Three Degrees: Battling Imposter Syndrome

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For many graduate students, the biggest barrier to academic success isn’t the coursework—it’s the nagging sense that they don’t belong. According to the International Honor Society in Psychology, imposter syndrome is defined as “a psychological phenomenon in which an individual feels that their accomplishments or successes were not achieved by merit but instead achieved through chance or luck.”

In this episode of Three Degrees,Towson University graduate students share their struggles with imposter syndrome and the unique ways they overcame it to achieve academic success.

Early struggles in STEM

For Hailey, a biology master’s student, feelings of self-doubt began in middle school. “We took this sort of aptitude test where if you got a certain score, you would get placed in higher-level biology,” she recalled. “I didn’t score high enough, but I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

When her teacher refused to let her join the advanced class, Hailey went directly to her high school counselor, who allowed her to enroll. Once in the class, though, her imposter syndrome really began to assert itself. “By the time my senior year rolled around and it was AP biology, I still felt like I didn’t really have a place there,” she said.

Those insecurities carried into Hailey’s undergraduate experience, where she often felt overshadowed by engineering and science majors. Her experience is unfortunately not uncommon. A study conducted by the International Honor Society in Psychology revealed that STEM majors and women experience more imposter syndrome than non-STEM majors and men, and in fact, female STEM majors reported the highest average imposter syndrome score when compared to all other groups.

Finding Confidence Through Real-World Experience

Imposter syndrome. It'll get quieter if you let it. And you have to surround yourself with people that are going through the same thing that can relate to you.

Hailey

A gap year working in environmental education helped Hailey regain her confidence. “I felt like, yeah, I do have a place in the space of conservation and,” she said. At Towson, her research on the microbiome of northern map turtles reaffirmed that sense of belonging.

These days, she feels better equipped to manage self-doubt. “Imposter syndrome—it’ll get quieter if you let it,” she advised. “You need to be open about it and you need to recognize, like you are in the position, like you are in grad school for a reason.”

A Psychology Internship Triggers Self-Doubt

It's so hard to do it by yourself in thinking like I'm alone in this feeling, but you don't have to sit with it by yourself, and you're not alone in this feeling.

Ash

For Ash, a psychology graduate student, imposter syndrome hit during an internship when they were counseling real clients. “My first session with my client was talking about just major depressive disorder, where they can't get up, they can't eat. They feel like they're nothing,” they recalled.  “So in that space, I just felt like, God, and I'm supposed to do something about this?”

Ash was far from alone in their experience. A quick Google search will bring up dozens of articles geared toward helping therapists overcome imposter syndrome during conversations with clients. And after struggling through some sessions while suffering from imposter syndrome. Ash realized that connection with other people was the key to managing those feelings. “It’s so hard to do it by yourself, thinking ‘I’m alone in this feeling,’” they said, “but you don't have to sit with it by yourself, and you're not alone in this feeling. Talking about it…that's how you can fight it.”

Creativity and Imposter Syndrome

The creative industry is a hotbed for imposter syndrome. People like Viola Davis, Maya Angelou, Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep have all spoken openly about their struggles with it - and it makes sense. Whether you're auditioning for a role, sending a demo album to a record label, or submitting your work for publication, criticism and rejection are baked into the process. For Liz, a student in the professional writing program, feelings of inadequacy related to her creative work began to surface as she started to focus seriously on her writing.

“I had an experience once when I first started writing poetry. I think I was in my early 20s, and I showed it to my older brother and he was like, “you're writing about these super serious things and I can't take you seriously because you're my little sister”…it kind of fed into those insecurities that were already there, and so it took me a long time to trust other people with my work.”

Even as her confidence grew, self-doubt never fully disappeared. “There’s the fear of failure, but also the fear of success,” Liz explained. “When I do succeed, what if I can’t maintain that?”

Liz has since grown into her identity as a writer and even learned to call herself a poet. “Anytime I run into perfectionism, I remind myself—I’m not trying to write something perfect. I’m trying to write something true,” she said. Her advice to other creatives struggling with imposter syndrome is simple: “Find the small things that you like in your work, the little instances that you're really proud of,” she said. “I know that the more that I write, the more that I practice, I feel the confidence growing in what I'm doing.”

Anytime I run into perfectionism, I remind myself—I’m not trying to write something perfect. I’m trying to write something true.

Liz

Coping With Imposter Syndrome

Despite different fields and backgrounds, all three students agreed that imposter syndrome is best addressed by naming it, talking about it, and finding support.

Hailey emphasized the importance of community: “you have to surround yourself with people that are going through the same thing that can relate to you,” she said. “You need to have your circle.”

Ash encouraged students to trust themselves. “Nobody said that I can’t do this,” they said. “The only person saying that is me—or that part of me that is the imposter syndrome. And of course, it's saying, “I can't do this.” That's this whole job, right?”

And Liz suggested small steps toward self-recognition. “What I'm getting in my head about not being good enough, I'll be like, “well, here are some of your successes,” she said.  “You can't keep moving the goalpost.”

For Towson graduate students—and students everywhere—those words may serve as a reminder that imposter syndrome doesn’t have to limit success.

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This summary narrative of a TU original podcast titled "Three Degrees" was created with assistance from artificial intelligence.