Late-Night Talk: Daria Levina, PhD. Two PhDs and Beyond: Making Education Accessible for Everyone, securing competitive funding against all odds, and more...

Daria Levina, PhD, shares her journey from winning law competitions in Russia to completing two PhDs, securing a Harvard Law degree through crowdfunding, and building a business helping others access competitive education funding.

• From law Olympiads to academia: How winning national competitions opened doors to university without entrance exams
• Crowdfunding $92,000 for Harvard by building relationships and sharing her mission for accessible education
• Insights from serving on PhD admissions committees: What makes applications stand out
• The importance of connecting research to real-world problems rather than just citing literature
• Productivity techniques: Using the "agile method" to break down PhD projects into manageable chunks
• Digital note-taking with Zettelkasten methodology using Obsidian to create interconnected research notes
• Building support networks as essential for navigating the solitary PhD journey
• Challenging the pressure for academics to maintain online presence and personal branding
• Transitioning academic expertise into a consultancy helping others secure competitive funding
• Pursuing stand-up comedy as a creative outlet alongside academic work

Follow Daria's work at harvardstateofmind.com or connect with her on LinkedIn and YouTube.

Students and Graduates!

This is a mid-roll from my late-night talk with Ilana Horwitz, PhD, about her book The Entrepreneurial Scholar. A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond. Use the code IMH20 when buying her book at Princeton Univ Press

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Students and graduates,

Have a break from this session by hearing a late-night talk I had with Michael Gerharz, PhD, about the impact of communication in your PhD and in public.

Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to PhD Lounge and Achievements
• 11:57 Daria's Journey: From Law Olympiads to Academia
• 18:36 Crowdfunding a Harvard Education
• 33:54 Application Strategies for Competitive Programs
• 44:00 Academic Productivity and Note-taking Methods
• 1:01:24 The Harvard State of Mind Business
• 1:31:09 Stand-up Comedy and Future Projects

Transcript

Speaker 1: 3:36

Hello students and graduates, welcome to PhD Lounge, the podcast of late night talks in which PhDs have a drink and talk about their research topics. I'm your host, Luis, and following the successful late night talk with Elena Hofer, I also bring to you another fantastic talk with another guest. First things first. I want to thank you once again for being a valuable listener to the PhD Lounge podcast and for having interest in the content that I record, speak, edit and share across every podcast platform of your preference and on my social media accounts, whether as a solo speaker or with the company of another PhD. The reason I'm saying this at the beginning of this session is that back on the 4th of July, I received an email from the founder of Million Podcasts, who created lists ranking the best podcasts in their category. Turns out that PhD Lounge is placed amongst the top 35 most listened podcasts in the category of podcasts around the culture and universe of the PhD, top 15 on thesis writing podcasts and top 40 graduates podcasts list. Upon receiving this email with happiness for achieving such milestones, it means that my content is worth tuning in and obviously more innovative work and ideas must be at the front in order to increase the experience of PhD Launch so that you can interact more often, according to what you're keen to listen to. And so you have my gratitude, as I keep learning about this world of the podcast industry, adding more experience, not just for professional reasons in terms of obtaining and polish new skills, but also telling something to my family, friends and to you, the listener what I do to leave a legacy and being an example for the next generations. Thank you very much for being part of the PhD lounge.

Speaker 1: 6:03

That being said, I now turn to introduce another fantastic late-night talk. I'm going one-on-one with a PhD who has a master's in law in Harvard and didn't take one, but two PhDs in the same field, after successfully applying for scholarships, grants and fellowships with a success rate of 2.9% for more than a decade in competitive universities. This guest is also a two-time published author and, and whilst studying in Russia, germany, us and Italy. The guest's motto is firmly believing that accessible, quality education is everyone's birthright, also worked for the Permanent Court of Arbitration, transitioned from practicing law to academia, secured four postdoctoral offers, including from the Swiss government, and served as an admissions evaluator for the LLM and PhD programs. This whole experience of this guest led to career option diversification and opened new doors to other ventures, including having an online business to help masters and PhDs to write successful applications for scholarships, learning languages and writing to enter into the most competitive universities and secure competitive funding as well as media appearances and awards.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So please, students and graduates, grab yourselves a drink, have a seat and get ready to tune into my one-on-one late-night talk with Tadia Levina. Dario Lovino, welcome to PhD Lounge and thank you for reaching me out in order to be my guest. And we're finally here. So how are you feeling today?

Speaker 2: 8:45

Hi and thank you so much for hosting me. It is a pleasure to share my knowledge and expertise. Yes, I'm very excited.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Thank you very much and I've checked your website several times in order to construct the questions all around here and you can see there's a huge life story around that. And uh to what you currently do your passion for you to complete two PhD dissertations a massive feat and having 10 plus years of academic education and how it led to your applying for one of the most competitive funding ever the European Fund in Florence.

Speaker 2: 9:43

Yeah, sure, so I will do my best not to occupy an hour or so but be very succinct.

Speaker 2: 9:54

And so, essentially, when I was a high school student a very long time ago, I participated in a type of competitions that we call Olympiads, and I studied in Russia and we had Olympiads in pretty much every single high school subject, school subject and and I just uh, I really really liked studying, because for me, like just school and studying was, was this uh part of my world that was stable and predictable and uh, and it gave me the feeling of intellectual realization and competence, and, and so I tried out myself in multiple Olympiads, mostly social sciences, and I was really good at a few of them, but especially law.

Speaker 2: 10:51

We had law as well, because some high schools they had introduction to law as part of the curriculum, and so I won first the district level, then the original level and then the final national level of the competition. And when you do that, you get a chance to be accepted to the university according to this discipline in which you won the competition, for instance, for law, it would be law faculty and you're exempt from any entrance exams, and that was my first exposure to law. I didn't have any relatives or acquaintances who did that. It was just this competition and that's how I ended up doing my first law degree and I just really really enjoyed it. I was super idealistic, probably more than it is allowed for a lawyer.

Speaker 1: 11:55

How often those Olympiads occur. Is it annually, biannually?

Speaker 2: 11:59

They are annual, annual olympiads occur. Is it annually, biannually? There are annual and yes, and usually you have district level in fall, then regionals in winter, and in spring is when the federal stage takes place once a year? Sure, yeah, and I did that three, three years, like from grade 9 to 11.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Oh, so consecutively.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Yes. Wow.

Speaker 2: 12:26

Yeah, it was very hard. But also I just really enjoyed that world of abstract concepts. And when I finished my first law degree, I sort of Because I already knew just how much I liked law, it was sort of natural for me to pursue it in all different forms. So I started working in a law firm but I also enrolled in a PhD program at the same university, which was the Lomonos of Moscow State University. And at some point I've been doing those things in parallel and I realized that I really wanted to pursue a full degree abroad.

Speaker 2: 13:14

I knew a few people who did that. They did Master of Laws. I didn't know at that time anyone who did a phd like a full phd in different country. And uh, um, and so I decided to research, researching and applying, and and it took me two years, um, because the first year I applied Europe to three universities in Europe and I applied for specialized programs and I had admission offer from Cambridge but with no funding and I had admission offer NFL scholarship from a program, specialized program in international arbitration in Switzerland.

Speaker 2: 13:59

Yes program in international arbitration in switzerland. Yes, and by the time I already decided that I did not want to do international arbitration. Like between the time I applied and the time I got their response like my vision for what I wanted to do in the future changed so much that I didn't want to do like I didn't want to do, I didn't want to practice arbitration anymore, and so I decided to reapply. And, uh and, next year I applied to the us and the reason for this change was that I um, I did shorted term programs in in multiple European countries on scholarships. Ever since I started my law journey, I felt like I understood a lot about how law in European countries worked. Sure.

Speaker 2: 14:54

I was looking for something that would just literally turn my world upside down and just give me such new and different inputs, um, that it would change how I thought about my role as a lawyer and what I do, what I want to do, and and so I got into harvard and I managed to secure funding. I needed $92,000. And I managed to raise it through scholarships. I had about 60,000 in scholarships and then I had very little savings, but whatever I had I invested as well, and then I crowdfunded half of my tuition and that was a very crazy idea, but I just I was sort of stuck looking for funding and I just I think, probably due to the fact that I grew up in a post-communist society, I just couldn't understand how you could be limited in your access to education just because of money.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Like it just did not compute in my brain it was really interesting that you spoke about crowdfunding, because it's an idea that, no, no phd has has in um the idea of getting crowdfunding. No, I was baffled now from what you said. I said crowdfunding, never thought about that and trying to apply for funding via funds from the crowd. How did that idea just came to? A good outcome.

Speaker 2: 16:46

It's a very good question, and so I remember that I initially have been looking for scholarships and I applied for everything I saw. The problem is just master's programs, especially in social sciences. They're just not very well funded, yes, especially in the US.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Yeah, there are several limitations in what comes to funding for arts and humanities, and so oh well.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Exactly, and so at some point I just reached a point where I couldn't find any useful information on scholarships, and I remember I just Googled something like what do you do if you don't have money to study in the US? And so I found a story of a British student who crowdfunded for her Master of Science at Oxford, and at the time I thought, well, this is crazy, I'm not going to do this. And then in about two weeks I thought this is crazy, I'm going to do it.

Speaker 1: 18:01

Yes, and so how did you manage to do it? How did you leverage that crowdfunding successfully?

Speaker 2: 18:12

So I did a lot of work and there were just two parts to it. First was I researched as many crowdfunding campaigns as I could, especially related to what I was doing like education related, because I wasn't the first person in the world to do that. So there were examples and I studied them. And then I wrote a text for the campaign. I made a video just explaining who I am and what I do and just uploading necessary documents like this is the Harvard offer, like I'm not just, like it's not just a scheme, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Yes.

Speaker 2: 18:53

So I just I also devised like offers what I could offer to people, because psychologically it is very, very hard to raise money for your personal project yes uh, it was just, it was so hard and uh, the only, like the only thing that allowed me to do that was that I um, I just uh, decided that I will try it, not with the expectation to actually raise the money, but to just be able to tell myself that if I can't do this, master's, then well, it's not my fault, because I did everything I could.

Speaker 2: 19:37

And so I did all this preparatory work and launched the campaign, and then I just did so much work to promote it and I paused everywhere I could, on all the lawyer and social science forums and Facebook groups at the time people still used Facebook and just a second and I reached out to everyone with whom I've had a single positive interaction in my life, and I asked people for different things, like maybe you could just share my campaign on social media, or if, um, maybe, if you, if the message resonates with you, would you consider donating um.

Speaker 2: 24:51

And so I invested a lot of time in relationship building. Sure, and it just I made everything to to make sure that, like, I don't treat um donations as um, that I don't take them for granted, that I actually appreciate everyone who comes in contact with me in my campaign and at some point, uh, I think at the time I was raising 27 000, that was the what I needed. Uh, and at some point, I think at about 8,000 mark, I reached out to my PhD supervisor and I asked him to spread it to his network, because he's a very esteemed scholar. He has a large network, someone in his network from an NGO, like a small educational NGO. They decided to fund the rest of the campaign, which was 18,000. And so that's how I closed it, and it took me about a month and a half.

Speaker 1: 26:07

To prepare everything.

Speaker 2: 26:08

To prepare and promote from the start to the closure.

Speaker 1: 26:13

And then it ended up being above the required amount to pay the tuition fees.

Speaker 2: 26:20

No, it was exactly what I needed. Yes.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Exactly what you needed 's. That's a massive story. I never expected that, uh, that crowdfunding would be, would be a solution for to apply for funding and in order to pay tuition fees, amenities etc. But that that is um, bees and manatees etc. But that is an outside-of-the-box way in order to further their studies, specifically in PhD. It is something that, for me, honestly, I never thought about it. If I would know that several years ago when I started my PhD, then I would try and dare myself to apply to promote myself in order to obtain funds from different people. Such a fantastic feat and and that's one of the things that you've mentioned was building relationships, building a network around it, and that's something that is. I've talked a few days ago with another guest at the podcast that you know to be at, to be where you went, you must have a solid network, you must introduce yourself, to present yourself, and you said it well how hard it is for PhDs to build their own network in order to achieve what they actually want.

Speaker 2: 27:56

I mean, I think it depends on your like, where you are on your field. There are so many specifics but uh, um, but I think a good, like, a good part about the phd stage is that, um, you can go to conferences or you can find scholars in your field and and ask for their support and and so they are more points of connection, I would say, than, for instance, when you are trying to make it in the industry, because there are names you might know or there are people you will naturally gravitate towards. Yes.

Speaker 2: 28:44

And I think there is just I can't assess the difficulty, the level of difficulty. Yes. Then when I was a lawyer, I worked as a lawyer because with academics, I found that people don't have this habit to do networking just for the purpose of networking, to do networking just for the purpose of networking.

Speaker 2: 29:24

Whenever I reach out to an academic, I usually meet a lot of warmth and support and I think there is just this sense of camaraderie that is inherent. And it is more difficult to build it in the industry at least in my experience Not impossible, but still more difficult to build it in the industry at least in my experience Not impossible, but still more difficult. So I think that's actually one of the advantages of academia. That it allows you to build just very meaningful relationships.

Speaker 1: 29:56

Yes, and I agree on that point as well, because nowadays we see, obviously the current marketplace is quite difficult at the moment for either as academic and non-academic jobs. But yet I think there's this bit of I'm not saying phobia to an extent, of how the academia is a bit overflown, is saturated, is a bit is overflown, is saturated. You, you'll, you'll not go, you're not going over there because there's plenty of people that they want, they don't want to take to take their place out. But from what you're saying, that there's still a possibility to get into academia in in furious time, unless, if, if, having a solid network, as you said. So do you have any thoughts about on many people saying the academia is a completely dark place and you're not getting anywhere unless you go for industry? There's this bit of clash online, don't know if you have noticed.

Speaker 2: 31:10

I did yes, clash online. Don't know if you have. If you have noticed, I did yes, uh, um, I mean, on on the one hand, it is true, yes, I think that there are. At the moment, there are more fully funded phds than there used to be, but there is still not as many uh post phd positions to match to match the supply of PhD graduates, so that's one of the problems. On the other hand, I think it is something that I hear a lot from many fields this idea that the market is saturated. I think I've heard that from so many different people and I think a lot of what, a lot of the success in terms of whether you will be able to build a career in academia or not, it depends on your strategy Because, for instance, even in this market, I know that the university where I did my PhD, like the second one, the European University Institute in Florence, it has a very high employability rate for people who actually want to stay in academia.

Speaker 2: 32:21

Actually want to stay in academia. They usually find how to stay um and uh and I think that just applies to every field, whether it's saturated or not sure how.

Speaker 1: 32:36

What's the, the percentage rate of admission?

Speaker 2: 32:40

uh the admission if you have any thoughts, if you know, yes, so for the EUI specifically it is different, because so EUI, just for our listeners, it's a very peculiar place at the heart of Florence and it's a university that was founded by the EU member states in the 70s and for most part it's been just PhDs.

Speaker 2: 33:09

Now it has master's programs as well, but mostly it's a cluster for PhD research in four disciplines law, economics, social science and history funded by the EU member states. The EU member states provide funding and so when you apply, you also automatically apply for a grant, and the degree of admission will depend on the grant you're applying for, Because there are highly competitive grants, like the grant of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because it's essentially for people who are from non-EU and there are only four or five grants per year and about 200 applicants. But then, for instance, there is a Danish grant, which has very little competition. Or there is a German grant, which has higher competition, but Germany funds so many grants that it's still much lower and, for instance, it can be like one to four people. So it really depends on the grant you will be applying for, but it's definitely not impossible to get in so it is possible to enter, but then, as you said, it depends on the type of grant.

Speaker 1: 34:42

So if we're speaking about a grant which likely requires a topic that could revolutionize the world, would that be more competition than the other grant in another field that is less competitive to some extent?

Speaker 2: 35:09

So the research proposal at this, the state, it matters a lot, but but again, it it really depends on uh, on a number of factors, and the first one is your nationality, because that uh determines your eligibility for a grant. Um and uh, and at the point of admission, uh. It is rarely a topic that will revolution, revolutionize something. It just needs to be a good topic. Sure.

Speaker 1: 35:39

Good topic, but why the nationality then? Do they give more priorities to the students who have?

Speaker 2: 35:47

Because, as I mentioned, that's how the university works.

Speaker 1: 35:51

That's how it works, then the grants are only national. Sure.

Speaker 2: 35:55

For instance, someone with a Portuguese passport can only apply for a Portuguese grant.

Speaker 1: 36:02

Ah, okay, so now I get it. No, it's Okay, so understandable now I mean so in.

Speaker 1: 36:09

In this case then, although being possible, the competition still it. It is, it is real, because someone who's come from saying, from portugal, is not able to apply for a spanish grant, from what I, from what I understood, but but then, uh, there's, there's also, there's those opportunities. I'd say that if, if portugal has a, has a research and requires some grants from the eu, or has to be specifically portuguese, then there's a higher chance to apply for it with a good proposition, then right, so governments do not have involvement into what kind of research gets funded.

Speaker 2: 37:03

The university consults with them because the selection process is multi-stage and first there is a pre-selection based on documents, then there are interviews and then the university submits the names of the candidates to the national grant in authority. Yes.

Speaker 2: 37:25

But there is no correlation between the research that a particular government or a country needs and what actually gets funded, because the applicants decide themselves what what they will research sure however, your question did remind me of how, um um well, before I started my PhD there, I've been told that EUI invited the Russian government to also participate and give grants to Russian students, and they refused because they wanted to control what gets researched. And the university said no, you can't do that, we don't allow that to anyone. Sure, and there is no specific grant for russian students. I had to apply for the italian grant, which has like a two percent success rate, because there are just so many people applying sure, the, the the high, the higher the applicants, the the less.

Speaker 1: 38:29

Is the admission then.

Speaker 2: 38:33

Yes, by your question.

Speaker 1: 38:34

yes, it was really on point, so I'm very happy that we covered that, and then from this conversation that we're having, because this is also newsflash to me I've never known about the European Institution Fund, if there was a university in Florence in regards to that matter I only know about the Fine Arts Institute in Florence, by the way. But from what has been said here, what key takes then? Can PhDs in postdocs as well, in law or the research field can learn from you and then adapt their application model when require your business Harvard State of Mind, which you can add as well. How did you establish it?

Speaker 2: 39:34

So two questions in a big sentence? Yeah, I would. I would actually um take them one by one, because they're very different yes, they are, they are totally different yeah, so, um, I I'm gonna start with the first one and um, so, generally, when you're applying for a phd, uh, there are phd programs that require you to submit a research proposal yes and there are phd programs and programs that don't require you and um.

Speaker 2: 40:02

I have more expertise with the former, where someone needs to develop a research proposal and there what I see most often, both as a consultant, because I consult on master's and PhD applications, and also as a member of the admissions committee, because I was, during my time as a PhD student, part of the selection procedure.

Speaker 2: 40:30

During my time as a PhD student, part of the selection procedure. It's very important to be clear on the problem you want to solve and I feel that a lot of applicants they miss that and it's just important that you do need to read a lot of literature and cite some of that literature when you write research proposal, but at the end of the day, it's the real world problem that you need to present that actually needs to be solved, and literature is just how scholars deal with that. But literature is not the end in itself and I feel like when I read some of the research proposals, applicants forget about that and you need to be really clear on what it is that you want to achieve, like what pressing problem your research will be solving pressing problem your research will be solving. And it is also important to first of all demonstrate, uh, the consequences, so that problem not being solved, like what? What damage is being done in the world?

Speaker 2: 41:42

because, because this problem exists and and no one is solving this, and why your research is going to to fill that gap sure I think that's really important and that that gets missed very often, and I would say that part number two um is just let me, let me check my just just before you say how did you establish the Harvard State of Mind?

Speaker 1: 42:14

do you have an episode where you've learned from your failure and trying to apply for grant, or was it smooth sailing?

Speaker 2: 42:28

Well, generally in academia, you need to be prepared to deal a lot with failure yes and, and that's just something that is just part of the field, and I do.

Speaker 2: 42:39

I do have my share of failures, um, um, I would say that, um, well, what I've just mentioned, that was actually really important for me because, like a lot of people in research, I do get sometimes just lost in all the literature, and it's been a learning process for me to just to see what is the real world impact of my research will be, if not just what's going to change in the literature if I publish an article, because publishing an article is never the end goal. The end goal is to make the world a better place, right? Yes, and this is something that I learned, especially from my applications that haven't been successful. And then, another lesson that I learned is that in this field, you shouldn't take anything personally.

Speaker 1: 43:44

That's a fact. Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 43:48

There are many PhDs that I've heard of They've taken quite personally in being rejected for specific fundings and even being rejected straight from their proposal and even being rejected to a sort of probation meeting of a Viva simulation. So basically, here in Swansea University we have that. I've been through that, I've passed it, thankfully. But I've heard stories that many PhD students they went through the preparatory meeting whether this student is capable to become a candidate and there were many rejections and they didn't take that seriously and they haven't learned from it. I that's.

Speaker 2: 44:44

That's one major fact that for us phds we're going to have so many setbacks and that's part of the endurance of becoming a PhD graduate yes, and, as you mentioned yourself, uh, it is, um, a saturated field, unfortunately, yes and uh, and there's just not going to be enough funding for even brilliant proposals. And it doesn't have anything to do with you. It doesn't have to do with how smart you are, and I know that for many applications, especially when it comes to grants and postdocs, you will receive feedback, but it will never be feedback about what actually was the reason. It will be feedback that looks good on paper, because the selection committee doesn't want you to comment and complain, but I know that seeing this feedback can hurt a lot, because you will take it seriously. Sure.

Speaker 2: 45:57

And it's important to acknowledge whatever it is that you think is valid, but just don't accept it as a measure of yourself and your research.

Speaker 1: 46:14

Yes, no, that's absolutely true, and the only solution to here, to the problem, is to obviously there will be that moment where there will be some sadness and also the fear of being rejected and the fear of failure, but then that would be after a brief moments. That would be something that will keep you motivating to improve what you think, what you thought you have failed, and then trying to make it, uh, a bit more convincing, not for that fun, that funding, uh, phd funding but maybe for other other fundings, or maybe even trying to go for crowdfunding. That's all the way around. So now we were backing on the question of how, how did you, how did you, establish harvard state of mind yeah, ah, I mean it's.

Speaker 2: 47:10

It's been a long journey, yes, but I would say the first inspiration I got was that when I was doing my first law degree, I was following a lot of social media channels that posted information about grants in different countries or shorter study abroad opportunities or stories of people who did that, and there was a lot of demand for that kind of information, especially just in all of the post-Soviet countries that I know, like students, like I would say, were hungry for those opportunities because it wasn't available. It was new and exciting and so there was a lot of demand. But I remember that whenever, like, I read information on those channels, it just it felt that it wasn't meeting the need because, um, uh, because there were, there was usually very little strategy, like for instance if you read someone's story it

Speaker 2: 48:25

can be very emotional, it can have like really nice pictures, but it's not going to equip you to do the same or to do what you want for your educational journey. And the same goes, for instance, for information about grants, because grants often have so many bureaucratic eligibility requirements, often have so many bureaucratic eligibility requirements and, and, uh, and you would go through like a bunch of them and you will see that, well, none of it actually applies to me. So there was a lot of sense of disappointment for me and uh, yes, and, and several years ago I just I started sort of naturally first help my friends who wanted to do a degree in a different country, and I repeatedly was hearing from them that my help was really important for them. It just it helped them get where they wanted to go and uh, and I tried multiple projects.

Speaker 2: 49:37

I worked with with other people on mentorship programs. I considered a startup in the education field and so, through all of the trial and error, I decided that what works for me is working one-on-one with people. That that's one part of what I do, like. I review applications, I give feedback. If needed, I give advice on how to start, and I also write about my own experience or the experience of people that I've guided, and those formers they're the ones that work best for me and that sort of crystallized about three years ago.

Speaker 1: 50:25

Now that's an inspirational story. Then you got that for any other one who who would like to also to start their own business, and then finding solutions for that. And you said you said yourself as well that there was a problem and you found the solution uh, around writing, not writing, advising your clients to write successful application letters in order to be accepted and admitted for grants. And I also want to add as well that when you established Harvard State of Mind, one of your main things was to get accessible education right. So when you speak about accessibility about in terms of securing MA, phd and postdoc funding for a better education, for a better education, and do you have any strategies that you've developed in order to reach such success and is it adaptable to any of your clients?

Speaker 2: 51:42

Sure, so I also work a lot with master's students.

Speaker 2: 51:47

I just want to emphasize it because a lot of writing that I help with it's not just about the research, but it's also this type of writing where you need to explain your motivation, your background. There is a lot of writing that I help with. That's about self-analysis that I help with. That's about self-analysis and the methodology. Like, I have a methodology to guide people through this type of writing, regardless of where they are in the application process, whether they're just starting out or whether they've done something and it didn't work out, and I think, the technical part of it. If our listeners are interested, I think they can easily check it out on my website. I would just say that a lot of it focuses on, first of all, on humanizing the applicant, because what PhD or master's students tend to do is that they tend to write very formalistic letters and like letters that usually just repeat their CVs.

Speaker 2: 53:18

And a lot of what I do when I come in, like I discuss extensively, like their professional decisions, why they did certain things. Like it's a mini interview, but not in a podcast format. Yes, exactly, but I asked a lot about sort of the behavioral part and all of the things that don't get reflected on a CV, and I help them discover the underlying themes, why they do what they do and what they put very simply, or what made them who they are, and for everyone it's different. But that's one part, and for everyone it's different. But that's one part, and then another part is to actually translate it to the admissions committee, because it's one thing to uncover all those important insights about a way that is relevant to the program you're applying for and that answers the questions of the admissions committees, and so that's a lot of what I do.

Speaker 1: 54:50

That's a lot of what I do. Do they also the admissions committee? Do they also look on how humanized that humanizing between commas is the letter? So what I'm trying to explain is, as you said, that you help your clients to make their application letters more humane possible without being too formal. Do the admissions?

Speaker 2: 55:27

committee look at that aspect as well.

Speaker 2: 55:28

Well, it is not a look, it is not a like an official criteria, but um, but what they do look, um for are compelling reasons for why this person wants to pursue a particular degree.

Speaker 2: 55:42

Uh and uh, and they're just hoping a cv doesn't help. And I can say that this is someone who's been on the admissions committee, because it's just um, uh, like one of the problems, um, you have as a member of the selection committee is that, um, even when you pre-select candidates and when you filter out people who are, who have very low grades or who have just significant problems on their application academically speaking, even when you filter those people out, there are still too many candidates that are qualified enough for the place, and so you have to differentiate them somehow, to differentiate them somehow. And so what happens is that this is where the personal statement or statement of purpose whatever it's called for your particular program. That's where this letter comes in, because this is the only document where the applicant can speak directly to the admissions committee about why this degree is important to them. And that's where this humanizing aspect can play a big part, because it can actually show that, well, this person actually needs this degree to do meaningful work.

Speaker 1: 57:05

Sure. So basically, what they are looking is how you will then excel in your studies, but then how your transferable skills will be applied when you graduate, and the let the applying using the, the application letter, in the most humanizing way, as you said, and also professional at the same time. In order to justify in a simple, in a simple sentence why should we, why should we have you, why should we have you studying a master's, a phd or a postdoc?

Speaker 1: 57:55

yes, exactly yeah, and so I think that edit, as you said, as the competition is high, it's just the only way is for the person to try to study what others have done and trying to replicate that, but in their own way. So that's where you come in, in trying to help them. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 58:19

But then so you say then, based on the experience that you had, which was more than 10 years, as I've read also on your website, they also faced the difficulty of applying and securing funding those main PhDs. And what is the main characteristic? That most of them fail at the beginning of their application. We know we spoke about the admissions letter, but is there also something else to add?

Speaker 2: 58:54

Well, at the stage of a PhD, I'd say something that gets overlooked is that it's important, especially if you're submitting a research proposal, it's important that your research is also personal, and what do I mean by that?

Speaker 2: 59:17

It's that, first of all, it should be clear from your application that you have the expertise that the project requires, that the project requires, and that you have at least a sustained track record of interest in that project or field.

Speaker 2: 59:37

Not necessarily super in-depth expertise, but at least sustained track of interest. Because with a PhD, usually you're also applying for funding, or even if you're also applying for funding and that's or even if you're not applying for funding, that's a huge investment in you by university because they will allocate resources to you and your research, and so what they want to understand is that you will be successful in carrying that research out and showing them that this research is something that you have the capacity to conduct. It's really important. I can give an example to make it clear. I remember when I was on the admissions committee, we had an application of someone who wanted to research truth commissions in Colombia, and that person didn't speak Spanish, they didn't research anything about truth commissions before or no connection to Colombia whatsoever, and that was a huge problem for the professors because they were just not sure this person will be able to produce high quality research sure so I would say just that's one of the things to pay attention to so specifically around.

Speaker 1: 1:01:02

What's the, what is the context of uh, in this case columbia?

Speaker 2: 1:01:06

in this case, yes, and your research should be like a combination of uh, your pre-existing expertise and novelty.

Speaker 1: 1:01:15

It's a very fine balance, but, uh, but that's the one you'll need to strike yes, it's all about also balance and trying to study what you were able to grasp. In that sense, have you given the example of a PhD applicant in studying something that is completely different, that is never known about, of what was the context of, in this case, colombia or any other country across the world? Maybe, maybe that phd applicant would would be fit better to study his or her own country in this, in this case, but I think that, in all in all fairness that it has to be, it has to be clear, as you said, and does that apply into most of the fields or any specifics where there's the majority of PhD applicants?

Speaker 2: 1:02:28

Well, I can't, I can't, um, say I just I don't have the capacity or to to talk for all of the fields, but, um, but this is what I've seen in social sciences, specifically in law sure so, and that is acceptable.

Speaker 1: 1:02:47

so, but yeah, um, and I would say as well that now you said you've done two phds and you have your own business and you write blogs and uh as well, and I've seen it, um, and it takes much, of, much of much of our time and nowadays it require we require online presence.

Speaker 1: 1:03:12

So I was having this talk a few days ago with my previous guests and in order to have online presence in whilst doing at the writing, the researching and writing the pitch, at the same time, we need to know how to market ourselves, how to use the correct some um, not correct, uh, correct keywords to to sell, to sell ourselves, not to sell but like to advertise ourselves as SPHDs and including our research at Indian conferences, uh, networking, all, all, all of this activity that requires more than what we actually do. So we have less free time in that regards and on the one hand, it is good because we are increasing our portfolio, but at the same time, it becomes burdensome and a bit exhausting. So did you also face that throughout your PhD? Did you have a method as well in order to ever pass these challenges?

Speaker 2: 1:04:27

I do. I mean yes, I know that there is this pressure in academia to do that. I don't think it's healthy and I don't think I really don't think that there is enough evidence to prove that if you do all these things and you will get better results. Yes, I think it definitely can be possible, but what brings results in a PhD is, I mean, first of all, your PhD. Second, your publications. That should also be enough to build a career. I don't think that visibility or personal brand are a must are a must. I genuinely have a lot of resistance towards imposing things on people that are not an inherent part of the work that you do. Sure.

Speaker 2: 1:05:51

And I really haven't seen correlation that only people who have a lot of visibility they get jobs. I haven't seen evidence of that and I think I am very lucky that EUI does not put an emphasis on that. An emphasis on that there is a lot of like. When I was doing my PhD, there was a lot of attention paid to helping you produce the highest quality research you can. Sure.

Speaker 2: 1:06:35

And everything else was optional. That being said, I did do a lot of things in parallel to my phd, but that was just my personal choice and the way, the way I like. I just I need I need multiple things and I need, uh, to be able to switch, to switch my attention from one thing to another. And I did publish. During my PhD, I published an article and a book and in law usually you do not. First of all, it's a book field where people publish books and it's not just like an article field where the only thing you publish are articles. Law is different. Um and uh, yes, and that, um, that was very hard. But also those projects for like, they were welcome for me because I was able to switch my attention from the PhD, like whenever I was tired of writing my PhD.

Speaker 2: 1:07:42

I would work on a different project, and that was helpful. What?

Speaker 1: 1:07:49

skills did you enhance then in order to make to complete your your two phds?

Speaker 2: 1:07:57

well, something that I was interested in, I've been interested in for a while it's just a like a lot of productivity literature that I consumed and, um, something that resonates with me a lot is there is this planning methodology used in programming and it's called, like agile method, agile method. Agile.

Speaker 1: 1:08:23

Ah, agile method.

Speaker 2: 1:08:24

Yes, and so the idea is that, like, instead of planning large projects sequentially like it's very transferable to PhDs because like so instead, instead of like first like planning your entire thing and then reading everything you need and then writing, you would instead split the project into into multiple sub projects and you would um and you would do all those stages like but but for each, for each sub project. So you would um, you would read, like you would plan a part of your research and then you would read for that part of research and then you would write and then you would um, review all of that and check in what adjustments are needed and then plan further, and so you would. You would do that step by step, and I found that that's been just immensely helpful for me, because it just elevated so much of this stress that you have during the phd, because it's just such a huge project sure but because of like, when I was using this methodology, like I never felt like I was working on my phd as a whole.

Speaker 2: 1:09:39

I always worked like on a particular chapter or a particular like part of my field work um and that's one and the.

Speaker 2: 1:09:50

The other one is that I got really into academic note-taking because at some point, I decided that my paper-based note-taking wasn't working as efficiently as I wanted, and so I came across a note-taking system that was popularized due to a German sociologist. His name was Niklas Luhmann, and the system of note-taking is called Sättelkasten, or in German, sättelkasten, and it's very, very hard to explain it, especially in a podcast, so I'm just going to mention it. He used paper so-called slip boxes.

Speaker 2: 1:10:48

He would use cards paper cards to write down the basics of whatever he was reading about, and then he would um, like he would number all of the cards he had and then he would um, um, think about, like, how this card fits into all of the other cards he has. For instance, he's working on a book and he's reading everything that that can potentially help him with this book, and so he's making all those notes, and as he's making those notes, he's making sure that notes, and as he's making those notes, he's making sure that they are connected to each other. So whenever he adds the new note he writes down, he looks through the notes he already has and notes down what connections he possibly can make, connections he possibly can make. So that's the most basic idea of this note-taking system, and I really liked it and I implemented it, but in digital form. I used a software called Obsidian and what you do with it.

Speaker 2: 1:11:54

Essentially, you can create it's like a personal Wikipedia. You create notes that are connected in a non-hierarchical manner through hyperlinks, and that's how I build associations and connections and that's where I take all of the notes related to my sources. That's been a huge help. I'm sorry it's been so long, but uh no, no, it's, it's.

Speaker 1: 1:12:19

It's really interesting to hear that, uh, while we're doing our research, then several methods we we began to develop, uh, several methods that may work for us. Again, we can even research a bit of them, but but as along along the way they they're gonna, we're gonna develop them nonetheless and then applying those for the post phd. And so those, as you said, the agile and the note-taking system you've taken from Mr Luman into Obsidian, they worked well with you. Do you still use them in your business?

Speaker 2: 1:13:05

I do, yes, I do them, I do use them.

Speaker 1: 1:13:09

And then, as you said, sorry, as you said sorry. And then one thing I've noticed as well during a new business model was that at the end of your offering services, then being admitted is not promised and even though you help them to prepare amazing forms in order for them to get admitted and I really love to share this that despite how good your application might be, then it might be accepted as, but it's not promised 100%, accepted as, but it's not promised 100%. As you said a bit this previously, but I also wanted to emphasize once again on this, because even that, even those skills, even with the methods, even with preparing a strong application, it is likely that it might be rejected or accepted. And I want to ask you if you have an episode that you had with one of your clients that was hard to work with following your first call or even during your first call yeah, so those are actually.

Speaker 2: 1:14:41

Those are two different questions. I will briefly address all of them. But yes, thank you so much for bringing that up. So the reason I point that out on my website is very simple. I'm not the one who is making the decision whether to admit a person or not, and I just find it very important to just be clear about the allocation of responsibility and that my part is to share everything I know and give as much uh feedback as I can. But sure, um, but also like, a very important boundary for me is that I don't write applications for people, um, and ethically, it's just so, so important to me, and I know that in the admissions consulting world there are people and companies who cross that boundary, who write for applicants, and it was just very, very important for me to filter people who might expect that right away. Like, when they're just reading through the basics of my website, they see that I offer a different kind of help. I advise, but I don't write for you.

Speaker 2: 1:16:10

So that's why it's on the website, and I definitely have clients where, after the first call, I decide not to work with them, but it is often for a different reason and sometimes it's just when someone comes to me with a problem I can't help with, and that's actually it relates to your question about accessibility, because there are types of accessibility that see, when you're living with your profile, yeah, and I can help remove those obstacles, like self-esteem or information asymmetry, but there are obstacles that I just like I'm not that powerful, not yet. For instance, I often get clients who indicate, like when I ask them to fill out a short form, or like when I invite them to a first call, and they tell me that their primary problem is that they don't know how to fund the degree. They don't know how to fund the degree. And then I say that I can help you again with information, but I just can't help with this particular obstacle. If I could, I would just have a scholarship fund, right, and I would fund people.

Speaker 2: 1:17:52

And so that's one of the problems that comes up when I say that, well, I just can't help you solve this problem, so it's not a good idea to work together. And then, yes, and then there are people with whom we are just not the right fit, and that can be like, for you know, for many reasons, like the first one, just personality it's not necessarily that someone will expect me to guarantee the admission. But it's just like I have a call and I see that I don't know, we don't vibe together, and that's perfectly fine sure, and that's that is that happens with, uh, with everyone.

Speaker 1: 1:18:41

Sometimes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it done it doesn't, and I think, uh, most most of the well, most of the of the candidates, that, as it is the same thing for funding, most of the candidates are are not fit for, for being admitted into having funding. I can give you my personal example that I've never applied for fundings and, no, no, I never got informed about them, basically. And, uh, the way I, the way I went through my PhD, was through getting a student job, basically, and applying for a student loan. I know it has its advantages, but it also has its flaws, because obviously we're covered in debt and trying to repay it alongside interest rates, to repay it alongside interest rates, but in my case, funding wasn't something that was for me on the horizon. I might even try in the near future who knows if I want to adventure myself into a postdoc at the later stage, and, and that's part of that's one of the reasons that, as you said, it might not be the fit for that client or what you're asking is too much.

Speaker 2: 1:20:04

Yeah, or just not part of my expertise.

Speaker 1: 1:20:07

Yes, and not part of your expertise. And then, another thing that I've noticed as well that you've appeared in several media interviews. Another thing that I've noticed as well that you've appeared in several media interviews and I had the guts to attend to watch an interview you conducted in Russian, so I needed to do the captions. So, yes, I did that. I needed to check everything possible to see your interviews, and you also have written your several blog. You also continue to write your blog posts and also one of your articles on forbes, and you and I also recently watched a, an interview you had with david mensch from papa phd. So we, me and David we have a good virtual relationship and we we talk not very often, but sometimes in talking about podcasting and PhD as well, and I'd like to ask you about how was the experience in being interviewed with with with David and being interviewed with with with david and what is another? It's another question as well. So what? What is another characteristic that you advocate for phds and postdocs when facing uncertainty during their studies?

Speaker 2: 1:21:30

yeah, oh, thank you so much for for such dedicated attention. No, my pleasure no-transcript, so I almost never repeat myself, and that is incredible, and sometimes we just talk about so many different things sure and I really, really like I find this opportunity really precious and, and I don't like I don't have that much video content because I am more of a writer- I might start creating videos in the future, but at the moment I feel more comfortable with writing, and so podcasts they give me this opportunity to show more of myself and to share more of myself with people, which I really value.

Speaker 2: 1:22:53

Speaking to the second part of the question, I think we've covered a lot of what I wanted to say. I think that one of the most important things we talked about is not personalizing, so we've covered that. I'd say, like, if we're speaking about uncertainty and facing uncertainty, it's build a team, a support team, because I find that even when you do a PhD and you have a community, it is still just so, so important to invest in your relationships, because a PhD, like in many ways, is a solitary journey. Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:23:55

And I found that the most, the single, most valuable thing. It just it's gonna sound as a cliche, but it was but it was just having amazing people in my life, because very often also when, when you do a PhD, you get stuck in your head and if you have people to support you, even just like in my experience I had so many conversations when I would just feel really stuck and then I would have a short conversation and that would just completely change my outlook and yes, and I would really. I think I would want to stress that for our listeners.

Speaker 1: 1:24:44

And I guess that the listeners will well receive that message you're conveying and say accessibility, but also build a, a team, construct relationships, and and I think this is all phd is all about as well is, I think it's more than more than research, more than writing, but also creating relationships, doing other things that doesn't occupy much of your time, uh, creating solid businesses as well. Aside, if that's the thing that uh, you, one of your list, one of the listeners who are tuning in to this late night talk, uh can are making to do it, and I'd like to go back to a question that we and I'd like to go back to a question that we've missed. At the beginning of the session but we were speaking about this prior to the recording that you said you've done stand-up comedy, wasn't it? So do you still do some stand-up comedy? You've done it after your PhD, but do you still do it some?

Speaker 2: 1:25:58

Yes, actually I started doing stand-up last September. Oh, okay. And as a truly academic person, I took a course on stand-up. I started on a very academic note. Sure. I actually had a show yesterday.

Speaker 1: 1:26:20

You did. So what do you cover most of it? Is it academic comedy or any other sort of gigs?

Speaker 2: 1:26:32

I have, like I do at the moment, like I do it sporadically, Like I'm not an established comedian or anything, and I usually I sign up for open mics like where, um, you, uh, you come to the show and it's a mix of um, of experienced comedians and of people who are just starting out and mostly they are trying out jokes, so it can, it can vary. Like there is a very low bar, like like it's it's not a netflix special and I talk a lot of a lot about the things like, uh, I talk. I talk a lot about housing search At least. Look, in my last set I had a lot of pain associated with it, so I needed to let it out. I have academic jokes as well. I talk about relationships, navigating life in a different country, so, just, whatever I'm going through, I turn it into comedy.

Speaker 2: 1:27:42

Do you have one If you want to share it?

Speaker 1: 1:27:47

I okay, I An academic joke.

Speaker 2: 1:27:50

Okay, well, I had a joke in my previous set that I where I was sort of by saying, just, I am a very academic person, like to the point that I sometimes feel like I need to hide how academic I am. Yes, for instance, if I just start a relationship, like I start dating someone, I don't tell right away that I have two PhDs, okay, and it takes someone very patient to keep asking me questions until I say something like look, there is no easy way to tell you, but I'm probably way smarter than you are. So that's one of the jokes about two PhDs I'm probably way smarter than you are, so that's my like one of the jokes about two PhDs.

Speaker 1: 1:28:48

Only those who do PhDs will understand this. So, for the listeners, if you want to do a PhD, then Daria is the best person to recommend you to go to attend stand-up comedies and talk about PhDs as well. Over there, you can make up your own joke as well and go to stand-ups. So let's wrap this up and I think we had an amazing conversation and a good laugh, which we we all need some. We know we all need a pretty often when we with all the this, how busy we are with our own PhDs, and for postdocs as well, who whoever's taking a postdoc I'd like to ask you do you believe that the PhD will be the degree of the future? I always ask this question. Most of the times, I ask this question to my guests.

Speaker 2: 1:29:42

I hope not. No, I just say I really hope not. You know, it's like what we've discussed before for all this pressure to be visible and build a following, for all this pressure to be visible and build a following. I really hope that we will live in a society where people get to do what they enjoy and what aligns the most with what they're good at, and I hope that for people who don't want to do a PhD, it's not going to be something that's needed and PhD will be still pursued by people who just want to do this for their own reasons.

Speaker 1: 1:30:25

Yes, I think PhD can be done for many people, but not many of them want to do it, and that's the thing. Do you have any upcoming projects in the future?

Speaker 2: 1:30:40

Yes, so I mean, first of all, I have several academic projects in the making, because I'm not officially part of an academic institution, but I still need to finish some of the things that I started, and one of them is publishing my PhD as a book.

Speaker 2: 1:30:57

It's something that at least like, if you're a lawyer, you're expected to do that, and I recently got a contract for the book, and so I will be working on that congratulations thank you and I hope that I will create more for people who are applying, because at the moment the majority of my resources are master's programs and then some of them PhDs and a little bit postdoc, and I really want to create more for those later stages of academic career true and any upcoming updates for Harvard State of Mind. Well, that will be part of that.

Speaker 1: 1:31:42

That will be part of that.

Speaker 2: 1:31:44

Yes, yes, because this umbrella it's for my consultancy, but also for everything that I write, for the courses I create, and so on.

Speaker 1: 1:31:57

Amazing. I look forward to no more updates but in the meantime, where your listeners can follow, can follow you.

Speaker 2: 1:32:08

I have a website. It's, as you mentioned, harvardstateofmindcom. I also write on LinkedIn and you can find me by my name stateofmindcom. I also write on LinkedIn and you can find me by my name there. I also, like, I barely started a YouTube channel. It's also called Harvard State of Mind and it's very tiny and I am nowhere near like being in the production quality of professional YouTubers, but I decided that I would like to try and see what happens, so you can follow me there. Please don't judge very hard.

Speaker 1: 1:32:53

Otherwise you get comedy upon you. So that's a wrap up, but I want to say, daria, thank you so much for having the time to be at the phd lounge and I look forward for hearing more about you. I I still want to connect with you in the future and I I look forward to any updates. Thank you, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 1:33:18

Thank you so much for hosting me. It's been such a huge pleasure.

Speaker 1: 1:33:25

Thank you so much, and that's the end of this amazing late night talk with Daria with incredible insights about her PhD experience and her current work in order for everyone to have accessible and quality education. Obviously, as it happens with every student, not everything in accessible and quality education is a sea of roses, as you must understand this territory when experiencing setbacks and feelings of burnout and disappointment. Furthermore, daria has great positive testimonials and she can help you to increase your chances of being accepted at top-tier universities, but can't write proposals and grants for you. It is up to you to take that initiative, and persistence wins everything if you have a great team. While you tune in to my talk with Thalia, you can check her website, harvardstateofmindcom, and contact via Telegram, youtube and LinkedIn channels Harvard State of Mind Every link will be on the show notes.

Speaker 1: 1:34:38

I shall share this late night talk soon on your favorite podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and if you have enjoyed my other talks and solo sessions, then you can check out my website, phdloungecouk, where you can also follow my, my socials, instagram at phdlmf and my linkedin luigemeyer and other tabs of the website. Last but not least, if you're a current phd, post phd or a postdoc and would love to be featured, then either drop me an email at luigphdlounge at gmailcom or on my social media accounts. Thank you.