>>13821996finished my PhD last year. Fucking hated it.
>is it too late?I started my PhD application for the Uni I ultimately went to at 11am the day it was due. Wrote the whole godamn thing from scratch in like 4 hours. I didn't email any professors, but still got it.
I would obviously email profs about the program if you can, just to get name recognition on your side.
It's never too late to start emailing profs. People treat it like some unholy act where if you disturb them, you will incur a PIs wrath or something. They're just overworked and tired people getting nonstop emails all day. You aren't special, they aren't special, just flip them an email.
>>13822058I will say, this totally depends on the field. In bio, we have combined masters/PhD and almost every PhD these days are umbrella programs where you can basically get into the PhD without needing to know what you want to study. Not all programs for sure, and a lot follow your rules, but just in case anyone is applying to an umbrella program, its a bit different.
>>13822064Here's a pro-tip: No one cares what uni you come from except undergrads and high schoolers. Past that, its who's lab are you from. It's a small world, and you'll get to know everyone in your field including at top universities by the end, so you can always postdoc there if you really want to. For example, I went to a state Uni, and by the end I knew several USCF faculty, worked in the lab of a Harvard tenured professor for a few months on some experiments, some other random shit. But no one cares about the actual institution. Just the lab.
>>13823834Well, you show that you are actually interested in it. I went from comp sci -> cell biology. Easiest place to start is to do a lab tech job in a lab of whichever field you want to go into. Believe it or not, PhD programs LOVE diverse backgrounds/interests, academically speaking. It brings different problem solving skills to the table.
