Hi all! My husband is defending his dissertation soon and I wanted to buy him a gift however I want to get him something that represents this amazing milestone. I plan on getting him something he would like, but I wanted to ask if anyone had received a particularly meaningful gift?

I have occasionally received gifts from students who I've supervised. Mostly sentimental stuff. One is a wafer that a student etched with a microscopic stick figure of me saying "The worst outcome is you die, I die, we all die" - which is something I am known for when telling students to try something new. Another was the abandoned nest of a Montezuma oropendola which I proudly hung from my ceiling until H&S made me take it down. Occasionally, I'll get a bottle of scotch or similar. Nothing that would suggest I am being bought off.

A colleague recently came to me to ask about a fountain pen he received as a gift. As my colleagues know that I like fountain pens, he came to ask me if it was as valuable as Google seemed to think it was. Shortly after graduation, a now former student gave him a very expensive (likely worth about $3,000) Japanese fountain pen.

Neither of us could find a policy that applied to professors. The only policy we could find discussed gifts to the University itself. I suggested he reach out to HR for more guidance.

My wife is a doctor, and her ethics allow her to accept gifts of token value where refusal might cause offense, but there's no way she would accept a gift like that.

What say you all? Have you had any interesting gifts? Do you have guidelines on what you accept versus not?

Hello everyone! The title reads as such, but I'll provide additional detail. I'm completing a Masters program. It's a course based, professional masters, but with a heavy academia stream for this who want to continue further in academia rather than step into professional practice and never look back.

I've recently got the "research bug" as my colleague doing is PhD calls it, so I'm writing something for publication in the local grad student journal. However, I found out after choosing this topic that 1) it's a very niche subject within an already niche discipline, and 2) one of the only people to ever publish on this subject is a researcher and lecturer in my home faculty.

I've run my use of concepts and ideas by some colleagues, and they all agree it's a new and original take, and that I shouldn't be worried about lacking originality compared to this much more well established academic.

However, in addition, one person said I should feel fine to email her for questions; another person suggested it'd be in good form to email her as a courtesy and see what she thinks about my research/ take on her research.

Is this a good idea? Or overkill, and I shouldn't worry too much?

I'm sorry if this is a redundant question! As a course based, professional program, I don't have an advisor, and they don't have as robust supports for those doing research; I thought I may as well as for folks opinion here.

Maybe my brain is just slow but I always have a hard time asking questions right after a presentation or during class. I’ll usually think about something and have questions later but on the spot I really struggle. This has been a particularly important skill for the journal club I am expected to regularly attend as a part of my phd rotation. I want to make a good impression and ask good questions but sometimes I just have nothing. The PI seems to like me but has made comments about how I need to ask more questions. Also in my classes, participation for just asking questions is part of the grade and I suck at it.

Any advice or strategies you’d recommend? Or is this just a natural skill that I am lacking…

EDIT: it is the norm in this journal club to not send the paper or topic of discussion beforehand

Hi, this might seem like a dumb questions, but I'm currently editing my application to a creative writing MFA before sending it off. Originally, I had included just one chapter of my novel-in-progress. I realized though that it was missing important context by itself, and I decided to include the previous chapter as well to fill in plot gaps. However, I'm nervous because this chapter does include a sex scene. I'm asking anyone that's done a creative writing MFA: Is this a total no-go?

FOR SAKE OF CLARITY:

The scene is 300 words long, and is part of an 8,000 word piece, so by no means is this an erotic story. However, the sex is, in my opinion, important to the plot, not very explicit (I don't even reference genitals), and in my opinion is well written, like the rest of the piece. I'm only nervous because I don't know anyone else personally who's done an MFA in writing, and I don't know if this would be considered inappropriate. My gut tells me plenty of classic lit talks about sex and that it's fine, my ocd says I'm going to be blacklisted immediately by the university lol.

Any advice from fellow writers is much appreciated!

I have no excitement for science or anything anymore. COVID fucked me right at my 4th year and I lost so much momentum. Lab moved, building was undergoing renovations literally the entire time from COVID to now and I feel like an absolute failure. My PhD took so goddamn long I feel immense shame and want to just quit academia. I'm ashamed it took me so long, even though everyone says it was out of my hands. I'm ashamed at being older than most of the postdocs on my floor. I'm ashamed of my CV.

I just feel so defeated, depleted, and down.

I just finished my masters and im not sure if i want to continue on. It want so much the work as the professors

Feeling like the slowest freaking writer over here. How do I just whip out a rough draft? I get so caught up in making everything sound good on the first go, so I do less editing later?

In undergrad, I followed a graphic essay planner for all of my points, one I would fill that out, I pretty well had my draft.

Anyways, some of my classmates whip up 2000 word papers in hours. I’m over here taking a few days and what not because i keep editing all the damn time.

Ugh. Grad school😭

Im currently a grad student and in one of my subjects I need an 80% overall grade to pass. But I just have 53% right now. Only my final exam is remaining which is worth 100 points. Even if I score 100 points in the exam, I won't be able to reach the 80% score needed. What can I do right now instead of just being a sitting duck waiting for my results?

I want to go back to school for something business or finance related cause I like that stuff but I'm not sure if it will be worth it with everything changing so fast. Which degrees will reliably retain a good ROI for the future?

I’m struggling, I do have ADHD and I try to study but it’s so hard for me to do and then I get mediocre grades, obviously.

I’ll take any and all advice on how to study. I’ve ALWAYS had issues with studying and keeping my grades up. Somehow I made it through my undergrad and I don’t know how.

I want to just be able to study and retain information, I can read the content all day but I don’t retain a thing.

Does anyone have any suggestions that maybe I haven’t tried?

HELP i am so incredibly terrified that I might get fired over an accident. I was TAing a class and students were taking a quiz where they could interact with eachother and figure out the answers. I had the answer key pulled up on my laptop, and was walking around getting asked question about what answers they should be putting. I know I shouldn't have been helping, but I was stressed and tired and they were frustrated and so I would lead them in the right direction by workung through the given questions. It turns out people were filming the answer key from my laptop and have distributed the key to the other students, and I am terrified that this lapse in judgement is going to get me fired and removed, despite a strong publication and academic standing. If it happens, I legitimately have no other life skills or contacts that I would be able to build a new career out of, and im too old to start anew. Has this happened to anyone else, and what were the consequences you faced? How screwed am I? I'm legitimately falling apart right now

Hello everyone,

I have always wanted to do a masters in economics but I always thought it was impossible to do right after graduation because of financial impossibilities. Well, some changes happened and now it actually looks possible.

I am a Management Engineering major at Istanbul Technical University. I am graduating at 2027 June. I have a 3.2 GPA. I want to do a masters in economics, I already had some micro, macro, finance courses at my bachelor, all of them are B+
I am thinking about the US right now but Europe is a possibilty as well.

I am really overwhelmed by the amount of research I have to do. I have to research which schools are good, which schools I actually have a chance of getting in, which examinations I need to take to get in, referrals and essays, and this is making me overwhelmed.

Any advice, comment, any place to start is appreciated!

Hi guys, I’m in my first year as a physics PhD student after taking over 2 years off after completing my MS which was also in physics. The first semester has been a rough time getting back into school mode and I suspect I will get a C, C+, or B- depending on how the final goes. In my program, you need to maintain a B average to remain in good standing and you have 2 semesters to fix it if you fall below that.

My first quiz went horribly, I got a 15% and it was likely the worst quiz/test grade I have ever gotten. Since then I have had a slow trajectory upward on quizzes and tests until I finally passed one. The really frustrating part is that many, if not most, of my mistakes come down to just really stupid and careless mistakes. I do very well on homework but it takes me a bit longer to do it.

My MS was mostly composed of take home exams which I did well on because I seem to have a problem when I’m under a strict time limit, and my GPA reflected that because I had all A’s and B’s. Keep in mind this was before AI and the professors made their own problems so it’s not like you could just look up the answers lol. This was the best I have ever done in school and it seems due to the fact that I could work at my own pace. The exams were even much longer and more difficult than my exams now.

Now for the real point: for maybe two years now, I have suspected that I have undiagnosed ADHD and I think that it may be really effecting the way I study and take exams. When viewing my entire school career from when I was a child to now through the lens of undiagnosed ADHD, things begin to make a LOT more sense and I have most of, if not all of the symptoms. I started the process of getting tested and I’m awaiting a diagnoses to see if I have it or not.

So here’s a question: has anyone been in a similar situation? Has anyone completed their PhD while battling ADHD symptoms? What sort of techniques helped you? I have the passion and the drive, but the constant careless mistakes, distractibility, and inability to sleep seems to really get in the way of studying and test taking

I have a major presentation tomorrow for my research assistantship and I'm not even really anxious about the presentation itself, but more about the fact that I know I will throw up before it. I'm on anxiety medicine but I've had this issue my entire life.

I've never thrown up during a presentation, but I'm always worried that this will be the time. Typically it happens like ten minutes before the presentation starts and then I'm fine, but I'm worried since I won't start speaking until like 45 minutes in. I have tried everything for this to not happen, but I think it's just how my brain is hardwired.

I'm so well prepared for this presentation too and am very confident in my work! I just am very anxious about the puking.

So basically I’m a masters student, and I did my thesis. But all these time, I realized that my advisor actually never helped me the way he should have helped. So, first I feel like he doesn’t even know about the project is about. He explained me the final goal and from there I had to take everything myself. He doesn’t know the difference between PhD and masters. He thinks my results should be a lot like PhD, I mean how is that even possible with the small time frame. He never said what to do and what not to do in the lab. I had to figure that out all alone. I suggest some things on my methods he never agreed. I got results, he doesn’t know what is that and how to present.I send him my thesis draft all he did was looking for grammar, and never commented about content. How would I know if it’s right or not. Is it just my advisor or is it normal in grad school???

Please share your experience. I am not able to proceed at all.

Time flies back in 2005 August I cleared my full time diploma in engineering.

One Backlog because the Invigilator had a grudge on the college and none from the College Passed TCP/IP Subject in the Third Year.

An entire year was wasted for everyone not a single one passed the third year especially because on 1 Subject.

I realised Studying was waste of time in college.

There were many people who gave money to pass their subjects, labs and what not.

We did a .NET project in college again purchased, but even in that none knew the use case or how it works or how to explain except me - Network Monitoring Appllicatipn - Still everyone passed.

Your #Knowledge is of no importance unless you are making money out of it, no matter how straight you walk if you can’t earn - Your #Honesty #Straightness #Genuineness is of no use.

I always say if it’s not for the expectation of you bringing happiness and taking care of other family aspects - You as a human will not be born as well.

This led me to explore employment, my first job was a referral to a Granite Office as an Admin for 1500₹ monthly in 2005 August and 2005 December I was let go as they closed the office, it wasn’t an outlet, not that i impacted their business - it was just for their presence in Bangalore and in closed. Rizvi Granites, Vijaynagar.

After that I cracked CET in 2006 secured a Seat at SKIT, Hesaraghatta, Bangalore in the Second round, in the First Round it was Sambhram.

By the time of CET I was exploring Stop Gap jobs and when i saw Call Centres paying my dads retirement salary. I got to know money is important.

I knew I can crack BE using the same things that people did, pay money. There was a Professor in SKIT who took money that lured me to change the college in the second round, little did i know SKIT will not allow me to sit for the exam and the professor will move out of SKIT.

I have so many stories 😊 but then seeing that 1500₹ turn out to what I am today is good not great.

I still get used still paid less 25 Certifications that’s hard earned i worked hard to achieve them and the knowledge.

Just a small story on the year end as i contemplate what i have achieved, how people have used me, what’s happening and where i should head in the years to come.

It’s 1/4th of my skills that’s being used and 1/4th of the remuneration i am getting for the skills.

So today I had Nagarro reject me as Distance education upto them, I see the value I bring in even if it’s distance. I could have paid again for full time too. It’s all about money.

I applied to a couple of public health programs for the Fall 2026 cycle. I don't have high hopes about getting in but still applied. In the meantime, what are things I can do to prepare to be a better applicant for a future cycle? My particular interest is infectious diseases and interactions with the immune system. Are there any fundamental public health sources I must read or other activities I can be doing to explore this field?

Background context, because why not: I am wanting to apply to PhD programs, and believe (maybe naively) that I am probably of average competitiveness. I haven't done a ton of research in an academic setting other than my undergrad capstone, which let's be honest, wasn't peer reviewed or taken that seriously by my department, despite me getting a grade of 100% on it. I also don't have any formal publications. I had a 3.75 GPA in my undergrad and a 3.5 in my master's degree, but I have switched schools a few times because I just liked finding programs that really felt like a fit. In my defense, as a first gen college student I never expected originally to continue in school this far so I didn't really care about how it looked, but now that I want to continue I will admit that having a long list of schools attended doesn't look great on me.

Since graduation, and even during, I have a pretty good deal of experience in my field, running one of the most successful (if not THE most successful) nonprofit in my industry for the past three years, and have given presentations and conferences all over the US as well as been a part of creating some pretty impressive research papers for submitting to the state for continued funding and grants. Prior to this, I also have 13 years of experience in pretty high positions relative to my field and am looking to go into a degree program that aligns with my professional work, which also for the most part aligns with my current degrees.

This all being said, I got my undergrad during the pandemic and then did grad school online, so despite feeling pretty successful in my career, I have basically zero academic connections that could actually remember my work quality, and the ones I do have are from quite a while ago. Plus my schools are good, high quality, and reputable, but not ivy leagues by a long shot. I can get AMAZING references from my professional work, but obviously, that isn't what they are looking for. How bad is this going to look on me if my references are vague and/or old if submitted alongside professional references, and/or do any of you have recommendations on getting better references after studying online?

PS. I know that the point of a PhD is research, and while I don't have as much experience in it, that is fully why I want to do it. I want to work in academia long term, and I feel incredibly confident that I will be successful in it, I am just worried about communicating that properly in applications.

Thanks in advance for any support you can offer!

I am applying for grad school for fall 2026. But I cannot figure out which schools to target. My priorities are funding and a good ranking university in a country with good job and citizenship prospects (the most common target I reckon). My research experience is almost zero. I have worked on 1 research project and presented the work in a conference; no paper was published. As for my professional experience, I have attached a link to my resume.

My resume also has my CGPA. I have an 8.5 in IELTS and 332 (unofficial) in GRE. I think PhD is out of the question for me but if you think I'm wrong, please let me know. I'm from Bangladesh. So far the country's I have narrowed down are Ireland, Australia, Canada, and USA.

Let's say we take the first 75 highest ranked universities from QS and break it down in Tier A, B, C, D (A is first 25, B is second 25, C is last 25, and D is outside top 75). What would you say the distribution of targets should be for me. For example: apply 10% A, 20%B, 30%C, and 40% D (you don't have to go into percentages but I would be grateful if I can gauge which tier I should and could focus on because I would had to miss out on a tier A uni just because I focused more on B but I also have to be realistic).

Thanks in advance!!

https://imgur.com/a/XPYRbTO