Same person as supervisor/co-promotor and professor/promotor

Considering German institution/university where I am doing my Ph.D. now, you are the person who is responsible for finding a second supervisor to your thesis.

Regulations for Doctoral Degree Studies in Germany says (computer science field):

§ 3 and § 4 § 3 II (Primary Supervisors):
“Professors and lecturers who have completed their post-doctoral qualifications, are members of the faculty, or were included in the acceptance of the dissertation, can be primary supervisors.”

§ 4 II (Secondary Supervisors):
“Secondary supervisors assume a supervisory and consultative function. Professors and university lecturers with post-doctoral qualifications can serve as secondary supervisors. The Doctoral Committee can authorize additional scholars and scientists to serve as secondary dissertation supervisors upon case-by-case assessment and the issuance of a resolution to that effect. They need not belong to the faculty.”


Presenting unpublished work at PhD defense. What will happen if the committee are excessively critical of the results?

While I agree with the comment of Jon Custer, you could, indeed, have an issue if someone, validly, finds a flaw. But, assuming everyone is rational (not always valid, I know), it is unlikely to result in total failure.

I've had students in such situations (not my own, but I was a committee member). We just sent the student back to work to resolve the issue and re-schedule a defense after the dissertation was revised as appropriate.

But, it is what it is. If objections are raised, do your best to explain why you accepted the papers. That is, show due diligence and that you seriously considered the arguments. But anyone can make a mistake, either you or the person raising an issue. Work it out.

I hope you have a rational committee. And good luck. If they are rational, then fining a flaw now is better for you than finding it later, I think.


What social skills should I practice to make a successful doctoral application?

It sounds more like an issue of relevance and application strategy rather than a lack of your part, such as social skills.

To answer the question as is, showing that you can balance independent/ individual work and being part of a group of people - not necessarily a research group but that you can network on your own, seek and offer advice and take initiative in communication - is a good approach. With the experience you mention, I believe you can find tangible examples on both aspects.

However, not getting interviews is a different issue. Both applying for a PhD and selecting a PhD student has a significant personal element. At the very least, both you and the potential supervisors must choose whether you want to work with each other for at least 3 years and produce something never done before. The supervisors may rely on past experience to make a decision. Also, it is not necessarily the objectively best candidate ("strongest") who will be accepted, but the fittest (with or without quotes) given the approach and culture of the department and the academics. Your background can be both an asset and a hindrance. A mixed or checkered background may be a better match in multidisciplinary or far-fetching projects, and may also reveal something about the person (e.g. adaptability, perserverence, wider experience etc). A "pure X" background provides obvious advantages in expertise, but might look narrow or irrelevant at first glance. That is why your research proposal is so important: it is where you demonstrate which fields you want to focus on and your research criterion and insticts. It is important to keep in mind that a very focused proposal may hit an obvious wall, no matter how well-written it is or how good the candidate: the supervisor may simply not be interested (regardless of area of expertise!) or think that this is the only thing you are interested in and will not consider his suggestions or a possible change of course. Flexibility is quite important, and often disregarded.

It is like fishing in murky waters and so situational that common patterns are difficult to spot. Based on what you write, I would advise you to examine critically if your past applications showed that you were a good match for the project. Did you show relevant skills? Did you identify the important points correctly (e.g. was there a hint of multidisciplinary work that you missed, or did your proposal come across as too narrow)? Did your cover letter and proposal highlighted your strengths with regards to the project? Did you judge the relevance of the supervisors' past research correctly? If you have contact with an academic that can advise you (personal tutor, friendly professor etc) it would be a good idea to discuss the research proposal and the current situation in the field (e.g. you might be "out of fashion", if everyone is currently running behind a certain bandwagon).


The indirect costs help to pay for all of the other resources you have access to which are not directly paid for by other costs. For instance, these indirect costs help to pay for administrative assistants, information technology, library subscriptions, utilities, and other costs.

They can also go to pay for the costs of administrators (including the fine folks in your university grants and contracts office who actually submit your NSF proposal).

Whether or not the rate is reasonable for your university is hard to judge, but a 50% overhead rate overall is not that excessive. Compare that to industry or the US national laboratories, where the overhead rate can exceed 200%, and things don't look so bad in comparison.


Why don't journal publishers ask for proof of affiliation?

The crucial point is: Why would the author lie? Let's try some hypothetical answers:

To bluff the editors and reviewers so that they think you're at a top place. But reviewers will likely be from your field of study and realize that you lie. They would probably know it if you moved to a high-ranking institution.
To make the paper look good in your CV. This is a non-sense, you sell your affiliation in different ways than by listing them in your papers.

I can't think of any other reason. Given that the authors have no incentive to list a false affiliation, there is no reason to verify it.

Also, remember that some affiliations are very hard to verify, for instance if you stay somewhere for 6 months and want to list it as an affiliation, you possibly do not appear in any official lists.


Advice on getting a Ph.D with scholarship in Australia (Neuroscience)

Usually, there is no specific timeline for applying for a PhD in Australia, unless you are thinking about particular advertised PhD positions or scholarships which of course have deadlines. After all, because you are an international student, you'd better find a good way to pay your tuition fees unless you are able to finance your project independently.

Approaching a potential supervisor, you will be asked to provide a research proposal and your CV. You can also include your referees' names and contacts in your CV.  I suggest you introduce yourself and talk briefly about your academic background. Then you can talk about your proposed project and how the professor is suitable for it. Finally, you invite him/her to consider your attached CV and proposal.

You can use below template for emailing potential supervisors:

Dear Professor XX,

I have graduated (or I will be graduated) from XX with an M.A. degree in XX.

I am interested in carrying out a project, title of your project,

Based on your research focus on XXX, I am keen to join your research team as a Ph.D. student.

Please find attached proposal concerning the proposed project and my CV for your perusal.

I look forward to your reply,

With Kind regards,

XXXX


Is there a difference between "forthcoming" and "in press"?

I think many people would construe "in press" as meaning "has been refereed, accepted, and will definitely appear sometime", while "forthcoming" is often more vague, and may include cases where something has not yet been approved by a referee ... or even submitted... or even written.


Studying PhD in the UK as an EU student?

Firstly,

The government loan is a great tool, but you can still apply for school funding, you're right, this will mean he will not be able to get funding from a UK research council, but they still have other options.

Also to mention, the idea of school funding is that you can afford to live of it, most PhD's take-home £1200, which is more difficult in London.

The loan could be useful if he goes on to get a fees only scholarship or something, but yes, by itself its pretty useless.

If you try and get school funding, this usually means you agree to around 100 hours of unpaid teaching per year.

If they just get the loan, or Research Council funding, or any other funding not from the school, expect to earn around £15-£20 per hour for teaching. A bad thing about this is that you do not get paid any prep time, which is generally needed as an early stage PhD still coming to grips with the subject.

The website I found my funding from was jobs.ac.uk it gives lots of options and representative examples.

As a last resort, there is also bank style loans for PhD students.

Addition:

You will not be able to get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan if:

you’ve received or will receive Research Council funding (for example, studentships, stipends, scholarships and tuition fee support)
you’re receiving a social work bursary
you’re eligible to apply for an NHS bursary (even if you’re not receiving it)
you’re already getting payments from student finance for another course that you’re studying
you’ve received a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan before - unless you left your course due to illness, bereavement or another serious personal reason
you already have a doctoral degree, or a qualification that’s equivalent or higher
you’re receiving a doctorate by publication
you’re behind in repayments for any previous loans from the Student Loans Company
Your course

So from what I read here, he will only not be allowed the loan if he gets research council funding, so he still could get school funding!


How to deal with self-plagiarism or re-publishing of previous work in literature review paper?

Since you do not want to address the matter of duplicate or multiple publication (I prefer those terms; I dislike the dubious notion of "self-plagiarism"), I will focus only on the matter of handling the existence of such works in the literature other than choosing to ignore some of the publications.

What you describe seems similar to a concern that comes up in meta-analysis (a statistical approach to literature reviews). For the statistics underlying meta-analysis to work, an important statistical assumption is that each publication being analyzed is independent of each other so that each publication counts as a distinct piece of evidence. But this assumption is violated if two or more studies were conducted on the same dataset (which might involve the same group of authors, but not necessarily so, especially if the dataset is public). There are different ways for handling the resulting statistical problems, but they generally involve giving each of the non-independent studies a lower weight so that altogether they would have around the same weight in the overall meta-analysis as any one independent study.

Following this principle, if you have a case of non-independent studies (that is, your case of duplicate publications), you could weight them in some way as just one study. I cannot recommend how best to do this without knowing in-depth the nature of your study, the nature of the duplication, the extent of overlap, etc. You would need to consider your particular situation and then decide how best to represent these duplicate publications as one data point (whether that means taking an average of results, the first publication, the last publication, the most highly cited result, or whatever representation you think most appropriate).

In your final analysis, it might be a good idea to present and compare two sets of results, as is sometimes done in meta-analysis: one set treats each duplicate as an independent study, and then another analysis uses your chosen aggregation approach to group all the duplicates as one piece of evidence. That way, you could see if the duplicate publications sway the overall evidence significantly or not, which is valuable to see.


Publishing independent proofs of a theorem in the same journal?

I can only speak for mathematics. However, when you really understand the nature of mathematics you start to realize that the proofs of the theorems are often as or more important than the statements of the theorems themselves.

The proof, in showing why something is true, gives a roadmap to truth. Sometimes a technique, if it is not standard but is interesting, can be the most important aspect of a math paper because that same roadmap might just show a way to prove other things, some similar, and some not.

My own dissertation had interesting theorems, to be sure, but it was most useful for the proof of one of the theorems. The proof was unexpected and gave new ways to approach some problems in Analysis.

So, a journal that shows two independent proofs of the same thing can be especially interesting since the similarities and differences between the proofs can give hints of other things that might be shown.

I doubt that it is especially common, though in popular areas of research it must happen. Parallel research is pretty widespread, though if offset in time by only a bit, it won't be possible to have such things in the same issue of a journal.

On the other hand, getting beaten to a result may not be devastating if different approaches are taken. Other mathematicians can learn from that.

From the journal's standpoint such situations are especially satisfying as two different but interesting proof methodologies may represent the merging of two separate trains of thought. That in itself is interesting to a mathematician and may lead to consolidation or to further advances.


Can anyone compare US and Singaporean higher education systems?

Quality. Comparable, and certainly not inferior. The curriculum is not substandard and its graduates are able to meet international standards. You can expect to learn everything a US undergraduate will also learn, up to minor differences that depend on the department's unique specialties (this does not apply to graduate studies). For example, Singapore undergraduates are capable of passing the GRE.
Stress. Stress comes when you have high expectations for yourself and want to meet them. Accordingly, you can get as stressed or as not-stressed as you desire, by adjusting your expectations. This is no different from anywhere else in the world.
Professors/Supervisors/TAs. No different from elsewhere in the world. Professors are in general an approachable lot.
Campus culture. Within the class itself, the most important difference is that in Singapore, students don't participate that much during lectures. A lecturer who says something like "can anyone tell me what the significance of ____ theorem is" is likely to be met with silence. If students have problems which they need help from the professor, they're likely to approach the professor after class. Outside of class, attitudes tend to be pretty conservative. In the US a "free hugs" campaign might work; in Singapore, nobody is going to participate. You might have trouble making friends since you'll probably have to initiate the conversation (especially if you're not Chinese).
Etiquette. What is regarded as polite is generally transferable across cultures. Because Singapore is a mish-mash of cultures, Singaporeans are pretty accommodating, and you'll probably have no problems.
Creativity vs. rote learning. You already have a question about this.

If you're thinking about studying in Singapore, here're a few more factors to consider:

Singapore is one of the world's safest countries. Crime rates are extremely low. Every now and then there will be mass shootings in the US, including at university campuses, but those never happen in Singapore.
Singapore's public infrastructure is one of the world's best. Everywhere is easy to get to in Singapore. The high population density makes public transport sometimes crowded especially during rush hour, but it also means you will generally be able to e.g. find food at 11pm at night, get top-class medical care, and enjoy all sorts of entertainment. Singapore internet speeds are some of the world's fastest.
Singapore's university infrastructure is also excellent. In fact after having visited lots of universities, including several of the world's best (by THE / QS / ARWU ranking), I've not seen anything that beats Singapore's infrastructure. The lecture halls are well-equipped, well-maintained, and modern; the campus buses run frequently including on weekends; the libraries are stocked with floors upon floors of books, etc. It's as though the Singapore government knows its universities are not yet regarded as among the best in the world, but they're determined to make sure they have the facilities to get there.
Singaporean universities apparently operate with a Bell curve. That is, the average grade is a B. This might come as a culture shock if you're used to everyone in a class scoring 80+.
Staff-to-student ratio is relatively poor. There are tens of thousands of students.


Why does a mathematics department want student evaluations of a famous professor?

Being a good teacher and being a good researcher are distinct skills. If someone has a job that requires both skills, they should be being evaluated on both.


How should I prepare e-prints (pre-prints and post-prints) of already published papers?

One thing I suggest is do not put up the paper in submitted-manuscript form. You are free to change from double-spaced (if that is the case) back to single spaced (or as appropriate); you can put figures and tables where they belong; you can use a nice typeface; you can even change the referencing style to a one you like better.

Use the version that incorporates changes suggested by the referee if at all possible. My guess is you didn't sign away rights until after you made said changes and sent it back to the journal -- or this may have happened, and it may be that the original submission came with agreeing to terms that include all rights in various versions of the paper in the case of acceptance - I hate these types of journals. In any case, knowing your field would help regarding advice here.

This website can help you find out if you are allowed the post-referee-comments version: http://rchive.it/ (it uses Sherpa/Romeo data), but the ultimate answer will come from the journal website.

This will make your paper more pleasant to read, and help dispel the myth that preprints are ugly.


How do Universities deal with applicants from high schools that don't offer other languages

Is there any hope for students with their opportunities being defunded to compete with other applicants from better-funded high schools? Are students from underfunded schools SOL?

As a preface I will say that HS foreign language programs are much more forgiving than college or university programs, not just from an objective difficulty standpoint, but also because learning foreign languages is much easier at younger ages.

Being said, unfortunately many institutions have an application process in place that can potentially disqualify a student automatically on the basis of missing credentials (not bad, missing). But, I cannot speak for every institution.

There are ways students can get around this, but they have to be proactive, @guifa put good options in the comments:

1) You dual-enroll in HS. I actually recommend this, because I did not dual-enroll and when I started taking college courses, I realized that they would have been a much better use of my time, personally.

2) Take a distance learning course. This is somewhat difficult due to technology/off-campus requirements, especially when we're talking areas where the schools can't afford their programs, but should be doable.

3) Go to a junior/community college for 2 years, transfer. You can take the foreign language at either institution sometimes, you mostly need it done ahead of time to transfer, but if not to get your degree you have to have at least 2 years done, 4 years for some Arts degrees. The big disadvantage here is some universities have big experiences like research or internships that junior/community colleges wont be able to afford you, so upon transfer you have to work harder for undergrad. experience and LoRs.

In all the above cases, before you do anything you make sure your credits are official and you make sure they transfer. I've seen plenty of cases where students take courses at community colleges with wonky accreditation to find out much, much later that the course in question needs to be retaken at the new institution because it didn't transfer. You can confirm this by talking first to your institution, and then to where you plan on transferring, and get in writing that the courses are going to be okay.


What is the recommended option for a faculty applicant after accepting an offer and getting another better offer?

This situation should not actually arise if you are handling your faculty job search properly.  If you accept an offer, you should withdraw all your remaining job applications.  Otherwise either you are wasting their time in considering you for a position you won't accept, or you were insincere in accepting the previous offer.  If you aren't comfortable withdrawing your other applications, then you aren't comfortable accepting the job.  You can negotiate on this point, for example by telling them that another job would solve your two-body problem and you hope they can wait on a final decision until you hear about that job, but there's no guarantee that they will agree.

The basic ethical principle here is honesty: you shouldn't give someone a decision they understand to be final without actually meaning it.  By default, job acceptances are considered binding decisions in the parts of academia I'm familiar with (certainly in mathematics in the U.S.), so you can't just assume that of course they knew you might change your mind.  If you have any reservations or conditions, you should make them explicit before accepting the position.  This can't hurt you if nobody really considered the decision to be final in the first place, and it will avoid unethical behavior if they did.

Even though this shouldn't happen, people do occasionally get themselves into this situation.  If you unilaterally rescind your initial acceptance and take the other position instead, you face almost no legal risk, since nobody's going to try suing over this.  However, you can hurt your reputation, which is a serious danger.

Instead, the way you should handle it is by careful discussions.  Typically, University 2 will let you defer their offer for at least a year, since otherwise they look like jerks for trying to steal you away from University 1 after you already accepted an offer.  (Another possibility is that University 2 had no idea you had already accepted and will rescind their offer upon learning this.)  Then you approach University 1 and apologize profusely for inadvertently creating a terribly awkward situation.  You explain that you are willing to come to University 1 and fulfill your obligations, but you have an offer from University 2 and you would very likely leave after a year to go there, so you wonder whether there is any chance they would release you from your acceptance.  If they agree, then you are ethically free to accept University 2's offer immediately.  (University 1 still won't be happy with you, so you shouldn't do this unless it really matters to you, but asking them for permission is much better than just announcing you aren't coming.)  If University 1 insists that they need you next year, then you defer University 2's offer and show up at University 1.

But you really shouldn't let yourself get further faculty offers after you've already accepted a job.  You might be able to get away with it once by explaining that you accidentally forgot to withdraw your other applications, but you really don't want to develop a reputation over time as someone who deliberately manipulates the system in unethical ways.


The meaning of "if any" in journal print charges description

In my field (political science), a non-open access journal that charges publication fees clearly raises a red flag. But apparently publication fees in other fields are common for subscription-based journals (see comments). It might be just a coincidence then that Pushpa Publishing House is a predatory publisher that appears on "Beall's List".
Don't publish with this journal.


Which foreign academic job markets most favor (monolingual) American PhDs?

I'm Dutch. In physical sciences, most of our universities teach their MSc programmes entirely in English. Some of our universities also teach their BSc programmes entirely in English. If you find an academic job here, you are quite likely to get by with only speaking English. From a language POV, American PhDs are welcome here.
Dutch universities commonly do expect at least one postdoctoral stint before starting a tenure-track position. Whether that stint is performed in Europe or the USA makes little difference IMO.
Of course, your mileage may vary, and this answer sketches only the situation in a single foreign academic job market. But the conclusion is: yes, there are foreign academic job markets where American PhDs are sought after. Beyond the Netherlands, I expect the situation to be similar in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Also, anecdotally, I know of one American PhD who did a postdoc in the USA and then moved to a professorship in Belgium.


Postdoctoral job search: mixed applications

I rarely find people applying to one job and moving on. Doing so involves a lot of risks. In applying to the one job you believe is best, and getting rejected, you keep delaying the hire date of the job you may get. In waiting for a response from your perfect job,the alternative positions may be filled or closed due to lack of appropriate candidates. Point is, the norm is for people to apply to multiple positions, across universities or departments, or even within the same department or doctoral college.

One person in their search applied for two positions within the same department, both of which he was well suited for; both positions will from here on out be referred to as positions A & B, respectively. The person preferred job A, but for reasons like the ones mentioned above, he applied to both. He was contacted for both positions and was deemed fit for both positions. The supervisors then realized that they had the same candidate; enter inter-departmental politics. Eventually, the supervisor of position A yielded and the person was assigned to position B. The point here being, there exists a possibility that it is no longer your choice which position you take once you apply to multiple positions in the same department/university, less so within the same field.

Also, if you receive an offer for a position less preferred and you accept, do not renege if you receive one for a position you prefer more. Aside from the ethical and moral issues, the person you just harmed will be your colleague in your field for many years to come; i.e. this may also harm you professionally.

As for the last part of your question, you'll find plenty of examples of people that occupy any number of roles as a PhD, lecturer, researcher or post-doc. People also tend to move fluidly between these positions. It's also worth mentioning that it is irregular for a post-doc or researcher to not lecture. This is as the post-doc/researcher requires students to fulfill certain portions of their research. To do so, the post-doc holds a lecture, at least, the moment they begin their work in order to attract students that are interested in his/her work while ensuring that they would research their part of the work while having the necessary foundation in place. This covers a post-doc that wants to lecture.

In the case of a lecturer that wants to apply for a post-doc position, you're directly in contact with the supervisors and have an insider's insight into their work. If anything, you could create your own post-doc position by attaining approval for supervision from a professor, and then securing your own funding from a funding institution (DARPA, etc.). In short, as far as I've seen, no, it doesn't harm your chances, but rather improves them.

Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps.


Research supervisor gives me no freedom-- controls all aspects of my research. Feel like a research secretary. Is this normal in academia?

I'm not a doctoral student, I'm a research associate at a research lab affiliated with a university in the US

So if I'm reading that right, you are not a student. You have completed your BS degree and you are an employee (if that is not correct, please clarify the question). The PI in the lab is not your advisor, he is your boss. So your boss is treating you like an employee, and not like a student. You should not be surprised by this.  You are an employee and a fairly junior one at that. If there is any mundane task to be done, it's going to come to you.  You will find that the experience of being a graduate student is very different than your current position. You will have considerably more ownership / freedom on the direction of your research (not total control, but much more), and you will definitely get authorship credit for your work.

Having said that, there is also considerable variation from lab to lab and from professor to professor in their style of working. Some professors will try to give even undergraduates a meaningful research experience, but others might treat even experienced doctoral students in the manner you have described.  You may have just ended up in a bad lab. When you are applying to graduate school, when you go to visit the campus, the most important question to ask the professors is: "Who are your graduate students and where can I find them?"  Then go ask those graduate students what it is like to work in that lab with that professor.  If you don't like their answers, then you know not to work in that lab.


Bringing an unprepared student into the lab

You suggest the individual is not 'already curious' by which I assume you mean 'not passionate'. Lack of experience can be overlooked if a student is passionate because they will work hard for the reward of learning. If the student lacks interest, it will probably be a constant struggle.


Requesting a trained Neural Network model from an author?

Just write them a friendly e-mail and include the information you provided here. If they want to share their model, they will, if not, asking didn´t hurt.

Two additional points:

Be sure to acknowledge their work when you use it and let them know that you will.
Maybe you can offer a collaboration on the work. If their model is usefull to you I guess their knowlegde and know-how in general is. Collaborations with and (co-)funding from industry partners are very valuable for research groups.


Is it usual to ask for several references for postdoc positions?

In my experience in Mathematics, three letters is very common.

So who to ask for these three letters? The better your letter writers know you and your work, the more meaningful their letters can be. But this does not mean that you must have worked closely for an extended period of time with them. Perhaps there are others that are familiar with your work, for example because they are on your thesis committee, or they have invited you to give a talk. Depending on the types of positions you are applying for, you can also have a letter that focuses on your teaching skills.

Finally, an advisor that has plenty of time to work with you, does not preclude you from also working with others. In fact, the value of building a network of colleagues cannot be underestimated. This does not necessarily mean collaboration with others, but it is important that you get out there so that your peers become aware of you and your results. These are the people that eventually may have to decide to hire you or not, or could write a letter for you.


Perhaps you are overthinking the effect that asking questions has. Perhaps you are misjudging which questions are "naive". They don't sound naive to you, I think, but you worry that they are naive to others.

I went to school long ago - mathematics. Before the internet. Before personal (or many) computers. But my solution to having a question was to ask it. I asked a lot of questions. I didn't bother people in their offices for simple(ish) things, but in class I pretty much always had my hand up. My mother was often exasperated with me for asking so many questions as a child, but I never got that sense that my professors were.

But the effect was that almost everyone thought I was very smart. Smarter, probably, than I really am. It turns out that I was just bold enough to ask the questions that other students were afraid to ask. Some of the questions I asked, of course, were the result of errors made by the prof in lecture and he/she would then correct them, but most were just gaps.

But the best answer isn't always a direct answer, but a hint as to how/where the answer can be found. The simple answer doesn't usually give the context you need. The "answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42" may be correct or not, but it isn't enlightening. It is the connections between things that are important, everywhere, but especially in mathematics.

Some may think that you are asking things you "should" already know, but everyone will see you as engaged, rather than complacent.

It turns out that, just as in a course, in grad school you probably aren't there to prove to people that you don't need to be there. Ask and ye shall receive.


Is it okay to join a self-funded PhD Program with possibility/intention of leaving in future for funded position

The only ethical concern here, hence the only thing that would make it not ok, is if your leaving breaks commitments to others and leaves them hanging. This might happen in some lab-intensive fields where your research dovetails with that of others. In that case you would need to clean up the situation, but still aren't obligated to continue forever.

Most people will understand your situation and your desire to move if you do. I don't think that obtaining letters will be a problem as long as you fulfill your obligations. If you are doing good work, there may even be an incentive at the first institution to find funding for you in some way.

The only negative I can see is a question might arise about why you can't get funding. Is there some deficit in your background. That might make it harder to get accepted, but otherwise I don't predict any  issues.

Actually, people leave funded positions as well. The same basic rule applies. Fulfill your obligations and don't leave others hanging. Laws and contracts may modify that rule in some situations, of course.

Joining a doctoral program isn't a one time, irreversible, life-time commitment.


Disclosing authorship of controversial app in CV

I don't think having created an app that was, it seems, more a proof of concept will impact your acceptance or failure to be accepted much. For completeness and honesty, one might think it does belong on a CV though. However, the way you describe your app I would add a clarifying brief description, such as "Parody of political process." You wouldn't want more people getting the wrong impression your professor originally had, without being in the room and able to explain yourself.

It seems that you are middle-of-the-road politically, bemused and maybe annoyed by orthodoxies left and right of you. Keep in mind that your app, if this is expressed in it, will probably make both the left and right uncomfortable and head-shakingly displeased: for card-carrying members of the (far?) left and right, anyone not with them, is against them. So be careful.


How to make your small ideas into a research paper?

One of my biggest regrets is not writing down small ideas. There were waiting for a better time. But usually this time never came - either because I didn't find a good way to expand on the project, or because new projects left little time.

In There are no projects like side projects (which I wrote after finishing my PhD) there is:

  If you have a great project, do moonlight. Don’t wait for better times, because they won’t come. Maybe you overstate the need of money, institutional support or social confirmation?

Depending on the project, it can be a small draft (e.g. with a theorem and some comments on possible approaches to prove it) or a GitHub repository with code and some description.

Once something is shared, there are two main benefits:

you can talk about it / send it to your colleagues,
you made some progress, even if it is a small step, it's strictly more than nothing.

Occasionally, during the writing phase you may:

see how to expand on it,
or realise that actually you already did a lot,
or discover that it is flawed (e.g. your proof is trivial or incorrect).

Additionally, if a few years later someone ask you - you will be able to recover it quickly, along with its core content (formulae, citations, etc).
Sharing means that you can share it with your future self.

Is it just a one-page LaTeX note? Just write it.


When is the right time to quit, if at all (2-year Master's)?

I think that it really depends on how much you're struggling. Are you failing your problem sets? Are you merely unhappy with the courses?

I expect that there will be huge variations with the answers, but personally I would advise you to finish out your MS. The reason being that there actually is a huge difference in terms of your career (salary, promotions etc) when you have an advanced degree, so usually an MS is a worthy investment (as an aside, there are studies that suggest that having a PhD does not offer a lot of extra advantages compared to an MS, so if you are already unsure of your MS, I could advise against a PhD).

Another reason is that it would not look too good to your employers to show that you dropped out after just a semester in your program. Perseverance is a very strong quality that is appreciated by many people.

Furthermore, your experience depends largely on your professors. I would talk to other students to see if there are particularly popular professors who teach courses that you are interested in, and try to take those classes next semester (and while you are talking to your fellow grad students, you might as well ask them about your current feelings and ask if this is common).

That being said, I suggest that you talk to your program director, because maybe your program is notoriously hard, and there are many students feeling this way. You may walk out of that meeting feeling reassured, or maybe that meeting will give you a very strong and concrete reason to drop out of your MS. Or maybe the program director could suggest an alternative MS program that can still credit this semester towards the degree (for example, it sounds like an MS in computer science might have been a better fit than an MS in statistics, but I can easily imagine an MS in computer science requiring some statistics courses).


Is it possible to do an MBA while pursuing a PhD in Sweden?

It's surely unlikely that an institute will forbid the simultaneous pursuit of two degrees. However, an MBA and a PhD are both demanding. Pursuing them simultaneously is seemingly a route to failure, unless they are each tackled on a part-time basis.


Include article in bibliography I didn't cite

I have handled similar situations by adding a sentence citing the article, such as

  Smith (2003) provides a useful summary of this topic.

My reasoning is that since I found the review article very helpful, people reading my article may be interested as well. I know I appreciate references like this.


How to organize a session at a conference?

In my field, applied mathematics, this would mean find 4-8 people who are willing to participate in the conference and give a talk in your session. Small print: they are going to have to pay their own conference fee, and we do not reimburse any expense to them or give financial support of any kind.

Typically you find these people by asking them in person or sending them an e-mail. Do not overbook, as people accept more often than not, if it is a good conference.

This is how most conference sessions are organized -- if the conference itself is respectable, there is nothing suspicious about it.


How do members of a grad school admission committee make sure they are reading all the applicants' essays with the same level of mental freshness?

A big part of my statement of objectives is dedicated to give a feeling of how I became interested in a specific area of research. I am worried that that part of my essay is going to make my essay be looked at as just another emotionally overdone statement, while I have been told my people who reviewed it that it is quite inspiring.

Your statement of purpose should be a professional statement and overview of the research you want to do in graduate school. It should be forward looking.

It should not be emotional or inspiring. And for most applications, not be done in narrative form ("when I was in sixth grade, I knew I wanted to be an engineer when my mom fixed the carburetor in our '58 Chevy."). Every paragraph you spend on the past is a paragraph you could be using to strengthen the articulation of work you wish to do in the future at this graduate school.

Leave the narrative history and inspirational material in your personal history or diversity portion of the application.

Finally, at my department we ensure all applications are read by multiple faculty. This helps protect against individual variability.

Caveat: I'm a social scientist but I imagine the physical sciences are even less likely to respond to appeals of emotionality.


How important is trendiness of the research one works on?

At least focus on your interests versus your advisors.  We get a lot of questions from weak reeds who just bend with the wind.  But at the end of the day, there's a huge investment of years by junior researchers in these projects.  Need to do something you want to do.  Exercise choice during advisor and project selection, stick up for yourself, etc.
Obviously it's a multivariable function (not just x and y, but some z's and w's floating in there).  So, you should look for something both marketable AND interesting.  While, it is unlikely that optimizing for one variable will optimize for the other, there likely are several areas where you can be both interested/skillful AND that are marketable.  Yes, absolutely you have to use your noggin when deciding this...and your advice to a younger you is relevant.
I would be wary of something that is trendy now if it has the seeds of changing soon.  String theory, nanoscience, machine learning, etc.  At least don't get involved in one of these rush areas if you aren't super interested in it (I don't believe the students who all come here and say they have a "passion" for machine learning--they have a passion for getting hired by Google.)
I think often there is a lot of opportunity at field boundaries (and has been for decades).  "Material science" is the classic example.  If you can collaborate, it opens up possibilities and often you find others can't really compete as well in the border areas (are only able to work in the core). Personally I find that a lot of fun (and also doing applied work)...so it's not even a sales BS job for grants, like with some researchers.  I really like it.
It's probably good if you can package yourself as both a specialist and a fundamentalist.  I.e. I'm the math expert in some bizarre shale oil krieging junk.  But I also can find a home as a graph theory math person (I'm making this up...not sure if those are real things...but you get the idea).  Have some sexy thing like that specialty...but also make a department feel comfortable that you can teach basic classes and fit in with the core math department.
This is not to say there is no demand for people drilling down the center of the field.  But you better plan on being the best, then.  Really top notch.


How does funding at UK universities work?

The funding depends on your nationality/residence by a lot, as well as the field, the university, and the supervisor.

UK or EEA residents can get funding from national research councils (such as ESPRC, STFC and many more) which give them (usually) the cost of tuition plus a small living stipend (when I was applying the living wage was about £13,000).

Non UK/EEA people generally have to self-fund outside of a few special circumstances (competitive international scholarships such as Rhodes, university bursaries for internationals). This is very very rare. However, it's not terribly uncommon to see students from an above-average financial situation self-funding, but then they need to pay not only their living costs, but also the cost of tuition (at my old university it was about £20k per year for international students).

I wrote an extensive response on all of these issues here and here and here. The other answers from other users on those posts are also excellent.

So what happens is that you apply, and then you will be (hopefully) asked for an interview. If you are able to compete for the 'normal' funding pot, you will be interviewed much the same way as everyone else. First a shortlist, then the interviews, and maybe follow-up interviews will be used to select the best candidates from the pool of applicants. If you're non-UK/EEA, you may or may not interview with everyone else; it's up to the university. If they don't have the money to fund you, many departments will make you an offer anyway (especially for foreign students) which you will usually have several months to accept or decline.

The research councils will grant the department a certain number of PhD studentship bursaries, and they will distribute them. From what I've seen, you don't have to do much self-application for scholarships unless you're foreign. Though you will always be told where the money is coming from, and there may be some requirements (a yearly seminar, for example) to get the money.

If you are given a stipend, it is tax-free, unlike in many other countries. Your funding is all-inclusive, not split up into RA or TA like in the US. You can normally make extra money marking coursework or demonstrating in labs, although the 'estimated number of hours' taken by these activities doesn't always match up with the actual number of hours you spend on them !


Can someone who got GPA 3.7 apply for high ranked university with assistanship?

Your GPA is sufficiently high that it will not prevent you from applying or being accepted to pretty well any US university - but once your GPA is above a 3.5 it tends to just be marked as "good enough". A research group that would base a decision solely on a GPA of 3.7 vs 3.9 vs 4.0 would have a disturbingly irrational fetish for GPA that it would be a mark against the research group more than it would be against you!
It appears this sentiment is shared by Dr Mor Harchol-Balter of Carnegie Mellon University, where she writes (my emphasis added):

3.1 Transcript – grades and classes
When applying to a Ph.D. program in CS, you’d like your grades in CS and Math and Engineering classes
to be about 3.5 out of 4.0, as a rough guideline. It does not help
you, in my opinion, to be closer to 4.0 as opposed to 3.5. It’s a much
better idea to spend your time on research than on optimizing your
GPA. At CMU the mean GPA of students admitted is over 3.8 (even though
we don’t use grades as a criterion), however students have also been
admitted with GPAs below 3.3, since research is what matters, not
grades. A GPA of 4.0 alone with no research experience will not get
you into any top CS program. Keep in mind that GPAs are evaluated in
the context of the undergraduate program. A 3.4 GPA from a topranked
CS undergraduate program like CMU counts the same as a 3.8 or 3.9 GPA
from a less well-known CS undergraduate program.

As @Potato notes, this strong preference away from GPA and towards research may only apply to some fields where undergraduates are capable of participating in research. This may also not be true of Universities without such a very strong focus on performing research. In short: YMMV.
At the graduate level there are multiple factors considered, discussed in various and tremendous depth throughout other topics on this site (and highly recommended to be searched through!). But with that said, your GPA is more than high enough that you may now safely worry about all the other criteria that will be considered: reference letters, statement of purpose, any existing relationships directly or indirectly with professors at the institution, experience in research (or that shows potential for research), GRE score being "high enough" (just like your GPA!), TOEFL for international applicants (again, "good enough") etc.


Switch majors in pure math masters in order to apply for a PhD in statistics?

There are a lot of issues here. Whether you get good letters from maths professors is up to them and your relationship with them. Only they can answer that, so you might pose the question to them. Not writing the thesis may impact on that, but only they can say.
As to whether a switch gives you any advantage in application to a US doctoral program, it also depends on that program. Every US university is different in that regard and you can, really, only learn the answer by making application. But I can guess, at least, that you can make it work either way. Math is a good foundation for statistics and the details may matter less than your insight.
But you can plan for both outcomes, at least, by applying now for doctoral programs based on your two year degree while still considering the three year switch. You have a year to figure it out and don't need to make a final decision at this point, I think.
And don't define "top" US universities too narrowly. If you do, you are likely to not get offers. Cast a wide net. There are lots of great US institutions that aren't in the top 10, or even 30, or ...


CS conference paper rejected but recommended for conjunct workshop

Nobody can tell you what you should do.

But I can tell you what I would do: Agree to have the paper sent to the workshop, and then make absolutely sure that my next submission to Conference A doesn't suffer from the same problems.  Get this paper out the door, learn from my mistakes, and move on.  There will always be another paper.

In my experience, a unanimous "strong reject" is an unambiguous signal that conference A does not want your paper, and even major modifications are unlikely to rescue it.

On the other hand, the meaning of review scores vary significantly between sub-fields of CS, and between conferences in the same sub-field, and even between iterations of the same conference.  So you really need to ask someone that works in your specific subfield how to interpret the narrative content of your reviews.  In particular, ask your advisor.


Using other people's data for dissertation: ethical or not?

Unless the student claims that they collects the data himself/herself. I do not see any scientific misconduct in using other people's data with their permission.

Of course collecting good data is a contribution. However, even if the student collects data themselves, I would be very surprised if that is more than 30% of the contribution in their thesis.

TL;DR: No big deal. That might be a bad professor, but it doesn't mean everything he does is wrong.


Report written alone, but graded identicaly to those who wrote it in groups of 2

Sorry, but yes, it is fair. It is the work that is graded, not the person. The comments are devastating, actually. I doubt that there is much you can do now, other than assure you don't get into the same situation in the future.

You can, of course, ask the professor for a second chance. I can't guess what the response will be, but I think you have the right to ask. Under the circumstances, it might be granted. It would mean more work for you, of course, but that might also aid in your overall learning.

If you didn't understand the assignment and needed help then you should have been seeking it along the way. Prior to turning it in, you had some leverage in getting help from the prof since you were working alone.

I don't know why the prof set it up this way. A single group of three might have been a better solution. Asking for a volunteer to work alone might have been a better solution.

But, for your own educational purposes, try to understand where and why you didn't meet the standard.


How to annotate/summarize research papers for long-term retrieval?

I find it important to be as active as possible in your reading, especially for papers close to the questions you are working on. If you are only highlighting, then this is largely a passive activity, and does not help much with retention or even later rereading. If you are making notes, it is a little bit better, but still largely passive.

For important papers, I try to read the paper and then write up a quick summary for myself of the key ideas relevant to my interests: a sort of mini-review or personalized-abstract of the paper. For papers that don't contain important tools I use, but contain facts I have to cite I usually include a section that lists in what settings I would expect to cite this paper. This helps a lot at the writing stage. These little summaries of the paper are usually too rough and critical to be useful to others, so I keep them private.

I usually organize these summaries in a little personal wiki like Tiddly Wiki where I can tag and do full text search as well as include links to the original PDF of my computer. Each article gets its own tiddle and is tagged according to topic. Other useful tools are available in:

Is there any efficient non-linear note-taking software?

For some heavy papers (say important math papers) the reading has to be even more active. Usually including reproving the theorems and sometimes presenting these proofs to others in my group.


My manuscript status says "18 reviewers invited." Is it a bad sign if that many reviewers were invited to review my manuscript?

It is difficult to give an informative answer without knowing the culture of the journal to which you submitted.  In the journals where I am an editorial board member, 18 would be a high number to get the number of reviews necessary for a decision (often 3).
A couple of reasons to be pessimistic:

It could be that your manuscript is being handled by an associate editor (AE) who likes to fire off a huge number of review invitations routinely, in which case I would suspect that this AE does not work hard to find good expertise matches.
It could be that the information from which the potential reviewer has to decided whether to accept the invitation (author list (unless double blind), title, abstract (usually)) is not enticing the reviewers to accept.  If this is true, you could try to take this as constructive feedback that your title and abstract should make someone want to read your manuscript.

On the optimistic side, I do not think that having a large number of reviewers invited is particularly bad news for the ultimate acceptance of your manuscript. Best of luck.


Does having developed a local (La)TeX system help in graduate admission?

Like all "extracurricular" activities, it will help, but maybe not as much as you would like. I agree with Jeff that it's an "accomplishment that shows a lot of desirable traits", but fundamentally, if the rest of your application is not sound, this is not going to win them over.

I think it is best to think of this as a tie-breaker - if the rest of your academic achievements are as good as the ones of the next best candidate, this is going to be an unique characteristic that will make you stand out and be more memorable. However, if other candidates have better letters, more research experience, or vastly better grades, the fact that you did something very useful in a fundamentally different area is not going to be valued highly enough.


Can a Ph.D. candidate at a US-style Ph.D.-only graduate school be admitted to a European doctoral course?

Although the term "PhD candidate" is used in both continents, a Ph.D program in the USA comprises of: Master (2 years) + Doctorate (3 years), meaning it takes at least 5 years, whereas in Europe comprises of just the latter: Doctorate (3 years). This means that yes, a Master's degree or something deemed equivalent or superior is required to enter the doctoral course in Europe. The fact that it's "not required" in the US is an illusion, it's just because the Master's is (sort of) included IN the Ph. D program. In the end you will get your Ph. D degree at around the same age than students in Europe.

If your University in the USA does not deliver a Master's degree per se, you will have to check with the prospective university in Europe to see whether they will count your research experience (preferably 1-2 years of lab research after your 4-year Bachelor's, which you could sum up in something that looks like a Master's thesis) as being equivalent or superior to a Master's degree. I believe it is case by case.

Also, please keep in mind that some countries like France require you to have a scholarship or to secure some kind of funding prior to admission to cover your living expenses for the entirety of the Doctorate (3 years) since Ph.D candidates have a status similar to paid staff.

The UK is probably one of the only countries in the world where it's OK to do just a Doctorate (3 years) right after your Bachelor's (=if you compare to other countries, you could say it means skipping the 2 years of Master's), however, I don't think this is highly valued on the international market, unless you managed to end up with the same amount of work and publications than the people who did Master (2 years) + Doctorate (3 years).

//Speaking for science majors//


How to differentiate between articles, conference proceedings, etc.?

Reference managing software such as Mendeley usually provide an import feature for PDF files. You simply supply a list of PDF files and the software automatically extracts the metadata such as title, author names, journal, and so on. The accuracy is usually pretty good, and then you can easily sort and organize the files in whichever way you want.


Is there added value in having your own presentation layout and using it consistently?

I don't think there's any inherent value in having your own "signature" presentation layout.

Generally, you want to keep the focus on the content of your talk.  If people are noticing your layout, they are paying less attention to your science.  Would you rather stick in their minds as "the speaker with the cool result" or "the speaker with all those weird colors on their slides"?

If you really dislike the usual templates, or you can make your own workflow more efficient by creating your own, then go ahead and do it.  But I would suggest keeping your (visible) changes conservative; if your layout is radically different from what people are used to seeing, it may become distracting.


How can/should I indicate that it's okay to use open access content in a paper?

Almost all CC licenses include an attribution clause. As of the 4.0 version, this means:

  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Clicking the "appropriate credit" shows some more information:

  If supplied, you must provide the name of the creator and attribution parties, a copyright notice, a license notice, a disclaimer notice, and a link to the material. CC licenses prior to Version 4.0 also require you to provide the title of the material if supplied, and may have other slight differences.

So the easiest way to satisfy this is, indeed, to say

  Figure from reference [x], used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Where your reference should contain the rest of the information, including a link. If you're pressed for space, you can abbreviate the license (CC BY 4.0), or put the text in a footnote.


How to inform/attract more candidates for a postdoctoral position?

Possible outlets I can think of include:

Field-specific e-mail lists
Department email-list forwarded through collegues at other departments
Adverts inserted in talks/presentations held by people at your department (e.g. at invited talks, conferences etc.)
Job ad websites (national and global)
Advert at research-focused web communities/forums, such as Researchgate and Academia.edu, as well as LinkedIn.


What should physics majors work on during semester breaks?

The summer after sophomore year should be late enough to start doing research. There are lots of questions / tutorials about how to start research; best to just talk to your professors and/or apply to research programs such as the REU. This is also a good time to start studying for your physics GRE.

For the summer after freshman year, it's probably too early to do the above (though it's worth asking your professors about research options). I recommend working on soft skills -- writing, people skills, presentation skills, and programming all come to mind.


Should I change a graduate class grade to pass/fail? Will it harm my PHD applications?

Grades matter when applying to graduate programs...until they do not. For the most part, a B is never a disqualifier for getting into a PhD program. (Getting a C or D...or F might be more worrisome). As long as you have a 3.8 or higher in your masters program, I usually would not even dig too far into the specifics of your grades if I was reviewing your submission.
When I evaluate graduate student applications, I place much more weight on letters of recommendation and personal statements. Especially where the measure theory class is not a core topic in your field, getting a B should not matter too much. Get strong LORs and write a good personal statement and you should be fine. You even could mention the challenges of COVID in your statement. (Although, I honestly would not even bring up the B. Least said, soonest mended).
I would not recommend changing the grade to a Pass; this looks like you actually are trying to hide something. Move on from the B and focus on building a good resume of experience and connections.


Why do many graduate programs in mathematics (United States) still have foreign language requirements today (in 2010s)?

Just an anecdotal answer: My mathematics PhD program (at UC Berkeley) had a requirement to pass a language exam. This involved translating to English 1-2 pages excerpted from a mathematics paper written in French, German, or Russian (student's choice). We were given several hours to do this, and the use of a paper dictionary.

I did not, and still do not, speak a word of any of these three languages (unfortunately). But I took the exam in French and passed easily thanks to the high number of cognates between mathematical French and English, context clues (being somewhat familiar with the subfield of math helps), and the fact that I had plenty of time to look up any words I didn't know in the dictionary.

The main thing I gained from this experience was confidence that with a little extra effort, I could actually read math written in French. Since then, I have at times had reason to use this skill that I didn't know I had.

I believe Berkeley math did away with its language exam requirement the year I graduated (2016), and I think this was an entirely sensible thing to do. But I would encourage all grad students to get some experience reading papers written in a language they don't speak!


How to cite papers that are in submission and don't have preprints?

One option could be to use the BibTeX provided by OpenReview, if available, and adapt it if necessary. A quick glance suggests that this is available for most submissions, including those that are anonymous or under review.
Screenshot for reference:


Missed registration deadline that was not announced for second exam of a course, how should I proceed?

As proposed by @Sumyrda - remember Monica, I post my comment as a possible solution.
As a lecturer at a German university, I suggest the following: the informal appraoch is via the lecturer. If s/he does not register you for your exam, try a formal approach via 'Prüfungsausschuss' or the 'Prüfungsamt'. I can only speak for a few institution I worked for (from rather small to bigger universities): the processes are quite different and thus are your option to register for tests, exams or written essays, etc. Since COVID19, universities have opened processes here and there for exceptions, especially concerning third tries on exams and registration processes. However, these are regulated on a institutional, often even on a chair-basis.


Possible reasons for an author to withdraw authorship from an almost ready paper

In general coauthors should communicate with each other about what they're doing and why.  It is strange to withdraw as an author for "personal reasons," as this is a purely professional decision.

A supervisor of a graduate student has much more responsibility: they have a mentoring role on the project and they are training the student both intellectually and professionally.  In my opinion it is not acceptable for an advisor to take their name off a paper without offering any real explanation.

Of course this puts you in an awkward position.  I would nevertheless recommend trying to talk to your supervisor about this, preferably in person. If you have your own concerns regarding the quality of the paper, then I'm sorry to say that you should think very carefully before going ahead with the submission.  It might be appropriate to tell your supervisor that you will delay submission until after discussing the reasons for their withdrawal, but I leave that decision up to you.


Recommendation Letter v.s. Ph.D. opportunity

It is extremely common in my experience to ask a professor for a letter of recommendation while at the same time expressing interest in pursuing further work with that same said professor. I did it myself.
Professors realize that they might not be your only option. Placing their students in graduate programs (where ever they may be) always reflects positively on them.
You have actually done much of the hard work already. You have already talked with this professor about your future plans and sought to gauge her opinion on your becoming her student. If she seemed at all open to taking you on as a student, she will also be open to writing you a letter of recommendation.
I would say something like the following:

Hi Professor McGonagall,
You and I spoke briefly last year about some of my plans for graduate school. I am applying to several programs and I am in hopes that I could obtain a letter of recommendation from you. As one of my options, I am planning on applying to the program at [your university], with you as my potential advisor. Is there a time we could meet to discuss these items further? I am available any time next week on Wednesday or Thursday.
Thank you,
mathvc_

Any reasonable professor would be happy to discuss bringing you on as a graduate student and writing you a letter of recommendation for other options as well. My master's advisor did so for me; I have also done so for my own students. If this professor tells you that she will only write you a letter for her own program and is offended that you would look at other options, you do not want her as your advisor. It would be very worrisome to me if advisor was only willing to take me on as a student if I applied to no other programs. It signals an advisor who is a controlling advisor.


Answering "Why do you want to become a research mathematician?"-type questions in a statement of purpose

I can't speak for all mathematics graduate admissions everywhere, but when I was on the admissions committee for my department (UGA) we generally did not take the statements of purpose all that seriously.  Most statements of purpose are indeed a bit dull and similar to each other.  The particular question "Why do you want to become a research mathematician?" is certainly not explicitly asked across the board (somewhat crankily I could ask "Why are you asking that for a master's program?  The degree needed to become a research mathematician is a PhD.  Depending upon your local academic culture, getting a master's degree could either prepare you to enter a PhD program or it could be totally unnecessary for that.").

It's not a bad question, but to me a very acceptable answer -- really the best answer -- is because I really enjoy mathematics, I am good at it, and I am eager to learn and do more of it.  Not to brag too much, but I am in fact a research mathematician.  Why did I become one?  Please see the above bold-faced text: even with the benefit of many years of retrospective, I don't really see a better answer than that.  In fact, honestly I think the bold-faced answer is probably better than the wordier answers I gave in my early 20's: how mathematics is the best field because it has an amazing internal consistency and a level of rigor and certainty unmatched by any other intellectual endeavor, how mathematical theorems are eternal so proving them is a form of immortality, and so forth.  Yikes.  It's not so much that I don't believe these things anymore but rather that I don't find these beliefs very interesting or distinctive: I think they fall nicely under "because I really enjoy mathematics".

The problem with taking the personal statement too seriously is that the ability to write an excellent personal statement -- especially an unusually interesting or insightful one -- is only weakly correlated to success in a math PhD program.  I looked at personal statements to see whether they were adequate, e.g.:

Do they use flawlessly correct grammar, syntax and punctuation? Do they express their (not so complicated) ideas clearly?  Do they convince me that this student has strong enough writing skills not to be dragged down by this in the future?  (Many STEM-types have alarmingly weak writing skills, and for sure it drags them down.  I take the GRE Verbal score very seriously.)
Do they avoid gross misconceptions about what a math PhD program and a math research career will be like?  I don't expect an incoming math PhD student to really understand either one: most don't, but they learn eventually and adapt accordingly.  However some students are clueless so far beyond the norm that it becomes a risk that as soon as they arrive they'll think "Wait, what is all this??" and drop out in their first semester.
Do they seem like a responsible person and not a snowflake who thinks that graduate school is a summer camp that they get paid to attend?  (It happens...)
Do they avoid sounding too weird? Yes, mathematicians can be weird, like many people, and the amount of allowable weirdness in the mathematical profession is probably greater than most.  But it is still only a finite amount, and I know people who have the intellectual skills to be a mathematician but not the requisite level of socialization.  It's not pretty but it's true.

If you avoid these and similar negatives in a personal statement and mostly just evince a sincere, not terribly pretentious or twee "I really like math", then I suspect you'll do fine with this part of your application.  You would in my department, certainly.


Possible to accept GRE score and view it, but not report it to a university?

Yes.

You get to see your unofficial test scores on test day. Then you have the option to send these scores or not.

Also, you can always change your mind by sending additional score reports after the test day for a fee. If you provide the schools the day of the test, they are free.


How to search for an open access journal with no publication fee?

The set of journals you are describing is almost guaranteed to be equivalent to the null set. You are specifying way too many criteria on the journal. You are basically asking for a complete wish list that no single journal can reasonably satisfy and still survive. For instance:

How does it pay its ISP hosting bill?
Who handles the processing and editing of articles?
Who does the typesetting and copyediting?
Who maintains the web site?

All of these things require labor, and is not something that anyone is likely willing to donate pro bono. That means income has to come from somewhere.

Some of these criteria are not problems (for example, a CS journal is unlikely to refuse a LaTeX submission). However, in total, I think you really need to decide which criteria are required, and which ones would be nice to have. Then prioritize accordingly.


Can I be work on several project as a post-doc?

It's quite common for postdocs to work on different projects at the same time, but this has to be agreed with the PI who is funding you.

In my experience, there is a general understanding in academia that contracts are not strictly limited to the project being funded. For example, postdocs are often expected to apply for funding and this is rarely officially included in the scope of the project. Another very common case is publications: the potentially long process of publishing a paper sometimes overlaps with the next contract, but in general PIs are fine with letting you finish papers related to your previous contract.


Is it considered unethical/bad etiquette to contact another potential PhD supervisor while waiting for a response from my first choice?

Finding a PhD advisor, like finding a job, is not a serial process. You can—and should—have multiple applications out simultaneously. If you get an offer you find acceptable, then you should take it.

If you are concerned about missing out on an opportunity with your first-choice advisor if someone else makes you an offer, then you can send a polite email informing the first-choice advisor something like:

  I would really like to work with you, but I am starting to receive offers of admission from other advisors. They would like to have an answer by <date>. While I understand you need time to make a decision, would it be possible for you to give me an answer by then?

If they're serious about having you as a PhD student, they'll respond.


A professor wanted me to wait for his decision. It's been about 10 days, what should I write to show that I want to know how long it is going to take?

It sounds like he's asking you to wait because you're his plan B, not his plan A. In other words, he may be afraid that his favorite candidate backs out, and he's keeping you in the wings just in case that happens.

So should you push the issue? No, not unless you have other offers. And if your other pending applications haven't been responded to yet, it's in your best interest to wait until those other decisions come back to you.


In IEEE citation style how do I cite different sections of a book

In LaTeX you can simply write:

 Bla bla bla \cite[p.~3]{ReferenceKey}.

which produces

  Bla bla bla [1, p. 3].

where [1] corresponds to key ReferenceKey.

For more information, you might find this video enlightening (2:28)
 http://libraryguides.vu.edu.au/ieeereferencing/gettingstarted


When is the best time to start reviewing material for final exams?

I'm going to go out on a limb here with a somewhat radical answer:

Don't study for exams.

You are correct that cramming isn't very effective for retention.  I don't think it's particularly effective for helping exam performance either, since cramming tends to a) deprive you of sleep and b) increase your stress level, both of which are terrible for doing well on an exam.  Moving that cramming behavior earlier in time doesn't change things very much: you're still studying in a way that is stressful and doesn't promote long-term retention.

The best way to really learn the material in a course is to put it to use.  Fortunately, most classes give you problem sets, projects, etc., that are designed to do just that.  I recommend studying by embracing these wonderful gifts:

Invest your time up front, working starting when problems or projects are given out, not at the last minute before they are due.  The amount of time needed is the same, but your stress level will be lower and your retention higher.
Remember that a problem is never really about getting the answer, it is about the process by which you get the answer.  If you are just following a formula, you should feel uncomfortable, because what if you mix up the formula?  Check your answers against intuitions and alternate routes to the solution to make sure that you are getting the process right.
Don't give up on any problem.  A difficult problem is a critical opportunity to learn key concepts in a class.
If allowed, work together in groups---but make sure that you all do all of the problems individually before comparing.  When you compare, arguing and explaining to figure out whose answer is correct will help you understand more thoroughly.
When you get marks back, everywhere that you lost points make sure that you understand why and learn how to do it correctly.
Also, go to class.  Even if you don't like the lecturer, you are more likely to learn well from lecturer plus textbook than from textbook alone.

If you do all of this, there is little need to "study" in the cramming sense.  By the time you walk into an exam, you will probably know quite well which parts of the material you know and which you don't.  Instead of studying, I recommend taking the time before the exam period to relax, sleep well, and do interesting things that continue to exercise your intellect in whatever way you find most personally stimulating and inspiring.

Do all of this and you will likely be able to walk into an exam with low stress and a well-functioning brain, get the grade that you deserve, and retain the important material from the class over the long-term, to build on in your subsequent classes and your career.


Is it possible to become an independent researcher with a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering

It is quite common in Germany and the Netherlands for "advanced" postdocs to write their own grant proposal. So I would challenge your assumption that you need to become independent in order to do your own research as a postdoc. Instead I would suggest that staying within academia and write your grant proposal there, has a much higher chance of success.


Why do most mathematics PhD programs in United States have rigid qualifying and breadth requirements for every PhD student?

So far as I've seen, in the U.S., the "required" aspects of most graduate programs are really very minimalistic and elementary. So it misrepresents the situation to refer to them as "rigid", since they're so minimal. And it misrepresents the situation as well to refer to those minimal bits as somehow clearly un-necessary for ... "non-specialists"?

I'd claim that these basic requirements are just to inculcate awareness of the various basics. Again, minimalist.

Further, some places have choices or other requirements. E.g., many require some complex analysis. We in MN do, as well as some algebraic topology and differential geometry... although students who want to style themselves as "applied" can manage to avoid quite a bit of this, by doing some "math modelling" and "numerical analysis" coursework.

True, in principle people can mostly learn whatever they want outside of formal courses, and I myself prefer that, because the artificial schedule of MWF classes, etc., does not fit my personal rhythms. But for some people, manifestly, this is easier than self-study. Also, I've been told by many grad students that it's easier to avoid self-deception/delusion in a more formal classroom setting. Ok.

And, of course, some people arrive in grad school being vastly over-confident of their own scholarship, as well as the significance of their "prior research experience". To make decisions based on very-incomplete information would be unfortunate.

And, of course, classes and exams are a very artificial, caricatured version of mathematics... which I think is best appreciated as not being really a "school subject" at all. Nevertheless, it is not easy to construct viable alternatives. Here in MN, anyone who really has already picked up a bit of competence in the basic subjects can "test out", by exam, and not have to take those courses. Many do. We do not try to test "mastery", but only "(at least) minimal competence".

Yes, having been involved in grad studies throughout my 35+ years here, I have often seen students complain about the alleged burdens of our "requirements". Mostly, that convinces me that they're sufficiently unaware so that they appreciate neither the minimality of our requirements, nor the universal utility of the ideas. :) But I understand that "requirements" are often viewed as "obstacles to getting on with research". I do claim that this represents a substantive misunderstanding of what's going on...

EDIT: as for a further question implied by, or suggested by, comments... although of course inertia plays some role, faculty in every grad program "require" things of grad students (regardless of eventual "specialty") after substantial consideration. Not whimsically. Indeed, exercise of such judgement is very important. The possible fact that entering grad students (arguably in possession of very little information about what they'll need later, etc.) may disagree or resent "requirements" will not deter faculty from requiring what they consider wise, based on decades of experience.

A related question, that of requiring reading competence in French and/or German, etc., has a substantially different answer. E.g., while I do still encourage my own students to learn at least French (to read Sem. Bourb. at least), and maybe German (Hecke, Siegel, ...), our program as a whole is ever-reducing these requirements, since, indeed, a greater and greater fraction of contemporary mathematics is written in English. Not all!!! I have always regretted that I didn't learn enough Russian to be able to read mathematics in it... Sure, one can "get by" being substantially illiterate, but it is quite often useful to be less illiterate! :)  This applies also to awareness of the rest of mathematics, outside one's tiny bailiwick ... however large it may seem in a myopic view! :)


Does working in a research group with poor funding means poor future prospects post graduation?

This is hard to judge without knowing a lot more about why there is a lack of funding. It might be a local problem, in which case you might be fine. But if the funders generally don't value this field or even this line of inquiry within it then you could wind up in trouble. In that case, you need to be prepared to be flexible in the lines of inquiry that you commit to.
There is an especially sad case at the moment. The woman  Katalin Karikó who did the fundamental research (mRNA) that led to the development of two of the current COVID-19 vaccines, was, if I understand it correctly, denied promotion to full professor at the University of Pennsylvania since she was unable to attract sufficient funding for her research. Finding no future there, she left for industry. Moreover, her research shows promise for attacking cancer generally, which is a pretty big deal.
This was extremely short sighted on the part of Penn, of course, but at top universities funding can be a critical issue. And, of course, it is also proof that even the funders of research don't understand the nature of research and the impossibility of a guaranteed outcome. There can be a certain risk aversion that is counterproductive, though funds are limited.

I suspect that Penn is kicking itself at the moment as it doesn't share in the recent mRNA patents. Perhaps that is a suitable comeuppance.


Is this a case of data manipulation? What should I do if this is the case?

To address one of your points:

  How did they craft the input if they hadn't known the program prior to that study? By their own words, this is the most significant threat to validity. So the conclusion is this is not a valid method?

They said "Prior to the Study" - meaning before this research began. Essentially, that they weren't using a set of fixed tools that they had on hand (and thus could presumably design something to be specifically robust to). That meant they went out and found something new - and then used it. Using it can include things like crafting the input.

Your other objections are in the realm of "Do I think this is a good paper or not?" not research misconduct or data manipulation.


Would summarizing peer-reviewed articles on a blog count as academic participation?

In a comment, you clarify that by "count as academic participation", you mean "I could call myself an academic."

No, you could not call yourself an academic just because you write a blog about academic research. Or, rather, you can call yourself whatever you want but most people interpret the phrase "I am an academic" as meaning "I'm a member of the teaching and/or research staff at a university." Using the phrase to mean anything substantially different from that would be very misleading.


During a UG physics degree , what other certificate/diploma courses can i simultaneously pursue which would be of use in a physics career?

This answer is from the opposite end; I studied engineering and took some additional physics courses on the side. Through those, I developed some idea of what undergraduate students in both disciplines might typically lack.

Physics is incredibly broad, and you may be able to choose meaningful courses only when you have some idea of what field you want to specialised in, or what kind of job you would like.

Nevertheless, one skill that will not go waste is being able to write good, efficient programs. All you need is a computer and an internet connection, there are fantastic courses online today. A lot of open course ware exists with various certification options. What's most exciting is that many programming courses are tailored towards research and data science; both of which you are certain to use at some point. I don't think ASE encourages recommendation of specific courses, so I will refrain from that; but if you look around you will certainly find interesting courses.

In addition, if you are looking at applied physics fields, I would recommend two courses from the engineering side- basic electronics and strength of materials. These two will be useful when you want to design your own experimental setup, and having prior knowledge will put you ahead of the typical undergrad student.

Finally, statistics and probability courses will certainly be part of your regular course. If you, however, feel that these aren't rigorous, you may consider doing some advanced courses. It could be very useful when dealing with large sets of experimental data.


How can I improve my chances of receiving PhD funding (UK, Anthropology)?

Funding is extremely scarce, especially in Britain. Since you have been accepted, I would write to the person who you suspect would be your adviser if you matriculated and ask them for advice. The program clearly has an interest in bringing you in. They may be able to find fellowships or paying jobs within the university that can help you financially.


What metrics are used to judge a mathematical journal's quality?

To expand on JeffE's comment, impact factor gets zero respect among mathematicians.  It gets very little respect in any field, as far as I know, but it's a particularly bad measure for mathematics journals.  For example, it only counts citation received within two years of publication, which is just about the quickest turnaround time you could get in mathematics (given math's publishing practices and timing).  So numerically, the impact factor amounts to saying that if your paper doesn't inspire people to drop everything else and rush to get followup work into print quickly enough, then it has had zero impact.

Impact factors are also manipulated by journal editors, often enough to require serious work detecting and punishing this behavior.

The only reason impact factors exist at all is that administrators want simple ways to rate research productivity, especially in dysfunctional settings where there's no infrastructure of trusted experts.  Counting citations is easier to defend as "unbiased" than most other approaches.

There are many other numerical measures of journal quality, such as eigenfactors, but they are not popular or widely used.

In 2010, the Australian Research Council rated 20,000 journals by quality based on expert opinion (for example, see here for the math journals).  This is still not great, since the ratings miss subtleties (such as journals with greater strength in some subfields than others) and it's not clear how reliable they are for lesser-known journals anyway.  However, this is the closest anyone has come to giving a replacement for impact factors based on expert opinion.  Unfortunately, it was so much work that they decided not to do it again.


How should multiple Harvard references with same first author but different coauthors be made?

As eykanal said, journals usually provide their own formatting, and personally, I use latex/bibtex, so I tend to assume this kind of problems will be solved automatically.
That being said, in the case you describe, I would expect the ordering to be (first name, year), and in the case where there are multiple references with the same first author for the same year, then to use (Barton et al., 1980a) (Barton et al. 1980b). So your example would be:

Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980). "A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons". J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.
Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). "On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters". Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.

and the two references (Barton et al. 1980) and (Barton et al. 1985). That way, when I know I need to look first for the first name, and then to the year. Now, if let's assume that there is another reference by Barton and Alice in 1980, then you would have:

Barton, D. H. R.; Alice (1980a). "Bla bla", p2.
Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980b). "A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons". J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.
Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). "On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters". Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.

and the references would be (Barton et al., 1980a) and (Barton et al., 1980b).
As for the question whether you should put the one with Alice first or second, it does not really matter, since the reference is unique anyway, but in this case, I would go for the month of publication if you have it, otherwise with the alphabetical order of the second author (and of the third one if the first two authors are the same, and so on).


What can be inferred and how common is that a potential PhD supervisor talks directly to my recommender?

Sounds like a polite chat. Professors are humans. They go to a conference and meet all kinds of people they don't know well and they need a topic to talk about, and a common acquaintance is a good topic for small talk. It is a bit tricky in the sense that there is an application involved here, but overall I would not over-interpret this.

If you want to interpret this, then you can see this as a slightly positive sign: (S)he is also signaling that (s)he is interested in supervising you. That helps: if one committee member says that (s)he wants to supervise a potential students, then there needs to be a good reason not to go along with that (e.g. lack of funding).


I have a PhD in theoretical physics obtained in Germany: in particular

  GRE is not compulsory, but might help to improve the chance of getting an admission.

GRE is totally irrelevant.

  We will know the research area in the beginning.

this is mainly true all across Europe but however there are some departments whose research projects are to be decided on your way throughout graduation (it happens in Italy, for example). I had a very strict and detailed project to fully adhere to, but it might not always be the case (with corresponding advantages and disadvantages). Also notice that sometimes, for whichever reason, PhD students change projects along the way (mostly because they do not like it or because it is a dead end line of research).

  Most seems to have no course work or little course work.

Wrong. I had heavy teaching duties (three-four semesters), mandatory classes to attend and corresponding exams to take (it happens in other European countries too). Besides that, compulsory seminars and conferences to take part to.

As a general rule always determine with the department you are applying to what the local rules are: it is very department dependent and even in the same department different scholarships may get treated differently and have different loads. I would personally go for a research project I like and then manage the extra curricular activities accordingly: after all, the chances to get a position afterwards will only depend on your final PhD thesis (and related papers); nobody ever looks at the exams marks and classes you have taken.


Transitioning from languages to neuroscience/cognitive science for PhD, how to increase chances of success?

I studied at Edinburgh with a few friends who had come for the arts world into CogSci and CS Masters courses, they shared many lectures with us (Bio-Informatics).    I would suggest either doing a Masters in a related field, before jumping into the PhD.

I took some CogSci and Neuroinformatics modules for my MSc and I struggled not coming from that background, if I were doing it again and wanted to prepare I would look to the online courses. Many of them are excellent.

MIT have an Opencourseware section on CogSci: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/brain-and-cognitive-sciences/
No one will look down on you for saying you have worked through an MIT course. They also have extensive CompSci resources. Coursera also has many excellent course, that will help fill in gaps in you education.

I don't think you will find many people in academia who will look badly on people using any resources they can find to expand their knowledge and understanding of a given field.


How do I add a label or keyword to my Google Scholar account?

On your profile page while beeing logged in: click on the "pen" icon to edit your profile, then add keywords separated by , in the field "Areas of interest"


How should I request a professor to restrict communication to email?

I don't think there is anything especially unprofessional about communicating via instant messaging. Email is a naturally asynchronous communication platform, and sometimes you need a synchronous method to contact people.
In my research group, we use a specific professional instant messaging application - Slack. I did this because I feel it's important to keep work and private life separate, but still need a way of communication synchronously with my team. Students/postdocs may exit/silence the app when they feel they are not on "work time". Your institution may also have such a system - Microsoft Teams, Google for Education's Chat and Facebook Workplace all offer similar functionality depending on which your university runs its IT systems on.
I should also point out that the opposite problem is also true. My students definitely think it's a bit weird that I refuse to be on their WhatsApp group.
That said, if instant messaging makes you uncomfortable, you should tell your supervisor this. There is no reason to lie about the reason - you shouldn't even need to offer a reason. You can just say "I'd rather be contacted by email unless it's a real emergency, if that's okay.".

EDIT:
This answer was written before it was clear that the OP was an undergraduate in a class, not a post-graduate communicating with their supervisor.
I do think it is a bit weird for a professor to be communicating, one on one with undergraduates in their classes via IM.
There are situations where some sort of chat system might still be a good way to communicate with students (I use slack in a large, long-term, practically based course I teach), but I do think personal IM is best avoided with undergradutes.
I don't think this changes the course of action, which would be to contact the prof and say you'd rather the contacted via a different means (see @henning's answer).


On tenure track and department chair wants me to consider leaving

As an untenured faculty member your options are limited and the risks are high. Depending on local law you may have some protections, of course.

What you do depends on what her actual power over you is. If she is part of the tenure decision process, then the situation is worse. Likewise if she can influence others.

But, she may just be signaling you that your tenure decision is likely to be negative, whether from her actions or just a general assessment. You don't say, for example, how the research is going or the state of the grant (or even if it has been awarded or is just being applied for).

You will probably learn more when this individual meeting happens. Sadly, you won't have any other person present who can support you or attest to any improper statements if they occur. I've been in such a situation, actually.

My suggestion is that you immediately get into the job market and start to collect colleagues who will support you both in finding a new job and in maintaining this one. Long term, it doesn't seem like this environment is supportive enough.

If she has doubts about your work, her response should be about how she can help you. That may be her intent and you aren't recognizing it as such, but it is impossible to say from what you write.