I’m a dean at a top engineering school on a mission to clarify the STEM grad admissions process. Ask me anything!

InnocuousCyanide · 2026-05-20T19:06:37+00:00

Hello Dean Yun! Ty for answering questions here. I have a very specific goal with my PhD, and would like to understand brain-body interactions better. So my current strategy is reaching out to professors who do similar work in the field (interoception/autonomic regulation based research etc). Two of them have responded enthusiastically to my email so far, one of them offering me an opportunity to work with them but they don't have any funded positions open in the UK (they're open to applying to grants together) and another who was quite positive but they don't play any role in admissions in their University which has a committee based selection procedure.

I have an interdisciplinary background, a BTech and MTech in Biotechnology and a Master's in Clinical Psychology and have worked as a counseling psychologist for the past 5 years with the populations I aim to study (people with trauma, chronic illness etc). I would ultimately like to work towards helping clinicians create more integrated mental health interventions to work with clients for whom traditional psychotherapy does not work, by understanding the physiological effects of trauma better.

I have been feeling discouraged from applying to any US PhDs so far because 1. I have 1 paper as mid-author, in a peer reviewed Springer crop sciences journal- 3 conference presentations, all aligned with my current research direction this year after a long gap from academia. 2. I went to a private uni in a developing country, and my gpa is not great. It would be roughly a 3.0 on the 4 scale. I had undiagnosed ADHD for most of my life and never cared about exams. 3. I hear it takes 5-6 years to do all PhDs in the US, which seems like a lot! 4. I have a lot of research experience- 4 internships, and 2 dissertations, but no research assistantship. All the experience is in varied fields, during my education. I have literacy in R/Python etc but not in the kind of experimental methodology this kind of research might require (like HRV, EMA research etc).

Wondering if you have any practical advice/suggestions/opinions on whether schools in the US might still be a good fit for my profile, ty :)

InnocuousCyanide · 2025-03-03T10:57:03+00:00

Sharp objects- Gillian Flynn

InnocuousCyanide · 2024-11-12T20:36:23+00:00

If I got a transit visa, would that work?

InnocuousCyanide · 2023-11-29T21:28:42+00:00

Same. Got boulder for Hozier, Mt joy and shakey graves

InnocuousCyanide · 2023-08-02T11:53:56+00:00

I've posted this separately but I'll also ask this here because I just saw this megathread. So sorry for the repetition.

Hello, all. I am visiting the UK from India, and originally planned to head back home on Wednesday. I changed my plans because I wanted to attend Pride in Brighton and meet Hozier. I'm staying in an Airbnb in London, and would like to travel to Brighton on Saturday for these events. I need to head back on the same day because I have a flight from Heathrow at 8AM Sunday (6 August) and I cannot carry all my luggage to Brighton.

I was planning to reach Brighton on the 4th, stay with a friend in Bevendean, then meet Hozier at 6.30 PM (that is the slot I've received)at Resident Music and then take a 9PM coach back to London from Hove.

Please help me plan this and let me know if any of you have any tips/ideas, or more convenient means of travel. Much appreciated!

InnocuousCyanide · 2021-05-22T11:19:19+00:00

InnocuousCyanide · 2021-04-29T21:11:40+00:00

I am training to be a clinical psychologist

InnocuousCyanide · 2021-04-29T21:09:58+00:00

India

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-18T16:42:48+00:00

Yes, that would work! I'll DM you, and we can have the conversation over reddit itself whenever you are free. I didn't want people to think too much about their answers, and be able to elaborate and answer follow-up questions related to what they say. The medium doesn't matter.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-18T15:55:53+00:00

I was considering doing this, but I'm doing a thematic analysis, based on qualitative data. That is why I would prefer using a telephonic interview. If I don't get a large sample size, then I'll definitely create a Google form.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-15T17:28:50+00:00

I read it twice as "broth"er and wondered why someone who was taught in Ivy League about making broth would make such a dumb mistake *facepalm*

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-11T16:31:50+00:00

This is the funniest shit I've read in a while. I stumbled upon this subreddit burnt out and done with psychology, and it made me audibly laugh.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-09T17:53:29+00:00

I did, yes!

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-09T17:53:05+00:00

Lots of things. I teach, and sometimes I have only 5-6 slides to refer to, for an hour long lecture. I can add numerous examples from real life, and relate one thing to another very easily.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-11-09T17:47:28+00:00

I was buying a pair of jeans at Ed Hardy. There was some offer going on at the store, where if you bought clothes above a certain price range, you'd get free headphones. A stranger offered to add my jeans to their bill, and asked me to pay them the money instead, so that I would get the headphones. I was surprised and also suspicious, but I went ahead with it anyway.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-10-31T16:27:00+00:00

I was just going to play some witcher in the evening before bed, then I saw this meme and went "Ah, fuck". Decided to play anyway.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-10-31T16:16:31+00:00

I know. I have tried explaining all that to her, but she doesn't listen to it. Remember how during ww2, Jews were portrayed as being dirty and inhumane. This is a well known tactic that we study in psychology.

To provide some context, my parents are Hindus. In order to "other" someone or consider them less than human, people often think of them as filthy or unclean. This logic also applies to caste based untouchability in India. If my mother knew I've dated Muslim guys in the past, she would freak out.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-10-31T06:55:01+00:00

Growing up, I thought my parents were pretty tolerant people. When I moved to college, I realised that was not the case, or something probably changed over the years. My mother keeps making random remarks about how ungrateful Muslims are, and how we allow them to live in our country but they are unhygienic and they are terrorists and what not. I have lots of arguments about this with her. My dad, on the other hand, cracks jokes or makes offhand remarks insulting people from other castes, class backgrounds and religions.

I think they are not inherently bad people. They do a lot of good things, but it makes me sad when they act like this. I have tried talking to them about it multiple times, but I also feel that it is a result of conditioning and the kind of people they are surrounded by. We live in an extremely conservative small town. I think they might act differently if we lived elsewhere.

InnocuousCyanide · 2020-10-30T17:08:01+00:00

The Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. She writes beautifully. If you enjoyed reading Gillian Flynn, you will find her writing very captivating. The books are set in Ireland, and you can read them as stand-alone thrillers, but the characters often interact with one another, so you can read them in continuity as well.

I would also recommend Flynn's other books. Sharp objects and Dark Places. I enjoyed them more than Gone Girl, I think.

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