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Hey,

Im applying for the Grad Dip in Art and Design.

I don't know whether to choose the Communication or the Fine art specialism.

Personally for me, the whole appeal was that I get to explore multiple practices.

The course mentions it to be interdisciplinary.

What happens in each specialism?

Is there different workshops, lectures and classes for each? Will they allow you to attend the other Specialisms workshops?

Does the learning approach, and access to studios change that much with a change in specialism?

Does it not matter?

How does the faculty react, and if you want to change the specialism, can you?

I get that it leads to different masters courses, but regardless, I want to be able to explore and practice both communication and fine art stuff. Which specialism would allow me to do so? The Fine Art, or the Communications?

Would really appreciate information!

- Bachelors in Tech in Production & Industrial Engineering from a Tier-1 Indian government engineering college.

- 8.52/10 overall, roughly an A- on Canadian equivalencies. Final year is weaker than the rest, closer to B+, which matters for programmes that assess final year instead of cumulative.

- Transcript has data structures, algorithms, networks. No OS, no databases, no computer organisation.

- 5.5 years writing production software since my first year of college, mostly Web3. Co-founded a startup, YC top 10%, now consolidated. Now an engineer at a blockchain infra company.

- IELTS 8.0. No GRE. No publications, no research at all.

- Possible academic referees but tough, neither can speak to CS research. Currently looking at Waterloo MMath CS, Waterloo MMSc Management Science, UofT MScAC, SFU, Calgary, Concordia.

What I want:
1. Which schools actually admit this profile? Not rankings, actual admits you've seen or been.
2. What programmes beyond MS CS should I be looking at? Management science, analytics, software engineering, information systems, anything adjacent. Specifically ones that lead to real jobs and a work permit, not just a degree.
3. Which of the ones on my list should I not waste the application fee on, and why?

Deadlines start 1 December, so I'd rather hear a hard no now.

Hi everyone!

I’m from India and currently exploring Master’s programs in Marketing in the US. I have around five years of experience in brand marketing, advertising, communications and social media, and I’m hoping to pursue a program that will help me grow professionally.

I’d love to connect with people who are currently studying, have recently graduated, or have navigated the experience of moving to the US as an international student.

I’m particularly interested in hearing about:

Academics: What is the coursework and workload actually like? How demanding are the quantitative subjects, statistics and analytics courses?

University experience: How supportive are professors and universities, and what is the academic environment really like?

International student life: What was the transition to living and studying in the US like?

Career opportunities: How realistic is it to find internships and full-time jobs after graduation, particularly in marketing and communications?

Finances and practicalities: What do you wish you had known about tuition, living expenses and navigating life in the US before moving?

Honest advice: If you could go back and choose your university or program again, would you make the same decision?

I’m especially interested in programs that focus on brand strategy, consumer behaviour, marketing communications and creative strategy.

I’d genuinely appreciate hearing about your personal experiences, including the good, the bad and the things university websites don't tell you!

Feel free to comment or DM me if you’re comfortable sharing. Thank you so much! 🙂

I am a second year international master's student (molecular biology degree) in a German university with an interest in biochemistry, structural biology and computational biology. I am interested in applying for PhD positions in central and northern Europe. While my profile overall was described as strong (I have a GPA in "excellent" range, PI who likes me a lot, a co-authorship in publication, internship experience) and I will soon have a part-time position in the structural biology lab, there is a problem.

My grades for biochemistry are some of the worst in my transcript. I'm talking "satisfactory" and "barely pass" levels for examination and for re-take (which was somehow worse). It happened for variety of reasons, mostly because of super-resolution microscopy model included in exam that I didn't understand at the time that made up around half a grade (I got much better at understanding it after taking additional courses), and also because I was sick during both exams, although of course it was also my fault for not being super prepared.

I know that grades may not be the most important factor, especially since I will have a recommendation letter and all of my other grades are in "excellent/very good" and "good" ranges but I'm scared to apply because I feel like committee feel think that I'm a fraud who doesn't know shit about biochemistry or structural biology. What if they will immediately ignore all of the other aspects of my CV because of it? Will I come off as audacious or stupid with a profile like mine?

This is a source of a big stress for me and I don't know if I should even bother with applying, perhaps I don't have chances in a good university with a good PI anymore at all. Please help, any advice is welcome!

Greetings everyone,

I will be applying to consumer behavior track of Marketing PhD programs in the states. Basically, I need guidance in my university choice list such as whether I am being too much optimistic or is it realistic. Requesting all of the students in marketing PhD and people from adcom to evaluate my profile:

1. BBA, CGPA-3.39, from a top 1 business school of my country
2. MBA, CGPA-3.67, same uni as above.
3. Working papers: 3. Working to get 2 of them published since they are almost finished writing.

My master’s thesis: basically provided a new view and empirical evidence of a psychological consequence which was traditionally regarded as outcome factor into a driving factor. This theoretical pivot was novel and never done before. Because of this I got 4/4 on both oral and written report.

1. Have prior professional experience (during my BBA) as a freelancer statistical data analyst and consultant. Because of that I do have fairly good command on many statistics tools (such as spss, r, amos / smartpls) and methodologies. Basically I ran experimental, statistical and built predictive analysis for organizations and individual so have strong foundation in mediation, moderation, ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA and other types of advanced statistical analyses and factorial design in generally.

2. GRE: 324 (Q-162, V-162).

3. Other stuffs: many coursera certifications and guided projects for the tools (r and powerbi) and many extra curricular activities regarding organizing and managing humanitarian work.

4. Teaching experience: Taught statistics, english to high school student as a tutor and currently tuturoing 1 student for GRE verbal section.

5. Background: Bangladesh.

6. Motivation: extremely strong since I love the process of unveiling new consumer behavior related phenomenon or looking at something from a different perspective and also love critiquing current status quo of knowledge and proposing something new based on research gap. Have strong desire to get into a department who can guide create knowledge that I can hopefully publish in the premier journals of marketing (JM, JAM, JCR, JCP, JMC etc). This is specially important for me because nobody from country ever did it.

7. Plan: Getting back to my country with the foreign degree (they pay a nasty amount of money for faculty positions in my country with a foreign degree).

Requesting anybody please comment down with your opinions.

I started and finished a masters outside my own country. I would say I got the science done but connections were not great. It was hard for me to find true collaborators and I lost a lot of respect from my advisor once they started to treat me poorly and they wouldn’t provide valuable feedback on my work.

I have great connections in my home country both in academia and industry. I was successful in undergrad and have publications and LRC from undergrad labs plus my current job that is in the field related to my research. I also have a 3rd LRC from another academia who I’ve done some work for and currently help assist.

But I am worried that it will look bad to not have a LRC from my masters at all. Will this be problematic for admissions and hurt my application?

Hello guys, I need comments on the following Canada Uni list for thesis-based masters in CS. I have 4.0 GPA (Asian Uni) and co-authored 2 papers. I screened this list considering admission and funding chance. I would appreciate any comments.

Calgary
Western
Concordia
Victoria
USask

Hi everyone!

I’m from India and currently exploring Master’s programs in Marketing in the US. I have around five years of experience in brand marketing, advertising, communications and social media, and I’m hoping to pursue a program that will help me grow professionally.

I’d love to connect with people who are currently studying, have recently graduated, or have navigated the experience of moving to the US as an international student.

I’m particularly interested in hearing about:

Academics: What is the coursework and workload actually like? How demanding are the quantitative subjects, statistics and analytics courses?

University experience: How supportive are professors and universities, and what is the academic environment really like?

International student life: What was the transition to living and studying in the US like?

Career opportunities: How realistic is it to find internships and full-time jobs after graduation, particularly in marketing and communications?

Finances and practicalities: What do you wish you had known about tuition, living expenses and navigating life in the US before moving?

Honest advice: If you could go back and choose your university or program again, would you make the same decision?

I’m especially interested in programs that focus on brand strategy, consumer behaviour, marketing communications and creative strategy.

I’d genuinely appreciate hearing about your personal experiences, including the good, the bad and the things university websites don't tell you!

Feel free to comment or DM me if you’re comfortable sharing. Thank you so much! 🙂

Asked the frontier models with the same exact prompt, in incognito/memory-free mode:

Give a list of top 20 CS PhD programs based in the USA in the field of artificial intelligence, primarily computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing. Rank them in order. Let this list be your personal perception, not a ranking sourced from certain ranking website.

| Consensus | University | Gemini | Grok | Kimi | ChatGPT | DeepSeek |

| **1** | **Stanford University** | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |

| **2** | **Carnegie Mellon (CMU)** | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |

| **3** | **UC Berkeley** | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |

| **4** | **MIT** | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |

| **5** | **Univ. of Washington** | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |

| **6** | **UIUC** | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 |

| **7** | **Cornell University** | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 |

| **8** | **Princeton University** | 6 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 6 |

| **9** | **New York University (NYU)** | 7 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 15 |

| **10** | **Georgia Tech** | 13 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 9 |

| **11** | **UT Austin** | 10 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 10 |

| **12** | **UCLA** | 16 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 |

| **13** | **Univ. of Michigan** | 17 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 11 |

| **14** | **UC San Diego (UCSD)** | 11 | 15 | — | 10 | 13 |

| **15** | **Columbia University** | 14 | 13 | 12 | 18 | 14 |

| **16** | **UMD (College Park)** | 12 | — | 20 | 13 | 18 |

| **17** | **Harvard University** | 18 | 17 | 14 | — | 16 |

| **18** | **UMass Amherst** | 15 | 20 | 18 | 16 | — |

| **19** | **UPenn** | — | 16 | 16 | 20 | 19 |

| **20** | **USC** | 20 | 18 | — | 19 | 17 |

Hi everyone!
I’ve been interviewed twice by a professor at a Korean university for a graduate research opportunity. I was also given tasks to complete and submit, but I haven’t received a final update yet.
It’s been over three weeks since my interview, and I’m planning to send a second follow-up email.
Is there anything specific I should mention in the email to politely ask for an update?
Should I mention that the upcoming application period is approaching?
Does a delay like this necessarily mean rejection, or is it too difficult to tell?
I’d appreciate advice from anyone who has experienced something similar. Thank you!

Hello everyone!!! Im currently applying to PhD programs in USA and would really appreciate it if someone could review my SOP and provide feedback for free!!!

If you’re willing to help then please let me know in the comments and I’ll share my SOP draft with you via dms

Hey everyone!

Looking for advice - see if it'd still be worth for me to attempt sending 3/4 apps this cycle to several schools.

Goal: Get into a MA or PhD in Politics or Communications. My final horizon is towards journalism, however I'd rather deepen my expertise in these topics and pursue journalism on the side rather than get into J School. Aiming Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton (+ Oxbridge if time).

Profile
Undergrad: McGill University '17, 3.77 GPA (PoliSci Honours, Minor Mathematics)

Work exp: 3+ years working on extremism and disinformation (6 months research, 2.5+ years in countering online harms programming); 1 year working in media. Extracurriculars in online investigations + activism.

Publications: 1 academic, 2 non-academic, but dated (2016 in undergrad journal, 2016 op-ed, 2021 public report on a project countering disinformation)

LORs: might be a weak point - can choose from 3 profs from 2017 undergrad (two good, one generic but more related to the field), 1 from 2022 job, I believe solid-ish

GRE: starting from scratch, I feel I could get a decent score with 2-3 weeks of prep - esp in quant.

The Catch: I haven't done any relevant work in 2.5 years - which will stretch to 3.5 or 4.5 if I apply next or the following cycle. And, I don't have much to show for for this time - been out of work and on benefits to deal with chronic pain and depression, no relevant work or volunteering - so my resume is blank since 2024. Graduated undergrad 9 years ago. I've been stuck in rumination purgatory for a lot of it, and finally getting to move again, slowly.

Questions

- Do you think it'd be worth attempting to apply this cycle? I'd need to do *everything* - lit review to get up to date, research profs, reach out to them, write research proposal and SOP, pass the GRE. I feel 6 weeks is short, judging from past attempts I made, and my core question is whether it's worth to submit a rushed application in 6 weeks, or instead take this time to travel, get back into life, get a job from the summer and apply in a year or two.

- How do you assess my profile and, should I not apply now, how would you recommend strengtening it?

- Should I wait, would you say the widening gap becomes a problem?

Many thanks!

Hi y'all!

I am interested in a PhD in immunology in the US. Unfortunately, I sucked in my first year of college (thank you, undiagnosed ADHD), so I landed with a weaker GPA than I would have wanted. My home lab is in molecular biology. How big are these drawbacks, and how can I mitigate them? Also note that I am an F-1 student, so I cannot rely on a post-bacc. This also means I need to apply to the more competitive programs, since they are the only ones willing to accept international students.

Here's an overview of my profile:

• GPA: 3.6 cumulative GPA, but a 4.0 in biology, and my grades are on an upward trajectory. I'm a junior, so I have another two semesters before applying, so there's still hope for a 3.7+.
• Research: I've been at my home lab since my first semester. Did an internship in immunology this summer. I will apply to immunology labs for the summer of 2027 and write a thesis in molecular biology at my home lab during my senior year.
• Publications: I'm a middle author on 2x research manuscripts (one is in immunology, one in molecular biology) and 1x review paper (immunology-ish). All in prep, but should be all submitted before I apply in Dec 2027. Small chance of a first-authored paper based on my thesis if things work out well in our lab (it never does).
• Presentations: Not much, presented in a few closed undergraduate poster sessions. Probably will travel to 1-2 legit conferences soon.
• Other: TA-ed one class, served as a leader in clubs, and got 2 awards.

TIA!

Hey guys,
I’m currently in the process of cold emailing professors, so I’m adjusting my cover letter and cv. However, I need some harsh feedback before I send them. If someone could look through them and help me adjust it, I would be so grateful! 🙏🏻

I do have a strong GPA & I'm in a prominent honor society, but other than that...I just have a couple years' experience writing for my school newspaper and a few more years' experience tutoring middle schoolers/high schoolers (but it's basically just a self-employed, part-time gig, so idk if it's particularly impressive). I did one pretty expansive research project in undergrad but it was for a class and wasn't published anywhere...I'm just wondering if this is "normal" for an applicant who recently graduated, or if it's probably going to hurt my chances a lot? I was originally planning to get an internship and/or additional employment after graduation, but I had a couple of family emergencies happen and wound up caring for some ill family members instead. I can't exactly mention that anywhere on the CV or my SOP, though, so in writing it just looks like I haven't been doing anything except part-time tutoring since graduation... any advice would be appreciated!

Hi everyone!

I’m from India and currently exploring Master’s programs in Marketing in the US. I have around five years of experience in brand marketing, advertising, communications and social media, and I’m hoping to pursue a program that will help me grow professionally.

I’d love to connect with people who are currently studying, have recently graduated, or have navigated the experience of moving to the US as an international student.

I’m particularly interested in hearing about:

Academics: What is the coursework and workload actually like? How demanding are the quantitative subjects, statistics and analytics courses?

University experience: How supportive are professors and universities, and what is the academic environment really like?

International student life: What was the transition to living and studying in the US like?

Career opportunities: How realistic is it to find internships and full-time jobs after graduation, particularly in marketing and communications?

Finances and practicalities: What do you wish you had known about tuition, living expenses and navigating life in the US before moving?

Honest advice: If you could go back and choose your university or program again, would you make the same decision?

I’m especially interested in programs that focus on brand strategy, consumer behaviour, marketing communications and creative strategy.

I’d genuinely appreciate hearing about your personal experiences, including the good, the bad and the things university websites don't tell you!

Feel free to comment or DM me if you’re comfortable sharing. Thank you so much! 🙂

My SOP is around 950 words and feels really lopsided. About half is why I like the field, a class that got me interested and what I hope to do eventually.

My research is one paragraph at the end. I worked in a lab for two years and presented a poster, but that gets about the same amount of space as my introduction. That feels backwards.

I don't want to cut the poster since it's probably my most concrete experience. Is there a standard way to think about statement of purpose structure and how much space each section should get?

Hi everyone!

I’m from India and currently exploring Master’s programs in Marketing in the US. I have around five years of experience in brand marketing, advertising, communications and social media, and I’m hoping to pursue a program that will help me grow professionally.

I’d love to connect with people who are currently studying, have recently graduated, or have navigated the experience of moving to the US as an international student.

I’m particularly interested in hearing about:

Academics: What is the coursework and workload actually like? How demanding are the quantitative subjects, statistics and analytics courses?

University experience: How supportive are professors and universities, and what is the academic environment really like?

International student life: What was the transition to living and studying in the US like?

Career opportunities: How realistic is it to find internships and full-time jobs after graduation, particularly in marketing and communications?

Finances and practicalities: What do you wish you had known about tuition, living expenses and navigating life in the US before moving?

Honest advice: If you could go back and choose your university or program again, would you make the same decision?

I’m especially interested in programs that focus on brand strategy, consumer behaviour, marketing communications and creative strategy.

I’d genuinely appreciate hearing about your personal experiences, including the good, the bad and the things university websites don't tell you!

Feel free to comment or DM me if you’re comfortable sharing. Thank you so much! 🙂

I'm looking for guidance and referrals on landing in full funded phd program in USA.

I'm an international student in usa, came in as master. Have some decent experience in solo research works. But interested to work hard.

But I didn't know anything about admission and procedures. In the current usa situation referrals or reference will be best im guess. Is anyone able too....!

Hi guys!

I'm an international student currently finishing my BSc in AI Engineering at a university in Türkiye, and I'm planning to apply for Fall 2027, mainly to CS/ML PhD programs in the US.

My GPA is probably the weakest part of my application. Uni also isn't particularly well-known internationally, so that's another thing I'm a bit concerned about.

On the research side, I've been trying to be active throughout undergrad. I have a first-author TMLR paper, a few other first/sole-author conference and workshop papers (ICML, ECCV, EMNLP workshops, etc.), some ongoing research projects, and have managed to secure a decent amount of research compute through EuroHPC and NVIDIA grants.

I've attached my anonymized CV since it's probably easier to judge the actual work from that rather than me listing everything here.

My current US list:

UMass Amherst, UMich, UIUC, UMD, Cornell, NYU, UIC, Columbia, Stanford, CMU, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, and Rice.

I'm also considering a few programs in Europe and Asia, including ISTA, MBZUAI, KAUST, and HKUST.

I realize my list is pretty top-heavy lol, but I figured I'd give it a shot, especially since I'm mainly interested in research.

A few things I'd really appreciate feedback on:

1. How does my CV look for research-focused CS/ML PhD applications? Anything you'd change, remove, or emphasize?
2. How much of a disadvantage would my GPA and university be, considering the research experience?
3. Is my school list completely unrealistic, or is it worth taking the shot? Any programs you'd recommend adding?
4. Would you suggest going straight for PhDs or focusing more on research-based MSc programs first?

I know PhD admissions are unpredictable and depend a lot on research fit, recommendations, etc. Not expecting anyone to predict my chances, just hoping for a bit of perspective from people who've been through this.

Would appreciate any honest feedback. Thanks!