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POST: Is it Unreasonable to Work From Home One Day a Week as a Postdoc? Hi All, So I recently started a postdoc and so far I really enjoy the research! During my PhD, my advisor was very hands off and allowed us to make our own schedule. I was good at setting my own hours and found that I worked efficiently and well by working 4 long days in lab (12-15 hr days) and working from home one day a week doing writing, reading, data workup, experiment planning, etc. I really liked this schedule as it allowed me to principally focus on lab when I was there and then focus on desk-related work once a week. Additionally, it gave me freedom to have weekends to spend time with family, friends, and enjoy hobbies to keep myself sane! However, now that I have started my postdoc, this schedule seems to be viewed as lazy and not putting enough work in. My new advisor is younger and more hands-on, but before joining the lab, I clarified that her metric for evaluation was on project progress rather than hours worked. My question is whether you think working this schedule is unreasonable or not enough for a postdoc. My standpoint is that if I can complete the work necessary to move my projects forward at a reasonable pace, then the hours worked in lab is irrelevant. However, I also understand that for many labs, the culture for postdocs is to have a very high output that necessitates longer hours in lab. For context, I am a chemist with plans on going into industry after my postdoc. Thanks for your input!
RESPONSE A: 4x12 is already more than you should work, TBH.
RESPONSE B: Nope, not at all. But it does somewhat depend on your PI
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: own hours and found that I worked efficiently and well by working 4 long days in lab (12-15 hr days) and working from home one day a week doing writing, reading, data workup, experiment planning, etc. I really liked this schedule as it allowed me to principally focus on lab when I was there and then focus on desk-related work once a week. Additionally, it gave me freedom to have weekends to spend time with family, friends, and enjoy hobbies to keep myself sane! However, now that I have started my postdoc, this schedule seems to be viewed as lazy and not putting enough work in. My new advisor is younger and more hands-on, but before joining the lab, I clarified that her metric for evaluation was on project progress rather than hours worked. My question is whether you think working this schedule is unreasonable or not enough for a postdoc. My standpoint is that if I can complete the work necessary to move my projects forward at a reasonable pace, then the hours worked in lab is irrelevant. However, I also understand that for many labs, the culture for postdocs is to have a very high output that necessitates longer hours in lab. For context, I am a chemist with plans on going into industry after my postdoc. Thanks for your input!
RESPONSE A: That's a lot of hours anyway, I did far less as a postdoc. Working from home should be 100% ok if it's doable from home. I prefer to work in my office to keep a distance between work and life, but using a VPN to access my office computer Vs sitting at it directly, should be the same.
RESPONSE B: I think the PI will really set the lab culture and could see a younger one with a smaller group pushing their postdocs for more hours in the office/lab. It helps inspire younger students and push the groups output. A very famous and established PI with a large group and lab would typically be all about output not time (their labs/offices are usually always occupied during allowed hours anyway because of shared space/equipment/etc). So it depends on the group. Just have an honest discussion about what they expect and how you would like to manage your time.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: in lab (12-15 hr days) and working from home one day a week doing writing, reading, data workup, experiment planning, etc. I really liked this schedule as it allowed me to principally focus on lab when I was there and then focus on desk-related work once a week. Additionally, it gave me freedom to have weekends to spend time with family, friends, and enjoy hobbies to keep myself sane! However, now that I have started my postdoc, this schedule seems to be viewed as lazy and not putting enough work in. My new advisor is younger and more hands-on, but before joining the lab, I clarified that her metric for evaluation was on project progress rather than hours worked. My question is whether you think working this schedule is unreasonable or not enough for a postdoc. My standpoint is that if I can complete the work necessary to move my projects forward at a reasonable pace, then the hours worked in lab is irrelevant. However, I also understand that for many labs, the culture for postdocs is to have a very high output that necessitates longer hours in lab. For context, I am a chemist with plans on going into industry after my postdoc. Thanks for your input!
RESPONSE A: That's a lot of hours anyway, I did far less as a postdoc. Working from home should be 100% ok if it's doable from home. I prefer to work in my office to keep a distance between work and life, but using a VPN to access my office computer Vs sitting at it directly, should be the same.
RESPONSE B: Doesn't matter what I think. It matters what your boss thinks. sometimes bosses want people to be in the lab so they can find them or they can help other people. From my experience, most PIs do not want to have to remember when you will be there and when you will not be there. I would suggest instead of taking that day off at home you have a computer day in your office (assuming you have an office) on campus. If you are worried about being disturbed put a sign up that asked to only be bothered if its an emergency and put some earplugs/earbuds/headphones on
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Does anyone know if Grammarly can be used without risking your work being published under a different name? I have to write a project in english which is not my main language, and was thinking about utilizing grammarly premium to help me with the grammar. Money is not an issue, but I was worried that my paper would be potentially saved by grammarly and published under a different name. My workplace uses a plagiarism checker and I would not want to somehow being flagged for plagiarism for my own work!
RESPONSE A: If money is not an issue, then you'd be better off hiring an editor. Its highly unlikely that your stuff will be stolen through Grammarly, but a human will simply do a better job, especially for something where specificity is particularly important (like technical writing and scientific reports, etc). Do beware though that if there are privacy laws related to your work, then Grammarly and other similar services may not be compliant.
RESPONSE B: From their terms and services- All intellectual property rights in and to the User Content are and shall remain your property, and Grammarly shall acquire no right of ownership with respect to your User Content. Seems like you should be fine.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Does anyone know if Grammarly can be used without risking your work being published under a different name? I have to write a project in english which is not my main language, and was thinking about utilizing grammarly premium to help me with the grammar. Money is not an issue, but I was worried that my paper would be potentially saved by grammarly and published under a different name. My workplace uses a plagiarism checker and I would not want to somehow being flagged for plagiarism for my own work!
RESPONSE A: It's not safeguarded so don't put anything confidential in there, but it's not very probable that some grammarly employee might take interest in your project and steal it from their databases (where they do keep everything you type in their program).
RESPONSE B: From their terms and services- All intellectual property rights in and to the User Content are and shall remain your property, and Grammarly shall acquire no right of ownership with respect to your User Content. Seems like you should be fine.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Does anyone know if Grammarly can be used without risking your work being published under a different name? I have to write a project in english which is not my main language, and was thinking about utilizing grammarly premium to help me with the grammar. Money is not an issue, but I was worried that my paper would be potentially saved by grammarly and published under a different name. My workplace uses a plagiarism checker and I would not want to somehow being flagged for plagiarism for my own work!
RESPONSE A: From their terms and services- All intellectual property rights in and to the User Content are and shall remain your property, and Grammarly shall acquire no right of ownership with respect to your User Content. Seems like you should be fine.
RESPONSE B: I have been using Grammarly since it first came out, and I'm pretty sure they use AI and machine learning techniques to purely look for grammar mistakes. I don't know that a human ever actually sees anything you write unless they are looking at sections of text to improve the AI. That being said, if you work with super confidential info (like medical research or records stuff) I would be careful, but if you are talking about a school essay for a class, I think you'd be fine.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Does anyone know if Grammarly can be used without risking your work being published under a different name? I have to write a project in english which is not my main language, and was thinking about utilizing grammarly premium to help me with the grammar. Money is not an issue, but I was worried that my paper would be potentially saved by grammarly and published under a different name. My workplace uses a plagiarism checker and I would not want to somehow being flagged for plagiarism for my own work!
RESPONSE A: Check the T&Cs to see who retains the copyright of the work they check. If you do then you're fine, if they do stay away (I'd be amazed if they did, but then I've seen some shit over the years).
RESPONSE B: From their terms and services- All intellectual property rights in and to the User Content are and shall remain your property, and Grammarly shall acquire no right of ownership with respect to your User Content. Seems like you should be fine.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: Does anyone know if Grammarly can be used without risking your work being published under a different name? I have to write a project in english which is not my main language, and was thinking about utilizing grammarly premium to help me with the grammar. Money is not an issue, but I was worried that my paper would be potentially saved by grammarly and published under a different name. My workplace uses a plagiarism checker and I would not want to somehow being flagged for plagiarism for my own work!
RESPONSE A: If money is not an issue, then you'd be better off hiring an editor. Its highly unlikely that your stuff will be stolen through Grammarly, but a human will simply do a better job, especially for something where specificity is particularly important (like technical writing and scientific reports, etc). Do beware though that if there are privacy laws related to your work, then Grammarly and other similar services may not be compliant.
RESPONSE B: Check the T&Cs to see who retains the copyright of the work they check. If you do then you're fine, if they do stay away (I'd be amazed if they did, but then I've seen some shit over the years).
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: PhD in Computer Science -- Do you get time off/take vacation over the summer? I have been hearing people say that they treat their PhD like a 9-5 job. Do you also get breaks over the summer or take days off for a month or so to travel/relax? Or is it work all year round. Let's assume I am talking about a PhD program is CS/Math/related Stem field at a top 50 PhD school, assuming you want to finish your PhD in 5-6 years max. I will be applying for PhD programs myself this fall so was just curious on how life outside of the labs look like for PhD students compared to undergrads who get summer, winter breaks etc.
RESPONSE A: Are you funded in the summer? Are you getting a stipend in June, July, August? If no, then it's totally your discretion on what and how much you do research, and I would just do research that advances your studies.
RESPONSE B: Not sure if this is typical, but if I had formal vacation/sick days in grad school, I had no idea. I worked when I wanted/needed to, and I didn't when I didn't want to /couldn't. My advisor didn't care when or where I was working as long as I was hitting appropriate work-related benchmarks.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: PhD in Computer Science -- Do you get time off/take vacation over the summer? I have been hearing people say that they treat their PhD like a 9-5 job. Do you also get breaks over the summer or take days off for a month or so to travel/relax? Or is it work all year round. Let's assume I am talking about a PhD program is CS/Math/related Stem field at a top 50 PhD school, assuming you want to finish your PhD in 5-6 years max. I will be applying for PhD programs myself this fall so was just curious on how life outside of the labs look like for PhD students compared to undergrads who get summer, winter breaks etc.
RESPONSE A: I had 8.7 weeks of paid vacation per year (Netherlands). But I usually took of 2 or 3 weeks of vacation over summer and 2 weeks over Christmas. And then a couple long weekends here and there.
RESPONSE B: Not sure if this is typical, but if I had formal vacation/sick days in grad school, I had no idea. I worked when I wanted/needed to, and I didn't when I didn't want to /couldn't. My advisor didn't care when or where I was working as long as I was hitting appropriate work-related benchmarks.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: PhD in Computer Science -- Do you get time off/take vacation over the summer? I have been hearing people say that they treat their PhD like a 9-5 job. Do you also get breaks over the summer or take days off for a month or so to travel/relax? Or is it work all year round. Let's assume I am talking about a PhD program is CS/Math/related Stem field at a top 50 PhD school, assuming you want to finish your PhD in 5-6 years max. I will be applying for PhD programs myself this fall so was just curious on how life outside of the labs look like for PhD students compared to undergrads who get summer, winter breaks etc.
RESPONSE A: When I was in grad school (US R1, biochem), no one ever told us that we had allocated time off, but we could take time if we were where we needed to be in our research. I regularly took time off and traveled back home to see family for the following: * Thanksgiving (Tues-Sat in late Nov) * Christmas (usu Dec 22-27, back before Jan 1) * 7-10 days in the summer, maybe a little longer if there was a regional conference in the area Could I have taken more/less time? Yeah, probably, as long as my research was progressing and I was hitting my benchmarks. I remember taking time off to get my wisdom teeth out and another trip for a funeral, but I was able to schedule those around the slow times between experiments.
RESPONSE B: Are you funded in the summer? Are you getting a stipend in June, July, August? If no, then it's totally your discretion on what and how much you do research, and I would just do research that advances your studies.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: PhD in Computer Science -- Do you get time off/take vacation over the summer? I have been hearing people say that they treat their PhD like a 9-5 job. Do you also get breaks over the summer or take days off for a month or so to travel/relax? Or is it work all year round. Let's assume I am talking about a PhD program is CS/Math/related Stem field at a top 50 PhD school, assuming you want to finish your PhD in 5-6 years max. I will be applying for PhD programs myself this fall so was just curious on how life outside of the labs look like for PhD students compared to undergrads who get summer, winter breaks etc.
RESPONSE A: I had 8.7 weeks of paid vacation per year (Netherlands). But I usually took of 2 or 3 weeks of vacation over summer and 2 weeks over Christmas. And then a couple long weekends here and there.
RESPONSE B: When I was in grad school (US R1, biochem), no one ever told us that we had allocated time off, but we could take time if we were where we needed to be in our research. I regularly took time off and traveled back home to see family for the following: * Thanksgiving (Tues-Sat in late Nov) * Christmas (usu Dec 22-27, back before Jan 1) * 7-10 days in the summer, maybe a little longer if there was a regional conference in the area Could I have taken more/less time? Yeah, probably, as long as my research was progressing and I was hitting my benchmarks. I remember taking time off to get my wisdom teeth out and another trip for a funeral, but I was able to schedule those around the slow times between experiments.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: PhD in Computer Science -- Do you get time off/take vacation over the summer? I have been hearing people say that they treat their PhD like a 9-5 job. Do you also get breaks over the summer or take days off for a month or so to travel/relax? Or is it work all year round. Let's assume I am talking about a PhD program is CS/Math/related Stem field at a top 50 PhD school, assuming you want to finish your PhD in 5-6 years max. I will be applying for PhD programs myself this fall so was just curious on how life outside of the labs look like for PhD students compared to undergrads who get summer, winter breaks etc.
RESPONSE A: Are you funded in the summer? Are you getting a stipend in June, July, August? If no, then it's totally your discretion on what and how much you do research, and I would just do research that advances your studies.
RESPONSE B: It will vary with your advisor and your department, but broadly, no one's taking a summer off as a doctoral student. There is paid vacation and taking a week off is totally normal, taking two weeks off can generally be done with some careful planning, and a small number of people who have e.g. family in faraway countries hoard their vacation time and end up taking a month off every two or three years to go spend serious time there. (And may still be doing remote work from there, depending on the remote work policies and what sort of work needs to be done.) Spring break is a nonevent. Summer break is a nonevent except that there will be fewer classes to teach so your PI will probably actually double down on working *harder* on research during that time so you may have less flexibility in the summer, not more. Campuses do typically more or less shut down over winter break so you may get a solid couple of weeks there - or your advisor may view that as a great chance for you to buckle down and do *even more work*. Completely variable.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: job search/pay/etc.? I graduated last year and went into industry but part of me will always be in academia. I read about a huge drop in new foreign grad school students so I’m guessing there are all kinds of cuts going on that aren’t well-publicized. I’m wondering how my colleagues who are sticking in academia are doing. How bad is it?
RESPONSE A: I have a postdoc position lined up in the US which currently keeps getting delayed. The position certainly isn't safe, so who knows how it may be affected. I've heard several stories of jobs falling through, both at postdoc and faculty level. As someone who has been on the job hunt lately, I've definitely noticed a drop in advertised positions (whether or not this is just temporary as a result of the pandemic or if this will continue remains to be seen).
RESPONSE B: I had 7 places I applied to email me and say something along the lines of "we are now on a hiring freeze and cannot fill this position at this time. Should we ever open this line again, please apply again." Two of them told me that I was in their shortlist :/ Not me, but a friend, had a written offer in hand, that she had not yet signed (was waiting to hear back from dream school) and they rescinded the offer due to their freeze. My current institution did the same thing (had to rescind one offer out, and had to stop their search after having already done the on-campus interviews for another). I wound up taking a K-12 offer to teach physics because honestly, that was going to be my best option for secure employment next year. I had an offer for a VAP position, but I didn't take it (it was a bad offer) and found out later that the person they hired was part of the group that got cut out anyway. I am hoping to cycle back into academia once things settle down in a few years, and for me, K-12 seemed like a good place to wait it out. It will allow me to keep teaching and I can maintain my affiliation with my current institution should I feel like applying for some DRK-12 grants. Best of luck to everyone out on the market right now!
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Postdocs and soon/recent PhD grads: how has coronavirus affected your jobs/job search/pay/etc.? I graduated last year and went into industry but part of me will always be in academia. I read about a huge drop in new foreign grad school students so I’m guessing there are all kinds of cuts going on that aren’t well-publicized. I’m wondering how my colleagues who are sticking in academia are doing. How bad is it?
RESPONSE A: My position is funded by a grant, and the granting agency is still making payments thus far, so I don't think I'll lose it, but it is only a yearlong position anyway. I don't have too much hope of getting a new position after this one ends, but luckily my spouse has a job so I should be ok. Hoping that some of the hiring freezes will relax enough to let me get some adjunct work in the spring.
RESPONSE B: I'm finishing post-doc in August and had signed an offer for a TT job to start this August. I'm skeptical about what will happen, but so far they haven't rescinded the offer, so that's a positive. They sent me new hire paperwork a few weeks ago. I could probably stay at my post-doc another year if I needed to (for less money now that the adjunct teaching positions have gone away), but I need to let them know soon if that were the case, so this limbo is making me anxious. It is hard to be in transition this year. Also not sure how it would affect unemployment if I "quit" my post-doc to start the new TT job, and then they let me go if/when students don't come back to campus this fall.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Postdocs and soon/recent PhD grads: how has coronavirus affected your jobs/job search/pay/etc.? I graduated last year and went into industry but part of me will always be in academia. I read about a huge drop in new foreign grad school students so I’m guessing there are all kinds of cuts going on that aren’t well-publicized. I’m wondering how my colleagues who are sticking in academia are doing. How bad is it?
RESPONSE A: I've got a postdoc position lined up overseas but can't currently travel to start. They are being very understanding, and since the funding is already there is shouldn't be a problem. I think if I'd started my job hunt a few months later I would have been screwed
RESPONSE B: I'm finishing post-doc in August and had signed an offer for a TT job to start this August. I'm skeptical about what will happen, but so far they haven't rescinded the offer, so that's a positive. They sent me new hire paperwork a few weeks ago. I could probably stay at my post-doc another year if I needed to (for less money now that the adjunct teaching positions have gone away), but I need to let them know soon if that were the case, so this limbo is making me anxious. It is hard to be in transition this year. Also not sure how it would affect unemployment if I "quit" my post-doc to start the new TT job, and then they let me go if/when students don't come back to campus this fall.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Postdocs and soon/recent PhD grads: how has coronavirus affected your jobs/job search/pay/etc.? I graduated last year and went into industry but part of me will always be in academia. I read about a huge drop in new foreign grad school students so I’m guessing there are all kinds of cuts going on that aren’t well-publicized. I’m wondering how my colleagues who are sticking in academia are doing. How bad is it?
RESPONSE A: European PI here. I’ve fought to find money to keep my postdocs a few months longer who’d otherwise ended their contracts in the middle of the crisis without followup options (and unfinished projects; the last few months always seem to be the most productive and very crucial). Pay cuts/redundancies are completely off the table in this European country/university; our employer is extremely supportive of our challenges at this time. Most grant decisions here are on hold, so there are not many new positions opening. Our country is discussing if there is budget for extending projects to compensate for the lost time, which I hope is the case for the sake of the careers of our early career scientists.
RESPONSE B: My position is funded by a grant, and the granting agency is still making payments thus far, so I don't think I'll lose it, but it is only a yearlong position anyway. I don't have too much hope of getting a new position after this one ends, but luckily my spouse has a job so I should be ok. Hoping that some of the hiring freezes will relax enough to let me get some adjunct work in the spring.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: Postdocs and soon/recent PhD grads: how has coronavirus affected your jobs/job search/pay/etc.? I graduated last year and went into industry but part of me will always be in academia. I read about a huge drop in new foreign grad school students so I’m guessing there are all kinds of cuts going on that aren’t well-publicized. I’m wondering how my colleagues who are sticking in academia are doing. How bad is it?
RESPONSE A: European PI here. I’ve fought to find money to keep my postdocs a few months longer who’d otherwise ended their contracts in the middle of the crisis without followup options (and unfinished projects; the last few months always seem to be the most productive and very crucial). Pay cuts/redundancies are completely off the table in this European country/university; our employer is extremely supportive of our challenges at this time. Most grant decisions here are on hold, so there are not many new positions opening. Our country is discussing if there is budget for extending projects to compensate for the lost time, which I hope is the case for the sake of the careers of our early career scientists.
RESPONSE B: I've got a postdoc position lined up overseas but can't currently travel to start. They are being very understanding, and since the funding is already there is shouldn't be a problem. I think if I'd started my job hunt a few months later I would have been screwed
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: HELP! I got an interview- how should I prepare?? I just got offered my first interviews ever for an assistant Professor position. I am 7 years out of grad school and did 2 post docs and am now a professor at a small school but I never had to formally interview for any of these!! They are zoom interviews with large public schools in the US. Both are for teaching public health to both grad and undergrad plus research (50/50). What should I expect? What will they be looking for? What questions might they ask? How can I prepare? Should I wear a suit (37f) even though it’s not in person? What does the interview process look like these days? I was on a search committee years ago as a grad student and I am guessing it is going to be completely different than it was back then due to Covid.
RESPONSE A: Be prepared to talk about how your research, teaching, and service contributes to equity and inclusion. Dress well- you will feel more prepared. Utilize your breaks well. I had meals/snacks planned out because they typically only give you 15 minute breaks throughout the day. Practice your presentation. This seems obvious but, when I interviewed last summer, the nerves got to me and my seminar came across as uninspired. (Still got the job though! Just felt like my seminar could have been better). Good luck!
RESPONSE B: Be comfortable but not to comfortable, you don’t want to seem cocky, be just a little bit nervous, that twinge of nervousness shows us you’re on your toes, and it’ll keep you on your feet ready to answer anything they may throw at you.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: HELP! I got an interview- how should I prepare?? I just got offered my first interviews ever for an assistant Professor position. I am 7 years out of grad school and did 2 post docs and am now a professor at a small school but I never had to formally interview for any of these!! They are zoom interviews with large public schools in the US. Both are for teaching public health to both grad and undergrad plus research (50/50). What should I expect? What will they be looking for? What questions might they ask? How can I prepare? Should I wear a suit (37f) even though it’s not in person? What does the interview process look like these days? I was on a search committee years ago as a grad student and I am guessing it is going to be completely different than it was back then due to Covid.
RESPONSE A: Be comfortable but not to comfortable, you don’t want to seem cocky, be just a little bit nervous, that twinge of nervousness shows us you’re on your toes, and it’ll keep you on your feet ready to answer anything they may throw at you.
RESPONSE B: I'd check out a few sections of the book The Professor Is In. It's super helpful for prepping for interviews.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: HELP! I got an interview- how should I prepare?? I just got offered my first interviews ever for an assistant Professor position. I am 7 years out of grad school and did 2 post docs and am now a professor at a small school but I never had to formally interview for any of these!! They are zoom interviews with large public schools in the US. Both are for teaching public health to both grad and undergrad plus research (50/50). What should I expect? What will they be looking for? What questions might they ask? How can I prepare? Should I wear a suit (37f) even though it’s not in person? What does the interview process look like these days? I was on a search committee years ago as a grad student and I am guessing it is going to be completely different than it was back then due to Covid.
RESPONSE A: Look through the courses they offer now. Identify which ones you can teach, maybe have a few that they don't offer that you could teach. Be ready to say a few sentences about each of them. Be ready to describe your current works in progress and where you expect them to go. Depending on where the projects are be ready to suggest what you'll do after these projects are done. Be able to give an example of mentoring undergrads or grad students. Spend time on their website and write down a few questions about their program. They shouldn't be things that are easily answerable by the website but they don't need to be super interesting questions. You are just demonstrating that you are interested enough to spend time on their website. Edit: My background is in the social sciences at an R2.
RESPONSE B: Be comfortable but not to comfortable, you don’t want to seem cocky, be just a little bit nervous, that twinge of nervousness shows us you’re on your toes, and it’ll keep you on your feet ready to answer anything they may throw at you.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: HELP! I got an interview- how should I prepare?? I just got offered my first interviews ever for an assistant Professor position. I am 7 years out of grad school and did 2 post docs and am now a professor at a small school but I never had to formally interview for any of these!! They are zoom interviews with large public schools in the US. Both are for teaching public health to both grad and undergrad plus research (50/50). What should I expect? What will they be looking for? What questions might they ask? How can I prepare? Should I wear a suit (37f) even though it’s not in person? What does the interview process look like these days? I was on a search committee years ago as a grad student and I am guessing it is going to be completely different than it was back then due to Covid.
RESPONSE A: Look through the courses they offer now. Identify which ones you can teach, maybe have a few that they don't offer that you could teach. Be ready to say a few sentences about each of them. Be ready to describe your current works in progress and where you expect them to go. Depending on where the projects are be ready to suggest what you'll do after these projects are done. Be able to give an example of mentoring undergrads or grad students. Spend time on their website and write down a few questions about their program. They shouldn't be things that are easily answerable by the website but they don't need to be super interesting questions. You are just demonstrating that you are interested enough to spend time on their website. Edit: My background is in the social sciences at an R2.
RESPONSE B: Be yourself! Once I started to interview people instead of being interviewed, I noticed how obvious is when the candidates behave fake. Just make a list with your strong points, your unique characteristics and achievements that you have and you’re proud of. Also if they ask you something you did not think about think on spot what you would do. By being yourself at least people will know what they will deal it later. That’s why when candidates behave like someone they are not at the end expectations are not met.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: When drafting a paper, do you add formatted references as you go, or do them all at the end? I'm writing my master's thesis now and wondering what the best option is. In the past my strategy has been to hyperlink references in text and format them with a RefMan after. I don't want to send an ugly document to my advisor for edits, though. What does everyone else do?
RESPONSE A: I use Zotero for keeping track of my references, and I suggest you add references as you go, and leave notes to yourself about what you used the reference for. I'm sure there are other applications that do this if you don't like Zotero, but the idea is to have some sort of searchable document, so you aren't scrambling to remember all the references you used when you've written your paper.
RESPONSE B: I don’t break my writing flow. I usually use apa so I just go with (Author, date) or (Author, ?) or (find citation) when I’m writing and bc it’s not worth stopping to look it up or finding the exact one when I might edit or chop the sentence later. I’ll get distracted looking for a citation and end up with one sentence written two hours later. I use Zotero so I go and fill in with Zotero after. You should ask what your advisor wants but typically I don’t care about it and it’s fine for me to get a paper that says something like (what citations?) and I can help direct them.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: When drafting a paper, do you add formatted references as you go, or do them all at the end? I'm writing my master's thesis now and wondering what the best option is. In the past my strategy has been to hyperlink references in text and format them with a RefMan after. I don't want to send an ugly document to my advisor for edits, though. What does everyone else do?
RESPONSE A: I use Zotero for keeping track of my references, and I suggest you add references as you go, and leave notes to yourself about what you used the reference for. I'm sure there are other applications that do this if you don't like Zotero, but the idea is to have some sort of searchable document, so you aren't scrambling to remember all the references you used when you've written your paper.
RESPONSE B: I use LaTeX for all of my papers, so everything is added and formatted as I go. If you write in Word, you can use something like EndNote to do the same.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: When drafting a paper, do you add formatted references as you go, or do them all at the end? I'm writing my master's thesis now and wondering what the best option is. In the past my strategy has been to hyperlink references in text and format them with a RefMan after. I don't want to send an ugly document to my advisor for edits, though. What does everyone else do?
RESPONSE A: Endnote
RESPONSE B: Another vote for zotero.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: When drafting a paper, do you add formatted references as you go, or do them all at the end? I'm writing my master's thesis now and wondering what the best option is. In the past my strategy has been to hyperlink references in text and format them with a RefMan after. I don't want to send an ugly document to my advisor for edits, though. What does everyone else do?
RESPONSE A: Zotero: use the plug in to cite while you write, then auto generate a bibliography at the end.
RESPONSE B: Latex and bibtex/biber… better integration with a database reference manager would be nice, but for “cite as you write” and formatting etc it’s hard to beat latex
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: When drafting a paper, do you add formatted references as you go, or do them all at the end? I'm writing my master's thesis now and wondering what the best option is. In the past my strategy has been to hyperlink references in text and format them with a RefMan after. I don't want to send an ugly document to my advisor for edits, though. What does everyone else do?
RESPONSE A: every paper I tell myself Ill add references as I go. Every paper I end up with a text with barely any references and have to add them at the end. Every paper I realize how much easier it would be to adf them as I go... amd the cycle repeats
RESPONSE B: Latex and bibtex/biber… better integration with a database reference manager would be nice, but for “cite as you write” and formatting etc it’s hard to beat latex
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: How to thread the needle when it comes to risky/safe projects/papers (STEM) I seem to always choose difficult topics for my papers because I want to aim at something high impact. It gets me in trouble because sometimes my ideas don’t work out. Does anyone have any tips on how to recognize research problems that are less risky and can ensure a more consistent output?
RESPONSE A: I think the principle of "failing fast" is very important, and especially on large scale, "risky" projects -- that is, at every step of the way, trying to think of what's the quickest and easiest way to prove that what I'm doing isn't going to work. At least for me, it's real easy to just put my head down and work for weeks or months on some sophisticated model or experiment just to have it not work out, when there's often a quick sanity check that would have taken only a few days and shown me that it wouldn't work.
RESPONSE B: Ain’t nothing wrong with taking calculated risks. Are you discussing your projects with your professor in depth as you work on these projects? Going into office hours to discuss during the pre-writing/planning stage? Drafting stage? When it’s finished? I love when my students take on risky projects. There’s a lot to be said for trying something unorthodox. But to do so requires an incredibly firm grasp on the material. Usually when students come with a risky idea, we talk about the risks, make small adjustments to make the project more likely to succeed, and talk about what can be learned from the experience if it doesn’t work out. It’s your professor’s job to offer guidance and help students course-correct. If you’re going to office hours and not getting this guidance, your prof needs to step up. If you’re not going to office hours, you need to step up.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: How much productivity is enough? What does ‘enough’ work in a year look like for you? With the ambiguous pressure to always be publishing more, getting more grants, and taking on more teaching and service, how do you assess whether you’re meeting your goals and progressing in your career? Do you have finite numbers (publications, grant dollars, etc) that you strive for, or some other metric that you use to gauge success?
RESPONSE A: I’ve had a permanent position for five years or so already. So there’s no pressure to publish a certain amount, necessarily. But, in my field at least, being someone who both has a permanent position and is active on the conference/research group circuit basically guarantees a certain amount of output each year. Through no merit of my own I get invited to three to five conferences a year. I write papers for them. Then I either turn those papers into journal articles, anthology book chapters, or work leading toward another monograph. My field is still largely a monograph field. I don’t really like the amount of sustained attention monographs take, though. Because of this prevailing situation, I’ll generally publish 3-5 articles and book chapters a year, plus a few encyclopedia articles, or articles for more popular consumption. On the whole, I have a rather modest goal of producing four monographs and about 100 journal articles and book chapters combined over my career. I don’t really care about the pace at which I do it.
RESPONSE B: I have finite numbers that I set up in a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year. I also have a column where I allow myself to change my goals as the year progresses (eg maybe a paper gets delayed but I take on a new grant opportunity) - this kind of helps, but I agree with commenters here that finding satisfaction with doing enough is a question for therapy.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: How much productivity is enough? What does ‘enough’ work in a year look like for you? With the ambiguous pressure to always be publishing more, getting more grants, and taking on more teaching and service, how do you assess whether you’re meeting your goals and progressing in your career? Do you have finite numbers (publications, grant dollars, etc) that you strive for, or some other metric that you use to gauge success?
RESPONSE A: I have finite numbers that I set up in a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year. I also have a column where I allow myself to change my goals as the year progresses (eg maybe a paper gets delayed but I take on a new grant opportunity) - this kind of helps, but I agree with commenters here that finding satisfaction with doing enough is a question for therapy.
RESPONSE B: I look at the Tenure and Promotion guidelines and if I've met that, I've done "enough".
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: How much productivity is enough? What does ‘enough’ work in a year look like for you? With the ambiguous pressure to always be publishing more, getting more grants, and taking on more teaching and service, how do you assess whether you’re meeting your goals and progressing in your career? Do you have finite numbers (publications, grant dollars, etc) that you strive for, or some other metric that you use to gauge success?
RESPONSE A: I have finite numbers that I set up in a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year. I also have a column where I allow myself to change my goals as the year progresses (eg maybe a paper gets delayed but I take on a new grant opportunity) - this kind of helps, but I agree with commenters here that finding satisfaction with doing enough is a question for therapy.
RESPONSE B: I try to focus on what I need to do the research I want to do, and not let University requirements dictate that too much. For instance, if I want to go in a new direction, I need the money that will support that. Papers seem to come in waves, sometimes there is a drought while we are getting things going, and then sometimes they are coming out very frequently. I don't see a point in getting grants to get grants, but see them as a means of doing what I want with the people that I want. I have less control over teaching but that doesn't vary too much. University/dept service is outside of my control, though I'm encouraged to say no as much as possible. Service to my field is more based again on what I'm interested in and people I want to work with. The joy of academia is the freedom in doing what I want. I try to not let anything get in the way of that. Maybe I'm lucky that that has worked out for me. Public R1, STEM if that counts.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Just got my first rejection on a paper. One of the reviewers was very sassy and made some unnecessarily rude comments. Is this pretty normal and how do people deal with it?
RESPONSE A: It has certainly happened to me! A word of advice though, don't sass back like I did (this journal let me "respond to comments" along with revision).
RESPONSE B: I make a response which is equally sassy/rude/ridiculous and then delete it. We call it the "First draft". >We think the authors are stupid and their ideas are stupid **Actually, your face is stupid! I hope all your grants are rejected!!!** Etc. Etc.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Just got my first rejection on a paper. One of the reviewers was very sassy and made some unnecessarily rude comments. Is this pretty normal and how do people deal with it?
RESPONSE A: I make a response which is equally sassy/rude/ridiculous and then delete it. We call it the "First draft". >We think the authors are stupid and their ideas are stupid **Actually, your face is stupid! I hope all your grants are rejected!!!** Etc. Etc.
RESPONSE B: In light of the glut of other helpful advice here, I'd like to instead chime in and recommend your username.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Just got my first rejection on a paper. One of the reviewers was very sassy and made some unnecessarily rude comments. Is this pretty normal and how do people deal with it?
RESPONSE A: Yeah I feel your pain. I had a major grant rejected last semester and someone said in comments it was one of the worst proposals they'd seen. I looked up who the members of the adjudication committee were and yeah, I can see the outright bias they'd have against my proposal, which they'd consider too edgy. So we look to see if what they said really has merit or whether it is simply bias, we revise if necessary and we head forward. BTW, in the world of publishing even major authors get rejection after rejection on books that eventually go on to win major prizes. Marlon James for example, who is a fantastic writer, was ready to give up and burn his entire manuscript of A Brief History of Seven Killings because he'd receive so many rejections. The book finally was published and went on to garner the National Book Critics Award (finalist); the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature; and it won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. I once had a paper torn apart by a very famous philosopher/professor (the field was so small and the comments so characteristic, that I'm pretty positive who it was) only because I'd sided with his arch enemy on certain viewpoints. So again, take it with a grain of salt. It's a marathon not a sprint.
RESPONSE B: I make a response which is equally sassy/rude/ridiculous and then delete it. We call it the "First draft". >We think the authors are stupid and their ideas are stupid **Actually, your face is stupid! I hope all your grants are rejected!!!** Etc. Etc.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Just got my first rejection on a paper. One of the reviewers was very sassy and made some unnecessarily rude comments. Is this pretty normal and how do people deal with it?
RESPONSE A: I'll buck the trend and say I've only once had an unprofessional referee. We told the editor we'd address the one possibly valid point he made in his twenty five pages of ramblings, but we were not okay with anything be sent back to that referee. The editor sent it back to him anyways, so we withdrew the manuscript and sent it to another journal. Yeah, it took a little longer to get out, perhaps, but such is life.
RESPONSE B: Welcome to academia! People are petty and have issues and take it out anonymously by being snarky assholes. What you can do is not pay it forward by remembering to not be a snarky asshole when you review papers. And I personally expect everything to be rejected (especially when it's a first submission) so when it isn't rejected I am shocked and surprised and it's awesome. By they way I'm about to publish my 10th article and only one was not rejected by another journal before being published (and it's also my only pub at a third tier journal- everything else is 1st or high 2nd tier). I have one that was rejected by 7 journals before being accepted at the 8th and now has had 16 citations in it's first year of being published.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: Just got my first rejection on a paper. One of the reviewers was very sassy and made some unnecessarily rude comments. Is this pretty normal and how do people deal with it?
RESPONSE A: When I first started in publishing, it was my job to send out work for review and collect the reviews at the end for forwarding on to the author(s). You would not believe some of the shit people said about others in their field. So many axes, so little to grind. The best ones? Very detailed, 10+ page responses emailed to me about five minutes after I had sent the reviewer the PDF of the manuscript (yes, entire manuscript) to read.
RESPONSE B: Welcome to academia! People are petty and have issues and take it out anonymously by being snarky assholes. What you can do is not pay it forward by remembering to not be a snarky asshole when you review papers. And I personally expect everything to be rejected (especially when it's a first submission) so when it isn't rejected I am shocked and surprised and it's awesome. By they way I'm about to publish my 10th article and only one was not rejected by another journal before being published (and it's also my only pub at a third tier journal- everything else is 1st or high 2nd tier). I have one that was rejected by 7 journals before being accepted at the 8th and now has had 16 citations in it's first year of being published.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: What percentage of your time do you spend on writing papers, review responses, grants, etc? I am a PhD student and about to graduate in a few months. i am writting a paper currently and responding to reviews on another one. i noticed that more than 70% of my time is being spent on writing, editing, making figures etc. i don't hate the process, but its not the most exciting part. i would rather love to spend my time on experiments, coding, reading papers etc. it is also stressful when after spending all that time, the paper gets rejected. I realized that if i were to continue the academia route for my career, i would have to spend more and more time working on publications. i am not sure if i like this allocation of time to the writing process when thinking about a job in academia. so i want to get a general sense about how much percentage of time do you spend on writing, editing, reviewing manuscripts and proposals? do you enjoy it? and what are your thoughts?
RESPONSE A: I'm a professor at an R1. I spend **at least** 85% of my time doing writing or editing of some kind. My experience has been that the amount of time I spend doing other things (e.g., running studies/being in the lab, writing and running code, teaching) has steadily declined as the demand for writing has steadily increased. I honestly didn't love writing at first but it was OK. However, the more I wrote, the better I got and the easier it became. It also becomes easier to edit and review over time because you get more and more familiar with the process. However, if you hate writing, academia is not going to be the right path for you.
RESPONSE B: I'm a PI on a longitudinal study that's been going for over 40 years. My whole life is correspondence, reviews, comments on other people's writing, and grant writing. I rarely have time to read/write/analyze data. Still managed to submit 18 papers last year... with other people writing them, including students.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: not the most exciting part. i would rather love to spend my time on experiments, coding, reading papers etc. it is also stressful when after spending all that time, the paper gets rejected. I realized that if i were to continue the academia route for my career, i would have to spend more and more time working on publications. i am not sure if i like this allocation of time to the writing process when thinking about a job in academia. so i want to get a general sense about how much percentage of time do you spend on writing, editing, reviewing manuscripts and proposals? do you enjoy it? and what are your thoughts?
RESPONSE A: I’m sure some of this varies by field but from working in several labs, I would say that my observation was the faculty leading the labs never did experiments or coding, and didn’t spend a ton of their time reading papers. They were writing or reviewing, mentoring their post docs and grad students, doing department service assignments, seeking potential future research funders, teaching, doing all the admin paperwork that comes with running a lab, or in meetings. I can’t speak to how much they enjoyed it. Post docs or staff research scientists were the ones who really did the analysis, guided study design, read papers to present at lab meetings, etc. Though they also did a lot of writing and teaching, the balance was different. That might be the sweet spot for you. The salary/advancement situation is different and there’s no tenure, but it might be worth consideration.
RESPONSE B: I'm a professor at an R1. I spend **at least** 85% of my time doing writing or editing of some kind. My experience has been that the amount of time I spend doing other things (e.g., running studies/being in the lab, writing and running code, teaching) has steadily declined as the demand for writing has steadily increased. I honestly didn't love writing at first but it was OK. However, the more I wrote, the better I got and the easier it became. It also becomes easier to edit and review over time because you get more and more familiar with the process. However, if you hate writing, academia is not going to be the right path for you.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: What is the most obscure PhD thesis or area of expertise that you have encountered? As information becomes more available, it seems that finding an original subject of interest or expertise becomes more difficult. It would be great if you could discuss the best obscure thesis that you know of or have encountered.
RESPONSE A: I've chaired quite a few search committees in history. Last time around we had a lot of applicants with dissertations on pirates, some of which seemed really interesting and all of which were on quite obscure figures.
RESPONSE B: I met a guy (a tenured professor) who did his Political Science dissertation on politics in the world of Frank Herbert's *Dune* novels.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: What is the most obscure PhD thesis or area of expertise that you have encountered? As information becomes more available, it seems that finding an original subject of interest or expertise becomes more difficult. It would be great if you could discuss the best obscure thesis that you know of or have encountered.
RESPONSE A: I've chaired quite a few search committees in history. Last time around we had a lot of applicants with dissertations on pirates, some of which seemed really interesting and all of which were on quite obscure figures.
RESPONSE B: Here's a nice list of oddball history dissertation topics. I met a guy at a conference once who did his dissertation on the images of men in vintage porn ("stag" films). He did all his research at the Kinsey Institute and basically just watched hundreds of old 16mm films for a couple of summers.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: Is it ok to write to an academic simply to say you like their work or to ask a question regarding their research? Over the past few months I have started reading more, listening to more podcasts, debates and so on. Sometimes through that I become familiar with people whose approach to certain issues I find amazing or whose research I find particularly interesting and so on. I then get the urge to share it with them, but I wonder if that's appropriate? Sometimes I also wish I could ask a question, but I feel it's ridiculous and I should first gather as much knowledge as I can before reaching out to someone personally. After all I am simply a not-so-well-educated random person and I don't want to be pestering someone when I get overexcited. Any thoughts?
RESPONSE A: Happy to get notes. If I get questions I will respond, but only if they are short and specific. I've had too many questions along the lines of "Can you tell me about the Civil War?" to bother with many such inquiries. But if someone has asked a specific question and clearly has enough background to understand an answer I will respond.
RESPONSE B: I have written to dozens of authors, and received about 40-50 emails about my various published works. It's always nice to hear from someone wanting to learn more about my work, but often times it takes me a few days or a week to get back to them once life settles down. Usually it's just people asking for the source code or a clarification on something in the paper, so it's pretty easy to answer.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: Is it ok to write to an academic simply to say you like their work or to ask a question regarding their research? Over the past few months I have started reading more, listening to more podcasts, debates and so on. Sometimes through that I become familiar with people whose approach to certain issues I find amazing or whose research I find particularly interesting and so on. I then get the urge to share it with them, but I wonder if that's appropriate? Sometimes I also wish I could ask a question, but I feel it's ridiculous and I should first gather as much knowledge as I can before reaching out to someone personally. After all I am simply a not-so-well-educated random person and I don't want to be pestering someone when I get overexcited. Any thoughts?
RESPONSE A: I have written to dozens of authors, and received about 40-50 emails about my various published works. It's always nice to hear from someone wanting to learn more about my work, but often times it takes me a few days or a week to get back to them once life settles down. Usually it's just people asking for the source code or a clarification on something in the paper, so it's pretty easy to answer.
RESPONSE B: As others have said, yes, definitely. I'd be flattered, personally. The usual caveats of emailing busy professionals apply: don't gush too much, don't ask really open-ended questions, don't expect/demand a reply.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: Is it ok to write to an academic simply to say you like their work or to ask a question regarding their research? Over the past few months I have started reading more, listening to more podcasts, debates and so on. Sometimes through that I become familiar with people whose approach to certain issues I find amazing or whose research I find particularly interesting and so on. I then get the urge to share it with them, but I wonder if that's appropriate? Sometimes I also wish I could ask a question, but I feel it's ridiculous and I should first gather as much knowledge as I can before reaching out to someone personally. After all I am simply a not-so-well-educated random person and I don't want to be pestering someone when I get overexcited. Any thoughts?
RESPONSE A: As others have said, yes, definitely. I'd be flattered, personally. The usual caveats of emailing busy professionals apply: don't gush too much, don't ask really open-ended questions, don't expect/demand a reply.
RESPONSE B: Absolutely!! Research takes effort. Lots of effort. People love it when you ask about their life's work.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: I've been asked to speak at one of my alma maters on a discussion panel about graduate school. How honest should I be? There are some great thing about graduate work, whether you are getting your Ph.D. or a Masters, but it's not an easy road and there are many variables to consider. How honest, and I suppose, how hard should I be when discussing things? I don't want to discourage anyone (I really loved my time in graduate school despite a few issues), but there are going to be hard times for those who choose the route. I also really loved my advisor and professors where I went, but the university itself I had a lot of problems with (not the university I will be speaking at, by the way). What do I discuss? Has anyone else given one of these talks? How did it go?
RESPONSE A: The people coming to your talk are primed to hear what they want to hear. Don't tell them that. Find your balance between honesty and optimism, and then ignore optimism and go full on with honesty. I was privileged enough to have a college professor who discouraged me from going for a Ph.D., and another professor who strongly hinted at it. I ignored them both, because I am a crazy person. And when the process was over, and I had my doctorate, I had the most respect for my mentors who told me how shit goes down in the real world, and not the idealized version of it.
RESPONSE B: As others have said, be honest, yet constructive. Also, make sure to qualify your thoughts/advice as being specific to your experience/background/personality. For example, the research was fun, but the constant writing didn't mesh with your particular work-style/personality. Good luck, you'll be great. The students just want to hear anything, they're starving for insight.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: , so she graduated and moved on without finishing the manuscript. It needed a lot of additional work. I did a substantial overhaul and am now ready to send for publication, with me as first author. The paper is very different from the work Becky originally did, but she contributed enough early ideas to warrant authorship as a middle author. The problem is, I've reached out to Becky asking if she would like to be an author and that she must review, offer comments on the final draft, approve the manuscript if she wants authorship. She has not responded. I have a gmail for her, but since she's graduated and is no longer on our institutional email system or even in the same city, I can't really follow up any other way. I assume she's getting my emails, but I don't know. We're trying to get this manuscript out by the end of the month. Do I just cut her from the author list and put her in the acknowledgements if I can't get a response?
RESPONSE A: Try to contact her by other means (email) maybe she left a phone number? Or try LinkedIn or Twitter
RESPONSE B: There's a similar case on the website for the Committe on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/case/inability-contact-author-obtain-permission-publish In that instance, the editor suggested that the (PhD) student be included as an author, but that they include a written statement saying that they couldn't be contacted. The COPE forum agreed to this. They also suggested seeking additional input to verify that the work was carried out as described and that there shouldn't be any conflicts of interest. There might be other cases on the website, or you could try contacting them yourself. My initial thought was that it might be a bit odd to try and contact the student through social media, but that case mentions that they did, as did mtb\_addict in another response, so maybe it's not that weird. It's possible that the university might also retain a mailing address for the student - I (or rather, my parents) certainly still receive a lot of alumni related stuff.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: for publication, with me as first author. The paper is very different from the work Becky originally did, but she contributed enough early ideas to warrant authorship as a middle author. The problem is, I've reached out to Becky asking if she would like to be an author and that she must review, offer comments on the final draft, approve the manuscript if she wants authorship. She has not responded. I have a gmail for her, but since she's graduated and is no longer on our institutional email system or even in the same city, I can't really follow up any other way. I assume she's getting my emails, but I don't know. We're trying to get this manuscript out by the end of the month. Do I just cut her from the author list and put her in the acknowledgements if I can't get a response?
RESPONSE A: >she contributed enough early ideas to warrant authorship as a middle author There's your answer. Doesn't matter what she does now or whether she responds. She did the early work, she gets some credit. Failure to do so is unethical.
RESPONSE B: There's a similar case on the website for the Committe on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/case/inability-contact-author-obtain-permission-publish In that instance, the editor suggested that the (PhD) student be included as an author, but that they include a written statement saying that they couldn't be contacted. The COPE forum agreed to this. They also suggested seeking additional input to verify that the work was carried out as described and that there shouldn't be any conflicts of interest. There might be other cases on the website, or you could try contacting them yourself. My initial thought was that it might be a bit odd to try and contact the student through social media, but that case mentions that they did, as did mtb\_addict in another response, so maybe it's not that weird. It's possible that the university might also retain a mailing address for the student - I (or rather, my parents) certainly still receive a lot of alumni related stuff.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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POST: I have a gmail for her, but since she's graduated and is no longer on our institutional email system or even in the same city, I can't really follow up any other way. I assume she's getting my emails, but I don't know. We're trying to get this manuscript out by the end of the month. Do I just cut her from the author list and put her in the acknowledgements if I can't get a response?
RESPONSE A: That is very kind of you. I wouldn't be opposed to a facebook message from a former advisor if you had a good enough relationship with her, it might be another way to try to contact her. If she still doesn't get back to you, just submit it with an acknowledgement for her work. Realistically, if she isn't jumping all over this opportunity for a publication, it is likely that she isn't in academia, and not being on this paper likely won't have an impact on her future career. But again. super thoughtful of you. I have a feeling a lot of advisors would have already said screw it.
RESPONSE B: There's a similar case on the website for the Committe on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/case/inability-contact-author-obtain-permission-publish In that instance, the editor suggested that the (PhD) student be included as an author, but that they include a written statement saying that they couldn't be contacted. The COPE forum agreed to this. They also suggested seeking additional input to verify that the work was carried out as described and that there shouldn't be any conflicts of interest. There might be other cases on the website, or you could try contacting them yourself. My initial thought was that it might be a bit odd to try and contact the student through social media, but that case mentions that they did, as did mtb\_addict in another response, so maybe it's not that weird. It's possible that the university might also retain a mailing address for the student - I (or rather, my parents) certainly still receive a lot of alumni related stuff.
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POST: How’s the academic job market for epidemiology/biostatistics in the U.S.?
RESPONSE A: Academic epidemiologist checking in. The answer is still “pretty bad.” But it’s honestly better than most fields. Pretty much my whole cohort managed to get faculty positions (about 5 years ago). But the prestige of the universities varied a lot. No one ended up without a solid PhD epi job, but for some that meant state health departments or non-profits. I am seeing similar patterns in our graduating students.
RESPONSE B: There seems to be limited interest in offering taught courses in biostatistics as its own subject abroad, which might make it more competitive in the US as well.
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POST: How’s the academic job market for epidemiology/biostatistics in the U.S.?
RESPONSE A: Academic epidemiologist checking in. The answer is still “pretty bad.” But it’s honestly better than most fields. Pretty much my whole cohort managed to get faculty positions (about 5 years ago). But the prestige of the universities varied a lot. No one ended up without a solid PhD epi job, but for some that meant state health departments or non-profits. I am seeing similar patterns in our graduating students.
RESPONSE B: Pretty bad
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POST: How’s the academic job market for epidemiology/biostatistics in the U.S.?
RESPONSE A: I'm in Nursing (not a bad job market for academics, btw) and I know a lot of colleges of nursing and health professions are looking for biostatisticians but I think it's more of a support position than a TT line.
RESPONSE B: Pretty bad
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POST: What did you do to celebrate obtaining your phd or masters degree?
RESPONSE A: I went on a two month holiday in Europe, that I did all on my own. Starting with London, Paris and Rome. Ended up in Greece and met my current partner of 2 years!
RESPONSE B: Vacations are always fun. I took a two week long Europe trip with my boyfriend after we both graduated with our masters. It was a great gift to ourselves for all the hard work! Now that I’m getting my PhD, I also thought about celebrating passing my qualifying exams with a tattoo but I haven’t gotten to it.
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POST: What did you do to celebrate obtaining your phd or masters degree?
RESPONSE A: Vacations are always fun. I took a two week long Europe trip with my boyfriend after we both graduated with our masters. It was a great gift to ourselves for all the hard work! Now that I’m getting my PhD, I also thought about celebrating passing my qualifying exams with a tattoo but I haven’t gotten to it.
RESPONSE B: defended 9am-12pm. lunch with the external examiner and my PI at the grad club. stayed there for the rest of the afternoon and my labmates filtered in and we had some celebratory beers. BBQ at my PI's house with my labmates and other grad students from the department. in bed by 11pm absolutely DRAINED. oh yeah, and I bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer as a gift because I fucking earned it. once I get a real person job the Vitamix is next.
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POST: What did you do to celebrate obtaining your phd or masters degree?
RESPONSE A: Was working in the Sierras and defended via Skype. I went on a 4 day solo backpacking trip the next day. Total cleanse from staring at a screen every night for the past 4 months.
RESPONSE B: defended 9am-12pm. lunch with the external examiner and my PI at the grad club. stayed there for the rest of the afternoon and my labmates filtered in and we had some celebratory beers. BBQ at my PI's house with my labmates and other grad students from the department. in bed by 11pm absolutely DRAINED. oh yeah, and I bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer as a gift because I fucking earned it. once I get a real person job the Vitamix is next.
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POST: What did you do to celebrate obtaining your phd or masters degree?
RESPONSE A: Hook pull. Wanted to match something mentally grueling with something physically grueling, and for some idiosyncratic reasons, this was a meaningful thing to do for me.
RESPONSE B: defended 9am-12pm. lunch with the external examiner and my PI at the grad club. stayed there for the rest of the afternoon and my labmates filtered in and we had some celebratory beers. BBQ at my PI's house with my labmates and other grad students from the department. in bed by 11pm absolutely DRAINED. oh yeah, and I bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer as a gift because I fucking earned it. once I get a real person job the Vitamix is next.
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POST: What did you do to celebrate obtaining your phd or masters degree?
RESPONSE A: Family fish fry!
RESPONSE B: defended 9am-12pm. lunch with the external examiner and my PI at the grad club. stayed there for the rest of the afternoon and my labmates filtered in and we had some celebratory beers. BBQ at my PI's house with my labmates and other grad students from the department. in bed by 11pm absolutely DRAINED. oh yeah, and I bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer as a gift because I fucking earned it. once I get a real person job the Vitamix is next.
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POST: hate my current job, its conventional work with no innovation/creativity that is full of multitasking and lots of work for 11 hours five days a week. I am out of home from 8am till 10pm. Then there are sales visits during weekends. Customers are demeaning to service workers and coworkers tend to throw work my way because of my passivity and the new boss is bad. I believe that being an academic or researcher would suit me well. Very less politics, no bad bosses, can switch from bad bosses, less abusive and prejudicial coworkers, less need for social interaction and customer service etc. In Economics I have a wide range of interest, especially of using economic analysis in other disciplines, like space, AI, policy suggestions, IT etc. My papers are in various modes of publishing and they are on such topic. Not only that I also maintain a blog about such topics when my thoughts are not suitable for the narrow focus on journals. Anyways, I would like to get advice that given my situation what subject should I do my PhD in. Any suggestions or advice?
RESPONSE A: u/thegreenauarium is right for the most part. While you could pursue subjects such as Economic History, they aren't really going to lead to anything that pays all that well. Moreover, you don't just "do" a PhD. You need to have a passion for research and the subject, and a relatively clear idea about where you want to take your research. If you're not even sure what field you want to do it in, a PhD is probably not for you.
RESPONSE B: Current PhD student here. If part of the reason you hate your job is the long hours (11 hour days, 5 days/week), then getting a PhD would in no way make your situation better. Research hours put into a doctorate can span longer than 11 hours, and it is assumed your weekends will also be spent working on your research. It seems like a frying pan into the fire type of situation. Also, graduate programs can exacerbate mental health problems. Obviously not always, but the stress, negative feedback, and failure associated with a doctorate can make problems much worse. I would caution you to think about these things before applying and accepting an admissions offer.
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POST: How to get better at Asking Questions? I am a PhD student in the computer science field. And I've just been wondering... What's a good way at getting better at asking questions? Or better at formulating them? I've noticed one thing that really sets apart an academic is the questions and type of questions they ask during a guest lecturer or seminar. I can't help but marvel at the eloquence, structure, and delivery from some of the senior profs. It's one thing to ask insightful questions, but another on the delivery of it. Sometimes I find myself having the same questions for a speaker, but the way I formulated it might be off or I am not quite getting the response I was looking for.. and someone else asks it and immediately I recognize it to be much better... Others with thoughts on this?
RESPONSE A: Another PhD student here so may not be be the best advice. At conferences open questions are typically better. Asking technical questions can sometimes seem aggressive. e g. Why didn't you do technique X? v.s. Have you heard of technique X?
RESPONSE B: From someone who just recently defended - a lot of those questions come from experts in those fields (like very specific sub fields in your field for example). Once you become familiar with literature in that specific topic it gets easier to ask questions that may have some implication with what the talk was about and maybe it’s something the speakers considered. Knowing the methods well and shortfalls of some is another way. Those to me are how the best questions are made.
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POST: How to get better at Asking Questions? I am a PhD student in the computer science field. And I've just been wondering... What's a good way at getting better at asking questions? Or better at formulating them? I've noticed one thing that really sets apart an academic is the questions and type of questions they ask during a guest lecturer or seminar. I can't help but marvel at the eloquence, structure, and delivery from some of the senior profs. It's one thing to ask insightful questions, but another on the delivery of it. Sometimes I find myself having the same questions for a speaker, but the way I formulated it might be off or I am not quite getting the response I was looking for.. and someone else asks it and immediately I recognize it to be much better... Others with thoughts on this?
RESPONSE A: You are a PhD student. It's normal that you have a limited vocabulary compared to senior profs. You are learning. Have you attended recently a Bachelor's or Master's presentation? You will notice that it sounds sometimes too blurry or they have some weird vocabulary or they try to connect "easy" ideas in a complicated manner. But it is normal, they are learning. Just like you. I tend to ask myself questions like: if I have to do the same thing, would I be able to do it based on what's presented? Why this method and not another one? What new perspective does that bring to the research area? Etc. Even without the precise vocabulary, I noticed that the speakers are happy to develop because you are showing genuine interest in their work. But that is just me, a PhD student as well.
RESPONSE B: Communication is developed through practice. Public speaking typically has additional anxiety involved. Start by talking to people in public in which you do not know. Then attend some local Toast Master events. Maybe do some karaoke of songs you don't fully know by heart. Connecting your knowledge base to words may be difficult if you do not discuss these topics verbally. If all of this is too much join a discord and start engaging there.
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POST: How to get better at Asking Questions? I am a PhD student in the computer science field. And I've just been wondering... What's a good way at getting better at asking questions? Or better at formulating them? I've noticed one thing that really sets apart an academic is the questions and type of questions they ask during a guest lecturer or seminar. I can't help but marvel at the eloquence, structure, and delivery from some of the senior profs. It's one thing to ask insightful questions, but another on the delivery of it. Sometimes I find myself having the same questions for a speaker, but the way I formulated it might be off or I am not quite getting the response I was looking for.. and someone else asks it and immediately I recognize it to be much better... Others with thoughts on this?
RESPONSE A: My issue is having a limited vocabulary…. And a shitty memory.. always have to pause to figure out the correct words to explain the nonsense in my head
RESPONSE B: You are a PhD student. It's normal that you have a limited vocabulary compared to senior profs. You are learning. Have you attended recently a Bachelor's or Master's presentation? You will notice that it sounds sometimes too blurry or they have some weird vocabulary or they try to connect "easy" ideas in a complicated manner. But it is normal, they are learning. Just like you. I tend to ask myself questions like: if I have to do the same thing, would I be able to do it based on what's presented? Why this method and not another one? What new perspective does that bring to the research area? Etc. Even without the precise vocabulary, I noticed that the speakers are happy to develop because you are showing genuine interest in their work. But that is just me, a PhD student as well.
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POST: New Dean, Ethics and H-Index How do you address the case of finding out that your new dean has a google H index of over 100, but is unable to seemingly construct a 2 paragraph email. Further he has offered several faculty members dissertations he has “obtained” from other countries to use and write a paper on. He has the respect of no one since he seems to be a complete research fraud. It’s hurtful and demoralizing that this is the person that we have to work with on a daily basis. He seems to have support from upper leadership at the uni. How can you ever respect anything that this person says or does??
RESPONSE A: Further he has offered several faculty members dissertations he has “obtained” from other countries to use and write a paper on. Could you elaborate on this? I don't really understand what this means.
RESPONSE B: The good news is that this person is unlikely to care what you do as long as you hit whatever targets you’re measured on. The bad news is you’ll be expected to hit those targets no matter what it takes. Is this a situation you can live with?
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POST: Need some advice. One of my required courses is meeting at a time (2:30pm-5:15) when I need to be available to pick my daughter up from school (3pm). With traffic, it's about an hour trip. I've contacted the professor, who has told me that, yes, the lecture will be recorded, but if I miss the first hour, I'm at an extreme disadvantage for the rest of the class. My husband's work schedule is extremely unpredictable in normal times, and even more so in Covid times. We are damn lucky he's still working, so I need to be the flexible parent right now. What can I reasonably ask for here? This is a PhD level course, it's required and it's only offered during the spring (as far as I can tell). I don't want to register for a course where there's a good chance I won't be successful in learning the material or participating. I don't want to drop out. I've emailed the department director and my advisor explaining the situation, but feel very self-conscious for making a stink. My little family (it's just my husband, my daughter, and I) have all worked so hard to make this program work for me. We live in a place that has been just gutted by this pandemic (Vegas), and we know how lucky we are that my husband gets to work. I feel so defeated that this part of being a mom during strange times is having such a huge impact on my academic goals. And I feel like I'll be a black sheep in my department if I ask for special accommodations. Any insight or advice is so welcome. I'm hoping that I'm just overthinking the whole situation, as I am prone to do. Thanks in advance and Happy New Year.
RESPONSE A: Let your daughter's school know the schedule conflict and pick her up early on those days. She's 4, she's not going to miss anything.
RESPONSE B: Is there any way to pay a babysitter or nanny or another parent in the class to get the daughter? Even an Uber? (not sure if she's old enough to do that alone) Or can you listen while you drive?
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POST: Class meeting time will derail my PhD Hi all, Need some advice. One of my required courses is meeting at a time (2:30pm-5:15) when I need to be available to pick my daughter up from school (3pm). With traffic, it's about an hour trip. I've contacted the professor, who has told me that, yes, the lecture will be recorded, but if I miss the first hour, I'm at an extreme disadvantage for the rest of the class. My husband's work schedule is extremely unpredictable in normal times, and even more so in Covid times. We are damn lucky he's still working, so I need to be the flexible parent right now. What can I reasonably ask for here? This is a PhD level course, it's required and it's only offered during the spring (as far as I can tell). I don't want to register for a course where there's a good chance I won't be successful in learning the material or participating. I don't want to drop out. I've emailed the department director and my advisor explaining the situation, but feel very self-conscious for making a stink. My little family (it's just my husband, my daughter, and I) have all worked so hard to make this program work for me. We live in a place that has been just gutted by this pandemic (Vegas), and we know how lucky we are that my husband gets to work. I feel so defeated that this part of being a mom during strange times is having such a huge impact on my academic goals. And I feel like I'll be a black sheep in my department if I ask for special accommodations. Any insight or advice is so welcome. I'm hoping that I'm just overthinking the whole situation, as I am prone to do. Thanks in advance and Happy New Year.
RESPONSE A: Let your daughter's school know the schedule conflict and pick her up early on those days. She's 4, she's not going to miss anything.
RESPONSE B: Pick her up early and bring her to class? Connect via phone to the class in the car?
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POST: contacted the professor, who has told me that, yes, the lecture will be recorded, but if I miss the first hour, I'm at an extreme disadvantage for the rest of the class. My husband's work schedule is extremely unpredictable in normal times, and even more so in Covid times. We are damn lucky he's still working, so I need to be the flexible parent right now. What can I reasonably ask for here? This is a PhD level course, it's required and it's only offered during the spring (as far as I can tell). I don't want to register for a course where there's a good chance I won't be successful in learning the material or participating. I don't want to drop out. I've emailed the department director and my advisor explaining the situation, but feel very self-conscious for making a stink. My little family (it's just my husband, my daughter, and I) have all worked so hard to make this program work for me. We live in a place that has been just gutted by this pandemic (Vegas), and we know how lucky we are that my husband gets to work. I feel so defeated that this part of being a mom during strange times is having such a huge impact on my academic goals. And I feel like I'll be a black sheep in my department if I ask for special accommodations. Any insight or advice is so welcome. I'm hoping that I'm just overthinking the whole situation, as I am prone to do. Thanks in advance and Happy New Year.
RESPONSE A: Let your daughter's school know the schedule conflict and pick her up early on those days. She's 4, she's not going to miss anything.
RESPONSE B: You have gotten some great feedback here. I just want to offer some encouragement and an internet hug. You may not get more communications from the prof until a few days after New Year’s, at the earliest, so don’t get dismayed before the 5th(ish?). And remember to use the withdrawal policy to your advantage. You can register, showing your interest in committing, and withdraw if an equitable working situation isn’t reached by the deadline. Best of luck!
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POST: up from school (3pm). With traffic, it's about an hour trip. I've contacted the professor, who has told me that, yes, the lecture will be recorded, but if I miss the first hour, I'm at an extreme disadvantage for the rest of the class. My husband's work schedule is extremely unpredictable in normal times, and even more so in Covid times. We are damn lucky he's still working, so I need to be the flexible parent right now. What can I reasonably ask for here? This is a PhD level course, it's required and it's only offered during the spring (as far as I can tell). I don't want to register for a course where there's a good chance I won't be successful in learning the material or participating. I don't want to drop out. I've emailed the department director and my advisor explaining the situation, but feel very self-conscious for making a stink. My little family (it's just my husband, my daughter, and I) have all worked so hard to make this program work for me. We live in a place that has been just gutted by this pandemic (Vegas), and we know how lucky we are that my husband gets to work. I feel so defeated that this part of being a mom during strange times is having such a huge impact on my academic goals. And I feel like I'll be a black sheep in my department if I ask for special accommodations. Any insight or advice is so welcome. I'm hoping that I'm just overthinking the whole situation, as I am prone to do. Thanks in advance and Happy New Year.
RESPONSE A: Let your daughter's school know the schedule conflict and pick her up early on those days. She's 4, she's not going to miss anything.
RESPONSE B: Will this course be offered again next year? Many PhD courses are offered on a set rotation, so see if you can wait and take it next year instead (assuming you're not completing your coursework this year). Would the prof be willing to do an independent study with you? I know it's asking a lot, but you never know. Or is there another course that will fulfill this requirement?
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POST: need to be the flexible parent right now. What can I reasonably ask for here? This is a PhD level course, it's required and it's only offered during the spring (as far as I can tell). I don't want to register for a course where there's a good chance I won't be successful in learning the material or participating. I don't want to drop out. I've emailed the department director and my advisor explaining the situation, but feel very self-conscious for making a stink. My little family (it's just my husband, my daughter, and I) have all worked so hard to make this program work for me. We live in a place that has been just gutted by this pandemic (Vegas), and we know how lucky we are that my husband gets to work. I feel so defeated that this part of being a mom during strange times is having such a huge impact on my academic goals. And I feel like I'll be a black sheep in my department if I ask for special accommodations. Any insight or advice is so welcome. I'm hoping that I'm just overthinking the whole situation, as I am prone to do. Thanks in advance and Happy New Year.
RESPONSE A: Let your daughter's school know the schedule conflict and pick her up early on those days. She's 4, she's not going to miss anything.
RESPONSE B: What's your feeling about your professor and the director? Do they seem genuine in wanting to support you through the program? If they do, then I'd say, make the ask. I think sometimes we make academia harder than we need to because we feel like that's how we earn ivory tower cred, but it's often not necessary. Maybe you've already proven yourself to these people and this is the time to cash in some social/academic capital. That said, if you feel like you're on thin ice with the dept in general, then yeah I get wanting to keep your head down. This is a really contextual thing, so it's hard to give blanket advice. I've seen situations like this go in radically different ways depending on the culture of the dept, or even just the individual professors involved.
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POST: , my adviser still wants me to continue working with the data. They are interested in publishing more papers as co-authors. On my side, this would involve many hours of remote work from home (I moved to a different state). I explained that I have very little time to work with the lab, since I am scrambling to make ends meet through freelance jobs as I hunt for a permanent position. I am currently looking for work outside of academia. One company is finally eager to hire me. My adviser, who had agreed to provide a reference, pulled out last-minute because (as I warned them), I have not had time to work on the lab's data. The reference will come once I show results. Fortunately, I found a replacement reference, and my other references came through. Currently waiting to hear back from the company. Is it common for former PhD students to continue working for their lab w/o compensation? The only time I've seen this in my lab was through postdoc work. PS: I am not asking this adviser to provide a reference again.
RESPONSE A: I would say it is common for people to work on manuscripts from groups they have left, but only at their own pace/discretion, and usually if the person is staying in academia. What your old supervisor pulled is straight bullshit though, and bang out of order.
RESPONSE B: Wow, I had the same exact experience with my advisor! In my new job I was writing a grant and needed a letter of rec. He wouldn't write one because I didn't finish his manuscripts. I worked on the stuff for a little while, even submitted a manuscript and it was accepted with major revision. After a lot of miscommunication, that paper didn't get resubmitted. My advisor eventually gave me a hard deadline of two weeks to get the paper resubmitted (which I couldn't do because some of the reviews wanted some data I couldn't generate since I was no longer working in that lab). I couldn't meet my advisor's deadline (I was about to go on travel for my current job) so I said no. We haven't spoken since. To answer your question, yes advisors often want you to work on stuff for them for free.
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POST: permanent position. I am currently looking for work outside of academia. One company is finally eager to hire me. My adviser, who had agreed to provide a reference, pulled out last-minute because (as I warned them), I have not had time to work on the lab's data. The reference will come once I show results. Fortunately, I found a replacement reference, and my other references came through. Currently waiting to hear back from the company. Is it common for former PhD students to continue working for their lab w/o compensation? The only time I've seen this in my lab was through postdoc work. PS: I am not asking this adviser to provide a reference again.
RESPONSE A: It is common to work on research you intend to publish after graduation- I did this both after graduating undergrad and grad school. But I got 2 publications out of it, which helped me get a job and later tenure. If you are leaving academia and don't think you will *ever* need the publications, then feel free to bail. But if you think the publication will be useful for future jobs then I would stay on and work more. Keeping in mind scenarios like my friend who worked for the census for 5 years and then decided she wanted to return to academia, and since she had been publishing while there, she was able to get a TT job.
RESPONSE B: Wow, I had the same exact experience with my advisor! In my new job I was writing a grant and needed a letter of rec. He wouldn't write one because I didn't finish his manuscripts. I worked on the stuff for a little while, even submitted a manuscript and it was accepted with major revision. After a lot of miscommunication, that paper didn't get resubmitted. My advisor eventually gave me a hard deadline of two weeks to get the paper resubmitted (which I couldn't do because some of the reviews wanted some data I couldn't generate since I was no longer working in that lab). I couldn't meet my advisor's deadline (I was about to go on travel for my current job) so I said no. We haven't spoken since. To answer your question, yes advisors often want you to work on stuff for them for free.
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POST: the lab, since I am scrambling to make ends meet through freelance jobs as I hunt for a permanent position. I am currently looking for work outside of academia. One company is finally eager to hire me. My adviser, who had agreed to provide a reference, pulled out last-minute because (as I warned them), I have not had time to work on the lab's data. The reference will come once I show results. Fortunately, I found a replacement reference, and my other references came through. Currently waiting to hear back from the company. Is it common for former PhD students to continue working for their lab w/o compensation? The only time I've seen this in my lab was through postdoc work. PS: I am not asking this adviser to provide a reference again.
RESPONSE A: Wow, I had the same exact experience with my advisor! In my new job I was writing a grant and needed a letter of rec. He wouldn't write one because I didn't finish his manuscripts. I worked on the stuff for a little while, even submitted a manuscript and it was accepted with major revision. After a lot of miscommunication, that paper didn't get resubmitted. My advisor eventually gave me a hard deadline of two weeks to get the paper resubmitted (which I couldn't do because some of the reviews wanted some data I couldn't generate since I was no longer working in that lab). I couldn't meet my advisor's deadline (I was about to go on travel for my current job) so I said no. We haven't spoken since. To answer your question, yes advisors often want you to work on stuff for them for free.
RESPONSE B: It is very reasonable to expect former advisees to continue to work on projects after they've left, since publications are important to academics so it's usually mutually beneficial even without money changing hands. However, the relationship is absolutely terminable by either party and there shouldn't be any hard feelings. It is completely unreasonable to hold a rec letter over a former advisee as a form of quid pro quo. That's just terrible, and I'm sorry you have to deal with that. An adviser's recommendation is worth a lot.
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POST: ! I did find support later and now somewhat better in terms of mental health but now I have other health issues which keeps me away from giving my best. To be honest, before pandemic the lowest grade I got was C+ and that too in just one course. During pandemic, when I was not at my best, I had a couple of D's too. At present my GPA isn't at its best that I could go and talk to my professors regarding a research position. I know myself well and I know that those D's that I see on my transcript is not me. But I guess when professor will see my GPA and especially those D's I will be pushed out. Anyone here can give me suggestion on how can I approach professors, how do I convince them that I can do better and more importantly what will make them choose me over others despite a bad GPA for lab position???
RESPONSE A: Any experienced Prof will know that there is little, if any, relationship between GPA and performance on the bench. Indeed some of the "high fliers" I have taken on have been the ones to struggle the most on the bench.
RESPONSE B: I was in your shoes back in the day. A 2.92 GPA leaving undergrad with a bachelors in biology and thats after retaking classes that I failed because i couldn’t juggle a job and school properly. I too was really worried about my future prospects with such a low GPA. I applied to a couple of research institutions and seldom did they ask for my GPA. Your interviewers will be much more interested in how you present yourself and how you set yourself apart from the other candidates. I landed a research position at an ivy league college as my first job by making myself stand out as much as possible. I brought all my lab papers to the interview and left it with the principle investigator. I got some experience there and moved on. Used that experience to pad my low GPA enough to get in to a Master program redeemed myself with a 4.0gpa and then went onto finish my PhD. Your gpa is only a part of your story. Make that other part of your story so interesting that they forget about that number.
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POST: I have a question about scientific articles and how people are able to absorb all of the information provided. I'm finishing up my undergrad and have been fairly involved with research for the past few years. I'm currently sifting through dozens of papers about the hindered settling of multi-particle, dilute systems. There is so much information to absorb. It doesn't help that ultimately, I want to understand the fundamentals of a hindered settling and rising multi-particle system. I get that fluid mechanics is an intense field but how on Earth are people able to absorb all of this information? I know that its primarily practice that does the trick, but could someone please provide some advice for me to better tackle all of this information?
RESPONSE A: If I want to undestand a paper thoroughly I always read it one time to get a feeling for it. Afterwards I read it again and try to sum up the content of one paragraph in a sentence that I then write to the margins. Obviously that takes more time, than just scanning the pictures and reading the discussion, but if I am able to sum it up like this, I usually understood the matter and also have my notes to remember it later on.
RESPONSE B: keep a summary (one line or short paragraph) of articles read, sorted by topic, with useful quotes or values that you'll want to directly reference later. get a reference manager that'll sort pdf's, let you tag, and store summaries. find a good review article, then annotate heavily as you read the referenced articles. Expect to not fully understand a paper until you've tried doing something similar. Because of space constraints a lot of background is left out and only hinted at. I got a lot more out of the papers I was reading after my first field season.
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POST: I have a question about scientific articles and how people are able to absorb all of the information provided. I'm finishing up my undergrad and have been fairly involved with research for the past few years. I'm currently sifting through dozens of papers about the hindered settling of multi-particle, dilute systems. There is so much information to absorb. It doesn't help that ultimately, I want to understand the fundamentals of a hindered settling and rising multi-particle system. I get that fluid mechanics is an intense field but how on Earth are people able to absorb all of this information? I know that its primarily practice that does the trick, but could someone please provide some advice for me to better tackle all of this information?
RESPONSE A: I do research in fluids. It took me a year or so into grad school to have a good grip on how to competently analyze a given paper in my field. You don't typically absorb *all* information in a paper unless it's hyper-specfically related to what you're doing. Look at the big picture first, the conclusions, etc. If it's a paper directly in a researcher's field, then they've been working in it for years and speak the same language so it's easy to absorb. > There is so much information to absorb. It doesn't help that ultimately, I want to understand the fundamentals of a hindered settling and rising multi-particle system. That might be the problem. Peer-reviewed journal papers aren't written to communicate fundamentals, they're written for people that already have a solid grasp on the fundamentals. You probably want a textbook or at most a "review article".
RESPONSE B: If I want to undestand a paper thoroughly I always read it one time to get a feeling for it. Afterwards I read it again and try to sum up the content of one paragraph in a sentence that I then write to the margins. Obviously that takes more time, than just scanning the pictures and reading the discussion, but if I am able to sum it up like this, I usually understood the matter and also have my notes to remember it later on.
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POST: What is your favorite search engine for scholarly articles and for what field are you searching for? Edit: Do you use Google Scholar for exclusively searching for athropology and PubMed for Medicine? Do you prefer using JSTOR for physics? What is your favorite scholarly search engine?! Hope you are having a wonderful day!
RESPONSE A: SAO/NASA Astro Data System. Searchable archive of astro abstracts, with useful but concise citation info and links to full papers where possible. Seriously helpful!
RESPONSE B: I'm not saying you should support the violation of digital copyright laws by going to libgen, but if you should want to...
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POST: What is your favorite search engine for scholarly articles and for what field are you searching for? Edit: Do you use Google Scholar for exclusively searching for athropology and PubMed for Medicine? Do you prefer using JSTOR for physics? What is your favorite scholarly search engine?! Hope you are having a wonderful day!
RESPONSE A: SAO/NASA Astro Data System. Searchable archive of astro abstracts, with useful but concise citation info and links to full papers where possible. Seriously helpful!
RESPONSE B: Google Scholar. I haven't run across anything more effective.
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POST: ). Assuming I make it through the program, I'll be at least 46 years old (quite possibly older depending on how things go). I would be doing this with the goal of becoming a professor after getting my Phd. My questions to all of you wonderful people is, what challenges am I facing by doing this? Do you think it's worth it for me? Do colleges care about my age as long as I can still publish papers? I'm worried that I might be goofed up either way since I don't have 20+ years in any one industry anyway, so in that sense, what can it hurt to try?
RESPONSE A: > One of my professors had suggested that he thought I might do well in a Phd program A jaded post-doc once warned me that I will be told this. He said to take it as a compliment to my work ethic/skills and nothing more. It's important not to let anyone sell you on the idea that you're destined to do a PhD. > I would be doing this with the goal of becoming a professor after getting my Phd. How does your wife feel about moving in your late forties for a post-doc? And then maybe again in your early fifties for a professorship? That's if you're lucky enough to get one.
RESPONSE B: Becoming a professor is tough for anyone - especially at an R1 or R2 uni. If you envision becoming a CC prof, then no worries and you can readily find a job after graduating. Otherwise: (a) you'll take 3-7 years for the PhD and need a \~2 year postdoc and (b) expect to have 10+ (min) publications in top journals \[external funding is a big plus as well\]. Assuming you graduate from a top uni and have decent rec letter, you ***may*** get an invitation to an on-campus interview. Regaring your age: it is very possible you will be discriminated against. I have been discriminated against as a veteran, so it does happen. But, at the end of the day - do what you are passionate about. I wish you all the best :-)
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POST: a professor after getting my Phd. My questions to all of you wonderful people is, what challenges am I facing by doing this? Do you think it's worth it for me? Do colleges care about my age as long as I can still publish papers? I'm worried that I might be goofed up either way since I don't have 20+ years in any one industry anyway, so in that sense, what can it hurt to try?
RESPONSE A: Becoming a professor is tough for anyone - especially at an R1 or R2 uni. If you envision becoming a CC prof, then no worries and you can readily find a job after graduating. Otherwise: (a) you'll take 3-7 years for the PhD and need a \~2 year postdoc and (b) expect to have 10+ (min) publications in top journals \[external funding is a big plus as well\]. Assuming you graduate from a top uni and have decent rec letter, you ***may*** get an invitation to an on-campus interview. Regaring your age: it is very possible you will be discriminated against. I have been discriminated against as a veteran, so it does happen. But, at the end of the day - do what you are passionate about. I wish you all the best :-)
RESPONSE B: If you are independently wealthy and have a revenue stream already in place for retirement, then go for it: probably you will struggle more than younger PhDs on the market afterwards, but smaller colleges, CCs, VAPs, etc., will consider you. Econ is a relatively good job market. You’ll be 15-20 years older than most of your classmates and older than some of your professors, though: don’t be the mature student who tries to dominate conversation or resents being taught by someone younger. If you are going to need to earn money in the future to support yourself or your family, though, this plan is very risky. I would say “madness” if you were in the humanities, but with a PhD in econ you could probably fall back on private sector work if the job search is unsuccessful, albeit with 5-8 years’ lost wages and seniority.
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POST: papers? I'm worried that I might be goofed up either way since I don't have 20+ years in any one industry anyway, so in that sense, what can it hurt to try?
RESPONSE A: Becoming a professor is tough for anyone - especially at an R1 or R2 uni. If you envision becoming a CC prof, then no worries and you can readily find a job after graduating. Otherwise: (a) you'll take 3-7 years for the PhD and need a \~2 year postdoc and (b) expect to have 10+ (min) publications in top journals \[external funding is a big plus as well\]. Assuming you graduate from a top uni and have decent rec letter, you ***may*** get an invitation to an on-campus interview. Regaring your age: it is very possible you will be discriminated against. I have been discriminated against as a veteran, so it does happen. But, at the end of the day - do what you are passionate about. I wish you all the best :-)
RESPONSE B: I entered a PhD program in applied economics and there were a few people in their 40s who entered (and finished!) the program. They had to be at least 46 when they finished. So it's definitely doable and I don't think they discriminate on age. I believe they are all going for faculty jobs at R1 schools too (it was a top program). One thing I'll mention is the financial aspect. If you have a family, will you guys be able to be supported on just your wife's income? A PhD in economics is very very hard and you won't have time to do a part time job if you want to be successful. I'd assume the funding you'll get as a student with your stipend will be around $2k/month. Another thing to consider is do you want to do research? I don't think you noted if you've done a master's in math or Econ, but doing a master's and writing a thesis could be a good gauge to see if you would want to go into research and get a PhD.
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POST: proceeded to play the rival funding offers off of one another in order to get more money from the school he eventually chose to go with. Is this something which is commonly done, and if so, how does one go about it? If, for example, I were to be accepted to the University of Toronto, McGill, and Queen's, and wanted to go to the University of Toronto, would I literally just e-mail them notifying them of my rival offers and ask them if they're willing to offer more money to entice me to accept theirs?
RESPONSE A: I’m gonna have to say it depends on field of study. I was in the social sciences, and it is both common and expected (at least, pre covid). Now, if your “outside options” were in fact inferior, then you don’t really have any leverage. For example, I had multiple offers, but one was clearly superior. I couldn’t bargain with the superior offer because all other offers were clearly worse. In contrast, my girlfriend and a person in her cohort both got 6k more in stipend, and the other girl had her departmental service requirements waived. Why? They both had offers at much better institutions. That all said, other posts here make it clear that this is not common in other fields, and I can’t speak to philosophy’s philosophy on this. You’d be better served by asking a current student in the departments you’re accepted to, perhaps during/after recruitment.
RESPONSE B: The diversity of answers here is very interesting. Perhaps location and field have something to do with it so I will disclose that I’m in the US in the social sciences at a large middle-tier R1 state school. That said, I am Director of graduate studies and in charge of the offers that go out to incoming graduate students. Not only would this not work in my program (the offers are set before hand and not really something that I can change because there’s only a little bit of money to go around), I would not think highly of an incoming graduate student they tried to pull something like this. It would be a bad look. No one has tried to do this in my program in the ten years that I’ve been a part of it.
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POST: How common/effective is it to play different PhD offers off of one another? I'm an MA student currently in the process of applying to PhD programs (philosophy, Canada). One of the PhD students in my program told me that he applied to several different programs--around seven or eight of them--got acceptance offers from most of them, and then proceeded to play the rival funding offers off of one another in order to get more money from the school he eventually chose to go with. Is this something which is commonly done, and if so, how does one go about it? If, for example, I were to be accepted to the University of Toronto, McGill, and Queen's, and wanted to go to the University of Toronto, would I literally just e-mail them notifying them of my rival offers and ask them if they're willing to offer more money to entice me to accept theirs?
RESPONSE A: I've never heard of it happening, and I doubt it would be super effective. A PhD offer is kind of a gamble from the university's point of view, unless you have a "this man is a genius" letter from a very well known prof or something.
RESPONSE B: The diversity of answers here is very interesting. Perhaps location and field have something to do with it so I will disclose that I’m in the US in the social sciences at a large middle-tier R1 state school. That said, I am Director of graduate studies and in charge of the offers that go out to incoming graduate students. Not only would this not work in my program (the offers are set before hand and not really something that I can change because there’s only a little bit of money to go around), I would not think highly of an incoming graduate student they tried to pull something like this. It would be a bad look. No one has tried to do this in my program in the ten years that I’ve been a part of it.
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POST: How common/effective is it to play different PhD offers off of one another? I'm an MA student currently in the process of applying to PhD programs (philosophy, Canada). One of the PhD students in my program told me that he applied to several different programs--around seven or eight of them--got acceptance offers from most of them, and then proceeded to play the rival funding offers off of one another in order to get more money from the school he eventually chose to go with. Is this something which is commonly done, and if so, how does one go about it? If, for example, I were to be accepted to the University of Toronto, McGill, and Queen's, and wanted to go to the University of Toronto, would I literally just e-mail them notifying them of my rival offers and ask them if they're willing to offer more money to entice me to accept theirs?
RESPONSE A: The diversity of answers here is very interesting. Perhaps location and field have something to do with it so I will disclose that I’m in the US in the social sciences at a large middle-tier R1 state school. That said, I am Director of graduate studies and in charge of the offers that go out to incoming graduate students. Not only would this not work in my program (the offers are set before hand and not really something that I can change because there’s only a little bit of money to go around), I would not think highly of an incoming graduate student they tried to pull something like this. It would be a bad look. No one has tried to do this in my program in the ten years that I’ve been a part of it.
RESPONSE B: Not common at all. At best, it will be neutral. At worse, you’ll not look with your future department.
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POST: How common/effective is it to play different PhD offers off of one another? I'm an MA student currently in the process of applying to PhD programs (philosophy, Canada). One of the PhD students in my program told me that he applied to several different programs--around seven or eight of them--got acceptance offers from most of them, and then proceeded to play the rival funding offers off of one another in order to get more money from the school he eventually chose to go with. Is this something which is commonly done, and if so, how does one go about it? If, for example, I were to be accepted to the University of Toronto, McGill, and Queen's, and wanted to go to the University of Toronto, would I literally just e-mail them notifying them of my rival offers and ask them if they're willing to offer more money to entice me to accept theirs?
RESPONSE A: Not common. In non-Covid times, they might be willing to fly you out to visit, though, as well as arrange for you to talk to students and faculty, attend some seminars, and get a feel for the area so you can make a more informed decision.
RESPONSE B: The diversity of answers here is very interesting. Perhaps location and field have something to do with it so I will disclose that I’m in the US in the social sciences at a large middle-tier R1 state school. That said, I am Director of graduate studies and in charge of the offers that go out to incoming graduate students. Not only would this not work in my program (the offers are set before hand and not really something that I can change because there’s only a little bit of money to go around), I would not think highly of an incoming graduate student they tried to pull something like this. It would be a bad look. No one has tried to do this in my program in the ten years that I’ve been a part of it.
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POST: How common/effective is it to play different PhD offers off of one another? I'm an MA student currently in the process of applying to PhD programs (philosophy, Canada). One of the PhD students in my program told me that he applied to several different programs--around seven or eight of them--got acceptance offers from most of them, and then proceeded to play the rival funding offers off of one another in order to get more money from the school he eventually chose to go with. Is this something which is commonly done, and if so, how does one go about it? If, for example, I were to be accepted to the University of Toronto, McGill, and Queen's, and wanted to go to the University of Toronto, would I literally just e-mail them notifying them of my rival offers and ask them if they're willing to offer more money to entice me to accept theirs?
RESPONSE A: The diversity of answers here is very interesting. Perhaps location and field have something to do with it so I will disclose that I’m in the US in the social sciences at a large middle-tier R1 state school. That said, I am Director of graduate studies and in charge of the offers that go out to incoming graduate students. Not only would this not work in my program (the offers are set before hand and not really something that I can change because there’s only a little bit of money to go around), I would not think highly of an incoming graduate student they tried to pull something like this. It would be a bad look. No one has tried to do this in my program in the ten years that I’ve been a part of it.
RESPONSE B: at our university it's government based so there is literally zero room for negotiation. and if people did it... it would be weird. phd's are so competitive, and it's not like people with a MA degree are a hot commodity. for you 10 others.
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POST: receive a job offer that I think I might want to explore for a year or two. Would I be able to defer? I know this likely depends on the school, department, and professors but does anyone here have any experience with deferring their entry or who is aware that at their institution it is absolutely NOT an option? Thanks!
RESPONSE A: >who is aware that at their institution it is absolutely NOT an option? My program explicitly does not allow deferrals. Accepted students were the most competitive students THIS year. If you're not the most competitive student NEXT year, you won't get accepted. I would examine program websites and see if you can find any info before asking, but my guess is that there is a lot of variance.
RESPONSE B: Your results will vary, but I was warned against being able to defer entry into PhD programs. Lots of people I talked to across a few different places, including the person who would become my advisor, cautioned me that deferral might be seen by as a problem by either the university, department, or both. Then, once I was admitted and was asking about deferral through the proper channels, rather than hearsay about what folks *thought* would be okay, I received zero pushback –– it was totally fine. (The closest thing I got to resistance was one school who was confused about how they wanted to defer a specific fellowship, and eventually decided on saying I'd forfeit a year of it, meaning they'd give me 4 years of it instead of 5.) The two caveats I would offer are that (1) after asking my top four choices and receiving no resistance, I stopped asking other places, so maybe those four were just particularly willing to defer applicants, and (2) places willingness to defer might depend on the purpose of the deferral. **TL;DR Personal experience navigating the "will \[insert university\] allow me to defer" for US STEM programs has taught me that you should look for people saying that they were or were not allowed to defer, rather than what they think the policy is. I have seen the latter be wrong, even in cases of faculty in that department, let alone well-meaning folks on the internet speaking in generalities.**
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POST: How common (or possible) is it to defer entry to a PhD program? I’m applying a few cycles from now (taking on part time masters next year) but am a bit of a planner. So I was wondering say in a situation where I am accepted to PhD programs over there in the US, but also receive a job offer that I think I might want to explore for a year or two. Would I be able to defer? I know this likely depends on the school, department, and professors but does anyone here have any experience with deferring their entry or who is aware that at their institution it is absolutely NOT an option? Thanks!
RESPONSE A: Field dependent, may only be okay if something came up between applying and offer, if you plan on taking a year longer, apply a year later job experience in field will make you more competitive for securing admission.
RESPONSE B: >who is aware that at their institution it is absolutely NOT an option? My program explicitly does not allow deferrals. Accepted students were the most competitive students THIS year. If you're not the most competitive student NEXT year, you won't get accepted. I would examine program websites and see if you can find any info before asking, but my guess is that there is a lot of variance.
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POST: Normal for university campus to be closed on weekends? Title. I’m a Canadian studying abroad in Europe and I find it odd that campus is closed on weekends so we can’t go to the libraries or other areas to study. I never noticed anything like this back in Canada, so is it a European thing?
RESPONSE A: European universities tend to be more like your workplaces you commute daily to, not the home-like place you live in, like how North American universities tend to be.
RESPONSE B: > I never noticed anything like this back in Canada, so is it a European thing? Yeah, I noticed the same thing in France/Belgium. In my experience, the facilities (libraries/gyms/residences/computer labs/the buildings themselves) that I saw were way below what I was used to in Canada. On one hand, universities collect next to nothing in student fees, so it's understandable that they don't offer 24/7 gym access. But the library being closed on the weekend was a bit annoying for me.
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POST: Normal for university campus to be closed on weekends? Title. I’m a Canadian studying abroad in Europe and I find it odd that campus is closed on weekends so we can’t go to the libraries or other areas to study. I never noticed anything like this back in Canada, so is it a European thing?
RESPONSE A: Which country in Europe? I know in some countries, it's very common for students to go home to their families every weekend, hence I could imagine it not being worth keeping campuses open.
RESPONSE B: European universities tend to be more like your workplaces you commute daily to, not the home-like place you live in, like how North American universities tend to be.
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POST: Normal for university campus to be closed on weekends? Title. I’m a Canadian studying abroad in Europe and I find it odd that campus is closed on weekends so we can’t go to the libraries or other areas to study. I never noticed anything like this back in Canada, so is it a European thing?
RESPONSE A: Think that might be more mainland Europe, UK libraries are open on the weekends as well as the union and other key buildings. My uni even opens the libraries 24 hours during exam season (usually open 7 till midnight on Sun-Thu and 9-5 or 7 Fri-Sat).
RESPONSE B: "Europe" is a big place. In the UK I'd be very surprised to see a library close on the weekends (and in some unis, I've only seen them close for Christmas/New Year). In France I've seen Mon-Sat opening, while in the Netherlands I've seen them open all days but with more restrictive hours than I've come to expect in the UK.
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POST: Normal for university campus to be closed on weekends? Title. I’m a Canadian studying abroad in Europe and I find it odd that campus is closed on weekends so we can’t go to the libraries or other areas to study. I never noticed anything like this back in Canada, so is it a European thing?
RESPONSE A: I don't think it's a common European thing for campus facilities to be closed on the weekends, most likely it depends on university policy for each case. Everything is open 7 days a week at my campus.
RESPONSE B: "Europe" is a big place. In the UK I'd be very surprised to see a library close on the weekends (and in some unis, I've only seen them close for Christmas/New Year). In France I've seen Mon-Sat opening, while in the Netherlands I've seen them open all days but with more restrictive hours than I've come to expect in the UK.
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POST: Professors of Reddit, do you gossip about students? What do you say about grad students? Undergrads?
RESPONSE A: Not personal gossip like students who are dating, etc. We talk a lot about students with problems to get another person's perspective on the situation, like whether a specific instance is plagiarism, a frustrating class and ideas for new things to try with them, maybe a bunch of students bombed* a class and strategies for how to help them without giving away easy grades. My fellow profs and I care A LOT about our students and work REALLY hard to give them a good education in our classes. So sometimes we vent to others about really stupid decisions students made or really frustrating moments in class. Very few of us actually mock or make fun of our students. Edit: bombed, not binned. Stupid thumb typing. This is what I get for being on Reddit instead of grading essays.
RESPONSE B: Totally. Which ones we've made cry, dumb shit they've done, which ones we think are good and want to recruit... Thinking about it, we gossip about everything and everyone.
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POST: Professors of Reddit, do you gossip about students? What do you say about grad students? Undergrads?
RESPONSE A: Not personal gossip like students who are dating, etc. We talk a lot about students with problems to get another person's perspective on the situation, like whether a specific instance is plagiarism, a frustrating class and ideas for new things to try with them, maybe a bunch of students bombed* a class and strategies for how to help them without giving away easy grades. My fellow profs and I care A LOT about our students and work REALLY hard to give them a good education in our classes. So sometimes we vent to others about really stupid decisions students made or really frustrating moments in class. Very few of us actually mock or make fun of our students. Edit: bombed, not binned. Stupid thumb typing. This is what I get for being on Reddit instead of grading essays.
RESPONSE B: If you're a grad student in our program, it isn't gossip - at least if we're talking about your suitability, research strengths, etc. I don't give a flip who sleeps with who. I do care who can think creatively, who shows up on time, and who can do basic math. Sometimes, I ask my colleagues questions like that about students they have had in their classes.
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POST: Professors of Reddit, do you gossip about students? What do you say about grad students? Undergrads?
RESPONSE A: I'm a grad student, and if I gossip with the other grad students about the bachelor/master students we have when we are TA, I bet the professors have plenty of gossip about us.
RESPONSE B: Not personal gossip like students who are dating, etc. We talk a lot about students with problems to get another person's perspective on the situation, like whether a specific instance is plagiarism, a frustrating class and ideas for new things to try with them, maybe a bunch of students bombed* a class and strategies for how to help them without giving away easy grades. My fellow profs and I care A LOT about our students and work REALLY hard to give them a good education in our classes. So sometimes we vent to others about really stupid decisions students made or really frustrating moments in class. Very few of us actually mock or make fun of our students. Edit: bombed, not binned. Stupid thumb typing. This is what I get for being on Reddit instead of grading essays.
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POST: Professors of Reddit, do you gossip about students? What do you say about grad students? Undergrads?
RESPONSE A: I make a distinction between "gossip" and just talking about someone. Do we talk about who is sleeping with whom or who was out late last night? No. Not in my experience. Do we complain about things like "Ugh, I have this one student that keeps posting stupid things on reddit" :-P yes. but I almost always hear it in the abstract "this one student" instead of naming names. Do we talk about "How is so and so doing in your class. She has skipped a couple of my classes" yes.
RESPONSE B: If you're a grad student in our program, it isn't gossip - at least if we're talking about your suitability, research strengths, etc. I don't give a flip who sleeps with who. I do care who can think creatively, who shows up on time, and who can do basic math. Sometimes, I ask my colleagues questions like that about students they have had in their classes.
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POST: Professors of Reddit, do you gossip about students? What do you say about grad students? Undergrads?
RESPONSE A: I make a distinction between "gossip" and just talking about someone. Do we talk about who is sleeping with whom or who was out late last night? No. Not in my experience. Do we complain about things like "Ugh, I have this one student that keeps posting stupid things on reddit" :-P yes. but I almost always hear it in the abstract "this one student" instead of naming names. Do we talk about "How is so and so doing in your class. She has skipped a couple of my classes" yes.
RESPONSE B: I'm a grad student, and if I gossip with the other grad students about the bachelor/master students we have when we are TA, I bet the professors have plenty of gossip about us.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: expect faculty to be disrespectful? I'm young (24) with my BS and MSEd, working as an academic advisor to students in an undergraduate teacher preparation program. I just passed my one year work-iversary. Faculty within my division are awesome. Of course, there's drama but for the most part it doesn't involve me and I do my job with no issues. Every now and then my name has been muddied but my chair knows I keep it all above-board so it hasn't been an issue. Faculty outside my division seem to have a vendetta with my division? That's the only way I can describe it. Our division is the largest on campus with the highest enrollment numbers in undergrad and grad programs and our students take classes from nearly every division on campus. Faculty members from other divisions are repeatedly disrespectful and rude, assuming that I am wrong or out of line, constantly taking things to my dean or chair without even looking for an explanation. I'm extremely frustrated that they A) don't trust me to do my job correctly, B) are focused on their divisions rather than the well-being of the student, and C) go to my boss without reaching out (like when their issue was with a faculty member with my same first name...). What do I do? I fear retaliation from faculty. Is this just par for the course? Are full professors just going to be rude to me?
RESPONSE A: Does your dean or department chair care about their complaints? Because if they aren't in your school or department then they really can't do much to you.
RESPONSE B: I have a similar position to you. It sounds like it's not you, but there's an issue with trust. If you are going by policy, they may have issues with the policy, not with you. The best thing you can do is open the lines of communication whenever possible. Join committees or task forces where you may be working interdepartmentally. If your boss meets with them, ask to be included. CC on emails whenever appropriate and copy/paste policy to enforce your point. Advising is sometimes being the peanutbutter that sticks the sandwich together.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: Got invited to PhD Open House and got Zoom invites for 1-1 meetings with 3 faculty. So they announce decisions AFTER this? Context: These are 3 faculty members who I'd mentioned in my statement of purpose. This next round is after an initial round of interviews I did last week with the same School. So, what does this mean? There's also an "exit interview" scheduled. Can someone decode?
RESPONSE A: I'm assuming this is not the same school as the one you said had accepted you in your other thread, otherwise I'm confused. I think this is maybe a combination "recruitment meeting" and "assessment meeting"--they're giving you a chance to see your possible advisors and they're getting a chance to see you as an advisee. The "exit interview" could be one of several things. It may simply be a chance to ask any remaining questions you have about the program, about funding, etc. It may be something that this university's Institutional Research office is doing to measure the effectiveness of doctoral admissions at this institution (e.g., they want you to evaluate your experience with the process to date, etc. )--if this is what it is, it will be anonymized and kept separate from your admissions. It's also possible that it's connected to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at this institution--if you are a first-generation Ph.d applicant and/or in a historically underrepresented group, the DEI office at this university may want to assess specifically whether you felt welcomed, encouraged in your application, etc. I think if it were that, they'd handle it via an anonymized survey, however.
RESPONSE B: I was offered an in person “open house” weekend but I wasn’t able to attend. I believe the invited group had been mostly accepted. I ended up visiting on my own a few weeks later, and am so glad I wasn’t able to make the group one. As I found out in subsequent years, the current doc students used it as an opportunity to judge and talk smack about the potential incoming group.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: Got invited to PhD Open House and got Zoom invites for 1-1 meetings with 3 faculty. So they announce decisions AFTER this? Context: These are 3 faculty members who I'd mentioned in my statement of purpose. This next round is after an initial round of interviews I did last week with the same School. So, what does this mean? There's also an "exit interview" scheduled. Can someone decode?
RESPONSE A: I'm assuming this is not the same school as the one you said had accepted you in your other thread, otherwise I'm confused. I think this is maybe a combination "recruitment meeting" and "assessment meeting"--they're giving you a chance to see your possible advisors and they're getting a chance to see you as an advisee. The "exit interview" could be one of several things. It may simply be a chance to ask any remaining questions you have about the program, about funding, etc. It may be something that this university's Institutional Research office is doing to measure the effectiveness of doctoral admissions at this institution (e.g., they want you to evaluate your experience with the process to date, etc. )--if this is what it is, it will be anonymized and kept separate from your admissions. It's also possible that it's connected to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at this institution--if you are a first-generation Ph.d applicant and/or in a historically underrepresented group, the DEI office at this university may want to assess specifically whether you felt welcomed, encouraged in your application, etc. I think if it were that, they'd handle it via an anonymized survey, however.
RESPONSE B: You're on their shortlist. Some programs admit everyone (or almost everyone) who goes to something like this while others use it like an interview and admit half or a third.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: what's the expected number of meeting hours with an assistant professor mentor I (early undergrad) was matched with an assistant professor in a mentorship program (we aren't at the same school). She runs a lab group of 15-20 people. This looks like a large group to me lol, so I suppose that she is quite busy. I hope to learn some technical/hard skills/knowledge during this mentorship program. I am wondering what would be a suitable meeting schedule with a mentor like her? How often will we meet? How long should our meeting times last? I don't want to come off rude by proposing a meeting schedule that's too much commitment for her, but I also don't want to propose an under-average meeting schedule as this doesn't allow me to fully take advantage of the program. Thus, I am wondering what would be considered as a suitable meeting schedule for such situations? Any explanations would be appreciated!
RESPONSE A: Mentorship programs aren’t usually the place to learn technical/hard skills. Those would be things you get from courses or working in a research lab. Maybe your mentorship program is set up differently, but I’d strongly recommend making sure you’re on the same page as to what this program is for.
RESPONSE B: You’ll soon get a sense of how much direction you’ll need from her. I imagine it could be a 30 minute check-in perhaps biweekly, where you make a slide deck and present your results and she can give input on what you do next. If you go into meetings and she only says things you know she’s going to say, you can propose making them less frequent. If you’re getting stuck a lot more often, propose making them more frequent or asking via email more.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: What to expect from short phone interviews for faculty positions? I'm starting to hear back from the tenure track positions I applied for and a number of places want almost immediate,, short phone interviews. I had a pretty good idea of what an on-site interview would be like, but I don't know what these shorter ones mean or what they entail. Any information is appreciated.
RESPONSE A: You should also anticipate the standard, why are you interested/why did you apply here question. Some other pointers and things that I did during my phone interview. I had all the standard interview questions and my answers typed out and on my desk. I didn't read from ithem, but I consulted them to make sure I hit my major bullet points. I also had the university and department information printed out, including the faculty names/information. I put notes next to their names when they introduced themselves to either discuss info about their background during the phone interview or during the in person interview. Also, have a list of your questions prepared so that you don't forget. You can also practice the anticipated question. Lastly, this may be obvious, but pick a location where you won't get any background noise. You want it to be as professional as an in-person. I dressed up just like I would for an in-person, as it put me in a professional state of mind. Good luck! Edit: Typos
RESPONSE B: We used this as a winnowing technique to get 3-4 candidates to invite to campus. Usually a standard list of questions to determine i_ are you real and eloquent as your packet suggests (i.e. did you write the app yourself), can you speak english well enough to teach ii_watch for red flags in terms of arrogance, listening to qs, no insanity in responses etc. iii_maybe have you expand on your app if there is something that would act as a dealbreaker. Have your CV and application packet in front of you, pause before answering! Have some follow up questions for the committee!
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: Do faculty position search committees typically include members from outside the department? I am currently on the academic job market. I recently moved on to the interview stage for a particular job, and learned that the search committee includes a member from outside the department. Is this typical? Does it indicate that they're looking for a candidate that also speaks to that second department? The job call doesn't offer any hints here... TIA!
RESPONSE A: It's typical at many institutions. It doesn't mean they're looking for someone that speaks to that department. The outside person is there just to give a broader institutional perspective. Even if the outside person is from an allied field, that person is generally just functioning as an outsider looking in.
RESPONSE B: Yes, pretty much always. Whether they really play a meaningful role is another question. Depends on the job, department, school, etc. Edit: I am surprised you haven't encountered this before..is this your first interview? (Doubting myself now and wondering if this is field-specific - are you STEM?)
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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B
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POST: What can I do to advance the cause of open access?
RESPONSE A: Post preprints to bio archive!
RESPONSE B: Be open on everything. Open data. Open slides. Open teaching statements. We need to instill openness everywhere.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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A
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POST: What can I do to advance the cause of open access?
RESPONSE A: Be open on everything. Open data. Open slides. Open teaching statements. We need to instill openness everywhere.
RESPONSE B: Cite papers from open access journals. And promote them at tenure and promotion committee meetings.
Which response is better? RESPONSE
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