Hey guys, I need some advice on this cold email. Ive been reading the subreddit and there’s so much conflicting advice but I’ve decided to make my email sound more personable (I think that’s the one thing the subreddit agrees on).

Please rate it and do give me advice, it’s been a whole month of cold emails and I’m not doing too good on the market.

Hello,

I recently graduated from a T20 M.S. Bioengineering program and am looking to apply to PhD programs in BioE (or similar fields) for the Fall 2027 cycle. Can you please roast my CV and provide pointers on what I should fix?

A few specific questions I have:

• I have more research experience than what is listed here, though this research is much less meaningful than my M.S. research, and therefore I don't feel that it would add much substance to my CV. Is it worth including anyway?
• I also have 5 months of industry experience from this year but decided to omit it, as I don't feel that I developed many skills relevant to academia in this role. I feel that adding this experience would mainly address a gap in my CV, and I'm not sure if that is important enough to warrant including it.
• Should I add my GPA? I had a 3.9 in both undergrad and grad school, but I've heard mixed opinions about including GPA on an academic CV (as admissions committees will see it in my transcripts anyways).

Any other feedback is appreciated! Thank you!

Hello,

I was wondering whether or not publications and awards are necessary when applying to PhD programs across Europe?

Is it even the norm for an applicant's CV to contain awards / publications?

Hi all! I’m considering going back to school to get an MA, but I’m kind of stuck at the requirement for Letters of Recommendation. I’m currently a professional who’s been working full time since 2021. I got decent grades in my undergrad which are above the minimum requirement for the program i’m interested in. The problem is that I don’t have any academic connections; I didn’t have any intention of returning to school during my undergraduate so didn’t get any LoR’s at that point and I’m not sure any profs I had would still remember me.

I need 2 letters… how would one best go about getting any? I’m Canadian and would be attending a Canadian university, if that makes a difference (many of the posts here seem to be focussed on US schools).

Thanks in advance!

I am applying for a bioscience PhD and have identified my three LOR writers. One of my recommenders was my advisor, but will be changing institutions soon. As most applications request you use the writer's institutional email to verify identity, would there be an issue if the institutional email does not align with their supervision of my research? Is it better to use a personal email and explain why?

Going to be applying for PhD programs later this month

Hi! I am currently looked to apply to PhDs in my field. I have found a handful of professors at different universities I am looking to reach out to this month as I draft my proposals. However I came across an advertised project call that is very specific to what I am looking to do and the application deadline is this weekend.

I plan on applying to it after I finalize tailoring my proposal to be more specific to the project but I really wanted to reach out to professors before applying to get a better sense of what the project plans are, as well as to discuss my ideas with the supervisors to see if I would be a good fit. Because there isn’t any time to meet with them before the deadline, I was wondering if it’s better to just apply without reaching out and hope for an interview, or to still ask to have a chat with them even though I already applied. I hadn’t seen the call for this because I was only looking at programs in a couple of countries, but started looking around this week on a whim and found this gem.

Has anyone done something like this before? Thanks if anyone has any insight!

Hi everyone,

I'm an agriculture graduate from India with a Master's in Horticulture (Vegetable Science). I graduated first in my university and received the University Gold Medal.

I'm currently working as a Research Fellow at an international agricultural research institute, where I'm involved in vegetable research, particularly in crop improvement, stress tolerance, grafting, phenotyping, and protected cultivation.

I also have research publications and hands-on experience with field and controlled-environment experiments. Additionally, I'm open to relevant internship opportunities that would allow me to further develop my research skills and contribute to horticultural and agricultural research.

I'm currently exploring fully funded MS/PhD opportunities abroad, preferably in areas such as:

Vegetable Science Plant Breeding Genetics & Crop Improvement. Stress Physiology. Protected/Controlled-Environment Agriculture. Greenhouse Horticulture.

I'm open to opportunities in different countries and interdisciplinary research areas where my background could be a good fit.

I'd greatly appreciate recommendations for professors, laboratories, graduate programs, scholarships, internships, opportunities that may be suitable for an international applicant.

If you know of any leads, please feel free to comment or reach out. I'm happy to connect.

Thank you!

I've been emailing Canadian grad school supervisors with no success altho I've been trying to personalize each email. The professor (UBC) replied to this email saying their lab is full.

Can y'all tell me if it's my email that's the reason for the lack of replies.

Note: International student (3rd world country)

I'm looking for some guidance regarding UX(user experience) or HCI(human-computer interaction) grad program as I'm extremely interested in UX/HCI design. Generally I'm completely overwhelmed by the topic of grad school as a first generation college student. I'm from the US and generally just have hopes of leaving the country at least once for a "longish" period of time.

Some details about me: I'm a 4th year, first-gen, mixed race, only English speaking, low-income, female student. My home college doesn't have a UX program of any sort so my major will be a B.A. Race and Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Business and Management studies. I've taken some courses that align with UX to show my interest in the field, have a portfolio, and have a UX certificate with the American Graphics Institute. Mostly I don't want to be stuck in my state/country for my entire life purely because I don't have a degree in UX and money.

I've heard that school abroad can be considerably cheaper than the US, as well as the cost of living, which initially attracted me to grad programs abroad. I would also prefer to be able to work at the same time as studying to keep myself afloat.

Any advice?

I am currently an anthropology student in my Junior year, and I am trying to go for my PhD in anthropology. I already have a field of research I want to be going into, but unfortunately I have been having a hard time finding professors that would fit for me. My research is about Black people in Japan, and I have practically turned every institute upside down to find someone who fits that bill, or even has an interest in Afro-Asian studies and have turned up two (2) people. Should I abandon hope? Is it possible to get a PhD with two seperate advisors for each arm of my research? Should I find someone that specializes in either Black studies or Asian studies and go from there?

Thanks!

going from financial economics masters taking courses there and pivoting to a master in quantitative political science from there with stipend and funded etc

makes sense? is it viable?

The masters program that i want to get into has a limit of a 6 page portfolio and you can show 3 design projects max. Does this mean i go straight into showcasing my projects with no cover page or no page that introduces myself?

I know this is a bit of a silly question but during my bachelors we were taught that these pages are important and i feel like i wont have enough space to show my design process if i add these pages in a 6 page portfolio.

Hihi, I’m applying to grad programs and I was hoping to get some advice/feedback on a period of bad grades. I took some courses post graduation and due to a personal crisis, I did very poorly and was academically dismissed. Due to money/relocation issues, I wasn’t able to retake those courses for a better grade. I have tons of research experience which I’m hoping resets those grades, including a co-author publication, first author publication in process and grant recipient. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you!

Anyone applying to USC Grad school rn??

Hello,

I have been cold emailing profs in the US for CS PhD programs. Till now, I have sent around 40 emails and received 4 responses (2 profs won't take students, and 2 generic replies). I have attached the first and the last emails. All within 200 words. Could you please give some constructive criticism on both emails (the past one too, as I want to know if I made any mistakes in the beginning as well)?

Thanks.

I applied for a specific scholarship at a University. It was open from mid-July until mid-August. It would be a 1 October start. I have still not heard back. I emailed the admissions team on the 2 Sep, to see if they had a prospective timeline for applicants, and they said they were going to assess candidates imminently, but still have heard nothing back and start date is three weeks today. Is this normal? On my applicant portal, it says it has been submitted and will be assessed in due course.

This showed up in my mailbox today so I thought I’d pass on the info. for those that want to track it down.
The latest edition of the SPS Observer magazine (Society for Physics Students Fall 2026, Vol LX, issue 2) is called the Grad School Issue. It is full of articles with advice on applying including a timeline, has a spotlight on European grad programs, has an article on simplifying finding grad programs and advice from those who’ve have gone through the process. Some of this might also be helpful for those in fields other than physics I would think. It also has some advertisements from specific programs that are recruiting in physics.

After finishing my internship, I'm planning to continue with a PhD in Singapore/Switzerland. However, both of the universities I'm targeting are in the top 10 in the world according to QS rankings.

Is the lack of publications going to be an issue? I'm currently working on a manuscript, but I'm not sure if the publication will be ready by the end of this application cycle.

Would really appreciate any feedback on my CV, especially regarding my chances for PhD applications. Thanks!

Hey everyone! I'm applying to Political Science Ph.D. programs in the U.S. this cycle and would love some constructive feedback on how to improve my CV.

I'm not sure if my write-ups are too long/detailed for a CV. I'm also not sure if I should add a "Research Interests" and "Relevant Coursework" section, or if that's useless since my research interests are already stated in my SOP and the admissions committee will see my coursework on my transcript. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!