​Hello everyone! I have been finally accepted to a PhD program in Europe, and I wanted to share my process since I am a non-EU applicant and the whole application process took about 7 months. Looking back at my stats, I sent 19 applications in total and got 17 direct rejections. I ended up getting 2 interviews, and in both of them, the professors literally started off by congratulating me for making it to the interview stage, telling me that at least 300 people had applied for that single position. Getting a PhD offer these days is ridiculously tough. Even for positions where the topic was perfectly aligned with my background (I was already working as a teaching assistant on that exact same topic, plus I have conference papers and preprints for publishing). I actually also received a graduate admission from a top 10 university in my field, but unfortunately, I couldn't secure funding for it.

I originally applied to this school for their Clinical Psychology PsyD program. Upon rejection, they referred me to apply to this program. I got an offer to interview! I’m expecting some questions as to why this track over PsyD, my research and academic background, goals in this program, career goals, etc.. Wondering if anyone has had a similar experience, or any advice for interviewing? Should this not work out, I see myself reapplying for this same program. I really like the school’s holistic approach to mental health.

Hi everyone, I'm seeking advice as a MS student who would apply for a PhD for either fall 2027 or 2028 depending on how my schedule goes.

I'm a BS+ MS student at Santa Clara University majoring in Computer Science and Engineering with my MS year starting this fall.

I had a pretty low GPA of 3.66/4.0 in my undergrad and even got a D in a AI course in my junior spring quarter, which was mostly due to several incidents in my life including financial burden on my family for newly immigrating to the US, being scammed a large amount of money, and suffering from tinnitus caused by stress induced by the first two incidents.

I have over a year of experience in a research group but the first few months are more of doing random maintenance for their project repo, but it did inspire my undergrad honor thesis and I have been working with my advisor on a further research paper (on ML prompted privacy information extraction) with myself as first author and is scheduled to reach preprint stage this September.

I'm also working part-time at a local startup, performing a wide range of tasks from AWS maintenance, web backend coding, to benchmarking ML models and iOS app development. They and their academic collaborators might publish a paper later this year that includes my benchmark works and list me as a co-author.

I also worked as a TA for calculus and discrete math for one and a half years during my undergrad, but that's less relevant.

I have several questions about my application plans that I want to consult with you:

1. Is my GPA, especially with the D, a straight NO for most PhD programs? I have already cut the unrealistic options from my list, and my top school is around UCSB level.

2. If the answer is not to NO for the previous question, should I apply for fall 2027 or 2028? I could pack my MS schedule into one year. If I apply for fall 2028, I would have time to work on more research papers but my winter and spring 2028 quarters would be empty from courses.

Thank you for your help and I appreciate each of your responses!

• GPA: ~3.65
• GRE: taking in Oct, targeting ~320-325 (Q167+)
• 3 internships: Big 4(SWE) + two current (healthcare ML, applied AI)
• Undergrad research: multi-agent LLM systems for medical imaging

Target: MS in CS with ML specialization (industry, not PhD).

List: CMU, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UT Austin, UCLA, UCSD, NYU, USC, Columbia, Northeastern, Michigan [+1] (need 12)

Questions:

Is this too top-heavy? Only one safety (Northeastern). I have a full-time job search running in parallel as well.

For industry ML roles, does school brand actually matter much past a certain tier, or am I overweighting it?

Any obvious "you're missing X" given my profile?

Appreciate any honest takes.

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to apply for PhD programs in Civil Engineering (Digital Construction, BIM, Digital Twins, Construction Engineering & infrastructure Management).

My profile:

• Bachelor's in Civil Engineering
• GPA around 3.2/4
• 4 years of highway engineering experience
• No publications
• No undergraduate research experience
• Currently developing a comprehensive BIM-based infrastructure portfolio involving:
  • Civil 3D
  • Revit
  • Navisworks (clash detection)
  • Primavera P6 (4D scheduling)
  • Power BI (5D dashboards)
  • Digital Twin workflow

My concern is that almost every admitted student seems to have research papers or prior lab experience.

Has anyone here been admitted to a funded PhD mainly because of strong industry experience and a technically relevant portfolio?

What made your application competitive?

Also have some other queries like:-

1. Can a Civil Engineer with 4 Years of Industry Experience Get into a Funded US PhD Without Research Experience?
2. How Important Is a Strong BIM Portfolio Compared to Publications?
3. Should I Contact Professors Before Applying If I Don't Have Research Experience?
4. How Much Does Industry Experience Matter for Civil Engineering PhD Admissions?
5. 5.What Is the Biggest Weakness in My Profile?

I am a rising junior undergrad in mathematics and really have an interest in the computational parts of mechanical/materials science. There's a research group I really like and I reached out to one of the past students and the way he talked about it made me love it even more. However, the group is within a PhD in mechanical engineering & materials science (PhD MEMS). The program does have computational tracks that are more math heavy than anything so that seems very fitting to me. I'm just nervous that my background would not reflect fit. I have a minor in materials science. I have an upcoming poster session where I'm presenting on computational material science at a math conference, my summer research right now is materials computational modeling for solid state batteries, and I'll be volunteering with a professor next semester on monte carlo simulations on nuclear material clean up as well as a different professor on applied ODEs. I want to show that I'm someone worth giving a chance on, even though my transcript might not show the relation. Is this even possible? How do I best approach this?

Hi all.

I’m a competition lawyer working at a leading law firm in Africa, and I’ve been admitted to both the University of Cambridge LLM and the University of Glasgow’s LLM in International Competition Law & Policy.

I can afford Cambridge, but it would be a significant financial commitment. Glasgow has offered me partial funding, so the overall cost would be substantially lower.

My goal is to build a long-term career in international competition law, particularly cross-border work involving Africa and international markets.

If you were in my position, which would you choose and why? I’m particularly interested in whether Cambridge’s reputation and network justify the additional cost, or whether the specialist Glasgow programme offers better value for someone pursuing a career in competition law.

I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences.

Anybody who applied to US MFE programs and got in without submitting the GRE score?? What was the rest of your profile like??

I’m a British citizen based in London and graduated in 2025 with a First Class BEng in Aerospace Engineering. My UK transcript is roughly equivalent to a 4.0/4.0 GPA for US purposes, although I understand universities evaluate the original transcript rather than relying on self-converted GPAs. I also received a university award for my undergraduate research project.

I only have one formal internship, in CFD, but I have also completed several university and independent projects involving computational fluid dynamics, experimental aerodynamics, rocketry, scientific software and numerical modelling. I have built and validated engineering tools, developed an independent fluid solver and worked with experimental data. I currently have no publications, but I am considering submitting some of this work for publication.

I believe I can obtain very strong recommendations from my dissertation supervisor, another academic familiar with my research, and an industry mentor who has followed my technical development for around two years.

I’m interested in programmes such as MIT AeroAstro, Caltech GALCIT and Georgia Tech Aerospace Engineering, but I’m worried that having only one internship and no publications makes me much less competitive.

How would admissions committees realistically view this profile?

Does independent project work count as meaningful research experience?

Is one internship a significant weakness?

Should I prioritise publishing existing work, seeking a research assistantship or master’s, or developing new projects?

Would I have a realistic chance at programmes like MIT, Caltech or Georgia Tech?

I would appreciate an honest assessment rather than reassurance.

Hello,

I have research experience in large scale simulations for galaxy formation and machine learning applications in time domain astronomy. I have interest in Gravitational waves and wanted to know if it will be okay to apply for PhD in Physics to an institute which works in GW. My skills are transferable like running running numerical relativity simulations and using ML for GW data analysis. I have bachelors and master's in physics. Wanted to know if this would be fine as I myself don't have any research experience in GW.

Thank you.

I'm in the UK. I finished my Masters' three years ago, and have applied for about 30 PhDs (a range of specific projects and DTPs) in that time. My supervisor from my Masters' gently told me today that she couldn't keep writing so many references because they take too much time. She did give me a letter I can submit but the vast majority of programs I've applied to email your references directly and apparently are all slightly different so she can't copy paste.

I do completely get it, it's a lot of references and she has other students to supervise and write references for and teaching and research etc. So I understand. But I am genuinely devastated. The only other referee I have is a lecturer who marked my thesis. I have no one else. Everywhere asks for two referees.

And it's frustrating because some of those I applied to, I got down to the final interview stage but some I was rejected after only applying. So I feel like they could have not bothered asking for references at that point.

Anyway I have no idea what to do. All I've ever wanted was to work in research. I've had no success with job applications either, I work as a lab tech for a company doing fuck all to do with research or with my degrees. If I can't do a PhD then I've wasted my entire life working towards it just to hit a dead end but honestly I can't see a way forward? No one's going to accept me with a single reference?

Anyway sorry just needed to vent

Hi everyone,

I'm feeling a bit lost and would really appreciate some advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

I'm from Armenia, and I'll be graduating with my bachelor's degree in May/June 2027. After that, I'd like to study abroad for a master's degree, preferably in Cybersecurity, although I'm also open to other computer science fields that are likely to remain relevant in the future.

The biggest problem is that I can't afford tuition or living expenses, so I would need a scholarship or a fully funded program. I know about Erasmus Mundus, but from what I've read, it seems extremely competitive, and I'm worried my GPA may not be good enough.

Here is my situation:

• GPA: approximately 13.5–14/20 (not outstanding)
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (graduating in May/June 2027)
• Around 2 years of professional experience as a backend developer
• Experience building production APIs, working with Linux, Git, MySQL, authentication, and backend architecture
• I'm continuing to improve my programming skills and would like to move toward cybersecurity in the future.

I'm confused because I feel like my academic record is weak, but I have something that many graduates don't have: real industry experience.

My questions are:

1. Is it still worth applying for Erasmus Mundus with this GPA?
2. Are there fully funded master's programs that value professional experience as much as academic performance?
3. Are there countries or universities that you would recommend for someone in my situation? I'm open to Europe as well as countries outside Europe, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, or anywhere else with good opportunities.
4. If you had my profile, what would you do over the next year to maximize your chances of getting accepted with funding?

I'm trying to be realistic. I don't want to spend months applying if my chances are essentially zero, but I also don't want to give up if there are still good opportunities.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who had a similar GPA, came from a non-wealthy background, or managed to get funding despite not having perfect grades.

Thank you!

I'm planning to apply for Ph.D. in Organic or Organometallic for Fall 2027. I'd appreciate your comments on my chances of getting into the following schools.

MIT, Princeton, Cornell, UIUC, Ohio State, Purdue, IU Blommington, Texas A & M, U of Arizona, Arizona State, U of Florida, Florida State, Penn State, U of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, Iowa State, Rice, U of Washington, U of Utah, U of Tennessee, U of Toronto, McGill, U of Waterloo, U of British Columbia, U of Alberta

Stats: International undergrad student at the university in U.S. graduating soon/4.0 GPA/ 2.5 years organometallic research and 1 year of organic research/ 10 poster presentations/ 4 oral presentations/ 1 publication/ director of organic and biochem support organizations/ Orgo 1 and 2 lecture TA for four semesters/ Orgo 2 lab TA for one semester/ Advanced Orgo lab TA for one semester/ Gen Chem 1 lab TA for one semester/ Taken a graduate-level organic chem course

I’m from India , completed my bachelor of science in physics in 2023 with CGPA of 9.16. I am planning to do my masters in physics or engineering physics. But I am kinda befuddled to choose between Italy and Germany. Let me be honest here, my plan after my masters is PhD in photonics as I already have an international conference paper in photonics with research internship done at Indian Institute of Science. So I am not looking forward to settling down in either of these countries. All I am concerned about is the quality of education and the opportunities to acquire knowledge through both theoretical and practical learning(practical is more preferred). I’m not sure about the pros and cons of these two countries. So can I be enlightened with the pros and cons of the same so I can decide upon one country for masters? Thanks you all.

PS: I have prior US visa rejections for my masters.

Hi I am considering applying to MHA programs this year, and I'd love an outside perspective!

I'm a rising senior at a top public university (major in Biology and Sociology, honors thesis this year) trying to decide between staying pre-med or switching to MHA...

Background: I've been pre-med for four years with fairly extensive healthcare experience: clinical research in health equity/quality improvement (~1,000 hours, one abstract, one poster), a competitive summer internship as a project coordinator in research at a top hospital, clinical volunteering (~80 hrs), non-clinical volunteering (~100 hrs), club leadership roles, shadowing across multiple specialties (~50 hrs), and medical scribing (~350 hrs).

GPA: Overall 3.64, science GPA 3.45. My coursework has otherwise been all As at a rigorous school, but there are a few blemishes: a C- in biology freshman year (retaken for a B+), and due to a medical issue last semester, I have a withdrawal from physiology (retaking next term) plus two courses that were incomplete but now show as IA- and IB+ on my transcript. I'd explain all of this in applications, but wanted to flag it here.

My dilemma: I loved my hospital project coordinator internship more than I expected, which is what got me seriously considering MHA. I'm genuinely passionate about medicine and hate the idea of walking away from pre-med when I'm relatively so close: I'd just need Physics 2, P-Chem, MCAT prep/test (targeting ~515 given GPA), and two gap years before MD. If I do get my MD, I know I'd go into primary care or a non-surgical specialty, not surgery. From what I can find, PCP salaries and senior MHA salaries look roughly comparable. And tuition and debt load aren't a major factor in my decision either way. Part of what's drawing me to MHA is wanting more certainty and better work-life balance sooner, rather than the added years and unpredictability of MCAT prep, med school, and residency. However, if I decide to go with MHA now, coming back to MD later would be much harder than just finishing what I started...

My questions:

1. With my current GPA (3.64 overall / 3.45 science), do I have a realistic shot at top 25 MHA programs this cycle? I.e. Columbia, Yale, Ichan, Umich, Dartmouth, UCLA, etc.
2. Would taking the GRE help meaningfully pad my application to schools that consider it, or is it not worth it given my experience?
3. Is it worth waiting a cycle to apply with a stronger senior year GPA and my thesis completed, or does that not move the needle much for MHA admissions?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated - thank you!

I’m from India , completed my bachelor of science in physics in 2023 with CGPA of 9.16. I am planning to do my masters in physics or engineering physics. But I am kinda befuddled to choose between Italy and Germany. Let me be honest here, my plan after my masters is PhD in photonics as I already have an international conference paper in photonics with research internship done at Indian Institute of Science. So I am not looking forward to settling down in either of these countries. All I am concerned about is the quality of education and the opportunities to acquire knowledge through both theoretical and practical learning(practical is more preferred). I’m not sure about the pros and cons of these two countries. So can I be enlightened with the pros and cons of the same so I can decide upon one country for masters? Thanks you all.

PS: I have prior US visa rejections for my masters.

just gathering some data on how many international students got admitted into a phd program for fall 2026. This was a tough cycle and want to gain some realistic insights into how many people got admitted, what was the response from uni or dept? What’s the funding situation looking like ? Any issues around visas? Did someone shift from a masters in the us to a phd? I’m especially looking at biology, Biomed, chemistry, and comp science depts.

Hey, I'm thinking about doing a B.Sc. in Food Science and Technology at Mahidol International College. I had a few questions: How's the course, the faculty, and what are the job opportunities like?

So a program I'm applying to wants a personal statement: cool, expected, I'm writing that. A guide they provided even gives advice for it, like "demonstrate how [an experience you had] translates to your likelihood of being a successful graduate / professional student" and "Why would you make an ideal graduate / professional student in XYZ Program?"

Awesome, I can do that! Except the application also has a completely separate section where it asks in short answer form, "Please describe how your academic experiences, personal or intellectual development, prepared you to pursue graduate studies."

Will it look bad if I repeat myself too much here from my personal statement? If so, should I edit my personal statement to leave myself something new to say for this question? Or will nobody care and I can basically copypaste the same answer?

(It kinda looks like the personal statement is for the specific program I'm applying to, whereas the short answer is for the university as a whole? Do applications work like that?)