Questions tagged [emotional-responses]
On emotional issues such as guilt, discouragement, jealousy, anxiety or feelings of inadequacy affecting academics and researchers.
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How to deal with supervisor's contradictory comments
I'm a PhD student at the end of my 3rd year and I've been working with my supervisor since my BS.c degree. I was diagnosed with clinical anxiety when I turned 18, so when I started my PhD it was ...
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Nerves and putting a lot of pressure on myself for meetings and talks with supervisors/professors present
I’m a second year PhD student experiencing a great deal of pressure for meetings and talks when supervisors/other professors are present. I want to find methods for relieving a bit of this tension as ...
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Feeling hopeless immediately after starting my MSc
I recently started my Master's in Physics. My Bachelor's was not in Physics, but all of my research was. I worked with a very supportive supervisor who wanted me to do my Master's thesis with him. He ...
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Is it possible to finish my PhD at a different institute?
I got into a delicate situation with my supervisor (and the director of the institute -- they are very close friends) and I will not have a chance to get my Ph.D. at the institute, at least not under ...
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Getting over a bad PhD start
Backstory - I was accepted for a PhD at an excellent university in a new and exciting field I've been working towards for a long time. Due to a number of issues, I had to delay my start date for 6 ...
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Feeling stressed and incapable at the beginning of my MSc, how can I handle that?
I just admitted and enrolled in a thesis-based master of applied science program in electrical engineering a month ago.
My supervisor sends me different papers sometime to read and I also schedule ...
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How to manage stress during a PhD, when your research project involves working with lab animals?
I'm a first year PhD student in cognitive neuroscience, and I've been working/studying in this institution since my last year of master's degree.
My PhD project is the extension of my master's thesis ...
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Gap year before post-doc?
I have been in a rush to accomplish academic goals since I remember myself. Started my PhD right after undergrad and did my Masters on the same time. Now I am about to submit my thesis and feel kind ...
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Coworker hiding and stealing lab material
We found out that a graduate student coworker was hiding materials and even throwing them away when they realised they might get caught.
With this they were not only stealing but also actively ...
CommunityBot
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What does my experience from a master’s thesis tell me about whether research is for me?
I have just had my first experiences in research, namely six months of a master’s thesis. Along the way, especially starting out, I felt a mix of:
anxiety for not understanding the topic
internal ...
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Professor is responding to research-related emails but not reference request
I realise this is a common question, but my situation is complicated by the work-related responses without a response to my reference request. I requested a reference letter from my professor a week ...
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How to deal with constant stress and uncertainty in academia?
I know there are a lot of similar questions but most of them are related to stress/pressure from their supervisor. I am doing my PhD and I am in my third year out of four. Everything is going very (or ...
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ls it wrong to not have any research ambitions after PhD and postdoc experience?
I did my PhD and 1 year postdoc in mechanical engineering from a top 20 world ranking school. Though it took me longer than others to get my PhD (5.5 years), I published 5 first authored papers there. ...
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How to manage/avoid stress during manuscript writing?
I have written a few manuscripts so far, and those have already been published in some ordinary peer-reviewed journals. However, I feel stressed so much when I write my new manuscript. How should this ...
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Failed one class of my undergrad major
My mother is very sick with colon cancer and I am living with her and also doing online classes at a private university in California. I felt depressed and had a lot on my mind and ended up falling ...
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How should I deal with becoming discouraged as a graduate student?
I am a third year (starting fourth year in the fall) PhD student in mathematics. I've passed all qualifying exams and am currently doing research. As far as I can tell, I am not doing poorly. I have ...
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How do I continue work if I love my research but hate my peers?
I am an established researcher in my discipline, which is a sub-field of computer science. In the last years, I have successfully published papers and generally enjoyed doing research, as in ...
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Is mathematical research stressful?
Richard Hamming, in one of his talks about research, said that scientists have to put up with stress, and he talked about his ulcers (and he was amongst other things a mathematician). I thought ...
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Does a professor's lack of belief in you mean you're a bad researcher? [closed]
I have always struggled with confidence issues and impostor syndrome. Which means that I have never believed that I'm an extraordinary researcher, getting by at best.
But I have done some things that ...
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Left academia for a job with a publishing company. Is it normal to feel guilty or "settled" about a decision? How to overcome the feeling?
After PhD and a year of postdoc in mechanical engineering, I accepted a position of a scientific editor with a publishing company. The pay is decent but not great. I have been working in the new role ...
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Sabbatical Abroad Without Family: How Did it Work
Hello: Following this previous thread: (Profs who have done a full year sabbatical overseas with a family: How did you make it work?), I am equally curious about whether any prof has done a full-year ...
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Contempt on the part of students
At my university there is a program called "voluntary monitoring", where a student who has passed a certain subject can become the "monitor/tutor" of that discipline.
Among the ...
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I feel bad about rejecting a paper during review
I'm must declare at the very beginning that I'm a PhD student that suffers from major impostor syndrome, and very much feel very unconfident about myself or my abilities.
That being said, I recently ...
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How do you deal with grade deflation and with looking at grades?
I'm in upper years of physics and economics, as I've changed majors a few times and ultimately wound up coming back to physics, the subject that I love.
That said, back in my business school days (I ...
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How to help reduce students' anxiety in an oral exam?
Oral exams can have various pedagogical benefits in certain circumstances, but can also make some students feel anxious. After watching several students nervous-sweat their way through such an exam, I'...
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How to react to a student’s panic attack in an oral exam?
Suppose, I am an examiner in an oral exam. I have done my best to design and conduct the exam to reduce students’ anxiety, but it just didn’t work: The student has a panic attack that makes it ...
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Dealing with imposter syndrome on the job market
My imposter syndrome is focused around the academic job market (which is different than other posted questions), and it comes in two parts:
(1)
My feelings of being an imposter have been exacerbated ...
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2
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Not utilizing PhD research skills in industry and feeling useless?
I completed my PhD in 2020 and have been working in a science policy analyst position since 2021.
I enjoy the work that I am doing but it doesn't feel the same kind of challenging and intellectually ...
CommunityBot
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Advice for difficult first postdoc. What can I do? [closed]
Last year I took my phd in applied math. Now I am 5 months into my first postdoc (different subject from phd but still modeling and some numerics) which is 18 months in total. Both phd and postdoc are ...
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I feel like I didn't deserve to pass an exam [duplicate]
Recently I did my retake exam for Advanced Maths in college. Compared to the ordinary exam, it was easier. My grade was 9/10. I worked very hard for it, non-stop for 5 months, dealing with anxiety and ...
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How can I tackle self-doubt while writing my first paper?
I finished my Bachelor's degree this year. I worked on some research with my advisor and after a few months, we decided that there's enough interesting research to be able to write a paper. This will ...
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My supervisor worked so hard to get a research opportunity for me, but now I want to quit. How to handle this situation?
It is about my friend (an undergraduate student in Australia), but I used first person pronoun "I" for convenience. My friend needs advice, and I tried my best to describe the situation. The ...
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Should I give up on an assignment that I can't figure out?
I'm a sophomore CS Major, and I have a final programming project due on Monday for one of my classes, but right now, I've been stuck on it for the past two days. I've tried several different ...
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How should I deal with rejection from a place that, arguably, exploited me? [closed]
Long story short, in September 2021, I was hired as an associate lecturer at a British university. I was headhunted for the position. Since I was about to finish my PhD and I needed some experience, I ...
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Who to contact when my undergraduate thesis advisor doesn't return my e-mails?
I am an undergraduate working on my thesis. It is a difficult situation because my thesis advisor took a new job and has left the university, and I also work part-time. My advisor goes months without ...
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137
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Is there a place in academia for someone who compulsively solves every problem on their own?
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I'm still in grad school.
I've been researching under one professor's wing for two years now, ostensibly shooting for a PhD (note: no topic yet), and I have ...
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Several mistakes in published work: Advice
I am a beginning scholar. I recently published my first article in my field in a very good journal. The peer review went incredibly smoothly with basically no need for revisions (one reviewer gave a ...
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How do you come to terms with the fact that you might never be among the best in your research community?
I am currently a PhD student advised by a new (and awesome, in my opinion) theoretical computer scientist in the field of optimization. This was my dream ever since I took a class on convex ...
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Is it bad if I don't feel like an impostor?
I started graduate school recently. A professor was talking about impostor syndrome and said that everyone goes through it. They made a joke saying that if you don't feel like an impostor, something ...
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1
answer
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How to deal with two bosses in academia?
I got a new position recently as a deputy lead of a research group (this position is at a level comparable to assistant/associate professor in my country) at a famous institute. This means that the ...
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Criticizing students (in an emotional way)?
My question is about interacting with students/colleagues, and criticizing them specifically, and to what extent a certain kind of criticism is productive. I hope this will not become about "...
CommunityBot
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How do I talk to my professor about my anxiety/depression?
I am 22 years old and I have recently began my first year of grad school. It is very overwhelming. Everyone seems to have more developed thoughts than I do, and all my classmates are 2nd or 3rd year ...
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Crisis during PhD but pulling through - how happy are you with your decision? [closed]
Introduction
I know there are a lot of questions about quitting a PhD and I'm sorry for bringing this topic up another time but I really need some input and would appreciate every answer!
Background
I ...
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Any other PhD students getting time anxiety?
Let me explain. I’m a second year student and I’m sharing an office with about 10 other people. We all get on and it’s great now that everyone managed to make it back thanks to the easing of lockdown ...
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How to deal mentally and emotionally with a prolonged stressful period?
I am a second-year PhD student, but I think this question may interest a broader readership.
I'd like to ask experienced researchers for some insights on how to navigate a prolonged stressful period.
...
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How to deal with fear, anxiety and limiting beliefs while waiting for PhD admissions decisions?
So, it is January 2022 and like me, many are waiting to hear back from the universities to which we applied last month. This period feels like purgatory. Since I am an International student, I didn't ...
CommunityBot
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Postdoc overwhelmed by incomplete work
I take on more than I can handle and everything is left incomplete. Constant reminders from my previous supervisor, my current advisor, and colleagues, increases my anxiety level and sometimes I end ...
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How to deal with career anxiety and manage to remain concentrated on the matter in hand?
I am just over 30 years and about to finish my PhD. I will obtain my PhD from an EU country, and I must obtain residence permit to keep staying in EU.
My thesis is almost a staple thesis which ...
CommunityBot
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How much does the future career of a PhD student matter to the advisor?
I am struggling with my Post-PhD career. I am still looking for positions and I getting zero response. My advisor is giving me no leads and I don't know if she's even bothered about my career ...
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What if you love your field but can't take the heat of academia?
Imagine "a person" who may or may not be brilliant in her field, but certainly has new things to contribute, some of them (in her opinion) fascinating.
Imagine she adores her field, relates to it ...
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