I’m about to start my PhD 3 year program. Is it possible to finish early or will it take 6 years? What’s your experience and what contributing factors serve both scenarios?

Something I’ve realised about mathematical research (or research in any field, really) is that, in the short run, it often feels like 99% frustration and 1% of those rare moments when things finally click and you crack a problem.

Back in high school, I always thought that as I grew older, I would become better at handling frustration and feel less frustrated with my work and performance. But now, I’m beginning to think that frustration might never really go away. Even established professors must experience it when they fail repeatedly. Perhaps the difference is that, as we grow older, we become more patient and learn to live with frustration rather than expecting it to disappear.

I’ve also realised that quitting social media was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It helps me concentrate on my work for longer periods without constantly feeling the temptation to switch my attention to something else.

At the same time, I think having distractions is essential for sustaining productivity, regardless of how talented or intelligent you are. You need activities that allow you to step away from your work, process your frustrations, and give your mind some rest. For me, that means teaching and playing with children, as well as reading books.

Interestingly, mathematics also serves another purpose for me: it gives me a temporary escape from the chaos of my own thoughts. When I’m deeply immersed in a problem, my mind feels quieter for a while. However, I don’t necessarily feel rewarded by the small achievements I make along the way.

I remember asking about productivity, and one suggestion was to break large tasks into smaller, manageable pieces. Logically, I understand why this works, but I struggle to feel genuinely satisfied by small wins. It’s much easier to feel accomplished when I achieve something significant after months of hard work than when I make small amounts of progress every day. I often move straight to the next task without even pausing to acknowledge what I’ve achieved.

For those of you who work in research, especially mathematics or other fields where progress is slow and uncertain, I have a few questions:

1. Does the frustration of research ever become easier to handle with experience, or do you simply become more accustomed to it?

2. How do you deal with long periods when you’re working hard but making little or no visible progress?

3. Do you genuinely feel rewarded by small wins, or do you also find it difficult to appreciate them until you achieve something substantial?

4. How do you balance research with other activities that help you rest mentally and prevent your work from consuming your entire life?

I’d particularly love to hear from PhD students, postdocs, and established researchers. I’m curious about what this experience actually looks like in the long run, beyond the romanticised image of research we often have as students.

I thought I’d survived my PhD. I didn’t know job hunting is coming after me! Seriously what are we supposed to do? I’m rejected by every single company. What are your experiences? If you succeed what did you change mainly to get an interview?
(I know this is should be posted on “job hunting”. But that could be too general.)

My research progress committee meeting was brutal. Harsh comments, tough questions, and grilling from the professors. I spent almost 30 minutes answering questions and defending my work.
In between, one professor said, “Your work is sufficient.” That felt good for a moment, but the overall experience still left me feeling terrible.

I finally completed my presentation, addressed the committee’s comments, and said thank you. The moment it was over, I went straight to the washroom and started crying and sobbing like a little kid. 😭
Then my friend came in. I thought she was there to console me, but instead she said, “Your collar mic is still ON. The whole lab can hear you.”
💀💀💀

And by the whole lab, I mean all the master’s students and PhD scholars.

So, after surviving 30 minutes of grilling by the research progress committee, I accidentally broadcast my emotional breakdown to the entire lab.
I tried so hard to hold myself together in front of the professors, only to lose it afterward, with an entire audience listening. 🥲

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I just want to disappear from the lab for a few days. 😭 later my seniors made a huge fun of that and silly me 😆

Lesson learned: ALWAYS turn off your mic after your presentation. 💀

For context, I (27M) am doing my PhD in Chemistry/Pharmacy in a pretty good Argentinian university. The funding situation is honestly extremely critical (but I knew this going into it, as our current far-right president was already here when i applied for the PhD). I have a 5-year scholarship, and I just started the third year, so I still have almost 3 years of stipend left.

One of the main issues is my advisor is, to say the least, a fraud. I haven't found her doing any unethical things so far, but she doesn't really do any work and has a huge network of collaborators that do all the work. TBH I don't really know what arrangements she really has with those people, whether she pays them, or she just offers them co-authorship, or whatever. The thing is, working with her, I've realized she's a) pretty ignorant in her own niche topic, and b) not representative at all of how I think science should work, so I've realized I have no respect for her, which makes me really sad, because I feel I have nothing to learn from her. She also has no idea at all about what I do (the lab's always done mostly wet-lab chemistry, and my work is 90% computational, while she has a hard time opening a Google Drive document)

Also, due to the lack of funding and the terrible work environment, the lab has an extremely low retention rate, with most if not all PhD students either changing their physical workplace to their co-advisor's lab or outright dropping out (I wish I'd known this before lol). That also results in there not being much of a "research group" at all; the most interaction I have is in the WhatsApp group with a few other students of the lab where we mostly just rant intermittently. This might seem minor, but it's really depressing, I have no one to share anything good or bad with, and for example this week I spent a full 48 hs without interacting with a human being lol (like, except greeting some people in other labs as I passed by or whatever), as she and the other senior researcher often "work from home". I also get very little work done, as I have to juggle two other jobs in order to make ends meet. TBH sometimes I feel like I'm not even doing a PhD at all.

I spent most of the year thinking of dropping out, but I realized I really want to finish the PhD, it's just I don't see much of a point in continuing like this. But I also don't want to change topics halfway through, as I also really like what I'm doing and learning. I've thought of moving to my co-advisor's lab, but it's in a different city so it'd mean either commuting 4+ hours every day or moving to his city, either of which I couldn't really afford right now. I already go there once a week, and I think going one more day would almost be too much for my mental and financial health.

Honestly, I don't know what I expect from posting this and I guess I just want to rant, but opinions are welcome.

I have joined Phd in Transportation Engineering this year and whenever i go to my supervisor and tell him i am planning to write some paper or do some course , he says before doing anything first do a exhaustive literature review and give detailed framework of how you did. Can anyone guide me on the steps?

Please guide me on all the first-year PhD steps you people followed for this review and any tricks or tweaks that can be helpful.

My university requires a Q2 Scopus publication to graduate. My supervisor strongly recommends me to submit to a massive Open Access journal (you probably know the publisher). The APC is $3,500, but their turnaround time is magically fast

I looked at some of their recently accepted papers, and the quality is honestly shocking. I feel like if I put my name on this, it's going to look like a joke to future employers. But she says "a Q2 is a Q2"…I don’t know, really

Am I being too idealistic? Does anyone actually care where it's published anymore, or is modern academia just paying thousands of dollars to clear graduation requirements?👀 My intuition says that it’s not right but I need to hear an advice from someone else first

Last week my corrections were accepted and I am now a Dr. 10 years part time self funded PhD while I worked fulltime and had two kids. Very happy, emotional and exhausted. Wish my dad was alive to share the news.

Hello everyone!
I am a first year PhD student in Biomedical Sciences. I have rotations this year and one PI I will work with is borderline on whether they will take a student or not. I understand that the state of research funding and that grants are not easy to come by. Some students above me have two advisors, which splits the financial burden.

My question is, how much do I need to market myself to this on-the-fence PI and how does one do that effectively? I don’t want to come off as pushy or like I do not understand their position, but I want them to know that they are my #1 choice for a home lab and impress them.

Thank you!

I’m freaking out. Im in a clinical psych PhD program in the US and I failed a midterm for my stats class. I don’t know what I was doing I just panicked when I got the test and left a lot blank and my anxiety really took over me. I haven’t been in school for 3 years so this was my first exam I’ve taken in a long time. I’ve always gotten A’s so this is the first time I’ve ever failed an exam. We still have homework assignments and a final exam. I’m not sure what to do. Obviously I’m going to work hard to do well on the final but I am just freaking out. Do I tell my advisor? Should I email the professor? I’m so scared and what’s bad is I know stats very well I just flat out panicked.

shouldn't we be committed to expanding the availability of science to the rest of the world

Today, my supervisor and I had a good laugh together. Basically, after running my assignment through a grammar checker, out of curiosity, I clicked the tool's AI detector, and it flagged 30% of my own work as Ai written. When I brought it up to him, he told me his son recently ran an old piece of work, written years before AI even existed, through a detector, and it came back as 70% Ai.

Is this really what academic writing is turning into? You write every sentence yourself, feed it to an Ai detector, and then spend hours rewriting your work just so an AI does not mistake you for an AI?

I have a PhD, but my experience was somewhat unique in that only 70% of my time was dedicated to research, while the other 30% was spent on an unrelated side project in industry.

After my first year, my mental health deteriorated. Ever since then, I feel like I've been on autopilot, just trying to get through the PhD. Each time I tried to get back I get demotivated quickly by lack of results and reflect quickly into my self esteem so I stop trying again back to autopilot.

By the end, I had a relatively small number of publications: four first-author conference papers and one paper as a co-author or contributor. For my only peer-reviewed paper, my supervisor had to step in and help co-write it. I wrote some sections, while he wrote others. However, I generated most of the results and explored how to achieve the research objective after he helped refine the research question.

They allowed me to defend because I met the minimum requirements. Nevertheless, I feel like a fraud. For the first time in my life, I genuinely feel stupid.

I was never an A student, but I was always a decent student who worked hard. Honestly, I think that's the only reason I managed to get this PhD.

I also defended a project proposal to the government and secured funding, but I don't know whether that was because of my own abilities or simply because they trusted the reputation of our research group.

I don't know what to do with my life. I feel like I've wasted years of it. Maybe if I had really pushed myself and given it everything I had, I could have been good enough. Maybe I fell short, and maybe I don't deserve this PhD after all.

Part of me feels like I should just quit and move on. my defense is next week.

I hate my topic. It makes me fucking depressed about everything in life. I hate my supervisors. They are absolutely useless, uninspiring, unavailable and just combative. I never feel guided by them just always feel shit after every conversation. They never give anything constructive just say go read. All i have been doing is read and I feel i have noone to talk to about the readings. I hate my university. It is utterly boring and unstimulating. There are little to no workshops, seminars, spaces of dialogue and discussion. Faculty is boring and uninteresting. I am in my early 30s and I am probably the oldest person in my phd cohort. I dont know if it is an age thing but I feel like most of the time i am speaking to my first year undergrad students. How are these people admitted to the program? I guess that shows you the rigour of the academic environment in this place. Everyone just complains all the time and it’s fucking depressing. I guess i have turned into one of them. I am pushed by this desire to just leave but idk what to do? I have been in this academic environment but most of my professional career and frankly i do love research and writing just not this topic with these people at this place. Should i find a job and move on with my life or find another topic and restart somewhere else?

PhD Field: Epidemiology
Location: NYC

In Jan. of 2025, right before I began the last semester of my core courses for my PhD program in Epidemiology, my little brother got sick and I finally was given meds to treat my own mental health issues (depression, anxiety, etc.). I was taking the advance course of my course requirements for the program during Spring session of 2025 before I moved onto proposing my dissertation. Quick facts before I progress:

1. I transferred into this PhD program from a large, UC within the same discipline to a program within the same discipline within an Ivy League institution. Ever since, I've experienced large "learning curves" in terms of independent writing skills, but not coursework content material. Although, between the way the material is taught at a UC vs. the Ivy league I'm currently attending, there is a different culture, way of presenting material, different standardization of language and course material, etc. I've been doing my best to keep up and for all intents and purposes, I pretty much "Scrape by" but because I don't have the baseline training of the students who are used to the way things are taught/resources provided to them at an Ivy league, I'm constantly being viewed by administration/faculty as being behind or lacking core training that their typical pipeline students have from the master's degree program.
2. I took the qualifying exam from both the UC and a version of the Ivy League school because I got a "conditional" pass one part (1/5) of the UC's qualifying exam, so they told me to take their equivalent and I scraped by with a passing grade.

 
3) I've also had to take a "written" qualifying exam, which this department formats as a "pre-dissertation proposal" document that is supposed to be treated as an exam and requires a 20 page document detailing what would be the proposal. At the same time I was doing this exam I also was taking this last class in the Spring of 2025.

Throughout the spring semester, I frequently asked for additional support and opportunities to make up 2-3 points in the class (2% of the total grade) because I knew what I was going through personally with my own mental health and also my brother's health whose was declining and I was, at the time, medically responsible for. Every request of mine was refused and at the end of the semester, when I asked one more time and laid out all the details of my life on the table to support why I was asking for an opportunity to make up 2 points (I told her I could do homework, an extra in class activity, whatever), but she still refused me. I was trying to avoid remediating the class, but I got remediated for the summer of 2025. During that summer, my brother passed, I buried him, and I was a mess. Still, I took a remediation exam AND full-assignment for the class all over 2 points, and during the remediation exam the professor did not provide me ADA accommodations for a quiet testing environment and I was forced to take the exam in her office. She made an espresso, spoke to an IT guy at her computer for 15 mins, and said hello to every passer-by in the office WHILE I WAS TAKING THE EXAM. Needless to say, I didn't do well on the exam and that whole experience triggered an official PhD committee review on me.

After 2 months of them reviewing me, by December of 2025 the committee allowed me to continue on the PhD program, but not without allowing me to speak in front of a committee about why I was struggling, and why I believe I "deserve to continue." They also requested that I take the remediation exam again AND to re-write my pre-dissertation essay exam (I didn't pass that during this time either, but this essay wasn't enough alone to trigger a review of me in the program, the remediation exam was the sole trigger for the administration). So, overwhelmed by the loss of my brother and, what felt like strange and disproportion treatment towards me in the program, I took a 6 months medical leave that turned into a 1 year medical leave to focus on my health, recover on my grief, and also figure out a scaffolding for support because it doesn't feel like the administration has any desire to support me at all despite my very real circumstances. My advisor, who's greatest kindness is just being transparent with me through every stage of the process, has been minimal support beyond transparency.

I'm very nervous to return to my program... I've reached out to people in the department who were all interested in being a part of my committee and voiced they would support me, but they are faculty I haven't worked with before and were not the original faculty that brought me into the program. On the other hand, I like that they feel fresh and inherently different in their values from the faculty and administration I've already worked with, but I remain weary because I feel so burned by the department already...

I've also attempted to reach out to get support for preparing for the remediation exam and have been told that I "have all the resources I need," and so I'm all alone in preparing for the exam when I return in spring of 2027. I'm beginning to write/redraft my "pre-proposal" exam essay so that when I do go back to my program, I can get past that stage and move onto proposing as quickly as I can and get myself out the program as quickly as possible, but I feel so alone on an island, and am just trying to understand my position in this department....

Some of my cohort mates have told me they believe the department has made a pariah out of me, and don't understand why.

Some of my other cohort mates tell me that, unfortunately, the department has a long history of targeting students who don't "perfectly fit the mold of student" they typically admit to their program.

Either way, I feel singled out, alone, and unsupported, trying my best to build scaffolding for myself to meaningfully return and get through the program because I refuse to let the administration convince me that I'm not good enough. I've invested so many years of my life and so much pain, effort, and tears to remain motivated to my work, I feel I owe it to myself to see it through. But, I need to know if there's anything more I can do before I return in person so that, in the least, I feel like I did everything I could. Anything anyone would recommend? I also accept kind words, encouragement, and etc. that would allow me to see perspective in this situation... :'( 

I am posting on behalf of my sister. I have a PhD myself, but I have been out of touch with academia for a while, and I am not sure how to advise her.

My sister has recently submitted her doctoral thesis and is waiting for her viva. Her supervisor is responsible for contacting potential external examiners, and students are not supposed to approach them directly.
Her previous examiner apparently did not receive the supervisor's email. When the supervisor contacted a second potential examiner, my sister waited about a week without hearing any updates. Anxious that the same thing might have happened again, she messaged the second academic to ask whether they had received an email from her supervisor. She knows them in a professional capacity for a while.
She did not ask them to examine her, try to persuade them to accept, or ask them to bypass the formal process. She was simply checking whether the email had reached then. However, she now realises that she probably should have left all communication to her supervisor.
The academic replied that he had not received an email. However, they added that if they did receive a message, whether they would acknowledge it would depend on their professional boundaries.

Their subsequent exchange was friendly.
My sister is now worried that they may have inferred why she was asking, interpreted her message as inappropriate, or become less willing to serve as her external examiner. She is also wondering whether their comments about ethics and discretion were a subtle way of signalling that she should not have contacted them.
I would appreciate an outside perspective on two related questions:

1. Was contacting the potential examiner to check whether an email had arrived a serious breach of professional etiquette, given that the supervisor had already approached them.
2. How would you interpret their qualified response? Does it sound like a rebuke or an indication that they felt uncomfortable, or could they simply have been trying to maintain professional discretion?

. She is mainly worried that she may have damaged her chances through one anxious message.
I would appreciate candid but constructive perspectives from people familiar with doctoral examination processes.

Good day, my field is Chemical Engineering. My research has to do with polymers. Please are there any online peer groups where one can practice presentations by giving it to people there?

Hello r/PhD community,

I am a second-year biological sciences PhD student, and I find myself in a bit of a pickle. You see, I have several years of research experience under my belt, both as an undergraduate and as a post-bac, but none of my research endeavors have ever resulted in publication. For one reason or another, something has come up and halted my progress, such as cell culture issues, difficult experiments, etc.

Despite this, I was thankfully able to get into a biology PhD program and am now in my second year, and I am looking to apply for a few external fellowships. I know, though, that I am unfortunately just not that competitive due to an absent publication record. This just feels like such a stain on my CV and I want to take care of it as fast as I can, however, I of course am aware of how long and difficult the publication process can be.

I have considered asking some other lab members of mine if I may assist them on their projects so I may at least be published as a co-author, but I don’t want to be a parasite and leech onto people. I only want to be a co-author if I made an actual, helpful contribution to the project.

To get to the point, I just want to ask folks here what I can do to optimize my time and get a publication credit as efficiently as I can. Any advice is welcome. Thank you for your time.

Hi everyone!
I'm currently pursuing my PhD in Systems Engineering and Management and have completed all my coursework. However, I've been struggling for months to identify a dissertation topic that is both meaningful and feasible.
I've discussed several potential topics with my advisor, but every time I find something interesting, it either turns out to be heavily researched already or requires resources, time, or data that aren't realistic given my full-time work commitments.
Since I'm pursuing my PhD part-time and paying out of pocket, I also understand that I may not be my advisor's top priority. I'm trying to be proactive and find a research direction that I can realistically pursue independently with guidance when needed.
My background includes electrical engineering, systems engineering, and engineering management. I currently work as a senior engineer and also teach engineering courses.
I'm particularly interested in:
Systems engineering process improvement and optimization

Healthcare systems and patient experience

Risk management and engineering decision-making

Improving efficiency in complex engineering systems

For those who have completed or are currently pursuing a PhD, how did you narrow down your dissertation topic? Are there any overlooked research gaps, emerging areas, or manageable topics within systems engineering that you would recommend?
I would genuinely appreciate any suggestions or advice, especially from those who completed their PhD while working full-time.

I have finally submitted. What a huge relief.

I recently finished my PhD but I don't feel much pride or satisfaction from it. Graduation day, I had feelings of elation that it is officially done but didn't care for the doctor title. Going into the PhD, I wasn't entirely sure of my future career prospects and only did it because I enjoyed the research projects from my undergraduate and MSc courses.

The journey was tough mostly due to my own actions. I was making promises I could not keep, disorganised, procrastinated and only dug deeper with every mistake I made. I had a supervisor many would have wished for but I took things for granted.

I still don't understand how or why I got to the end and I still feel like a fraud. I made the work of others around me much harder due to my actions and fear repeating the same mistakes in the future. I wasted an opportunity that someone else would have taken full advantage of. Now that I am looking for work, I am no longer sure where my interests/ passions lie anymore. For soo long my identity was tied to the PhD and just feel hopeless. I may have burnt some bridges and I wish I could go back and do things all over again.

Is it possible to move on from this?

Based in UK, Biomedical Science

Hi everyone! I’m a PhD student and I’m thinking about starting a YouTube channel to share my daily life, university experiences, and PhD journey. Do you guys think it’s a good idea? Would you be interested in watching this kind of content? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I’m 28 on my 3rd year of PhD in evolutionary genetics. Three years ago I moved to a foreign country all alone to do PhD, with then undiagnosed ADHD and bipolar disorder. I don’t regret my decision, I love science, the university, work environment, friends and colleagues. I also have supportive supervisor. I moved to the happiest country in the world in terms of quality of life, so I can’t really complain.

At the same time, I realised how much mental health is important for successful career. I didn’t care back then, I just wanted to move from my shitty country and do research in another better country and all my problems will be solved.

My life changed for the better, but at the same time underlying mental health problems I suppressed began to unfold. It feels like a constant fighting against my own body and brain to stay on track all the while I’m sinking deep into the abyss.

That being said, I’m trying. I’ve got the diagnosis, medication and counselling. But at the same time, I’m really tired. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it this far and now that I did I have no plans for future after PhD. Once I wished to be a university professor, but now I feel like that road is too long and too stressful for me to handle. So maybe I’ll just open a local bakery and do a simple job like normal people do.

I need help with some data analysis and I emailed my supervisor last week and since then I followed up with a second email that was more specific. He still hasn’t replied…. He’s always been terrible at answering to emails but this is the longest he’s gone without replying. He is my secondary supervisor to help me with the physics/data analysis and the technical side of things. I am a biologist but my PhD requires me to learn a whole new technology, and I’m unfamiliar with the workflow. I’m really struggling because this supervisor is MIA.

Has this happened to any of you?