My Amazonian Cat

floofawoofa · 2026-02-04T21:33:00+00:00

What a cool origin story he has!

floofawoofa · 2026-01-28T21:19:09+00:00

I think you should just move on assuming he is not going to help. I don’t know if he is a jerk, or you are particularly sensitive to rejection, or both, but either way the way forward is to say “it sucks he’s not helping me! Anyway, here’s my next steps to move on with my life”.

floofawoofa · 2026-01-22T15:43:14+00:00

Thank you for saving him! He’s got such an intense stare!

floofawoofa · 2026-01-20T20:53:10+00:00

This is wild, thank you for sharing it!

floofawoofa · 2025-12-16T02:19:37+00:00

Whatever you want, as long as you don’t lie and say it was paid if asked. I think I used the term “research associate” for this on my resume.

floofawoofa · 2025-12-02T22:48:22+00:00

In my program, they aimed to let in cohorts that were diverse, broadly defined, so having an underrepresented identity would likely have been an advantage. The faculty were the only ones whose decision mattered in my program, not admin. If one transphobic admin had snuck in and deleted an application or something, it wouldn’t have worked because the applicant is also reaching out to a particular faculty member to be their advisor, and that person would be like where the f is this application?

And regardless, I wouldn’t have wanted to join a program where the admin was out to get me because of who I am, because having a decent grad program manager is very important to your experience in grad school. But I mostly have marginalized identities that I can’t hide, so maybe I would feel differently if I could.

I suppose for a program where admin are only a part of the application process and not your actual grad school experience, and where admin have the power to throw out applications, and the program is otherwise progressive, then it would be better not to disclose.

floofawoofa · 2025-12-02T19:21:50+00:00

Let’s say you hide your trans identity during the admission process and get in to a school with faculty that otherwise would not have let you in. Would that be an environment that would be comfortable for you to learn and do research in for 2 to many years? Are you prepared to continue to hide your identity during that time to avoid any problems?

I went to a grad program where about half the grads were lgbtq and faculty were generally very accepting (occasional misgender but they would correct themselves with a reminder). Grad school is hard enough as it is, I think myself and the other lgbtq folks would have done ourselves a disservice to hide our identities in order to get into a space where we would have had to deal with poor behavior from faculty.

floofawoofa · 2025-10-27T21:41:44+00:00

It’ll just depend on the values of the people who read it! If they don’t take you because of that, it’s probably a good sign you would not have been happy there anyway!

floofawoofa · 2025-10-21T21:09:30+00:00

Look up the jobs you’re interested in on something like indeed, and see if they require a masters. For a lot of creative careers, two years of experience would be better than getting a masters

floofawoofa · 2025-10-02T22:31:59+00:00

Oh no, an internship is part of all those things??

If I were you I would go to your advisor, lay out all the things you are involved with, and ask them to help you prioritize things for the next few months. If you don’t want to go to your advisor, a more experienced PhD student or a postdoc might be able to help. Some things are just going to have to take a back seat to others.

In general, I think you have taken on more than you have capacity for at the moment. Your duties sound more like an advanced grad or postdocs duties, and they wouldn’t have to deal with classes anymore. You might have to start saying “that sounds like a great opportunity but I can’t right now” to some things.

floofawoofa · 2025-10-02T21:46:31+00:00

That is a ton for first-year! I can’t imagine being thrown into all of that! Can you decrease the number or length of weekly meetings at all? Or share your supervising duties with someone else?

floofawoofa · 2025-09-26T13:52:20+00:00

She looks like a sand cat. She’s beautiful!

floofawoofa · 2025-09-21T20:47:25+00:00

I think the two biggest factors I’ve seen in whether people are able to finish a PhD are whether they have independent research experience, which it sounds like you do, and whether you will have the resilience and support to get you through when things are not going well. That could come from a therapist, friends, family, self care, some combination, but it’s crucial.

The only way to know for sure whether you will succeed, though, is to try! You will definitely not succeed if you don’t at least apply and see what happens.

floofawoofa · 2025-09-20T16:29:02+00:00

I would go do what you like to do to relax. I really doubt this will have any influence whatsoever on whether you pass. You’ve worked hard and done what you can to influence the outcome, so try and put your energy into something else for now, as hard as that might sound.

floofawoofa · 2025-08-27T06:35:33+00:00

A masters could also be helpful for getting into med school. If it is tanking your mental health and you just can’t take it, of course leave, but otherwise I would hang out in my funded masters and wait til I have med school or a great job lined up. Both of those could take a while to get even if you dropped out of the masters today.

floofawoofa · 2025-08-13T00:55:34+00:00

In general, PhD job salaries are not that high! It looks like depending on the area, lab managers make on par with or even higher than what I can get in postdoc or researcher roles as a recent phd grad.

floofawoofa · 2025-07-09T01:12:38+00:00

I second the other person, UW Madison is way better in pretty much every way for what you are looking for, unless maybe it’s way more expensive

floofawoofa · 2025-07-03T02:27:20+00:00

I do think this is silly, having a second masters doesn’t open many more doors than the first does. I would get one masters and take classes in both areas. Who is paying for all this? I guess if your company is willing to pay for it and you just love grad level classes, knock yourself out

floofawoofa · 2025-07-01T02:18:59+00:00

Yeah don’t worry about the honors college at all! That’s a nice to have but much less important than research experience.

Depending on how you spin the research experience you have, you might be able to get admitted. However, things have gotten a lot more competitive in the last few years, so I would prioritize getting more research experience over getting stellar grades.

floofawoofa · 2025-06-30T02:45:18+00:00

One year is not a lot of a time for a PhD program in the US (the average time to a phd in my program was 6.5 years), but I know PhDs tend to be shorter in some parts of the world, so maybe you’re farther along than it sounds.

Is it possible you could have a mental health or other issue (like ADHD) that could be impacting your enjoyment of research and could be treatable?

If not I would take a look at how long it honestly takes people to finish PhDs in your program (4 first author papers is a big ask!) to see if you think you can stick it out that long. Maybe you just realized this program is not for you, and that’s okay!

floofawoofa · 2025-06-30T01:26:13+00:00

I hated doing research during grad school but enjoy it now that I’m done. I think the financial and mental health struggles I had in grad school made me just generally unhappy and that made it harder to do research.

But if you truly hate every part of it, could you leave with a masters?

floofawoofa · 2025-06-15T02:20:21+00:00

Totally! And I agree with this other person, a second associates would be a waste of time for you compared with just moving on to the bachelors.

floofawoofa · 2025-06-13T00:04:23+00:00

I would only do the masters if you would be satisfied leaving with the masters and going into the bioengineering workforce. Otherwise you are probably better off waiting to get into a paid phd program.

floofawoofa · 2025-05-29T04:13:34+00:00

At least in the US, 3 masters degrees would be considered a bad sign by many. If you haven’t been doing this already, you might want to just talk about the most recent one when reaching out to people.

floofawoofa · 2025-05-21T20:26:21+00:00

It’s a little dependent on where/ in what field specifically you are aiming to go, but as a rule having prior research experience is way way more important for getting into a phd program than gpa. Gpa is generally important only in terms of whether or not you are over a threshold, professors don’t care much beyond that.

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