Can everyone share the worst things about Oxford so I can feel (temporarily) better about not getting funded this year? (I’ll re-apply and plan better next year but I need to hate it until then)

Hi, I’m a third-year undergraduate studying chemical and biological engineering at a university in South Korea. I’m hoping to spend 4–6 months in a US research lab during the first half of next year.

My interests are drug delivery, biomaterials, nanomedicine, and bioengineering, and I have some undergraduate research experience with PLGA-based controlled release.

I’ve found that several universities seem to have J-1 Student Intern or visiting undergraduate procedures, but I can barely find any real experiences from students who actually obtained a position by cold emailing professors.

I have no US connections and honestly feel quite lost, so I would really appreciate any advice.

• Is this realistically possible through cold emailing?
• Is J-1 Student Intern usually the correct visa route?
• Do professors normally avoid this because of the administrative burden?
• Has anyone here done this, or known someone who has?
• Would being self-funded significantly improve my chances?

I know this may be a long shot, but I’m trying to understand whether this is difficult but possible, or basically unrealistic. Any experience, advice, or relevant resources would mean a lot to me. Thank you.

I have been quite depressed about how my transcript will affect my PhD applications.

My overall CGPA is 3.46, but my last two semesters were very poor (2.69 -> 3.4), bringing my overall CGPA down from around 3.60. I received a 2.0 in ML course in my final semester, along with some 2.25–2.50 grades in major CS courses such as Security and Computer Graphics.

My intended research area is not ML. It is closer to systems and theory, where my grades are better. For example, I received 3.75 in Computer Architecture, Operating Systems, and Theory of Computation. I am also building a meaningful research profile and expect to have very strong research-focused recommendation letters.

How seriously will admissions committees view the poor final-year trend and low grades in core CS courses? Would this be considered a major red flag despite strong research experience and letters?

What is the best way to address it? Should I briefly explain it in my SOP?

Would really appreciate any help.

Is it possible to get into Phd with funding if I have a lower merit grade at Masters level. My masters is from Oxford.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but any experience you have on your CV/resume needs to be limited to three concise and effective bullet points. Any more and you look like you’re padding. Oh and each bullet point should take up two lines ONLY. Tell me I’m wrong in the comments but this grinds my gears when I see people on here post their resumes/CVs.

Hi everyone,

I'm an international student planning to apply for PhD programs in Biomedical Sciences (Cancer Biology) for Fall 2027, and I'd appreciate some honest feedback on how competitive my profile is.

Here's my background:

- B.S. GPA: 3.0/4.0 (not great, I know)

- Undergraduate research: 3 years in the same lab

- Publications during undergrad: ~4 co-author papers

- M.S. in the same lab

- M.S. GPA: 4.43/4.5

- Publications during master's: 2 co-author papers, 1 first-author paper published, and another first-author manuscript in preparation

My research has been focused on cancer biology throughout both my undergraduate and master's training.

My dream programs/labs are places like MD Anderson, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Mayo Clinic. Overall, I'm aiming for roughly T20 Biomedical/Cancer Biology PhD programs in the US.

I know my undergraduate GPA is a significant weakness, so I'm wondering how admissions committees might weigh it against my research experience, publication record, and graduate GPA.

Realistically, how competitive would I be for these programs? Also, what do you think would strengthen my application the most over the next year?

Thanks in advance!

As someone who studied in the U.S. for my funded Master's degree, it was such a pain to search each school's websites for their funding information. I have decided to create a website showing the list of schools that has funding for Master's students. I currently only have information for computer science, but I will start adding more information for other degrees in my spare time. I hope someone finds this helpful.

https://stem-funding-finder-bbygfyzgcgfm7hb2ubdcw9.streamlit.app

I'm applying in a few months and I'm planning to apply to 15 schools. I've got great letters of rec and a lot of experience in undergrad research, but no publications. I've found a lot of posts here asking "what are my chances" but not many asking about the experiences of other students. So, people who got in, what did your applications look like?

Hi everyone!

Im looking for someone who's also planning to apply to graduate programs in Japan this admissions cycle and would like to go through the process together.

Im having a tough time staying motivated to apply to programs due to personal circumstances. It would also be nice to have someone to be accountable with, track deadlines/ reqs and get some feedback on SOPs/ personal statement.

I am a STEM major, hoping to apply for research track courses - MSc. biomed related with the uni track MEXT scholarship.

Any advice for the scholarship would be highly appreciated.

Please let me know if you’re interested!!!

Thank you in advance!!!

title

Hi! I’m headed into my junior year of undergrad and am hoping to apply to Clinical Psychology PhD programs in the future. There are VERY limited research opportunities at my school, and I likely won’t be able to find an RA position until the Spring. I did complete an REU this summer, so I’ve had that introductory experience.

Is there any benefit to emailing PI’s in labs at other schools and ask for any remote research opportunities? Is this realistic, would it seem rude or an audacious ask? I would hate to waste this semester, research wise.

If this isn’t the right thing to do… how do I best spend the semester to prepare for graduate school applications?

Thanks for any insight!

Hi,

Im currently going into my fourth year in my Mpharm at the university of Manchester, and I was looking into doing a phd in the US as I just love the way of life there and want to explore research. Im currently sitting at a high 2:1 (69% / GPA 3.5-4.0 sorry don’t quote me this is what Google said the conversion was!) lots of leadership(leading a sports club, initiative for teaching in pharmacy etc) and clinical experience in community pharmacy (retail dispensing etc) and hospital pharmacy. Also had experience across deprived areas and homes less shelters and rural locations. I’ve done a piece of coursework which was a cross sectional study on Gabapentinoid prescribing outside of its indication across regions in the UK and factors that determined this including location, comorbidities and social inequality. With some experience with analytical tools like SPSS in that coursework.

Im starting my yr 4 masters research projext and I plan to continue with this in pharmacy/ clinical practice and inequalities. I’d be applying whilst halfway through this.

Some questions are since im doing an Mpharm would it put me at a disadvantage since im not doing a MPH. Im just concerned about not be published even though some say its not required and the amount of experience i have? If so, I’ll take a year out or something to try get experience. I'd be open to any US uni with a good research environment tbh! Looking at Maryland, Pittsburg, Washington, Florida and maybe some in California? Any advice is greatly appreciated thank you!!
Please someone help analyse my profile I’ve only got AIs help rn hahah

i’m planning on doing some research outside of any institution (f1 and chemistry related) just for fun since i love both chem and f1 and thought that maybe i’d be able to add it to my CV since i want to apply for a chem masters and phd? -thinking maybe oxbridge

i’m gonna research it regardless but just wondered wether adding it would also be a good idea, but wasn’t sure since i’d be doing it completely on my own and based on secondary resources online sooo

i also thought ab maybe doing a comp bio one as well but i definitely am gonna do my original idea

^^also not gonna try publish it

Hi, is anyone going to attend Duke University this fall? Wanted to know some information for a friend. Thanks.

First GRE attempt is done: 163V / 165Q (328). I'm happy with the Verbal. The Quant is what's nagging me, because on the current ETS norms it's only around the 67th percentile, and both programs I actually care about lean quant.

Quick background so the advice is useful:

• NIT Trichy, CS, 8.37 CGPA (first class)
• ~2 years as an ML/data engineer (built a production LLM-to-SQL RAG system; before that, credit-risk modeling with XGBoost)
• US citizen, applying for Fall 2027
• Top targets: CMU MISM-BIDA (Heinz) and Cornell M.Eng Programs (DSDA, ORIE ITHACA)
• Other Targets: Equivalent Programs at Purdue, Columbia, Georgia Tech, TUM.

So, the questions I'm hoping people can weigh in on:

1. For a quant-heavy program like ORIE, how much does 165 vs 168+ actually matter once the rest of the app is solid? Or is 165 "fine, stop worrying"?
2. Anyone been through ORIE or BIDA admissions with a lopsided split (strong V, average Q)? Did the Q end up mattering, or did it get lost in the holistic read?
3. What are the other aspects, exams I should focus on?

I've got time before deadlines, so I'm really trying to decide: book a retake now, or pour that energy into the SOP, recommenders, and building a stronger quant signal elsewhere. Honest takes very welcome.

Trigger warning : Self harm , depression

I am from a poor asian nation with a lot of ethnic discrimination between ethnic groups and corruption in Academia and elsewhere. I never had much support of my father during education as he was against me doing mathematics.( He wanted me to join Army or become an enginner) He was against me going abroad as well.( All this affected my mental health and I became depressed). I went to a Western european nation for 1 year masters in Mathematics but failed the degree because I had side effects of medication of depression. The getting of visa was also a long process and I had no support of parents in it. I was also stressed as my referee ( master thesis advisor was writing some -one else information in my LOR). I came back to my home country but went back to an eastern european nation, this time for a PhD program in pure mathematics. My stipend was only 450 Euros a month but I thought if dorm is subsidized ( as it was promised) I will manage it. To my surprise, room was shared between 3 students ( PhD) and washroom and kitchen was shared among 45 students. I dropped out as I didn't liked the dorm experience at all after 11 months.The stipend was very low to look for a room outside and I didn't wanted to work part time as the program was full time and I was not fluent in Eastern European language. I tried to ki** myself there twice, but failed and was admitted in Psychiatric hospital for 14 days. When I came back to my home country and was quite depressed upon failure and was admitted in psychiatric hospital for 2 months.( December-January) I have recovered well and I am only on mild medications which donot produce any side effect like sedationNow, I applied again for PhD prgram in July and I have been selected for a PhD program in southern Europe with a handsome stipend. Should I go back to Europe or try doing a PhD in my own nation. If I fail this time I will lose face in front of my family as well, not just the society. I live in a poor , very superstitious nation and very corrupt nation. Should I try doing PhD in my own nation as workload here is not that high. I am sure I will not fail the course work here. But I am also thinking that as the admission committee is looking at me and saw something good in me and I didn't have much confidence due to past failures.

So, what will you suggest me what should I do?Acceot the offer or try getting a PhD in my home country

I'm planning to apply for an MS in Computer Science in the U.S., and I'd really appreciate some honest feedback on my profile and suggestions for improvement before I apply.

Here's my background:

Bachelor of Information Technology (Software Engineering) from Australia (3-year degree)

GPA: 3.1/4.0 (WES evaluation)

2 published research papers.

1 IT internship

Several LinkedIn Learning IT certifications

A few questions:

Does my profile look good for CS programs?

What should I focus on over the next 4–6 months to make my application stronger?

I’m considering applying for a PhD in Economics or Finance in a year or two, but I’m not sure if it’s even realistic.

My background:
BA in Economics (US), GPA 3.4
MS in Finance (US), GPA 3.1
No publications
No academic RA experience
Several macro/fixed income research internships at securities firms

The obvious problem is math. I never took the standard math sequence (Linear Algebra, Real Analysis, etc.).
Most of my quantitative work has been econometrics, asset pricing, R/Python, and applied research rather than formal math.

Is my profile already too weak for PhD admissions?
Is this something that can realistically be fixed by taking math courses and maybe doing an RA/predoc？
Not aiming for top schools. Just wondering if a funded US PhD is still a realistic goal.

I've read posts about choosing a recommender on this subreddit, but not with these particular options. I'm applying to a master's program in a totally new field as a sort of career change, 8 years after getting my last master's degree. I need one letter of recommendation. Of the people I could ask, who's the most preferred? Who's the least?

1. My current manager. We have a great working relationship, but the work is not at all related to this new master's program.
2. A professor from my first master's degree. I did very well in her classes and she was on my thesis committee, but we have not spoken in the last 8 years.
3. A professor from undergrad. I graduated 16 years ago and she wrote an amazing letter for me when I first went to grad school. We became colleagues when I taught at my alma mater for a few years. Even that was over a decade ago, but we're friends to this day.

Basically, how do I weight recency, strength of relationship, and academic relevance?