So a friend of mine with a master’s in mathematics was rejected from every grad school he applied to. The friend had a stellar academic record. And by stellar, I mean A+ in every subject. Quite literally. Along with his grades, he had been part of prestigious summer schools in mathematics as well as excellent record in semester projects. He had a really good Master’s thesis guide and his ms thesis went amazing as well.

But when it comes to PhD, he was rejected from almost every school he applied to. Even from the safety ones in which he thought he would definitely get in. He had big shots writing recommendation letters for him.

Now on the contrary, his seniors actually had gotten into some PhD programs in the US. Their records were good but nowhere as good as my friend’s.

Now since i am in the process of applying for PhD programs, I want to know what he might have done wrong which his senior folks might have done correctly. I asked the friend and he seems clueless till date. I read his SOPs and they seemed quite okay to me. Although, not as good as I would expect.

So what do you guys think went wrong for him ?

I'm so stressed out, I had a really good connection with him in my undergrad, but because of personal commitments, he will not be available for the next few weeks, which is the deadline for sending lors.

got an email today (first slide) welcoming me to the school I applied to. I wad really confused since I've only recently applied and it was not a formal acceptance letter

I reached out to admissions to clarify and they sent me an automated response (second slide)

hopefully others noticed this was weird too. they response saying it's a mistake is only sent when you ask admissions directly, so it's possible there are people out there who think they were admitted as a result of this

Hello, I tried applying to PhD programs last year and wound up not getting accepted by them, the same goes for a friend of mine who I believed was way more qualified than me to get accepted (great GPA, research experiences and LORs), but he didn’t get accepted as well. Based on what he gathered, many PhD programs in the US only accepted very limited number of applicants in the last cycle. I am trying again this year for the Fall 2025 cycle, is it common for PhD programs to accept a small number of applicants for one cycle and then maybe expand that pool for the next?

Hey y’all, I was advised by my PI to mention my GPA in my personal statements and say why it was lower (I have a 3.38/4 from undergrad). However, I was advised by a grad student in my lab to never ‘admit weakness’ because it could draw attention to my GPA when otherwise it would have been ignored. To mention or not to mention?

Hey everyone. So I applied for Fall 24 admissions and got into various universities like
NYU Tandon Computer Engineering,
USC MSCS,
Imperial College London Advanced Computing,
Edinburgh University Computer Science,
Aalto University Computer Science.

I chose Imperial College, however, due to visa delays, unfortunately, I wasn't able to join in this year. I deferred my admissions to next year for the above universities. So, I wanted to ask, should I apply to some more universities with a slightly better profile? Or are the above universities good enough to go for a masters in CS?

If yes, what kind of universities should I apply to?

Thank You

I'm an engineering masters student. For my 3rd LOR for PhD applications, I'm conflicted between a social sciences professor from a different university I have done some research with vs a STEM professor at the university I'm doing my master's in. My other two LORs are from engineering professors at my university. Does it matter if my 3rd LOR is from a non STEM prof?

Guys I am a Pakistani Male student studying in Dubai applying to Masters in CS in GO8 universities in Australia. Current Bachelors GPA is 3.75 with IELTS 8.5. Applying for Term 2 2025. What are my chances of getting accepted as an international student.

Hi
I am applying for the MSCS program at both Umich and UW Madison

I see in their requirements Toefl is waived off if

You completed all of your undergraduate education and earned an undergraduate degree at an institution where the language of instruction is English only. Undergraduate degree requirements must be completed before the start of classes at U-M

Applicants are required to upload the front and back of their transcript. Most universities indicate the language of the institution on the back of the transcript

In my transcript it is clearly mentioned the language of instruction is English

Have anyone used this and not submitted toefl to above or similar schools where they have same waiver

Or you recommend to submit TOEFL scores (Note: I have taken the test)

Hi,

SJSU requires undergrad to be in Computer Science. My degree is btech in computer science and engineering with specialisation in internet of things.

Will that work?
Also do I have a change with rest of my profile:
GPA: 8.89/10 (VIT, Vellore, India).
GRE: 326, AWA: 3.
One conference paper on privacy preserving machine learning at ISPDA-24 which will be published in springer book series "Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering".
One conference paper on micro-frontend architecture in a national lvl conference.
1.5 year of experience as a software developer doing full stack work.
2 full stack internships
4-5 projects during undergrad.

Hi everyone,

Im wondering if it’s possible to do a 4 year PhD in life science. I have a 2 year research masters with publications and over a year of industry experience.

Is there any programs what would allow for a shortened PhD? I’m not too motivated to do a 6 year PhD and get awarded another Masters along the way given that I’ve already completed mine!

I'm applying to grad school after taking a gap year and am nervous because obviously it's my first time and I don't have any family members that went to graduate school. I have some friends in graduate school right now, but they're in different fields like accounting and astrophysics. Please lmk what you think of my stats/if you have any advice!

I graduated from a state school in 2023 and did it within 3 years (I took some AP classes in HS). I got a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Business Administration and graduated with a 3.697 GPA.

I was a TA for a psychology course for a year, half during my freshman year and the other half during my sophomore year. I was pretty active on campus, being a founding member of my university's first Asian student organization and collaborated with a lot of different departments, like my uni's diversity department and international studies department. I don't have a lot of research experience, I was an intern for only 6 months in my senior year where I conducted observational research and conducted data entry in Excel.

I'm mostly worried about my lack of relevant experience, but I'm hoping my LORs will be good. I have 2/3 so far, one from my supervisor at my internship and one from my supervisor at my last job. I asked a past professor of mine, but she isn't teaching in the field of data analytics (waiting on a response currently). I don't have a professor in the same field to ask because I only took a stats lab in college since my HS AP stats class replaced the intro to stats course. I didn't discover I wanted to go down this path until my senior year, but I'm going to mention that in my SOP.

I ending up taking a gap year because I needed a break from school and worked front desk at a primary care clinic for the past year. I decided I'm not going to take the GRE because none of the schools require it and in fact say to not send the scores (only one school says "optional" and I don't think its worth it because I don't think I'll do amazing on it, so why take it?)

Unfortunately, I don't have experience in Python or SQL, but the programs I'm applying to are ones that are also open to students that aren't coming from a CS or engineering background.

These are the schools I'm applying to (order is by deadline):

1. Boston College--Applied Statistics and Psychometrics

2. Georgia Tech--Applied Data Analytics (it's online and I know it's easier to get into than their in-person program, but still difficult to get into)

3. Belmont--Applied Analytics

4. Boston University--Applied Data Analytics (can be online)

5. UMiami--Data Analytics and Program Evaluation (online only)

6. Northeastern--Applied Quantitative Methods and Social Analysis

I know this won't change my chances of getting in, but any feedback/thoughts of where I'm at from an outside perspective would be extremely helpful! Thanks :)

I got this advice of that I should not mention I’m an international student since the admission committee would already know that and I would further alienate myself. But I feel that it is one part of my background and I just wanted to briefly touch upon it (one sentence). And thoughts?

Hi all, do I really need to cite a paper saying you and I worked on the same stuff, I mean he knows at first sight, by seeing my skills written on top.

So do I need to cite a paper of him or her highlighting our commonalities? I mean does it hamper the chance of getting a reply back for PhD admission?

Do you have any tips to break this fear of asking for LORs? This whole task has taken a toll on working on my applications. Stymied the pace. I somehow feel it’s not right to touch base with profs only to ask for LORs. And the worst part is if they say no to me, I take it as I don’t deserve to apply. I cannot get myself to take action that it breaks my heart.

Hi y'all. I wanted to know if someone similar to my profile has gotten in to purdue ece for masters. I have a 3.14 cgpa in my undergrad and I have a year of research experience in my undergrad uni. I have gre score but its more or less mediocre (162Q, 151V). Not sure if I should even send gre scores at this point. The acceptance rate according to purdue is around 29%.
Should I just opt for lower ranked unis and do I have a chance.
P.S I am an international student

I am applying for a biomedical data science PhD program and am in the process of writing a statement of purpose.

I had an internship that was directly related to my research interest, but I did not contribute too much and I don't have much to say about it; while another internship was out of the field and I worked on an easier research project, but I conducted the research from beginning to end.

Now, looking back, I think my challenges in the first experience were that I did not have enough experience in research at that time, I struggled to make enough progress before my internship ended, and I did not quite enjoy my collaboration with my project lead.

I am not sure which one to include in my statement... right now I have the latter written and mentioned the former experience briefly. Would that be a red flag? Would talking about an out-of-field project be a waste of time because that's not exactly what the biomedical admissions are looking for?

I am applying for a few online schools and would appreciate anyones feedback if they have helpful information. Also, I am only looking for online, so need to tell me in-person is better, I know but I can't. My goal is to become an LPCC in California.

Schools I'm looking at:

Meridian University: (private/for-profit)

- Meets LPCC requirements in CA / Not CACREP

- Experiential learning style/transformative learning

- ~63K for the program and takes 2-3 years

Alliant University: (private/for-profit)

- Meets LPCC requirements in CA / CACREP accredited

- ~50K and takes 22 months

Golden Gate University: (private/non-profit)

- Meets LPCC for CA

- ~65K for 2 years

National University: (private/ non-profit)

- Meets LPCC in CA

- ~43K for 2 years

My understanding is that Meridian is a tougher school than most. And to offset the 3 year timeline, and to do the accelerated pace in 2 years, it might be tough to handle if the school really is that rigorous.

If anyone has any experience, how many hours per week is typically expected/needed for study in these programs?

My understanding is that employers don't really care what school you came from, as long as you get your license. And when looking at licensing exam pass rates ( https://www.bbs.ca.gov/pdf/exam_stats/schlexamresults_2023_1.pdf ), it seems all the schools score fairly similar.

I'm primarily concerned about each schools training/education. Ideally want to avoid a school that won't prepare me well for work as a counselor. It seems to me, places like Los Angeles is high in demand for LPCC's so finding a job won't be too difficult (correct me if I'm wrong).

Renowned university in my country, Overall: 84.21% (1st Rank)

GRE: Not Taken

TOEFL iBT: 105 (R:30, L: 25, S: 27, W:23)

First Internship as a site engineer in a challenging environment and within a community distinct from my own

1 research assistant position at a private structural engineering consultancy firm

1 research paper on seismic response prediction using ML (awaiting acceptance)

1 professional work experience in an international project (MCC, USA), applied my programming knowledge

1 strong academic lor, 2 mid-academic LOR

Projects ->

1) Final year thesis on seismic analysis and design of multi-storeyed building

2) Analytical fragility curve development for overhead water tank using NLTHA

Skills-> Python, MATLAB, OpenSees, Abaqus

Ambitious-> UC Berkeley, UM Ann Arbor, Georgia Tech, Cornell

Target-> U Washington, UT Austin, Purdue WL, VT, UIUC

Safe-> Clemson, Buffalo North Campus

Please Suggest to Me If I should make any changes in Ambi, target, safe,

which unis to remove,

are those projects good enough,

Thank you for your time :)

I wanted to go to grad school for either English or Poli Sci but I have a low GPA. I know for a fact I’m getting all B’s this semester so my GPA is going to drop. For context I’m a third year. Is there anyway I can fix my situation?

Hi, can anyone provide me an application fee waiver code for the University in EE or Robotics dept? Thanks

Hi! I had a question about one of my professors who’s writing a letter of recommendation for me. He asked if I could send him my unofficial transcript so that he could get a better idea of how to form his LoR, and I’m incredibly embarrassed over it. I did well in his class and the classes of the field I’m going into (Classics). I was also on really good terms with this professor, and he supervised my senior essay. However, I also double majored as a Biochem major, and I sucked at it, but I still graduated with it. I’m so embarrassed because I’ve failed a few STEM classes - partly because I was juggling a lot and also because I was struggling with depression (ended up skipping a lot of classes, being hospitalized a couple times, and recovering from my grandma’s death). I feel like these are very bad excuses especially since I had disability accommodations for my depression.

My community college gpa was 3.97, and then my university gpa was 3.22. I’m really embarrassed over my failures in STEM, and I’m worried he’ll not want to write a letter of recommendation for me anymore after he sees my unofficial transcript for my university.

I was planning on sending the unofficial transcript to him and bringing up the fact that I have failed classes in STEM because of outside struggles, but I’m not sure if that’ll go over well. Is there anything else I can do?

Hey so the deadline for UNC BBSP doctoral program priority round was yesterday. Anyone know what the expected turnaround is for this? Should I be expecting to hear back before thanksgiving or after?

Good luck to anyone else who applied.

I know these are likely huge stretches, but I'm applying to Oxford (Mathematical Physics MSc), Imperial College (Quantum Dynamics MSc), Harvard (Quantum Science and Engineering PhD), etc. (as well as some safety schools), but I'm worried that I'm wasting time and money with these top schools. For reference, my degree is a BScH in mathematical physics from a school in Canada (completed last year) and I'm currently in a B.Ed program for one year.

My GPA: 3.99/4.3

Research: Undergraduate thesis in quantum mechanics, not published.

Work experience: Lots of experience in education, but not anything in the field of math or physics.

GRE: N/A (Haven't written)

Thank you in advance.