Requiring so many!

[TakeruK]

As others said, there are such systems that combine LORs in the way your suggest. Interfolio is one. AcademicJobsOnline is another system I used for several postdoc job applications that allow one generic letter to be uploaded per letter writer. When I apply to a new job in the system, I can choose to use the generic letter or request a special letter for that job. In my field, we always request special letters. A generic letter is pretty harmful in job applications. Like others said here, in order for this to change, the US and Canadian school system needs to change to accept generic letters. However, as others also said here, the way we use these letters does not work with generic LORs, so this will be a big and very slow change if it ever happens.

One smaller change that could happen is to defer the LOR request to the shortlist stage. This probably will not work for grad applications since they move very quickly. But for postdoc and professor job applications, the committees could wait to request LORs until the candidate is shortlisted. If you think about it, for each postdoc/prof job, there are several hundred candidates. Each candidate requires 3 letters, so approx. 1000-2000 letters are submitted per job application. Most of these letters aren't even looked at, because there are other cuts that one can use to narrow down the field of several hundred applicants! What a waste of everyone's time.

3 hours ago, nushi said:

All in all, to be fair, admissions committee should not give much value to LOR's of international applicants, or at least consider how the situation is different for us, & that if it's evident that the student was the one who wrote the letters, they shouldn't underestimate the student, because requiring LOR's in other countries is different from the way it is known in the US.

It should make you feel better to know that most admissions committees do consider the origin of students when it comes to evaluating things like LORs and GPAs. Every country has a different grading system and it's well known that letters from North American professors and EU professors are very different in tone and style. I think schools that want to have a large international population will know to consider things at different weights.

However, the goal of most schools is not to have a large international population. Most schools don't have the money to support that many international students and the main priority for most schools in any country is to support their own country's students. From your post, it sounds like you think schools are obligated to be fair to international students, but I don't think this is necessarily true at all. As you may already know, most US and Canadian schools have strict limits on how many international students they admit. Because of these limits, there are many international students that would have been admitted if they were American (to a US school) but they did not because there are limits on international students. Schools should be fair to international students within the international student pool (e.g. if they favoured or disfavoured certain countries then that would be bad). But there's nothing wrong with a school favouring domestic students over international students when it comes to admissions.

In addition, in the real world, you always always have to tailor your application to your audience. When you are applying to US schools, you should make sure your application looks as much like a US application as possible. It's your job to advocate for yourself to your professors to write these letters. You need to know what your evaluators are expecting and provide it. Just like any other job you apply to. For example, you wouldn't show up to an interview with Google carrying your iPhone and using Apple terminology. If you had a PhD and you're applying to industry/business jobs, you would learn the business buzzwords and vocabulary and be able to present your work in a business framework.

So, while I agree with you that admissions committee should be aware of differences in academic cultures around the world, it's also the student's responsibility to ensure their application meets the standard of the culture they are applying to.

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

I felt so bad about asking many from a single professor. One of them wrote at least 5 for me. They are busy people so, yeah... 

I'm sure they didn't mind writing them for me, but I was ashamed to steal some time from them.

[nushi]

1 hour ago, TakeruK said:

As others said, there are such systems that combine LORs in the way your suggest. Interfolio is one. AcademicJobsOnline is another system I used for several postdoc job applications that allow one generic letter to be uploaded per letter writer. When I apply to a new job in the system, I can choose to use the generic letter or request a special letter for that job. In my field, we always request special letters. A generic letter is pretty harmful in job applications. Like others said here, in order for this to change, the US and Canadian school system needs to change to accept generic letters. However, as others also said here, the way we use these letters does not work with generic LORs, so this will be a big and very slow change if it ever happens.

One smaller change that could happen is to defer the LOR request to the shortlist stage. This probably will not work for grad applications since they move very quickly. But for postdoc and professor job applications, the committees could wait to request LORs until the candidate is shortlisted. If you think about it, for each postdoc/prof job, there are several hundred candidates. Each candidate requires 3 letters, so approx. 1000-2000 letters are submitted per job application. Most of these letters aren't even looked at, because there are other cuts that one can use to narrow down the field of several hundred applicants! What a waste of everyone's time.

It should make you feel better to know that most admissions committees do consider the origin of students when it comes to evaluating things like LORs and GPAs. Every country has a different grading system and it's well known that letters from North American professors and EU professors are very different in tone and style. I think schools that want to have a large international population will know to consider things at different weights.

However, the goal of most schools is not to have a large international population. Most schools don't have the money to support that many international students and the main priority for most schools in any country is to support their own country's students. From your post, it sounds like you think schools are obligated to be fair to international students, but I don't think this is necessarily true at all. As you may already know, most US and Canadian schools have strict limits on how many international students they admit. Because of these limits, there are many international students that would have been admitted if they were American (to a US school) but they did not because there are limits on international students. Schools should be fair to international students within the international student pool (e.g. if they favoured or disfavoured certain countries then that would be bad). But there's nothing wrong with a school favouring domestic students over international students when it comes to admissions.

In addition, in the real world, you always always have to tailor your application to your audience. When you are applying to US schools, you should make sure your application looks as much like a US application as possible. It's your job to advocate for yourself to your professors to write these letters. You need to know what your evaluators are expecting and provide it. Just like any other job you apply to. For example, you wouldn't show up to an interview with Google carrying your iPhone and using Apple terminology. If you had a PhD and you're applying to industry/business jobs, you would learn the business buzzwords and vocabulary and be able to present your work in a business framework.

So, while I agree with you that admissions committee should be aware of differences in academic cultures around the world, it's also the student's responsibility to ensure their application meets the standard of the culture they are applying to.

Why would you think Takeruk that we're not doing our best to accommodate ourselves to the academic culture we're applying to? And we spend more effort for this than you do as well! We study your language, take your language exams that are required, pay money that is much beyond our financial ability (an American or Canadian student doesn't have much of a problem paying for GRE exam in US dollars, but for us with the exchange rate differences it's financially breaking!). We write all the essays required of us, but I can't force "another person" to adopt a different culture for my own benefit. I can't go to my professor & ask her to feel convenient with LOR's because I'm the one who needs to study abroad, however good my relationship with her is, this is too much to ask from my professors, to change her own culture & what is convenient for her, for my benefit!

It's hard for you living in America or Canada to understand this, because this is much easier for you. But at least you should consider how it is different & more difficult for others in other countries, not everyone is like you, & not everyone is in your same convenient situation & culture.

I understand why universities prefer to admit local students. But to talk about justice, this is not fair for people in underdeveloped & developing countries. Many of the developing countries have colonized our countries for centuries, stole our resources, & continue crushing us economically through their policies, wars, & international economic regulations. Our economic, technological, and scientific hardships are in large part caused by developed countries' governments - so, if we want to speak really fair, a large number of scholarships should be provided for students from developing countries, & the difficulty of attaining such things as LORs in the midst of professors who are not used to providing them should be considered.

In order to really talk about fairness, one should look at the issue from its bigger picture, from all the different sides, not only from one's narrow space or comfort zone.

[Eigen]

I hate to say it, but grad admissions really aren't about fairness- it's not a good argument to bring into them. 

They're about schools (and individual faculty, in the case of many STEM fields) getting the best bang for their buck in terms of productive students. Ditto the expenditure of huge amounts of government funds in areas that are likely to bring the most return.

You keep saying that you're not arguing that US academic admission norms should change, but you also argue that LoRs should be less heavily weighted from certain countries, which is arguing exactly that.

[rising_star]

6 hours ago, nushi said:

We study your language, take your language exams that are required, pay money that is much beyond our financial ability (an American or Canadian student doesn't have much of a problem paying for GRE exam in US dollars, but for us with the exchange rate differences it's financially breaking!).

You do realize that many American and Canadian students also struggle to pay for the GRE and to pay application fees, right? If not, you may want to check out some of the literature on poverty in America and/or on low-income college students. It is flat wrong to say "an American or Canadian student doesn't have much of a problem paying for GRE exam in US dollars". There are plenty of posts on this website to the contrary.

[TakeruK]

@nushi: I will try to respond to all of your points.

8 hours ago, nushi said:

Why would you think Takeruk that we're not doing our best to accommodate ourselves to the academic culture we're applying to? And we spend more effort for this than you do as well! We study your language, take your language exams that are required, pay money that is much beyond our financial ability (an American or Canadian student doesn't have much of a problem paying for GRE exam in US dollars, but for us with the exchange rate differences it's financially breaking!).

It's hard for you living in America or Canada to understand this, because this is much easier for you. But at least you should consider how it is different & more difficult for others in other countries, not everyone is like you, & not everyone is in your same convenient situation & culture.

I am sorry that I made you feel that you were not doing your best. I wrote my earlier post in response to your point that your country's culture is different from the North American academic culture. I agree with you all about the unfair financial barrier due to the GRE. I have done lots of work when I was in the US to advocate for schools to remove this requirement as much as possible. 

8 hours ago, nushi said:

 We write all the essays required of us, but I can't force "another person" to adopt a different culture for my own benefit. I can't go to my professor & ask her to feel convenient with LOR's because I'm the one who needs to study abroad, however good my relationship with her is, this is too much to ask from my professors, to change her own culture & what is convenient for her, for my benefit!

I don't know how to say this in any different way. The North American system is based on getting our professors to take time out of their work to advocate for us. This is part of the professor's job here and it's a way that is used to evaluate students. If a student cannot get a professor to spare 4 hours of their time to write a letter plus 10-15 minutes to upload each letter, then it's a red flag. As I said above, there are a lot of issues with this style and I can't say that I agree with all of it.

However, this is still the reality. If you want to join the North American system, you must conform to its standards and culture. You need to go to your professor and ask her in the appropriate way to support your application to North American school. You will have to explain what this means she has to do and you need to convince her to help you. If you think your letters are not great because of this, you should think about explaining this in your application package. Most good and conscientious committees will do as you say and consider each applicant's ability to get LORs (or research experience etc.) in addition. 

Still, I know this is unfair because it means you have to do a lot more work to get admission than a student from Canada and the USA, but unfortunately, it really is unfair. See the next point too.

8 hours ago, nushi said:

I understand why universities prefer to admit local students. But to talk about justice, this is not fair for people in underdeveloped & developing countries. Many of the developing countries have colonized our countries for centuries, stole our resources, & continue crushing us economically through their policies, wars, & international economic regulations. Our economic, technological, and scientific hardships are in large part caused by developed countries' governments - so, if we want to speak really fair, a large number of scholarships should be provided for students from developing countries, & the difficulty of attaining such things as LORs in the midst of professors who are not used to providing them should be considered.

In order to really talk about fairness, one should look at the issue from its bigger picture, from all the different sides, not only from one's narrow space or comfort zone.

I think you misunderstand what I said above. It's not that universities "prefer" to admit local students. When you look at most public universities' mission statement / charter/ values, and look at their reason to exist, it is usually to educate the people from their province (Canada) or their state (USA). Our schools are chartered by our local governments in order to provide education and benefits to the people they serve. This does not include international students. In fact, the reason why North American schools admit international students is not to educate the world. The reason they admit international students is to improve their own rankings by showing that they can attract international talent. It's to recruit the best international talent in order to do work that benefits North American schools. Maybe there are a few exceptions but the vast majority of schools exist to serve their local state/province, not to be a good global citizen to provide education to students all over the world. 

You are right about what you said above. I agree that many developed countries have taken advantage of developing countries for centuries and this creates a ton of injustice. But I would say that many North American schools, being mostly funded and regulated by the government of these developed countries, are more part of the problem than the solution. I don't know how to fix it, other than to work towards dismantling the balance of power at the international stage (which I don't know how to do).

[lemma]

I agree with @rising_star in that poverty can be prevalent in developed countries, and that this should not be discounted. I've studied in two developed countries and I saw my peers struggle - sometimes I would only eat once a day myself for financial reasons. However, many developing countries have GDPs that are so low that an application cycle could cost as much as a year's wage (or at least a huge chunk of it). That is a huge deal, and does make the process all that more difficult - people may not even have access to large enough loans or family/friends who can lend some money and help out. If the GDP is so low, US applications can be inaccessible. 

[spamhaus]

I think that there is some great discussion in this thread. Ultimately I think it boils down to a few points:

1. Graduate school is not designed with fairness in mind, thus it is not surprising that many aspects of the admission process are not fair, especially for international applicants. Can the process be more fair? Yes it can be, but it is often a slow process that advocates for change, e.g. Brown v Board of Education, Higher Education Act, & Individuals with Disabilities Education Act all took time and the will of the disadvantaged to push for change in the face of adversity. In the meantime, given what the current application process entails, you're only option is to try your best to follow the excellent advice of @TakeruK, @Eigen, and @rising_star.
2. The financial realities of the world are down right abysmal. Whether discussing poverty in the US leading to difficulty with upward mobility, or global economic disparities that lead to great harm to large portions of the world population, it is clear that graduate school admissions are only a small part of an enormous system of inequity. While grants, scholarships, and fee waivers can help some lucky few, these tools cannot level the playing field. That is even more apparent when considering international applicants from disadvantaged countries.

That said, @nushi I understand the difficulties involved with advocating for yourself with professors in Egypt. Unfortunately, the only reasonable response you will receive on these forums are concrete steps you can take given the current processes in place at North American institutions. Hopefully that is something that will change for the better in the future, but for now the advice given is the only wisdom that is available. Who knows, if you get into one of these universities, it could be you helping to advocate for reforms. Best of luck with the application process!

[skhann]

There is a massive difference between North American and the rest of the world academic environments. While it is obvious that one has to comply with the rules of the country in which one is seeking admission (US, in this case), there is also a need for the schools to accommodate foreign applicants. More so when international graduate applicants qualify for fewer funding options and are a major source of revenue for the schools. Even for the application fee, they often have to pay higher than the local applicants.

LORs are a massive pain in you know where for many international applicants. I've myself experienced the disdain the friendliest faculty members have for writing a few (4-5) letters, let alone 10-15 (which is what your best American referee will write for you). Then there is the whole online uploading process along with the assessment forms etc. Many universities no longer accept hardcopy letters either. I've personally suffered as I had to cut down on my number of applications. I know many others have faced similar challenges. And we all know Interfolio or the likes are an outcast at majority of US schools.

Edited January 20, 2018 by skhann

[skhann]

As for the inequalities, I, for one, won't mind US schools preferring American students. Being American institutions, they are bound to do that. The same goes for EU schools where non-EU applicants have to pay hefty fees. Yes, there is a massive baggage of colonialism and economic exploitation but the world is unfair. Very very unfair, especially to those from the "Developing" countries. Gosh how much I hate this word.

[khigh]

17 hours ago, rising_star said:

You do realize that many American and Canadian students also struggle to pay for the GRE and to pay application fees, right? If not, you may want to check out some of the literature on poverty in America and/or on low-income college students. It is flat wrong to say "an American or Canadian student doesn't have much of a problem paying for GRE exam in US dollars". There are plenty of posts on this website to the contrary.

Anecdotally, I was able to afford ONE application. $300 with the GRE is a lot when you are supporting yourself and a family.  That's a car payment and insurance, 1/3 of my rent, or groceries and gas for the month. I went without sending anyone Christmas presents this past year because Christmas money became GRE/App money. Thankfully, my family understood.

[Eigen]

When I applied, I did 3 schools, all of who had applicstion waivers if you got accepted. I had a family to support and was working my way through undergrad. 

You don't always have to apply to a ton of schools- you just have to pick ones that you're likely to fit well at. 

[nushi]

Thank you everyone & Takeruk for your support. I'm sorry if I got a bit angry & stressed in my previous post. I'm suffering now from depression after applications. I was only able to afford applying to 5 universities (GRE test + TOEFL iBT test + sending both exams scores + 5 application fees with some being raised higher for international applicants for evaluating their certificates). I had to take money from my mother, & my mother is very angry at me & stressing me out. I also find in all your signatures that most of you have applied to 10-15 universities, & I applied to 5, 'cause I couldn't afford more, so I feel so lame & disheartened, & I feel like I have risked one year of my life (studying TOEFL & GRE) & 20,000 Egyptian Pounds (which is an unbelievable financial amount) in nothing!

Admission committees in North America, for the sake of fairness between all applicants, should not give much weight for LOR's submitted by international applicants. This is very obvious, because there's a huge difference between professors submitting LORs in North America & those in other countries (or at least here in Egypt). It's obvious that submitting LORs is part of a professor's job in North America, but it's not here. So a professor here doesn't give importance, & more so, consider it an unnecessary burden, to prepare a LOR for a student, however good that student is. They don't even know how to write in a LOR in our Arabic language, let alone in English. One professor, who really likes me, asked me to sit beside him at his laptop and do the recommendation submissions for him (for my own applications) because he's not used to them & he doesn't know how to do them. Another professor, whose also not used to them, let her secretary finish them with me, but it she was fed up with me because we had to log on to 5 applications. I had to go to that professor everyday for a whole week, & take days off from work, that at the end of the week I broke out & cried from stress!

I realize that the money must be also burdensome for many Americans and Canadians as well. I also realize that all universities are funded by governments and businesses, so they only serve the interests of those elites. I realize that a lot of things in the world are unfair, & that's what made me grow interested in political science from my undergraduate studies. I hope that I can do something to make life better for disadvantaged people all over the world - which I believe is the majority of the world population -, & I know this sounds dreamy & idealistic, but I think this is what drives us really to learn & study more, hoping that one day, with our knowledge, we may improve peoples' lives.

[TakeruK]

If it makes you feel better, I only applied to 7 schools in the US and one Canadian school (no GREs etc for domestic students). So five schools is a fine number. Sure, some people apply to a lot more but if you are limited by money or professor's time, then you can put way more effort into each application than others who apply to more. I'll be honest---admissions can be very competitive and be based on luck so a good student with 5 applications may not get in anywhere. But at the same time, you only need one offer and a student that applies to 15 places and get into 4 places isn't that much better off than a student that has one acceptance out of five.

In total, it cost me about 1500 CAD for everything. There was no GRE test centre where I lived so I had to travel to another city and pay for a motel for my Subject GRE. For my General GRE, I was able to stay at a friend's place. But I still had to pay the travel costs and basically take 2 days off for each test. Google says 1500 CAD is about the same as what you spent. At that time in my life, 1500 CAD was not a small amount of money. It was 2 months of rent for me. I don't know how much of a burden your cost was and I hope it wasn't too much. I do want to point out that many North American schools do waive application fees for students from certain countries determined to be developing countries. I do not know if Egypt qualifies, but often you have to ask for the waiver, it isn't automatic. Maybe even now you can ask and get it refunded? Or if you apply again in future years, definitely ask about it.

I do want to reassure you again that yes, good admissions committees do take into account the circumstances of the student when evaluating them. For example, at my old school, I know that professors value research experience but also factor in the student's ability to get research experience. So, if you are an American student at a small school with no graduate program and have zero or very limited research experience, that won't really be considered a mark against you. However, if you are an American student at a top US school with tons of research opportunities but you weren't interested in them, that would raise questions. That said, there are circumstances that could mitigate this too, such as having to work in the summers to support your family. So these adjustments / different approaches to evaluation do happen, for all students.

In my opinion, grad admissions committees are looking for signs of excellence when they are making decisions. There is often a huge list of things they ask for and things to be evaluated on: GPA, GRE, essays, letters, experience, CV, personal history, etc. However, these are all different ways to answer the question, "What makes the applicant excellent and would help them thrive in our program?". Some people think the application is supposed to excel in all of these categories. They wonder what are the minimum scores, what should go in a LOR etc. But I think this is the wrong approach. Grad admissions is holistic and the committee reviews the entire package for excellence. Due to personal circumstances, a student may not have had chances to excel in some areas but they can still show excellence in other areas and that's what the committee wants. An example: my GRE and GPA wasn't that great but I had a very strong research history and my professors said that's what impressed them the most and helped me get admission. My good friend in the same program had zero research experience but an almost perfect GPA through 5 years of undergrad and that's what got him in. I think he is the only student I know through a 10 year history of students in my PhD program that got in with zero research experience. This is why no one can say "minimum GPA is X" or you need Z papers/research experiences etc. Even average number doesn't help because these metrics are considered independently.

Anyways, I hope this information is helpful to know. Best of luck in the application season!

[rising_star]

I know it's just another anecdote but I had two admissions cycles (MA and PhD). For the first, I applied to six programs. I can't remember the out of pocket expenses (it was 10 years ago!) but I do remember working extra hours at my part-time job to help cover the expenses. For the second cycle, I worked a part-time job off-campus in addition to holding a 18 hour a week graduate assistantship on campus. There just wasn't quite enough money from the GA to pay for app fees, sending transcripts, etc. (I didn't retake the GRE, which helped). Now my rent during my MA was really cheap (~$350/month) and I applied to either 7 or 8 programs, so the app fees alone would've been a few months of rent. Had I not taken on a second job that paid a bit above minimum wage, I would've been choosing between food or doing an application. (I also did other things to cut expenses, like taking advantage of the free bus service with my student ID instead of driving to save on fuel, only going out with folks during happy hour and drinking the $1 specials almost exclusively, etc.). It kinda sucked but it was what had to be done. 

Also, in hindsight, I applied to too many programs both times. There's at least two MA programs I shouldn't have applied to. For PhD, I'd say there were three I probably shouldn't have applied to. That became crystal clear after I'd applied, either through further talking to current grad students or through in person visits. Oh well. Sometimes you have to live and learn, I guess. My point was that it puts me at the number of apps you actually did @nushi.

[nushi]

Thank you so much Takeruk & Rising_star for your supporting posts.

Even though I finished 5 applications to universities in the US, I'm still searching now for other open scholarships & PhD vacancies in Europe to open up more chances (although many require a PhD plan which I didn't get the chance to prepare yet, because I was studying GRE!).

Reading how you traveled to take tests, & took part-time jobs & all that, makes my efforts seem small. The process of applications seem very tiring & financially burdensome indeed also for local citizens. I guess the only difference between us is the norm or culture around us. For you, this is the ordinary procedures to be taken for applying to post-graduate studies. All students around you wanting to complete their studies do the same. But for me here, I'm an anomaly. Everyone around me just apply to the same university they graduated from (which requires no more than registration & signing some papers - Egyptian universities require no tests,  no LORs, no essays, & tuition fees are very low). I'm the only one around who just decided to continue studying abroad, despite the huge risks, & having no previous experience in doing this. So, despite my family's objection, & no support from co-workers, I'm taking the path less traveled by people around me here, & I'm taking it all alone!

But I'm thankful for the internet, & this forum, they helped me a lot in the process of studying for the tests & doing the applications. If I get accepted into one, it still remains to be seen how I'm going to be able to live all alone in a foreign country doing PhD. But it's an adventure worth experiencing & learning.

[nushi]

I forgot to mention also, thank you very much Takeruk for your explanation on the difference in importance of each element of the application, & its evaluation as a totality. This makes sense a lot, & it's a very valuable explanation. Thank you so much.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@nushi If it makes you feel better, although I'm not moving to another country, I will be moving to a new state (never lived outside of my current state and only very briefly outside of my current city). Based on previous experiences, I'm probably gonna go through culture shock. Also, I have a history of forgetting to feed myself so I'm worried about living in a new state with no family around, all the normal problems that shift causes, plus starting grad school, plus trying to remember to feed myself.

In short, we're all in this together! *hugs* 

[rising_star]

3 hours ago, nushi said:

Even though I finished 5 applications to universities in the US, I'm still searching now for other open scholarships & PhD vacancies in Europe to open up more chances (although many require a PhD plan which I didn't get the chance to prepare yet, because I was studying GRE!).

Some opportunities may not require a full research plan, just FYI. That's more common when a professor already has funding (e.g., ESRC funding) and is seeking a RA to work on that project. If you aren't already, subscribe to the major disciplinary email lists in your field as that's where many such announcements are made.

[nushi]

Thank you Green_eyed_trombonist. I hope everything goes well with you. For me, it's going to be the difficulty of adapting to an absolutely different culture half-way across planet Earth. Hope it may be a great adventure for us all, *hugs*

8 hours ago, rising_star said:

Some opportunities may not require a full research plan, just FYI. That's more common when a professor already has funding (e.g., ESRC funding) and is seeking a RA to work on that project. If you aren't already, subscribe to the major disciplinary email lists in your field as that's where many such announcements are made.

That's very interesting Rising_star. Where can I find those email lists? Or do you mean email lists of universities?

[rising_star]

6 hours ago, nushi said:

That's very interesting Rising_star. Where can I find those email lists? Or do you mean email lists of universities?

Start with the major academic associations in your field (American, British, and European) and go from there. Both the US and the UK have sociological associations, for example. Join their email list (which often doesn't require joining the association) and keep an eye out for opportunities. Similarly, there may be topic-area specific ones (e.g., one for folks who study apples, one for folks who study oranges, etc.). I can't tell you exactly where to find them because I don't know what you study*. Good luck!

*And, to be honest, even if I did know, I probably would still tell you to find this info on your own as it's an important part of discovering your discipline and topic area. Because my work is interdisciplinary, I'm on probably 10 academic email lists.

[TakeruK]

One example of what @rising_star mentioned for my field: The American Astronomical Society hosts a job register (https://jobregister.aas.org/).

You don't need to be a member to see it since it's all online. Also note that the American society hosts the list but they accept job ads from everywhere. So astro students interested in jobs in Europe, for example, will find listings there too (but still, it's US-dominated). From this list you'll see some cultural differences, e.g. European schools will post job ads for PhD students because those positions are more like jobs in the EU, but you won't see that from Canada/US schools on this list.

In order to get access to the AAS email lists though, you do need to be a member. But see if you can find something similar for your field(s). Hope the example helps.

(P.S. Also, other places to get information, in my field, is Twitter, the "Astronomers" Facebook group, the "Young Scientists for Planetary Exploration" Facebook group, and various other Facebook groups for professionals in a specific field. Try doing a search for your areas and see what's there!)

[nushi]

Thank you Rising_star & Takeruk. Yeah, I know about similar groups in my field, but I hadn't got the idea of subscribing to their email lists to get PhD vacancies & such. Thanks for getting the idea into me