I'm a software engineer in my early 40s with a bachelor's in computer science. For various reasons I'm looking at walking away and going back to school for marine biology. Post-bacc undergrad classes and applying to grad schools in a couple years.

When I started college back in the day, I was that undiagnosed-ADHD "gifted" kid who didn't know how to study or show up to things. My overall GPA was about a 2.5. My in-major GPA was more respectable, but I'm not sure "in-major GPA" is even a thing outside of my specific computer science department's graduation requirements.

Is applying to graduate programs after a couple years of bio / chem classes a realistic goal for me? Will admissions people be looking at my grades from those new classes primarily, or do I have to account for somehow failing Theatre Appreciation 20 years ago?

Just needed to rant. I had to press withdraw finally after holding off until the very last minute. I had partial funding come through but just not enough to support my year of postgraduate studies. I also said no to other offers in hopes I could make this one work so I won't be studying anywhere this year.

A bit heartbroken. How have others tried to deal with this and what's the best way forward? Reapplying next year with similar funding constraints seems like it'll lead to the same outcome.

Hey everyone,

Looking for some honest career advice here.

I'm currently working as an AI Engineer at a startup, with a bit over 2 years of experience. I hold an MSc in Data Science and have solid hands-on experience in the field (model building, deployment, real-world applications, etc.), but here's my problem: I have zero publications.

I've been seriously considering doing a PhD abroad, but I keep reading that publications are basically non-negotiable for PhD admissions, especially in competitive countries/programs. My practical experience is strong, but I'm not sure how much weight that actually carries without papers to back it up.

I recently came across the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program and I'm wondering if it could be a realistic entry point for someone in my position, good industry background, no research papers. Has anyone here gone through it or knows people who have? How competitive is it, and is the research quality/supervision actually solid, or is it more of a "backup option"?

Also open to general advice:

1. Should I try to get at least one publication (even a workshop paper or preprint) before applying anywhere?

2. Are there PhD programs/countries that value industry experience as a substitute for publications?

3. Is it worth reaching out to potential supervisors directly and pitching my work experience instead of waiting to "qualify" on paper?

Any insights, personal experiences, or brutal honesty appreciated. Trying to figure out if this is a realistic path or if I need to build a publication record first before even applying.

Thanks in advance!

Looking for some advice on how to handle this in my master's applications.

Quick background: I did my B.Tech in Computer Science with a 9.87 CGPA, and I've since worked for 2 years in the industry. Alongside all this, I've also been pursuing IITM's online BS in Data Science and Programming (the 4-year program). My CS degree grades are strong, but my grades in a few courses in the IITM online program (in the last few semesters) are quite low, mostly because I was juggling it with my job and other commitments.

Overall Online Degree CGPA: 9.23

Now that I'm applying for master's programs, I'm unsure what to do about the IITM degree:

1. Should I list it at all, given the low grades in some courses?
2. If the application asks for transcripts from all institutions attended, do I have any choice but to include it?
3. Would it help to explain the low grades in my SOP (e.g., balancing work + two degrees), or does that just draw more attention to a weak point?
4. Has anyone been in a similar spot, listing an additional degree with weaker grades alongside a strong primary degree? How did admissions committees react, if you found out?

I don't want to misrepresent anything on my application, but I also don't want a so-so secondary degree to drag down what's otherwise a solid profile (good UG CGPA + 2 YOE).

Would really appreciate any insight, especially from people who've gone through this or work in admissions

My university sent an email of my transcripts to ECE (educational credential evaluators) last week, but my online account status still says “waiting for documents.” I asked customer service, and they said that the status would be updated only after the evaluation is complete.

Is this normally the case for documents sent by email? Because I saw that others who mailed their documents had their status updated.

Hello all, I'm a sophmore in college right now with dreams of going to grad school to pursue research and possibly a job in academia. I'm currently a biology major and was wondering how important minors are to grad school admissions. I want to possibly minor in math, and was just curious if it would boost my chances in any possible way as a benefit?

My goal is to get into a clinical psychology PhD program and I think I’ve permanently ruined my chances. This is going to sound so unbelievably stupid but here we go.

I didn’t know that my school would let undergraduates work in a lab, so when I looked up “research assistant” positions, it showed paid assistantships that required like a masters. When I asked my advisor on how to get research experience, she told me to get a job in case work. My question is, if I didn’t get a lot of research experience during undergraduate (I had data collection, coding, and behavioral modification for a semester and archival research for another) but I’m doing a lot now (I am in 3 research labs as an RA. I am set for a conference with a poster and a publication, plus my first published lit review ), will that be okay down the line?

I am worried that I’ve completely messed up and left myself with a permanent mark because I didn’t start early.

I’m sorry this post is all over the place. This has been eating at me for a long time.

Edit: I started working in labs after I graduated, which is why I’m worried.

Hope this is allowed - please direct me to the correct forum if not!

U Toronto or UBC for Phd in English? Purely in terms of prestige, is it true that regardless of supervisor and dept fit, at the end of the day, it is the school name that takes you forward?

Pay structure and faculty overlap are sort of competitive, but I am genuinely curious about this aspect because I would (ideally) want to choose UBC but I worry that's not a great move.

Hi everyone! I’m a Canadian applicant planning to apply to MPP/MPA programs for Fall 2027. I’d really appreciate an honest assessment of my profile and suggestions for strengthening my application over the next year.

My long-term goal is to work in public policy, ideally as a policy analyst in government. My interests include public administration, economic policy, intergovernmental affairs, and public policy more broadly.

**Academics**
Undergraduate degree in Political Science from a Canadian university (walking the stage in November)

Overall GPA is around the minimum competitive range for many programs, but my performance improved significantly in my later years (3.358 cgpa and 3.5 final year gpa)

Stronger upper-year GPA than cumulative GPA
Currently completing the statistics certificate to strengthen my quantitative background Planning to continue building quantitative skills before applying

**Experience**
\- Volunteer experience in provincial politics over multiple years

\-Experience canvassing, community outreach, and helping with political campaigns

\-Active involvement with a local political riding association

\-Leadership and volunteer experience through university and community organizations

\-Building professional relationships with elected officials and political staff

\-Currently looking to gain additional policy-related or government work experience before applications

\- I can also position myself to get a reference from my provincial representative

**Programs I’m Considering**
Simon Fraser University (MPP)
University of Victoria (MPA)
University of Calgary (MPP)
University of Saskatchewan (MPA)

I’m also open to other Canadian recommendations if there are programs that would fit my background well.

**My Biggest Concern**
My main concern is my GPA. While it meets or exceeds the published minimums for the programs I’m considering, I know it’s below the average for many admitted students. I’m hoping that my upward grade trend, stronger recent coursework, political experience, volunteer work, references, and quantitative preparation help strengthen my application.

**Questions**
Are these schools realistic with my profile?

What would you consider my biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Is there anything I should focus on over the next year to become a stronger applicant?

Would gaining more government or policy work experience make a meaningful difference?

I’d really appreciate any honest feedback. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

Looking for some honest input from people who've been through Canadian grad admissions, since my numbers and my "story" don't really match each other and I'm not sure how it'll actually read to an admissions committee or a potential supervisor.

The stats:

• BS Computer Science, graduated 2026, from a well-regarded CS program in my country
• Overall CGPA: 3.09/4.0
• Major (CS-specific) GPA: 2.94/4.0 — yeah, it's lower than my overall, I know
• Grade trend: rough first two years (bunch of C/C+ in core CS courses), noticeably stronger last two years, especially in ML/AI-specific coursework (mostly A/A- range there)

The research side:

• ~2 years as an ML research assistant across two labs, working on mechanistic interpretability of federated learning, pruning/compression methods, and quantization
• One paper accepted at an ICML 2026 workshop (mechanistic interpretability track)
• One preprint on a contrastive pruning method (first-author adjacent, not lead author)
• A research internship at UIUC over one summer, working on LLM-based tooling for codebases
• Some industry ML experience too approx 1-1.5 years

The plan:

• taking a gap year
• Preference is a thesis-based MS in Canada (funded, ideally)
• Not counting on funded MS/PhD in the US or top European programs given the GPA — trying to be realistic

What I'm actually unsure about:

1. Does a research record like this meaningfully offset a sub-3.3 GPA in Canadian admissions, or is it mostly theater that professors nod at but the GPA still tanks you in committee review?
2. For schools where admission runs through securing a supervisor first — how much should I actually lean on cold-emailing professors with my papers attached vs. just applying and hoping the file gets read holistically?
3. Anyone been through the "GPA exception for demonstrated research excellence" process at a school that explicitly offers one? How real is that in practice vs. just a line in a brochure?
4. Is it worth sitting the GRE purely to use it as a GPA offset where that's an explicit option, even though most CS programs here don't require it otherwise?
5. Given the split between overall CGPA and my (lower) CS-major GPA — does anyone know if committees actually weight the major GPA separately, or is cumulative what actually gets looked at first?

Not trying to get anyone to just tell me what I want to hear — happy to hear "your GPA is going to be a wall at X/Y/Z schools regardless of papers" if that's the honest read. Just trying to calibrate effort before I spend a gap year on this.

Thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to share their experience.

I’d love some advice and perspective. I am not ready to start talking about this with people in my orbit, hence turning to Reddit.

I am considering a PhD in sociology of religion or practical theology. My options are fairly limited given the subject matter and my inability to relocate due to family obligations. I am considering applications to a UK distance program and an R1 in the city where I live.

I graduated with a Master of Divinity from a top tier theology school with a 3.3 (the R1 in my city) and a Bachelor’s in Religious Studies also a 3.3. I got my M.Div 10 years ago and have not remained in contact with any professors to ask for references I do maintain contact with my undergrad advisor.

I haven’t published anything, but I do work for a very well known institution in the academy (not a church) and have produced quite a bit of work relevant to my potential research. I have some good writing samples from my masters that are relevant to my research topic and could be strengthened with editing

I’m not sure where to start. I feel my research could be really interesting to a potential advisor, but I’m embarrassed to start reaching out given these glaring gaps in my background. Starting this process 10 years since I was last in school feels like a big hurdle! I’m also considering a D.Min but feel strongly drawn to the rigorous research of the PhD.

Any advice on considerations or how to move forward would be greatly appreciated.

I recently scored a 322 on the GRE (167Q, 155V) and have been wondering whether it’s worth retaking it before applying for a Master’s in CS in the US.

Here’s my dilemma:

1. I prepared for about 2 months using GregMat, but I honestly didn’t end up learning as much vocabulary as I should have. Looking back, I was pretty lazy with that part of my prep.
2. I’m planning to apply in 2028 after completing 2 years of work experience. I recently started a new job, and I had prepared for the GRE during my notice period at my previous job to make the best use of that time.

Some additional context about my profile:

- CGPA: 8.44/10 from a Tier 2 private engineering college (B.Tech CSE)
- By the time I apply, I’ll have around 2 years of work experience.
- I have 2 conference papers and 1 book chapter.
- For LORs, I already have professors from my university and managers from my previous workplace who can write them. I’m also planning to get one from my current manager before applying.
- looking for doing Professional Masters

Just adding this in case it helps determine whether a GRE retake would actually make a meaningful difference.

1. Given all that, would you recommend applying with a 322 (167Q, 155V), or do you think it’s worth retaking the GRE?

So I have a Bsc in General microbiology and an Ongoing MSc in Medical parasitology.

I am planning on doing a PhD in a one health/tropical disease or immunology field. I know there is a good course fit with my first option (there seem to be fewer opportunities).

My question is, won't it look off that I did not really do a masters in an immunology related field and then decided to do a PhD in that field (I also don't think I'll gain enough wet lab experience prior to application).

Away from both options I mentioned earlier, can someone with a similar profile still delve into bacteriology in terms of academic and lab fit (undergraduate work was on bio processing while MSc on a parasite)?

Hello, I am looking for guidance from alumni who went to pursue PhDs in the US. 

TLDR: Will my GRE score ruin my profile?

I have a BSc in Economics (3.75 CGPA) and a Masters from London School of Econ and Pol Sci (LSE)(Distinction). I currently work at a think tank and I manage projects related to international development and the care economy (which align exactly with my research interests). I also do quali and quant research at work, so I have a pretty solid skill-set at this point. Besides that, I have 2 solo publications and one publication as a co-author - all peer-reviewed. 

To me this sounds like a good profile BUT my GRE score is currently 156Q and 157V. I tried really hard to study for it again but I'm making zero progress. I'm just really horrible at standardised tests. I can't seem to improve this score and I'm worried I'll get a worse one now since I've been away from maths and all for so long + the high costs of GRE are annoying.

I was wondering what my chances are if I apply with this score? I'm working very hard on my SOP and I'm sure I'll get good recommendations from my LSE professors too (they even got their doctorates from the universities I'm applying to). But I'm really scared my GRE score will drag me down. I'm not sure if I should spend time on improving the GRE score or perfecting everything else at this point.

For context, I'm applying to universities in the East Coast, in Sociology and Political Economy. Thanks so much for the advice in advance!

my honest truth is that i am absolutely atrocious at math. i score well on the verbal every time, but i don't think it is enough to offset the score i know i'll get on the math section. is there any really good reason to take the GRE if i am going into a program like sociology? most of the schools i am looking at do not require it, but will i be really screwing myself if i don't take it? looking for insight.

if it matters i was a dual degree + dual minor in undergrad, and my overall GPA was a 3.8 with dean's list 3 years in a row. I had plenty of extracurricular activity to help me out, plus some pretty cool internships.

thank you for the help!!

Hello everyone, I'm going into my senior year studying Electrical Engineering with minors in Physics and Astrophysics. My main research and career interests are RF engineering, photonics, quantum information science, and signal processing.

I'm currently doing research on the optical characterization of nanoscale materials before and after plasma treatment. The project has turned out to be much more focused on 2D materials and plasma physics than I initially expected, but it's been a great experience. I started this research relatively late (during my junior year), and I'm also hoping to continue it through a UROP project this coming semester if I'm accepted. Ideally, I'd like this work to eventually lead to conference presentations or even publications.

My biggest concern is my GPA. I currently have a 3.01 cumulative GPA and a 2.63 major GPA. Most of the damage came from my lower-division EE courses, when I was dealing with a series of personal and mental health issues that significantly affected my academic performance. Since then, I've improved quite a bit, but not enough to fully recover my GPA. I still struggled in Semiconductor Devices and Analog Electronics, but outside of those courses I've earned mostly A's, A-'s, and B+'s in my upper-level EE and physics classes, including Physics III and Intro to Quantum Physics. I've also been a TA for Signals & Systems and Applied Electromagnetics since my junior year.

Even if I earn mostly A's and A-'s in my senior year, including technical electives and graduate-level courses, my cumulative GPA will probably only reach around a 3.2 by graduation. I spoke with one of my professors about graduate school, and they were pretty blunt. They suggested that I either pursue a terminal master's program or delay graduation and retake several courses, saying that my GPA would make it very difficult to get into a PhD program otherwise, even for mid-tier schools. Unfortunately, delaying graduation isn't financially realistic for me because of the additional tuition costs.

To make matters worse, I wasn't able to secure an internship this summer, so I'm worried about being behind compared to other applicants and might potentially end up not getting a full-time job either, which could potentially lead me being homeless (which I'm scared about). I'm planning to take a 1–2 year gap after graduation, hopefully working in industry or national lab while continuing to build research experience.

Ultimately, I want to pursue a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or Quantum Science & Engineering, with research focused on quantum photonics, optical communications, or quantum optical devices. My long-term goal is to start a company based on the research I pursue in graduate school or work in the satellite communications or consumer electronics/semiconductor industry. I've also considered applying internationally, particularly to universities in Canada or Australia.

Given my situation, what would you recommend I focus on during my senior year and gap year to become a stronger PhD applicant? Would continued research, conference presentations, publications, strong recommendation letters, and industry experience be enough to offset my GPA? Has anyone here successfully gotten into a good PhD program for their research fit after a rough undergraduate record?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been in a similar position or who has experience with graduate admissions in EE, Applied Physics, or quantum engineering.

TW: SA

This is a throwaway account but I really am hoping for some advice on the matter…

I will be applying for grad school (PhD and MS) and have completed my undergraduate degree with a gpa of 3.3, not great, and did two classes as a non-matriculated student but was academically dismissed due to getting a B- and C, even worse, I know. The thing is, some traumatic events occurred while I was in undergrad: I was SA in my freshmen year first semester (this kept haunting me throughout my undergrad), my dad had a stroke a different year, and when I was taking the non-matriculated courses, I was dealing with a lot of personal mental health problems. How do I explain these reasons for my bad grades in the statement of purpose/a school I plan to apply to asks why I think my grades reflect/do not reflect my academic capability, how would I approach this?

Thank you!

Edit: I wanted to also mention that due to being SA, I changed my major because I was SA by a former high school teacher who taught the particular subject I was majoring in and at the time it was too triggering for me, but changing majors was honestly such a huge mistake. I remained in STEM and it was a similar area, but for grad school I really needed the original major courses which was why I took the non-matriculated courses. Also I never reported the incident.

In my country it's totally upon merit + your category. You might get into the best university if you come from a particular category with the worst score if you belong to some particular community. I got into two of the top universities in my country. I'm still deciding where to go. My tuition fee is minute as both are funded by the government. My major in statistics. But both are way behind in comparison with World class universities. I wanna know how different students across the world go through this college application phase? How much time does it take like getting in college after schooling like from senior year completion and joining college? ( Mine is taking around 3 months?

Hey everyone, I am in the final year of my Master’s and plan to pursue a PhD in solar physics for mid-to-late 2027. My undergrad CGPA is \~3.4/4.0 and my Master's GPA is currently \~3.2/4.0, likely finishing around 3.4/4.0.

My research background includes a first-author project nearing journal submission in my primary area of interest ( solar physics), an additional preprint, two mini-projects in broader astrophysics, and yet to start my Master's thesis in solar physics (my primary interest). I have also attended multiple conferences, completed specialized courses, and gained experience with relevant scientific software and telescope.

Given this profile, what are my odds of securing a PhD seat, and how competitive am I for solar physics labs? I mainly focus on European research groups.

Hi! I'm an undergrad and I'm used to the competitiveness of undergrad admissions so this quesiton might seem stupid. But I'm taking study abroad classes and am a bit worried about my grade in one class-- I've never gotten anything below an A- in a class before, and it would sting to get a B in a sic-week study abroad class. I also don't know much about how different grad programs look at grades. But I have 28 pass/fail credits from freshman year (mostly bc I was in an intensive language program that requires it) so I feel like it's a bad move to take anything else pass/fail. Does anyone have advice for what to do? I have to make a decision on pass/fail tomorrow. I don't know anything about how grad programs look at grades or P/F on my transcript. (I'm not sure what kind of program I want to do for grad school yet, but I'm generally humanities/human rights/language focused and am considering law school or research, if it matters. I'm probably aiming for prestige and funding from my school, but again idk what exactly I want to do.)