texts: GRE Score advice: Should I retake the GRE?

texts:
I took the GRE General earlier this year and got a 160Q/156V with a 3.5 writing. I am hoping to apply to mid-level ranked statistics M.S. programs (ranked 15-50ish), does anyone think that those scores are strong enough to be competitive or should I retake it? I'm having a hard time finding admission statistics aren't incredibly vague (Competitive applications have done well on the GRE..., etc.).

I know a lot of depends on how strong the rest of your transcript is, fwiw I graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry with a 3.3 GPA and have worked in a biostatistics lab.


texts: How to get good recommendation when working under a phd student as an undergraduate

texts:
I am not sure whether this is normal. I worked under a PhD student last year and I don't think I had any contact with prof.

After I finished my work last year, we arranged a meeting so I could present my work directly to the prof. Back then, the Prof acknowledged my work and decided to provide a reference.

Ok. Here is the problem. As you can see, I am primarily working under a PhD student, and I almost never talked to the prof directly (except during our only meeting). I think he has a good impression of me. But the problem is that the Letter of Recommendation should usually come from someone who knows you well, which isn't in my case. So the question is, is it normal for a undergraduate student involved in research, to have very little contact with the prof? Is it normal for this to happen?

My country is Canada, and I worked on a robotic research project. My role was to  set up a platform for the PhD student so that he could implement his algorithm (which is the main part of the research). In fact, Phd student and I have published a paper together (offcourse, with the prof's name on it as well).


texts: How to tackle the bibliographic work as an entering PhD student?

texts:
I'll be starting my PhD in the next fall. I already looked over the internet for advice for a beginner, even read two books on the subjects. Still, there is one point I haven't seen discussed as I wanted, it's the time and the way the student should be investing in catching up on his field and his specific topic, I'm speaking about the bibliographic part. For sure a student needs a lot of (continuous) input, but at the end he'll be solely judged on his output. From my previous research project, I'm not really confident in my way of balancing between going through articles/textbook material and trying to solve my own problematics. To be honest, it sometimes feels like a sneaky way of procrastinating: I'd tell myself that I'm still not ready to tackle my problem and that I need to make a little "detour" by existing works; and when it's done I don't feel more at ease to answer my questions. Or is it a normal aspect of research?

In my specific case, I'll be working on a quite new subject (string theory) when I only had advanced lecture of quantum field theory and general relativity; so I'm thinking about going through the canonical textbook on the subject during the summer, do most of the exercises and derivations in there (which already represents hundreds of hours invested), maybe revising some mathematical tools I need to be really familiar with. Once I'll have a general idea of the topic I'll jump to the main articles in relation to my thesis. I also know that I will be using numerical tools (Monte Carlo methods) and will need to get conformable with that. So far I only have a superficial knowledge and use of the tool.
Does it seem like a good use of my time? I already know that time and willpower are limited resources in grad school and I really don't want my desire to do well to burn me out from the beginning.


texts: I have been given a second chance for completing my capstone project. I went to the director as well as the professor and discuss what I'm going to include in my report and they agreed the data I'll be including in my report. I worked upon it and given my best in making the report as discussed with the director of my department. Now after I submitted the professor failed me again this time giving the excuse that he was not able to understand the report contents and data even after I discussed and taken the approval for my report. I explained him in the mail that what I actually meant in the report and he replied that you wouldn't need to explain me here and you should have explained it in the project. Now they have dismissed me from the University by doing the unfair behaviour with me. I know since it's my second chance even the Dean won't be able to help me and pass me and let me graduate. I paid a huge amount to the university as my fees and they are returning me this unfair behaviour. What can I do if the professor wouldn't able to understand what I wrote in the report that's not my mistake. Please suggest me what action I can take against the professor and what can be done to get graduated. I'm shattered and broken from inside since I'm an international student in United States and I took a loan from Indian Bank to pay the fees. Please suggest me where can I appeal for this wrongdoing happened. I'm in a huge financial pressure


texts: Reapplying to PhD program after Master's

texts:
Two years ago, I applied to PhD programs (in Physics, if it matters); my undergrad was characterized mostly by underachievement, so my application was pretty weak (poor GPA, generic LORs, no research experience, etc.) Understandably, I did not get the response I was hoping for, and I decided to go for my Master's, both to put myself in a better position and to make sure academia is really what I wanted.

Fast forward two years and I'm in a bit of an awkward spot; I've done well in my Master's and I want to apply to PhD programs, but I'm not sure how to characterize my less-than-traditional path (it is relatively uncommon, at least stateside, to attend a terminal master's program in Physics). All aspects of my application are much better on paper (research, GPA, recommendations; except my GRE scores, which were already quite strong), but I'm worried about coming off as a second-rate student who couldn't make it the first time. Even my advisor, who thinks my application is otherwise quite strong, said he's unsure how it will be received.

Many of the schools I'm applying to are ones I applied to previously. Should I emphasize the upward trend through my Master's and how I've improved since my previous applications? Or is it not even worth mentioning (I could always use the extra space to talk about research) or possibly harmful?


texts: A journal published my private home address alongside my publication. Can I get it removed?

texts:
Some years ago, I published an article in a Springer journal. However, when I accessed its online version today, I found out that the publisher has swapped my residential address for my correspondence address. Since I am the corresponding author and this information is public, I am concerned about my security. I have already tried contacting Springer to no avail.
How should I proceed in order to get this issue fixed?


texts: Overcoming hostility from a senior PhD student

texts: I am a Ph.D. third year student. In our college for most of the work we have to depend on our seniors as our advisor rarely takes interest in our research. My senior is always rude to me, and never supports me in anything. Sometimes she doesn't talk to me for a whole day, and even sometimes she misguides me. I feel so low. It becomes so difficult to be in a lab where only two people are working and not even talking to each other properly. How can I deal with this?


texts: How to evaluate student team members who did minimal work on a team assignment?

texts:
I have this class where at the beginning of the term the lecturer pretty much randomly creates groups of 5 people (who usually do not know each other at all) and assigns them a project.

At the end of the term we do a presentation and a written exam. A friend of mine who took this class before told me that the lecturer will ask me to evaluate the other members.

Three people in our team were just terrible. They did not care at all, they did not even respond to emails, never arranged any workshops, and only came once or twice to other workshops we suggested, with the only one person remaining in the team besides me; so two of us pretty much did the project.

However, I really do not want to tell in the paper that they did not do anything. I do not care that they did not do anything, and I do not feel comfortable talking behind their backs. It should be the lecturer's responsibility to figure out who did what by asking the right questions in the exam and in the presentation, I believe.

So do I just leave those parts blank in the exam, or explain how I feel?


texts: What's the best way to justify your choice of baseline methods for academic paper?

texts: As the title states I'm curious how to justify the choice of baseline methods for academic paper when proposing a novel algorithm/method. For example, when proposing an algorithm, there is a suite of methods applicable. When I choose one method to compare my algorithm to, how do I justify it?


texts: Should I use italics and different typefaces for foreign words, file names, class names, variable names, etc. in a master's thesis

texts:
Currently I'm writing my master's thesis about the detection of Android Malware. It's being written in French. Like you would expect, there are a lot of concepts (e.g., about Android and security) that are in English. The translation in French is not clear and is not known either. How do I write those terms ? Should I write them in italic?

In addition, I would like the reader to be able to distinguish between a variable name, a file name, a class name, etc. just by looking at how the word is typeset. Can I use different typefaces for each element?


texts: How do I cite a product that cannot be sourced commercially

texts: I used a product in my PhD that is not available to buy. Our lab was given it as a free sample from a company that was considering developing this product. How do I cite it? Thank you


texts: Graduate School Application: should I mention where my working paper would be submitted

texts:
Follow-up on
Does unpublished paper matter for U.S. graduate school application?

One of my papers is ready and my research adviser wants me to submit it to one of the best journals in my area. But it's actually proposing a new idea so there's still a lot to be done (in the paper I pointed out many tests that should be carried out), so I'm not entirely confident about it getting past the review.

On one hand, I could submit anything to any journal so it's not necessarily saying mcuh about the quality of the research, and it would look pretty bad if it failed the review; but on the other hand, my adviser is kind of a semi-big deal in the small circle (I mean, he knows some people and some people know him). So those who know him will understand that the paper would be examined rigorously by himself before submission.

So, should I add anything to my resume about this? I understand the answer will probably be largely opinion-based, so I'm sorry if it's violating any rules here!


texts: What should be included in a departmental email policy?

texts:
I receive about 10k emails per year and send about 2-3k. In my department (the sphere I can influence) there are those who almost never respond and those who respond as soon as I have hit the send button. There are also those who send mails on weekends, in the middle of the night, seemingly expecting answers fairly immediately. The record was probably the mail that was send shortly after midnight on a Sunday night about stuff that needed to be sorted out by Monday morning. In short, different person have different views on how and for what email should be used. I should add that in my system, the university email is strictly not to be used for private emailing.

I am therefore interested in hearing about if and if so how one can establish an email policy which provides guidelines for reasonable emailing practices within a department.

I have heard about guidelines against sending mails from off duty hours, about avoiding disputes over email, and about reasonable (expected) response times, etc. but have so far failed to locate any good sources for such practices and guidelines.


texts: Is it normal for a PhD supervisor having no PhD students staying in academia after their graduation?

texts:
I am looking for potential PhD opportunites in engineering and I found a potential PhD supervisor. Personally, I plan on entering academia after my graduation. However, it seems that during the past 12 years, the professor had no students staying in academia after their graduation. I also found that some of the PhDs have very good publications in top journals and excellent experience in being a research associate but they all eventually entered the industry or even finance companies.
One reason for this might be that nearly all of these students were sponsored by industry. For me, I wonder if it is normal for a PhD supervisor to have no academic "descendants" in universities or other research institutes and if the professor is suitable for me if I plan to enter academia after finishing my PhD. I would appreciate it very much if you could give me some suggestions on this.


texts: How detrimental is involvement in politics to a scientific career?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in the hard sciences, and am thinking of pursuing a research career after graduation. I am also quite politically involved on the left, and have political articles published online. I am critical of many governments (including my own) and corporations, and of many of the applications of technology in fields I am interested in.

My politics are very important to me, and I could not give them up. That said, I often worry about how they could be detrimental to my career, especially before I'm already established. I worry, for instance, that grad school admissions would Google my name and find my views and affiliations, and that this would negatively impact my chances to get in. How realistic is this fear?


texts: Is there any difference between these two kind of researchers?

texts:
I tried to ask this question on Physics StackExchange because it's about physicists but it wasn't the right section, anyway the argument can be extended to almost every subject.
I am studying physics at university in Italy but I spent some months in Sweden and I found some differences in the teaching method.
In particular, in Italy everything is essentialy based on theory, we study models, theorems and formal proofs, the exams are mostly oral, and we just see some appliations of what we study.
In Sweden it is different, there are less theorems, and everything is more applicative. There are exercises sessions but less 'critical thinking' (that's what I think).
Said that, I just wanted to ask if, in research, you can notice a difference between people with these two different academic backgrounds and if it influences their work/researches.
Are you more likely to become a theoretical physicist if you study in Italy (or any other uni with this teaching method) and less if you study in Sweden (or any other...)?
Please share your experience!
Thank you! :)
P.S. I am not judging if one method is better than the other, don't get me wrong


texts: Does anyone look at the transcripts of PhD students when they are looking for jobs?

texts:
Although it is generally believed that grades in one's PhD program are deemed as unimportant (so I am not asking whether grades are important for PhD students or not), I still see many PhD students include their GPA in their CV and I guess there might be a reason for them to do so.

I wonder if any company in industry or postdoc admission committee in academia need to look at the transcripts of job applicants (PhD students).


texts: Do US university professors consider papers published in IJERT

texts:
Do US university professors consider papers published in International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT)?

For an undergraduate student applying for research program, what do professors check? The journal in which the research is published or the quality of the research, because I personally have had seen many papers getting desk rejected not because they are not up to the mark considering quality, but the editors had more better papers to publish.


texts: Is it possible to work full time and do a part time PhD in software engineering in England?

texts: Is it possible to work full time and do a part time phd in the area of software engineering in England saying that I want to use my job earnings to pay my tuition fees? And if I start a part time PhD funding myself this way then how difficult is it to get some funding from the same university (waiving the tuition fees at least) so I can quit job and focus totally on my PhD?


texts: How do admissions committees handle a missing “extra” letter of recommendation?

texts:
If a student has sent 4 letters, one more than required, and the 4th letter is missing, what will happen?

Will the committee contact the applicant if his application is strong enough?
Will they ignore the letter and decide based on the other 3? Will they delay the review till they have the 4th letter?

I know this varies between schools but how it's usually handled?


texts: Can studying in a good place hurt your application?

texts:
I have the following situation in mind: consider two people A and B, who are roughly "equally good" in their field and do their bachelors in the same university - a small, not widely known insitution. Then student A stays there for his/her Master's, while student B chooses to do his Master's in a more prestigious place.

At the end, they both apply to a PhD at some competitive place. Coming from a "modest" university, where he easily stands high above the average, student A is highly regarded by his/her professors and so manages to get very good recommendation letters. On the other hand, student B studied in a place where students of his level are more common, and so he doesn't impress his professors as much, and they don't speak so highly about him in recommendation letters.

Do you think that scenarios like this could actually make student A seem a better candidate than student B in practice? In this sense, could studying at a good university hurt your career in the long run? Or would the prestige of the university where student B studied (as well as possibly the prestige of the professors who wrote recommendation letters about him) make up for the more modest recommendation letters?


texts: Making an appointment regarding letters of recommendation

texts:
My University is currently on break, so I'd be making the appointment by email, and then meeting separately to discuss it.

In the email, is it a good idea to say explicitly that the appointment is regarding letters of recommendation? It seems like it would be, but on the other hand that seems tantamount to "asking via email," which of course is frowned upon when we're in the same city. Any thoughts?


texts: Is it customary to include a dedication in an honours thesis?

texts:
I am compiling my thesis, and have noticed that the LaTeX template that I am using provides space for a dedication.

Whilst I do have an individual whom I want to credit with being a source of inspiration for my research and career motivation, I'm curious as to if honours theses normally include a dedication, and if I would be better to wait until I write my doctorate.


texts: How to answer interview question what did you do undergrad dissertation (for phd interview)

texts:
An undergrad dissertation doesn't consist of much originality, so I don't really know what to say except develop knowledge across this area, like a set of lecture notes.

but I don't think like a set of lecture note sounds too good, although nothing more is really usually expected at undergrad?

thanks


texts: Is knowledge of foreign languages per se helpful for graduate applications?

texts:
Would this be considered at all, or is this not even important? I am not talking about fields which have these foreign languages as their object of study, or where it is obvious that the language would help (if I were to study French Literature, knowledge of French would obviously be important).

But what about fields which are primarily English, so say I want to do my PhD in Political Theory. There are probably a few articles in foreign languages I could make use of, but English seems just fine. Would knowing a foreign language still be an advantage, or not really?


texts: I was caught having my phone out during a final, but I failed the test so would I still get referred to the dean?

texts:
So I had my phone on me while taking my final and one of the TAs asked if I did which I admitted to having it; he then just asked me to place it on the desk next to me and leave it there for the rest of the test, which I obliged. Then, once I turned in my final, the TA set my test aside from the rest of the other tests.
After looking at the test solutions that were given after turning the test in, I can confirm that I only got one right.

Do you think that I will be referred to the dean of my school for allegedly cheating as I got caught with having my phone on me during a test (which is obviously prohibited), yet if you look at my test, I still had failed?
Like would my professor feel the need to after seeing that I only got one right?

I was sitting in a way where my phone lay on the seat within the gap between my legs, which is how I always sit. With this I do tend to look down and start to tap the seat through my thigh gap (hopefully it's not to hard to visualize) which may look suspicious. The TA caught me around the last 45 minutes of a 3 hour period. And with my phone resting on the other desk, I still sat the way I did and still did the whole tapping thing, to which I knew he saw because he was within my peripheral sight - probably checking up on me specifically. (if this help paint the scenario better)


texts: Ethics of deadline enforcement under certain extenuating circumstances

texts:
Suppose a certain undergraduate course in computer science is given at a university which has a mandatory project part, requiring teams to be formed of two people. Student A forms a team with another student, B, but the cooperation is very difficult. Student B never shows up to work on the first assignment, contrary to a made appointment, citing illness as the reason. After that student A never hears from student B again, nor sees her in class anymore. Student A has to do all work now, which is meant for a two-man team, and therefore misses deadlines (she has other courses too which require attention). Student A leaves no stone unturned to get a new partner to form a team, but to no avail. The penalty on handing in work past the deadline is severe, so this causes the student a lot of stress. The quality of the work is not an issue, and she has done "her best" on the work like she normally would.

Is it unethical for the professor to continue to enforce the deadline and associated penalty (significantly reducing student A's grade and grade average) under these circumstances?

An additional difficulty is that student A really likes the professor and has for that reason some difficulties talking to him about these issues.


texts: Pursuing other PhD offers, after accepting one too early

texts:
I have accepted a PhD offer too early (offer was made on jan. 18, acceptance on jan. 25), mostly because I was pretty sure which university I wanted to go to.

However, I've received a very good offer at another university, and I want to visit it and see what it's like.

But after reading similar threads to this, I'm worried about the ethics of this.

Can I still go visit the other university, and potentially reject the offer I accepted?

Should I email my advisor and the graduate school and tell that I made a quick decision and I would like more time? Or should I just keep quiet and visit, so as to not look unreliable.

Am I making a big deal? I think I'm in my right to reject the offer I accepted (if I turn out to prefer the university I want to visit) because I shouldn't have made a decision prior to April 15 according to US regulations.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks

edit: This is all in the US. At the university I already accepted I only have a stipend and tuition waiver. At the other offer I have the same thing but I also have a fellowship (exempts me form working) and don't have to pay for my health insurance.

I got an offer from the professor himself, and the graduate school in both universities.


texts: How to approach other professors in a department when the potential advisor is unsure of his funding situation?

texts: I am a M.Sc. graduated in Computer Science and I am going to continue my graduate studies abroad. There is one professor who I am in contact for a few months and now he states that he is willing to hire me as PhD student if he receives good news of the grant proposals that he submitted to funding organizations. However, there is another professor in that department that I think we have a considerable overlap in our interests and backgrounds too. I mentioned the name of those professors in my Application Form in order. So now, how can I let the second professor knows (e.g. by email) that I am serious about joining her lab if the first professor could not provide funding for me. I should mention that In this department, there is just a formality admission committee and professors (independently) hire students if they can support their students through sources of funds.


texts: How important is the exact name of an undergraduate degree?

texts: How important does one think the exact name of a degree is? Suppose a student had a BASc in Software Engineering (Bachelor of Applied Science, somewhat common in Canada) or a student with a BSE degree (Bachelor of Software Engineering, as awarded by, say Waterloo), would you perceive the students differently? Do you know of instances where this may have affected a student in a job search or in grad school admissions?


texts: Is it common to perform a campus interview before asking for letters of recommendation

texts:
I was recently invited to an on-campus interview after having a skype interview. I noticed, after checking with my referees, that this particular school did not request letters of recommendation for me. It just seems odd to me that the search committee would commit to flying me out and having me complete two full days of interviews without first reviewing letters of rec.

Is this unusual? What would the advantages of doing the interview before reviewing letters be?


texts: Is it inappropriate to use school-provided remote learning tools to pursue friendship or relationship with another student?

texts:
Note: I am currently not enrolled in any courses, whether remote or in-person. This question is based on a post I saw a couple days ago on Reddit where someone asked a similar question.
Now that distance learning is quite commonplace among both secondary schools and higher learning institutes due to COVID, there isn't as much of a possibility for students to approach each other outside of class hours in an attempt to hang out together or get romantically involved, as quite frequently happened in the pre-COVID days.
My question is whether it would be considered inappropriate for a student to use private chat options on whichever platform the school provides for distance learning to contact another student for explicitly non-education related companionship, assuming the contact happens during moments where such contact would happen on campus, like between scheduled classes or during pair activities. The intent is to use the private chat options to send communications that would otherwise be done at school outside of class hours, with no real distinction between asking your best friend if they want to play some Fortnite after school and asking that cute girl in one of your classes whether she would want to go have a drink with you after school.


texts: What are the pros and cons of being a volunteer editor for ACM XRDS?

texts: I am a senior undergraduate student, and I received a mail from ACM about the openings for ACM XRDS student volunteer editors. What do these editors do? And what are the pros and cons for how would it affect my career in research?


texts: What is the process for retroactively (post completion) reviewing plagiarism on a dissertation?

texts:
I am currently at a community college so I am not privy to the inner workings of the big university world but I am curious how this works.

Recently it has become headline news that a student from a prestigious Ivy League school apparently completed their PhD back in 2000 with a dissertation that contains significant amounts of plagiarism. The university has supposedly initiated a review (though they are officially taking the standard "no comment" position and also the more extreme position of not even confirming if they are conducting any investigation).

  Note: Here is a link to the news article for those interested in the details but I do not want to make this Question all about the politics involved, I am interested the academia processes.

At first glance I was rather stunned that a school as prestigious as this one could have possibly accepted such extremely poor work and provided a PhD based on it but I guess even the best of us can make errors. What I want to know now is how such "fixing past mistakes" issues are typically handled.

Specifically I would like to know the following (based on your experience at your institutions):

(1) Would such a review process be limited to the dissertation itself or would all the work of the student be reviewed?

(2) Would such a review involve questioning the academic advisor/research supervisor? What about the thesis committee?

(2a) On a sidenote: Would the thesis committee for a doctorate degree be obligated to check the research in detail or are they allowed to rely on the research supervisor for that task?

(3) Would such a review look at the theses of other PhD graduates who were under the same supervisor?

(4) What happens if such a review finds a doctorate is academically or ethically flawed? What, if any, penalties can be invoked against the student?

(5) If the outcome is to void the degree would the student be offered a chance to comment/defend or would the degree be revoked without warning?

(6) How long would such a review typically take to complete?

Because this Question is prompted by a high-profile incident I am not sure if any of the process used by Columbia University in this particular case will be "typical". For instance I can easily envision that some eager beaver investigative reporter will pull copies of all the theses with the same supervisor and look for more instances of plagiarism. If I can predict this I am just as sure that Columbia will do the same and want to get ahead of any exposé by both expediting the initial review and being comprehensive to prevent any further "unexpected" embarrassments.

That said, I would like to know what is/has been typical in such review processes before today.


texts: I have a Ph.D. in Educational Science from Iran. Do I need accreditation to work in the U.S.?


texts: Typical assistant vs. associate professor startup packages

texts:
In the United States, are the startup packages offered for tenure-track positions at research universities typically significantly different for the assistant and associate professor levels?

Background: I am a researcher in computer science considering moving from an industrial position to a university tenure track position. I have recently received an offer for a tenure-track position at the associate professor level (expected, given my career position).

The startup package being offered seems rather weak to me, however, particularly comparing it against a startup package that I know was offered to another person who recently entered this department in a similar position but at the assistant professor level.

Is it typical for a new associate professor to be offered a much smaller startup package than a new assistant professor (perhaps on the theory that they are already established in their career), or is the university giving me a weak offer?


texts: Is "Actes de JADT" same as JADT conference? Where to download Actes de JADT publications?

texts:
A paper is cited in another paper as:

An Arabic morphological analyzer and part-of-speech tagger
M Altabba, A Al-Zaraee, MA Shukairy
Actes de JADT, 50, 2010

You can check the reference at https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/F13-1029
And Google Scholar shows that the paper is published at Actes de JADT: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sdbpUkYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
But I could not find it at JADT 2010 files: http://lexicometrica.univ-paris3.fr/jadt/jadt2010/tocJADT2010.htm#Contents
I am confused. Is Actes de JADT the same as JADT conference?
If they are different, where to download the publications of Actes de JADT? And if they are the same, why I cannot find the above mentioned paper at the contents of JADT 2010?
Thanks,


texts:
Is the Octogon Mathematical Magazine still accepting paper submissions?

The latest contents in the Archive section is Volume 20. No. 1 April, 2012, though I am not particularly sure if this website is updated (or if this is even the correct website that I should be looking at).

I did check WorldCat and it appears that the journal is still in print.

  Is Octogon Mathematical Magazine indeed still in print?


texts: Approximate time frame to switch to different research area

texts:
I made a conscious decision some time back to pursue a career in academia and I got back into graduate school this year, working in an 'applied computing' area--educational technology. While I thoroughly enjoy what I am currently working on, in the near future, I intend to conduct research in more mainstream computer science areas. My question is, how long would it theoretically take for one to radically switch research areas? I know there is probably NO fixed time frame for this, but I am especially interested in hearing from individuals that did this or attempted to do this early on in their careers. I would also appreciate additional advice on how I could start working towards this at an early stage. Incidentally, I came across an interesting CACM article [1] that ascribes a 10-year 'once-in-a-career' shift, mostly as a result of evolving technology.

[1] http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168170-trends-in-computer-science-research


texts: At what point does a PhD student have to commit to a research group (US)?

texts:
I am planning to apply to PhD programs in the US this Fall (to start in 2020). I have been looking at various institutions and research groups in my area and I am wondering at what point a PhD student generally has to commit themself to a particular research lab/group?

For example, is it at the time they apply for the program at that institution? I can imagine this might be the case, because the labs will have a limited amount of funding, so the institution would need to know what group you will be working with when they make offers, to ensure that no group ends up being over-subscribed for their funding level. Would an offer for a PhD studentship typically be conditional that you join a particular lab after accepting?

However, I have read in some places that, during the first year or semester, PhD students typically 'shop around' the various labs they are interested in, to speak to more people in the lab than they were able to meet before they applied, before they decide which lab they will join. This seems to make better sense to me, in terms of finding the right 'fit' with a lab/PI. However, if the research group is not determined until after a PhD student starts the program, is there a possibility that some labs might end up over-subscribed; some students may not end up at the lab they wanted when they applied; or even that a PhD student could end up not being placed with a PI at all?

Or, does the system work differently for different institutions?

I have heard about some PhD students changing groups mid-way through their PhD, because they found the first lab was not a good fit. So, it seems that there must be some level of flexibility to move around and change groups after starting a program.


texts: Where should I put the "Definition of concepts" section in a Research Paper

texts: I'm writing a research paper and there are some concepts which I think would help a reader to understand the study better. However, I'm not sure where to put this section. Should I put it right after the Introduction? Or before Literature Review?


texts: Professor I am working with asked for my code

texts:
My postdoctoral adviser has a colleague (another professor) who she collaborated with occasionally. This professor has data that I was interested in. Together with my advisor, the three of us started a project for which I did all the modeling.

We have not finished the project yet, but the 'other professor' announced today that he will be moving to another university in the next six months or so (I am not sure exactly when). He asked me if I could share with him a copy of the source code that I wrote for the modeling and analysis of the data. I feel uncomfortable about this, since I don't know if I will be included on manuscripts, new projects, etc. that will be coming out of the current unfinished project. I talked to my postdoctoral advisor, but she is not very helpful and actually suggested to 'just give him a copy of the [source code]'. I am not against sharing code, but I am just afraid this other professor will be using (a modified version of) my code and then not include me on a any manuscript that will be resulting from the code.


texts: What is the best way to decline an interview after applying for it?

texts:
I have applied to 2 postdoc jobs in the same university and have been selected for a 2nd interview in one before doing the first interview in the other lab.

The interviews are set at different times and so I will not be able to attend both so I wish to cancel the one where I haven't been yet. Should I say to the professor the truth "I will be interviewing with another lab" or shall I just say that for some reason I have to cancel it without mentioning the other interview?


texts: What generally happens if a department is unable to attract students?

texts:
Say the math department used to teach 200 students, but because each year the number of students interested in math has decreased, now it only teaches 100 students. What are the usual practical consequences?

This clearly depends on the internal policy of the institute, but I wonder if some generalizations are possible, e.g. whether the department will be forced to downsize or whether people outside the department will intervene and try to help the department get more students.


texts: Should a very competitive person pursue a career in academia after getting a PhD?

texts:
I am getting my phd degree (in a STEM field) at a Top 20 department in a year or two, and I truly love my field, but I’m not sure if I should try for jobs at academia.

The thing is, I feel that I am way too competitive. I know this isn't a healthy attitude, but I cannot stop comparing myself with smarter people consistently and feeling stupid and inferior later, and I always care about people’s opinions on me too much. Back when I was an undergraduate, I felt terrible even if I got fewer scores on homework assignments than my peers/friends. I don't have hostility against people who are smarter than me; I really don't. But I admit that I feel really uncomfortable while being surrounded by people who are much better than me.

Having said that, I still do not want to give up working on my field, but I still cannot concentrate my mind completely on my research in order to ignore how I rank among others. Is my issue solvable? I really appreciate your advice, not to mention this is a really hard topic to discuss with others in real life.


texts: On the qualification for teacher-researcher/enseignant-chercheur (MCF) positions in France and its recent abolition - what exactly does the law say?

texts:
My question is about the necessity of the qualification for teacher-researcher/enseignant-chercheur (maître de conférence- abbreviated as MCF below) positions in France and its recent abolition in 2020. I'm unable to conclude if a PhD who doesn't already have a relevant position of teacher-researcher, can apply for the same in France without the qualification? (N.B. please note that the qualification is a process or at least used to be a process, which every applicant has/had to go through, it's a technical term, not a generic English word in my post.)
I did some research and asked people already in the French academia, and from there, I'm getting two seemingly contradictory information:
Information 1: from December 2020, one is no longer required to have qualification to apply for the MCF (= enseignant-chercheur) positions, see link1, link2,
Information 2: On the other hand though, when I wrote to the people of Galaxie, they replied:
"Pour information, si vous n’êtes pas maître de conférences titulaire (ou assimilé) vous devez disposer d’une qualification délivrée par le CNU en cours de validité. La loi de programmation pour la recherche supprime l’inscription par le CNU sur une liste de qualification aux fonctions de professeur des universités pour tous les candidats qui ont la qualité de maître de conférences titulaire (ou assimilé) et non pas pour ceux qui souhaitent devenir maître de conférence."
The above essentially says that the qualification step is no longer mandatory for the post of university professors only and not for MCF. As you see, the two above pieces of information seem contradictory/confusing, as I don't have the link to the exact law that was passed. Hence my question to the academic people in France - can a foreigner apply to the MCF positions now without having the qualification?


texts: Relation between subscription fees and adminstrative costs

texts: Does anybody know what the ratio between subscription fees and the real article processing charges (so actual administrative costs) is? So in other words, how much money is made out of the subscription fees.


texts: What are the most efficient steps I can take to be accepted into a great PH.D Psychology Program?

texts:
I want to get a PhD in psychology. I have a computer Science /minor in math with a 2.9. I worked two jobs while in school (as a software technician and a Calculus tutor) and I have one year experience as a SW engineer outside of school. I am currently 25 years old.

This question is not the same as being a weak student and getting in to a great program. Rather this is a complete shift from major and discipline; while also being semi-borderline.


texts: When will the authors be listed alphabetically?

texts:
Recently, I noticed that some of the papers actually had their author names listed in the alphabetical order.

Say Mr. Smith contributed more than Mr. Black. Then without noticing the tiny footnote, one will simply take Mr. Black as the first author.

I am wondering whether there exists some certain such scenarios where the authors have to be listed as such. Will it be unfair for the first-author-should-be?

Update:

I am talking about EECS field. I see most of the papers list the authors according to the contributions. But only occasionally, I see alphabetically-listed authors.


texts: Responding to a query for a grant to attend conference

texts:
I applied for a grant to attend a conference last month and received the following query:

  We are currently in the middle of assessing the Conference Attendance
  applications and the assessors would like to ask you for a further
  explanation on how XXX research is related to
  and brings benefits to, the Internet? Is it expected that XXX will
  bring connectivity to an isolated individual?

Now, I am thinking about how to respond to them. My concerns are,

(i) Should I respond them back simply in the form of email (the way I received their query) or should I make a .pdf document for it?

(ii) Should my answer be very detailed or just to the point (in which case, it may be one short paragraph only)?

(iii) Any other do's and dont's !

Thanks


texts: Will research experience in chemical engineering count when applying to grad school for biomedical engineering?

texts:
I am a sophomore international student currently majoring in chemical engineering and hoping to get into graduate school for biomedical engineering sometime in the future. My university is very small and is more focused on defense rather than biomedical engineering research so the chemical engineering department is the only engineering department on campus that conducts biomedical engineering research.

Because of this and a lack of understanding of the major, I decided to major in chemical engineering. However, as I get deeper and deeper into my major, I realize I'm not very happy with it. I don't enjoy the process engineering industrial aspect of my major and realized that I want to get involved in imaging research. But none of the faculty in the engineering college at my university do this kind of research. I’m also being told that I needed to have done something like electrical engineering or mechanical engineering to get involved in imaging.

I’m afraid that if I switch majors now, the research with biomaterials that I am currently doing with a faculty member in the chemical engineering department won’t be counted as research experience for graduate school. I am also afraid of burning bridges with this faculty member in question by just switching to another engineering major. Long story short, I still want to get into a biomedical engineering PhD program, but I’m just concerned that the field that I’m currently in won’t get me into the specific field of biomedical engineering that I’m interested in in the future.

Will the research I’m doing now count as relevant experience for graduate school and positively add to my graduate school admissions?


texts: What is necessary for mathematics graduate school?

texts:
I am an undergrad junior at a top 60 institution (big state school in the United States) majoring in Pure Math. Course selection for Spring 2020 is coming around, and I want to know which courses to take for the strongest graduate school applications.

I'm currently planning on going into either combinatorics, graph theory, or theoretical CS. I have done internships in Software Engineering and Data Science (Machine Learning). My GPA is a 3.75 and the courses I have taken/am planning on taken are the following:

Calculus I - III
Linear Algebra I and II
Differential Equations
Advanced Calculus I (Real Analysis)
Mathematical Statistics
Discrete Math I and II (II is graph theory)
Numerical Analysis I and II
Abstract Algebra I and II
Programming I, II, Data Structures, Computer Architecture,Theory of Computation, Analysis of Algorithms
Topology I
Complex Analysis

Classes I might take if they look better for graduate school:

Advanced Calc II
Number Theory
Mathematical Logic

Along with these courses, I have some interdisciplinary research in neuroscience under my belt, but I plan on doing research with a math professor next semester.

Will my chances of getting into a good graduate school (top 60) be affected heavily if I don't have a full year of Real Analysis? Also, would I be well suited for a PhD in computer science (TCS)?


texts:
arXiv.org has largely been supported by its team of moderators for various fields such as Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics and so on. On its website, arXiv mentions:

Moderators consider the submissions to arXiv as privileged information, as they would with a paper being refereed for a journal. arXiv moderators are approved by their discipline-level advisory committees and by arXiv staff.

and, in another page:

arXiv moderators are volunteer subject specialists who have been approved by their discipline-level advisory committees and by arXiv staff.

My questions are the following:

How can someone become an arXiv moderator?
Is there an application process? (couldn't find in moderation page)


texts: Career Suggestion: Should I try to improve my manuscript or try to increase paper count after submitting PhD thesis

texts:
I am a PhD student in Applied Mathematics. I submitted my Phd thesis and starting to apply for postdoc positions.

In my PhD thesis I have one work published in a tier 1 math journal and the other two works still unpublished. My question is the following: Should I submit the unpublished works in tier 1 journals and try to improve the quality of the manuscripts (with the reviewer's suggestions) or, submit to 2nd/3rd tier journals so that it gets accepted as soon as possible so that my paper count increases. I want to apply for faculty positions after 2 years from now. At this phase of my career what option should I choose?


texts: Can I say I'm undecided yet in my statement of purpose ? (PhD in math)

texts:
I just started my 2nd year of master and it's already time to apply for a PhD in math, deadlines are in ~1+ month.

In most samples, students had a clear idea of what they would like to study. They write that they have studied this and that, and that they would like to be under Prof. X's supervision because they worked on his papers.

As for me, I liked most math topics that I have studied, with very few exceptions. In short, I'm undecided, exactly when I buy an ice cream and  I'm facing 20 good flavours.

Most universities, on their application page, offer "undecided" among the options (algebra, number theory, ...). Although they may say "it's totally fine" (because everything is nowadays), what is the truth behind the appearances?

Stories from people who are on admissions committees or from [un]successful applicants who wrote that in their SOP are most welcome.

EDIT: I successfully got admitted to some really good US universities with "undecided" in my SOP


texts: Why institutions and governments invest in infrustructure instead of hiring researcher permanently?

texts:
I have observed two recurring trends in Academia, both in Europe and in North America. I don't have statistics in hand but I can present quite a few examples of budgets in which the investment for new infrastructure is 1000 fold what is invested in hiring permanent research staff. For example the French government has invested 4.6 billion euros in buildings and 680 million in researcher for a large research hub outside Paris. New infrastructure, most often new buildings, are filled with temporary staff, more than half of researchers are on temporary contracts. Some European countries even have limitations on the number of times a contract can be renewed, so researchers end up moving from one lab to another, which is also an inefficient use of (public) money.

A building is only paid once, while 20-30 years of salary definitely adds up, but considering the cost of a new building we could easily hire hundreds of researcher. I would rather have more permanent staff in an old building than being in a new building with 80% of temporary researchers.

So why this agenda and why is money not invested more in people? Is it just imposed by politicians? Why don't large recent centers ask for more permanent positions to be funded?

PS: I am not even sure what tags would be appropriate for this question.


texts: What features should be included in your actual accomplishments and skills to be accepted in a top university like MIT

texts:
I was wondering about
 how can one apply for a PhD program in a top ranked university.
I can tell you about a namely accomplishments and skills which is labelled as 'very good' for a graduated M.Sc student in an average university so that you can consult me and the people who almost have a similar accomplishments and skills.

To be more precise I would like to know:

How can one be accepted and get the scholarship for a very top-ranked university like Berkeley, MIT. For example are the following accomplishments and skills satisfactory?
If not, which points should be added or improved generally?
How much is it matter how old are you for applying for PhD at these places?
What features differentiate the CV of someone admitted to a top school (MIT)versus someone admitted to an average school (Calgary Canada).

Two ISI papers Including one 'Power systems, IEEE Transactions
on ' and 'Electric Power Components and Systems'.
IELTS and GRE meet the minimum requirements.
Having a very strong recommendation letter. Also, my supervisor professor is one of the top (top 50) in his field.
Two years teaching experience in a small university as a lecturer.

P.S. I have B.Sc and M.Sc in Electrical Engineering.


texts: What is the point of listing 1000 authors for a single scientific paper?

texts:
I arrived at the printer room this afternoon to collect my printing and I happened to notice that someone was yet to collect a printout of the gravitational waves paper that has been all over the scientific news the last few days/weeks. Of course, I was curious, so I had a peek.

It struck me that there was only one author... until I saw the asterisk indicating a full list of authors could be found at the end of the article.

There I found three full pages of authors. I have no intention of counting the exact number, but a quick estimate by word count suggests there are over 1000 authors from 133 institutions.

You always need to give credit where credit is due, that is a given. But to put it in context, there are at most 7 words of article per author. In fact, I can think of a number of problems coming from so many authors (like who do you contact if you have a question - the list is alphabetical and there doesn't appear to be a designated contact person).

What is the value of listing so many authors and why should (or shouldn't) it happen?

Update:
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful answers. As much as I want to choose an answer, I honestly cannot decide between the two most upvoted, so I'm going to abstain from choosing one.


texts: Are the Newton fellowships (UK) prestigious enough to warrant low post-doc pay?

texts:
I'm nearing the end of my graduate studies (1-1.5yrs remain) and have been looking out for post-doc opportunities. I came across the Newton Fellowships, which provide funding for up to 2 years of research work at any participating university in the UK.

The fellowship requirements seem very competitive — a full fledged project proposal and multiple independent evaluations of the said proposal, in addition to the usual requirements. However, in the end, the pay is about 24k £. They do have an 8k £ allowance for research related expenses, but that probably is reserved for publication costs, travel, computer equipment and not a personal allowance.

From my research into pay scales in the UK, the lower end of the post-doc pay scale begins at about 28-29k £. More over, there is no cost of living adjustments, so if you're in an expensive place like Oxford or London, it's definitely not sufficient.

This brings me to the question — is the fellowship prestigious enough to warrant the low pay? Does anyone have experience with this fellowship (past fellows)? Are there opportunities to supplement the income? Don't get me wrong here... I'm not in it just for the money. Like every academic, the research topic is more important for me. But at the same time, I do not want to be working for well below what's normal and have to severely pinch pockets to support a family.


texts: What is the location of the nomenclature section in a scientific paper?

texts:
I received this comment from a reviewer: “ It is better to add a nomenclature section with a list of all the used symbols and their meaning as example (DVB-T, DVB-S2, BCH, OSFBC, LDPC...), consequently the paper should be re-arranged eliminating all the definitions given in the sections”.

Are there any specific position for this section ?


texts: Inline citation within my inline citation (MLA)

texts:
I am using a source, which, across the three sentences I am citing, includes two parenthetical citations.

For example:

If this is my sentence, and now I cite: "this is my source sentence one (Other Author 1891). And, he continues with more (A different author 1912)." (My Source Author)

Must I include my sources parenthetical citations within my quotation? My inclination is no.

Thanks for any help.


texts: Applying for a postdoc when you don't have all the necessary skills

texts:
I have recently completed my PhD and now looking for a postdoc/research assistant position. I found a few positions that look attractive - but I don't have all the skills listed in the job ad. I have some and I know I can learn the rest quickly; I also know from talking to other postdocs that their current research is not related to their PhD projects.
The question is - should I apply for the jobs I'm not completely qualified for since it's normal to learn on the job, or is it a total waste of time? And how should I answer to selection criteria in this case?


texts: PhD application: Writing summary of accomplishments

texts:
[I am too much afraid to ask this question becuase I think most of you will say that I am too stupid to understand meaning of "Summary of Accomplishments".]

So, I am applying for a PhD position which is asking for "Summary of Accomplishments" letter. What things should be included in it?

Is it about my accomplishments other than my research work or research work itself is an accomplishment? I was teacher assistant in many courses, it is an accomplishment? Should it be written in a list form or in a paragraph form?

In short, what does "accomplishments" mean when PhD hiring committee ask for it?

I am asking this question here becuase I could not find any appropriate answer from Google.


texts:
I'm a PhD student in applied mathematics
I’m in a quiet period since I’ve submitted all that my supervisor asked for (I’m a first year), I like to read as many articles as I can get my hands on. I’ll use connected papers and google scholar (as well as Microsoft academic) to find all the associated articles I can and then import them into notability where I highlight, read and find good search terms for future papers. I also like to make notes and repeat any calculations I see so i can gain a deeper understanding. What should I be doing so that I can develop my skills as a researcher?
Am I doing this right, is it good practice do this?


texts: How to toughen up against hostile students as a TA?

texts:
I did not have a good experience when I TA'ed the first time. I faced a hostile student who refused to accept that he was wrong and didn't give me a good reason why he should deserve more marks. He showed a propensity for violence, shouted at me loudly, punched the table and gave me an extremely evil look. I was very afraid and shocked then.

I know I should have stopped the meeting and called the security. But I was at a loss then. I don't like that I was so easily frightened by a bad student. Though I haven't met such a student later, one never knows when the next time will be. Can anyone advise how to become tougher when facing such "evil" badly behaving students?


texts: What is this "mixed" citation style that includes both numbered references and author-date formats?

texts:
Once or twice I had encountered papers which used quite convenient citation styles, which combined numbered and parenthetical references. The list of references at the end of the paper is sorted alphabetically, as in Harvard referencing, but also all references are numbered, so it looks like this:

[1] AuthorA (2015) ...

[2] AuthorB (2000) ...

[3] AuthorC (2010) ...

In the text, one might use numbers to save space ("as shown in [2],..."), or parenthetical reference: "as shown by AuthorB (2000),...". And it's really convenient, since depending on the situation you might choose how to cite. I failed to find the name of such citation style -  is it at all standardized, or is it just the invention of those papers that I had encountered (as far as I remember, they were preprints from arXiv)?


texts: Why subscribe to printed versions of math journals?

texts:
This question follows from a MathOverflow question, "Why should one subscribe to print Journals".

It seems obvious to me that having print journals in a library is beneficial. Yes, Arxiv, MathSciNet, Blogs and lecture notes by Mathematicians, Math Overflow, Wikipedia and Scholarpedia all of these have been extremely helpful in dissemination of research mathematics. Amongst other things electronic copies of articles helped immensely in increasing accessibility.

Most journals these days have an online version. Which probably only a few would argue is not beneficial.

What I can't get myself agree is the opinion that one should stop subscribing to print copies of journals altogether. The arguments against subscribing both print and online I have come across are cost, space constraint, and redundancy.

The difference between online and print+online versions of journals are often marginal. If space constraint is an issue then one can argue against having a library as well. Why subscribe to the journals at all as most of the articles are available in the internet free.

What I can't fathom is the argument that print version of journals have become redundant.

I am asking this as in a discussion regarding journal subscription many faculty members expressed the opinion that we should stop subscribing to print version of the journals. How does one defend the case for need of print journals?

Am I overly emotional and just nostalgic for old times? So many times I chanced upon a result while browsing through the pages of a journal; sometimes relevant to my own area, and sometimes totally unrelated but so exciting that it got me interested in that area.

I am sure this issue or debate is not limited to my university and I am asking this question here hoping to benefit from the comments and thoughts you may share.

My question is what are the benefits of subscribing print version of journals, even if online versions are available. How it helps the research of faculty and graduate students.


texts:
I'm sorry if this is a wrong place to ask this question but I hoped to hear from others who travelled long distance for an interview.

Finally after countless applications I was invited for an interview next month. I'm trying to arrange my journey there (London to Glasgow). I'm trying to keep the expenses to minimum. Fastest option is a flight BUT I would need to leave home from 3/4am to make it on time (interview at 10am, home to airport via coach, then flight, then airport to institute via bus). That is if there are absolutely no delays.

My alternative would be to take a coach (8-9h), stay overnight in a hostel. And then the next day meet them all fresh and ready.

So I emailed them politely asking them if this arrangement would be acceptable stating that I worry I might not make it on time if I travel on the day of the interview.

They replied to me stating 'no' and that my statement is wrong (about not being on time) and went on to say that there are plenty of flights on that day. They sounded very upset at me.

So now I made a wrong impression even before meeting them. I even made them search for me and made them wrongly accuse me of trying to visit Glasgow at their expenses.

I get a very bad feeling about all this and I still would rather not go with the plane option. It's not only about being late but also arriving tired and dishevelled (formal suit).

Am I wrong to feel a bit angry at them? I would keep the travel expenses to minimum and it would be a huge difference not to travel overnight with multiple changes.


texts: Should an intern who wrote most of a paper and where the first author contributed little request to be first author?

texts:
Background: A little over a year ago, I wrote a paper for an internship (during high school) at a major university medical center. My contribution to the paper was basically everything except conception and some editing/revision (mainly phrasing, not content). The author list, in order, is: immediate supervisor, me, other intern, senior person in group, and PI. The other intern put in about 3 hours of work which were not used in the final manuscript before disappearing to another country and not responding to my attempts to contact. My immediate supervisor, frankly, had very little contribution and is not giving the paper the attention I would like; they took a year to submit the paper (rejected the first time by a reach journal), is taking excessively long to resubmit or get back to me about it, and is usually radio silent.

I have a pretty good relationship with the PI, who seems somewhat aware that my immediate supervisor is not being responsive or attentive. It's from work done during high school, so I don't have very much experience with these politics.

Can and should I ask the PI (or someone) about changing the order of authors?
and what actions would be appropriate for me to take to try and get the paper finally submitted relatively soon?


texts: Who should write references for me in a mid-career job search?

texts:
I am a tenured professor planning about seven years past the Ph.D. Over the past few years, I've applied to a handful of jobs (I haven't been looking aggressively -- just applied to the good opportunities that came up, along with 500 other people).

My references usually come from:
1) My Ph.D. advisor (who has moved to a new institution since I finished my Ph.D.).
2) another professor who taught me in graduate school.
3) a mid-career professor from another institution who has read some of my publications.  He's not a super-star academic that anyone from any field inmy discipline will know, but he is established and well known within my particular field.
4) (for jobs requiring four reference letters) another professor from my graduate institution.

This is basically the same set of letters I have used since I was on the market as an ABD student seven years ago.  They worked back then for finding a tenure-track job, but I'm wondering now if I should shake things up -- perhaps get away from having any letters from people at my graduate institution other than my Ph.D. advisor, for example.  I worry that the letters from professors who only knew me in graduate school will seem stale (and frankly, I haven't had much contact with these people since I graduated, so they probably can't comment in detail on what I have been up to since I was a student).

If I don't continue to rely largely on letters from professor at my graduate institution, whose letters should I replace them with?  People who I think were anonymous reviewers for my books and articles?  People who I think wrote letters for my tenure review?  People in my current department whom I trust (this is tricky, of course, since I don't want to advertise too loudly within the department that I am applying for new jobs)?

I'm in the humanities, for what that's worth.


texts:
I have an ESL student living in Mongolia. In two years she’s going to Uni and is eyeing up the German Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology.
Her aspiration is a degree in Engineering Economics. The difference at the GM Inst is that the degree is done in English.
At the same time she is considering to learn Korean (a neighbouring country - economically). I tried to put her off starting a new language at this stage, especially since she needs to get her English up to C1 to enroll.
From my perspective in the UK, this could be the wrong advice. Economic changes could actually make Korean more useful to her (even though I’m skeptical).
Her math and physics (the other requirements) seem to be sound. She’s only worried about language, really. She fears Mongolian and English might not be enough.
I have suggested she read relevant online articles in English but only professional articles are available and they are very difficult to understand.
She has two years to get ready. Her English Level is Intermediate. Does anyone have a few helpful suggestions/experience?


texts: Conference Registration Fees are so high, is it normal?

texts:
My colleague research paper got accepted at a conference named (International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications http://www.cloud-conf.net/trustcom18/). They claim that the conference is A-Ranked according to core2018 when you check it as IEEE Trustcom. Is it correct that this conference is A-Ranked conference (http://portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks/790/)? is it really the same conference or they are taking advantage of this misunderstanding?

Also, I got shocked when I noticed that the student registration fee is $1095.00 for regular research papers. The full accepted paper has only limited 6 pages in length to be included in the final proceedings. My research paper is 12 pages.
The program committee wants to charge me $150.00 for each extra page. This in total will be around $2000.00 just as registration fees.

Is it normal too?


texts: In a job talk for a postdoc position, should I refocus my talk to be closer to the research at this research center?

texts:
I've been invited to visit a research center for a postdoc position, including giving a brief talk (25min) about my thesis.

My doubt is, should I refocus my talk to be closer to the research they are doing? If yes, how to do it, what to consider?

I think they just expect a good talk, since I will have later this day a meeting with future mentors, other postdocs and students.


texts: How to leave a postdoc prematurely without burning bridges?

texts:
I am in the middle of a postdoc that I want to quit to move to another postdoc. I don’t have experience with changing jobs in academia so I am looking for an advice how to accomplish this in the least painful way.

There are many threads on SE about quitting a job, mostly on the workplace. In industry it’s simple: upon finding a new job, one gives notice without prior announcement and completes the notice period. And in most cases it’s understandable and it doesn’t burn bridges.

Academia might be different: relations are more sensitive, and circles are smaller as one needs recommendation letters, get papers and grants reviewed, and so on.

So the question is how to leave a postdoc prematurely without burning bridges?

Is it better to just quit without much explanation or to gradually announce to my professor that I would like to start looking for a new postdoc because I am not happy with the current one?

The main reason for quitting is that I don’t find the department to be a nice environment and I am doing menial work from which I don’t benefit. Explaining these reasons won’t be received well by the professor and the department because they think that the project is great. People are nice to me but discussing this won’t help nor much can change my mind. On the other hand, I’m not sure if suddenly quitting will be received well too and might jeopardize my future career.


texts: Should I submit a paper to a venue that is unlikely to accept it?

texts:
Here's the situation I am in:

I have written a paper. I need to decide whether to submit it to GREAT [insert conference/journal name here] or to GOOD [ditto]. I would prefer to have a GREAT publication, rather than a GOOD publication. However, GREAT is a long shot, while GOOD is very likely to accept my paper.
Should I try submitting to GREAT or just submit to GOOD?
I'm thinking that I may as well try to get into GREAT. If it gets rejected, I can still submit to GOOD. So what's the harm?

Is there anything wrong with this thinking? That is, are there costs (other than time and effort) to being rejected from GREAT? In particular, does it look bad (in the eyes of reviewers/editors/PC members) to have a paper rejected?

For context, I am in computer science. I'm submitting to conferences and the accept/reject notification date for GREAT is before the submission deadline for GOOD. Thus there would be no delay in publication if it gets rejected by GREAT versus directly submitting to GOOD.

I think the probability that GREAT accepts my paper is around 15%. What is an appropriate threshold for trying to get in?


texts: How long should it take a potential PhD supervisor to evaluate proposal?

texts:
I've contacted a potential PhD supervisor last month and gave him my PhD proposal. about a week after that I've got a response from the professor, acknowledging the receipt of my proposal and saying that he will respond as quickly as possible. I haven't received any other response since last month and I'm getting kind of anxious.

Should I write him an email again or let him contact me first with a
reply?
How long does this process of proposal evaluation take?


texts: In a faculty job search, when and how should I reveal my preferences?

texts:
I am currently interviewing for tenure-track faculty positions at a number of top departments in my field.  Despite getting some very positive feedback about my interviews, I have not yet received any offers.  So far I have tried to avoid any "game playing," being very explicit with each department about where and when I am interviewing.  Likewise, in follow-up discussions with hosts, I have been careful not to state any strong preferences for one school or another, mentioning that I still have additional places to visit (seems only fair!).  I am starting to wonder, however, whether this approach was a mistake, especially given that others in my field are already receiving offers.

The question is, how should I proceed from here?  Part of the issue is that I do not fully understand how and when offers are made, which leads to several questions:

Question 1: How often are offers made before the end of the interview period (i.e., before all candidates have been interviewed)?

I know it happens, of course, but how frequently?  (E.g., as a percentage of all offers made by the department over a 10-year period.)  A related question is

Question 2: If a candidate expresses that a school is her top choice, does it make any difference to the hiring committee?

In fact, can expressing this kind of preference actually hurt a candidate's chances?  E.g., perhaps it makes this candidate look like a "sure thing," which frees the department to first make an offer to another, "higher-risk" candidate.  In general, when is a good time to express such a preference?  Finally,

Question 3: To what extent do different departments talk to each-other?

For instance, is there any mechanism in place to prevent candidates from "falling through the cracks?"  E.g., one can easily imagine a situation in which lower-ranked schools don't make a candidate an offer because they expect she will get an offer from a higher-ranked school; subsequently, the higher-ranked schools make her no offer and she is left without a job.  Likewise, if I express a preference for school X before visiting school Y, do I risk pissing off my hosts at Y?

Question 4: Do I just need to relax?

I am almost tempted to write an email CC'ing all the department chairs, providing a complete ordering of my preferences... they can duke it out from there.  (Or simply tell me that none of them want to hire me!)  In general, the whole game-theoretic aspect of this thing makes me a bit queasy.  Wish some brilliant economist would design a mechanism that is fair for both departments and candidates alike.  Right now, it definitely feels like a buyer's market.


texts: Postponing faculty start date due to covid and Pregnancy?

texts:
Any advice? I’m just a few weeks pregnant, due in June. I’m supposed to start a faculty position (tt - great fit) at a research intensive R1 school. Our plan had been to move back to the US in December.
If I start the position in January, I’d have probably about 4 weeks of paid leave.
On my current fellowship in Canada, I have a full year. (Could start the 1 yr in June) But I’m scared I’d lose my position.
Anyone have any thoughts? I’m also concerned about moving back to the US mid-COVID super pregnant.


texts: Presenting in a remote conference via video-conferencing

texts:
A paper of mine just got accepted to a computer science conference. Due to personal reasons I cannot fly to that conference. I was suggested to ask a friend who flies there to present the paper for me, but I think it may not be a good idea since the friend might be unable to answer questions. So I thought of a different solution: I can rent a room with special video-conferencing equipment and present from there.

Is this solution common? What should be taken into account to implement it?


texts: SOP - UK department offers two distinct masters - I am interested in both

texts:
There is a department I am interested in, and it offers two distinct MA's. One is more of a broad course (course A), the other one more specialised (course B).

I am interested in two subjects which have nothing whatsoever to do with one another. Also assume that there is no overlap. Subject B is covered by course B, but then I would not be doing any of Subject A. Should I get into course A however I could do Subject B as well. However, Subject A has a slight priority to me.

My problem is that I would like to apply to both courses, but I don't know what to say in my statement of purpose. Since it's the same faculty, they will most likely see both my applications. If I say in application A, that I am primarily interested in subject A, and vice versa in application B, that might look deceptive since they will see both applications.

If I say that I am interested in Subject B, and then (should I get onto course A) would change my interests during my studies and opt for Subject A, - this also might not look the best.

There are professors in both subjects who I potentially like to work with, but I am worried to tell them since the subjects are very different and have no overlap, I feel it would just look not very good.

Any advice what I could do in such a situation? How would I best structure my statements of purpose & contact professors about potential supervisions without looking like I am trying to juggle too many balls at once? I also would like to look determined and less insecure about what I want to do, but I would just like to keep both options until I know where I can get in.


texts: How to reference an introduction to a text? (Harvard)

texts:
I'd like to use the Harvard referencing system to reference a quotation taken from James McFarlane's 1981 introduction to a 2008 reissue of an Oxford World's Classics publication of his Henrik Ibsen Four Major Plays collection.

It contains works he translated from original Norwegian.

I have no idea how to reference this.


texts: As a lab assistant, how many hours per week am I expected to be helping out?

texts:
I am in my third year of computer engineering studies, and was offered a position as lab assistant in the electronics lab. I am oriented towards software, so I'm not exactly interested in the subject itself, but to my understanding, being a lab assistant is quite a good thing for the CV, plus it's good to be a familiar face to a professor or two, and I like the work, so I'd generally like to continue.

What makes me skeptical is the fact that I am in the lab for two hours on Monday evening (I miss the first hour due to an overlapping class), three hours on Thursday evening, and six hours on Friday from 3pm up to 9 o'clock, which brings the total time up to 14 hours. While I can probably cope with that, I was also asked to grade some reports (is it even legal for undergrads to grade undergrads?), a subject I want to discuss on another question.

At any rate, I have felt a big impact on my independent pursuits since I started, namely some days I'm at the campus all day so I don't feel like I'm doing much, and I really can't stand not doing stuff.

The question comes down to this: As an undergrad lab assistant, how much time am I expected to devote to the lab, and how much work am I expected to do at home? How serious a commitment did I make?


texts: Application for master's course: should my motivation letter include my contact?

texts:
I am applying for a master's program at a german university, and as my whole application includes a CV (with my detailed personal info and contact), should my motivation letter include my contact at the begining? Or is the fact that i am submitting my CV enough for them?
Also, do I include the contact of the university as well?


texts: How to present projects that will soon be published on CV?

texts: I have several projects that will be published soon. I am the 1st author in two of them and co-author in 3 of them. How to present this in my CV?


texts: Do I have to include my pronouns in a course outline?

texts:
I am a TA in a US school and my professor told me to include my pronouns in the course outline. I personally would rather not for social and religious reasons.
Her argument was that I will confuse students because they do not know what my pronouns are. I find this argument not convincing since it is very obvious what my pronouns are from the way I look. We ended up having a heated discussion and she was very upset with my opinion. We had a great professional relationship, but once she found that I am on the opposite spectrum of her social/political opinions I can feel that the interactions between us are not "good" compared with our interactions before this argument. In the end, she wants to escalate this situation to a higher level.
Am I legally obligated to do so? If not, will this affect my academic career?
Responses to comments:

I tried to avoid my view about the gender issue but since people are asking me to put it here, I will do so: If a student asked me to call him/her/...etc by a specific pronoun, I will do so (actually, I use names to overcome this issue, it is easy to do). I am here to teach them the material X, and I will make sure they all get the same opportunity. This includes trans and non-binary people. Even though I am not convinced; I do not support non-binary genders and I do not think it is possible that a one can change his/her sexual identity.
If I start putting my pronoun on my cv, it will contradict my beliefs since it implicitly says that I am ok with that movement. I do respect people's choices but I do not like to be involved in it. I am talking about myself and what to do with my "pronoun".
Some of the answers suggested to find an alternative and I did: I suggested to use my name instead! For instance: poman's stuff, poman said, I deliver it to poman. That is how we keep mutual respect. I always do this. I call people by their names, and I will ask about their names if I don't know.


texts: How can I show my potential in my mail to the professors?

texts:
I am hoping to continue my masters in machine learning or data mining. So as a part of the process I am mailing to professors. I have a decent GPA and GRE score. I have research experience in these fields but no publication. I am not an extraordinary student but a motivated one. If any professor see my profile they may find it very ordinary. How can I ensure him that I will do my best. I know that knowing the research works of the professors will help you to get a professor's attention. Is it natural to grasp his research work completely? Though the track might be same, but the level of research is more deep than my previous experience. Is there any way to show him I am worthy?

I am not sure whether this type of question is appropriate for this forum. But hope that someone will enlighten me.


texts: How to share credit for an award given to my advisor?

texts: My advisor recently received a pretty major award in our field for a set of four papers that he wrote, and I was a co-author on one of these.  He and I both agree that I should receive some sort of credit for this award because my contribution was significant (the nomination for this award was done by someone else, so there is no wrongdoing on his part).  What would be the right way, if any, for me to include this on a CV?  What should I tell people?  I was thinking of saying, "Paper so-and-so that we wrote together received the such-and-such prize"


texts: My supervisor asked me to do a survey from -omics journals. I am however unsure as to what he means by -omics journals because a google search only gives me information about the predatory publishing group "omics journals". He said that one of the two I provided, Genome Research and Nature Genetics is a omics journal. I am wondering if he meant a journal ending in -ome is an -omics journal. I did not ask him because I did not want to appear ignorant.


texts: Coauthor always postpones working on article

texts:
At my previous job I wrote a small paper draft, which was funded by a non-profit foundation. In this draft I solved a small but existing scientific problem. So I elaborated this to make it close to a complete publication.

I put also the coworker who acquired the funds for the research as second coauthor, although his sole contributions to the publication were minor error corrections. He is also a full-time professor in a similar field and was excited about my findings. He said that there are a few points missing to make a full publication and we should work on this as soon as he will have time.

This was more than one and half year ago. Afterwards, I wrote him three times that we should continue on this and if he doesn't have time, then he should write me what is missing and I will finish the publication. He postponed the work always by half a year. My last email I sent him a couple months ago, he didn't answer at all.

I'm still interested in publishing the research even on myself. Hence, I would like to know how to proceed best in this situation.

Can I continue on myself and try to publish with his name on it?
Can I remove his name since he did not contribute anything beside small corrections (should be possible to verify afterwards on svn repository)
Third option, is it possible to just write a small article on my personal blog where I present the findings with new text and new code.
It is also possible to extend my idea to a more general case and use the special case just as an example. How can I proceed on this?
The last option would be to ask the last time with a fixed deadline. But I think he set it two times by postponing by half a year?
something else?

Thanks in advance


texts: Is it appropriate to ask a professor for publication opportunities?

texts: I am an undergraduate engineering student. Last summer I was working on a project in a lab that was not particularly novel - it had already been published by another group, and it mainly involved implementing that group's results with minor changes. This summer, I have been given the opportunity to work in a different lab. I presume that I will be given the opportunity to discuss various projects with the professor when this job begins. At that time, is it appropriate to ask whether I can contribute to a publication, and if so, what is the most tactful way to do so?


texts: When would they reject a paper in case of violating the double-blind review policy?

texts:
a month ago i submitted my paper to double-blind review conference, and their notification date is one month from now.
However, i had presented the work (in an abstract way) 3 months ago in a small symposium as an ongoing work, and i forgot to remove the slides till yesterday. This means if the reviewers had checked my home-page before yesterday, they could have found that i'm the author of this submission.

My question is if my paper is decided to be rejected due to that fact (without any review), would i be notified now or i have to wait until the notification date?

Because if it is already rejected without any review and only due to that issue, it is fair that i could be notified now, so i could send it to another conference around the corner.


texts: Can I get a job while still applying for a scholarship for PhD studies?

texts: I'm interested in a Ph.D. program in Switzerland. I know that all Ph.D. students can apply for scholarships, and it is very possible to get it. I am wondering if, meanwhile I could find myself an actual job—and if so, if the salary is not enough, for tuition, rent, and so on, if I could still receive at least part of the scholarship?


texts: Which is the better scheme for a poster: “tell a story” or “important first”?

texts:
In an attempt to make a poster of my work, I search for tips on the internet and books and I meet two opinions that conflict with each other:

Tell a story:

Why do we choose this (Objective)
How do we do? (Experiment, simulation, etc)
What do we find? (Result/Conclusion)
What can we do more? (Future work)
Reference

Important first:

Result/Conclusion
Objective
Experiment, simulation, etc
Future work
Reference

In my opinion, I will choose tell a story if the audience is not in my field, and important first if the audience has a good knowledge on what I do. But I am still confused if this is right. And should I apply this to my paper work?


texts:
Last year, I finished and defended my doctoral thesis in a STEM field, and have continued working as a researcher in academia since. I am proud of my doctoral work, yet I feel somewhat uneasy about flaunting my newly earned title and refrain from doing so in general.

All senior people in my field have doctoral degrees, so it doesn't really signify anything. Besides, often when people use their title it seems like they do it to show they are an authority of sorts (Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, for instance). In my field of work that doesn't get you very far; if you're full of baloney people will realize in minutes.

I'm also hesitant about signing off e-mails as a Dr.; there's usually some back and forth with suppliers we work with, for instance. We really depend on their technical experience and I wouldn't want to come across as pretentious or elitist.

My basic question is this: in your experience, what are good circumstances to use ones doctoral title?


texts: Is it good to emphasize that one obtained a PhD from a prestigious university

texts:
I was wondering whether it is a good practice for someone to emphasize that he obtained his degree from a prestigious university by including the name of his university always after his title, something like:

  Name, PhD (Caltech)

I have seen this in few occasions, but felt that it could be a bit offending to someone. Is this a discouraged behavior?


texts: Can I instigate collaboration outside of my current research team, or is that bad etiquette?

texts:
I recently finished my PhD and moved on to a postdoc research position in a semi-related subject area at a different University. I have an idea for a narritive review in my old subject area and I have some time to make a start on it before the current project gets really busy.

My issue is that I would like to invite my old PhD supervisor and another researcher from a third University, who we have collaborated with before, to co-author the paper with me as they are experts in the area that the review would cover. My current postdoc supervisor/line manager and other research colleague do not have any expertise in this subject area.

Is it ok to start writing the paper with my old colleagues without permission or notification of my current research team/boss? Or should I tell them that I am writing a paper with my old colleagues, without being able to offer them the chance to be involved? Not sure what the expectation is and don't want to annoy anyone at my (very new) job.


texts: another master's degree or just single courses?

texts:
My case is the following, I have already got a MSc in Computer Science, but my field of specialization was Theoretical Computer Science. Actually I am really interested in the field of Machine Learning, but unfortunately I did not follow any course about that topic in my previous master's degree.

At first sight, I was thinking to follow a PhD that has some relation to Machine Learning; so in that case I should really follow some Machine Learning courses by my own. I have just put this thought for a while, mainly because I have not been so lucky in my last PhD applications.

In any case, I was wondering if I should follow another Master's degree in Machine Learning; and maybe because I have already got my other MSc, the time for completing this new MSc would be only one year instead of the two years that is the common duration of these studies.

Also I was thinking that maybe I could take some single courses, for example some online courses, even though I am not really a fan of MOOC courses.

What it would be the best course of action?

Follow another MSc degree?
Follow some online courses in this topic? if that is so, which university offers them that the certification is recognized?

Updated info:

About my goals are the following:

Need of learn machine learning topics for academic purposes: teaching undergraduates and independent research
Some good PhD positions in which I am interested require that knowledge

Any advice would be great.

Thanks


texts: Should I add E-books and Blog Posts to my CV?

texts:
I am still planning to get into a Master's program sometime in the fall next year.  Should I add my E-books and Blog Posts to my CV?

I keep my blog posts formal and educational.  The following is a link to my blog: http://cybersecwise.com/wordpress/. I do already know people reviewing my CV will not actually read my blog.

I have also written two E-books.  One is called "NoSQL Injection for Elasticsearch", which was referenced in a Russian Defcon (Hacker Convention).  Since it was referenced in a defcon, does that count as Peer Reviewed?  The other E-book is called "Introduction to Web Hacking: Cross-site Scripting".

These things are all computer security related, but I am actually going to go for a Master's in Computer Science.


texts: I just submitted my PhD application, how should I write an email informing the Professor about my application?

texts:
I emailed a Professor 2 months before the deadline.
All I got was a neutral reply "thanks for contacting me and being interested in my research! It is great to hear that you are excited about that area.

Regarding your question of becoming a PhD candidate, I really appreciate you being interested in my research! In general I do NOT have open PhD positions at the moment. But you go through the admission process first. A committee makes the decision regarding admission. I hope this information is helpful"

Now that I have submitted my application, I feel that I should inform the Professor about this just to remind him about my profile/previous email. However, I am not sure what to mention in my email beyond the following

"I just wanted to let you know that I have submitted my PhD application for Fall 2020 admission. I hope that the admission committee will select my application......."

Any ideas regarding what I can mention in this email.


texts: How to improve myself as a recitation (discussion,lab,tutorial) teacher?

texts:
This question is related to How to improve myself as a lecturer?. However, being a PhD student, my main teaching obligation is leading recitations, i.e. sessions for groups of ~20 students that take place each week after a lecture and the content of the lecture should be revised mostly via exercises.

If you do not use the term "recitation session", please see a related question:
What is the equivalent of European "seminar" in US universities?

At my university (Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Czech Republic), in the mathematics/theoretical computer science classes, usually you have a 90 minute class where the recitation teacher reminds students of what was said in the lecture, hands out or writes exercises, and then, in shorter blocks, students go through the exercises and one student shows the solutions on a blackboard.

I'm not very fond of this structure and I would like to improve my classes with ideas that I cannot find at my university (where we usually do things the aforementioned way).

Some ideas that I've had in my previous years, which you can judge effectiveness of:

handing out "cheat sheets" containing the entire course notes (with compact proofs) beforehand: usually useful, as lecturers rarely have such compact notes beforehand, but very time consuming.
trying to ask each student how he is faring and offer personal advice: when I was a student, I preferred this model, but it takes a lot of time to go around 20 people and shortly talk to each one; my students (in an exit questionnaire) argued that they want more exercises done per class, so time is of the essence.
allow group work during a class -- this seems natural to me (science is mostly done in groups) but often results in people not being able to perform as well in final exams. Plus I am not yet sure how to allow groupwork so that groups don't delegate the work to the one enthusiastic student in the group.
use text questionnaires through and after a session to find out what students would like; I am very happy with the information in those and will use those in the future but students of one university tend to suggest improvements which they have noticed at the same university (especially where it is expected to go to one university for the 3-year Bc. and 2-year Master's).
filming yourself (as was suggested in the lecturer's question) is definitely a valid option but I feel it won't help me as much with recitations, especially since (I believe) there are not many great recitation sessions publicly available on the internet.