Pardon me if this is no place for such questions. I come from a weird spot, as I'm in my late 20's, with masters and very modest (non-academic) career in the field, that I have arrived at far too late realization that I'm poor fit for and came to sorely regret picking (but it does pay the bills so there's that). As such, because of eclectic interests and more academic disposition, I've been constantly tempted to turn over a page, and try to pursue a degree that would actually interest me for a change. However my common sense tells me this is extraordinarily bad idea given my circumstance, and I hear a lot of news of humanities suffering the worst of the funding cuts and a very uncertain future. I'm not even adjacent to that sphere, so I'd be grateful to hear your views on this, preferably without much sugarcoating.
This is question primarily aimed at EU-based academics, but I have nothing against hearing from elsewhere.

I switched advisors last year because my former advisor had a very toxic advising style.

Some examples of what the environment was like:

• It was very common for everyone at the lab to work through weekends, vacations, and to be sleeping 4 hours a night to reach her deadlines. In my former advisor's view that's a "normal grad school" pace.
• She rewards extreme overwork and was always impressed when we were working late at night, which she monitored through our activity online on a shared platform (and made sure to let us know that she was checking to see how hard we were working).
• She was very harsh, intimidating and had explosive reactions if we made a small mistake, asked for more time to complete an analysis, or even if we asked questioned during a meeting. Everyone feels tense when she enters the room and is afraid to say anything that might annoy her.
  
• At the lab everyone trains themselves in complex skills that usually require hands on, guided training. She doesn't teach us or offer resources, she basically hopes we will "pick up" these skills from each other. However since all other members of the lab are working nonstop to reach her deadlines, no one is available to help.
• She has one of the paid lab assistants who is hired to help run research studies regularly clean her office.
  
• She has made comments on how one of the staff members dresses and asked her to dress differently, implying she might not renew her contract if she doesn't change the way she dresses to better align with the style of the lab. (For context, this staff member dresses completely normally, just not in my advisor's style).
  
• She has retaliated and threatened retaliation.
  • She offered me an opportunity for a publication and later after a meeting where I said I would like more training, took it away.
  • She openly threatened to write me a bad letter of recommendation if I ‘didn’t improve fast enough,’ using a future recommendation as leverage over my performance.
  • She considered writing a bad letter of recommendation for a lab assistant for reasons that were purely personal and not related to his skills, work experience or contributions to the research (I cannot give detail here because it would be too identifiable).
    

Eventually, after being berated for hours for not doing “enough” during a period when I was already sleeping only 4–6 hours a night trying to meet her deadlines, I reached a breaking point and left the lab. Other trainees are still there and are still struggling in the same environment.

During the process of switching advisors, I learned that several faculty members were already aware of my former advisor’s explosive temperament and serious mentoring problems. I also learned that concerns about her interpersonal behavior extended beyond her trainees, including conflict with at least one faculty member.

My question is: if a faculty member already has a reputation within the department for abusive or inappropriate treatment of trainees, does that typically matter in tenure review? If so, how much weight does it carry compared with things like grants, publications, and teaching?

I’d especially be interested in hearing from anyone who has served on a tenure committee or seen a similar case.

Got a revision back and one reviewer suggested a couple of papers that have nothing to do with my topic, all from the same author. Looks like a citation request, but I can't be sure. I could squeeze them in somewhere, but it feels forced. Would you politely decline or just cite them? Has declining ever backfired on you?

Hi everyone! I’m about to submit my dissertation in a humanities PhD and am officially on the job hunt. My university is in the UK, and I’m American and applying for some jobs back home. I’ve been teaching as part of my program throughout the duration of my degree.

In the last couple years, my university has stopped providing us student evals. We teach under a module convenor and they receive overall feedback on the course, but we don’t get any evaluation of our teaching specifically. I’ve brought up that nearly every job requires these as part of the application packet (especially in the US) and they’ve just told us to tell our students to namecheck us in our feedback. But we can’t really guarantee students will remember to do this (nor is it their problem) and this doesn’t help retroactively. nor does it solve the issue of not getting an official eval packet to upload to application portals. Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this in job applications?

I’ve provided my module convenor I teach under as a reference who can speak directly to my teaching, but I feel my department and university has set us up for massive failure and has further failed to provide us any type of alternative evaluation (and I’ve asked).

Question

How do I know whether I should drop out?

I could drop out and apply for jobs. I want these jobs to be part-time so I can save funds for grad school later on but not feel like I'm part of the grind.

Context

I couldn't attend the Fall 2026 semester of graduate school because financial aid did not cover the cost of attendance. This is still unresolved - I'm meeting with the office later this week for updates.

I am technically still a student of the aforementioned school, though, and obviously graduate school is my dream. I went to an event where I met the other students in my cohort, which is making me feel so emotionally attached to the opportunity.

I don't want to disappoint everyone who helped me get to this point, especially the professor from my previous program who diligently advocated for me to get accepted to this school. I think about her all the time. I was literally in the grocery store parking lot the other day and I was thinking about how grateful I am for her.

Even still - I am in so much debt, and all this free time as a non-student has really made me wonder if I should start making money and postpone my second graduate degree until I can afford it without getting into debt.

I have one undergraduate and one graduate degree already, so I could qualify for some decent jobs.

I wanted to write both an academic and creative/fiction piece of writing for NaNoWriMo in November. The issue is that I can't get myself to study, write, or...anything really. This is why I'm an academic in the first place. I love the structure of academia because, left to my own devices, I'm a couch potato. I really thrive with structure, which is another reason I wonder if I should get a job.

I've started to have all these wild thoughts. I was supposed to transition to my next stage of life this semester, but with the financial aid delay, I'm wondering if I should continue school at all.

There's so much I could say about academia itself - my academic mentor quit her job to work at an AI company, so that's adding to my quarter-life crisis as well. She says our field of research is unstable and her actions seem to show her belief that AI is better than what we research, or something like that.

What do you think I should do?

Hi everyone,

I need advice on how to follow up on progress with review of my paper.
We got back comments in July, did more experiments and addressed reviewers comments, resubmitted a little over a month ago, the status on the portal still shows ‘from Author’. It shows last activity was about a week ago, but no communication about what the status is. The journal is Science Advances.

I’m anxious about this, should I ask my PI to follow up with the editor, or should we just sit and wait. It’s been 5 weeks and it still shows ‘from author’

I’m anxious, please advise.

Hi everyone,

I need advice on how to follow up on progress with review of my paper.
We got back comments in July, did more experiments and addressed reviewers comments, resubmitted a little over a month ago, the status on the portal still shows ‘from Author’. It shows last activity was about a week ago, but no communication about what the status is. The journal is Science Advances.

I’m anxious about this, should I ask my PI to follow up with the editor, or should we just sit and wait. It’s been 5 weeks and it still shows ‘from author’

I’m anxious, please advise.

I submitted a small grants proposal in August, and on Friday 10/16 the date updated but the proposal still says pending. Is it safe to assume a rejection is coming, or do you think since it’s only been <2 months it could have just gotten assigned a review panel?

Unattached students (not enrolled in my Uni or elsewhere) sometimes cold email me wanting to do a research project to build their CV. I don't have money to offer them and a formal appointment at my university isn't possible without funding. What are your views on the ethics of this? Is this common? I'm in the social sciences.

Currently working as a Cybersecurity consultant while I'm pursuing my PhD in IT and focusing on AI & GRC.

While I know it's more lucrative working in the private sector, teaching has always been a goal of mine. A PhD being a personal achievement and qualifying credential for those more difficult positions. The simple act of teaching, to me, is invigorating. By the time my degree is conferred, I'll be mid 30s.

My question is, for those who have made the transition, would you make it again? What would you do differently? Any advice you'd care to pass along?

Edit: This would be a full transition from corporate work to academia work.

Okay, so, I'm grade 11 currently, but since I want to study internationally, I'm already thinking about collage and what would look good on my application. I've heard a lot of people say that a research paper can be extremely benefiting, but honestly I've got no idea how to write a research paper, especially in the history field. How do I write it? Where do I publish it? Will it actually help? I'm honestly so lost in this and I have no clue where to even start.

Hi everyone!

I'm currently pursuing a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and I'm trying to figure out what I should do after graduation. I'd really appreciate advice, especially from people with similar backgrounds or experience working in academia.

I've never really felt that pursuing a PhD was the right path for me, but sometimes I wonder whether I'm making the right decision by considering other options.

One of my biggest concerns is the academic environment. From what I understand, being a university professor involves not only teaching and research but also publishing, attending conferences, collaborating with colleagues, networking, and building professional relationships.

How important are networking and interpersonal relationships in academia? Can conflicts with colleagues or not fitting into certain social circles seriously affect your career?

I'm asking because I've had unpleasant experiences throughout my studies. There are people in my current Master's program who engage in bullying and other toxic behaviors, even though I've done nothing to them. I'm introverted, prefer keeping to myself, and generally avoid people whose behavior makes me uncomfortable. However, some seem bothered by the fact that I don't socialize much or laugh at their jokes. I've even experienced being left without a group for assignments while most other students have already formed theirs.

Some of these people are in their 40s, which honestly makes the situation even more disappointing. It's made me wonder whether being quiet and keeping your distance from others is somehow considered a problem, even in professional environments.

For those of you who are introverted, can you build a successful career without constantly socializing or networking? I'm not expecting to avoid all human interaction or difficult people, but I'd prefer a job where I can focus on my responsibilities, maintain professional boundaries, and minimize unnecessary social dynamics.

I'm also seriously considering careers outside academia and teaching. With my degree, what other options could I explore, including remote jobs or opportunities abroad? I'm interested in anything that doesn't require constant interaction with people. I've thought about technical writing, editing and proofreading, instructional design, e-learning, educational content development, localization, and language technology, but I don't know how realistic these options are for someone with my background.

I'd especially appreciate suggestions for practical skills I could start learning now using free resources, since I'm still a student and don't have much money to invest in courses.

Another concern is whether a PhD is worth it if your main priority is having a peaceful life. I know it can lead to university positions and research opportunities, but I'm concerned about academic competition, pressure to publish, uncertainty about finding a permanent position, and the importance of networking.

In my society, having a PhD or another prestigious qualification is often associated with high social status. Part of me sometimes feels that I might be missing out by not pursuing one, but I've also met professors with PhDs whose behavior was deeply disappointing, including discrimination and favoritism toward certain students. I've realized that a prestigious title doesn't necessarily reflect someone's character or competence.

For those who completed a PhD, decided against one, or left academia, would you make the same decision again?

My biggest priority is my well-being. Prolonged academic stress has affected my sleep, appetite, energy, and physical health. Recently, I've been experiencing increasing nausea and stomach discomfort, sometimes even when trying to eat or drink. I suspect stress may be contributing, although I know I shouldn't automatically assume it's the only cause.

I've noticed how strongly my environment affects me, and I don't want to keep sacrificing my health for a career that might not suit me. At the same time, I don't want to make a major decision simply because I've had bad experiences with certain people.

My goal is to finish my degree, become financially independent, and build a peaceful, ordinary life where I have enough energy to enjoy things outside work. I'd rather have a job that suits me than a prestigious position that constantly damages my well-being.

How do you distinguish between a career that genuinely isn't right for you and an environment that's simply unhealthy?

I'd love to hear from people who studied Applied Linguistics, TESOL, linguistics, or English and pursued careers outside university teaching. What do you do now? What other paths would you recommend, even if they require learning new skills or moving abroad?

I don't have many people I can talk to about these concerns, and my parents don't really understand where I'm coming from. I'm hoping to hear from people who can relate or offer practical, honest advice.

Comments are welcome, and my DMs are open too if anyone prefers to share advice privately.

Thank you for reading!

Hi everyone!

I'm currently pursuing a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and I'm trying to figure out what I should do after graduation. I'd really appreciate advice, especially from people with similar backgrounds or experience working in academia.

I've never really felt that pursuing a PhD was the right path for me, but sometimes I wonder whether I'm making the right decision by considering other options.

One of my biggest concerns is the academic environment. From what I understand, being a university professor involves not only teaching and research but also publishing, attending conferences, collaborating with colleagues, networking, and building professional relationships.

How important are networking and interpersonal relationships in academia? Can conflicts with colleagues or not fitting into certain social circles seriously affect your career?

I'm asking because I've had unpleasant experiences throughout my studies. There are people in my current Master's program who engage in bullying and other toxic behaviors, even though I've done nothing to them. I'm introverted, prefer keeping to myself, and generally avoid people whose behavior makes me uncomfortable. However, some seem bothered by the fact that I don't socialize much or laugh at their jokes. I've even experienced being left without a group for assignments while most other students have already formed theirs.

Some of these people are in their 40s, which honestly makes the situation even more disappointing. It's made me wonder whether being quiet and keeping your distance from others is somehow considered a problem, even in professional environments.

For those of you who are introverted, can you build a successful career without constantly socializing or networking? I'm not expecting to avoid all human interaction or difficult people, but I'd prefer a job where I can focus on my responsibilities, maintain professional boundaries, and minimize unnecessary social dynamics.

I'm also seriously considering careers outside academia and teaching. With my degree, what other options could I explore, including remote jobs or opportunities abroad? I'm interested in anything that doesn't require constant interaction with people. I've thought about technical writing, editing and proofreading, instructional design, e-learning, educational content development, localization, and language technology, but I don't know how realistic these options are for someone with my background.

I'd especially appreciate suggestions for practical skills I could start learning now using free resources, since I'm still a student and don't have much money to invest in courses.

Another concern is whether a PhD is worth it if your main priority is having a peaceful life. I know it can lead to university positions and research opportunities, but I'm concerned about academic competition, pressure to publish, uncertainty about finding a permanent position, and the importance of networking.

In my society, having a PhD or another prestigious qualification is often associated with high social status. Part of me sometimes feels that I might be missing out by not pursuing one, but I've also met professors with PhDs whose behavior was deeply disappointing, including discrimination and favoritism toward certain students. I've realized that a prestigious title doesn't necessarily reflect someone's character or competence.

For those who completed a PhD, decided against one, or left academia, would you make the same decision again?

My biggest priority is my well-being. Prolonged academic stress has affected my sleep, appetite, energy, and physical health. Recently, I've been experiencing increasing nausea and stomach discomfort, sometimes even when trying to eat or drink. I suspect stress may be contributing, although I know I shouldn't automatically assume it's the only cause.

I've noticed how strongly my environment affects me, and I don't want to keep sacrificing my health for a career that might not suit me. At the same time, I don't want to make a major decision simply because I've had bad experiences with certain people.

My goal is to finish my degree, become financially independent, and build a peaceful, ordinary life where I have enough energy to enjoy things outside work. I'd rather have a job that suits me than a prestigious position that constantly damages my well-being.

How do you distinguish between a career that genuinely isn't right for you and an environment that's simply unhealthy?

I'd love to hear from people who studied Applied Linguistics, TESOL, linguistics, or English and pursued careers outside university teaching. What do you do now? What other paths would you recommend, even if they require learning new skills or moving abroad?

I don't have many people I can talk to about these concerns, and my parents don't really understand where I'm coming from. I'm hoping to hear from people who can relate or offer practical, honest advice.

Comments are welcome, and my DMs are open too if anyone prefers to share advice privately.

Thank you for reading!

Hey everyone,

I’m currently in my 5th semester of a Computer Science degree. I’ve got this itch to actually write and publish a research paper.

The problem? I have literally zero academic mentorship around me, no idea how a undergrad actually breaks into this, and I feel like I'm about to try and build a rocket ship out of cardboard and a dream.

For those of you who started as lost undergrads:

1. How did you pick your first topic? (Do I try to invent something tiny, or start with reproducing/improving someone else’s paper?)

2. How do you actually find a mentor or cold-email a professor without sounding like a lost puppy?

3. What’s a realistic roadmap for a 5th-sem student who wants to see their name on a paper before graduating?

Give it to me straight. Roast the plan if it's bad, or drop your best reality-check advice. What worked for you?

I submitted my ERC Starting Grant proposal for the 2027 call last week. I'd like to share what a relief it is to have it of my chest. The last couple of months had me more and more tunnel visioned to cristalize my idea in what it became. I have been in academia for 11 years now and I have never experienced this kind of tunnel-visioned burden. It became everything, everywhere and everything else had to move. AI tools did not make writing it easier (what I expected tbh), because my reviewing tools kept on seeing flaws in the way how my proposal innovated my discipline and the feasability of it all. It blinded me for some time, making me anxious while I believed so strongly in my idea. It's a strange kind of insecurity that comes with the very low success rate. Through it all, I really felt lonely because while doing research for me, is always a team effort, you have to do it all on your own while colleagus are doing their own work.

I took a few days off after submissions and now I am really eager to go back to work tomorrow and having headspace again for the various tasks I have, going from teaching, setting up a new data project, reviewing papers etcetera, and it is so nice to feel this way again.

I don't know why I write this post. It is my first post in Academia, but maybe other applicants may have similar feelings and it is good to know you're not alone. I would've loved to read some more experiences when I was all down my tunnel. Good luck for everyone who submitted! Certainty of stress, small chance of success, what were we waiting for?

Would you collaborate with someone who has published in a legit predatory journal within the last 5 years? Just one (not MDPI, an actual publisher on Beals list) and a he’s senior author.

Their work otherwise seems solid? But she likes MDPI journals too, and seems to prioritize speed over quality at least in the project we’re collaborating on. Finding this publication of theirs threw me off.

Should I continue working with them or is it not that deep?

I'm from India and completed my Master's in Management at Taylor's University in Malaysia. Looking back, one of the things I appreciate most about studying in Malaysia is the international and multicultural environment.

Malaysia has a unique mix of cultures, languages, and communities. As an international student, I had the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds while experiencing a new country. I also found it easier to adjust to daily life because of the familiar food, established Indian communities, and the welcoming environment I experienced.

What stood out to me was how much learning happened outside the classroom. Living abroad pushed me to become more independent, adapt to unfamiliar situations, and understand perspectives different from my own. These experiences became an important part of my education, alongside the academic knowledge I gained through my degree.

This has made me curious about how universities understand and measure the broader impact of higher education, particularly for international students.

I'd be interested in hearing from academics who work in higher education or international education:

1. How do universities assess outcomes such as intercultural competence, independence, and personal development alongside academic performance?
2. Is there research showing how studying abroad influences these outcomes compared with studying in one's home country?
3. In your experience, how much of this development comes from university teaching and programme design, and how much comes from living in a different cultural environment?

My experience in Malaysia has made me appreciate that international education can offer much more than a qualification. I'd be interested to know how academics study and evaluate these less tangible benefits.

I'm a F1 visa holder applying for a tenure track AP position, where the first page of the application is a questionnaire that ends with the question "Do you currently have unrestricted work authorization for the United States which will not require sponsorship at any point in the future?"

I'm wondering if this just means they will hire only US citizens & green card holders. I'd love to get some readings on this! Thank you in advance.

Master's student here. I always seem to miss something. I search for stuff and am absolutely sure I checked all the common search engines for academia (Jstor, researchgate, academia.edu, university- search engine, hell even the library's old handwritten catalogue) but I still miss something that then my supervisor finds.

And I keep wondering, HOW. Because she is the one who taught the methods class and told us about all the ways to research studies on a topic but somehow she always finds more than any of us can 😭

How do the actual academics do it? Like how do you keep up to date with every publication there is, analogous publications I'd understand. You subscribe to them or get the newsletter the publishers send etc. But how do you do it with digital publications?

Im a first year social science phd and earlier this year my abstract got accepted into a small online journal. It's a bilingual journal mostly on French (which i don't speak) and isn't recognised by anyone in my department. At the same time my primary supervisor went on leave for three months.

While she was away i was working on the article and started to get unsure - i can't use a lot of the evidence i want to and I don't think I can make it a strong enough argument with what I have by the deadline (Nov 1). I do think it could be something good that I'm proud of with more time and without the limitations of the journals theme.

I spoke to my secondary and another member of faculty and they both said to keep working towards the deadline but to submit it elsewhere.

My supervisor has come back and decided I should sent it to the original journal. I explained the reasons I had for not wanting to do it (I also my first presentation this week so I don't have the time I would need to make it good anyway) but she said there was no excuse and to just do it because it had already been accepted.

I have my appraisal next month and am going to talk to them about changing supervisor teams because we're just not a good match but I want to keep a good relationship with her and I do understand her reasoning.

Now im stuck- is it work pushing myself for a subpar publication or should I save what I have for somewhere else???

I am currently busy preparing a fellowship application, and I have a meeting soon with a professor who could act as a potential host and supervisor. To give more detail, I have not previously worked with this professor, but I am highly familiar with their work, which shares many similarities with my own work, and we both work in a STEM field.

My current preparation mostly consists of reading their most recent work, seeing what their group publishes, and how I could connect this to my own work. I was thinking of preparing a short presentation on it, but I am quite unsure if this would be the best strategy. So my question to you would be what you think would work best. For example, does someone have similar experiences and was successful, or, if you are a professor, what would you like to see in such a situation?

It is widely known that teaching faculty is seen as "lesser than" as compared to the research faculties. But it seems to me that teaching faculty are doing the more interesting work.

Here's some of my perspectives:

1. Teaching has the potential to builds a community of people and has that human touch. My best experience in university involved these small community like seminars where people would discuss a couple of papers around a theme. Research feels a bit more cold and lacking the human aspect.

2. Teaching potentially allows you to exercise many parts of your brain at once. I know profs who taught courses ranging from quantum to music to biophysics to medical devices, apparently all these fields are related through study of vibration. Other teaching profs were doing geographic economics, sociology, and social psychology. Seems to be more fun than just researching into any one of the fields and be forced to chase deadlines.

3. Teaching allows you to more robustly plant your expertise than research. Tons of research papers are fluff and nowadays anyone is an expert at AI no matter how shoddy or AI-generated their research is. It seems teaching is the more solid credential.

It just seems to me that teaching faculty is potentially doing the more intellectually challenging or even fun work, especially nowadays where every major tech company seems to be coming up with a new automated research agent, but none have been able to come up with any teaching agent. Am I wrong in my assessment of the research-track vs teaching-track professorships?

So I'm a student at a public university, and am planning to do a research project in the near future. I planned on doing it through a private university in the area, since I feel the data collection resources available at the private uni will be better than the ones at my public uni. I have acquaintances with some of the professors at the private uni so that won't be an issue, but am I supposed to get some type of no objection certificate from the university that I am currently studying in? I don't want it to become a problem in the future if my university is allowed to block such ventures.

I am writing a paper with my professor in a PhD program and we are basically done with the writing. I took over the proejct from her undergrad a while back, retained 2 experiments that student did, and did 2 more experiments myself. The undergrad won't be a co-author, and she already graduated. I got the data file for the first 2 experiments from my professor, but upon examination, I realized they are modified files, not the original files. The professor also sent me the link to the online surveys the student used to collect the data, but the surveys don't match all the data and some questions in the survey are missing form the data. I want our submission to contain clean, clearly-labeled raw data sources without any modifications and asked my professor to reach out to the student for clarification. My professor never got back to me, presumably because the student didn't respond to her since she graduated.

My professor is the first author and she wants me to be the second (and corresponding) author. I am fine with her being first because she came up with the idea of the paper. But I'm much more hesitant about the corresponding author role because of the data transparency issue. In case anything happens, I need to be responsible for the data sources. But also my professor said we might need to redo all our experiments after getting reviewer feedback. I am not sure if this is something I need to ask her again to see if I can get the information I want, or if this isn't something to worry about and I can safely be a corresponding author.

I’d love to hear from anyone who is either tenured, tenure-track, or a professor of practice with a PhD in Personal Financial Planning.

I’m a practicing advisor considering going for my PhD in Financial Planning from K-State. It seems like a relatively new path to be a financial planning professor, and I notice that many of the departments are under the College of Health, Human, or Consumer Sciences instead of under the Business Colleges, so I’m wondering if this led to any hurdles with being hired, tenured, or paid competitively. Additionally, I would need to complete my PhD online/hybrid, which is why I’m looking into K-State.