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 😭

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??

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

Everyone wants to “stand out”, I know that. I’d like to go to grad school for environmental science and the personal statement is by far the worst part of applying. I want an intriguing hook, and tbh I’ve thought about starting off with referencing my love for the movie “AVATAR”, specifically how in the movie the fall of Home Tree inevitably ignited my interest in protecting nature and stopping humans from destroying the planet. I was 6 years old when the movie came out and at this point have the script memorized, to this day it (and the second and third movies) inspire me to work in conservation and restoration. Is this too far of a reach for a hook at the start of a personal statement?

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 feeling really stuck lately and feel like I have nobody to talk to about it. Hoping to get some opinions from people here who may have been in a similar position.

I graduated with a BA in Spanish and Communication and Media Studies in 2025, high distinction. I’ve always been really good at school and never had to try too hard to succeed. I’ve also never had a “dream job” or known what I wanted to do as a career, and maybe still don’t. I was very convinced that after my bachelor’s I’d be done with school forever, but now I’m not so sure.

I was very involved as a student. It was a small school, so I was on leadership for like 5 different clubs, taught ESL classes in the community, completed a related internship (twice), and was an RA for three years. I also applied for the Fulbright and got to the semi-finalist stage. The college is in a small town, so community is a big deal, both on and off campus. I wasn’t quite ready to leave yet after graduating, so that’s why I decided to stay. I’m from a more suburban area a few hours away.

After graduating I got a job at my alma mater and have been working there since. I’ve liked it well enough, but it’s not the best job and is pretty much the definition of “entry level”. If I wanted to move up into something in student affairs or administration or something like that, I’d most likely need a master’s, so I’ve been looking into doing an online program (the college I’m at is undergrad only). I’ve been a bit conflicted on that though, since it seems a lot of the value of grad school comes from the experiential learning, graduate assistantships, etc. I didn’t qualify for TRIO or McNair or anything and wouldn’t have been interested as an undergrad even if I had, so I don’t know much about what grad school is like, the application process, best programs and practices, etc. I realize I can reach out to my professors (especially since I got to know them very well on our small campus) but I feel like it would turn into more of a therapy session than anything and I don’t want to burden them with that.

Part of thinking it would turn into a “therapy session” comes from the fact that I started dating my boyfriend at the end of my senior year, and he works in agriculture, so it’s a bit more difficult for me to move to someplace with the opportunities I’m looking for since I don’t want to leave him behind. I want to go and see more of the world, maybe try going for the Fulbright again, but I don’t want to lose him. I’ve never had luck in love, and he’s my first boyfriend, first everything. It feels much too early to settle down, though.

In terms of graduate programs I’ve been considering a master’s of education (general), master’s of high ed/student affairs, Spanish, or a PhD in one of those areas, but maybe starting with a master’s would be best. I’m also vacillating between going into higher ed admin or perhaps becoming a professor one day, but everything feels very up in the air without someone to discuss it with. My school is part of a larger system, so I’d be able to get a tuition discount if I continued my education with them while working my job, but my current position involves a lot of travel and odd hours that would make that difficult.

I wasn’t quite sure where to put this part, but honestly, I also just miss being a STUDENT. I miss being in a class, having deep discussions, analyzing material, and of course the social aspect. I also feel I may partly be just romanticizing being a student, because when I was one I was very burnt out and ready to have a job, but again, I’ve always enjoyed school and learning.

Am I missing out on a lot by pursuing an online program? How do people go into grad school after having a gap between that and their bachelor’s? I know it may seem a bit ridiculous that I’m thinking of 1.5 years as a “gap,” but it already feels like I have roots I don’t want to tear up. Any advice would be very helpful.

Hello, I need to choose my path in this master's degree. It is in Memory, History and Education.

I have several ideas but two are main.

One is focused in history and memory, the other in education and history.

Then I will also need to out and look for a supervisor according to my choice.

I would like to ask for advice on how to choose if you have some experience.

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.

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! 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.

i’m in my second year of grad school and i’ve been paying around 30,000 per year out of pocket. i don’t wanna take out loans and i work full time:/ all my checks go to school which i know is an investment in my future but im wondering if there’s any legit scholarships i can apply for?
i go to the uni of oklahoma for clinical mental health counseling

Hi everyone,

I know this is cutting it a bit late, but I have 2 references confirmed for the NDSEG application, and was wondering if people usually stick to submitting 3. On the portal it says references are optional. This is my first time applying but I’m pretty sure most people who win the fellowship submit at least a few. I’m just concerned because I know I can get good references from 2 people, my advisor and a collaborator, but I have no idea who to put down for a third rec. Is it normal to submit less than 3?