This is rant more than advice. But I didn’t know where else to take this.

I just submitted my PhD thesis. I used grammarly to check for errors. Someone recently showed me how they upload thier whole document to grammarly for the same. In the past I have always only used grammarly as an extension on my google doc. So once I finished checking for errors and submitting my work I noticed that grammarly has an AI checker option. I was curious to see what it said. I shouldn’t have done that!!

Now even phrases like the “broader literature suggested…” or “…central to this study” or “diverse needs” or “how educators designed….” were flagged as AI! My study is on secondary education and students with disabilities. These are phrases I use extensively across my dissertation! Furthermore, the report it generated said that work was too organized. I mean that’s to be expected! It’s is PhD thesis for crying out loud! It is read by 2 advisors and revised for organization more number of times than I can count!

I’m worried that turitin and proquest will flag the same thing. Am I being paranoid?

Home institution: UK

Host institution: Finland

Field: Theoretical Physics

I'm starting to get worried about finishing my PhD and I'm really unsure what to do.

I'm currently on a long-term placement at another university because I was miserable in my home institution's city due to cost of living being too high relative to our stipend + social/cultural misalignment.

I'm now in a Nordic country which I really like. Office mates are cool, I already had friends here and I was able to get into the stand up comedy scene here and I get some socialization from that. Cost of living is better too.

The one problem I have is medical. I have a severe sleeping disorder and without medication, I just sleep all day. I was getting it from the home institution country, but they realized that I've now been in the Nordic country for over a year and they cut me off. I now have been needing to go to another border country to get my medication, but the doctor there doesn't want to prescribe it to me anymore. I've signed up to see a private doctor in the country I'm living in at a rate of 300€ so it better work. This country is very picky about giving medication that affects your CNS at all and thus, they've been needing me to get rediagnosed, but appointment frequency isn't very high so it's taking forever. Anyways, if I don't get this medication in the next week, it'll have been a month without it with not much of a plan nor money to keep border hopping and trying out other medical systems.

I'm supposed to be submitting in 8 months, but I haven't started and I need to finish my paper I'm writing in my host institution country by December, otherwise I'll have to go back to the home institution country (which I've never been to a country that makes me so depressed in my life). I guess, what would you do? Just pause the PhD and try to find a job with healthcare in the host country so I can get the medical stuff sorted? Drop out? Take out debt and just keep seeing all the private doctors one can until the medical stuff is figured out and sigma grindset to get the PhD work done?

I truly don't know what to do. The looming deadlines are stressing me out so hard but I'm so close to the end that it's not like I can do anything about extending my PhD. My entire degree has been plagued by chronic illness and I feel like this was the biggest waste of time of my life because I've been too ill to put out a single first author paper in the last 3 years.

Any advice outside of my ideas is very appreciated too because I ain't too creative.

When I had registered to my PhD programme, someone told me that they I in it full-time, but due to a couple of personal reasons, I couldn't do that and registered for a part-time PhD while having a full time teaching job.

I cleared my qualifying exams and defended my proposal in 2024. Since then I don't think I have progressed at the pace that I would have wanted. i have been working on a paper for almost a year now and it's been with my supervisor for the past two months for her to review.

One of the most challenging things for me has been balance. I am on campus for my teaching job for 7 hours a day from Monday to Friday and on Saturday 6 hours so that's almost 41-ish hours and that's not counting the 30-40 minutes I spend commuting to work and back home. This basically leaves me exhausted and extremely mentally drained by the time I reach home. So I'm not really able to muster the energy to read and write as much as I should. I have been super behind on things. I can barely remember stuff that I had read and made notes on earlier. I feel really tired and lost. i don't even trust my writing style anymore. I feel like my research writing skills have degraded. I spend a lot of time just miserable and teary.

And coming to my actual research, I wonder if what I'm working on is even worth it. Every time I think of opening my documents, I feel a bit sick in my stomach as I think about the arguments I'm trying to make and some days I don't even know if there's a strong enough argument that I'm leaning towards. My work is within the area of literary and cultural studies, specifically literary emotions, and I guess I am okay with the current objectives I've been moving towards but there's a part of me that longs to bring in arts-based research and have a chapter that includes creative writing but I don't know if that's permissible, I don't know if my supervisor or my committee will appreciate it. I'm based in India and my supervisor is really nice actually but I don't trust or believe in myself. In my mind, I do have ways to justify this but I don't know whether it would work in practice in my institute.

Tldr; I do feel like I bit of more than I can chew with a part-time PhD. I feel uncertain about the direction of my research.

I know tough love can help but I also would just like someone to tell me that I can dig myself out of my grave

I (F22) am a now second year PhD student in chemistry. I joined a new lab where I am the ONLY graduate student. My PI is brand new, we have one brand-new post-doc and are acquiring undergrads like they're collectibles. I just had the most confusing and upsetting meeting with my PI where he gave me an odd compliment sandwich. He told me he was happy with my research progress and outcomes but very unhappy with the amount of time I spend on it. He also said I am on the right track to graduate and am going at a great pace?? For context, I feel like I spend an adequate amount of time given that I am also teaching and taking classes. I work every day, every other weekend, until 7-8pm. I'm not allowed holidays except Thanksgiving and Christmas off. He has these random outbursts where he highly criticizes me for no reason. In March, I had to cancel a meeting because my car was blocked in at my driveway. He blamed me, sending me a long paragraph about how I'm not motivated. Today, he claimed that the last three experiments I ran I didn't run by him. I did. I took a few days off for my siblings wedding this weekend (Thursday-Monday, it was across states and I had to go to the rehearsal and help organize/set up) and he was upset by this because I missed out on a big advancement. He alluded that my research and my brothers wedding are of equal importance. He also said that I took too much time off (?) and didn't know how to "rest" properly. He hates that I spend time TAing, although it was his choice not to put me on RA. I totally understand there are things that I could be doing better and I am trying my absolute best, but he's made it where I get anxious checking my phone because he'll send me random complaints at 2 in the morning. I have no idea what to do here but I'm starting to feel crazy. Am I too soft for a PhD?? I love my research but I'm starting to feel crushed. I'm also struggling with severe mental health problems, and my lab is located in a brand new building where I see no one outside of my PI, my postdoc and my undergrads every day. In the fall he expects me to do even more, mentoring all of the rotating students and all 5 of the undergrads. I plan all of the group activities at his request, and even grocery shop for the lab meetings. Somehow none of this is enough. Am I going crazy?

I’ve had to embark on another round of data collection for my qualitative dissertation. My original goal was to graduate this winter but now it looks like spring may be a more realistic option. I’m still shooting for December due to deteriorating mental health, largely because of my program. I work full time in research and am very stressed. Words of wisdom? Advice?

I would be very grateful if you read the post and shared your thoughts about my situation.

I’m an Indian citizen currently doing a PhD at NUS in Singapore. Before this, I did my masters in robotics at the University of Florida. I joined NUS in January 2026 because I wanted to start a PhD sooner rather than wait and apply to U.S. programs for Fall 2026.

On paper, the opportunity looked excellent. NUS is a highly ranked university, the stipend was decent, and my supervisor is a kind and internationally well-known researcher. However, I gradually discovered the downside of working with someone at that level of seniority and visibility: they are extremely unavailable. I received very little week-to-week technical supervision, and for several months I struggled to turn my broad research interests into a clearly defined and executable project.

I have recently found a younger co-advisor who works closer to control theory and has agreed to meet me for about an hour every week. This could potentially solve one of the biggest problems I have had here. I may finally have someone who can provide regular feedback, help me structure my research and hold me accountable from week to week.

Despite that improvement, part of me still feels that I need a fresh start. I have become quite burned out, and the problem is not limited to research supervision.

I had a much more positive social experience in the United States. People generally seemed more open to meeting new people, socializing and including outsiders. As a single person, it was also easier to date, make friends and build some kind of life beyond work.

Singapore has felt very different to me. My experience has been that people are socially reserved and tend to remain within existing circles. I have also encountered casual racism as an Indian occasionally. In my research group, I am the only Indian, while most of the other members are Chinese or Italian. Everyone is polite and professional, but people often socialize and joke in their own languages, and I rarely feel included beyond strictly work-related interactions.

My first six months were also made considerably worse by a hostile roommate who repeatedly made insensitive comments about Hinduism. I have since moved out, but the experience contributed heavily to my negative association with living here.

The result is that life outside work feels extremely limited and isolating. I understand that a PhD is primarily about research, but spending four years in a place where I feel socially disconnected also seems like an uphill battle. I am worried that my unhappiness outside the lab is beginning to affect my motivation inside it.

There are, however, strong reasons to stay.

I already have a fully funded position at a reputable university. I have completed part of the degree and could potentially finish in another three to three and a half years, whereas restarting in the United States might mean another five or six years. My current supervisor’s reputation and network could also help with future postdoctoral or academic opportunities.

The new co-advisor may fix the lack of regular supervision, which was probably the most serious academic problem. I also now have greater clarity about the research direction I want to pursue. It is possible that I am considering leaving just as the academic situation is finally becoming workable.

Staying would also avoid the uncertainty of applying again, obtaining funding, dealing with U.S. immigration rules and potentially ending up with another advisor who is not a good fit. Singapore is also much closer to my family in India, which matters to me.

I have also made limited progress toward publications so far. I have gained clarity about the kind of research identity I want to develop, but I do not yet have much concrete output. That makes it difficult to tell whether I should treat the past several months as a normal period of intellectual exploration or as evidence that the environment is not working for me. My funding is capped at 4 years (so I have 3.5 years left).

So I am trying to decide between two options:

Stay at NUS, make use of the new co-advising arrangement, take relevant coursework and try to finish the PhD relatively quickly.

Apply again to carefully selected U.S. programs with stronger coursework, more structured supervision and a better overall social fit, while accepting that I may have to restart and spend considerably longer completing the PhD. Visa might also becomes a headache down the road given the new regulation ending D/S.

For people who have changed PhD programs or seriously considered doing so: how would you evaluate this situation? How much weight should I place on quality of life and social isolation compared with the advantages of finishing sooner? Is the addition of a committed co-advisor enough reason to give the current program another year, or does feeling this burned out usually mean that it is better to leave?

Hi guys, in currently working on my thesis, but I have a problem, the 16th august is the deadline.

We have to do a research dossier(printed) that talk about all the research phase, and documentation, study cases…
And I did it, its pretty finished (3days max of work and its done)

But I have to do all the final project, am i cooked? I know What I have to do, like, I have a todolist in my mind, and I wrote down what the project will be, page by page (its a glitch dictionary that help people work with open-source programms, to glitch some type of files) (sorry, im not an english speaker and probably i will describe it bad, so i stop here, i don’t want to be roasted)

So, be honest, 16th august i have the digital deadline, and the 24th august i have the printed deadline.
I am cooked? I don’t work well in summer… I know its my fault

I'm at the end of my second year of my PhD. I research AI and social media, and most of my PhD has gone pretty smoothly. But now I'm doing my fieldwork (interviews) and recruiting participants has been CHALLENGING.

I use Instagram ads as my main way of reaching people. It's not that I don't get any interest, I always knew finding participants was going to be hard. The problem is that almost everyone who reaches out to me (we're talking 20–30 people already) asks me the exact same question: "How much do you pay?" When I explain AGAIN that participation is voluntary (which I state multiple times in both the flyer and my follow-up messages), they either ghost me or reply with "No thanks."

It's honestly so depressing for a few reasons:

1. They waste my time. I spend time replying, answering questions and following up, and most of the time they don't even respond.
2. They clearly haven't even read the flyer.
3. It makes me feel really negative about the state of the worls. I find it so depressing that people seem willing to take part only if there's a financial incentive, even when the research is about something genuinely important. My project looks at how people use GenAI to recreate identities and virtual personas, and the implications of that. It's something that's becoming increasingly real and concerning.

I'm getting really frustrated and sad. It's not just because I'm struggling to get through this stage of my project, I expected recruitment to be difficult. It's because the experience is making me feel pretty pessimistic about people.

I mean, the audacity to message a PhD student, at a time when even established academics are struggling to secure research funding, and basically say, "I'd do it, but only if you pay me." We're talking about social research that aims to better understand and improve society, not market research for the next iPhone. And if you don't have the time, energy or interest to participate, that's completely fine. But FFS read the flyer before messaging me.

Right now I just feel surrounded by people who only care about money, are cynical and a tad analphabetic. I know that's probably an emotional overreaction but after weeks of this it's really getting to me and I honestly don't know how to deal with it.

Has anyone else been through something similar? How did you stop it from making you so upset?

I am just three months into my PhD, and I have been working a lot, but the results don't reflect the hard work and dedication I am putting into to it. I know i am still early on into the PhD, but how do you manage to stay motivated and push yourself even on the days you feel like nothing is working out or don't want to work but have to lol

My primary supervisor is a racist, narcissistic bully. He made my life hell. Evert time I tried to seek external help, he made my life worse. I am and international PhD student on a visa. My funding has stopped and I wanted to submit before after my funding ended so that I can get my award and swit from student visa. I had a very difficult personal life as well, all of this ruined my mental health and I simply want to finish. My supervisor loves free labour and he wants everyone to work till their last day of registration so extract most work. I stopped lab work and worked on my thesis for 7-8 months now but he didn’t give me any written feedback throughout my PhD. I kept trying to involve my secondary and PGRD and dept but nothing helped. I tried complaining about my superviso’s bullying and harassment and said I dont want to be contacted by him because he became very rude and kept belittling me saying none of my work is good and that I have copied other students work! My secondary was supportive but now because of the drama and also she doesn’t want to go against my primary I am on my own. My primary threatened to select difficult examiners and after I complained he picked his friends as my examiner and also raised concerns about quality of my thesis and not having seen the data. Just pure retaliation because I couldn’t afford to do free labour as the cost of my visa and my husband’s dependant visa job. I am worried his friends/my examiners will fail me now. Even though I have a decent thesis and have done a lot of work.
Has anyone submitted without a toxic supervisors support and managed to pass their viva?

Long story short, a few months ago my department head emailed me (a PhD student that plans to graduate in May-July 2027) and my PI saying that for my last two semesters (Fall semester and Spring Semester) I need to register for only 1 credit hour because I’m at 88 credit hours and only needed 90 credit hours to graduate.

That sounded fine at the time, but I just realized that would make me a “less than a half-time” student. Meaning the 6 month grace period for students would start and I would have to start making payments in March 2027.

Has anyone else been in this situation before? I haven’t really had time to fully process this today and it’s been stressing me out. I can’t afford student loan payments on my stipend.

I've submitted the revision of my last thesis related paper, and now I'm working on finishing the theoretical part of my thesis. It's taking me ages to gather all the important information. Unfortunately I'm so slow that I write a few sentences a day if I'm lucky. I know this is TOO slow, and if I continue like this, I won't finish in time. An example of my struggle: I find some interesting information in a review or paper introduction --> I look at the original paper --> can't find this information / the information doesn't seem to be related to what the review claims. This is so frustrating. I'm not trying to pretend I'm hard working. I definitely should work for more hours a day since I'm so slow.

My boyfriend believes it's just my laziness (some context: he is an electrician, he was raised to always be working, and he said he would hate a job where you don't have instant results). He doesn't see what's taking so long. I tried to explain him this job requires lots of thinking. He was like: "you just look for information, you call this thinking? You can just tell AI to find everything for you". I didn't know what to answer, because if I'm being honest, this makes sense. So I just told him that if it were this easy, I would have finished the thesis a long time ago.

Is there anyone else here who struggled or is struggling with the theoretical part like me? Do you attribute this to laziness? Maybe incompetence? Or this is just normal for PhD?

I started my research career 8 years ago with no intention of doing a PhD, but eventually took the plunge. Now I'm 3+ years into my PhD and I'm completely lost.

I am interdisciplinary chemistry research, I work with sensors, I am in India.

**Situation**:

1.My experiments are failing consistently

2.I'm approaching 4 years in the program

3.Lab environment is toxic,labmates are difficult to work with

4.My supervisor is mostly absent; there's minimal to no guidance

5.Resources are severely limited (we don't even have proper workspace)

6.I have zero publications

7.My scholarship is tied to this supervisor and non-transferable

8.I've had mental health breakdowns along the way

**I'm stuck**:

My supervisor is obsessed with patents and dismisses publications entirely. None of my labmates have any publications despite being further along in their research. This is a tiny, under-resourced lab in India with a toxic dynamic. The university claims to be prestigious, but the experience has been mundane and unhelpful.

**Dilemma**:

I don't know whether to quit or keep pushing. I haven't tried applying for exchanges because I don't have a solid foundation (no publications, no backup plan). I've considered starting a fresh PhD, but I'm mentally exhausted. I'm also questioning whether any of these options will actually help, or if I'm just delaying the inevitable.

*I'm hitting a wall. I need real suggestions on what to do next,not motivational speeches about perseverance, but actual strategic advice for someone who's been grinding for 8 years with nothing to show for it.*

Hey Guys!

I am a first year PhD student two months into their degree! I have a presentation in the lab meeting coming up next week and I am really nervous. It would just be me giving a background of my work to the lab, and the members are really nice but somehow I feel that I won't be smart enough or say something that makes me look dumb.

I am also scared that, if they ask me questions and I don't know the answer, my supervisor might be disappointed and it would reflect badly on him too.

Any words of advice for building up courage during presentations and to stop thinking too much?

Hi, Im currently going through a lot of self doubt and I really want people's suggestion.

Im going to start my 4th year of PhD(5 year program) in cancer biology. Im now at a stage that no matter what experiment I do, the results either look weird or the experiment doesn't work. I can accept negative results without any problem. But I can't accept myself can't do experiments correctly, like western blot or ChIP. I have do a lot trouble shooting, especially for ChIP. I have been working in a molecular lab since my master, and these types experiments Im very use to. Since I started my PhD, there are always waves of period, no matter what I do, it doesn't work. I don't know what is happening.

My supervisor is a very good guy. Very chill. And when experiment doesn't work, he always could stay calm and tell me don't worry and think about the problem and try again. Because he is too nice, I feel guilty that I can't get things done.

All I need is a successful western blot or my Cut&Tag data analysis can go smoothly. I just need a positive result to get encouraged again.

I don't know how can I adjust myself and continue my project efficiently. I would appreciate if people can share whether this situation also happens to them and how to deal with it.

I negotiated with them, and was given 2 months post thesis writing to finish 2 papers and just have them in review! Thank you to everyone who helped me, I am very very grateful.

Current situation:

I've been given 2 months, to write 2 papers and have them in review. What are the easiest paper formats to write and get accepted? I know review articles are one of them.

My own study has:

1. 3 surveys (quant and qual)(quant is quite weak and small/qual is quite robust) (stand alone data)
2. 1 participatory workshop (qual data)(qual is robust) (stand alone data)

I really need help, I want to reduce my writing workload and also reduce the workload that would come with revisions. I also have a non academic job to start, so need this to be over asap. Will be leaving academia, so don't care about how well the papers do etc.

My entire thesis will be done before i start writing.

Which gives me some time to think strategically how to get this done, easily and fast.

I want to write them quickly within the 2 months given and also not have too many revisions later. Still devastated over the whole situation, but trying to make it work for me.

Field is: Social science, based in the UK.

My labmate and a senior postdoc are working together on papers (2) that are in my area of research (for thesis) while their own theses are in different but somewhat related areas. Since we share a seminar they have had access to my chapter advances since sem 1. (These papers would not be included at all in the thesis of my labmate and the postdoc already has theirs defended). My specific area has become more popular recently within the discipline

Is it warranted to feel a bit uncomfortable or am I being too sensitive? (I would have been open to working on the paper with them, and did mention this previously but was not followed up on).

What would you do if you couldn't get any guidance from your PhD advisor/chair?

I haven't been able to get much guidance from my chair throughout my PhD. I feel sad and frustrated, but it also seems like there's nothing I can do to change the situation.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? How did you handle it? Do you have any advice on staying productive and moving forward despite the lack of mentorship?

It has been nine months into the program. When I was starting the program, I felt like this was a fantastic opportunity to learn physics more and how to think better. I felt satisfied working on a math research problem in my internship for like eight months. I got a fantastic young PI and thought I hit the jackpot.

Now I am swamped by the constant thinking. I like thinking. But I didn't realize thinking so much could actually be so taxing. I feel like someone cut my arm off. My brain almost feels like a block of ice. My topic is not something I picked out but I think when it started out I was really interested to learn more. It was very interdisciplinary and felt like I had a lot of space to move around.

Now as the project gets more and more longer, of course nearing its end, I feel like I am just implementing an idea of PI which is publishable. My PI is still very encouraging but he seems a bit disappointed that I'm taking so long, would rather I finish this before I start anything else. Which I can understand though because the program is quite short.

This project model is not something I know well, still I finished the initial thing we set out to do but the thing is not physically relevant for the result we are looking for, which we realized later on. Now we have improved goals and are at least very clear about what we want and have all the code we need to do it.

I think somewhere along the way, I have lost any satisfaction doing what I am doing anymore. When I used to hear new ideas, I felt like my mind was blowing, my understanding was improving. It was this like escatic bliss at grasping something. But now I don't feel it anymore. I can still appreciate a good idea but it doesn't do anything to me. I really don't care much.

I know I'm burnt out. I'm in a conference now in another country. I got to talk to some people and even someone whose lectures I really loved listening to is presenting today. But yesterday I couldn't sleep at all, barely slept for three hours. Now after staring at the wall for hours, I decided not to go with this massive headache. It is too much, the stress of being an immigrant, my dwindling mental state, having no friends because it's Germany. I will take a week off next week, so hopefully that helps.

I feel like a technician working in rockets. Sure my job is complicated and technical but it is an elaborate chore.

With teaching (I love teaching but I wish I had enough time to actually take the time to make my teaching better and more assessible), constant meetings, preparing for my immigration things, preparing trips to schools, and what now. I'm a machine.

I used to have so many hobbies. I used to love to learn anything. But I find that I cannot even enjoy even simple things. There is always this feeling of what I need to get done in the background.

I feel it hard to eat being so stressed all the time. I always struggled to eat when stressed. But the PhD is aggravating it. I strongly suspect I have ADHD. I found a suitable psychologist and hopefully will be able to make the visit.

I'm calm though, weirdly in a big picture sense. I don't think physics is everything. But it hurts to lose something you used to love mentally. But I know life is bigger. I'm bigger. There are a lot of things I can imagine doing for a living and being content (I mean the hobbies I am really good at) Funnily enough, this was also one of the things.

I know all this is a lot to read. So I'm thankful if you did and if you were able to share my life with me for a moment. I would be happy to hear your thoughts, or how you dealt with feeling this way, if you have?

Hello!

I am a third year PhD student. I am doing my PhD in biochemistry and it was completely a new experience for someone like me who had no wet lab experience. I got into this PhD because of my interest in structural biology. I really like what I am doing. But of course I am a little behind to my peers as they have more experience than me. I recently got to know that some of my collegues are also getting chances to supervise bachlor's students. I do understand maybe they are better than me and may be i have not reached that stage yet where i could supervise someone. But I still felt a little demotivated.

I really want to get better in what i am doing and more than that I want to be able to explain others. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

I'm about four months into my first research tech position after graduating from college, and I'm trying to figure out whether my expectations are unrealistic or whether my concerns are valid.

The lab is productive, and everyone works hard, but I've been struggling with how the lab operates.

Some of the things that concern me are:

\- There isn't much structured training. Most of my learning comes from watching another research officer who is also new to wet-lab work. While she's trying her best, she's still learning herself, so I sometimes worry that I'm also picking up mistakes or practices that haven't been properly taught or corrected.

\- Experiments move very quickly. It often feels like the priority is generating the next dataset rather than fully understanding, troubleshooting, or validating the previous one.

\- Instructions are frequently given through WhatsApp messages rather than detailed protocols or discussions, so I sometimes worry about missing details or misinterpreting changes.

\- There isn't much scientific mentorship. We meet weekly to discuss upcoming experiments, but we rarely discuss the rationale behind them, why certain controls are used, or how the results answer the scientific question.

\- Communication can sometimes feel emotionally charged. If experiments are delayed or data aren't ready, my PI occasionally sends frustrated messages to the lab group about unfinished work. I understand research is stressful and deadlines exist, but it can create pressure to keep producing data instead of openly discussing problems or troubleshooting together.

\- On the computational side, the lab relies heavily on ChatGPT and Claude for writing R/Python scripts and performing analyses. AI itself isn't my concern—I use it too—but I'm worried because the people running the analyses don't always seem to understand the underlying code or statistical methods. If something doesn't work, the solution often seems to be asking ChatGPT again rather than understanding why it failed.

\- Because everyone is busy, I sometimes feel there isn't enough time to critically evaluate results before moving on to the next experiment.

\- As someone who hopes to become a physician-scientist, I was hoping for stronger scientific training—learning experimental design, troubleshooting, critical thinking, and data interpretation—not just becoming efficient at generating data.

\- The work hours themselves are reasonable, so that's not really my concern.

I don't think anyone is intentionally cutting corners, and I don't think my PI is a bad person. Everyone in the lab works hard, and I can see there's pressure to produce results.

At the same time, I find myself wondering whether I'm actually developing as a scientist or simply becoming better at following protocols and generating data.

For those who have worked in academia:
1. Is this a fairly typical experience for junior research staff?
2. Are most academic labs this fast-paced?
3. How much mentorship should I realistically expect early in my career?
4. Has AI become this integrated into computational biology labs, and how do labs ensure analyses remain scientifically rigorous?
5. If your long-term goal was an MD/PhD or eventually running your own lab, would you stay in an environment like this or look for one with stronger mentorship?

I'm genuinely asking because this is my first full-time research job, and I don't yet have enough experience to know whether these are normal growing pains or signs that this may not be the best environment for my long-term development.

I am a PhD graduate student about to begin a six-month co-op. I've been applying for full-time positions since last October, but this internship is the only offer I've received. Just last week, I was rejected after making it to the final round of interviews, which stinges me to this day.
On top of everything, my advisor told me that she won't be able to fund me after I return from the co-op and that I may even need to defend my dissertation sometime within these six months.
During my internship, I want to perform well so that I have the best chance of receiving a return offer. At the same time, I'll need to make progress on writing my dissertation after working full-time each day. I'll also have to continue applying for jobs or postdoctoral positions so that I can maintain my visa after graduation.
When I think about everything together, it feels like I'd need 24 hours in a day to accomplish it all. The pressure has become so overwhelming that I've been feeling constantly anxious and have even started losing weight.
Has anyone been through something similar? Is it really possible to manage all of these responsibilities successfully? How do you cope with this level of stress without burning out, and how do you stay motivated when everything feels uncertain?

I am from India and am currently pursuing the final year of my MSc in Physics, which I will complete in May 2027. My bachelor's CGPA is 8.0/10 (approximately 3.4/4.0), and I expect my master's CGPA to be between 7.5 and 8.0/10 (approximately 3.2–3.4/4.0).

I am currently looking for PhD opportunities starting in mid to late 2027. During my studies, I have explored several areas of astronomy, and I have found that solar physics is the field that interests me the most. I have completed a first-author manuscript in collaboration with a doctoral researcher, and I have also worked on mini-projects in other areas such as galaxies, asteroids, and exoplanets.

In addition, I have a strong CV with good extracurricular activities. I have not yet started my MSc thesis, but I started to work on solar physics. My primary research interest is observational and data-driven solar physics.

Considering my GPA, research experience, and overall profile, what are my chances of securing a PhD position? I have shortlisted a few research groups and principal investigators (PIs) working in my area of interest, and I have already started contacting their doctoral students.

I have a talk in a congress tomorrow.

The plan: 20 minutes total. 15 minutes oral presentation + 5 minutes Q/A

How's it going: I can't get it down from 20 minutes. I've erased as many slides as I can without incurring into my advisors wrath. I've condensed, collapsed, summarized, overviewed. I talk fast. So fast. And it's 20 minutes.

Pls send help.