I have a lot of doubts about this. Is there a difference between a master's dissertation and a master's thesis? Is the dissertation supposed to be completely original, a never been done before topic or research? How can I know if the topic in my head has been done before?

My professors keep dodging questions about these as we still technically have time till the next semester starts when I will actually be required to talk about the dissertation. I would like to have some clarity either way.

long story short, I submitted my grad school applications today, and my PI basically forwarded the email she received to confirm that she did in fact receive it and will work on it soon, which included the link to submit the letter of recommendation.

I immediately clicked it, just because I was curious what these things looked like, and what the questions look like, and now I'm kinda anxious that the university will recognize the IP address the link was clicked from.

I did not submit anything, or touch anything, and I just exited the tab. Am I going to be okay, or does this kinda just, jeopardize my entire application?

Hi community,

I recently received some feedback from my supervisor that was less positive than I'd hoped for. I'm immensely grateful for their honesty, detail, and efficiency in reviewing what I sent over.

They are an incredibly supportive mentor and I have nothing but appreciation for the time they spent getting back to me. As a student, I know that incorporating their feedback will allow me to excel and position my work as accurate, informative, and valuable to the field.

However, I can't help but feel a bit of a sting

For those who have been in my shoes, how do you get over feelings of shame and disappointment that come from less-than-stellar critiques?

Thank you~

I’m currently majoring in Government & International Politics with a minor in Peace Engineering and a concentration in Philosophy, Law & Governance. I’m hoping to go into foreign policy analysis after grad school.

I’ve been considering cybersecurity because I know foreign policy analysts need to understand data, technology, and security issues, but I’m not sure if a cybersecurity degree would actually be the best fit for my career goals.

Would a master’s in cybersecurity make sense, or would something like international security, intelligence, data analytics, or technology policy be more useful?

I’d really appreciate advice from anyone working in foreign policy, national security, intelligence, or a related field!

i don't really get this. and let me know if it's a reasonable ask and i'm just being annoying about it. but in my grad school program, one of the very first assignments we have is to interview someone in our field, which in this case is school counseling. this makes no sense to me because, even though i'm lucky to know and work with school counselors with my job, i know that for the first couple weeks of school, they are insanely busy

not only is this assignment due in the second week of the semester, but it's also an HOUR long interview. that just seems like an unreasonable thing to ask of your students, and seems pretty difficult to pull off unless you know a very, very nice school counselor

it's an hour long interview and a couple page paper with it. and i don't mind the work load at all. i would gladly do a paper doubled in length for a prerecorded video/interview. i hate the idea of inconveniencing someone who's already swamped with work for a free hour of their time. and i get the idea thats being conveyed here, that it gives you a better understanding and maybe a closer connection to the job, but why have it due the second week of school? that just seems unfair to me

is there anything that i can do here? i've talked to the professor about it and was pretty much entirely deflected

Hey yall!

I am starting a one year master's program this October, and I'm super excited! This means that I'm also applying to my PhD this cycle. However, due to the length of my master's program I'm finding myself in a bit of a timing pickle.

My first application deadline is October 14th due to funding. My next in due in November. From there, the rest are due in December. This obviously does not give me much time to establish faculty connections and actually produce research in my master's before my PhD applications are due.

I know that the reasonable advice here is to just wait until the next application cycle, but I don't want to lose my shot in this cycle. Has anyone here ever been in the same boat? If so, how did you navigate this situation?

I'm also getting some advice from my undergrad thesis advisor, but I'd love to hear a student perspective.

The online MSHROD program I have started is group work heavy, so much so it’s half of our grade in every required class. We are only on week 3 and everyone in the cohort is expressing frustration and downright anger over this. I attended many information sessions and advising meetings to go over the program, courses and expectations. Nowhere was it mentioned or listed the expectation was to be this dependent on group work.

The program is advertised as being for working adults, 100% online with everyone in our current cohort being a full time employee and taking classes part time. I understand there is likely naivety on my part and misunderstanding. It’s graduate school and it’s going to require some commitment and time management. But I was not expecting any of this to be dependent on group work. I’m honestly kicking myself a bit and am seriously questioning the longevity of this program on my mental health after the two weeks I’ve had.

Why is group work so seemingly common in these online programs?

this is my second week in my mfa program for creative writing and i just wanted to say i feel so rejuvenated. it’s been four years since i received my undergrad degree and ive written a memoir since then but the whole time i was severely missing the sort of thing academia fosters. and tonight during my research, theory, and pedagogy class i was so completely enamored by the lecture and being in a space where everyone is dedicated to the analysis and craft of something so beautiful that i almost started crying. i missed taking notes, i missed writing papers, i missed deadlines, i missed being confused and interested and discussion and disagreements and everything that pushed my brain to the limits of what i thought it could hold just to prove that it can hold so much more. this space is so beautiful. i understand why people want to stay in school forever. you could take the same class a million times and learn something new each time. i have such a renewed respect for teachers and professors for taking the time, care, and energy to impart their knowledge on others and to continue to learn from their students. last week, one of my fellow classmates asked me a slew of questions after class, and after i answered them she told me i must be a great teacher. i’ve never taught anything in my life. but now maybe i will. i hope this semester is going as swimmingly for all of you as it is for me!

Hello, I have a Bachelors Degree in Business Management and currently im being pushed by my father to get a Masters Degree, but due to financial instability and no budget whatsoever, he wants me and my brother to move to India for 2 years to go to a university for our Masters. Now we are completely against that because of our nationality having a masters doesn't do anything for us in the country we are currently, but I am open to online classes, so I was wondering is it even worth it to go for a online masters degree from a university? If it is what university which is flexible in fees would you recommend that would be suitable for someone who is in the UAE and have enough credibility that it can be accepted. This can help me a lot with a very difficult decision because I really dont want to go to India ( not for any reason just dont want to move from here for now )

My M.S. program in psychology assigns 1-2 research articles to be read then I have to submit an assignment answering questions about the article (summary, methods, limitations, strengths, dependent, independent variable, etc.). I am really struggling with trying to think critically figure out whether to be brief or be in depth on each answer and am worried this will be my undoing.

Note: I majored in education for my bachelor's which was much more hands-on so I am struggling with this transition to grad school and everyone else in my courses has a psych. background.

I am a PhD student in ECE (VLSI / semiconductor field) and recently presented at a particular conference. One of the professors in the audience came to me and offered an invited paper for another reputable conference where he is chairing in. My professor suggested just reusing all the contents in our original conference paper for this new 'invited paper', but I didn't want to rehash my old work. I wanted the paper to be worth reading for people who already read my original work, so I did a lot of additional work to add in a lot of extra contents to expand upon it. But later on, another professor told me that most people (when assessing my CV and publication list) will ignore the 'invited paper', because invited papers are usually gifted based on the advisor's reputation, not the main author's actual work. Is this true? Invited papers do not mean anything in your overall bibliography? Maybe that's why my professor had originally told me to just reuse the old contents... He wanted to save my time 😢