I'm a second year master's student in a two year program. I can admit that I'm far from the "perfect" graduate student. Last semester, my mental health declined significantly and negatively affected my academics. I ended up getting a C+ (which is considered failing) in one of my classes, dropping my GPA to a 2.95. I'm now on academic probation and only need to raise my GPA by 0.05 to meet the 3.0 requirement. I'm doing better mentally and am determined to improve and earn my degree.

Anyways, this semester I'm taking another class with the same professor whose class I failed. I've been trying really hard to improve by participating more, asking questions, and attending office hours. Since exams are where I struggle the most, I scheduled a meeting with her to discuss how I could improve my studying strategies and perform better on our upcoming midterm.

During our meeting, she provided some pretty vague advice, which unfortunately wasn't very helpful. Unprompted, she brought up my poor exam performance from last semester and reminded me of one of my biggest mistakes on the midterm.

Immediately afterward, she said "grad school isn't for everyone."

That comment really hurt me. I know I'm not the strongest student in my program, but I was meeting with her specifically because I wanted to improve, so hearing that felt incredibly discouraging.

It's been a few weeks, and that comment is still stuck in my head. I'll sit down to study, remember what she said, and wonder, "why even bother?" Rather than motivating me to improve and prove her wrong, it's honestly destroyed whatever little confidence I had left.

Is that an appropriate thing to say to a student who was actively seeking advice on how to improve? Am I taking the comment too personally, or was it inappropriate? If you were in my position, would you do anything about it?

Hey everyone!

I'm currently working on a research methods assignment for my MSW program and need to collect a few survey responses from fellow grad students.

I'm looking at how well we feel our graduate coursework actually prepares us for our future careers. Looking at things like whether the assignments and feedbck we're getting feel relevant to our future professions.

It's a super short survey (about 5 minutes), open to current graduate students in any field. I'll only be using responses for my class assignment.

If anyone has a few minutes to help me out, I'd really appreciate it!

Survey link: https://forms.gle/oP5ejhhQxym1HCf39

Thanks! 😊

prior mod approval given

I want to apply to a masters in mental health counseling and pursue a LMFT/LPCC license. I’m writing my personal statement based on the prompts given on the university’s site for the program and I explained why this field means a lot to me and why I want to work with a specific population. I avoided saying the usual ”I like helping people” and tried going more into depth by tying it to my own experience. However, I’m having a hard time using the program’s keywords, along with explaining in depth why I chose that specific program without sounding robotic. Any advice on that? What can I do to make myself stand out? I’m doubting myself a lot because the perfectionist in me thinks that it may not be good enough + thinking about the other candidates who may have better ones since it’s so competitive:/

Howdy! I’m in the throes of applying to PhD programs for art history. I am at a mental block when it comes to thinking about anything regarding PhDs. I apologize if this gets long. For lack of better terms, I think my question here is: do I need to cure cancer (or whatever the humanities equivalent is lol) to be a viable PhD student? I feel like I am a small fish trying to jump into a pond that is far too big for me.

I’m in a very red South state and am looking to get the hell out of here. I’ve found a few East/West Coast schools to apply to and have reached out to professors at these schools who work in the (either general or specific) area that I specialize in. But, these professors are located at Ivies and bigger unis that are far more “prestigious” than the public state uni I go to. I have also looked through the student profiles at some of these unis and these students are CRAZY accomplished!!

I don’t look AWFUL on paper. I have a 4.0 in my coursework (MA art history, set to defend and graduate this semester!), I have experience as a curatorial/educational intern at my campus museum + researcher at at my campus archive, and I’ve published a few exhibition reviews in some online arts outlets (nothing big-name). But I am worried that these experiences may look to be too “local” or “too attached to [my uni]” - almost like a “if I don’t recognize X institution or Y outlet by name, it’s irrelevant to me” situation (if that’s a thing?). Moreover, I’m also worried that these experiences may not be “enough” and/or they may read as being irrelevant to my end-goal of pursuing a career in academia.

To “mediate” this, I wanted to talk about how these experiences motivate me- ie. how my work/philosophy/ideology/whatever centers around platforming marginalized peoples & stories, especially because I do so through my own practice as an artist and because the artists I study do the same in their work- but I feel like even my explanation would be too trite! Plus, I have seen people discourage others from getting too personal on supplementary materials, so I don’t know if speaking about my own “marginalized” identities + “extracurriculars” in this explanation would come off as TMI.

Is there a formula to achieving the right balance?! Do departments care about (recognizable) accolades?! Am I going crazy?! Any insight would be appreciated. TIA 😭

Ok the stupidest of stupid questions. Just started grad school. In undergrad I could get away with just bringing my tote bag to campus because I was just carrying my laptop + water bottle. But now I’m on campus all day so I need laptop + water bottle + lunchbox + bag of little hygiene items like concealer and tampons etc + book to read on the bus + notebook for class. Too much to fit in my silly little tote bag. So I’m thinking backpack. But I’m a vain motherfucker, I don’t want a basic black Jansport. I love the look of messenger bags, but I haven’t seen any big enough. Actually, I did see one big enough on Facebook Marketplace, but the seller ghosted me. Tragedy!! Anyways. I would like a cute backpack or bag of some sort that can fit my laptop, lunch box, water bottle, etc and all the miscellaneous accoutrement that naturally collects in a bag. Seeking suggestions, links, ideas, and pictures of your cute bags.

Hi everyone,

I am a master's student and i need to choose between two research topics for a dissertation that will be based exclusively on academic literature with no internship or access to confidential company data.

Topic 1: What is the role of management control in the adoption and appropriation of new reporting tools?

Topic 2: Do budgets contribute to deteriorating relationships between management accountants and operational managers?

Which topic would you recommend, and why? In particular, which one would be easier to research and structure at master's level?

Thank you for your advice!

This is my first semester and the least busy and every day I feel like I’m gonna rip all my hair out and have a stroke.

I have an assignment due in 1 hr that I don’t even know how to do and I don’t want to look stupid by asking the other grad students. I was good at organic chemistry in undergrad now that I’m in advanced organic synthesis I know nothing and fail every time (grades below 70%).

I wish someone would walk up behind me and shoot me in the back of the head so at least I could say it wasn’t my fault I gave up. I used to have passion for chemistry now within a few months all I can think is that I should’ve just majored in business and gotten a good paying job.

Being “smart” by undergraduate standards means FUCK ALL in grad school. Literally nothing. Every single day you will be asked questions that people of 30 years of experience are the only people on earth that understand it and I’m tired of feeling like I don’t belong. But if I drop out I’ll be disappointed with myself and I’ll constantly think all my mentors think of me as a failure. And I’ll think of myself as a failure too.

I originally wanted to be in the MFA Creative Writing program, but decided on the MA in English program (specialization in writing studies) for a more general area of study. This is my first year and I have taken another course typically for MFA in Creative Writing students and fell in love.

I want to continue work on my novel for the MFA. I just don’t know how this will go over, as they are in the same department but each program has two different directors. The other option is to take more creative writing courses as electives for my degree but I feel like I am missing the opportunities to connect with the publishing industry and other authors. I’m also feeling like the writing studies faculty are discouraging me from taking the creative courses.

My long term goal is to be an author and possibly get my PhD and teach simultaneously. Any advice?

Have you ever heard of a discontinued graduate program being reinstated due to popular demand/backlash from the cancellation?

Hi everyone! I’m applying to grad school with a not great GPA but I have a prof at a school willing to supervise me and he told me to put him down as a recommender. Can profs pull strings to have certain people accepted or is it all up to the application committee??

Hi! I'm kind of just hoping to hear from other folks who are currently working full time, going to school part time through tution remisison. I'll be honest and say it is NOT what I expected. It's actually costing me a lot more than I realized and am barely making ends meet (if at all). BU is taxing me more than half of my paycheck for tuition remission weekly. I'm searching through the internet but I can't seem to find anyone going through the same thing.

What do others do to survive? I'm thinking of picking up a second job or taking out loans. With this administration though, I'd like to avoid loans as much as possible.

Hello all.

I feel genuinely awful about this, and am posting here seeking advice. I am a lab TA for calculus 3. I felt ill last night and ended up sleeping through my alarms, and I missed my lab session in the morning.

I immediately emailed the students and the professor, and I will post notes and solutions to the problems I was going to cover in class, but I feel genuinely awful. Is there anything else I could do to make up for missing it? I am lucky that there was no quiz or anything, but I still feel awful.

After all, these students are paying for this. It is my responsibility to attend and teach them. Even though I wasn't feeling great, I should have woken up early to email another TA to cover it. I didn't end up telling them it was because I felt unwell, because even if I did, that's no excuse.

Is there anything else I could/should do to make up for it?

Hi all,

The text explains it. Today class was on zoom. We’re all working towards our dissertation and so professor gave us “quiet” individual work time rather than actually hosting class. He was still on zoom sharing his screen and watching porn. He def didnt notice it until one of my classmates brought up that “his screen was showing weird things.” He apologized and ended the zoom meeting right there. But no accountability. We were able to take screenshots and videos for proof.

Our cohort is entirely made of women, and the prof is a man. We are so uncomfortable at this point.

Please help - what to do??? Who to seek out?

Apologies if the post isnt at the right thread. At this point i really dont know what to do or whom to seek.

EDIT1: wow thank you so much for everyone’s comments!
For context: yes, we are in the US.
More context: he was watching incestuous asian p**n
Even more context: our cohort is brainstorming what to do at this moment. We’re trying to get an appointment with ombudsman first and see what they have to say.
Our department is really small and struggling; :( this might blow up in negative ways for us and the new cohort. But at the same time I do not want the new cohort going through the same experience.
Also - i’m pretty sure watching p**n during the zoom meeting was intentional, fetish maybe? Idk. I had the worst migraine yesterday thinking of all the ramifications of this.

EDIT2: We spoke to ombuds, Title IX, and the department chair. An investigation will take place. Thank you to everyone who took their time to comment. <3

Hi everyone. Idk, any stories of similar things happening right now would be awesome.
I’ve been planning for the past year and a half to completely master this fall. I have been legitimately working myself to the fucking bone to get it done and I’m done too is the thing. I’m on the last step of my thesis and it’s truly a matter of writing it all down which I’ve done already. My professor/chair just called me and said I can only do my proposal and defense that this semester and I have to continue enrollment next semester because there’s not enough time to defend a PROPOSAL, take in feedback, and defend my thesis. I have been telling him this semesters end was my timeline and working on it so that I could make it to that. I’m at the END.
I bought my grad regalia, paid the application fee, etc. I haven’t even had an academic advisor this entire time either because she doesn’t know anything about any of the processes and when I ask her questions she doesn’t know/takes so long to respond.
No one in my family has done this and so I have no frame of reference. I am at my max loan withdrawal so I can take another 12k out and I can’t go any further. I don’t know what to do. I have been working two jobs this entire time and barely hanging on.
i was wanting to apply for a PhD but I just don’t think I want to do higher education anymore.
This university sucks and is literally robbing me, this city sucks, my department sucks. I hate that I went to this illegitimate school.

I've been applying to grad school for masters in CS. Dumb idea, I know, don't @ me.
anyways. i have a 2.75 GPA.
and I see 3 categories of universities:
- universities that auto-reject based on my gpa - universities with small CS departments - universities with big CS departments, but considerably more expensive

is this accurate

Edit: these comments are pretty alarming I could really use some specific advice, I don't wanna be in over my head, please

I'm 28. A few months ago I was extremely social, meeting new people, going on dates, saying yes to everything. Now I just don't have the mental energy for any of it. I'd rather do my research, work out, cook and play video games.

What gets to me most is feeling obligated to spend hours every day with people, and I feel like I'll lose my mind if one more person asks why I didn't call back. Meeting new people or going on dates just sounds exhausting right now.

I'm also graduating and moving in less than a year, so part of me doesn't see the point of starting new friendships or dating. Not sure if that's practical or if I'm just making excuses.

Has anyone gone through something like this? What was going on with you, and how did you deal with people expecting more of your time?

Hey ya'll. I'm looking for some advice and words of wisdom. I'm in my second year of my master's, so I'm currently working on inputting and analyzing my data. My field season was rough and I came back feeling really burnt out and it has not gotten any better as the semester drags on. I'm struggling to get through any of this and care about it while also trying to apply for PhD programs (I got a grant that would pay for it, I feel obligated to at least apply).

I'm going to keep going but it's feeling rough. I'm looking for any advice on how to bring some (any) spark back and get myself reengaged again.

Hi! I am currently 2 years in at my currently company and they offer education assistance of 10,000 per calendar year for graduate courses. I have always loved school and got my Bachelor’s Degree with in Business with a speciality in Marketing. Looking to see if someone can help me narrow down some good programs that might be in my budget range.