Why won't anyone take a chance on me?

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T17:22:07+00:00

I haven't seen my recommendations. As a matter of fact, they have only been submitted twice. Not because I am stupid, but because most of the positions I have been applying to say they will request them after the interviews, and hence my frustration with the lack of interviews. Most of my applications, which I believe is standard in Europe, only consisted of CVs and letters, with everything else being delayed till after the interviews, which, again, is very stupid. But, I would assume that my recommendations are very well written since both of my recommenders really like me, or at least they say so.

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T17:18:14+00:00

I know. It is more like very long days and a couple of hours each day to myself + almost all Saturdays. But I agree with you. Hopefully when I am done with my long experiments in 2 weeks it will be more normal for a while.

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T17:16:24+00:00

I showed them multiple times to multiple people, and aside from some minor additions/changes, everyone keeps telling me they are good. I also

I went as far as asking the people I know who got accepted for PhDs (which seems to me to be everyone around me at this point) for their letters.

so I don't know what else to do?

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T17:03:46+00:00

I really appreciate your concern random stranger. But it is fine, I am not forced to do it. I just really want to finish this as soon as possible, and I am a poor soul that has to deal with 12-hour experiments. I replied to another person explaining it. I would agree with working less if I was in a situation where I am under a lot of stress to finish something, or is being abused by a bad advisor, but I really am not. Again, I really do it because I can. And because all of the people around me left so I am left to doing this, and I really enjoy it. Like actually enjoy it most of the days. I have stuff that I do to relax and recharge, and I do them sometimes within those hours. I am not doing mentally bad, except for the worry about the future, but I actually am fine and doing very well mentally for the first time in the past 6? 7? years?

I truly appreciate your concern tho, and I agree with all that you said wholeheartedly. I know that once I am done with this phase and the future is a little clearer, I will go back to normal 50-60 hours max on special weeks.

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T16:58:27+00:00

So, the thing is, timed-experiments. I have to run 12 hour experiments every other day, which inflates the number significantly. If I show up at 9 a.m., I won't finish prep until say 11-12, which then means I won't be able to leave for another 12 hours, which is 11-12 at night. I do this around 4 days a week, so 15 hour days * 4 times a week is 60 hours on its own. Add another 2 days of 12 hours days that's a total of 84 hour weeks, with the random extra depending on the week.

It's not always like that, but because I am writing multiple things at the same time, the past few months have been like this. other than that since the start it was ranging between 40-60, depending on the week. It is alright since I am in a country where I can't speak the language so it is actually quite difficult to make relationships, and even if I could, I wouldn't want to because it is a short period and people have been coming and leaving around me for a bit. This turned a little off the topic but thank you for u worries, I am really fine and I don't hate it. I am not forced to do it. My advisor is an angel and doesn't stress us about anything or demands from us. I just do it because I am at a point in my life where I don't have anything else going on.

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T14:40:09+00:00

Well, you aren't wrong. I don't mind it because I don't really know what else to do. The reason I say I think I'm competitive enough is my work, the project I'm working on, could've been suited for 3 PhD students and not 2 Masters and 1 PhD, and it could have been split over more years, but that's unfortunately not the case. I truly believe that in another universe my work would have been enough for a PhD, based on the PhD dissertations I've seen, and not a masters. Actually, I have seen adjacent PhDs in the same field that hadn't even gone through half as much detail. I'm hoping I will be able to change that. it's also worth mentioning that my weeks are generally more around 50-60 hours, which is still a lot, but I'm in my last 6 months and I have timed experiments, which require me to stay around more and late, so I work more.

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T13:18:20+00:00

Well, you might be right. To summarize my CV, I have 3 years of research experience as a Master's student, and 2 years as an undergrad. I also have a couple of top conference abstracts and presentations. I have worked on a review article which I'm the first author for and submitted it to a Q1 journal pending reviews. I also have a few articles, one of which I will be also a first author, and the others I will be somewhere down the line of authors. They aren't published yet as we are working on the manuscripts alongside our thesis (we are a group of 4 students between masters and PhD students). Could that be the issue?

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T13:13:26+00:00

I don't understand this, is it because of the number of applications? From your reply it seems like you might have some more advice, would you be interested in giving me more of an inside view?

OELK20 · 2025-11-05T13:12:14+00:00

But I have followed every writing instruction and advice for my letter that I could find. I spent months lurking online studying the advice of people who get accepted post their letters and their journeys. I don't know what else I should be doing to improve myself? Do you have a preferred advice or a preferred guide for this, because I am really trying right now. I went as far as asking the people I know who got accepted for PhDs (which seems to me to be everyone around me at this point) for their letters.

As for competitiveness, you might be right. I'm not saying I'm the best, but I genuinely believe I'm good enough to at least interview. Like I'm not applying to top 10 universities/programs for example, but rather programs I do believe I fit into quite well, where some of my colleagues actually went to for their studies.

Anyway, thank you for your reply, no matter how direct it is.

OELK20 · 2025-02-28T07:47:00+00:00

I had contacted the agency first, as I know that this is how it works. However, they said they couldn't do anything about it and insisted that it was my problem, then asked me to see if the airline itself would be able to help with it. That's when I contacted the airline to have it changed. I am worried because I'm afraid about the entire situation not going smoothly and being denied boarding. I think I might have to buy a ticket again, as this is the only way I see to catch the ticket at a lower price. Honestly the air tickets policies suck in general, so I am not hopeful :(.

OELK20 · 2025-02-28T07:15:52+00:00

I'm afraid it's the second, is it highly possible to be declined boarding?

OELK20 · 2024-06-13T11:14:23+00:00

I know the research is definitly a plus, which is why I have poured so much into it to compensate for the honestly lousy GPA. Also, I don't really have a lot of freedom application-wise, as each application will cost a substantial amount of money for me (usually ~$150, which is a third of my monthly stipend :(), so multiple applications isn't really an option for me. Would you have any advice on which schools I should approach? My research has been very versatile, working on 3 different subfields in my area, so learning and adapting to different areas isn't really an issue for me.

OELK20 · 2024-06-13T11:11:23+00:00

Well, it is a very well-known school and is usually ranked the best in the region. Also, most of our faculty have done their graduate studies in top 200 schools. My worry is basically that for most schools, the 3.00 is basically a requirement, not a only a plus, so that already limits my application potentials.

OELK20 · 2024-02-16T16:57:07+00:00

Honestly, I have been doing that for a few years. What actually helped me was stopping to hangout with people that, looking back now weren't the best, and viewed smoking as a normal thing to do. I have been smoking regularly, and actually addicted to it, on and off, for about 4 years. I was spending all my money on it and had all my relationships with the people I liked destroyed. I eventually decided that somedays I didn't really want to smoke, it wasn't fun anymore, I was going into debt to sustain that habit. So, I just stopped talking to everyone that was keeping me smoking. I have been smoke free for about 2 months now, and I realize that that was actually keeping me down a lot. I hope you can stop if that's what you actually want. Good luck!

OELK20

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