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 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 to effectively deal with Imposter Syndrome and feelings of inadequacy: "I've somehow convinced everyone that I'm actually good at this"
Imposter syndrome is a psychological phenomenon wherein an individual is convinced that they do not deserve the success that they have achieved despite (perhaps extensive) empirical evidence to the ...
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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 ...
user42273
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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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Can an emotional letter of motivation be harmful in a PhD application?
Today some of my friends were discussing a motivation letter. One friend's application was rejected. One reason his friends find out is that the letter of motivation is very emotional. So I was ...
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How to stop hopping the learning chain and actually begin somewhere?
Here is what I feel whenever I find something interesting and feel like pursuing it :
Oh so I like X (Computer Graphics), let me read up papers/books about it.
Ok let me begin with reading up Y (...
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What makes academic failure different from failure in another career?
It is my understanding that academia as a nebulous whole has its own culture and speaks its own language that makes it a very different environment to work in compared to other so-called "industry" ...
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How can I clear myself of emotional attachment when reading reviewer feedback?
I have received feedback from reviewers on my latest conference paper (this is in Computer Science).
It was an acceptance, which is nice.
I feel I really need to consider in depth the reviewer ...
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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 deal with fear of failure as a PhD student?
I am working on a mathematical topic that is basically my own concoction. I have days where even the simplest thing takes ages to do and I realize that's because, deep down, I am terrified that ...
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How to stop feeling guilty about unfinished work?
My biggest challenge as a PhD student is best summarized by the following from PHD Comics:
"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com
A consequence of working in research is that the ...
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How to comfortably interact with famous professors?
I know that they are "just as human as we are", but I feel somewhat uncomfortable to talk nonchalantly with the top-notch math researchers and professors in my department because of their social ...
user23758
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How does an Erratum on one's own paper affect one's career as a researcher?
I'm still early in my scientific career, with only a few papers published. However, I've discovered a typo in a non-critical equation of my paper, and one of the graphs in the same paper should have ...
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What specific techniques can help someone facing mental health problems (depression, anxiety, ADHD) have a productive academic career?
Question originally found here
In the past few months, I have been diagnosed for depression, anxiety, and ADHD. While learning this has been helpful, treatment made my already poor performance worse. ...
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I wasted six years of my life getting a PhD degree. What should I do, and how will I survive?
I struggled with low self confidence throughout my bachelors, masters and PhD in chemical engineering. After spending two years in Masters and six years in getting a PhD degree, I am lost at what I ...
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