Expectation of students in Graduate vs. Undergraduate STEM classes

There is some truth in the differences you observe, but the distinctions are not very sharp. It's more of a continuum - as witnessed, for example, by the many textbooks that describe themselves as suitable for advanced undergraduate and early graduate levels.

From the point of view of the instructor, the differences in teaching style are explained by two things:

Graduate students are more experienced. It's not only a question of them knowing more about the subject, but also of their (presumed) greater ability to be responsible for their own learning. Related to that, people who've opted for graduate study are assumed to be motivated to work independently. So the instructor can be a bit more free to skip over material that's routine, or doesn't present much of a conceptual challenge. In computer science, say, beginning courses will teach you a programming language; advanced ones will assume that if you haven't used the language before, you can pick it up without much explicit guidance.
The topic is less well understood. At a more advanced level, we have less to rely on in how to teach the subject. For early undergraduate courses, there's probably a choice of textbooks and related resources, and a body of expertise about how to present the material. A course that's closer to current research may not have been taught many times before; the instructor won't have much of a pool of local experts to consult; and there may not be any existing textbooks at all. So the teaching might have some rough edges, in the choice and order of topics to present, how much time is spent on them, and so on.

I think this is what lies behind your observations, at least regarding the teaching. For assessment, I'd say there are other factors which dominate. Assessment is very sensitive to the precise nature of the course, the instructor, and the institution. I'm sure you can imagine being examined on your understanding of some algorithm by any of: answering multiple choice questions about it, proving something about it, writing an explanatory essay about it, implementing it on a computer, or doing any of these for some variant of the algorithm  that you hadn't seen before. And any of these could happen in a course at any level.

It sounds like you're somewhat aggrieved that the questions on your midterm were in a different style from your homework, and were less conceptual than the material presented in lectures. Now, it may be that your professor was (as you suggest) skewing the teaching towards the graduate end of the scale, and assuming that you would independently put the work in to make sure you could apply the theory correctly. In that case, the issue isn't that the exam was in "undergraduate" style, but that "graduate" teaching puts more of a burden on the students.

However, there are other factors in play that govern the style of examination. For example:

I want to know if you understand the theory, and I decide that asking you to apply it is a good way to find out.
I would be ashamed if somebody got an A in my course, but couldn't actually solve these applied problems.
I decide that routine problems will be quicker or easier to grade.
The homework already tested the students' broad understanding, and I decide the midterm should test something different.

I'm not saying that any of these are what happened, or that they are necessarily "good" ideas. But there are reasons why the midterm could focus on less conceptual material, that don't relate to an undergraduate-vs-graduate distinction.

Your final question is about how to know what to expect from a particular examination before you've taken it. Having thought about it at some length, I can't come up with any better suggestion than ask your professor. There are so many possibilities, even for the same course taught by the same person, for what the exam might be like.


How is Study Abroad regarded by PhD admissions committees?

I think this is too broad a question to have a really good answer, but I think the most generic one is: not really.  If your study abroad experience could provide some unique opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the field, then that might get some real consideration.  Otherwise, it probably won't be seen that differently from other classes, and in some cases viewed more skeptically if they were at a program whose reputation is less established.  EDIT: In particular, to address the last sentence, living abroad will count for extremely little.

As one counterexample, I will mention that when I applied for grad school, one graduate director explicitly mentioned my study abroad experience.  However, I think this is the sort of exception that proves the rule: I went to a very well established program specific to my field; I was going to a small liberal arts institution, so the study abroad program actually had a stronger reputation, probably; and I took a very ambitious schedule and he mentioned the specific classes I had taken, not the generic fact that I had gone.

My point is, study abroad can mean many things.  Use your good sense (or talk to mentors) about how different ones can affect your graduate school applications.


How to deal with people looking at their mobile phone during my presentation?

My attitude to life is to spare my mental capacities to things I can affect and change. Yes, it is annoying to see people at a workshop not paying attention. No, there is nothing I can do in the moment that would (i) change their behavior, while (ii) not make me look petty.

So, disengage from these feelings. Focus on those members of your audience who pay attention and interact with you. Make a resolution to have a great first slide for your next talk that may sway one of the two (or maybe both!) to get pulled into the talk. These are the things I can affect.


Is it acceptable for authors of papers in a special issue of a journal to review each others' papers?

In general I would say it would be very poor judgement to use only authors from the special issue as reviewers. But, if the theme is such that they would constitute the best choice for reviewers it might be difficult to avoid. The best way, in my opinion, to try to circumvent the problem is to use one reviewer from the group and one external. this way it is possible for an editor to identify issues.

One problem with the scenario you paint is that it seems you suggest the editor is more trustworthy than the authors, or conversely that authors would be worse than the editor. Although I am sure some special issues may suffer from problems such as those you describe, most scientists, editors and journals want high quality work, not sloppy work and so the process is to some extent self-correcting.

In terms of publishing, the term conflict of interest is usually not considered other than in situations where, for example, an author has received help from a person who later is requested to be a reviewer or where the author feels that a certain person will not provide a fair assessment of the work. Usually such conflicts will be flagged by the people involved since the editor is in no way positioned to know about all such potential problems. It is thus not difficult to trick the system but uncritical reviews are usually quite easy to see through.


When writing a paper what's the difference between contributions and objectives?

Usually, the scheme of a scientific study has a hourglass shape scheme, from wide, to narrow, and wide again.

In the first wide, we use the introduction to describe the general topography and bring focus to a particular problem. Then we narrow down to describe how our experiment is designed, data are collected, analysis is done, etc.

When results are ready, we interpret them, and then again widen up the scope to talk about implications, applications, and recommendations in the Discussion section.

In my opinion, objectives are a list of actions to perform, or questions to answer so that you can complete the narrow part of the study scheme. Contributions are a list of applications or significance to other researchers that brought about by your work, and they are perhaps more fitting in the second wider part of the study scheme.

For instance, the objective of a project could be "to validate a low cost blood glucose measurement device." And if it is indeed valid, the contribution could be "allow more people to afford to measure their glucose, and potentially lead to better diabetes control in the population."


Does the location matter in a PhD choice?

I do not want to quit my second PhD.

It would be unfortunate if you needed to quit -- but not the end of the world.

I want to start a new PhD being sure of what I am doing.

In my experience, it is rare to ever be completely sure of what you are doing.

How much social life and location can make a difference in your life?

A lot.

What should I do?

Ultimately, only you can say.
That said, you've already accepted an offer in Sweden. You're very happy with the university, and apparently your boyfriend is there. In your shoes, personally, I would go and try to make the best of the situation. It won't be for the rest of your life, and if things go badly then you can reevaluate later.


Why do conferences have such short page limits?

There are a number of inter-related reasons for short (and shorter) conference paper lengths:

The 10-12 page limit is typically so that reviewers don't have to review an inordinately long document.
Final versions are also limited in length because the fact that proceedings are now mostly electronic doesn't mean that the cost of publication is independent of paper length. Editing costs are per-page (one can of course argue that professional editing does little for a conference paper, but nevertheless that's how it's priced).
in order to make sure "what you review is what you get", one generally enforces the page limit at submission time as well
finally, the 4-page limit I suspect is so that a fleshed out version of the work can be published in a journal without questions about the level of original content over and above what was presented at the conference. In this sense, the 4 (or 2 page) conference version is merely a short advertisement.


Citing (and correcting) an example with incorrect glossing and translation

If the mistakes are indeed as obvious as this (i.e., there cannot be a difference of interpretation), I would just use the corrected version and add a footnote to the citation in which you explain the differences.

If there could be a debate over which is the correct gloss or translation, list your own version but cite with something like "cf. SomeAuthor", and again add a footnote, this time with discussion as well.


Is it a good idea to stay an extra year at my masters institution while re-applying to PhD programs elsewhere?

Staying in your university for a year and reapplying is a GREAT plan. I know some of my friends who actually got into 15-20 ranked universities in the US for PhD, they reapplied to the top 10 universities again (for the next term) and they got in those top 10, and they transferred (well, you basically start a new PhD program in the top university).

As for as you are not concerned about your age (getting old) or number of years (for some reason), you will be totally fine. Since your supervisor is nice, he/she will always understand if you want to go to a better school because its makes sense. Some would say, oh, for PhD it does not matter which university you go to, but it actually matters in most cases. At least, it can be a driving force for you to achieve great things in PhD and make a significant contribution to the scientific community.

Morally, it would not be the right decision to discontinue your current university with the funding. But it happens if you are aiming high and you have to be decisive. So its up to you.

BUT, reapplying with one more year of experience with the SAME supervisor will not help. There are several factors involved. Not to mention luck which we cannot control. So BE CAREFUL. Top universities are hard to get into. This year MIT got 3000 applications for EECS PhD, UW got 1500 for CS PhD, and Purdue got 1200 for CS and they offered 40 students PhD admissions. Its incredibly hard.

So keep your UNIVERSITY as a backup.


What is the responsibility of a publication board in relation to ethical subject studies?

In the US, the PHS regulations are fairly specific with respect to Research Integrity and the Responsibilities of institutions, and are found in 42 CFR Part 93.

This regulations mandates that Institutions have a published policy.  Most of the requirements for that policy involve procedures for holding data, investigations, whistleblowers, and doing what they can to protect the reputations of charged individuals who are not found to have committed misconduct.  There are also reporting requiments to ORI and funding institutions.

There are no specific requirements for requesting retractions from journals.  I looked at my own institution's policy, and it does not mention retraction requests.

That said, institutions tend to do whatever they are legally required to, and whatever they can do to protect their reputations.  They are also reticent to do things that they are not required to do that might result in lawsuits.  Put all that together, with appropriate weighting, and I suppose in some cases institutions would request retractions, and in others, they would not.


Finishing up an honours project dissertation, discovered an engineering law that means the majority of the designed system isn't needed, what do I do?

Torricelli's law/theorem is not an engineering law (which could be interpreted as having some legal aspects); it is a fundamental result from the physics of fluid flow.
The closely related theorems of Torricelli and Bernoulli are useful starting points for engineering work, but nothing more, since they are highly idealized and involve many assumptions. These assumptions have to do with compressibility of the fluid, friction during flow, wetting of the pipe walls etc.
Since you're doing experimental work, you can actually investigate how much these factors actually affect the intended use  and therefore establish how adequate the theoretical law is. If you focus on it from this perspective, I think your results can be valuable.


What should I do if my department head encourages us to do questionable practices to raise publication indices?

This is scientific misconduct. First, you are responsible for yourself. In your situation I would not follow these practices since it can (and probably will) have bad consequences for you.

However, you should address your concerns. Almost every university has a person who is responsible for scientific integrity. Sometimes he/she is called ombudsman. Have a talk with them. Try to do this in an anonymous way, otherwise I would fear the consequences.


This situation is not that uncommon and there are several approaches you might try. Few month ago I couldn't barely manage to sit down and start to read or write for my master thesis. Therefore, I also tried several of the possible approaches until one worked. The short answer is: Change something.

Plan to only study for 15 minutes straight, make a 5 minutes break and go back again to work for another 15 minutes and so on. If this works out, try to stretch the working time to 20 minutes and see how it goes.
Turn on or off distractions, e.g. I usually need distraction and noise around me to study, so I gave the opossite a try. Turn background music on or off.
Change the place where you study. Relocate yourself into a coffee shop or a park. Look for a shared workspace and try coworking.
Play games or challange yourself by setting small achievable goals and honor yourself for achieving them with whatever you like, e.g. some time off or treats. I know that this one sounds kind of weird but give it a try.
Take a longer break for several days, if you can afford this in terms of time.
Turn the internet off, i.e. no smartphone, no browser.
Try other working hours like in the morning or in the night.
Mix the material you have to study or the methods you use, like watching videos, reading, writing, summarizing, structuring, collecting.
Add physical exercises to your routine, e.g. short exercises of only a few minutes every hour (stand up, stretch, walk) and/or more challenging exercises once a day or every few days.

I'm pretty sure that there are much more options. These are only the ones I personally tried. Good luck.


Will getting rejected from a graduate school affect my relationships with the faculty members at that school?

I got hired as a postdoc at a university which had rejected my graduate application.

And not just that. When I started, I realized that they had made the right decision. The background level of the first-years was uniformly and substantially higher than what mine had been when I started. I would have gotten creamed.

You will have the opportunity to prove yourself in your first year. Do a good job, and any weaknesses in your application will be quickly forgotten.

Good luck!


This is a situation not many people find themselves in—having to choose between several very good options.

The basic issues to ask yourself are the following:

Do you have enough high-quality letters of recommendation for your future needs? If you're doing fellowships, you will definitely need three, and may need four. Again, these should be people who can comment on your abilities beyond simply just reciting grades in lectures. These must be people you have had an ongoing working relationship with. Ideally this is a full-time research mentor, but realistically also can include people such as part-time research mentors (such as REU-like work during the semester), instructors for whom you've worked as a teaching assistant, industrial employers (for an internship), and possibly your academic advisor (if it's someone who's advised you for multiple years).
Regarding the letter writers: are they all at the same institution? If so, then it might behoove you to find one at another institution. This will be helpful to you, as it shows you're not just a "system" product.
Is the research that you're doing something that you know you want to do, or just think you want to do? You will in general be more likely to have real success if you enjoy the work you want to do.
Will the pay for the "away" program be sufficient to cover your living expenses and needs? If so, then you should neglect the difference in pay between the two programs, and focus on the relative benefits of the two programs for you.

There's no right answer to this question; you just have to choose which option is easier for you to live with.


After a PhD in biotechnology/engineering - more opportunities in industry or a postdoc positions?

I don't know much about bioengineering and materials sciences. In my area (CS) there are many more industrial positions available than academic positions.

However, industrial positions often tend be clustered in regions, and there might not be too many academic jobs in those regions (or they might be very highly competitive).

Sadly though, I suspect that basing your decisions on where you might do a postdoc is a problem, because a postdoc itself is a temporary position, and so you're really only deferring the real problem. One argument would be that if postdocs in your area take a while (say 3-4 years vs 1-2), then you might as well operate as if that were the permanent job, and then reevaluate after your time is done and you're on the academic job market.

Good luck: two-body problems are tricky, and when one partner is on the academic track it gets even trickier.


Leaving out unhelpful advisor from acknowledgements?

From your comment:

  ereading the guidance provided, it says the following: 11.6.5 Acknowledgements It is common courtesy that you acknowledge assistance received whilst undertaking the project and preparing the dissertation. You should consider carefully all forms of assistance received and these may encompass academic, technical, secretarial, administrative and personal assistance (e.g. family and friends). A set of simple statements is usually appropriate and adequate acknowledgement should not normally exceed one page.

As your academic supervisor is the one that probably will sign off on your dissertation (if that is the custom where you are) and at the very least, filled the necessary role of having a supervisor - then at the very least, he/she has helped in an administrative sense. However, consider that there may have been a lot of activity 'behind the scenes'.

But, it is always polite to acknowledge your supervisor in a positive manner - realistically though, it is the content of your work that will matter.


Is it (ab)normal to propose a course to another university as a PhD candidate

Yes, I think it is quite abnormal to suggest that a department takes up a course in their program for the purpose of research field work of a PhD student from another university. To me it seems unlikely that they are going to agree to that.

My field is not education research, but I have a hard time imagining that teaching yourself and evaluating something that goes on in a lecture on a higher level goes very well together.

Some points that you may want to consider to increase your chances of getting to do reliable field work:

Maybe it is sufficient to sit in one or two sessions of an appropriate on-going course just as an observer? Find a suitable course, explain your plans to the instructor, and I think you'll have much higher chances of getting this done than getting to teach a course yourself.
If your field work absolutely requires that you are the teacher, then I would propose that you look for a suitable course that already exists, and ask the instructor of that if you'd be allowed to teach one or two sessions in that course. Of course you have to show your qualification to do that, and it may be helpful if your supervisor could actually make or support that request (assuming that he/she is knowledgable in the field you're looking to teach in).


How can one successfully run a reading group?

Although it's quite a while since you posted this question but here's what I've seen been extremely effective (when I was a student for those courses).

Course 1: A theory course with reading and understanding of advanced material

The professor took great effort in actually explaining everything using a chalk and board (better than PowerPoint for theoretical course IHMO). Of course, we were told to read the papers but he explained as if teaching in a chapter/concept in the lecture. Thereafter, he'd assign us some homework problems and we were allowed to do them in groups. Now, these HW problems were really innovative. They weren't part of any book. He would actually "create" them based on the ideas he was teaching. He would cast an existing problem, either from something he was working on or just create one and ask us to solve it. THAT was the master's stroke, IMHO. The entire class would bang their heads against the wall to solve them and learn a lot as a result. We could solve the problems but not always, but the fun part was applying what we learned, consequently requiring  us to understand the material really well.

Course 2: Exact same format as you mentioned as well as that suggested by @lynxoid

Nothing learnt. Honestly. Only the people assigned the papers actually read them. Maybe a few questions here and there but very little interaction other than some from the professor. Overall, the students weren't really happy with it. I barely even remember half the things from that class. But for the former, remember almost everything.

Another variation you could try with style #1 (I read about this somewhere): Tell them that you are going to tell one "lie" (false information) when explaining the material. They have to spot the lie by the end of class. If they don't, they have learned something that is not true. If they spot it, a small reward like a chocolate else, it's a HW due next week. This drives them nuts. You can make the lies progressively complex and sometimes not lie too (You can say that you lied when you told them that every lecture would have a lie :) I haven't tried this variation but will do so soon. I feel this is an excellent way to get them to master the course content.

Hope this helps


Which preprint repositories assign DOIs for free?

Although meant for data, the Zenodo repository assigns free DOIs. Nothing hinders one from uploading PDFs there.


Reviewing papers after leaving research for teaching?

There are (at least) three issues here:

Your time. If you're unable to spend time due to teaching, than that's a perfectly acceptable reason to decline.
Your duty. If you're no longer publishing research, then arguably you're no longer obliged to provide the service of review to those who do. So, don't feel obliged, but you may still enjoy this.
Your expertise may no longer be up to scratch. In particular, you may lack access to some relevant publications and/or may no longer follow recent research to be on top of the field. In this case, you cannot provide an adequate review (w/o an unreasonable effort) and should decline.

In any case, you don't have to feel apologetic when declining a review request, though it does not harm to briefly state a reason.


Is it a problem if I forget to add IEEE copyright clearance code?

The editor should sort this out, you could always let them know.


Is it a bad idea to say in my statement of purpose that I want to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics primarily to work in industry?

I have done graduate admissions for my math department.  I am a "pure mathematician" but my department is just the math department: there is no formal separation between pure and applied.

Others can speak for themselves, but I always find honesty refreshing, and the idea that a prospective PhD student does not want to pursue an academic career does not horrify me: rather, in some ways it relieves me.  Moreover, if you know this "all along" and don't disclose it right at the outset, when will you disclose it?  There is no natural time until you are graduating / going on the job market, and then it will be way too late for your programmatic experiences to be tailored to your true goals.

The worry here, I suppose, is that you risk looking "less serious" than other applicants.  In my opinion you can completely counteract this by including, a plausible, specific post-PhD career plan in which having a PhD plays a natural role.  That is, don't say "I don't plan on pursuing an academic career" or even "I plan on pursuing an industrial career", say which industrial career you are aiming for and why the PhD will be helpful and/or necessary.  Math PhD programs would like to have students with specific, realistic future plans that they can work towards steadily during their time in the program.  We don't see many such students, but we would like to have them anyway.


Student research proposal for project continued from past year

Consider your audience, they will need reminding what this is all about. As this is a continuation of last year's work, most of the initial description (placing the problem in context) is still relevant. The goals and results of the previous work should be summarized, after that you have to state this year's goals.

Yes, the document will probably somewhat longer than the first one. But that is to be expected, you know the problem better, and are not only describing the problem to be solved but also showing earlier results (thus reinforcing your ability to see the project through).


Research proposal for postdoc applications

My recommendation is to not modify your research statement, but just write the research proposal from the beginning.  It's less than 2 pages, so it's not that much work, and depending on how your research proposal is written, the result probably won't flow well if you just delete the previous work parts.


Questions about Sociology Writing Sample

I would not suggest starting from scratch. I am assuming you do not yet have publications, (but if you do, you should definitely submit the paper that has already been published in an academic journal). If not, don't worry. The schools you are applying to are aware that you have not done any graduate level work before and they are probably not expecting you to deliver a published or publishable article, but rather your understanding and ability to convey your ideas clearly in writing. If the papers you wrote previously are relatively well written, you can refine/improve one of them and have an outside reader (not necessarily a professor, but it would surely be useful) to read it and give you feedback.

While you are refining your paper, you might want to look at published articles in Sociology and try to use them as a model to demonstrate your familiarity with the general disciplinary conventions.


Is MRes after MSc redundant to get to PhD?

The MRes degree teaches you the basics of how to conduct research and use research methods according to your chosen field. Depending on the field you select, you use different types of research methods and you get a chance to put them in practice. If you choose to do the MRes degree, it will be considered a higher degree than a taught or research based MSc degree, but lower than the MPhil. The MRes would be seen as a good foundation for you to progress to a PhD and produce original output using the research methods that you have learned during your MRes degree.

As an example, in Computer Science, you only need a 1st class honours bachelors to get into the PhD route and you learn which research method you will use whilst on the PhD route.


The content of my manuscript is too complicated to be rewritten in the format of a journal. what should I do?

I am sorry. The answer to your question is: rewrite it. If you wish to communicate your ideas you need to make it easy, not hard, for the reader. No-one is going to read 15,000 words to understand the ins and outs of your theory without some kind of motivation. What motivation are you going to provide: 'Trust me: you won't understand this unless you commit to reading 15,000 words'? Why would anyone bother?

Try to imagine explaining your theory to someone you have met on a social occasion. What is the theory about? Why is there some question arising in that field that you have put so much work into? What is the question? What is the answer?

If you get that far, you might be asked 'Why do think that is the answer?'.

If you can imagine that conversation then you will have created an abstract of your work. that might give you some clues as to how you might break down your work into manageable chunks for publication.


How should I tell my advisor that I want to leave my undergraduate research position?

Just tell him the way you have told us.  Undergraduates quit research projects all the time.  In this case the reasons you have given may help him run the project a bit better.


Academic dean (interim graduate program director) not responding to e-mails

Depending on the size of the institution, the dean herself may answer none of her correspondence directly no matter whether by email or formal letter. Deans usually have office staff to filter all communication and sort it by priority. Deans spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings at all levels, both on and off campus. If you sent an email to a vice president of some relatively large company you would get the same result. Multiplying your attempts only makes the problem of scale worse. Your repeated attempts are received as just noise.

A dean at a large place may not even be able to field email from faculty directly, much less from students. You can enquire from the office of the dean what is the best way to obtain answers and to meet your needs, but don't expect that personal contact is likely or even possible.

You can complain, of course, but it would probably need to be to the dean or to one of her superiors. But they have the same sort of office procedures.

In general, however, I'd suggest that you direct questions to the lowest office in the organization for which it makes sense. Usually that is the department office, perhaps even a secretary there. But perhaps even an individual faculty member is more appropriate unless your issues are about misconduct at some lower level that really requires upper-level action.

I went to a college with about 2000 students and never corresponded with the dean. I went to a graduate institution with 40,000 students and never even knew who the dean was.


Different Statement of Purpose to the same advisor in two programs?

Yes, it's totally fine. Its absolutely normal to apply for multiple positions and obviously promise them that you will do things that are unique to them if you are accepted. This shows that you have twice the interests and also ideas on how to fit in aside from determination.

1) Do I need to talk about my research interests in social psych in the SOP to Quantitative psychology?  Yes, as much as you want to mention possible cross-disciplinary researches but not too much. This should be 10-20% of your SOP. The rest should be really aligned with requirements of each program and the possible dissertation committee members from each group. Think of your dissertation topic and board members in each scenario and write for them as audience and signer of your dissertation.

2) if I do, what's the best approach to avoid my adviser feeling confused about my research interests? SOP is not a marriage proposal. It shows that you have interests in both fields and work and degrees. And you really want to be in that school. He will not feel betrayed or anything. If anything he should see how much you are interested in the whole field. Don't deny that you have skills in both fields though. There should be some 10-20% overlap. but you are proposing a whole new direction and possibility of your dissertation work.

Big assumption: universities don't really want you to be firm on your research interest when you are not even accepted yet. And even after that there might be no funding to some topics, so you might have to do other stuff. Research is just another industry that is limited to its resources and can not be idealistic about constraints. Meanwhile, they love to see applicants with muti-dimensional skills sets and openness to cross-disciplinary research. But beware of not looking focused on each of these SOPs.


How does one define a non-biased, citation-worthy study?

Determining whether a study is accurate, reliable, unbiased, etc. can actually be quite difficult, particularly for tricky and difficult to measure phenomena.  This is what scientists argue about amongst themselves, and the consensus that emerges is best interpreted as the current best understanding of a subject.

Peer-reviewed publications are a good starting point, because the peer-review process strives to ensure that they are in fact accurate, reliable, unbiased, etc.  The publications are written and reviewed by humans, however, who are not very good at those things, and as such some bad articles get published and some good ones don't.  Likewise, there are many different levels of quality in peer-reviewed journals.  Still, for all its flaws, peer review is a lot better than not-peer-reviewed at filtering out things are are inaccurate, unreliable, badly biased, etc, and thus "peer-reviewed publication" is typically a good heuristic for "probably worth considering as a reasonable source of information."

That is not, however, the end of the story on whether an article is a good source of information.  A good next step is to see what other scientists say who reference the article in their own publications.  One article does not an established fact make; many in agreement do.


Found out I might have unknowingly cheated after term completion

Assuming that the no-collaboration rule was really not communicated to you, then you didn't cheat.  You followed the rules as you reasonably understood them based on the information you were given.  There's no such thing as "unknowingly  cheating"; it requires intent.

However, there is a substantial risk that the professor may think you have cheated, if he mistakenly thinks he made it clear to the entire class that collaboration was not allowed.  So it is in your best interest to clear it up before any formal charges are considered.  Just explain what you've said here: you were told that the rules would be "the same" as the midterm (if you have this in writing, better yet), and you later found out that other students were told something different.

The fact that the term has ended means nothing.  It is entirely possible, in all academic systems I know of, to impose a punishment for cheating even after the term is over, perhaps months or years later.   And it is not too unusual that investigations can't be completed before grades are due, in which case the professor may assign the grade based on an assumption of no cheating, but it can be changed retroactively if his investigation confirms wrongdoing.

So even if you don't want to "dig it up", the professor still can, and you will convey more honesty if you get out ahead of it.  You have a good defense, but it won't look as good if you have to say "well, I found out afterwards there might be a problem, but I didn't say anything because I hoped you wouldn't notice".

Note that your acquaintance definitely did cheat, if he's telling the truth about what the professor told him: he'd been clearly informed that collaboration was not allowed and he did it anyway.  Moreover, he did it in a way that placed innocent students at risk of being suspected and prosecuted for cheating.  Many people would feel that you also have an obligation to report this to the professor.


What percentage of PhD theses are rejected nowadays?

I'm only personally aware of one student who failed his PhD defense (this is at an R1 US university). After his advisor refused to approve his thesis, he went over his head and got the department chair to schedule the defense anyway. Results were predictable.

On the other hand, "major revisions" are very common, especially, I hear, in the humanities (in engineering, it's far more common to receive token feedback -- if the committee reads the thesis at all! -- than demands for substantial changes).

Outright failing a student during a defense is an extreme embarassment, for the department, for the PhD committee, for the advisor, and of course for the student, so there is every incentive to ensure that a thesis that goes to defense will pass. Moreover, since most theses these days are compilations of previously-published work, it is very easy to tell well in advance if the student is expected to pass.

So if an advisor has doubts about the quality of a student's thesis, he will either ask the student to spend more time improving it, or "suggest" the student start looking for jobs in industry.


Can I omit my undergraduate school from my CV?

There are all sorts of CVs, ranging from complete CVs to abbreviated highlights.  Job applications or promotion/tenure cases generally require complete CVs, but shorter versions can be useful for getting a quick overview in other circumstances.  Senior faculty sometimes post short CVs on the web, to emphasize their best qualities (most famous papers, most prestigious prizes, etc.).  For comparison, a complete CV could easily be twenty pages or more, which would be much more cumbersome.  I would not recommend imitating this until your CV also becomes unmanageably long; otherwise, it can come across like unrealistic boasting: "there are so many wonderful things I could tell you about myself that I wouldn't want to waste time on trivia like where I went to college."  Of course it can sound like boasting for senior faculty as well, but so can posting a lengthy but complete CV ("I bet the world is eager to read a list of every invited lecture I've given"), so there's no really modest option there.


Uploading supplementary material to figshare. How to refer to it before making it visible to the public?

At the bottom of the Edit Item screen is an option to create a private link. There's more info about private links on their blog.

For peer review, the private link feature has the added advantage that it hides the author information.


Is an emphasis on "novelty" necessary in academic papers?

The authors need to make it clear that the paper makes a contribution and to be explicit about what that contribution is. Otherwise the work is not original and does not deserve to be published. (This excludes survey papers and such things.)

The emphasis on novelty need not, however, be placed so explicitly in the title.

Good ways of emphasizing the novelty are

Include a short discussion at the end of the introduction stating explicitly what the contributions of the paper are.
Back this up with evidence in the body of the paper.
A proper comparison with related work. (As El Cid's answer states.)


my professor said she would like to write a recommendation for me and when I told her the deadline, she didn't reply any more

Two weeks is very tight; how many letters did you ask her to write?  Was it for multiple schools / grants?

A month's notice, at the minimum, is typical for multiple letters - she seems unwilling / unable to meet those deadlines.  But, try again, and good luck.


Should I mention in my manuscript's cover letter that I am a PhD student?

If a cover letter is needed at all, its purpose nowadays is usually to include information for which there is no appropriate form in the journal’s submission system (which can inlude suggested reviewers, unwanted reviewers, informations about prior submissions, etc.) – see also these two questions.

I do not see how the information that you are a PhD student is relevant to the editor or anybody involved with the paper, so I wouldn’t mention it. Every spurious information in that letter just wastes the editor’s time. I submitted a few papers as a PhD student (with and without coauthors) without mentioning this fact and did not encounter any problems that I would even remotely relate to this.


I signed up to present at a conference and didn't tell my advisor about it. How to handle this now?

Explain it just like you explained in your post.

Tell your advisor that you are very interested in attending a particular conference and that you even applied. You realized it was an oversight that you applied without talking to him first, and then you got sidetracked.

Make it clear that you want to go, that you got accepted, that you made a mistake, and you'd appreciate his feedback on all of it. If your advisor tells you to withdraw, then I would probably listen.

It is not common to do such a thing without discussing it with your advisor, often because they are a co-author and footing the bill.


How should the session chair introduce presentation titles which are ungrammatical?

I would not know any reason that forces chairs to read the title of the talk.
On the contrary, even with grammatically correct titles, it feels rather lazy and unnatural to me.
Also there is a certain kind of speaker who will read their title, no matter what you do.
This is a little bit less awkward, if you haven’t read the title already.

Hence, if I am sufficiently comfortable with the subject (which I think I should be when chairing), I would always attempt to paraphrase the title.
For example, suppose your title is:

  How should the session chair introduce presentation title which ungrammatical?

Then I could introduce you with:

  The first speaker is Rebecca J. Stones, who investigated ungrammatical presentation titles and will talk about how chairs should introduce them.


Should non-talk slides be included in the handout?

I think that if you are going to prepare a handout, you might as well add all of the material in the handout, including your backup slides.  After all, you've put them in there for a reason, and since you might share them during the talk, you might as well share them in the handout as well.


How do I convert my PhD dissertation so that it can be published as a book?

Why do you want the book?

For prestige?: publishers who contact you, don't do any review and charge high prices will only increase your prestige to those that don't know them (and these are probably not those you want to impress).
For dissemination?: why not just put the pdf available (as was already recommended)?. Those who are interested will find it, those who are not will probably not buy a PhD thesis
For money?: I doubt you will really make much out of it.

My recommendation: put it as a pdf on your website / your school's dissertation repository. If you see that lot's of people download it, consider an improved version as book.


How do I explain work experience in a different field on my SOP?

There are many people who do exactly this - many have worked in a field that is almost completely unrelated to the subject(s) that they are researching.  There is a major opportunity to emphasise the demonstrable tranferable skills that you developed from your work that would benefit your research.

In your situation, as with many similar circumstances, specific examples of technical skills that you used and developed as working as a software engineer that would be relevant in your research in electrical engineering.


Why can't you get an E on a test in the United States?

I haven't located a super reliable source, but from Slate:

The earliest record of a letter-grade system comes from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1897. [...] The lowest grade at Mount Holyoke was an E, which represented failure. [...] One year later, administrators changed the failing grade to F and tweaked the other letters. The new scale offered better symmetry, since each grade represented five points, with scores below 75 resulting in failure. [...] Over the next two decades, variations on the letter-grade system spread across the country and into primary and secondary schools. It’s hard to put a date on the end of the E, but it was gone from most colleges by 1930. Apparently, some professors worried that students would think the grade stood for “excellent,” since F stood for “failure.”

Basically, four grades (and plus/minuses) and a fail option seemed to work out well from the instructors' perspective, and F was picked up for "fail."
Possibly the concern over "E" was affected by the ESNU system (according to an uncited paragraph on Wikipedia):

At one time (until roughly the mid-20th century), the most popular grading system in the United States used four letters, which ranked in descending order:

E (Excellent)

S (Satisfactory)

N (needs improvement; "NI" was also used interchangeably)

U (unsatisfactory)


When does "copying" a math diagram become plagiarism?

Paraphrasing Simon Peyton Jones here, credit is like love. Giving it to more people does not diminish it or you.
Even if you recreated an image yourself, there’s literally no reason to not attribute your inspiration for it (apart from your own ego).
The threshold for plagiarism is vague at times, but if you saw someone’s work, liked it and built upon it, give them credit.


What can a student do regarding conflicting meeting times for desired courses?

This is an issue that can also impact graduate students, so I do think it's appropriate for this group.

Unfortunately, once a class hour schedule has been published for the next semester, and particularly after students have started to register for classes, it is usually not easy for a department to change class times.  Thus it's important to deal with such a scheduling conflict as soon as possible and preferably before students start registering for the semester in question.

I would suggest that you send a polite email to the person in the department responsible for course scheduling (perhaps there is an undergraduate coordinator who does this, or perhaps the department chair supervises the scheduling) and explain your situation and desire to not have these two courses scheduled at conflicting times.  This is a reasonable request to make, but don't be surprised if your request doesn't result in a schedule change- in many departments courses are scheduled to satisfy the desires of the faculty rather than the needs of students.


If a professor has posted their email publicly online, then it is an invitation to contact them directly on technical matters.  In my experience, very few professors are unwilling to be contacted directly, and those who are unwilling typically clearly state who is the appropriate alternate contact person on their personal website (the institution may, of course, still list them in their directory).

You might not, however, get any reply.  Just because somebody is willing to be contacted doesn't mean they'll respond to everybody who does so.  If you don't get a response within a few days, then contact the secretary instead, and if you still don't get a response, then it is best to assume disinterest and move on.


Main result unpublished at the end of the PhD

You should publish it, independent of your future carreer plans. But of course, journal papers help for postdoc positions!

I would recomment to write a first draft and send it to your supervisor. If you feel about it, ask him, if you should contact the big boss of theory B as potential co-author to strengthen the paper. If he agrees, you could at least get one feedback.

Usually supervisors are becoming more active if their name is on a paper - they don't want it to be low quality. But maybe this is the problem of your supervisor: Since he is not into the topic, he might not be able to judge whether the paper is good or not. Therefore you could offer to publish the paper as single author and just mention your discussions in the acknowledgements if he prefers this. But I would leave this open as a last ressort.


How/when to retract a project from a student?

With the way this question is framed, "retracting" the idea sounds both difficult and unethical. Based on the information given here, my advice, and the only ethical path, is for the supervisor to collaborate closely with the student on the work. If the idea is good, the pair should work toward a co-authored publication. This question states that, "since [the student] has more free time on their hands [they] could potentially have some results first." In this case, it sounds like collaboration with the student is very likely to help.

Working with students means teaching and mentorship. It means that supervisors are, "hassled by the student on learning the specifics" and it often means, "answering the students questions on the specifics of how to implement the said method [in ways that] take up more time/effort then just doing it themselves." This is part of the job of an academic supervisor.

Moreover, I completely fail to see why co-authorship and shared ownership of an idea between a supervisor and student is a problem.

That said, one of the most important jobs a supervisor has is trying to decide when and what to delegate. It was the supervisors job to be more thoughtful and they need to deal with the consequences — whatever they are.


Getting into gradschool from a "real job"

We see a number of students who apply to graduate school after an undergraduate degree in math/cs followed by some years spent working at a not-any-realler-than-faculty job. In short, what admissions committees would like to know is:

what have you been doing since then, and in what way does it influence your current interests and desire for grad school
have you continued working on projects on the side ? (not a problem if not, but good if yes)

In other words, I don't view work experience as a negative in CS. In fact it's a bit of a positive because the student then usually knows what they want to do and is a lot more focused about it. There's a lot more maturity as well.


How to deal with dramatic drop in grade due to strict attendance policy

You do not currently hold a 91%. You may have held a 91% percent yesterday, but now you hold a 76%.

  Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?

Given that you knew the policy in advance and the teacher seems to have been consistent in taking attendance, you seem to have no logical reason to feel the mark is unfair.

You state that attendance is a "small reason", but for whatever reason the teacher feels is is a big reason (15% to be exact). If you felt that the grading policy was unfair, you should have discussed this at the beginning of the semester, not after missing 3 classes.

Realistically, the only thing you can do now is beg (aka grade grub). Your mileage may vary, but most professors do not look kindly on grade grubbing. It is important to realize that to an outside, the policy seems fair. For example, in a typical US semesters of around 17 weeks each class accounts for between 1-2% of the taught material. Further, missing a class likely means you are not at the right point in further classes so each absence is like missing 2-4% of taught material. That sets a minimum of 6-12% of missed material for 3 absences. Multiple absences probably means you have missed even more material. In other words, without knowing the specifics of the class, a penalty of 15% for 3 absences seems reasonable.


How to tackle papers filled with unknown vocabulary

Ask your professor for help.  That’s what he or she is there for.  (But be warned – there may be no way around needing a real understanding of some basics in discrete math and in algorithms.)
When you say you are used to seeing things only in the vernacular, that means you have been getting away with only vaguely understanding them.  The jargon isn’t there to make it hard for you; it’s there to make everything precise.
When I have some reason to work on something for which I don’t know the background, I find a collaborator.  If I can’t, I give up and find something else to work on.  (Of course, this only works if there is something you have background for so that other people will have reasons to collaborate with you.  That’s why graduate school takes so long!)
Reading technical material is not like reading a trashy novel.  Seriously reading and understanding the details of a paper relevant to my research (in mathematics) takes about two hours per page.
You probably need to make up your own examples and work through some of the papers sentence by sentence, working out how each sentence works out for your examples.  Obviously you cannot go into that level of detail for every paper, but not all of them will be equally important to you as starting points.


People usually do not ask: "explain this paper" they will read a paper and may ask a more specific question about a part they did not understand.

The professor may or may not be able to answer. If he wants to, he can look up the paper or the answer to the questions asked. His experience and knowledge will probably help him to find the answer faster than the person who asked the question. If he does not want to, or cannot answer the question because he forgot, does not have time, or for any other reason, the person asking is simply out of luck: they will have to ask someone else or do research themselves to find the answers they are looking for.

Nobody can remember all the details about 90 highly specialised scientific papers, especially if they involved lots of work by different authors that may have been done decades ago. Professors and other scientists are human beings: they forget things and make mistakes just like everyone else. This is not a problem.


Do most major math journals not care about a piece of research unless it proves an established result or problem?

Congratulations on developing your own research program!!

I think your observation is correct, that you may be unable to have your results published (so far). In general, papers that provide a basis for further study don't tend attract a lot of attention by themselves.

It's not necessary need to prove an established result or problem, though. For example, if you discovered some interesting phenomena concerning algebraic varieties over the surreal numbers, for which known analogues do not exist over other fields, these could perhaps "sell" a paper.

That said, let me strongly encourage you to continue developing your theory, without worrying too much about whether other people will take interest or whether you can publish it. Intellectual inquiry, undertaken for its own sake, is valuable in and of itself; moreover, your experience will prove quite valuable if you pursue a research career in mathematics.

Good luck!


Main argumentation in introductory chapter of Phd thesis?

Every dissertation or thesis should have an introduction.

When I receive a student's thesis to read, I usually do not have numerous hours to pick out the details of every page. Having a 4-8 page introduction is extremely helpful in allowing me to learn what is most important in the overall arguments of the thesis. An introduction allows readers to see the major theme of the work.

When I wrote my own dissertation, I treated the introduction chapter much like an extended abstract. It highlighted what the reader needed to watch for and established the overall theme of my work.

The introduction can also serve a useful purpose of providing a place to take care of some of the administrative aspects of the thesis such as acknowledgements and holistic citations ("This thesis was written using LaTeX; all code was written in C++). These things are given their own pages at times, but I found it useful to be able to just place them in a paragraph in the introduction.


What is a legal and allowed method of getting a picture from Internet to be used in the cover of my thesis?

You can ask the author of the image, or the owner of the exclusive licence if that is a different person, for permission to use the image. He may or may not grant it.

If he grants you permission for free then it is courtesy to write an acknowledgement to that effect somewhere in the thesis.

If the image is in the public domain then of course you are free to do with it as you will. (By "public domain", I mean, free of copyright restrictions by the explicit choice of the author or because the image is so old it can no longer be subject to copyright. I do not mean, simply the image was found in public.)

However many institutions have precise binding requirements for theses which would not allow you to place artwork on the cover (even if you already had licence to do so from the author). You should confirm with your institution whether this would be allowed.


Job Advice for Pursuing a Tenure-Track Position in the U.S. (Postdoc in the U.S., Teaching-track/lecturer in the U.S., Tenure-track abroad)

In many fields and countries, it's rare to get a tenure-track position right after a PhD.  Generally speaking, if you want to go into tenure-track academia, a strong post-doc or two (or three depending on the field), with good publications is an asset, though it is also good to build up a teaching dossier.  I suspect the post-doc would allow you to be a more productive researcher than a starting faculty in the short term, though tenure-track in China probably has other advantages.


Can I ask a postdoc who has closely supervised my research to write me a letter of recommendation?

While it's possible that a postdoc letter (in the absence of further context) might carry less weight, there are good reasons to ask them anyway:

the letter is a testimonial about your ability to do research. A postdoc who's worked with you is in a much better position to say something nontrivial about this. Lines like "I closely worked with so and so" carry weight.
the postdoc might know faculty at the university you're applying to. In that case the letter carries even more weight (I'm likely to pay more attention to letters from people that I know)


Suggestions on how to organize a chair rotation

I've been involved in a few. It's a good idea because it gives everyone a chance to participate in a leadership role. The biggest thing you can do is get organized -- ideally through documentation but maybe with something as simple as having outgoing chairs train incomings. It doesn't matter much how you rotate although at the beginning you'll probably want to start with more experienced faculty. To that same point, there might be some faculty who are not be capable of taking on the role, for whatever reason. It does no one any good to utilize these people just because it's "their turn." Good luck!


Professor proposes a question she would be extremely happy to get solved and I solved do I have to write a paper solo or with her?

You owe her an acknowledgement in the paper, but nothing more. If she wasn't involved in the solution or otherwise in the paper, then she is really not a co-author and most would agree.
In some fields, advisors are regularly given authorship when they really shouldn't be, but that is more due to things like funding a lab and providing general support that makes research possible. But nothing you describe suggests that she is an author. Editing a bit and cleaning up the presentation isn't authorship.
But put a thank you in the paper for suggesting the problem.


Finding an advisor without enrolling into a university

First of all, I wouldn't seek an advisor. Under your circumstances, you shouldn't expect a professor to assume any sort of responsibility for you. That said, you might be able to find someone who is willing to help you. Here are two ideas:

Find a graduate course that you are interested in, and ask the professor if you can sit in on it. The professor might well say no, but they might say yes. If they say yes, then work hard, do all the homework and do it well, and ask good questions. When I was applying to graduate school, I was very fortunate to have a professor who was willing to do this for me.

Attend a scientific conference. Go to talks, and talk to people afterwards. Ask questions. If you have an idea for how to make progress on a question of interest to one of the speakers, you may be able to strike up a collaboration.

In either case, you could ask for a rec letter later.
Finally, at least in the US, it's common to apply to PhD programs with only an undergraduate degree in the same field, and to get letters of recommendation from your undergrad professors. So, if you recently completed an undergrad program in CS, and you made a strong impression on your professors, then you might try simply applying to PhD programs now.


Uncertain graduate study plans due to timing problems with visa and professor's funding

Why he acts like this?

We cannot know, but there are plausible reasons. Some of my funding is available in the form "use it [in this time period] or lose it." If I have a project like that and a student indicates that it is likely (s)he cannot come, I will give that project to someone else rather than lose the money entirely. Here the prof has to make an educated guess: (s)he wants to avoid the situation you are in, but we have all been let down by students who promised they would come, but at the last moment did not. So apparently your professor made the guess that you would not be able to make it.

  how can my I make sure that the professor will give me fund after 2 months?

If you have a contract, but apparently you didn't have one, so that suggests that you are from a country where it is common to sign such a contract at the very last moment or where funding is not considered a form of employment and thus there is no employment contract. As you can see that is hugely dependent on the local laws and customs. In those cases, the answer is: you cannot be sure. Since we don't know which country you are in, there is little more we can say.


How to find out if I will really like academia?

Pursuing a doctorate while working full time is very difficult. It is not impossible, but imagine doubling your work load. Not many will be happy with that, especially if they have a family. But if it is the only way you can manage it, then you just do what you need to do.

But if finances are not a particular issue, it is probably better to reduce your workload to permit both time and mental energy for research and writing.

It is also hard to know if you will like academia until you try it. You indicate an attitude that will probably work for you, but until you try, you won't know. Also, academia varies widely depending on the type of institution you are at. Life is very different at an R1 where you need to always be pursuing grants and working with doctoral students than at an undergraduate college where research, though required is much less the driving force in your career. Drexel, of course, is at the higher end of the scale.

There are a number of places in which a fully employed person can teach part time, probably even with an MS rather than a doctorate. There wouldn't be many perks outside the classroom, however, nor would it pay very well. But that isn't really a path into academia.


Finishing PhD and didn't secure a postdoc position: how to proceed?

One option possibly available to you are academic jobs that are more teaching-oriented.  While (in the US and Canada) hiring for permanent teaching-oriented jobs is mostly over at this point, there is still hiring going on for temporary positions, both full-time and part-time, both at four-year universities and community colleges.

Such a position maintains an academic affiliation.  Not being a physicist, I do not know how taking such a job would be perceived if you apply for research-oriented jobs in the future.  I expect these positions (especially full-time ones) would be viewed positively in applications for permanent, teaching-oriented jobs.


Should I change the title in my passport to Dr. after getting PhD

PhD is an academic degree. It is actually dependent on person and country whether to use the title "Dr." in passports and other relevant documents.

However, using Mr. would be wise to avoid a confusion between a doctor (MBBS, MD) and a doctorate (PhD). As per UK gov website, it is not advisable [1]

I have never come across anyone using Dr. in legal documents. Moreover, it is not really a necessity to include Dr. in official/legal documents. For example, I still see my supervisor (who is a senior professor with PhD in 1990s) gets official documents with his name titled "Mr.".


How to deal with unbalanced collaborations?

In any collaboration, some degree of imbalance is inevitable. I've been on both sides of the matter, and the question I've always used to guide my collaboration decision is:
"Are all of the collaborating parties benefiting from the relationship?"
There are a lot of ways to evaluate this question, some very pragmatic and some very personal. Here are some factors one might consider: joy or lack thereof, how the relationship affects future job prospects, impact of the work, access to interesting future projects, opportunity cost for working on the project. It sounds from your description like your answer right now is no, so you should probably stop working with the person in question. Before doing so, ask yourself: "what would change this working relationship for me? Is there a way to make that change happen?" You might find some reasonable requests that encourage continuation, but more importantly this will help you wrap things up better. You do have an ethical obligation to bow out gracefully, though nothing is forcing you to and this may not be possible.


Letters in high-end interdisciplinary journals – how much do they weigh in a CV? Are they only for experts?

Pretty much anything in a very high-end journal is difficult to get there and reflects a judgement on the part of the editors that your contribution will be of broad interest within the field.  Thus, it is likely to have a significant positive effect on your CV.

Moreover, depending on the journal the difference between "Letter" and "Article" is often of little significance.  For example, in Nature, the difference is that a Letter is 1500 words and an Article is 3000 words.  Since most Nature papers are really just the tip of a much larger iceberg of Supplementary Information in any case, this distinction doesn't really matter all that much, and probably few of your readers will even notice which of the formats your article is in.


thanks for joining the site. Others have asked similar questions here, here, and here (all relating to standardized tests and scores). You might also benefit from a general discussion about admissions decisions. There is a general consensus is that test scores are only one component of an application. You might consider focusing on a supplementary letter explaining the lower verbal score or focusing your efforts on other assessments of language (such as the TOEFL, if required).


Choosing the professors to ask for recommendation letters

If 3 to 5 are acceptable then stay with the 4 you have : quality over quantity...


How/whether to update PhD admissions committee about new scholarship

You should definitely notify the program for which you are on the waitlist, since this could matter for their decision.  If they have contact instructions on their webpage or in the notification you received about being on the waitlist, then you should follow those instructions.  Otherwise, you could try replying to the notification e-mail.  I'd recommend doing this in writing, rather than by phone, so that you can provide details.  You can just say something like "I'd like to update you on a development in my application: I was just notified that I have received the X fellowship, which ... [give the financial details and any restrictions].  Please let me know if you would like any additional information."

It can't hurt to ask the schools that have rejected you, just in case, but you should expect the answer to be no.  I'd phrase it very tentatively (along the lines of "I understand that this is probably not possible, but I don't suppose that my application could be reconsidered in light of this fellowship?").  Don't spend much time on this, since I'd expect that the most likely outcome is that someone will spend 15 seconds typing a "Sorry, that isn't possible" email in response, but I don't think anyone will be offended if you don't sound presumptuous.

Regarding the restrictions, it's hard to predict how much the department will care.  You should definitely mention these details in your e-mail, so they can make an informed decision.


Are there any examples of people who successfully did a startup AND worked in academia? Or is it better to just choose one?

There is a huge literature on the topic of academic entrepreneurs (and entrepreneurial academics). A recent review of the literature can be found here. Similarly, there are many books on the topic (e.g. here and here). Plus millions of blog posts (e.g. here).

I think it is hard to generalise. For example, this paper highlights the multitude of dimensions involved in the extent and success of entrepreneuring, some outside the control of the individual. This paper distinguished between three groups. First, the ‘entrepreneurial academics’:

  These are individuals who planned to stay in a university but also spent time working in spin‐out companies. They had experienced a number of operational difficulties in trying to develop this new career type and many felt that although the government and universities said they want them to work like this, they had been slow to adjust their own policies and procedures to take account of this change.

A second group, consisting of:

  individuals who were in the process of developing a new kind of career as technology‐transfer professionals. Notably they were younger than those in the first group, and more junior within their departments. The majority wished to stay working in a university context but did not see themselves staying at the laboratory bench.

Finally, the third group:

  made up of younger people who have either recently completed their PhD or have been employed on postdoctoral research contracts. Most seemed unsure where their future direction lay and were using [a research program] to develop the knowledge, skills and resources that they saw as vital to the development of a successful career. ... The scientists in the third group were well aware of the traditional scientific career path and its status but saw it as largely unavailable; a relic of the past that was now only offered to the lucky few. Their aim was to find, or develop, a career path that would allow them to use their science, provide opportunities for growth, and offer a degree of security unavailable to the large numbers of postdoctoral scientists who find themselves in a seemingly endless spiral of short‐term contracts.

Relatedly, this paper offers and tests a model of career path, concluding that:

  entrepreneurial self-efficacy, type of research, perceived role models, number of years spent at an academic institution, and patents are significantly related to the formation of academic-entrepreneurial intentions, regardless of cultural context.

A similar approach is taking by this paper.

The bottom line is that success as entrepreneurs depends on many conditions, some outside the control of the academic. There are different models in which academics engage in these activities, some involving moving away from academia. All in all, beyond anecdotal evidence, of course there are successful entrepreneurial academics. Whether you can be one or not is something you must confront with the evidence above and your own insights.


Editor asked me why to change the corresponding author

Just say what you said here: you intended the corresponding author to be one person, but accidentally set it to the other.  That's a fairly unexceptional reason to change and I wouldn't expect it to raise any major issues.


Do teachers generally refer to hard-to-comprehend books?

One possible reason is that I feel the style of textbooks have changed in the last years, so that newer books are sometimes easier to understand (use more modern-day language and symbols, is friendlier to the reader etc.) (This does not necessarily imply that they don't cover as much details as the older ones or are more superficial)
But the professor, being older, does maybe not know about them or is used to the older style. And often, some old books are considered classics that all students should know regardless of whether something better came out in the recent years.
Additionally, another reason might be that your professors don't have any education in teaching and don't know much about it. Most of my professors thought the most effective way of teaching is to copy lecture notes onto the blackboard and read it out loud with a monotone voice, without any explanations or motivation because they assumed that having it written down means students know it. Those may also be the types of professors who recommend you a hard-to-read, but factually correct book.


How to conduct an effective literature survey in mathematics?

Simple answer: There are actually two good and well-known (at least, I had thought so) bibliographic databases for mathematical literature:

MathSciNet

zbMATH

The latter is freely available online as of 2021.
(Of course there are a few differences between them - for instance, the quality of the bibtex entries is a bit better in MathSciNet, in my experience. But anyway, for most purposes both databases do their job quite well.)
Historical Note: While MathSciNet is essentially based on Mathematical Reviews, zbMATH is based on the Zentralblatt für Mathematik - and both the Zentralblatt and Mathematical Reviews were founded by the same person, Otto Neugebauer. I would have called this a fun fact, but unfortunately the historically background (which is described in the previous link) is not particularly funny.


Consequences of a paper with major errors, but unrelated to your field/dissertation

To be honest, I find that most of the moral / cautionary tale in your story lies in the trend to push younger and greener students into publication.  I feel strongly that having a professional-grade mastery in one's discipline should be a prerequisite to submitting a paper in a research journal.  But note well that I am not scolding you: as a BS/MS student, you don't know the profession, the standards for publication, or (most likely) even your own level of mastery, really.  Your advisor let you down.  Moreover, a respected international conference should read its submitted papers -- especially from student authors, I would argue, but if you don't like that then OK, from everyone! -- carefully enough not to accept something that through the simple process of learning and maturing you will eventually find shoddy and embarrassing.  You were too young to know any better: what was their excuse?

  1) What are the consequences for having submitted a conference paper with major errors? The paper is sitting in the proceedings with errors.

Well, the consequence is that you have published something with errors.  If you are worried that the errors will mislead other researchers, you should consider writing an erratum.  For conference publication you may not be able to publish the erratum with the conference, but you could still include it on your webpage, and if e.g. you have a google scholar profile, that will go a long way towards giving people the right idea.

I should say that I am in a field (mathematics) where conference publication is quite rare nowadays, but I assume that the merit of conference publication is that it gets out results judged to be of interest to the community more quickly, and the corresponding demerit is that the results are more tentative and more likely to be wrong.  Do you have a good reason to believe that your publication is especially shoddy compared to other work published in similar venues?  In fact, the shoddier it is, the less likely it is to mislead: in my experience, most serious researchers have a good nose for taking the good and avoiding the bad in published work.  A certain kind of subtle error in a striking result can be really insidious, but once again you make it sound like once you matured a bit you find the mistakes rather obvious.  So maybe other people will too?  It might be good to get some expert opinions on this.

  2) Are there actions/charges/reprimands the university can take against me for having submitted a paper with major inaccuracies while a student at that university? Can they expel or revoke a degree?

Practically speaking: no.  You are at least an order of magnitude too worried about this.  Degrees only get revoked for substantial academic dishonesty.  Making mistakes, even embarrassing ones, does not qualify...thank goodness.  Does it make you feel better if I tell you that one of the six major theorems in my Harvard PhD thesis is false?  Suffice it to say that I can keep my degree.

  3) Since this work has errors, I worry about charges of rigged data/results. Since there are inaccuracies, this could lead to charges of rigged data (side note: paper was on theoretical and computational work, not experimental).

@ff524 has the right answer here: just relax.  Move on and try to do better in your current work, which people will take much more seriously than one early paper, especially if it's in a different (sub)field.  At the most, write an erratum and include the erratum on your CV.


What should be my prime focus for the next 2 years to improve my chances in securing an academic position?

Your feeling that you could/should have done more/better in your doctoral studies is, of course, completely valid and completely misguided, as it is true for just about everyone. Of course, you could/would have done more if you hadn't started the process as a novice, but rather as an experienced researcher.

You have a different perspective now, since you have gone through an extensive learning process and have gained skills that you didn't have a few years ago. That affects your judgement about what you are capable of. Yes, you are capable of quite a lot more now, but it is a mistake (logical, psychological,...) to project that back five years.

Your sense of "failure" would really only be valid if you now have the same naive views that you had five years ago. But if that were the case, you would actually be an imposter, but wouldn't have any way to recognize it.

This is classic imposter syndrome and many people at your stage suffer from it for exactly these reasons.

However, let me try to give some guidance on your question. First realize that the range of positions as an "academic" is very broad. Some of us are primarily teachers. Some primarily researchers with only a bit of teaching - mostly of very advanced students. There is a fairly smooth gradation between those extremes. So, first look at what sort of position you would like to hold. Then explore what such people do and what is considered valuable for such a position.

With that background, work to fill in your CV (and your experiences) that give you the expertise to do those things. If you want to be a researcher (my assumption, since you list post-doc as a tag) then you should work on getting things into the publication stream and also in building collaborative arrangements with other researchers in your field. Your advisor(s) can probably help you get "connected" to the wider research community as can attendance at conferences - especially as a presenter. But you can also get connected to other researchers just by serving on conference committees in some fields.

But "academic" is probably too broad a goal. Narrow it and then work to fit that narrower definition.


An anecdote: my advisor was extremely hands-off for me; we met pretty infrequently and when we met, it was mostly spent on talking about small side issues that came up in my projects. Another student of my advisor had a very different experience. He met extensively with my advisor, he found projects for him to work on (I proposed my own, and my advisor didn't know much of my project until I wrote my thesis). The tension for me reached its climax when my defense date drew near; he told me that he was busy with the other student's thesis and that he will sign mine after he is finished with editing the other student's thesis. He ended up reading my thesis only a couple of days before my defense.

Although this seemed like favoritism, in the end it wasn't. He must have judged me to be an independent and competent researcher, because I got more and better job offers afterwards.

So, there really isn't anything you can do. You should just focus on your own projects, and hopefully your advisor is there when you really can't solve the problem on your own. But if you treat each time that your advisor isn't there as an opportunity to show your competence (whether you think your advisor noticed it or not... it does accumulate!) you'll walk out having become independent, which is an important quality to possess in academia.


Is blogging experience (on medium) relevant on the CV for PhD CS Admissions? (US)

Almost any experience is useful on a CV, provided that you can link it to the job you are applying for in a sensible way (this is nearly always possible). It is likely that all candidates have similar diplomas, so the "extra" things you did besides your degree are very valuable. Being able to demonstrate that you are a skilled technical writer and science communicator will almost certainly help.
Mentioning "medium" by name has no value (see also below), but the fact that you have written well received articles on a weblog will improve your CV.
There is a good chance that the hiring committee does not know "medium", and if they do, they probably know that a lot of very bad articles are published on medium (as well as some good ones). If you get through a first screening the hiring committee could be interested in reading your articles to see if they are any good: it would help to provide them with a link to the list of articles.


I have published all my PhD papers independently, how get a postdoc position?

I would recommend considering these options:

Try to write or formulate your own project. Some funding agencies, e.g. ERC Starting Grant requires you to have at least one important
publication as main author or without the participation of your PhD supervisor. You already achieved it, so it might be benefited.
Don't take it personally. They may have better applicant (=somebody matching their needs better) and they tried to find some reason to reject you. Very probably all other points were excelent and the authorship was only one suspicious think. If they didn't read recommendation of your supervisor then they didn't made their homework; not you.
Endure this period between PhD and postdoc and continue to apply for other opportunities and improve in soft skills too. Positions for highly qualified people are opened not so often.  It took me almost one year to find appropriate postdoc position after my PhD. I invest my time and some spare money to local or near international conferences to do social networking, getting career advice and some feedback. I tried to apply for jobs in industry, in small companies, other universities, academic institutions, etc. I got also small grant for short internship.

Chance favors the prepared mind. Good luck.


Can I be admitted to a graduate program in Computer Science with relevant work experience, but academic background in Electronic Engineering?

There are cases where you can get admitted even though you have another (closely related) degree because some programs give students a chance to study things on their own, though this usually varies between countries and universities.

Another thing that could affect your chances is the type of computer science that you want to apply for: it's probably going to be difficult to get into a theoretical computer science program (some of my colleagues at my current university have been rejected from a computer science master's program at a respected university because their undergraduate degrees contain the word "engineering"), but it might be easier to get into some more applied field.

The best thing would be to contact someone at your target universities; they are usually able to tell you if you have a chance to be admitted.

Hope this helps and good luck.


Is it legal/ethical to use data grabbed from a Stack Exchange site in a paper?

Your University may have an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that reviews how you conduct experiments. This board may be known by various names (Ethics Committee, Experiment Review Board, Human Subjects Research, etc.) but they are generally the ones that you would go to to consult about whether what you are doing is within the scope of ethical behavior and good treatment of human subjects data.

As StackOverflow and associated StackExchange repository data is available under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (as @piotr_migdal linked above) and is publicly available, your IRB will probably tell you, "It's fine" and not require review. However, it depends on the IRB and the institution and the nature of the data.

There are entire research disciplines built on scraping web sites, software repositories, and social media, so don't feel bad for doing it.


Can you mention that you were a paper reviewer after it has been published?

I'd just pretend that you stumbled across a paper, rather than say you reviewed it on your blog.

And you should not make comments about the pre-published version of the paper. This could be embarrassing for the author, and seriously violates the trust embodied in the reviewing process.


Impact of W's on grad school admissions in CS theory (TCS)

First, I strongly suggest that you talk directly with the theory profs in your own CS department.  First, they are the people who actually taught you and are best placed to understand the circumstances of your withdrawals.  Second, they are the people who make graduate admissions decisions for your department, in your target subfield.  (Third, they are the people most likely to provide you with recommendation letters, so making contacting with them early can only help you.)

Opinions on W's differ, but as far as I can tell, most people treat them as no-ops.  Students drop classes for all sorts of reasons.  Some faculty might wonder why you waited until after the drop deadline to withdraw from these classes, especially if the W's were spread over several semesters, but that would be a minor concern, especially if you retook the same classes later and did well.  But it really doesn't matter; the W's are already on your transcript.  You can't do anything about it, so you shouldn't worry about it.

COVID-19 hit everyone, everywhere.  Every graduate admissions committee still has to figure out how to make admissions decisions with a full semester of grades missing, or at least obscured by a myriad of different pass/fail and Credit/No-Credit options.  Different people and places are going to interpret this semester's (and the next several semesters') records differently, some with more sympathy and others with more strictness.  You can't do anything about it, so you shouldn't worry about it.

A master's degree is a somewhat risky option.  At least in the US, PhD applicants who have graduate experience are held to a higher standard than applicants who do not.  Students applying from masters programs are compared with each other, not with undergraduates, and considerably more of those masters-level applicants will have research publications.  To first approximation, publications are a de-facto requirement for masters-level PhD applicants.

Persistent rumors notwithstanding, publications are not a de-facto requirement for undergraduate PhD applicants, even in hot fields like machine learning, even in top departments.  Research experience is necessary to get into a top PhD program; research papers are not.  Yes, a significant fraction of new PhD students in ML have publications, but an equally significant fraction do not.

All that said, a strong research publication is definitely a advantage in PhD applications, especially if the recommendation letters make it clear both that the work is good and how the student made it happen, and the topic of the paper meshes well with the research interests of the faculty where you're applying.  Good research results can overcome all sorts of other weaknesses in your application.

On the gripping hand, nothing in your question suggests that you have any weaknesses in your PhD application.  Your GPA is high enough to draw the attention of human reviewers.  At that point, your research statement and recommendation letters matter far more than anything else.


Official reference doesn't include author

In my experience, the bibtex entries provided by many publishers are often quite bad, and IEEE is one of the worst offenders here. So it is quite common that one has to edit them before they become usable.

For this specific entry, the type "article" is clearly wrong, and the root of the problem.


Can I use purchased graphics in an academic paper/poster?

There's two aspects to that: Licensing and academic ethics.

Regarding licensing, you write that you have a license that covers personal and commercial use. Probably commercial use will include academic (i.e., professional) use, but make sure that your license permits you to reuse these elements in a publication. For a poster I don't think it will be a problem. For a research paper, you typically need to transfer copyright to the publisher, which you can't for these elements. So that will need special consideration.

Regarding academic ethics, the way to answer this question is to think about the scientific contribution that is being made with these elements. Does the creator of these elements contribute in any way to the scientific content of your publication? If yes, you should give an attribution, if not, an attribution is not required.

It's not clear to me how much science did go into constructing these elements, but think of the following extreme case: When writing a paper, you obviously use graphic elements, which are the font of the letters, to convey your message. But typically, you don't attribute the creator of the font, because there's no contribution to the scientific content. It's really just the medium you are using to communicate your results, and you don't need to attribute that.


Where do academics obtain HTML website templates with no attribution?

When I was looking for a CSS style for my personal academic website, I got a recommendation to use Twitter Bootstrap. Then, I bascially ripped only the style out of it, but acknowledged them in the page footer.

As I just checked, you can directly link to their style without copying it locally and the code is licensed under an MIT license.


Why do citations in physics journals leave out the article title?

The title is not strictly necessary to track down a paper, so it can be considered superfluous information. Leaving it out saves space, paper, and money in the printed version of the journal. It also saves on shipping. (The names of individual journals are abbreviated for the same reason. Same goes for the page range being replaced by the opening page number.) That's the historical reason, as I understand it. Speaking of history, this practice goes back a long way, and was commonplace already in the late 20s and 30s, in journals published on both sides of the Atlantic*.

One might expect this to have changed somewhat with the rise of digital distribution, and particularly the newer online-only APS journals. It sort of has. In 2015 the print journals decided to allow titles in the reference list. As for the online-only ones, I haven't had reason to check the style guide all of them. However, I know that at least one of them, Physical Review X, even requires the inclusion of titles.

While Reviews of Modern Physics is still printed (and thus should prefer leaving out titles for references according to the above logic), it's a unique case in many ways. One of these ways is that it mostly publishes few, but quite long papers. Hence, the relative savings of leaving out the titles would tend to be much smaller than in e.g. Physical Review Letters.

Even with digital distribution, many of us still prefer reading a printout, so the paper savings are still appreciated. Another reason for preferring this kind of concise referencing is that it kind of fits how some (a lot?) of us think about papers (although I admit there might be a chicken-and-egg situation here). It's Brady's PRB from 2015, not whatever the title of that paper might have had. Also, titles are quite often similar to those of related papers, and can blend together, so they don't add much IMO.

*No special meaning is assigned to these decades, I just happened to have a few Zeitschrift für Physik and Physical Review papers from this time period on hand.


I am unable to submit online quizzes on time due to technical difficulties, and it is negatively affecting my mental health. Can I get extra time?

About your actual question, yes, there is a way to get extended time based on having anxiety during exams or related things (although I cannot make any guesses as to whether you would qualify given your specific situation). Here is what I think is the relevant office at your university to consult about that.
About the broader context to your question, this situation is very sad and unfortunate. I think your instructors are probably unaware of how badly their tech cluelessness is affecting their students. If they are aware, then treating you and your fellow students this way intentionally seems unconscionable to me.
Given this, I think you should consider going not only to your professor but to someone in your program with the story of how this situation is creating an impossible learning environment for you. I’m sure there are sympathetic, well-intentioned people at your program (e.g., an adviser, undergraduate program chair or vice chair, etc) who have authority and would be able to advocate for you, and would genuinely want to know about and address these types of problems, not just for your sake but for all the students’ sake. I can tell you that just as you are struggling with studying in an online environment, many professors are equally struggling with teaching in such a setting as well, and do not always have everything figured out about addressing the many practical and logistical challenges that come up. Hearing from students about what is working and what isn’t provides vital feedback that would enable them to correct course where appropriate.
Good luck!


Academia or industry: which is easier to begin a CS research career without a bachelors degree?

I don't think there is a good yes/no answer to this unfortunately, and by that I mean different companies and university have vastly different rules/traditions/standards as to how they hire/admit people to programs.

I would say the easier of the two would be entering a research role at a company with just a bachelors degree. The reason I say that is because what is more important (in my experience) at corporations is relevant work history/experience.

I would note that in my experience companies can be very wary about hiring people without at least a bachelors degree because they can be seen as a liability.

I have never heard of a CS department admitting someone to a research role without a bachelors degree. I would guess that this is because it is rare having someone want to research without a bachelors and on top of that it is already rare to award graduate degrees to people who don't already have a bachelors. Like I said in the beginning though, you may find a program willing to accept you.


Can I hide the fact that I dropped a PhD program when I apply for another PhD?

Most (all?) universities in the US require that you mention all the schools you attended on your application, regardless of whether you obtained a degree from them. Omitting any school is a violation of the rules and, if discovered, could be grounds for rescinding a potential admission offer, even long after it has been granted.

In other countries, it varies.


Letter of recommendations from computer science professor for humanities?

I suppose that you’re just going to have to work with the letters you have. You should let your letter writers know what the target program is so they can potentially tailor it to the best of their ability.
In any case, the point of the letters is mostly to indicate your research potential. This can definitely be indicated regardless of discipline.


Why would my former colleagues acknowledge me for a nonexistent contribution?

I see two possible reasons for their behaviour. Others options are possible.

They are using your name to reduce the chances of desk-rejection. I have heard that a well-known expert in the acknowledgements can be seen as a positive point for some editors.
They copy-paste the acknowledgements of a previous manuscript and forgot to delete you.