#gradschool

Okay, real talk:

Your scholarship profile is NOT a Pokémon collection.

You don't become competitive just because you collected:

📜 17 certificates 🎓 a decent CGPA 💼 one internship 📝 IELTS 🔬 one publication 🏆 three random online courses

More credentials ≠ automatically stronger application.

The better question is:

👉 "What does my profile actually prove?"

Think of your profile as 5 evidence buckets:

ACADEMIC EVIDENCE Can your academic record support the programme you're applying for?

RESEARCH EVIDENCE Have you actually done meaningful research, or did you only attend research-related events?

PROFESSIONAL EVIDENCE Can your experience show responsibility, relevant skills, and real outcomes?

APPLICATION EVIDENCE Does your CV + SOP + LORs tell one credible story, or do they look like separate documents made for separate purposes?

ALIGNMENT EVIDENCE Can you clearly explain why this programme, why this scholarship, and why this next step?

And here's the part applicants often miss:

A credential is not the same thing as evidence.

A certificate says:

"I completed this."

Strong evidence helps answer:

"So what?"

What did you actually learn?

What did you do?

What changed because of your work?

Why is it relevant?

Can someone verify it?

Does it strengthen your application?

That shift matters.

Instead of endlessly collecting credentials, start building an evidence base.

Because scholarship preparation should not be:

“HOW MANY THINGS CAN I ADD?”

It should be:

“WHAT CAN I CREDIBLY PROVE?”

I broke down the full evidence structure in the article.

Go read it, then audit your own profile honestly.

No fantasy profile-building. No guaranteed-success nonsense. Just evidence.

I’d like to go to school for biology (doing my associates in biotech rn!)

Do you have any tips for school in general but specifically grad school? :O

Or any tips for deciding a concentration?

Thank you so much!

I love your sciencey posts!

I spent a lot of time thinking about how best to answer this question without being very negative. It is a tough time for young career scientists right now (honestly, young career anything).

I did "everything right" based on what I was taught in highschool (a fair number of years ago now). I saved money to avoid student loans, and I went to a good university. I started in a general science program and switched schools to specialize in my third year once I decided I wanted to study ecology and evolutionary biology. I did grad school with a supervisor who did the kind of work I wanted to do. I worked in the field and lab every summer and throughout grad school.

I have been unable to get a job in my original field for almost 3 years now.

This is not meant to discourage you, this is meant to say that there is no path that guarantees a good paying job in a field you love. So, my advice is to start getting experiences in a variety of fields that interests you now. This can be volunteering for garbage pick up with ecology non-profits, this can be taking your profs out for coffee and chatting with them, this can be doing the optional course work and doing it well. I've found that experience and connections outweigh degrees in almost every avenue.

Now, grad school.

Don't apply if your only goal is to get a degree so you can get a job. Don't apply if you're only going because you're scared of entering the "real world".

Benefits I actually got from grad school

1. Connections. You have to put in the socializing and work for these.

2. Funding to publish papers. Get as many out as your lab will allow. Without a lab it's almost impossible for an early career scientist to publish.

3. Courses! If I could go back and take more courses instead of "thesis time" I would have.

4. All the benefits of being a student. Use the gym, use the career counseling, use the bus pass, use the campus food bank, use the health insurance.

Given that university does not guarantee a job, why would you do it? Because nothing guarantees a job! So specialize in what ever interests you, go to talks way outside of your study area, and don't be afraid to change your major or take time off. Go to all the campus events, talk to profs like they're people, and you never know where you'll end up. I can't tell you that life will always work out for the best, but I can tell you that people who are engaged and passionate about ANYTHING will find their way around capitalist obstacles better than those who only do things because they "should".

Some anecdotes about my experience.

I'm currently working as a contract consultant for the government on bioenergy research. Before I got this job I knew nothing about bioenergy. The only way I got this is because a friend of my supervisor asked if I'd work on a plant project, that I ended up presenting at the forestry center, where a met a science communicator who I almost worked on a project with that fell through and she passed my contact along to the person who hired my for this project.

One of the most valuable courses I ever took was my English requirement. I picked the only one that fit my schedule..."Scandalous Fictions". The level of non-acedemic research skills and reading compression I practiced in that class made me a better writer than any science writing course. And it was so fun and we got to watch movies.

Is anyone else feeling completely burned out in grad school, especially while working full-time?

Last week was finals week for me, and I had to finish a 16-page research paper in two weeks while also working on my Master's project. On top of that, I work full-time, and I’m realizing I have very little time to myself.

My program is designed for working adults, but it still feels like there’s almost no work-life balance. Even my friends have started commenting on how exhausted I look, saying things like, “Wow, you’re really killing yourself,” which honestly makes me feel worse.

I’m hoping to finish in December and graduate, which is keeping me going. I’m grateful I chose to pursue a Master’s instead of jumping straight into a PhD, because I genuinely don’t know if I’d have the capacity for that right now. I’ve considered an EdD someday, but lately I’ve been wondering if I’ll feel too burned out to continue after this.

Every person you add to a project, every new set of eyes on the data, every "they'll just put a few comments on the working doc", every "let's bring in an undergrad to help out"... each one will add AT MINIMUM two (2) more weeks to the project. God help you if they're a male professor between the ages 40 and 55, it'll be a month.

Plan accordingly.