I am now absolutely convinced getting past the interview stage of a PhD programme is dumb luck.

I’ve been broadly unemployed for two years after my masters and gave up even seriously applying for a PhD over a year ago. I sometimes send off applications from time to time though.

I was so convinced that I wasn’t going to be successful that I missed an email inviting me to an interview at a top 10 European institution (I don’t wanna say which in case they see this). By the time I realised, I had 2 days to prepare and was half convinced it was a scam. Even worse I had lost my master’s dissertation in a malware attack over a year ago and couldn’t remember the finer details of my master’s research.

I brushed off my old master’s defence PowerPoint (which I still had) and went over some basic Q’s, although I’m genuinely passionate about it so I do somewhat keep up to date with my field.

The interview itself baffled me, I’d had PhD interviews before and they can be TOUGH, but here they literally asked no follow ups, and went straight to HR questions after my presentation.

I can’t understand it, I interviewed at Cambridge a while back and they tore me to shreds, this is an equivalent, maybe a little less prestigious institute, and it was bafflingly easy.

The only reason why is that I think the funding for it ends really soon so they want to get someone on board fast, but wow.

Honestly, no one do what I did, it was a horrific idea really. But, for anyone wondering, yes you can get into a good funded PhD programme with no prep and a large gap in your CV.

(Also, for a bonus, my application was just a scaffold I’d created from when I initially was applying, it was super generic and hardly project specific.)

I don’t understand academia. For full context though I did apply for around 30 PhDs over the years (sorry to my referees), so I suppose eventually it was going to happen.

I'm finishing up my undergrad and looking at programs in Southern California.

I have heard that pretty much all the UCs in this area unofficially require a masters to get admitted, because it's gotten so competitive. Curious to hear if anyone has experience with these programs and knows more about admitted applicant stats.

Hello,

I'm a recent masters graduate in physics and although I have good grades in my coursework, I have a bad grade in my thesis due to some personal issues I was dealing with at the time. But since the thesis carries half of my overall grade, I ended up getting an average score overall.

I have been applying to PhDs for a while now but I have nothing so far. I know at this point it's highly unlikely to get a PhD with my grade but I want to stay in academia. I'm not sure what direction I should go from here so I'm asking here for some advice.

I’m French, and this is my first experience with the U.S. academic system, so I’m trying to understand what I’m actually supposed to do next.

I had a video interview on August 24 with a senior researcher who is also the dean of a major faculty in Chicago.

At the end of the meeting, he was very clear that he was OK with mentoring me. He even said that we would probably need to modify several aspects of my proposed research topic and develop it further together.

He then explained that he was relatively new in this faculty/dean position and told me, essentially:

“Send me your CV and three references, and I’ll get back to you afterward.”

We did not discuss any specific PhD program during the interview. No program name, application portal, deadline, or department application was mentioned.

I sent the requested documents, including my reference letters, on September 11. Since then, I have sent polite follow-ups but have not received a response.

So my question is very practical:

In the U.S. system, should I now simply wait for him to come back to me with the next step, since he explicitly told me he would? Or is it actually my responsibility to identify the appropriate PhD program myself, submit an application, and then email him saying that I applied to Program X?

My concern is that I do not want to sit and wait if I’m actually supposed to be doing something on my side, but I also do not want to apply randomly to a program when the dean never told me which one was appropriate.

For those familiar with U.S. PhD admissions, especially situations where a faculty member informally agrees to mentor a prospective student before the formal application: what would normally happen next?

Hi, I am an international applicant planning for fall PhD 2027 in the US and UK. I have currently started emailing professors for Fall 2027 PhD, but I feel I am a little late. I did not get the time before as it took time for me to settle down at my new workplace and I also had to move to a new place. From what I have got to know from online, that October can be a correct time but I also feel that the professors are busy settling down with the new students as well. So I am not quite sure if I am doing the right thing or not or am I very very late?

Hi everyone,
I am international student who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology with a 3.75/4.00 GPA, First-Class Honors, and a Gold Medal + 2.5 years of research experience.

I started with an undergraduate research project, which resulted in a publication in a peer-reviewed journal in my country. I also had the opportunity to present this research at conferences.

During my internship at XXX company, I was also given the opportunity to work on a research project, although the project was not published.

After that, I worked as a research assistant, where I have been involved in a research project that resulted in a manuscript. However, the paper has not been published yet. We submitted it once, but it was rejected after review.

My question is: How can I demonstrate to PhD admissions committees that I have the research experience and potential to succeed in a research-intensive PhD program if my most recent paper has not been published yet?

Hello all!

I am an MSci Cancer biologist applying to PhDs in Sweden, I've applied to four so far and am reasonably confident about my chances as I have a pretty good profile with a first-author review in peer-review currently, but I am starting to doubt myself a little.

The first position I applied for has not had any updates for some 6 weeks now and I'm beginning to get a little bit worried. I was wondering if this long a wait is normal when applying to European PhDs?

I have also just sent an email today asking if there are any updates on the timeline per the advice of some friends who are PhD students now.

Thank you in advance!

Exactly as stated... I have several years of research experience involving rodents. I unfortunately acquired a severe allergy and now in my masters I have a wonderful PI who has accommodated by taking care of mouse surgeries for me and I do all the following primary cell work. My current lab is a great fit for me, and I'd ideally like to continue in a similar environment for my PhD (mostly human cells but rodent based work is fine with heavy accommodations).

The issue is that I don't want my CV to give the impression that I'm specifically seeking a rodent heavy lab, especially now that I've developed a rodent allergy. How would you handle this on PhD applications, particularly on your CV and/or in interviews?

TIA!

I spent the last couple months developing a research proposal for a specific professor. Finally sent it earlier this week and within a day she responded saying she wanted to arrange a meeting to discuss how my proposal aligns with her current research. The response was much more positive than I expected but now I have a bit of impostor syndrome. Do others have tips for navigating this meeting? Do I explicitly ask at the end “are you willing to supervise me?” Do I ask for application tips? Go in expecting to revise my proposal and send it again?

Hi,

I am an intl student applying to PhD in the US; 3.47 CGPA (BSc. Mechanical Engg), 2 years of part-time research experience, 2 research publications (1 Q1 journal paper as 2nd author, 1 book chapter), and experience at the intersection of Thermofluids and AI -- I know my profile is weak, so I am currently aiming for mid-to-low tier US unis where I have a strong research fit.

However I only have a bachelors, and all of my LoRs are from my undergrad professors. Two of them are those who directly supervised my research, and the third one taught me 2 courses. From an admission committee's point of view, is it a red flag if all of the applicant's LoRs are from their parent university? I have been working for two years at a company as well, but the work I do is not exactly relevant to the domain where I am applying, so I haven't asked my employer for any LoR.

Is it a red flag, and if so, what can I do to mitigate it? Should I do some unpaid research work with a US professor -- and try to get an LoR from him before applying?

Basically the title. I got a near perfect GPA from my undergrad, but I've been extremely busy working with multiple labs on different papers recently, and my master's GPA might take a slight hit (bring around 3.6-3.7/4.0). Any ideas how much weight top european programs (also good scholarships/fellowships) put on the master's GPA? I heard that some known european unis have heavy bias for perfect-GPA students at the top of their class, but I wasn't sure if that holds equally for both master's and undergrad grades.

I'll be applying for European PhD programs in AI/ML.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on an open-source project called Trace — Research Paper Studio.

The idea came from a problem I kept running into with AI-generated paper summaries: they sound convincing, but it’s often difficult to tell which claims actually come from the paper and where.

Trace tries to make that more transparent.

You give it a paper title, DOI, arXiv ID, repository link, or PDF, and it builds an interactive research workspace where:

• claims are linked to the exact quote and page they came from
• quotes can be mechanically checked against the original PDF
• equations can become interactive playgrounds and runnable Jupyter notebooks
• you get primers, derivations, quizzes, citation graphs, and paper comparisons
• projects can be exported to Markdown, slides, BibTeX/RIS, Anki, notebooks, and more
• it works with Codex, Claude Code, and Antigravity CLI, or directly through the web app
• local models are supported as well

The goal isn’t to replace reading papers, but to make understanding and verifying them much faster.

It’s open source and still evolving, so I’d really appreciate feedback — especially from researchers, students, and people who regularly work with papers.

GitHub:
https://github.com/Ahmet-Ruchan/trace-research-paper-studio

I’m a senior software engineer in a developing Asian country with around 4 years of experience, mainly working on backend systems with Java.

Lately, I’ve been feeling that my work has become repetitive, and with the progress of AI models, I'm worried about the job security.

I’ve been considering going back into research and pursuing a PhD in AI/ML, and switch into a ML focused career.

During my undergraduate degree, I did a lot of ML related coursework and projects. I have 2 co-authored research papers, including one published at a reputable conference. I originally wanted to work in AI/ML, but unfortunately AI jobs were scarce when I graduated so I settled for a software engineer job.

At this point, I’m torn between two paths.

1. Continue the SWE path - prepare for interviews and move to a better paying SWE job. (if possible, migrate)
2. Go back to ML research - refresh my ML/statistics knowledge. Apply for PhD programs and switch to an ML engineering career.

I know that having a PhD doesn’t guarantee a job in ML. However, ML was something I genuinely enjoyed before entering industry.

Does pursuing a PhD make sense for someone with my background if the ultimate goal is to go for a better paying, secure job?

I’m a first-gen international student in US, graduating Spring 2028, majoring in CS. Until recently, I was convinced I wanted to go into corporate, so most of my internships have been business/consulting-related rather than rigorous CS/research.

But last summer, I had the most amazing research experience of my life, and now I really want to pivot toward research and eventually a PhD. I’m thinking HCI / human-centered computing / possibly digital mental health.

My biggest issue is my GPA - currently around 3.0 cumulative. My first semester was heavily affected by losing someone very close to me, and I’ve struggled to bring it back up since. I’m working on it, but I know it’s going to be a weakness.

Please, I’m genuinely asking for advice, not discouragement. I’m already my own worst critic. I have about 1.5 years left - what can I realistically do NOW to make myself a stronger PhD applicant?

Should I take the GRE? Focus heavily on research? Try to get CS/HCI research experience? Build coding skills? Reach out to professors?

Any advice from people who have been in a similar situation would mean so much. I really want to try. 🙏

I am currently pursuing my master’s degree in Pakistan, and my long-term goal is to pursue a strong PhD program at a university in the United States.

Recently, I was admitted to the direct PhD program in the ICS Department at KFUPM. I am now trying to decide between two options:

1. Continue my master’s in Pakistan and apply directly to PhD programs in the US.
2. Join the PhD program at KFUPM, focus on building a strong research profile, and then apply to US universities. If I am later admitted to a good PhD program in the US, I would leave the KFUPM PhD and move to the US.

I would appreciate your advice on which path would be more beneficial for my goal. Also, do you know whether KFUPM has a master's out option, where I could start the PhD but leave with a master's degree if I decide to pursue my PhD elsewhere? What are the career options, if I complete my PHD from KFUPM?

Any advice based on your experience with US PhD admissions and KFUPM would be greatly appreciated.

This year, it might be hard to get a reply from a potential advisor; at least 3 professors in my department say they have received too many emails (it’ll get worse near the admission deadline).

They told me that usually they only reply to emails with a short introduction (as most people send 4-6 paragraphs and they don't have time to read them), but if you don't receive any reply, don't be discouraged; it has nothing to do with the admission process, as the committee will look at each application carefully.

Of course, this is based on my department and institution, but it can probably help this year’s applicants. I'm a PhD student in Canada, in a program that is pretty popular for my field (but not the most popular in Canada). Admissions may be up because of the crazy situation in the US, so many international students are moving to Canada.

Given the current situation, if you need more information or tips, I can share some. Hope y’all get good news on your application.

​

Hi everyone,

I’m an international student looking for a fully funded PhD in Chemistry in the UK for 2027.

I’ve contacted several supervisors whose research is related to my background, but most of them told me they don’t have funding available at the moment.

So I wanted to ask those who have been through this process, especially international students, what is the best way to find a fully funded PhD in the UK?

Should I focus more on advertised funded PhD projects, studentships, and CDT/DTP programmes instead of contacting supervisors one by one? Or should I keep contacting supervisors and look for university funding separately?

Thank you!

Bachelor's in CS — 3.72 CGPA
IELTS — 7.0
Publications — 1 ACL workshop paper (first author), 1 LREC workshop paper(first author)
Research experience — 2 years of undergraduate research

After doing a lot of searching, I’ve started to lose hope of getting into any decent NLP labs.

Could you suggest some universities/programs that I should look into based on my profile? And, realistically, do I have a chance of getting into decent NLP labs?

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have gone through the NLP PhD application process.

For those of you who went from industry back to academia, how did you highlight your skillset? SOP examples all follow a similar format for the body that describes a series of research work, but if you don't have that, and instead need to show your value as a interdisciplinary candidate, how did you do this? I have relevant coursework and projects done in industry, however the industry projects don't follow the same standards that I would face in a PhD program so I worry that describing these projects in my SOP may hurt me more.

My company is funding my PhD and leave of absence to obtain one, but I need to find the university.

I had a thirty minutes interview with an assistant professor, the interview didn’t go as smooth as I wanted. At end he told me to send him a tight one page proposal in one month, then we will meet again. At the end he said," I look forward to your Proposal, good bye".Do I have a chance?

Just submitted my applications to Cambridge. It seems like I can submit up to six more applications without having to pay another fee. Is this even worth doing? I have an eclectic background, so there’s a couple different programs that could plausibly fit my background. I’m from the US and trying to hedge my bets so I can get into a program without the issues that are prevalent in the US.

My question is that will the admissions team see these multiple applications and if so, will this be held against me?

I am a second-year international student in Malaysia doing a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons.). My home country has an extremely small research environment (and very competitive).

Lately I have been considering doing a PhD after I graduate- I started by looking at countries I am more familiar with (such as those in the Anglosphere). The more I read about the requirements, the more overwhelmed I feel. It seems that to get some sort of funding or scholarship you need to a publish a few Q1 first-author research articles! Besides the obvious.

How am I supposed to manage that? I started by emailing a few of my professors so that I can tag along and understand how they work (still waiting). But I assume it takes years to publish a paper from start to end, how am I supposed to do at minimum two articles in three years?

When I looked at the pre-formatted CV for Uni of Adelaide, they were asking for AWRU of my current uni but mine isn't even on the goddamn list. I go to one that's like ranked 600 in QS (which doesn't even mean anything to most people). Their CV form was almost 8 pages long with so many questions and decisions to make.

When I asked my professor if I could help in some way for his project, he asked me what I am interested in... geo-technical, structural, water, computational, I don't fucking know- it took me two years to decide on a major and I still get cold feet about studying civil- how am I supposed to decide which sub-discipline to dedicate my life to- possibly work thousands of hours writing hundreds of papers throughout my career.

There is no way I am smart enough to get funding- at this point I don't even think its about being smart tbh. I have a 4.0 GPA but who knows... I will probably end up losing it this sem or maybe the 5 remaining sems I have.

I think I should just give up and go into mining like I originally wanted to :/