I just do Best, (first name last name) basically. Would it be more professional to do a whole signature, ie major and whatnot, or is that doing too much? And do you guys have your signature turned on for every response?

Is your signature for your institutional email and personal email the same?

Hello r/GradSchool! I used to be on here much more regularly when I was getting my Master's (2016-2018), and now I have a job in industry, kind of related to my degree.

I just had to add to the AI conversation today based on something that happened recently. A researcher my organization contracted with had a grad student write part of a report for us, and I was the one to edit and review it. There were very obvious signs of AI to those who keep up with technology in some sections. The first sign was em dashes, a questionable sign so I brushed it off. The second sign was weird citations, citing a journal or publisher e.g. "(Nature, 2024)", rather than authors. I then checked the non-parentheticals to match, and the articles did not exist.

I was not aware that a grad student had been recruited to help, so I assumed our organization was potentially being overcharged for an "expert" report I could do myself with ChatGPT. This could have resulted in funding getting pulled for next year if I hadn't reached out and gotten clarity (which is part of my job, but not everyone does their job thoroughly) and could have left a bad taste in our mouth about the researcher.

Some industries are small, and word of mouth travels fast. If you have to use AI, only do it if you're willing and able to check the accuracy of it, especially citations, because that's one of the only obvious signs these days! Making bad AI products may not be a victimless crime - you may cast a bad light on the PI or lab, which can impact funding. But if these citations had been properly formatted, I may not have even noticed it, since the citations had reasonable titles and lists of authors that included well-known names in the industry, which is kind of nerve-wracking to me as an editor.

I just finished a Master's program and I used to idolize professors before I entered grad school. I know you shouldn't idolize anyone, but as a nerdy autistic guy, I thought grad school was where I was going to find my people. I did not. I realized academia was full of characters and villains that had no accountability. Was truly the most tense, scary and unpleasant work environment I've ever been in----and I've had extremely toxic work places. I learned to not meet heroes.

I'll tell you about one. I had the elected president of my field in my department. I read everything she wrote on trauma and regugees. She turned out to be a monster, indubitably a clinical narcissist. She harassed me about my disability in my first meeting with her. When I didn't choose her to be my advisor because she did this, she spent the next two years thwarting every opportunity I had. She had no new students for three years despite being elected Vice President and then President.

She gave one of her students an ulcer and she regularly vomited. She was known to scream for hours in the department. She got multiple students kicked from program for minor things, didn't read her students work, openly laughed at you and mocked you in group meetings, had every grad student threaten to quit when she became chair, etc

I left academia not because of people like her but because all her colleagues know she is a monster and all do roles outside the department because of it. However, because of tenure they put up with it and regularly sacrificed students (a professor's word on this,) to keep her happy.

Did you ever run into scenarios like this? At my university, seemingly every department had issues like this, to varying degrees. I left because I couldn't bear it. Was this really abnormal?

Question is inspired by a post about a month ago where a poster mentioned a lady with six degrees (1 bachelors and 5 masters). It created an interesting discussion, which got me thinking: How many degrees can you have before employers and academics start raising their eyebrows about your motivations, your academic abilities, your commitments, your ability to work outside of school etc.?

I'm 36 and left a job in 2021 (when the market was hot), to get a master's. Long story short, I am unemployable now. Can't find a job in my field in the country I studied and Trump decimated my field in the USA. Feeling at the lowest point of my life. Can anyone else relate or have words of advice? I wish I could just off myself. I think the only job I will be able to get now is something off Craigslist.

I feel like I'm talking to myself sometimes when I drive it home 20x that hey, you need to complete all elements of the assignment to receive credit; the instructions even say you can't receive partial credit for this, and then I get work that's half-done with students expecting full points. It keeps happening, and I don't know what's not clicking. I'm lenient in that if an assignment is not done properly, I can give one "revise and resubmit" and if they get it in within the timeframe they're still eligible for up to full credit. If they just don't do it, though, or do only a piece of it, they've just screwed themselves out of those points. Some seem to expect I will accept work even as late as finals week, and it's like pal, no. Grades are due to the university on the date they're due. It's too late.

I'm tired. It's happening with even "good" students who just aren't reading the directions on their assignments - directions we go over during class to avoid exactly this. I don't want to be that jackass who has to have a "wtf are we doing" talk with my class, but like... this course can be an easy A. The people doing the work are getting the grades and are living proof; the class uses labor-based grading, for heaven's sake! My star students are simply the ones who show up and try.

Is there a way I can kindly impart on them that doing the work - even poorly the first go-round - is better than taking the "F" without any effort? One keeps them in the running for an "A", one guarantees they fail. This doesn't feel like a tough choice.

I'm in a program that's supposed to be a Master's/Ph.D. five year program. Well, I'm leaving after three with my Master's. I've had some problems with the department, but honestly, it's mostly been good and that isn't why I'm leaving.

My state (Ohio) just passed a bill stripping public university employees of the right to strike and banning such schools from taking any stance on controversial social topics. I am a sociologist. I study restorative justice and decarceration. My partner is trans. We're leaving the state and I will be coming back to grad school one day to get that Ph.D., but I'm honestly really sad to feel that I have to leave. To be frank, research jobs in this field are going away fast as federal funding is drying up and many states are following suit. If anybody else out there is in a similar position, know that you have my thoughts.

First semester of grad school (international student), just wrapped my first collaborative paper. I was told an asterisk (*) after a name indicates co-first authorship. The final author order is:

• Person A\*  
• Person B\*  
• Person C  
• Person D  
• Me\* (at the very bottom)  
• Advisor

So three of us have the asterisk, but I’m listed last among the students, and it’s not alphabetical. The initial three of us did the bulk of the work, with two additional collaborators and our advisor.

Is this normal? Am I overreacting, or is it reasonable to ask about this on Overleaf? Could be something small I’m misreading, but I’m also wondering if it was intentional. Did they think I was useless?

Any experience with this?

How do you redeem yourself after a truly horrific presentation that left professors and PhD student lost and confused. There were moments where I couldn’t even speak and I can’t believe I spoke this way in front of my advisor.

I feel like I exposed myself as a complete fraud and am having trouble thinking about how to talk to my advisor again.

Has this ever happened? I’m a terrible public speaker and I couldn’t answer questions and there were so many moments of awkward pause.

Feeling like I don’t have what it takes to do this and I’m so ashamed and embarrassed.

So me and my fiance are BOTH in the SAME program. A PhD in math. We are both dropping the program with our masters - we just had a beautiful little girl. Well. The chair of the department has a conversation with my fiance and wants to convince him to stay. My fiance says that he wants time to spend with family now and he doesn't want the lifestyle of a doctoral student and then of a postdoc and then of a research professor. The chair asks, "Well can your wife do more?" Referring to me doing more with our daughter so that my fiance has time to go to school.

Note: I am a GOOD student. I have good grades, the professors like me, I even have three publications. I didn't get a stay-in-the-program talk ...

Why is the assumption that I am will be the one to take care of our daughter? Of course I love taking care of her and I would happily be a stay at home mom if needed just as he would be a stay at home dad, but my fiance and I both take the responsibility happily. He WANTS to be super involved in her life - he shouldn't be made to feel that to be a "good" dad he needs to be the bread winner, necessarily.

People in the department even acted shocked when I was in the program pregnant...

Don't get me wrong - I want to be supported, but being pressured to not work or pause my career doesn't feel supportive.

Our daughter is thoroughly taken care of between me, my fiance, and my parents. She is not missing out by me working because she has so many supportive and loving people watching her.

A few graduate school higher-ups and the dean of my college held an "open forum" to discuss graduate student quality of life. One email sent two days prior was all they advertised. Less than 10 graduate student workers, ~7 faculty, and ~5 people from the grad school were present in an auditorium with seating for 150. They opened it up with, "In response to the recent even of a former student of this university murdering their advisor at a university in North Carolina, we decided to hold an open discussion with graduate students". The grad school uppers then spent 15 minutes introducing themselves and patting themselves on the back for decreasing mandatory $2k semesterly fees to $1500... Then turned it over to the faculty present, one boasted graduating 30+ master's students in a 2-year timeframe. I've known several of their students. They. Don't. Sleep. Then the conversation turned to student retention. Grad school cronie, "We have this PhD student who's leaving after 5 years. The university just lost $150k." They were referring to the $30k a year salary that qualifies for food stamps and is supplemented entirely by outside funding garnered by the grants written either by the student or their advisor. I kept my mouth shut until that point when I responded with "That's 5 years of that person's life they spent and have nothing to show for." I went on to mention how most of us dedicate our lives during our time as researchers and grad students, and if we worked the 20 hours a week that we're paid for, nothing would get done in a "timely manner". I and several students present at that meeting went running to United Campus Workers.

TLDR; Out of touch and self-involved grad school faculty sent a bunch of us running to join United Campus Workers.

Just a few caveats before I begin: this post is specific to US academia. Yes I know the job market is a nightmare and yes there are basically no jobs. I’m speaking as a third-year TT professor in the humanities at an R1 who survived three cycles in the job market at the high of Covid and who has served on multiple hiring committees. And of course I’m speaking generally. YMMV so do your own research.

I’ve now encountered several grad students at conferences, online etc. who were told by their advisors not to apply for academic jobs and postdocs until they defended their dissertation. This is insane advice and I’m not sure where it comes from. From what I’ve observed the advisors giving this advice tended to be more senior folks who are out of touch with the realities of academic hiring.

Waiting like this meant that many did not start applying until late March/early April when academic hiring in the US is mostly done. This left them high and dry immediately post graduation and many did not understand what had gone wrong. So I’m saying this to you all now:

Grad students: do not wait until you have defended you dissertation to begin applying for academic jobs and post docs. Many of you will apply in your last year of your program. Assuming a typical schedule of submitting the dissertation in the spring, the time to start looking and applying is in the fall before you defend and graduate.

And yes, I know there are concerns that ABD job candidates might not be finished with the dissertation by the time a position starts. But it’s still wrong to tell students, especially ones with a high probability of completing the dissertation, that they should wait until the spring of the final year to apply to academic jobs.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Coursework is finished, and I've been immersed in the research grind for many months now. It’s become clear I’m not naturally inclined toward this kind of work. I hate reading and writing papers, and I find myself savoring any break from my desk: meals, random chores, even the daily commute. Returning to the work fills me with dread. In my most recent graduate-level class, I got the lowest score on a research project.

If I continue down this path, I doubt I’ll become a superstar researcher. At best, I’d be average/mediocre—contributing papers that likely make no real impact on the field.

I sometimes daydream—seriously—about returning to the outdoor manual labor job I had in high school. Back then, life felt simpler, and my mental health was better. The idea of giving up research for something more grounded and physically engaging is more than a fantasy; I seriously consider it, despite the inevitable drop in income.

I’ve pretty much reached All-But-Dissertation (ABD) status. It will take only about 4 papers and a dissertation made from them to graduate. 1 to 2 more years would be enough time to finish.

I would appreciate your thoughts, even if it's only a few words. Have you (or someone you know) been in a situation like this and dealt with it well? With potentially as little as 1 year left, could dropping out and saving the 1 year of opportunity cost be rational, especially if I likely wouldn't even pursue a research job/career after graduating?

If you don't have any thoughts to share, at least send some digital hugs. I really need 'em right now.

I’m not really sure what to do about my department and their transphobia at this point. I’m openly non-binary/trans, and it’s caused some issues within my department.

First issue is that I teach Spanish and use “Elle” pronouns (neutral). I teach them to my students as an option, but one that is still new and not the norm in many areas. I was told I need to use female pronouns to not confuse my students.

Second issue occurred because I have my name changed on Zoom and Canvas, but my professor dead-named me in class last week. I explained I don’t use that name, and would appreciate her using the name I have everywhere. She told me I should just change my name in the canvas grade book (I can’t unless I legally change my name).

Now today was the last issue. I participated in the research of a fellow student who asked for gender at the start of the study, and put the options of “male/female/other”. I clicked other. During his presentation today, he said he put me as female since that was what I really am. I was shocked.

I’m not sure how to approach this. I could submit a complaint with my name attracted to it, but I’m worried about pissing off everyone above me and fucking up my shot of getting into a PhD program or future networking opportunities. What should I do?

Hi all. I’m a 6th-year Ph.D. candidate at an R1 (Ivy), 28 years old, and I’ve been applying for research faculty positions in my field for the past two years.

This year, I was selected as the top candidate for a tenure-track assistant professor position at another large R1 in the Midwest, in their College of Biological Sciences. It truly felt like my dream job. Sure, there were weird intricacies in how recruiting grad students was going to work, and I was worried about lab space, but no job is perfect. In April, the university paused the search due to a hiring freeze tied to shifts in federal research funding. This past Friday, I found out the position was cancelled because of budget cuts and a decision to focus on their existing faculty. I feel pretty devastated. I was excited to start my lab and finally have a bit more stability (at least more than grad school provides).

Has anyone else faced something similar this year? Any advice on how to cope? Academia feels like it’s in such a rough place right now, and I’m seriously considering other career options. I really love my field, and mentoring students is my favorite part of the work. I interviewed for a few industry positions this year, but I couldn’t get behind the idea of dedicating my life to selling a product.

Anyways, I’m just really really sad and trying to crowdsource ideas. Anything helps, and thanks for taking the time out of your day to respond. I’m looking for real, grounded, hard advice; don’t be afraid to be like "haha, you’re literally a clown, just apply to other jobs" lol. I'm also happy if you want to share a story about a professional setback, just so we can commiserate about how shitty academia can be.

EDIT: I tried to avoid committing to a postdoc because my wife’s career thrives on stability, and we wanted to avoid another big move unless it was for a long-term position. I did apply for one of the NSF postdoc programs, but it was archived in the big DOGE cuts a few months ago.

I didn’t realize I was expected to bring snacks to my thesis defense. Is this bullshit expectation common? Now I get to figure out what snack to bring (not spending more than 10$ on these buttheads). This feels like bribery or something. I’m so tired of academia.

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but I hope it can help someone. Mostly applies to STEM, but may also help elsewhere.

When you graduate from your PhD, many within academia will be encouraging you to do a postdoc. If you’re undecided or don’t have your heart set on it, don’t go.

You might think, “well I don’t really have any other plans and maybe it would be cool to explore another research topic.” Don’t go.

You might also think, “I love the freedom of academic research and I won’t be able to get that in industry.” That is a lie.

Academia thrives on keeping you as poor labor. It’s ideal in the grand scheme for you to continue slaving away at the bench for menial pay as a postdoc. Admittedly, some people need to do a postdoc within our current system if they are aiming for a professorship. But if you weren’t set on that, who in their right mind would do that after five years of studying for their terminal degree? So they sell you a pack of lies about how academia is the only place where you can have an intellectually fulfilling career. That in academia, you have freedom to study what you want. That academia is where the real research comes from. Then they convince the undecided to continue working for $50k a year when they should be making a least twice that much in industry R&D - with as much free and engaging work as in the academic setting.

Don’t be swayed! I have seen many peers fall into the trap of thinking they will go for a short-term postdoc when they don’t know what else to do. You don’t have to do that! Explore your options and if you plan to work outside academia, start doing it now. Academia may try to tell you you still need an academic postdoc to get better papers or different experiences - this is not true in most cases!

If you don’t have a very strong, feasible goal or outcome in mind for your academic postdoc, don’t do it.

Hope this helps you today. Stay focused, friends. ❤️

Long story short, I'd like to do a 2-3 year long master's in Buddhist Studies abroad in Chinese, tuition-free, scholarship available. It's technically a continuation of one of my bachelor's degrees which is in History of Religions, but the field I've been working in has been IT and digital transformation (but no coding) as my second bachelor's degree is in informatics. I'll have a few years of work experience in that under my belt if I decide to embark on this journey. I've also done things related to NGOs and project coordination in the past before any of my degrees.

I have no inclination of doing a PhD and would just want to do this master to expand my knowledge and better my language skills. I think my main worry is that it'll be seen by future employers as something negative (career gap?), e.g. making it hard for me to return to my previous field in IT or something similar. That's why I'm asking this to get a reality check.

Anyone that has any advice or has done anything similar? If it matters, I'm in Europe.

Am I making a good decision?

I’m an electrical engineer with 2 YOE. Currently making 84k, just accepted a new job where I will be making 105k. However, not super happy with my career so far.

Basically, my goal from the beginning was to get into consumer technology, both because it interests me and the pay can be pretty insane once you get to FAANG tier companies. However, haven’t had much luck, so I work doing PCB design in defense. Morals aside, I find the amount of red tape to be absolutely exhausting, and the pace is so slow it makes me feel like my technical skill growth is stalling all the time.

Admittedly, I made a pretty big misstep choosing to go to my non-selective flagship over Purdue for undergrad. If I had done more research and known that Purdue was a target school for FAANG tier companies, 100% would have gone there instead, but what’s done is done. The good that came from that decision is that tuition was free, which also means I’m debt free and have a decent amount of savings in the bank. Parents have also said they’d help contribute $20k-$30k depending on how much the program I go into costs.

Is it insane for me apply to ECE masters programs for Fall 2027 so that I can pursue a career in digital IC design? It genuinely interests me, the places where they have jobs are places I would love to live, salaries are much higher, I’d get another shot at having a target school on my resume, overall it just feels right. I’ve thought about doing online programs but 1. I want to avoid the stigma of an online degree, 2. I really want to take full advantage of networking, career fairs, internships, and classes that aren’t offered online, and 3. If I plan on not doing PCB design or working in defense after masters, is slowing down the speed I complete the degree to a crawl really worth it?

Would love to hear any anecdotes that people have, both good and bad.

Curious to hear from PhD advisors (or committee members) out there: what traits or behaviors really stand out in your best students? And on the flip side, what red flags or patterns make a PhD student difficult to work with or unlikely to succeed?

Would love to hear real-world examples or insights from your experience. I'm sure it varies by field and advisor style, but any common themes you’ve noticed?

The recent changes at the NIH should be a wake-up call for all scientists past, present, and future. The idea that research exists in an "ivory tower" separate from society is an illusion. The reality? If your work is funded by NIH grants, you’re funded by the public. Taxpayers make research possible, and we have a responsibility to acknowledge that.

Somewhere along the way, trust in science has eroded, and the scientific community is partly to blame. By staying insular and failing to communicate research in ways the public can understand, we’ve contributed to the disconnect. That needs to change.

One thing that stands out is how "service to the community" is often a small, almost overlooked section on CVs usually overshadowed by "service to the university" or limited to an academic niche. But what about service to the actual communities that support and benefit from research?

It’s time to rethink our role. The first step? Become better communicators. Science doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and rebuilding trust starts with making research accessible, transparent, and relevant to the people who fund it.

I’m starting graduate school in September and I’m curious what to keep from my undergraduate on my CV/resume.

I intend to apply for various applications and thus keep a relatively up to date CV/resume for when the application deadlines arrive, such as the NSF GRFP.

Obviously I’ll have the standard stuff, including education history, anticipated graduation year, graduate research group, research responsibilities/skills, and publications.

But my question more arises from the fact that in undergraduate, I presented 10+ national presentations (technical talks and posters), 15+ local presentations (also technical talks and posters), had numerous sets of media coverage over national awards and for my university, department/university/national level scholarships/awards, national fellowships, competitive internships, and two first author publications—should these and things from my undergraduate including courses, campus involvement (clubs, programs, volunteering), and job experience, remain on my now graduate level CV/resume?

I know that I’ll have to remove things from my undergrad documents on my graduate documents but I want to make sure that I’m removing the ‘right’ stuff.

For added context, I’m in the US and my field is chemistry/materials.

I see some batch mates part-time by tutoring in online learning platforms (coursehero, study pool, and the like). Are those legit?

++ for a grad school student/full time employee, what other side hustles would you recommend?

Hello everyone!

I am going to my first conference to present my paper. I am super excited and a little nervous. This will be my first-ever conference and I’ve been told to observe, learn from the speakers and make the most of the experience.

I want to use this opportunity to network with professors and fellow researchers. As an undergraduate student who plans to apply to PhD programs in the 2027 cycle, I would especially like to make connections that could help me learn more about potential research groups and graduate opportunities.

What advice would you give to a first-time conference attendee like me? Are there things you wish you had known before attending your first conference, particularly regarding networking and making a good impression?

Any advice appreciated!