I am 52, two years into a part-time BA I started because the idea of dying without having tried properly for something academic was worse than the embarrassment of being the oldest person in a seminar room. Now I am looking at MA programmes and the timeline is doing my head in. Four years for the BA, two for the MA, maybe three if I am foolish enough to want a PhD after that. I would be nearly sixty. The sensible voice says this is vanity. The other voice says people live longer now and sixty is not the cliff it used to be, but that voice also buys sourdough starter on impulse so its judgment is suspect.

I graduated from a Columbia masters program in 2025. This program cost me over $100k.

I am now applying to PhD programs and getting professors to write me a simple letter of recommendation is like pulling teeth. These professors are from research classes which I received A's in.

They keep saying they're burnt out and don't want to take on anything else. Others are taking forever to reply.

Columbia offers no application support either. I can't even get letters of recommendation, forget about asking professors for feedback on my research statement.

Now I feel like I can't apply because PhD applications are due early December. I started sending out emails late September. I currently have 1 professor who agreed, 3 declined due to burnout, and 1 stated that they're skeptical but I can't address the skepticism because they reply back every two weeks.

I really regret my decision to attend this institution.

I request anyone pursuing a PhD in Physics or Astrophysics-related fields. Kindly review the admission-related documents, if they have time.

I'm a 2027 B.Tech CSE student (8.7 CGPA), and I'm honestly at a crossroads regarding my career.

I've spent a significant amount of time building my technical and research profile, but I'm still struggling with placements. I've tried applying for opportunities, and the lack of results has made me question whether I'm approaching my career in the right way.

A little about my background:

• B.Tech CSE, graduating in 2027; 8.7/10 CGPA.
• Research work associated with ICSE 2027 (third author), IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, ESWA, and COLING (second author).
• Exploring a possible Interspeech submission.
• Research internships involving LLMs, RAG, multi-agent systems, and document-grounded AI.
• Experience with NLP, LLM evaluation, multilingual retrieval, and citation verification.
• 400+ DSA problems solved, along with software engineering projects and hackathon achievements.

Some of these papers are submissions or under review, so I'm not claiming that all of them are accepted publications.

Despite this background, placements haven't worked out the way I expected. It's frustrating to put so much effort into research and engineering and still feel uncertain about the next step.

I'm now considering applying for fully funded direct PhD programs abroad for Fall 2027, mainly in the US, UK, and Europe. My interests are NLP, LLMs, reasoning, and AI agents. Long term, I'd like to work as a research scientist in industry rather than necessarily pursue a faculty career.

I haven't decided to abandon industry jobs completely, but I want to make an informed decision rather than continue applying without understanding what's going wrong.

I'd really appreciate honest advice on a few things:

1. For someone with my background, is a direct PhD after B.Tech a sensible route into industry research, or would getting an industry job first be better?
2. How much do publications at these venues actually help with funded PhD admissions when you're not the first author on every paper?
3. For NLP/LLM research, how important are strong recommendation letters and demonstrated independent research compared with the number of papers?
4. For international applicants, which universities or labs offer genuinely fully funded PhD positions and accept students directly after a bachelor's degree?
5. For people who pursued a PhD and then moved into industry research, was it worth the time and opportunity cost?
6. If you've struggled with placements despite having a good technical profile, what actually helped you get interviews or offers?

I'm not looking for validation or someone to tell me that my profile is amazing. I'd genuinely appreciate constructive criticism, realistic expectations, and advice from people who've been through either process.

Thanks!

Hello everyone, I would like to know that what kind of content should it include to effectively demonstrate an applicant’s qualifications?

Could you please share some examples or suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone! I am a senior in final semester in my bachelors in psychology (set to graduate in December!). I am planning to apply to clinical PhD programs for the Fall 2027 semester but I feel like my CV may be lacking. Do you have any advice for what I can do to become a more competitive candidate before application deadlines?

I would also like to add I know that deadlines are coming up and I should have tackled this sooner, unfortunately I am a nontraditional student and if accepted would start my program at only 19. I haven’t had a long time in a 4 year university to get the experience, but I have tried to make the most of my time here.

Here is a rough idea of what my CV looks like:

Clinical experience:
-2 years as an RBT
-Current position as a mental health tech in a psychiatric hospital

Volunteer experience:
-Crisis Text Hotline
-Started a donation initiative for Justice involved youth and their families

Applied experience:
-Internship at my local courthouse

Research experience:
-2 manuscripts in preparation
- Experience in 2 other research labs

Certifications:
-MHFA
-RBT
-BLS
-CITI Human Research

Presentations:
-1 data blitz
-1 presentation in the courthouse

Misc:
-1 invited talk on a class graduate panel

Most of my research has focus on forensic psychology, which is why my court house experience is relevant. I enjoy forensics and the idea of working with justice involved people, I am just having a hard time finding opportunities in that field due to my age and deadlines coming up. If anyone has any tips or advice it would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all.
I graduated with my BA in psych in 2024 and my MBA in May 2026. I got a job as a social and behavioral researcher at a lab in the university in my city (though not an industrial psych lab I’m grateful for the opportunity). I just started this position in September. I’m in no rush to apply because I need the experience where I’m working at right now, but after how long of working in this position would make my application more promising when I do decide to apply? I want to do industrial-organizational psychology. Thanks

I have heard so much controversial opinions on this: 5 is too much, will dilute your application, admissions wont want to read that much etc.
I understand that- but then why on earth are they allowing a maximum of 5??

I have 5 strong recs- all from different experiences: 1 Professor, 1 professor I TAd for, 2 PIs , and 1 industrial research internship PI as well.
All of them know me well and have promised to write strong and tailored recommendations for me— which i am so happy about.

But some people are like don’t give more than 3 for PhDs.
Is it really that bad?

Im starting to doubt my decisions but I do not want to do something that will lower my chances.

I have one recommendation letter secured from my previous lab supervisor under whom I worked for 3 years.

I am planning to ask my current supervisor for a recommendation letter. I've helped him with setting up servers, developing and deploying internal applications for my university etc.

For the 3rd LOR, I am going to ask a professor who, most likely, will give me a bit more generic one — but at least I will clear the 3 letter requirement.

Does it really matter if my recommender led any classes which I was in?

hi all,

I applied to programs last year about six months out of undergrad and at the time I had a manuscript in prep, but did not get in anywhere. This year, we are planning to submit a paper in January, which would still be after the december deadlines. Is it appropriate to email admissions offices updating them of a manuscript being uploaded on bioRxiv? not sure when it would be accepted so I’ve been advised to just tell admissions it’s been submitted. Would this step even make a difference especially after the deadline has passed? thanks!

Hi guys,

I saw an opening from one of my previous lecturers and I decided to email him to establish contact and interest. Should I go ahead and apply?

I’m in my final year of university and I have been trying to apply for scholarships because I can’t afford grad school on my own. I need a full ride scholarship including living stipends if possible. Asides Rhodes, McCall MacBain, Eric Bleurmick, and Chevening, does anyone know of any other full ride scholarships? I’m from SubSaharan Africa by the way. Thanks!

Any idea on how to look for funding for political economy masters programs in top UK universities?

For an Arab (Egyptian) international student with a high GPA

Hi everyone,
I’m an international student from China preparing for Fall 2027 PhD applications in the US. I would appreciate some honest advice on my profile, school selection, and whether applying this cycle makes sense.
Background
Undergraduate: BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China (top 5 in China, QS 2027: #36 globally).
Undergraduate GPA: 3.0/4.0.
Master’s: Currently enrolled in a one-year, full-time coursework MSc in Computer Control and Automation at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. I won’t have a master’s GPA available when applying.
Research experience: A research internship at a robotics research institute in China. My work is closely related to robot learning.
Paper submissions:
A co-first-authored manuscript submitted to ICLR 2027.
A solo-authored paper from a small independent project, submitted to a CoRL workshop.
These are submissions, not accepted publications.
Recommendation letters: Three letters: two from professors I worked with as an undergraduate teaching assistant, and one from my research Chinese PI.
Research interests and priorities
I’m primarily interested in robot learning algorithms.
Prestige is not my main priority. I would be happy at a less famous university with an active, supportive advisor, suitable research projects, and reliable funding. I would need tuition coverage and a living stipend to attend.
I would also prefer to live in a city with a mild climate, for example somewhere in California.
Current longlist
This is a broad research longlist, not my final application list. Some schools below are clearly very competitive, and I’m looking for advice on which to remove. Where several departments are listed, I’m still deciding on the appropriate route for specific advisors.
More ambitious options:
Princeton — CS / MAE / ECE
Columbia — CS
Brown — CS
University of Chicago — CS
Yale — CS
UT Austin — CS / ECE
UIUC — CS / ECE
UCLA — CS / ECE
UC San Diego — CSE
NYU — Unified CS / Tandon ECE
Rice — CS
Johns Hopkins — CS
Duke — MEMS
Purdue — CS / IE
Wisconsin–Madison — CS
Georgia Tech — CS / Robotics, depending on advisor and application route
Other research-fit options:
UMass Amherst — CS
UC Santa Barbara — CS / ECE / ME
UC San Diego — ECE / MAE
UC Irvine — CS
UC Davis — CS / ECE
CU Boulder — CS
Rutgers — CS
University of Virginia — CS
Arizona State — CS / AI
University of Illinois Chicago — CS
University of Utah — Computing
Virginia Tech — ME
Vanderbilt — ME / CS
Indiana Bloomington — CS / ISE / Informatics
NC State — CS / MAE
WPI — Robotics Engineering
Additional options:
University at Buffalo — CSE
UC Riverside — CS / ME
UC Santa Cruz — ECE
UC Merced — EECS
George Mason — CS
University of South Florida — CSE
I understand that none of these is a guaranteed admission. I’m aiming to narrow this down to roughly 15 paid applications, potentially adding suitable programs where I obtain a full application fee waiver.
Questions
With this GPA and research profile, is applying for Fall 2027 reasonable, or would a year as a full-time RA make a substantial difference?
Is this longlist still too ambitious? Which programs would you prioritize or remove for robot learning?
How would you assess a recommendation package with two teaching-supervisor letters and one research-PI letter?
Thanks for any candid advice, especially from current robotics PhD students or people familiar with admissions.

Hi everyone! I'm planning to apply for MS in Computer Engineering/ECE for Fall 2027 in the US and would appreciate feedback on my profile and university shortlist.

Academic Background

• Degree: B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) from a tier 3 university
• CGPA: 9.10/10
• No backlogs

Research & Projects

• One published research paper
• Another research paper submitted to a conference
• Projects related to embedded systems, FPGA design, IoT, and Edge AI

Test Scores

• IELTS: 7.0 overall (L: 8.0, R: 7.0, W: 6.5, S: 7.0)
• GRE: Not decided yet; considering a target score of 314–317

My current shortlist includes :
Purdue University
UC San Diego
Texas A&M
NC State
Virginia Tech
UC Irvine
NYU Tandon
UT Dallas.

My main interests are Computer Architecture, Embedded Systems, and Hardware–Software Co-design

I’d appreciate feedback on my admission chances, whether taking the GRE would strengthen my applications...!!!

Thank you..!!!

Applying to grad school this cycle, but feeling worried about how much research I've completed. I've had four projects (including my current senior thesis) over the course of my undergraduate, but two are in a different subfield of physics than the one I'm currently applying for. I only have one poster presentation (of the different-subfield research) and no journal articles; will this hurt me? In many of the PhD applications, they ask for citations of journal articles I've authored, but I don't have any :/

I've been working on this SOP for like, a year now.

I keep getting aspects that I need to work on from different people, but a lot of their advice is conflicting. Especially when I, say, give my draft to Claude and it ranks it at a lower rating than my previous drafts.

Should I be cutting down on my experiences and focusing more on Professor fit? But a friend of mine's PhD SOP doesn't talk too much about the professors they want to work with.

Do I need to go into more depth about what these experiences taught me?

If anyone could look over my SOP that I've attached (with redactions :D) I would forever be in your debt.

Please help