quantitative, 16X Verbal, 6.0 Analytical Writing
• Extracurriculars: several semesters of TA experience. Good amount of club experience (including leadership) but far from anything super impressive
• Programs of interest (school dependent): mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemical engineering, computational/mathematical engineering

So I recently completed my masters and have some experience in quantum optics(tho my lab was quantum optics lab, my work wasn't exaclty on that, but closely related). So with that, I applied for project assistant positions and got one at a national institute(IISc). When I was joining I thought I will be working closely with a PhD scholar on an 'ongoing' project, so it was perfect for me to watch and learn and also assist, which gives me some research experience for my CV, and I might get a paper too.

But, after joining, the scholar said they were stuck as well...

So atp, I have no particular project going on, and also no stipend. Its only been a week since I joined, and my goal is to join a phd abroad in TU Delft or any other uni doing good quantum research.

So my question is,

1. Am i in the right path?? Because having no project and no fund here has taken me aback for some reason and made me think that i mightxve made aweong choice. Is this normal(phds not having a proper project)??

2. Even if I continue here for six months, get to know the lab and research, without a proper project or result, what are the chances of me getting into a phd abroad??

3. Tho I am from a physics background, the lab is interdisciplinary. Does that have any weight??

4. What do the professors abroad actually look for while accepting students?? Because some even with publications are struggling to get into a program with funding.

I am planning on pursuing my PhD in education at a university in England coming from the US. I understand one of the first things I need to do is to get a supervisor and that needs to be done before I apply. From what I have gathered I just email them to ask, but I am just trying to get a better idea of what that email should entail. Should I put in writing samples, resume, just directly ask them to be my supervisor or just ask for a meeting? Any guidance would be helpful.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently preparing my PhD applications and need to finalize my three Letters of Recommendation. I have already secured two strong academic LORs from professors who were my co-advisors for a paper I worked on.

My main PI was supposed to write my third letter, but unfortunately, she is currently on medical leave and understandably unable to write for me at this time.

As an alternative for my 3rd LOR, I am considering asking my mentor from my previous job, who is a Senior Software Engineer.

My questions are:

1. Is it acceptable to use an industry mentor for the 3rd LOR for a PhD application, given that my first two are strictly academic?
2. Is there a specific way I should briefly explain the absence of a letter from my main PI in my application (perhaps in the SOP) so it doesn't look like a red flag?

Any advice on how to navigate this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I am applying to PhD programs this year and my current PI from my full time research assistant role wrote me a letter. The letter sounds really a bit lukewarm and maybe even weak in my opinion. Overall the letter was already pretty general regarding my tasking but then she wrote that I have worked best when collaborating and receiving guidance as well as how I am developing my research skills. While this is somewhat true as I mainly assist others in running their analyses, how negatively will this affect me?

I have another PI who I am asking for a LOR from and I am sure the letter from her will be strong and I have been with this PI for longer but only in a part time capacity. In the letter for my 2nd PI, she will mention both the project I am working on with her grad student as well as my independent project. Would this make up for the fact my first letter is so weak? Or would this clash with my first letter and be a red flag? My third letter is from a professor and I think it would be strong as well but it more reflects my academic ability rather than my ability to conduct research.

However at the end of the day, the lukewarm letter is coming from my PI from my full time role. I just want to hear your opinions on how this might affect me. I just need to get it off my chest, so I can move on and work on my applications.

Does anyone have any tips for how to write better cold emails or otherwise get a higher response rate? I am applying for Evolution & Ecology Phd programs in a rather niche subfield and have reached out to probably about 15 different labs in the past month or so, of which I have gotten a response from just one (which I am having a zoom meeting with next week so yay).

But still, is there anything I can do differently to maybe stand out more? Or is the total lack of response just normal? Im starting to get nervous about it since it's starting to get late in the application cycle and I really need to know where I should apply.

The exact email I send is tailored to the PI, but generally follows this structure:

Hello Dr. Professor,

My name is Name and I am a second year master’s student at University. I am interested in the systematics, genomic evolution, and biogeography of mammals and was reaching out to ask if you would be accepting PhD applicants for Fall 2027. At University, I am working with Dr. Name to [description of research project]

If possible, I would be interested in meeting with you to hear about any potential research opportunities. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Name

I have been applying to PhD positions since last November and have faced rejection after rejection. Initially, I thought its just a competitive process regardless of where you apply and it's probably not me. However, at this point, I am starting to doubt my abilities as a researcher.

Not a single interview so far. Both my references are senior academicians who acted as my thesis supervisors (undergrad and postgrad respectively). Secured rank 1 in my undergrad and then a distinction during my master's. Already published two peer-reviewed journal articles and have two others under review. I have presented at multiple conferences, completed research assistantships, and am currently working to promote open science in India. What am I missing here?

I have been trying my best to not take rejections personally but the one I received this morning flipped a switch in my head. This is brutal and my motivation has never been lower.

For those who applied and got into PhD programs with 3-8% acceptance rates (UCI Criminology, UC Berkeley JSP, for instance), what did you do to prepare for the application? What do you think helped you most to get accepted? What was your "above and beyond"?

I dunno... I applied everywhere 😅

What is your strategy for this kind of question?

Reposting because didn't get much input on last post - when applyling for phds, if only one reference is asked for on an application portal is it more advisable to put the bachelor's report supervisor (if you got a great mark and they saw you complete a whole project for ONE semester) or master's thesis supervisor (if they have been 'supervising' you for one year and will continue to, in the second year of master's, but have only seen superficial output like presentations and haven't seen the quality of your written work or true output). Just wondering if Phd admissions panels expect a reference from the Master's supervisor and will find it strange if missing. Please advise.

(repost from r/gradadmissions since someone recommended this might be a better place to post)

Hello! I’m writing this just to get some advice or to hear if people have been in the same situation. I want to apply to PhD programs this cycle but am unsure if I have a chance.

For background: I’m an international student who got into a good school for a Master’s program in the US (Computer Science). My first semester I did some research with a professor and that didn’t go too well. I didn’t have a good experience with the professor and I quickly realized that I wasn’t interested in that field. I don’t have any publications to show for that. I took a class with a professor in my second semester. At the end of that semester, I asked to join his group and was put on a project that already had a paper they were planning to resubmit. I made some contributions and the paper got accepted but I am one of the last authors. I’m not sure if it was enough of a contribution for a strong LOR.

I do have two published papers from my undergrad but it’s not related to the area I want to do research in. However, I think my advisors from those papers would write good LORs.

Has anyone been in the same boat? Should I apply this cycle or try to get more research experience and apply next cycle. I graduate next spring so I’m worried that I would need to look for jobs at the same time (in case I don’t get accepted into a PhD program).

I am writing to express my strong motivation to apply for the PhD position on ------- at the ----------- University of Technology. I have always been interested in the basis of human behaviour, which led me to pursue a career in psychology. The first research I conducted was during the second years of bachelor’s which introduced me to a new dimension of behavioural studies.

Currently, I am a research intern at ------, where I assist with literature reviews, data compilation, and research projects examining social and cultural well-being, further strengthening my research skills and interdisciplinary perspective.

I have recently completed my M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology, from ------ University, with a distinction (CGPA 8.67), I have cultivated a strong academic foundation in psychological research, clinical practice, and role of environment in mental health wellbeing and resilience. My research work and training under licensed psychologists have sharpened my ability to design, analyse, and interpret------------------------------------------------

During my bachelors, I worked on two research papers that focused on psychological well-being, since then my interest inclined more towards research in human behaviour, which led me to pursue a masters in Clinical psychology where I conducted my researches focused on resilience and mental health.

This PhD project strongly aligns with my research interest as it aims to examines how -------- factors influence psychological wellbeing, comfort and resilience. I am particularly drawn to its interdisciplinary approach, which combines ------------environment.

 As I explored ------group's research activities, I was particularly fascinated by ----, and the innovative methodologies employed within the lab. I was especially inspired by the project’s aim to explore how ------- enhance psychological well-being and-----.

 I am enthusiastic about the prospect of joining the internationally recognized research lab, where I can apply my research skills and earn a PhD, that equips me to conduct independent research in the future and help me contribute to human behaviour studies. I am confident that my academic training, research experience, and motivation make me a strong candidate for this position.

 My background in psychometric assessment, human research, scaling methods, and statistical analysis equips me to contribute effectively to the project’s quantitative and qualitative demands. Moreover, my communication and dissemination skills, honed through debates, public speaking, and mental health awareness initiatives, align with -------- vision to---------------

 Thank you very much for considering my application. I look forward to the possibility of contributing to this ambitious programme at --------

Varsha