PhD Admissions Importance: Research vs. Grades I have read and been told that research is the single most important factor for applying for PhD programs in STEM fields. But, I also hear that GPA and GRE scores are the first cutting point for adcoms.

What is actually more important, grades or research? Will committees look at applicants with low GPAs?

In my scenario, I have a ~3.4 GPA overall, ~3.7 in Major (CS). This is not stellar. But what I do have is 1 first-author conference publication (Best Paper Award at conference) and 1 first-author journal publication as a Junior, with more other work/papers in progress. And my GREs are 158V/170Q/4.5W.

I'm very interested in top schools, but I'm worried my GPA will hold me back.

Will admissions throw away my application at sight of my GPA? Or will they take the time to review my whole application?

Graduate admissions committees should, in principle, be able to review all of the applications they receive in full; this is not like undergraduate admissions, where a small team may be responsible for 10,000 or 20,000 applications. That said, some of the larger graduate departments may receive several hundred applications per year, and it may be necessary to do a preliminary screening before deciding which applications will be examined in further detail. However, what gets through such a screen can vary strongly from school to school and department to department. For instance, if you're at a school whose alumni regularly go on to graduate schools and have a track record of success, that can also be a "plus" factor. If you're near the top of your class, that can also mitigate "weak" grades somewhat (because it indicates that your school resists grade inflation).

I would hope that graduate admissions flag applications with publications listed, but it depends on whether or not the database reports that summarize applications actually can do a screen for the presence of publications.

Your specific case, however, is unfortunately in the "no man's land"—not a clear "read no matter what," but also not an automatic "throw away," either. It is probable that you will have a tough time if you look only at "top 5" or "top 10" departments, but you should be able to get considered by many good programs.


Sharing research results in platforms that may soon disappear The recent open science/source/access movement has put pressure in publishing not only in open access journals, but also in sharing raw data/figures/etc.

That being said, given the volatility of our current sharing platforms, how can that be done successfully in a way that will last for a significant amount of time and not die out with obsolete technology?

For instance, some people suggest (for instance, [1,2]) sharing and uploading data to ResearchGate, figshare and other platforms, run by companies that are likely to go bankrupt, disappear, be outcompeted or become obsolete in the near future.

If we dig a little deeper, the recent boom in open access journals is also likely to die soon and it is possible that only a few publishers will survive. What happens with the published papers that die with the publishers?

What about the software to read the published data/research notes? How can we guarantee that data will be readable a few years in the future?

Is there a way to publish data/papers that is not subject to the uncertainty of time, making it time-resistance, in some way?

[1] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6308/142
[2] https://gsnmunich.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/how-to-legally-re-use-your-own-figures/

You could publish the papers and raw-data on the platforms available now, but also store both yourself. Then you could re-upload when platforms change in the future.


Is there a website that lists the journals that are actually scams? I constantly receive emails from editors asking me to submit papers for their journals.

However, only a handful of them originate from a trustworthy source. The vast majority are just scams — journals with no reputation at all, willing to publish an(y) article for a fee.

My biggest problem with that is that I lost one or two real good opportunities to publish because I dismissed the email, thinking it was a scam.

Is there a list that I can use to easily check the reputation of a journal, in order to avoid this to happen?

There used to be one, called Beall's list, which listed predatory journals. The author however took it offline, apparently partly because of legal threats. If you search online you will be able to find archived copies of the list, but as far as I know these are not updated any more. You can read about it here for example.


Not enough guidance from advisor I'm a third year PhD student. I'm not getting much guidance from my adviser. We only meet once a month, and he keeps giving the same general advice. As a consequence of that, we have had to cancel one project since I have no motivation at all for that project.

Now having the new project, things are getting the same. I'm worried about my progress as some of my lab mates are about to graduate. What should I do? I realized my responsibility in driving the project by myself, but most of the time my idea are discarded. Recently when I showed my result, he claims that's garbage without any reasons. What should I do? I'm really thinking of dropping out if situation is not getting better.

"we have had to cancel one project since I have no motivation at all for that project". What exactly is the relation between having a meeting once a month and not being motivated? This to me sounds more like an excuse rather than a good enough reason.

In the third year of your Phd having one meeting a month is not too bad. Your supervisor is assuming that you know your way and at this stage you should be left to figure it out yourself rather than him spoon feeding you. Of course he will still have strong opinions and might say what you have done is not the right way. It might be that he is busy/not happy with you/thinks he has mentioned to you before how you should do it and you are not listening or that you have a problem in your relation that you don't even know of. If for instance you are just not motivated the way you described its not unnatural for your supervisor to not be so happy with you.

Next time you meet him once he rejects your idea ask him for suggestions and guidance on what to do. Ask politely and genuinely, and if he is not forth coming explain that you need help to figure it out. If he says your results are garbage ask him given his freaking awesome powers and knowledge how he would have done the work differently. He is only human and sometimes complementing somebody can go a long way. At all costs try to be more motivated and don't exhibit the behavior you described in the first part of your message. That's not going to do you any good and might be the root cause of all of this pain.

I don't see why you should drop out after investing so much time and effort. It is in the interest of both of you to sort out the situation and no PhD advisor would like to see someone dropping out after three years (at least for their selfish interests).


Is there a comprehensive system for identifying course objectives? When planning my courses, I usually try to establish a variety of objectives, beyond the primary objective described in the course description, and layer many minor objectives into the lessons. Courses for freshmen tend to have more objectives, as they are often learning about the requirements of being a student at college.

As an example, in a course called "History of New Orleans", I would focus on these objectives:

content (e.g. know major events in New Orleans' history)
cultural understanding (e.g. develop affinity/understanding of the perspective of different peoples in New Orleans)
vocabulary (e.g. academic meta-vocabulary, terms specific to the content)
research skills (e.g. assessing bias in sources, writing a works cited)
practice with technological tools to assist (e.g. software for accessing historical records)
group work skills (e.g. effectively combining work)
academic behavior (e.g. learn that plagiarism is not welcome in college)

I have seen tools such as Bloom's Taxonomy, however, that seems too narrowly focused on the course topic and does not seem to broadly cover many of the skills I've listed above. I want to find some table/system/taxonomy to help me to identify and organize the objectives.

Is there a system to assist course instructors in selecting course objectives?

Perhaps the closest thing to a system would be the objectives that were developed for the full curriculum?

An example from my area. In biology, a recent call encourages universities to be less focused on subdisciplines and more on core concepts and competencies. After many meetings, biologists settled on these:

Core concepts: evolution, structure and function, information flow, energy pathways, systems.

Competencies: application of the scientific method, quantitative reasoning, modeling and simulation, interdisciplinary connections, effective communication.

If I were writing out my learning objectives for the lecture on photosynthesis, I might list that photosynthesis fits into structure/function and energy pathways core concepts, and I would be motivated to include a discussion of a classic experiment so students can practice the scientific method and some calculations for students to apply quantitative reasoning.

I would imagine that history (or any other discipline) likely has a similar  list of important concepts plus important skills they want their students to have.


What to do if cited papers are not freely available while reviewing a manuscript? Recently I was reviewing a manuscript. I found that few cited papers of this manuscript are not freely available to my institute. So what should I do? Should I ask those papers to the editor?

Reviewing a manuscript does not mean you have to know or have read all the literature cited. In some cases, however, you can be unsure of a statement or a method used and need to consult the original source.

You have multiple options here:

1-Try to access the article on the web. The OA button can help you here, but there's many other way, some less legal.

2- Contact the authors of the article you want to obtain and ask for a PDF copy. Academians used to send each others postcard to access articles! A demand by email is most often met by a yes.

3- In your reviewer report, write something along these lines:

  The authors cite Smith et al 2005 in line 105 to support this statement. I have no access to this article and I can't confirm that this statement is correct.

There's probably some other possible actions here. Unless the article you want to access is from the journal for which you are reviewing, I wouldn't bother to contact the editor.


Should my citation style exactly match the original title? In my field a number of different styles are used in titles.

Many publications present scientific names in italics, such as this one. Others do not italicise scientific names, such as this one.

Some publications are in uppercase, such as these, while most others are in lowercase.

When citing, should I follow the original style exactly, i.e., use capitals and italics whereever they were used in the original? Or should I adapt citations to my own consistent style?

All-caps are just a typographical decoration or emphasis of the whole title. You do not need to keep them for the same reason you do not need to use the same font and font size (as used for the original paper title) when citing. Something similar holds for title case (i.e., capitalising the first letter of all words except of, the an similar) – it’s just a typographical choice and does not affect the content.

Italics (unless they apply to the whole title) on the other hand serve some non-decorative purpose. In your examples, they allow you to directly see where a potentially complicated species name starts and ends. In other cases they may signal that a word is standing for the word itself, such as:

  On the evolution of the in Old English

In those cases, keeping the italics may really ease reading and thus I would personally opt for it in general. Keep in mind that the italics of italics are upright if you choose to italicise titles in general in your style, and you would e.g. get¹:

  Aaron A. Aaronson, On the evolution of the in Old English, Journal of Definite Articles (2015)

Finally note that you may have no choice regarding this anyway, as your supervisor or the journal you are submitting to prescribe some citation style.

¹ LaTeX does this for you automatically if you use \emph instead of \textit or similar to italicise.


Page breaking in undergraduate thesis I am an undergraduate senior. I wonder why people keep doing page breaking in their thesis, like one diagram for one page. Is that for the page count? or just because they have to? Also, I wonder if it is a good thing to do in my thesis.

thanks.

A reason for some is because LaTeX will do this.
If you have Floating figures, and the layout engine can not work out a good way to place them, as to balancing the amount of whitespace, and other rules for an "good looking document" (eg No Figures on First Page is a rule for IEEE transactions) it will shunt them to the end.

The rules LaTeX uses to define what is a "good looking document" can (and often should) be adjusted. See for example this, where the rules for the various fractions of text etc to figure are adjusted.
Positioning can also be forced some, eg with !.

A lot of detail into how LaTeX placed figures can be found in this TeX.SE question.

Obviously this only applist if the thesis was prepared in LaTeX (or some other system with automated rule based layout, that prefers figure only pages to squeezing a figure in to a page badly).

In other cases, it could be because the page was inserted from the output of another program. Eg a simulator output printed to PDF, merged in. Or a scanned hand drawn diagram inserted as a full page image. This is not a good or attractive why to do things, but it is fast/convenient.

In general, as a undergraduate thesis is not heavily judged on its appearance, its often not worth the time to do better. I know when I was writing mine, I had 3 final year (and thus difficult/timeconsuming) coursework/project based units to do at the same time. I had better things to do, like ensure the wording was clear, and I didn't exceed the word-count. Placing figures well is hard, I was satisfied once I got FloatBarriers working, to stop the figures from floating all the way to the end -- FloatBarriers can be used to force figures not to be shunted beyond the current section (etc).

The undergrad thesis will likely be the first serious academic writing of that form they have done, and writing it comes at the end of the hardest work they have done, during or just before their final exams. Don't hold any up as perfection in method to judge yours by.

There is a quote (I believe from someone on this site) which basically said:
"Your PhD thesis will be the worst academic writing you have ever done; because anything written after will be better as you will now be more experienced."
This goes double for an undergrad thesis.


What do universities usually do with a student's graded final exams? Personally I do not recall ever having seen any of my final exams I have taken during my undergrad (except in my nightmares). Midterms, quizzes and homeworks are usually returned to the students before the final exam, but I am really curious as to what happens to the final exams after they have been graded.

Are the exams hauled off to a secret storage facility for keepsake? Are they photocopied and kept as a student's permanent confidential academic record (unbeknownst to the student)? Are the exams hastily moved to a recycling facility and turned into fodder for new exams?

If I were to request a copy of my final exam from undergrad (say after one year), what are the chances that the school will still have a copy?

Can someone (administrator/professors) shed a light on the secret life of a final exam?

Speaking as a professor, I typically hold on to them for a year or so just in case any student wishes to see them. That said, I can remember this happening only once in about 5000 students taught.

When I was in college, we had the option of providing self-addressed stamped envelopes in which our final exams could be returned to us. Over half of the students availed themselves of this option.

I do not believe that my university has any formal policy, though they could have one that I am unaware of. It would seem foolish for a professor to get rid of the exams before the students have had an opportunity to see their grades and respond if something seems out of line.


To which department code should I send my TOEFL score? I'm thinking about applying for some US physics graduate programs. In the graduate admission procedure about where to send the TOEFL scores, I've often read the sentence "use the institution code ****, department code is not needed." However, the ETS website forces me to choose a department code. Now there seem to be two possible choices: there's the department code 76(physics), and there's the code 99 for "other subjects not in the list". The latter might at first seem ridiculous, but I found some schools explicitly demand department code to be chosen as 99. So for the schools that do not make such explicit statement, which code should I choose? Does it matter at all?

As far as each department or university has it's own code for English tests such as IELTS or TOEFL; it is better to visit the admissions web pages of the universities or schools you are going to apply. If you do not find the code you are looking for, directly contact the admissions department to ask for their reference code for the tests. Besides, some codes of the institutes may be published on the website of each test (but the contacting the school is more sure in my opinion).

As a general rule in my academic life, the only sure source for such information is the website, help desk or contact person of the institute you are applying to. Asking these questions here or from your friends generally do not help you because they may not be sure about the piece of information they are giving and you may face difficulties for the wrong directions. So, always stick to the source of information you need to boost your progress up and avoid difficulties.


Revealing manuscript referees' identities after review: Why is this a bad idea? Motivated by the How can an author get assurance that his work will not be stolen by journal staff or reviewers? question:

Authors submit their manuscripts to be reviewed by a journal or conference. Unless the submission is double-blind, the authors' names are listed on the submission, so the referees know who the authors are. Anonymizing referees during a review makes sense, since, for example, you don't want the authors contacting the referees while they are performing the review of the manuscript. But what about after the review has taken place?

  Why don't journals and conferences make available to authors the names
  of the referees who have reviewed the manuscript?

It really makes no sense to me.

Other questions on this site related to the present question:

What to do if a referee plagiarises the result after rejecting a paper?

Are the referees of a journal allowed to reveal the title of the papers they review after the review process?

(And there seem to be many more related questions...)

One common gripe in related questions seems to be the worry that referees can "steal" ideas presented in manuscripts. (I've personally not worried about this at all in my previous submissions.) A possible tactic to thwart "idea-stealing" is to post the manuscript on a pre-print server (e.g., arXiv); however, not all fields/sub-fields think it is kosher to do this.

Thus, given that the "post-manuscript-on-arXiv" solution is not applicable to everyone, this question seeks to determine what are the main, logical reasons why referees' identities are not revealed to authors post-manuscript review.

Note that I can see pros and cons of optionally permitting reviewers to disclose their identity, or even making peer review completely transparent. But the following focuses on the problems of disclosing reviewer identity after a decision has been made about the manuscript.

It creates a conflict of interest for the reviewer.
There is an incentive to provide a more positive review. For example, there is the possibility that the author may be more positively disposed to the reviewer in the future, if the reviewer provides a positive review. Also, the reviewer may not want to damage an existing relationship.

There is little difference between perceived conflict of interest and an actual conflict of interest. Thus, even if the reviewers are not influenced by this disclosure, others evaluating the integrity of the publication may perceive a problem.

It can create more work for the reviewer. If a reviewer knows their identity will be disclosed, they may have to spend more time being tactful. It's hard enough getting reviewers, if the workload of every review increases because the reviewer has to spend more time being tactful or worrying about the consequences of their review on their reputation, then this may make it even harder to find reviewers.


Easy (funded PhD) vs Hard Path (Unfunded MS) Notes:

I want to do PhD
I understand that ranking doesn't say much and that the professor and the research is what is
important
AOI - Area of Interest
This question is not personal nor opinionated and can be useful to a variety of students stuck in a similar or comparable decision point.

Due to having a low UGPA (2.8), I applied to MS programs (USA) in BME (neuroengineering) in hopes of boosting myself to a PhD program that does research in my exact AOI (Unis - stanford, jhu, rice, harvard). Luckily during my application, a professor that I talked with asked me to switch to PhD since he was interested in my profile. At the end I got an offer from the university for PhD and fully funded (note that this university is ranked >150 in usnews). The only issue with this PhD opportunity is that the advisor is new (though decently connected) and does not have translational research.

Now I have also got a MS offer from a top 50 university, not funded and private (so I need a loan). Now my question is this- should I take the easy, financial free option which does research in my AOI but doesn't have much prestige and enough funding to do translational research. Or should I take the hard path and go into that competitive university (top 50), secure a high GPA and do good research to get recommendations from leaders in the field; but this option will be tough and will either be successful or will lead to failure. While the former will lead to success but will be at a much lower level when compared to the success that I get from PhD after masters.

You said that the funded PhD offer matches your field of interest. To me this already looks like a clear win over the unfunded Masters degree.

The only point that could direct you towards the Masters is funding. So question 1: How necessary is significant grant funding for the research in your AOI? Question 2: How much funding does the advisor at the PhD institution have? Does he already have what is needed for your PhD research or is it more like, we will apply for a grant to get money for your research? I don't know neuroengineering but for example in maths, once your salary is guaranteed, further funding is mostly irrelevant. If you find that doing a good PhD at the lower rank institution requires some success/ luck with getting funding this might tip the scales towards the higher ranked institution. But note that funding is not guaranteed there either.


Is it possible to be an intellectual/do research without the internet? I've been studying linguistics for over a decade now. I've never taken a class, because there are no local colleges that offer a degree in linguistics. I didn't really care though, because I was able to find all I wanted online anyway. I could even talk to other people interested in linguistics.

However, the internet as of late has become increasingly useless. Boards are overrun with trolls which prevents any kind of sensible discussion, the web is filled with fake news and false information, and the number of sites seems to be decreasing. I keep coming up with things I want to research, but have no way to find the answer. If I ask anywhere, my thread just gets overrun with trolls that completely derail the discussion (and that includes this site, I regularly delete my profiles shortly after making them because I simply lose faith that I can ever get anything on having an account on this site).

I've tried to look up actual books, but linguistic books are quite expensive it turns out. And despite having over a dozen libraries in my home town, there's hardly any books in them that talk about linguistics.

I also had a problem doing any kind of research in a research class I just took. I only had a handful of websites I could really find reliable information on (one of them being pew research, which ended up being the one I went to 90% of the time). Its just impossible it seems to find anything that isn't overloaded with fake information, especially when it comes to anything even remotely political.

What I hate about this, is that I liked that I could be a linguist without spending thousands of dollars on a degree. Now it seems, that doing that simply isn't possible. And worse yet, I have no other way to learn about linguistics. I can't afford the books (and I'm not even 100% sure what I should be looking for, the only linguistic book I've ever really heard about was 'The World's Writing Systems by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright'), and there's no college anywhere near me that teaches it. If I can't find information on linguistics online, I just can't go anywhere else. And yes, I've looked on Project Gutenberg, but it only has two books, one of which was published in the 1880s, and the other in the 30s, by a guy that I know isn't 100% reliable (Edward Sapir, if you care).

It feels like I can't be an intellectual anymore. Without the internet, I would just be yet another back-woods hick that didn't know anything about anything. Its solely thanks to the internet that I know anything at all. Without out, I'm lost. I don't know where else I can turn to continue my studies. It seems that I'm destined to become what I would've been without the internet, just another uneducated local living in a pathetic back-water where there really isn't anything of significance. I don't know what I can do to avoid this...

edit: Just because I seem to having people telling me about European Universities: I don't live in Europe, I live in the US.

You aren't taking proper advantage of your local libraries. Most have access to interlibrary loan through which you can obtain just about any book that exists. Talk to your librarian about your needs.

Academic libraries are best for this, of course, as the librarians are trained in the needs of academics. But even my local town library can get just about anything I require. At the town library you may need to know the actual titles you want to read. At an academic library, a research librarian can actually guide you fairly deeply into topics of interest. Perhaps not to the research edge of the known universe, but part way there, at least.

But if you have internet access, then I've found that wikipedia is a pretty good source for academic subjects, though not for popular culture, perhaps. In particular, most academic articles will have a references/bibliography section at the bottom that can point you to books and articles that might be worth exploring.

Be a bit cautious, though, even with wikipedia. I've occasionally found weird statements about mathematics there. But if it seems weird, it may actually be trolls at work. Normally, however, such things get cleaned up quickly (hours).


Applied math PhD programs - no. of courses to counterbalance low GPA? I’m about to turn 38 and after much research and consideration I have decided that I need to return to school. My goal is to apply to applied math PhD programs and work in industry, ideally working on problems in computational science or fluid dynamics.

My major (economics and math) GPA from a good public school was around 3.03 and my GPA for my math courses fell at 2.88. Previously I experienced some very serious issues in my life that played its role in this (not an excuse but just an unfortunate fact at the time).

I’ve reached out to some professors about my background and have been told that my GPA, though not considered the sole factor in determining admission, is a problem. I plan on applying to and enrolling in a post baccalaureate program at an Ivy league college near my home and plan on sitting for the math GRE subject test but I feel like I need to take more courses than I can afford to even be considered for such programs (the courses for the post bac. program are around $6K each).

I’m prepared to use a good bit of my life savings and working part time to fund this but I would like to learn how I can get a better sense of how many more courses I should take to counterbalance my low GPA.  Would graduate committees be open to giving an unofficial assessment of my background before applying? I don’t plan on applying to the elite schools because I feel that my GPA would knock me out regardless.

Some background on me:

Since graduating I’ve had varied work experience such as working as a math tutor to working in finance in the last 10 years. I also have a good bit of experience programming and have furthered my education to some extent for what it's worth: passed an online specialization course in R programming that spanned roughly 9 months, picked up a number of financial licenses, and even passed an actuarial exam when I was considering that route.

I do have course work in calculus, econometrics, ODEs, linear algebra, and an intro to analysis course.

Any thoughts/insights are definitely much appreciated.

I would be surprised if the admissions committee paid that much attention to a number determined so many years ago. First of all the math GRE is extremely difficult and demanding, and if you do well on it people would notice. I would say if a professor looks at your GPA and has some concerns and then turns to your math GRE and sees that you scored 65%, 70%, etc. their fears will be quickly allayed and forgotten. Probably a GPA above 3 would be good but a few recent courses in senior level or beginning graduate level mathematics with an A-B in all of them together with a letter of recommendation from one of the professors who taught the class would be much more influential. There are so many factors that the admissions committee has to balance when trying to decide if a person is cut out for research, it would be silly for them to focus unduly on one thing like GPA.

My one suggestion is that when you mentioned your coursework you mentioned mostly applied courses. The admissions team will likely be composed of analysts, but also algebraists, topologists, logicians, etc. It would not hurt to flesh out your resume with some proof based courses: an introduction to abstract algebra, an advanced linear algebra class with proofs, going beyond intro analysis, things like that.


What does "awaiting reviewer selection" really mean under the "minor revision" scenario? I just submitted a revised paper to ScholarOne (minor revision). I suppose that in most cases (of minor revision), the revised manuscript will only be reviewed by the ADM or associate editor. However, I just noticed that the status of my revised manuscript is now "awaiting reviewer selection". Does this entail that the revised manuscript has to go back to the original reviewer for (final) re-review? Or, could it be that it is an automatic status message showing that the editor is now reading/evaluating my revised manuscript and that this does not necessary mean that the revised paper has to go back to the original reviewer? Thanks for your insight in advance.

Try to recollect how the statuses changed when you submitted the paper the first time.

Scenario 1: with editor/under editor evaluation >> awaiting reviewer selection >> under review
If this is how the status had changed the first time you submitted the paper, then chances are that your paper is actually being sent for a re-review.

Scenario 2: awaiting reviewer selection>> under review
If this was the way the status had changed, then it is possible that the online status tracking software uses the status "awaiting reviewer selection" to indicate that the paper is with the editor.


Supervisor keeps "showstopping" defense with nit-picky grammar errors My supervisor keeps on delaying and postponing my defense date, taking long periods of time between revisions (1 month of "revision" where the document is in his hands).  He has done this 2 times already, so I have been sitting here waiting for a total of 2 months now.  This last "revision" he sent it back to me with six or seven nitpicky grammar errors, (ie places I had left out words such as "the" or "when"), and the content-related comments he had were extremely trivial.

I feel like he keeps on showstopping my defense date due to nitpicky grammar errors, and it is impacting my career (obviously, my Master's degree now has 3 years on it, instead of the expected 2).  At this point I don't care about grammar errors (and I believe we must have found them all already) or clarity of expression or making perfectionist type improvements.  I feel really angry and I feel like writing a letter of complaint to my graduate program director.  Each term I have to stay bleeds more money out of my account, and the situation is making me really upset.

So far, I've been very polite and professional and have not "exploded".  I've hidden my emotions and my anger and not complained about what I feel is getting quite ridiculous.  Should I complain? Should I let him know how I feel?  Or should I just keep on going with it and "grin and bear" until it's over?

The things you call "nitpicky grammar errors" are often (in my experience) symptoms of a deeper problem:

that the student has stopped caring about raising the thesis to a suitably high standard, and has not grasped what "completed" means in the context. An unfinished thesis simply can't be marked.

First, get your own proof-reader, and get help in getting all of these problems fixed - your supervisor is too busy to be a proof-reader, and it's an inefficient use of limited supervisory time.

Why is the grammar sloppy?

For different students, the underlying cause will differ; some won't be writing in their native language; some are careless; some have weak language skills; some haven't grasped the importance of good grammar and spelling to clear communication and to academic publishing. I've no idea which of these is true in your case, or if it's something else - that's between you and your supervisor.

Whose problem is it anyway?

You don't care about your grammar errors. That is your problem, not your supervisor's. You are angry. Again, that's your problem. Trying to make it your supervisor's problem, will make an enemy of someone who you need on your side. You think your supervisor's comments on content are trivial, and that is also your problem, not your supervisor's problem.

And now this post has maybe made you angry too. And that would also be your problem, not my problem.

I say all this, because accepting that they are your problems, is the first step to fixing them.

Collaboration not conflict

The problem that I am trying to help you fix, is that your supervisor is telling you what you need to finish, and you seem to resent doing it.  Supervision has to be a collaborative partnership, not a battle. Now, in theory, it's your supervisor's job to make it such. However, in some cases, in academia as well as in the real world, you often need to manage your manager - and that can mean you taking responsibility for ensuring that it is is a collaborative relationship.

So, find out what incentivises your supervisor, and try to put those incentives in place. Is it publishing papers? Esteem within the department? Conference papers? Get your supervisor on your side.

The worst case

And (take a deep breath): sometimes, when a thesis is genuinely bad, it's not apparent at first. All one sees on the first couple of readings, are a few errors here, and a few errors there; but when they're corrected, new problems appear.

It gets to be like "Star Wars the Phantom Menace" - the East Coast of the US produced one homebrew re-edit of it, to fix some problems; the West Coast produced a different homebrew re-edit, to fix other problems; but in the end, both re-edits and the original are pretty awful films: fixing the most obvious problems just exposed other problems.

I really really hope that's not the case in your case; but as this answer will hopefully be read by many people in your shoes, then at some point, it will be true for one of them. And at that point, that person and their supervisor need to think about a radical rewrite, or walking away from it as a lost cause.

Where to go from here

But for almost all cases, it's just a matter of getting your supervisor onside, getting a definitive list of the problems, and then you doing what your supervisor says is required to fix them. With them, write a checklist, and then return the checklist to them, with a note next to each one, stating how and where you've fixed it, or how you're defending it.

And finally - this post will inevitably contain spelling and grammar errors - it's Muphry's law in action. But that doesn't invalidate the advice in any way. With language, context is everything. This post is not academic scholarship; your thesis is.


What should I write as affiliated institute? I have been accepted into college but have not yet started. The research I did was done before I was accepted into college. So should I add the college as the affiliated institute or not?

Your affiliation should be whatever institute you were located at when you did your research. Wherever you are at the time the research is presented is listed as "current affiliation" or "present address."

If you have not started or matriculated at an institution, you should not list it as either an actual affiliation or a present address.


Proper citation for industry resource Following on from my question here where I develop industry resources under the auspices of my company, I am wondering what would be a suggested citation format that I can include in the publication itself (on the copyright and disclaimer page). This would be a further claim on my authorship of these resources.

An example of a resource is "Ten Key Considerations when Terminating Employees". The resource is available in hardcopy and electronically. My company name and logo appear on the first page. My company can be considered the publisher of this resource.

I mostly refer to industry resources as technical reports, and as I use BibTeX, I use the @techreport citation for that. If they're simply websites, I use @misc. Many citation styles will produce different results in how the reference is formatted, but I can think of the following example (that combines both the report and website, but you could leave the website out if that's not wanted):

J. Baker, 2014. "Ten Key Considerations when Terminating Employees". Technical report of <Company Name>. From: http://website.com/, accessed <date>.

Instead of technical report it could also be 'whitepaper' or 'brochure' or any other type, if you want to specify this.


Return midterm exam paper or not I wonder how common for professors to return scored midterm papers to students when the final is not accumulative? I want to reuse some of the questions next year and also is not willing to spend about 10 minutes class time just for returning the papers (90 students).

In mathematics in the US, as far as I know, I have never known any professor to ever not return midterms. I always do, and everyone else I know does as well.

Seeing their graded midterm gives useful information. It lets students know what they have gotten wrong and what they have gotten right; it also lets them know what answers they thought were "right" but in fact are incomplete or inadequately explained.

I personally believe the downsides are miniscule in comparison to the benefits for the students.


Etiquette for establishing contact with multiple professors for PhD guidance Assuming that one has begun a PhD program at a university which allows a student to choose an advisor after his/her first year in the program and the student has narrowed down to a couple of potential advisors, what is the etiquette for approaching them for advisor commitment? Specifically,

How do you get across that you aren't sure yet about him being your advisor  and are fishing around before you decide without sounding rude?

Advisors understand that students are fishing around - that's normal. What's less common (but possible) is students fishing around in wildly different areas. Just keep in mind that either an advisor is going to see something in you that will motivate them to try and convince you to work with them, or they'll view you as someone who needs to make up their mind first, and won't spend too much time thinking about you.

In that respect, matching up with an advisor is more like dating than an job interview, at least in the US :)


Is it true that it is easier to obtain a PhD in Europe than the US on average? I am a physics undergrad, and plan to pursue a PhD in mathematical physics (string theory?). I have heard from a lot of people, who have personally seen the research scenario at universities both in the US and Europe, that it is much easier to get a PhD from a European university, that it takes about 3-4 years in a good university in Europe, while more than 5 years in American universities. Another thing I have been told is that in Europe you get your PhD after 4 years atmost by default, even if you have not done any original research. Is it true?

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Determining the minimum bar for which a PhD can be awarded is a bad exercise. If you are merely working towards the minimum you will not successfully complete a PhD.

One thing to note is that PhDs in the US tend to be open ended (to the extent you can continue to get funding) while in Europe they tend to have fixed durations. This means in Europe the bar comes whether you are ready or not while in the US you get to chose when you  defend. Neither is easier, just different.


Is repurposing money from companies easier than repurposing money from federal grants? I wonder whether repurposing money from companies is easier than repurposing money from federal grants in the United States, and if so, why. If the field matters, I am mostly interested in computer science.

Example of repurposing: a student did some TA, and the money could be spent on computer hardware instead.

Sometimes you make a mistake in creating a budget for your project when you propose it. Doesn't matter who you sent it to, public agency or private company, sometimes you make a mistake. Most agencies will let you move money around between buckets within the grant as long as it serves the purposes of the program and you can justify it. Lots of agencies won't let you buy a computer unless you swear on a stack of your mother's graves that you're going to use it 100% for the project and nothing else. They might not check, but they might make you swear anyway, and your university will be looking as well. Companies are similar, though maybe not as caring about the details. Everything, as Jon points out, depends on the terms of the agreement between your university and the granting entity. Lots of corporate money comes in as an unrestricted gift with no strings, whereas virtually no public funds have no strings.

Read the terms.


Former professor wants an update to write a recommendation letter, should I include a bad grade? I studied physics and computer science as an undergrad, got a master's in computer science, and now am applying for a second master's in engineering physics. So, I have emailed one of my old physics professors for a recommendation letter.  He agreed to write one, but has requested more information to do so seeing as though I haven't been in touch since I went to grad school. He didn't specify any particular items, but another letter writer has requested my statement of purpose draft, coursework/research highlights, resume, and unofficial transcripts, so I'm assuming he'd appreciate the same. Because he is from a different school and department and hence unfamiliar with their curriculum, I was planning to send a list of my grad school classes and grades with descriptions included rather than the unofficial transcript which only includes the course number and a brief, generic title.

I'm happy to oblige, except for one thing: I failed a class in grad school.  This is explained by a medical situation at the time; I took the next semester off, it is since resolved, I did well in all my classes afterwards, etc. - it is a non-issue now.

My question is, should I include this black mark when I send him materials? It is not something that affected any of my work in undergrad and will not affect anything in the future, so I'd think it's not really relevant. I'd rather not tell yet another person about how I failed a class, especially someone who I haven't talked to in a while and have asked to write good things about me.

I would err on the side of being honest, as you have a legitimate reason for why one specific class was an issue. Whereas that is explainable, it would be a mark against your character if he discovers that you did not give him a complete list of a classes after he requested it.


Moving between universities for PhD studies I'm studying for an MSc in Theoretical Physics. I did my undergrad studies at university A. I then moved to another country to do my Masters work at university B.

I did my BA thesis with a big name in the field who gave me great letters of recommendations, and resulted in my being offered a research masters project by another professor at the same university, also a huge name in the field. In the end they both suggested a taught Masters would be a better idea before research. I'm now at B, and it's likely my thesis advisor will end up being an equally big name, with a very long history of collaboration with the professor who offered me the research masters.

I would like to return to university A for my PhD studies. Getting accepted should not be a problem - they know me, I've done good work there, and will have experience with a collaborator.

However, would it be better for my career to perhaps go to university C, for example, which is also full of collaborators of everyone previously mentioned, for the sake of more experience?

Essentially, would returning to university A be likely to have a detrimental impact on future employablity; getting accepted to postdocs, etc? Or would letters of recommendations be most important and my research output?

It seems that you've got lots of great options available to you - kudos to you!  Given the situation you described, I don't think returning to university A will likely have a detrimental impact on your future.  If your work is good and you get several papers published at competitive journals/conferences/etc., that should matter much more.

The exception here might be if university C is considered far more rigorous than university A.  For example, switching from a state school to MIT or CalTech (though even this isn't a perfect analogy - it's largely field-dependent).  Outside of that though, the university itself will likely matter less than the research you're doing.

And as always - follow the funding :)


Submitting a new paper just after another was accepted by the same journal In my subfield, there is a highly regarded journal. I just finished a manuscript, which I thought would be suitable and ‘good enough’ for this journal.
Coincidentally, another manuscript that I had originally submitted to the journal two years ago, after long periods of waiting, revision, etc. just got accepted by this journal.

Should I adapt my plans in any way? Does it seem like I am ‘journal-hogging’ or gaming the system if I submit a new paper literally days after the last one has been accepted?

With one paper every two years I don’t think you will be seen as gaming the system.

Go ahead and submit.


Affiliation for a student's internship project Though related to this question on undegrad student affiliation, I am in a somewhat different situation…

I am an undergrad student at the Miskatonic University. For completion of their BSc, students at MU are required to perform a 6-week research project in a research lab, which I did with a professor at another institution: Unseen University. I loved it, extending my stay there for 3 more weeks into my summer break. Now, we will submit a paper with the results of that internship project, but I don't know what affiliation(s) to put.

The specifics are:

I am not paid by MU, and did not set foot there during my research project (not using the library, nothing)
I was not paid by the research institution (UU), either
Though I am keeping an eye on the research project, I did not do any significant work since my internship ended (vacations, then too busy with courses)

I think I should put UU as my affiliation, because I used their resources. But maybe UU being the affiliation of the main authors (grad student and professor on the project) is enough? And should I put MU as affiliation?

A paper that I have recently read may be a good reference (or example). As can be seen, one of the co-authors, Xuemei Liu is under Baidu, Inc. Shanghai. The research work was done when she (gender inferred from the name) was done during her internship at HP Lab.

She wrote the affiliation as Baidu, and used a star mark as the footnote indicating the work was carried out during her HP Lab internship period.

Update: Another more relevant example:

This paper here is exactly the case. The first author is a student under Shanghai Jiaotong University (student and thus, unpaid). The work of the paper was performed when he was an internship under Microsoft Research Asia. They adopted the same way: affiliation is still the university and a star footnote indicates the internship connection.


Why did my advisor criticize my work for the first time at my Master's Thesis defense? I had two advisors for my master thesis. One, as my first advisor would take the theoretical part to guide me. I have been meeting with my first advisor once every two week and he has been examining each part of the text. During these meetings, he continued to tell me how good I am doing and I should keep writing in this way. There were never real feedback, which could be pointing out my mistakes.

So I developed a full confident in myself and in the work. He offered me that I should consider starting a PhD with him.  In short, during the time I have been writing my masters thesis, he gave me all signs that he approves and likes my work.

My presentation took place a week ago, and was pretty much successful in my opinion and in the opinions of other people who came to listen. But at the end of the presentation, I received a totally different attitude from my first advisor. He started to criticize the work in a way he has never done in our meetings.

I was shocked about how my first advisor could not defend me and his own ideas in front of the committee and I am incredibly disappointed. Not only have I lost my belief in him and his judgments but also, I am now doubting my own skill of writing.

I am going to meet my first advisor next week and planning to talk about his twist of judgment and criticism. In this talk, I will question the PhD idea. I'm not sure though, how to put my anger, disappointment in right words, without making him feel that I am attacking to his personality. Also, when I asked him if we can meet earlier than next week, he refused. I have the feeling that he knows what i am going to say and now trying to construct a distance.

I know that trust is a very important issue in between the advisor and the advisee. If we will continue work together, I have to ask him an explanation but as I said, I'm afraid of my own frustration and if I cannot express myself in a right way.

My question is, would it be wise to express my disappointment in him, especially now that we will start to focus on my PhD? On the other hand, I need him to justify his inconsistency, which is quite crucial for me to keep working with him.

You cannot go after him for asking questions, that's his prerogative. You can choose to work on your PhD with him, or without him. That's what the conversation ought to be about.

Check out Crucial Confrontations:
http://www.frumi.com/images/uploads/CrucialConfrontations.pdf

With a crucial discussions like that, it is always good to give yourself a pep talk and imagine why would a rational being do something like that. Was is really that bad? Were you his first student, and was he nervous? Could he have had some personal issues to deal with? Perhaps he feels embarrassed for his behavior?

That will help you develop compassion and temper your anger (regardless how justifiable it might be). The goal is really to channel your emotions.

Then you are ready to develop a focus for your discussion. You can pose it as the discussion about your concerns about doing PhD with that advisor. Let's face it, you were not going to do PhD with him, there wouldn't be need for the conversation. Ask questions, at this point.

For example, I was surprised with the level of question received during the defense. I was left doubting the quality of my work, and now I am concerned about proceeding with PhD because my work is not as good as I thought it would be. What is your take? That should be enough to start the conversation without accusations.

Keep in mind, they are supposed to ask you hard questions at the defense, it is an exam. It might even be a compliment - he wouldn't have asked you these questions, if he didn't think you can handle them.  My advsor holds practice defenses. The labmates and the adviser ask hard questions then. For my defense practice, I was answering questions for an hour! If it wasn't for the practice, these questions would have come at the defense time.


How do you go about asking your advisor/research assistant supervisor for a week off? Spring break is coming up and I plan on taking that week off to go traveling in Europe.  Do I ask my supervisor/advisor for permission or do I just inform them that I am doing so?

Do I do it via email or face to face?

Thanks!

Your contract should include some official vacation time. Doesn't it?

So, it should be your right to take those days off, and your supervisor shouldn't be able to say no, unless it interferes with your work, such as lectures, lab schedules, ...

But it is still nice to keep it cool and ask politely, better in person.


How often should an editor ask for reviews from the same referee? There is a journal editor who keeps sending me review requests. He sends a new one shortly (a couple of weeks) after I return the previous one. I tend to accept because they align quite well with my expertise and I want to stay in good terms with this editor, who is a prominent figure in the field. I am a slow reviewer, but tend to give quite detailed and comprehensive reviews (compared with what I usually get for my own papers), and I guess the editor is happy with the quality of my reports, otherwise he wouldn't keep asking. However, I wouldn't mind if he asked less often. After all, this is only one journal and I also get review requests from other journals.
I have no experience as editor, and I am wondering if there are any best practices from that side. Is it common for an editor to keep "milking" that reliable reviewer? For those of you who have editorial duties, do you have any limit on how often to ask? Once a month, once every two months?
My intuition tells me there's a risk the reviewer gets tired of getting so many review requests from the same editor and the editor may end up losing that valuable resource.

From my experience as an editor, it is not unusual for referees to ask for "time off" from being assigned reviews and give bounds for the frequency of requests.  As Buffy suggested, some editorial systems allow referees to enter this information and the editor sees it before sending out review invitations.  I was glad to honor such requests from reviewers---I wanted them to feel satisfied & respected so that they would write more helpful reports in the future.
Similar to Fred Douglis, I tried not to ask anyone (other than editorial board members!) to review more than twice a year.  However, we aren't mind readers.  If your pattern is to submit a helpful report and then say yes to another request soon afterwards, then maybe you have the time, really enjoy reviewing, etc.  What editor wouldn't follow up on such enthusiasm?  My advice is that it's up to you to speak up about what you have time for, how often you're comfortable reviewing, etc.  I think there's very little risk of getting on the editor's bad side by setting up those kind of parameters.


Tanked the GRE Writing section, should I retake before applying to CS Ph.D.? I am looking into applying to a computer science ph.D program. I have 94% and up in the Quantitative and Verbal section but have tanked the writing section with a 17% (score of 3).

I am currently a master student (3.85 GPA) the program is ranked at around 55 in the US, should have great letters of recommendation, but I will not publish my research until after application deadlines. So I would have only one publication at a great conference but as a second author.

Should I retake the GRE?

Thank you very much

Difficult question.  Some universities impose minimum scores to keep their selectivity rankings high. However, some advisors won't care, especially given the discipline.  If you're courting an advisor, let him or her know and ask for advice. If you're applying blindly to programs, the score will probably hurt.

At the same time, as an advisor I would see such a score disparity as a fluke, and probably interview you anyway.

In the end, it's a competitive environment. If you think you can do much better, then definitely retake it. Study first :)


Stepping around student religiosity In the not-too-distant past, I was teaching a course on cognition and language. One class focused on language and communication in different species. A student later emailed me to ask a number of clarifying and follow-up questions. One of which was "If God wanted animals to communicate, why wouldn't He just have them talk"? This student was an international student from a country where religion is a much more prominent component of public life, so - for lack of a better phrase - I took it as a good faith question that would have been pretty normal back home. I don't think it's my place to put forth my theological views, I don't teach anything close to religion/theology, so I answered the questions that I could and ignored the religious question. Is there a better way to have handled this?

Thanks

You were correct in not engaging in religious argument in an academic setting. But a valid answer, that is probably acceptable to most people, whatever their faith, is, "I don't know. Your question is outside the realm of science."

If further asked, "What do you believe?", you can say that it is a private matter.

Unfortunately too many religious discussions end up here.


How to deal with an unhygienic human subject? The human subject that I really depend on is extremely unhygienic. Not simply sweaty way, but full-on stench, black teeth and dirty clothes.

I feel responsible for the lab equipment and space that I am going to use for my audio recording with him and I don't know what to do in such situation.

Anyone encountered such problems in their research? Is there any way professionally and politely ask someone to clean themselves up?

Any advice on how to deal with such a situation will be very appreciated.

Just put up with it.

It may be an unpleasant situation for you and others in the lab, but you haven't mentioned any significant negative consequences of his lack of hygiene; nor can I think of any.  I would just tolerate it.  If necessary, clean any dirty surfaces in the lab after each session.  You could also warn others to vacate the area when he is around, if it is harming others' work environment.

Your research is dependent on the subject's good will and participation.  So I would not do anything that risks his ongoing involvement.  Keep in mind that this is unlikely to be something that can be solved easily--this person is already causing unpleasantness to everyone else around him and yet persists in this behavior.


Can a college drop-out successfully re-enter academia? Obviously, the college drop-out in question is me, so allow me to supply as much detail as needed for you to answer this question as it pertains to my situation.

I come from a "disadvantaged" background; bad schools, bad home-life, the works. The high school I attended was one of those under-performing schools that undergraduate admissions romanticize as containing token diamonds in the rough. Entirely ignorant of the concept of financial aid and misinformed about college admissions, I didn't work hard enough to become one of those angels. Regardless, I did well enough to barely graduate with honors and earned a near-perfect ACT score, and I earned a scholarship to a private college.

My mental well-being imploded during that freshman year. I transferred out with a GPA of 2.9 to a local state school for my sophomore year. Unfortunately, this wound up being the worst mistake of my life.

My sights have always been set on higher education. On top of my personal issues, however, that developed into a paralyzing fear of failure and perfectionism. I spent the next five years barely keeping my head afloat, being dismissed once, re-admitted once again, and then finally leaving out of my own volition to seek out the healthcare I desperately needed from day 1. It's been about three years, but for whatever reason, The bureaucratic nightmare that is my former school still lists me as a student with a GPA below 1. Complications regarding financial aid and my change in majors make returning to finish that degree an impossibility, as I cannot pay for the rest of my degree out of pocket or through private loans.

I've worked odd jobs to save up to move out-of-state to work for a year to gain in-state tuition at a community college, and to begin a bachelor's degree that's actually relevant to my field of choice.

The choices that I would make regarding my futures studies are predicated on contingencies that I'm not familiar with. The biggest looming question in my mind is, assuming that one day I complete a bachelor's sufficiently well enough to entitle me to the prospect of graduate study, would my first attempt at a bachelor's be too big of an obstacle to overcome? What general advice would you have for me in my situation?

EDIT: My question presumes that I start and finish a bachelor's degree now with a decent-to-strong GPA and then apply for graduate admission. That's a different scenario than compensating for a low GPA earned with a completed bachelor's degree.

The biggest looming question in my mind is, assuming that one day I complete a bachelor's sufficiently well enough to entitle me to the prospect of graduate study, would my first attempt at a bachelor's be too big of an obstacle to overcome?

My experience is of course anecdotal, but for me the answer was 'yes, it is possible to overcome a poor academic record in your first bachelors program'. I will outline my story briefly and then summarize a few takeaways.

My story

I was a solid B student in high school, always doing well on exams but never taking homework very seriously. I overreached in my college applications and was rejected by five out of six schools. The one school to which I was accepted was the one I couldn't see myself attending, so I decided to enroll at the local community college instead.

I earned an associates degree with a ~3.5GPA and applied to three four-year schools, two for the linguistics major and one for the major in international agriculture. My associates degree was in social science, and I had been interested in linguistics since high school, but after working in coffee shops for a few years I was interested in the possibility of a career in the international coffee trade. I was accepted to all three programs, and chose to go to school for agriculture. My reasons for choosing that program over the linguistics programs still aren't very clear to me; in hindsight it was probably due largely to the fact that the agriculture program let me stay in my hometown while either linguistics program would have entailed a cross-country move. Regardless, I began at my new school and quickly got into academic trouble.

I didn't have the background for the courses I was enrolled in, I was still working full-time, I had an unhelpful advisor, I wasn't actually as interested in the subject as I had thought—any difficulty you name, it felt like I had to deal with it. I 'earned' a 1.0 GPA the first semester and a perfect 0.00 GPA the second semester, and withdrew voluntarily after that first year before the university could ask me to leave.

I got a full-time job and worked for two and a half years, but remained interested in linguistics and started to regret very strongly never entering a linguistics program. Finally fed up with myself, I applied to two schools: one of the two that had accepted me into the linguistics program three years prior, and one other. In spite of my poor showing in the agriculture program, I was accepted to both. I moved across the country to enroll in the program I should have enrolled in the first time they accepted me, and did very well there. I double-majored, earned my bachelors, applied to grad schools, and was accepted. I finished my masters degree this past May and am now in a PhD program.

So yes, it is possible. But...

Takeaways

I've learned a few things from my own experience. Take all of the following with a big grain of salt; they feel true to me, and they fit my experience, but they may not be generalizable:

Graduate schools are less concerned than you might think with your overall academic record and GPA. Rather, they are concerned with your ability to do graduate-level work in the program you've applied to. I had some terrible grades on my record, but they weren't in the subjects I hoped to study in graduate school. Over the entire graduate admissions process (I applied to five programs), no one asked about my poor grades from that year spent studying agriculture. It didn't come up once. That was very surprising.
I was honest about my academic record, but I didn't try to make excuses for it. I provided all of my transcripts, even the one with that perfect zero on it, to graduate admissions committees. However, beyond that, I didn't acknowledge those poor grades. There are people who will say that you should explain any poor grades in the statement of purpose you submit with your graduate application materials. I disagree. The statement of purpose provides you a maximum of two pages (in my field, at least; yours may vary) to sell yourself as a researcher. Any space you devote to an explanation of a poor academic record: 1) explicitly brings the reader's attention to a negative, and 2) leaves less space for other positives. The statement of purpose should give the impression that it's difficult to distill your research experience and potential down to two pages. If you don't even need two full pages, though, I think that's a negative.
The school in which I enrolled following that terrible year (academically speaking), from which I earned my bachelors, was one of the schools to which I had been accepted three years prior, before I had earned those low grades. I can't know for sure, but I can't help feeling like that fact worked in my favor.

  What general advice would you have for me in my situation?

Are you in school again now? If so, you've already cleared one big hurdle. Regardless, my advice is pretty simple: do everything you can to demonstrate that you can perform at the graduate level.

Take challenging courses—I was able to take a graduate course during my last semester (which took special permission from the professor and the college) and it was hugely helpful to have an idea of the expected workload.
Make sure your writing sample is the best it can be. A strong writing sample can go a long way in the admissions process.
Don't make excuses for yourself, but demonstrate through your recent work that any past poor performance doesn't reflect your real potential. In my own experience this was not as difficult as it might have been: I earned decent grades in social science, poor grades in agriculture, and then good grades in linguistics. I expect that poor grades and then good grades in the same subject might cause more concern.
Recognize that in many ways your extra lived experience (compared to your academic peers) is a strength. Many people go straight from high school to college and then straight from college to graduate school. Your experience working odd jobs and saving money for an out-of-state move might not be academic work, but it might give you a maturity and perspective lacking in other students. Compared to someone who's never taken time off from school, you might have a better idea what you want to do with your life.


Allocating master student schedules to fit semi-commercial research interests I am a master student at a big university in Germany. I am not a chemistry student myself, but as I am active in university politics, an issue was brought to me that I am not sure how to deal with.

Master students in chemistry have to do mandatory lab hours to be admitted to the exam for some specific modules. During these lab hours they synthesize chemicals for semi-commercial research projects which is a win-win situation for the professors and the students as students get in touch with real research and the professors get a lot of work done.

The problem is that over the last years a lot of postdoc and doctarate positions got cancelled because of an austerity program. The professors subsequently assigned more and more lab hours while decreasing the hours for self-study to stay within the 30 hours/credit point requirement. The demand for knowledge from the lectures stayed the same, so students actually need the same amount of self-study as before. There seems to be a big conflict of interests.

I cannot prove it, but sources from the working groups told me that at least one professor informally made clear, that he is well aware of this issue, but chooses to take benefits from it.

I am not asking if this is ethical as this is clearly not the case. I am asking what I can do to end this exploitation of master students. Who is the right person to talk to about these issues? Is it even adequate maybe to take legal action against the faculty?

First, see if you can find some existing university policy you could use as a basis for a complaint.  The other place you could look would be in some professional societies for their ethics policies.  Your university would not be bound to follow ethics recommendation made by outside bodies, but still it could be a useful reference to help you apply pressure.

If there is no university (or government) ethics policy in place, then you can lobby for one to be created.  Look at some general ethics policies and try to draw something up as a proposal.

I don't know where in your university governance structure you could submit a proposal of this sort -- that could vary from country to country or even by institution.

Once you have a proposal or a platform, you need broad support.  It's okay if you don't have a ton of people supporting it initially.  As you become more public in advocating for your university to comply with its own policy, or for it to enact a policy, people will join you.  Be ready to catch them with at minimum a google group.

Hopefully you can get some faculty to join with you in advocating for some clear limits for the chemistry students' non-academic requirements.  Hopefully they will see that the level of excellence of the institution will go down if students are spending too much time on "production", and not enough time expanding their knowledge and creativity.

Point of comparison: in the U.S., graduate teaching assistants work 20 hours a week.  Based on my experience as a TA, I would say that it would be difficult or impossible for most mere mortals to make significant progress in the graduate studies if the work hours per week were above 25.


Citing my work that appeared in a many-author paper I recently co-authored a paper with about 40 other authors. This was a position paper that appeared as the output from a workshop, and my name appears somewhere in the middle of the list.

My contribution to the paper was a literature review section, which told the history of our field in a novel way, emphasising common themes that hadn't been commented on before and introducing new terminology to describe them.

I would like to re-capitulate this work in a new paper, following quite closely the story I wrote for the joint paper, although re-writing the text and condensing it quite a bit. This would be as an introductory section aimed at a different audience than the previous paper, which is why I want to say it again rather than just citing it.

The question is about how best to cite the previous paper. On the one hand I could just say something like "we closely follow the treatment given by XXX et al (2017)" without mentioning that it's my own contribution. However, I'm worried it might look a bit odd that we follow the literature review quite so closely if it's not clear that it's my own work I'm citing.

So I'm wondering if it's appropriate and/or permissible to flag up that I wrote that part of the XXX et al. paper, e.g. "we closely follow the treatment that one of us (YYY) gave in XXX et al (2017)." There is nothing in the XXX et al. paper that identifies this section as my work, so the reader would have to trust me on that.

In case it's relevant, the previous paper is mostly history and philosophy of science, whereas the new one is aimed at a technical audience in evolutionary theory and cognitive science.

I note that this is related to Citing a result due to a single author that appears in a paper with multiple authors, but the context and my reason for wanting to single out one of the authors are quite different.

My opinion, in biomedical field: I think your last suggestion is fine. Something along the line of:

  "Previously, I (or, ugh, "The author of this paper") contributed a
  review of the history of making omelette using rice cookers in a joint
  paper (cite the old paper). In this paper, I/The author of this paper
  will further document the application of rice cookers with fuzzy logic
  and pressurization mechanism in omelette making."

I think it's important to take credit and show the work development stream. But more so, you should make sure the audience will not credit this new work to the first author of the said article. That'd be unfair to those authors.


Does ACM have a style guide for authors? I am writing a paper for an ACM transactions publication precisely using the acmsmall format. However, I am yet to find a comprehensive Do's and Don'ts for writers with regards to style. For example, I've seen some papers say, "in Equation (5) ..." while others abbreviate it to "in Eqn. (5) ...". I have also seen some papers merely refer to equations by their numbers i.e. "in (5) ..." as is done in the IEEE. I've even seen these used interchangeably.

The first case is correct though, as it was used in a sample paper provided, however, are Eqn. (5) and (5) acceptable equivalents?

There seems to be consistency in referring to figures and tables though: figures are always referenced thus "in Figure 5 ..." and never abbreviated, for example as "Fig.".

At the moment, I'm just picking styles from already published papers which I'm not sure is the best way.

So where does one find clarification on these issues? Which is right in the above cases mentioned?

You should take a look at the format that the ACM template gives to you, but there is no straight answer for an specific format. Try to focus more on the content (like they have advise you on one comment) that in the format. Actually I have seen in some ACM published papers that they put things like (considering your example):

In Equation 5... or
In Eq. 5 ... or
(put the variant you think here)

Consider that is one of your least worries, if you had some problem with the format the reviewers will point to that, but if the content is good is what really counts.

Good luck!


How to get the most benefit out of a teaching consultation? I have requested a teaching consultation from my university's Center for Teaching & Learning. First I'll meet with a couple of consultants, then they'll observe my regular class, and then they'll meet with me again to give me feedback on the classroom observation.

I'm not a very experienced teacher, I don't really know what I'm doing right or wrong, so I don't know what to ask the consultants to focus on. Except for one or two things related to challenges I'm having with the particular class I'm teaching right now, I don't have anything specific in mind to ask them about.

Does anyone have any suggestions for making the most of a teaching consultation? Anything specific I can ask them to focus on that might prove especially useful?

Ideally you want to focus on teaching components that you would not ordinarily notice yourself.

I do not have previous experience with teaching consultations, but I can suggest some facets of teaching that are difficult to improve without others' feedback. Especially when you are speaking, there are things you miss because you are focusing on choosing your words.

Body language and conveyed impressions
Mannerisms, e.g. 'like...', 'um', 'ah'
Volume and pace of speaking
Eye direction (are you looking at the students, or do you look upwards when thinking?)
Students' facial expressions and body language (what do they think of this specific class and why?)

Conversely, there are some facets of your teaching you will notice by yourself in time, and are not particularly benefited by feedback:

The clarity of your material (diagrams, slideshows, images). It may be more worthwhile to review this in your own time.
Which parts of your content are difficult for students
Whether students feel confident to interact
What lesson structures work better
Students' overall feelings about the course (assuming you have course feedback forms)

I hope you make the most out of this opportunity!


Low undergrad GPA, how should I inform a tenure track faculty job search committee? I have a mediocre (3.3) GPA in undergrad due to illness (legit - I had to take a medical leave and was hospitalized), but I have great grades from my graduate institution.  I worry that search committees will not look highly upon my application.  As I would like to apply for these positions, so how should I tell the search committee why I did poorly in undergrad?

Don't mention anything about your undergrad GPA in your application if it is not mandatory. During interview, if they get to know and ask, you can tell every problem you faced during undergraduate career and show up your proof such as medical certificate. They will consider it.

If it is a mandatory option, then write it down. However, in such mandatory situation, be straightforward (as said by @AlexandersWilliam below) and mention about your poor performance in undergrad period somewhere in your CV or resume, but not necessary always. Because selection committee care less about undergrad GPA, they mostly see your recent records. Hope this will work.


Would I be disadvantaged in PhD admission if I took only few courses each semester during my Bachelors and Master’s? I recently applied to a PhD program, and right now I am waiting for their decision.
My GPA from my undergrad and my Master’s program were 4.0/4.0, however during my undergrad I only took 3 courses per semester and during my Master’s, I took one or two courses per semester. Would this put me at a disadvantage when compared with other applicants?

Thank you,

During my undergrad I took 3 courses because: 1. I was working part time 2. My doctor recommended me to take a reduced course load. For my master’s program, I was working full time for my parents’ business. I didn’t mention this in my PhD application, which i think I should have. But it is too late now, the deadline has already passed.

Those sound like perfectly good reasons for a reduced study load to me, and yes, you probably should have at least mentioned your concurrent employment.  Since you were working concurrently with your studies, you might also consider adding that as a standard part of your CV (i.e., in the employment section), which would mean you would not need to make special mention of it in future applications.

Admissions for PhD programs are generally made based on assessments of the quality of applications by academics, and they have wide discretion over what they consider to be relevant.  Opinions on the relevance or non-relevance of a reduced study load will differ among different people, but I suspect that most academics will be interested in your mastery of the undergraduate material ---as reflected in your GPA and other relevant outputs--- than in how long it took you to attain this mastery.  There is no definitive answer as to whether this will affect your application, because it will be assessed by people, and people do all sorts of different things.

Achieving a 4.0 GPA while working concurrently in various jobs (and full-time during your Masters) is a crazy-good record, so you should definitely have mentioned your employment.  Even without that your academic record sounds very strong.  Nevertheless, if you are worried that you have an unexplained gap in your application, it might be worth sending an email to the admissions office giving them a short supplementary paragraph explaining that you undertook your studies at a reduced load because you were concurrently working at such-and-such hours.  (I would suggest you not mention your medical issues, since this would raise more questions than it answers, and your full-time work is already an adequate reason for a reduced study load.)  Ask them if they could please pass this supplementary information on the assessors of your application.  Even though the applications deadline has closed, you might find that they are willing to pass on a short supplementary paragraph; but keep it really short.


How common is it to work extra with one's professor after getting a M.S.? I'm in a situation where I am continuing to work on some of my M.S. research work after I have filed and will receive my M.S.

It is fine with me and I think it's good because there were loose ends. This is computer science field, and it involves a programming project we want to improve.

In the back of my mind, I'm hoping we can write a journal article. Part of me, though, wonders about whether this may be risky.  Will my professor make excessive demands on me, even though we're officially finished?  I also need to focus on other demands, such as my job.

So I worry a little about the expectations.

How common is it to continue working after getting one's MS, but without any official agreement (i.e., I just informally meet with my prof and discuss my progress).

Also, in case you're wondering, I'm not currently interested in doing a PhD (maybe later, just not anytime too soon).

Your concern that this is "risky" is somewhat vague, but generally, I'd say that working on something like this is extremely common. I've never "cleanly" finished a project, where it is fully wrapped up, with nothing else to do right as my degree was awarded, I moved to a new position, etc.

I'd say it's extremely common, and if you think that extra work might result in a publication, fairly valuable. There is the possibility of things being too demanding, but generally people are pretty understanding of other obligations that come up, especially if you let them know in advance.


Should a postdoc apply for a tenured position? I have two related questions, which are similar to my other question

Should I simultaneously apply for multiple jobs in different ranks at the same university?

The first one is say a school is opening a tenure position in the Associate Professor rank. I like to know how the job committee will view the application from a candidate who is currently a postdoc?

The second one is that say the school opens both a tenured-track Assistant Professor and a  tenure Associate Professor. Should a candidate who is a postdoc apply to both or only to the tenured-track position? If he/she applies to both, whether that affects his/her application negatively?

Under most circumstances (not an exceptionally brilliant candidate or a field that is very difficult to recruit in), if a postdoc applies to what is advertised as a tenured associate professor position, then I would interpret the application as asking whether the university might consider hiring at the assistant professor level instead.  That's not unreasonable, since job openings do not always get filled the way the department had in mind.  The chances are lower if the department is hoping for something else, but it's not impossible.

I'd recommend being explicit about this.  If you are actually trying for tenure straight out of a postdoc, you should say so, but it will be a waste of time unless there are unusual circumstances (and it may make you look arrogant or out of touch).  If you would like to be considered for a tenure-track position should the department decide to hire at that level instead, then you should make that clear.


Are there risks in sharing a paper after submission and before reviews? After submitting a paper for publication to a computer science conference,  authors are excited about their work and want to share it with friends, colleagues. Are there any risks in sharing the paper while waiting for reviews that might jeopardize its publication?

In Computer Science, conference submissions are usually subject to a double-blind review process.

I work in CS and know of no issues with distributing work to a small group of people. I know a number of researchers (myself included) who share their work with colleagues before and after submission. Sometimes it's to gather feedback, sometimes because a friend is curious about your work or working on something similar. It's generally understood that the research will not be distributed further without the authors' permission.


Will the origin of anecdote in paper violate double-blind policy? A paper I am writing utilizes a short story from Japan to make a point. In the paper, I have written the punch-line in Japanese, with a translation added.

I am not from Japan, but would such an inclusion be considered a violation of double-blind policy ? I am okay with removing the Japanese text, but the story itself needs to stay.

Double-blind reviewing is about trying to make you non-identifiable.  The only way I can see this violating a double-blind policy is if you are well known by your scientific community as the only one who would both write on your topic and know Japanese.  That seems like a stretch.


Changing mind after rejecting a job offer I recently finished my Ph.D., and joined a private company in the industry.

A few months before defending my thesis, I received an offer for a post-doc position; the offer was very interesting, but I declined it because I wanted to move to the industry (I have always been in academia).

Now, after some months in the industry, I realized that this is not what I want to do, and I am back on my search for a postdoc.

Question: how bad is it to contact the professor that made me the rejected postdoc offer, asking if the position is still open?

People change their minds. This is a reality.

It would not hurt you to ask if the position is still open. Explain the situation and ask if they would still be interested in hiring you for a post-doc. Be warned that it is very possible that they will just write back and tell you that they are no longer interested or that the position has been filled.

Be prepared to explain why you suddenly want to pursue the post-doc that you previously turned down. Be careful to avoid sounding like you have issues with commitment. Do not speak ill of your industry work.

In the end, even if the professor rejects you for the post-doc, I highly doubt that it would cause you further issues. It is not like the professor would write to all of his/her colleagues and inform them that you are looking for a post-doc, and that they should blacklist you.

One last thing I will add: Maybe do not quit your job in industry quite yet. It is much easier to apply for post-docs when you have a steady pay check than when you are unemployed. This will allow you to make decisions without having to consider immediate money concerns quite as much.


Drinking and writing This may be a sensitive subject given the subject matter.

But I have currently experiencing significant writers’ block when it comes to writing my statement of purpose and personal statement for graduate school applications. As part of my research (procrastination) on how to resolve this issue, I came across some material that suggested that a minor intake of alcohol would allow the process to flow more freely.

Not enough to inhibit writing, but enough such that the usual inhibitions are removed.

I wanted to confer the advice and wisdom from the academia community on this subject matter, the pros and cons, the potential ramifications of such an action.

What are the effects/results of drinking and writing?

Massimo's comment reminded me of the old adage, "drink when you want to, not when you need to", and I think those are useful words to remember.

However, I also agree with what rnrstopstraffic said, and if you have no general problem with consuming alcohol, try it and see what happens.

I don't suggest going out with your friends, drinking 6 pints of beer and 3 shots of tequila before stumbling home at 2am and scribbling nonsense, however. One glass of wine or beer with dinner would, I expect, be enough to get the creative juices flowing (if alcohol is going to get them flowing at all). I also recommend that you wait until the following day to edit and submit.

I've personally never written academic work after drinking alcohol, but I have written fiction after doing so. For me, it definitely doesn't improve the quality of my writing, but it does help me put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and just write. As Inkblot says, it's a lot easier to rewrite and edit when you have something on the page, even if it is total garbage.


Are transfer credits transitive? Is transfer credit transitive?  If B accepts credits from A, and C accepts credits from B, will C accept credits from A, provided a student transfers to B before coming to C?

I have transfer credits at my current, American, university.  Some of them are from a previous American university, some of them are from a foreign high school, and some are from online classes.  If I transfer, will the university I transfer to accept my current transfer credit just as it does any credit from my current university?

Something I'm looking at now is online classes from Saylor.  I'm just afraid that even if my current university accepts ACE credit, if I transfer, these credits may not follow me.

The only valid answer you will get is from the institution you are applying to. They likely have policies about all sort of such things. As a pure guess it would depend on the individual institutions that granted the credits originally and their reputation.

A "receiving" institution might be fairly open to this if they have reason to want you for other considerations. But ask and you will learn.

In the US, at least, don't look for common policies. Within a State university system there may be rules about transferring from one such institution to another.


How to cite and publish unpublished governmental statistics correctly? Conducting a research which needs governmental statistics, I have encountered a problem. The problem is I need to have precise data on farming in an area, but the data are not published.

I had to go to the relevant governmental office and convince them to provide me with the data. Afterwards, I had interviews with officials and they--based on their internal documents--provided me with the necessary detailed data.

Now I am thinking how to cite the information; I think the obtained data should be published, at least as a letter to the researcher, so that I can refer to it.

What I am going to do is that I give the obtained information to the department and ask them to check it for reliability, then they issue an official document containing the necessary approved information. However, the point is I am myself preparing the tables etc., so this is my work--the tables produced by hours and hours of interview and then extracting the info and then making tables based on it--not theirs although they will check it carefully.

What to you think? How should I deal with it?

I would cite it as "Agency name, unpublished data" in the text. As a made-up example in a list of citations:

US Department of Agriculture, Farm Information Statistics 1999-2015, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, unpublished.


In universities, how to team up with your colleagues? Many times in universities, people don't dedicate much time to build friendly relationships with colleagues.
Unfortunately, this happens both in the tenured positions and in non-tenured positions, with many bad consequences (such as for examples, many researchers actually don't know what other colleagues are researching on...).

I've always been thinking that building strong friend relationships with colleagues can be very useful and powerful, for careers but most of all to create a more serene work environment.

I think that a good way to create friendly relationships with colleagues is organizing extra-work activities, such as dinners, soccer matches, etc.
Last week some of my PhD student colleagues organized a pizza dinner between colleagues. All my department (~150) PhD students were invited, but in the end we were just 9! :-(

What d'you do to build strong friend relationships with colleagues?
Could you tell some success stories?
Could you give some good advices?

In our department, the assistant professors go out for drinks once a month (a fixed day of the week and a fixed week of the month). That tends to work out quite well: we can let off steam, compare notes on our students (and what senior faculty dish out in the name of advice :)), and generally get a nice group. I've had a few collaborations start because of this as well.

The general faculty also do a drinks night occasionally, but not as regularly.


Should I explicitly remind people to include my name in the acknowledgement? I am a research assistant. I've helped a PhD student from another department throughout her studies by providing and maintaining human cells for her project. She's now about to published, and I'm not sure she would acknowledge my contribution in her papers. Is it acceptable to remind her to acknowledge me?

Including my name would be good for my future graduate school applications and interviews.

My suggestion is that you could let her know that you would appreciate an explicit ack and that it would help your future, just as you have done here. Don't state it as a duty (which it probably is) but as a professional curtesy and "boost", which it also is.

You could even write a suggestion of the form of the ack you would like if you would like it to include anything specific rather than just a general statement of thanks. (... who maintained the human cells...).


Not sure if grad school was the right choice I went to a tiny undergrad school and majored in math.  I had absolutely no idea what to do with my major, so I went to grad school (I've been here for two months now).  Now that I'm here, I'm leaps and bounds behind everyone else, and I don't understand anything in any of my classes.  In my undergrad classes I was always one of the top few students, but now I can't figure out anything by myself.  Is this kind of thing normal?  Should I even be here?

And if not, what am I going to do with my life?

You're experiencing what a lot of graduate students go through—moving from being a big fish in a small pond to being a big fish among other big fish in what seems to be a vast, uncharted ocean. Feelings of frustration, confusion, and even bewilderment are normal. It's part of the adjustment process. The truth is that many of your classmates are likely going through the same difficulties.

The question to ask is not "Should you be in grad school?" The question to ask is "Do I want to be here?" If you do, then don't let imposter syndrome drag you down! Also, remember that research bears often little resemblance to classwork.

Now, on the other hand, if you've realized that you're not interested in doing a PhD anymore, then you'll be much better off figuring out what you'd like to do instead. There are a lot of career options for mathematicians, and wasting a bunch of years getting a PhD you're no longer interested in won't be of much use for you in the long run.