Unrelated Research Experience Hurts PhD Applications
14 posts across 3 communities in the last 90 days; 79% from r/gradadmissions.
“I'm a Master's student in AI/ML at a top university in my country, and I'm deaf — I can communicate by voice. I'm planning to apply for a PhD abroad, looking at China and Europe (Germany, UK, Switzerland). Not considering the US. I have two questions that I genuinely can't find…”
“Did anyone else apply to Princeton P3 this year? Has anyone heard back on their decision yet? Would love to know if anyone else who applied is from the south or from Texas.”
“Hi everyone! I’m a prospective international PhD applicant with a background in audiovisual translation and several years of professional experience in the localisation industry, including production and project management. I’m currently exploring a PhD in Translation Studies at…”
Numerous posts express anxiety and uncertainty surrounding PhD admissions, particularly in fields like AI/ML, computational linguistics, and STEM disciplines. Concerns include navigating disability discrimination, demonstrating research suitability with unrelated experience, understanding prestige rankings, and securing offers from top programs.
SOURCES (29)
“Hi everyone! I’m a prospective international PhD applicant with a background in audiovisual translation and several years of professional experience in the localisation industry, including production and project management. I’m currently exploring a PhD in Translation Studies at a South Korean university. My motivation isn’t…”
“I’m an international student planning to apply to graduate programs focused on AI evaluation, AI agents, and related areas . I’d like to get a realistic assessment of my profile and understand what range of universities I should consider. Research Experience 1 EMNLP workshop paper, second author and 1 NeurIPS workshop paper, first author 2 additional papers currently in progress Currently involved in a research fellowship (the topic is bit unrelated) Research experience includes evaluating AI ag”
“Hi everyone, I'm applying to Computer Science PhD programs in the US this admission cycle and would really appreciate feedback from people who have gone through the process. I'm especially hoping to hear from: Current US CS PhD students CS PhD alumni Faculty members or researchers familiar with PhD admissions Anyone who has successfully applied to competitive US PhD programs I'm looking for honest, critical feedback —please don't sugarcoat it. Specifically, I'd love your thou”
“Hi everyone, I'm preparing my applications for fully funded Computer Science PhD programs (Fall 2027) and would really appreciate feedback from current PhD students, faculty, or anyone who has been through the admissions process. My primary goal is maximizing the probability of getting at least one funded admission , not chasing prestige. My profile International applicant (Egypt) TOEFL iBT 2026: 5.0/6.0 WES GPA: 3.71/4.0 Institutional GPA: 3.53/4.0 Ranked 1st in class 5+ years of profession”
“Hi everyone! I’m planning to apply this cycle and I’d really appreciate some honest feedback about my chances. I know nobody can predict admissions, but I’d like to understand whether my university list is realistic or if I should adjust it. Programs: - University of Florida (PhD CS) - University of Minnesota (PhD CS) - University of Pittsburgh (PhD CS) - University of California, Riverside (PhD CS) - University of Arizona (PhD CS) - Oregon State University (PhD CS) - University of Arkansas (PhD”
“I am an international applicant from Pakistan trying to assess realistically where I stand for funded PhD positions in electrical engineering, embedded AI, industrial automation, cyber-physical systems, predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, or related areas. My profile: • MS in Electrical Engineering, GPA 3.59/4.00 • BS in Electrical Engineering, GPA 3.35/4.00 • TOEFL: 110/120 • More than four years of full-time industrial R&D experience • Previous experience as a gradua”
“I completed my Master’s in Data Science in USA and am now aiming for a PhD focused on Multilingual NLP, specifically low-resource languages and multilingual LLMs. I don’t have any publications yet, and I’m trying to figure out the best path forward. I have 2 years of SWE experience. My GPA-3.87/4 How strong should my profile be to get in?. What goes into an application? submitted by /u/Strong-Success9782 [link] [comments]”
“Hi everyone, I'm looking for some honest feedback about my chances of getting admitted to a Computer Science PhD in Europe (Germany, Denmark, Austria, or similar countries). Here's my background: 9 years of experience as a Software Engineer. Worked at large international consulting companies such as NTT DATA, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Inetum, and Globant. Currently finishing a Master's degree in Data Science (one semester left) with strong grades. I'm expecting to have two”
“Looking for school recs - I need to start Spring if possible. I know a few programs, but not sure if I'm applying right ones. Stats: MS CS (RIT, 3.38 GPA) · 2 Springer publications (ML and NLP) (not top-tier conferences)· capstone research project · 6 months Data Research Assistant - biomedical time-series dataset· co-authored a funded proposal in 2019· ~ 2 yrs industry (Google, Tesla). Looking for fully funded programs. Where can I apply for CS/NLP/Data Science PhD with my stats? Do I need”
“Hello. I'm from Russia and I'm planning to pursue funded PhD positions abroad for various reasons. My areas of interest are Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, and my research primarily focuses on machine learning applications in healthcare, including multimodal medical data analysis, clinical decision support systems, and interpretable machine learning models. I worked as a research assistant for about a year, graduated with a high GPA, published two Scopus papers related to medic”
“Hi everyone! I'm a final-year Applied Mathematics undergraduate from Vietnam (GPA 3.7/4.0) planning to apply for fully funded AI PhD programs in Singapore, mainly at NUS and NTU. My previous research focused on molecular dynamics simulations, and I have a Q2 publication from that work. However, my research interests have now shifted to theoretical NLP. Beside that, I am a National Mathematical Olympiad gold medalist and a recipient of multiple academic scholarships. How competitive would I b”
“Hi everyone, I'm deaf, and I got a 332/340 score on the GRE (167 Quant, 165 Verbal). I'm planning to apply to PhD in Finance. Do you think I have a realistic chance of being admitted to a funded PhD program in Finance? And if I do get accepted, do you think it's realistic for me to successfully complete the PhD? I know this is a personal question, but being deaf can make communication and networking much more challenging. I'd especially appreciate hearing from anyone with experie”
“Hi everyone, I'm deaf, and I got a 332/340 score on the GRE (167 Quant, 165 Verbal). I'm planning to apply to PhD in Finance. Do you think I have a realistic chance of being admitted to a funded PhD program in Finance? And if I do get accepted, do you think it's realistic for me to successfully complete the PhD? I know this is a personal question, but being deaf can make communication and networking much more challenging. I'd especially appreciate hearing from anyone with experie”
“STEM PhD USA Let me start by saying I have highest regard for the brave folks who travel to unfamiliar countries to do a PhD in their non-native language. As a monolingual and American it’s unfathomable to me and I view my labmates with utmost respect in this aspect. But socially, I have been struggling as I am the only one of the grad students and post-docs in the lab whose first language is not Mandarin. And also there is a bit of asymmetry, all of our undergrads are also English speakers and”
“Hi everyone, I'm currently pursuing (3rd year) a B.Tech in Computer Science from an NIT in India (international student from Nepal), and I'm planning my future studies. My long-term goal is to pursue a **fully funded direct PhD in the USA** right after my B.Tech, preferably in AI/ML or related computer science fields, without doing a master's first. By the time I graduate, I expect to have: * A good CGPA (currently around 8.5+) * IEEE student membership * Research experience * At lea”
“I am applying for a PhD in UK/EU (netherlands) I have a masters in Data Science from the UK. I am 27 male based in India. I think I am late to pursue PhD. I have applied and searched for phd proposal acceptance but haven't even landed a interview. All I have is unpublished articles, unaccepted proposals, no job, stranded career, judgement from family(including myself) and no hope. Any help in writing a phd proposal would be massively helpful and example proposals. Is ambitio any good for phd”
“I really want to pursue a PhD in some topic related to ml/stats (not entirely sure exactly what i want to research but something in that field). I’ve done some research during undergrad, have a 1st author, couple mid authors, data science internship, strong gpa, good LOR (I hope) from my PI, but my undergrad research isn’t really THAT related to what I would want to research for my PhD. My current research is more like ML applications for climate related issues. Essentially trying to solve probl”
“Hi everyone, I know currently a lot of folks are planning to pursue a PhD in ML because of the hype, and definitely the money or interest, whatever you call it. I am also a rising senior and prospective applicant. Disclaimer: all info here is for CS top/good programs only, and these are my recent takes after attending a top conference to present my paper. I am sharing this because I know it might benefit a lot of people gearing up for the cycle. PhD admissions in ML are brutally competitive. It”
“Hi everyone, I’m a CS undergraduate considering applying directly to PhD programs. By graduation I expect my GPA to be around 3.3 (currently 3.1). I’ve spent about two years doing research, have one paper accepted for publication, and will be presenting it at a conference in August. I’m also working on another paper that I hope to submit for publication. My research area is Trustworthy AI/Machine Learning Security. I’m trying to figure out whether applying directly to PhD programs is realistic w”
“Roast my CV!!! I am a new grad looking to do a phd in a field that combines tech/ai/ml with anthropology/humanities (ex: digital humanities, human computer interaction, computational humanities, computational linguistics, etc etc). I majored in CS and minored in anthro and cybersec in my undergrad and am looking to apply this upcoming fall. Im mostly concerned if the experience i put there is too much, not relevant, unorganized, hard to read, etc. any feedback would be extremely helpful!!!! (and”
“I'm a Master's student in AI/ML at a top university in my country, and I'm deaf — I can communicate by voice. I'm planning to apply for a PhD abroad, looking at China and Europe (Germany, UK, Switzerland). Not considering the US. I have two questions that I genuinely can't find honest answers to. 1. Real admission chances. I keep hearing that in China there can be real discrimination against applicants with disabilities — that some programs effectively only take "healthy”
“I'm a BA student in Modern Languages in Italy (currently building a strong background in Linguistics) and I'd like to apply for an MSc in Computational Linguistics/NLP. Since my degree doesn't include programming courses, I'm looking for reputable online Python courses that are actually respected by admissions committees (e.g. Stanford Code in Place, Harvard CS50P), and possibly that don't cost an arm and a leg. Which ones would you recommend? Thanks :) submitted by ”
“Did anyone else apply to Princeton P3 this year? Has anyone heard back on their decision yet? Would love to know if anyone else who applied is from the south or from Texas. submitted by /u/RickyRaviolii [link] [comments]”
“I have received PhD offers with scholarships from two universities in different countries, and I am trying to make a careful decision because both options have important advantages and drawbacks. Option 1: PhD in Education The PhD in Education is from the comparatively stronger university in terms of overall reputation and ranking. The difference in ranking is not extremely large, but the Education university is still considered better. Financially, this option is much more manageable. I would n”