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How can a person switch from Arts to STEM?
A person (30-35 y/o) has an M.A. in History and drives Uber. Now, he wants to study M.Sc. in CS/CSE in Canada for better employment.
What/how would be the pathway to accomplish that in the shortest possible time period in Canada?
Can/Must he complete/appear for General Education Development (GED), Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), etc., and then enroll in B.Sc. in CS/CSE?
Or, can he complete some of the courses from virtual online schools and then apply for admission to the University?
Or, Can he just appear for Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test, and directly start M.Sc. in CS/CSE?
Or, Can he enroll in specialized programs and then transfer to M.Sc. in CS/CSE programs?

Any quantitative background? There are some amazing engineer-artists around, which may be a basis to work from.

@CaptainEmacs, No.

Is BA not an option?

@henning--reinstateMonica, what do you mean? kindly rephrase.

@user366312 I think henning means that going straight into an MSc may require some previous knowledge (unless it's specially designed for people coming from non-quantitative background) which is better catered for by a BSc in the above topics.

@user366312 basically the amount of catch-up required will almost certainly amount to completing a second BA (or coming very close).  Realistically if you don't have any quant background this is going to be a lengthy difficult process.

To clarify, have you taken basic calc courses?  What's the most advanced math class you've completed?

@eps, O-level/10th grade Algebra.

@user366312 If you do not have even an end high-school course in computing, it will be tough, even in a BSc programme. I do not see a chance for such a candidate in an MSc unless it is specifically targeted (not just marketed) to nonquantitative entrants.

Do Canadian schools offer "post-bac" study, where you can fill in undergrad coursework without matriculating towards a second degree? It's designed for situations like you describe, but usually towards med school or other pre-professional programs.

As @ElizabethHenning suggested, something like this: https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/event/bridge-to-cs-vancouver-toronto-apr-2020/

harvard has an excellent free online intro to cs class -- cs50.  Before you do anything, I would work through the course as if you were a student and see how it goes.  Also if you just are looking for a good job there's a lot more paths than just a cs MS.  Data analytics, general IT, or programming / dev work can also get you there and you might get in the door just by doing a bootcamp.  Or a cert through a 2 year program for lower level IT work. Just learning how to do basic cloud computing infrastructure in aws/azure might be enough for some jobs.

"Coding bootcamps" are designed for people like you.  I've no idea if they work.

May I ask why do you want to go to STEM? People often say that job prospects are good in STEM, but this is a broad generalization. A mediocre MSc and broad, general knowledge in CS you are not much interested in is not necessarily the key to happiness or to wealth. If you decide to go this direction, try to find something that interests you, and focus on learning that instead of hunting papers and certificates. There are many in design, programming, and other IT-related fields who has no degree in CS.

Since you are in Canada, perhaps a CEGEP in Quebec could be an option.

@henning, I don't speak french.

@user336312 as far as I know, there are Anglo cegeps as well.

If you have an MA, why would a GED, AP, or IB even cross your mind?

@AzorAhai-him-, So, what to do?

I would not try to go for a masters right away.
You have two options.
The "safe" but time-consuming route, that presumably you don't want to do, is to get another bachelor's degree in CS. I bet you don't need a masters to get a good job, but it will be much easier for you to get into a masters program, and you will do better, if you have the right background.
The "quick" way is to teach yourself the things you need to know for the job you wnat. If you can afford it, do a bootcamp. Take online courses like those on coursera. Take on a project where you code something yourself. Aim to get certifications in some skills that apply to the field you want to get into. Apply for jobs as you gain experience, and update your resume as you add more projects and courses and certifications. Eventually something will hit. You may find yourself in a job that is relatively low paying and low-level, but take it and use it to build up your experience and credibility so you can either rise up in the company or apply for a better position.

This might be better asked on the workplace stack exchange, and as a somewhat broader question.  If you have a 30-35 year-old with an M.A. in History who wants to switch to tech to improve their job prospects, then "get an M.Sc. in CS" is trying to jump a lot of rungs all at once.  You'd probably be better served looking into certifications and trying to get into tech that way.  You can get some fairly solid certs within 6-12 months (faster if you're naturally good at the subject) and those certs can absolutely get you better employment than "Starbucks barista who drives Uber".  Once you get into the field, further incremental development is significantly easier.

I admire the enthusiasm, that's for sure. The practicality of the situation, well that's different, but have a go! If the goal is to work in IT, which it sounds like it is, I'd skip the M.Sc. altogether and focus on, for example, software development, system administration, IAAS via AWS or Azure, network administration, whatever. The shortest path, as you ask for, requires laser focus at this point. Best of luck to all involved!
Added
There are numerous avenues in IT. Two roles that might not be obvious, but perhaps worth consideration for someone with a nontechnical background, are business analyst and scrum master. These tend to require broader skills, maybe with more emphasis on interpersonal skills, than others.

There are probably two issues they would encounter:

Competition for limited enrollment. They wouldn't be very competitive compared with students with a B.Sc. in computer science or related field. They can probably get around this issue by applying to lower-ranked schools where there are sufficient open seats for qualified applicants. They should probably expect to have to pay for the M.Sc. tuition; competition for funded M.Sc. positions is even harsher.
Qualification for enrollment. M.Sc. programs will expect students to have an understanding of undergraduate computer science, including years of programming experience but also extending to required upper-division classes like operating systems, formal algorithms, etc. They have to convince the admissions committee that they are prepared for graduate classes from day 1, which might require taking undergraduate classes as a non-degree student.

Is going to community college an option?

@user366312 certainly, but not all community colleges offer the upper-division computer science undergraduate classes that might be expected of graduate students.


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Is it counterproductive to read very long text books during an MSc program?
One of the professors for my MSc in Computer Science told me that students should not read textbooks that have more than (around) 250 pages during the 4-month semesters of coursework. The reason is, according to him, that a 4-month semester is a limited time to study and successfully pass all the courses. Trying to read big/heavy textbooks is nothing but a waste of time, and it reduces the chance of getting good grades.
Have you ever heard about this theory before? Is this theory very popular at your university?

I am wondering if 249 pages books are OK...

Is this a blanket recommendation? Or is this advice that has been targeted towards you specifically (even if it's stated as a general rule but said to you individually I would consider that directed at you)?

@NickS: Even 250-page books are okay according to the criterion here.

i have seen book with 1000 pages that contain no more information than 100 pages...

Counterproductive with regard to what exactly?

@lighthousekeeper, time.

Time is not something that is produced, so it's unclear to me how something can be counterproductive with regard to time.
The question for me is what you want to achieve with the knowledge from the book.

@lighthousekeeper, The question for me is what you want to achieve with the knowledge from the book. --- obviously, to pass a semester with, say, A or A+ grades.

OK, with this in mind, I believe the most competent person to judge this is the examiner of the course.

250 pages for 4 month looks reasonable for something like the Dragon book (even if it is soo old - mine is 1986)... Can you clarify if you mean "read" similar to reading Harry Potter series or as "study and do an easy half of exercises"? Also clarifying how many subjects you are expected to take in semester could help others to see how far off 250 pages of a text book in 100 days is.

Ah yes I forgot that the point of uni is to get good grades, not to learn new things under the guidance of experts in the field.

What is the alternative to reading large textbooks?  One might argue that you'd learn more new things from reading a number of short books which introduce novel concepts, vs. reading one large book which delves into minutiae that you're unlikely to ever need in practice...   Depends on whether you prefer your learning depth-first or breadth-first, I guess.

It comes down to whether you want to learn more things or to pass the course (note they are not synonymous).

If the first, then no, it's not counter-productive. You will learn more by reading the textbook, almost by definition.

If it's the second however, then yes, it's counter-productive. It's the material covered in the course that will actually end up on the exam. Accordingly you want to study that material and that material only. Any time spent on things that aren't in the lectures is time wasted, and chances are when you read these supplemental textbooks, much (or even most) of the material will not be covered.

Unless you spend significantly more time on the course, viewed another way, these two choices basically come down to "do you want to know more things" vs. "do you want to master a few things". It's not obvious which is better.
Finally, do note that although the first option might sound better, in practice it's usually the 2nd that matters - in a job interview or PhD application, the grades on your transcript are important, and if those are poor you will often not get the chance to demonstrate that you know more than the grades indicate.

I haven't heard of such a thing, but can understand where it comes from. But my advice would be that doing teaches you much more than reading. In CS we often build things to reinforce learning. Textbooks can provide useful exercises. And one learns, primarily, through repetition (reinforcement) and feedback. Only a few people have a "photographic memory" and even then, being able to recall some text doesn't mean that you have gained insight from it.
Seek insight. Reinforcement and feedback. Hopefully the professor provides feedback, but programs (when they fail) can also do that.
I don't think the professor means to ignore textbooks, however. Use them "just enough" to gain insight.

But my advice would be that doing teaches you much more than reading. And teaching does more than the two combined. I always understood a topic much better when I actually had to explain it to someone. Take yesterday - I was explaining to my son (high school) the concept of "field" in physics. While it is something I got used to, I found it enlightening to teach it to someone in high school (I taught at universities so it was more formal/mathematical than in high school). This also helps to reconsider a thing or two in what you think you know.

@WoJ, yes, having to explain something is often the key that opens the door. It is one reason I favor pairing in most student work. Even when the students are mismatched in "skill". The one doing the explaining learns as much as the one listening.

That's ridiculous advice.  Believe it or not, lots of thick assigned textbooks contain useful information that's not covered in lecture.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.

You shouldn't base your learning style on what one professor said once in a lecture.
There is a variety of reasons he could have said that:

He is not against textbook as a means of studying per se, but wants to direct his students towards the shorter and more efficient textbooks rather than the long and inefficient ones (most likely)
It's personal: The professor himself once read a long textbook on the topic, but realized that he's wasted his time (doesn't mean this will apply to you!)
There is a notorious book specific to your field that students typically pick up. Unfortunately, it is not a good one.
He's had a bad day and made a thoughtless remark (professors are humans too)

By the way, you don't need to read a textbook cover to cover. Even if it has >1000 pages, pick out the things relevant to your studies. However, it is unwise to claim that textbooks are not a good way to learn.

I agree with most of the answers that this is silly advice, and have not heard it before, but one key point not explicitly mentioned so far is:
Most textbooks are not written to covered in their entirety in one semester.
Some are meant for a 2-semester course and some intentionally have more information so instructors can pick and choose what they want for their course.  Also some instructors move faster than others.
I remember thinking my Algorithms book (Cormen-Leiserson-Rivest, still on my shelf 20+ years later) was very well-written and useful.  It's about 1000 pages and of course we didn't cover everything in 1 semester, but I certainly learned quite a bit from reading the parts we did cover, and possibly other sections I was interested in that we didn't get to.

As a blanket recommendation, this is fairly obviously silly.
For one thing, "textbook" is very ambiguous. Some are full of make-work crap. Some have lots of useful information. Some are badly written (making it difficult to glean information), some are well-written, making it easy to see the point of the discussion.
There are popular slogans about "just doing exercises" and so on... I'd certainly agree that it is essential to engage, but, also, it would be pathetic to fail to learn from all the smart people who've already thought about things. Some of their conclusions and solutions are exactly what are in texts. And should we be confident that all of those good ideas fit into a little pamphlet, rather than a 250-page book?

I would generally agree that reading textbooks has limited uses and poor returns on investment of time. The only cases where I have found this not to be true is when a) the text book is short and focused or b) the textbook is the basis for exams. But other than that, it is very rarely the case that all the knowledge contained in a long textbook is useful and that reading it front-to-back is the best way of acquiring that knowledge.

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How to address an author showing replicated results from his paper?
I have replicated a method of interpolation recently proposed by certain author, and I want to tell him that I have done so. I suppose the author is interested in knowing that students are engaged with his work and are using his findings. But I'm unsure on how should I address him.

Should I just write to him saying that I have applied his method to new data and found the same results?
Should I also send him my work? Or is it too rude to send him the attachment (it is my thesis actually) because he may not be interested in reading it?
Should I also comment the results in the same email?

I don't know to which extent do I have to show him my results, because I don't wan't to overwhelm him but neither should he be the one asking for more info.

did you use the interpolation scheme to solve the same problem (or problem class) as the original author did? or was this a different application of the method?

It is an interpolation method for fertility rates. He developed it and applied it to fertility schedules from Europe and I'm applying it to data from Argentina, obtaining the same results. (He compares his method with others that are commonly used in demography, and proves his technique to be the one with the lowest mean square error)

Don't send your thesis unless requested.  You may write to the author and say that you were interested to read his or her paper, that you applied the method to data from Argentina and you obtained similar results as described in the paper.  You may give a little hint about any interesting quirks you found along the way but that is optional and if you do it, you must be very brief in this initial email.  The author may be interested enough to write back enthusiastically, asking for more information, and then you can send a summary and your thesis.  You may get a conference invite out of it.  You may get an invitation to collaborate.  You may get a reference to your thesis in this person's future work.  You may get some new ideas for future work of your own.  This email you will send will be a fun bit of icing on the cake for you, after a lot of hard work!

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Resubmitting the revised version of an article after deadline
I have already sent  a manuscript to an Emerald Journal. The manuscript was reviewed and the deadline for submitting the revised paper was set for July 30. It's been about a month since the deadline and now the paper is ready to resubmit. Is there usually an option to ask the editor to refer the article to the same previous referees ? If so, do I need to send a "response to reviewer" file when submitting an article?

Have you talked to the editor, perhaps asking for an extension?

@henning yes, but he did not response.

"Usually" doesn't help you here. Only the editor can help you.

Thanks @Buffy .

What's an emerald journal?

Did you communicate with the action editor at all when you missed the July 30 deadline?

@Azor Ahai -him-
Just two weeks before the deadline, I sent an email that went unanswered.

Two things:

Yes, when you resubmit you usually submit also a response to reviewers, explaining how you addressed the points they raised (see here for an example).
Editorial processes are usually semi-automated.

So, if you did not receive any vaguely impersonal email reminder about the deadline for resubmission, it means that the editor most likely did not push the button "send reminder to authors", nor the button "say thanks to the authors but their time for resubmission is expired" and he is very ready to accept a resubmission.
Go through the webpage where you submitted the article, you should have the re-submission option (and instructions). If you cannot find it, phone call the editor.

Thank you, the reminder has been sent to me before I request the extension, however the submission option (for revised version) has been expired. I do not understand what you mean by the phrase "re-submission".
Or maybe you do not understand what I mean.

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What type of doctoral robe does law professor get?
Most law professors have a JD.  Often, the JD robe for a school is different.  One easy example: Harvard JDs wear a black robe at graduation instead of the crimson robe.  At Yale, the JD robe is black but the Ph.D robe is blue.
Yet, many Harvard JDs who become law professors wear the traditional Harvard crimson doctoral robe. Is this okay?
I think at many schools, the JD robe is different (black often with purple stripes on sleeve).  At some schools, the JD robe is the same as the Ph.D. robe (Cornell, USC).  So which is it if you are a law professor and want to wear a robe from your JD school?

You might clarify what USC you mean.

"USC" = University of Southern California.  Their JDs wear robes at graduation that appear to be the same as what their Ph.D graduates wear.

When it comes to academic ceremonies, you as a faculty member can either bring your own robe or order one to be rented for you via your institution. The latter will of course follow the design of the institution, since they are rented, not custom-made. If you bought your own, you probably ordered it according to the design used by the institution you graduated from. Wearing academic regalia of a different type is of absolutely no consequence. There is no signed or unsigned agreement nor a custom that prevents a titled academic to wear the robe of the institution at which they are a guest or a member.

The important part, in the United States, is the color of the velvet trim, that is, the "sergeant's stripes" on the sleeves, the facing of the gown and trim on the hood. In the United States these are specified by the American Council on Education in the voluntary Academic Costume Code. Someone with a law degree should wear purple velvet.  Alternatively, black velvet is acceptable for any doctoral degree. The satin lining of the hood should be in the colors of the institution that granted the degree.
The color of the fabric should be black or, if the degree-granting institution has adopted some other color, then that color.  My own institution has a rather fancy doctoral gown, required but rentable for the commencement ceremony. I chose to buy for later wear a plain black gown, but it still has my school colors in the hood lining and philosophy blue velvet trim.
I'd be misrepresenting myself if I chose to wear Harvard crimson fabric even if everything else were correct. It would be wise to avoid fabric colors other than black unless they represent the school that granted the degree.

Yale gowns are Blue. My institution has a fancy color also. But I'll also note that  JD degree isn't a research doctorate (Doctor of Law is) and many consider it the intellectual equivalent of a masters. At one time one Boston university offered, for a fee, to send a JD diploma to any graduate with a Bachelor of Law degree as was the case with a former (small) college president. No additional study, just a fee.  A JD is about the practice of law, not the theory.

That's actually what prompted my question.  I've seen many Harvard JD's wear the crimson gown when faculty members but the Harvard JD gown at graduation is actually black.  Yale's situation is similar.  Many Yale JD professors wear the blue gown but the gown they wore at graduation was black.

I suspect that Harvard provides the crimson for all faculty who rent just to make it logistically easier. It may not be technically correct, but it'd be too expensive to have inventory in every flavor. Making black the one-size-fits-all default might be more technically correct, since black is never wrong, but Harvard is probably reluctant to reduce the fraction of attendees wearing its signature crimson.

I mean professors with a JD from Harvard all wear the Crimson doctoral gown at their school's graduation even though when they graduated from Harvard, they wore a black doctoral gown.  Is the crimson gown "off limits" to the JD graduates?  Must not be as a matter of practice.

Not part of my original question but had to respond to Buffy.  She is giving very outdated and wrong information about the JD and how it relates to a bachelor of law.  Further, the JD is definitely the terminal degree for law and many of Harvard's (just to use one example) esteemed faculty over the years "only" had a JD for their post-undergraduate studies.


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Can the four free GRE subject scores be stopped if the score is bad?
When you take the GRE math subject test, we get the option to send our scores to four universities for free.
After I see my score, and if the results aren't good, can I ask ETS to not send the scores? This seems like it would be better than sending bad scores since most universities have it as an optional requirement.

The 4 "free" score reports cannot be cancelled. So if you are really worried about this, you should not request any free score reports; instead, wait until you have a score you like and then order additional score reports (ASRs) to send that score to your prospective programs. However, ASRs cost $35 each, so this is an expensive precaution. Also, subject tests are only offered twice in the Fall (they are offered daily during two two-week intervals, but you may test only once during each interval), so you will likely have very few opportunities to retest, unless you are willing to wait an entire year.

Such a lame racket lol

OTOH, I was surprised to see that there are only 3 subject tests left. Seems like they are on the way out.

@cag51 ETS has also made a number of other big cuts: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/graduate/2024/06/18/massive-downsizing-ets-legacy-assessment-company


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Carrying out tests which would give a degree
With the Internet having more and more data every day, a lot of which is science-related, a kind of test could be used to give a degree for someone who knows a lot.
The questions of the test would be graduate level of difficulty. Can this become applicable in the near future or not?
For example, someone who has passion about a topic and has studied online would be given the chance to get a degree. Now, of course, at a university there are labs and this wont be applicable for every profession but since most software used by universities to teach are available for everyone, I don't know maybe if someone  completed a course or something he would get a graduate degree.

If you can PROVE that you understand the same stuff to someone with a degree , I dont get why you shouldnt be rewarded.

Related: Is it possible to obtain a bachelor's degree by passing some test to prove equivalent knowledge rather than attending a university? and Why not offer credit by exam to students who have failed a course?

Welcome to Academia.SE. Your question is interesting, but just a caution that it is our role to explain how things work in the real academic world, and why. So if your goal is to understand how things work and why, that's great, welcome aboard. But if your goal is to convince us that things should work differently, that's not really what we do here.

Hi!Have a good day!.I am not trying to convince anyone.I want to have a conversation on the topic.Quote:"Can this become applicable in the near future or not?"

@Cerise Stack Exchange works differently from forum sites or Reddit. See in particular https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask "If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here." We're looking for specific, answerable questions, not discussions and conversations.

Bryan's comment was my feeling as well, but a few others had answered it. I think if it was rephrased as something like "what are the hurdles and limitations to online tests of knowledge and skill becoming as an equivalent alternative to university degrees in the near future?" then it would be an appropriate question

I voted to close, but also cleaned up your English. Please note that a space follows punctuation in English. It makes your comments very difficult to read to not follow this convention.

On retrospect, I think this should be closed as a dupe of cag's first question, but I can't change my vote (I think "graduate degree" here is a bad translation).

There are some shady on-line universities (so-called) that offer degrees to those who pay the fees and pass the tests.  (Probably merely paying the fees without taking the tests at all is also possible...)

With the Internet having more and more data every day,many of which are science related a kind of test could be used to give a degree for someone who knows very much.The questions of the test would be graduate level of difficulty.

You are misunderstanding the fact that being awarded a PhD degree does not hinge on a test of knowledge, but rather on a test of ability, namely the ability to produce novel and meaningful scientific research. There might be some tests of knowledge involved on the way towards a PhD (qualifying exams and such), but it fundamentally is not a test of knowledge. A PhD is not, contrary to popular impression, a certification that you are a smart and knowledgeable person.
It does not matter in the slightest that you answer super-tough questions about a given field if you have not demonstrated that you can actually contribute to research in that field.

Hi!Have a good day!A PhD is a very different monster to a graduate's degree.

@Cerise A PhD is a type of graduate degree (note: not "graduate's degree"). If you are talking specifically about Master's degrees or something like a JD, you should specify that in your question, in which case I will delete my answer. As it stands, it's not exactly clear to me what kind of degree you have in mind.

Because the PhD is a subset of a graduate's degree you cant assume Im referring to a PhD but its fine no I am not referring to a PhD or a Master's degree.

So what are you referring to when you are referring to a graduate degree which is neither a Master's degree nor a PhD? Granted, other kinds of graduate degrees exist, but those are certainly the two main kinds of graduate degrees, so it's rather misleading to ask a question about graduate degrees and then say that you're not referring to a PhD or a Master's degree.

The degree below Master's.

@Cerise That would be a bachelor's degree, presumably. That's not a graduate degree. I genuinely don't understand what this mystery graduate degree which is not a Master's or a PhD but it's "below Master's" but it's still a graduate degree is supposed to be.

Ah okay thanks a lot!

Accreditation is the process by which educational institutions are evaluated to make sure they meet certain standards. Getting a certificate saying you passed some online test has little value without understanding who's giving the certificate and what the accomplishment represents. I'm sure you can find an online test that says you're a genius, why should anyone believe it?
It is of course possible to take tests from an accredited online institution and receive a degree, that's the usual route of online study.  It is also possible to take tests from a non-accredited institution and receive some kind of certificate saying you did it, although that has comparatively little value depending on who's giving the certificate. You generally cannot simply take one test from an accredited institution and receive a degree, as an institution that handed out degrees in that manner would almost certainly not meet accreditation requirements.

Hi!Have a good day!Obviously the course will come from a credited institution

@Cerise There's your problem. Degrees awarded by accredited institutions carry implications about the time spent and mastery achieved in the program. Passing an online test doesn't say much about the standards. Getting a degree from a medical school is understood to mean something, passing a test on anatomy.com is not. If you are talking about getting a degree from an accredited online institution, then you can of course do that, but it's not simply a case of passing a test.

And conversely, even if there were an institution out there that figured out a way to test you, that institution would still have to get accredited for others to pay attention to it. One can assume that they will have a hard time getting that accreditation from an accreditation bureau that is widely trusted.

While (barely) possible this seems unlikely, especially in a time frame that would be useful to you. You would need to find a university, hopefully a reputable one, willing to do it as well as a problem significant enough to have the faculty there agree that you had covered  all the necessary bases.
It is also unlikely that very many people would be able to gain the necessary knowledge both about the field and about research to make this common enough that people would consider it. One of the problems is that you can learn on your own but focused learning usually (i.e. most people) requires guidance. That is what graduate, especially doctoral programs, are all about: both the what and the how of contributions to scholarship.
Some people have been awarded honorary degrees, which don't carry quite the same weight, for their work outside academia that contributes something important, or even a lifetime of contributions.
See the canonical question about doctoral admissions to see what is usually required before you are even allowed to begin doctoral study.
It is a lot more than being about being "smart" or "knowing a lot" of stuff.
But it is rare because so few could begin to do it, so it hasn't been considered enough to be an option in almost every case. And it is also unlikely that you could get a degree for some "exam", though exams are often required in doctoral study to guarantee broad knowledge of a field.

I suspect that if it were to become more common, it would require a process in which one first makes a plan and a proposal, then gets approval (or not), and then executes the plan and carries out the study. The approval process might be quite difficult.
The reputation of universities depends in part on doing things right which implies some vetting process. This would be especially true in some fields where human subjects are involved.

Hi!Have a good day!What if someone cannot afford university expenses but he/she is really good at science and passionate about it.The scholarships given by universities after high school only fill a water droplet in the  bucket  of the talented people.

"It is a lot more than being about being "smart" or "knowing a lot" of stuff."Hmm 200 years ago this was how the scientific community was working.Gauss enrolled in a university at the age of 12,Faraday was a librarian assistant.

Then all you need is a time machine ;-) And, even then, it was rare. Maybe especially then.

Note that it is also the people who are "really good at science" that get those scholarships. The world is what it is, imperfect as it is.

I wouldn't want a doctor or an engineer that approached there work like it was done 200 years ago. At that time there was a lot fewer academics, and science was smaller and less specialised. With modern science you need different social structures to help organise the work efficiently. If your focus is on inability to afford university expenses then it would be better to change society so everyone could afford to attend university (be it money or time) rather than trying for a band-aid solution of an online test.

Who would pay for the development of that test, and who would pay for the grading? As others have mentioned, such a test would be huge, and development and validation of that test will be expensive. Why would a university invest in that?
The grading will be a beast as well, why would a university agree that I spent that amount of Work-Time on non-tuition paying students?
In short, I suspect that the universities would have to ask such a high price for this test in order for it to be viable/profitable, that there just won't be enough demand for it.

Hi!Have a good day!Yes that is correct.But many people are introverts and have social anxiety so it may help them studying isolated.

All universities I worked at have support services available for people with anxieties. There are also legitimate distance universities that offer degree programmes, like the open university and the Fernuni Hagen.

@Cerise: This doesn't answer the question about who pays. There are for example also many handicapped people (disabled in body or mind) and yet, in most countries, adequate support is rare. Only because somebody would profil is not a reason enough for governments or companies to spend money.

@Cerise You can study solo in person too.

You cant study solo in person if there are questions being made in the class.You simply cannot ignore the noise.Have you tried it?

@Cerise Feeling disrupted by people asking questions in class is not introvertedness or social anxiety, that's something you should seek professional advice on because it isn't normal or healthy. Nevertheless, most studying occurs out of class

There are many other good answers, but one of the issues that underlies your question is really: "What is a degree?"
At its core, a degree is an institution such as a university saying "Yes, this person actually knows something". This works because those who are looking at the degree (employers) typically trust universities to have rigorous processes to actually verify the "actually knows something" part. But because there are so many universities in the world, and because not all of them are trustworthy, there is a second level of trust: Universities are "accredited" by accreditation agencies who check and verify that the universities that are accredited have rigorous processes when they certify  the "actually knows something" part. You see that degrees only really mean anything if the person who looks at a degree actually has trust that it means something. A degree from an unaccredited university does not inspire trust, and people will generally not accept such a degree as proof of "the person actually knows something".
In essence, what you are suggesting with the online test is that you want to set up "The Substitute University of the Internet", that can check from online posts, online tests, and other sources whether someone actually knows something -- and if so, give that person a degree, say the "Bachelor's Degree of Knowledge, awarded by The Substitute University of the Internet". You can of course do that. (That's perhaps a bit like Trump University.) The problem is that if those who present such a degree to a possible employer, these employers will generally disregard the degree unless they have trust in The Substitute University of the Internet, and at least at the moment people will generally not have that kind of trust. Of course, The Substitute University of the Internet could turn to one of the accreditation agencies for accreditation, and should it receive accreditation people will have trust -- but because, as the other answers point out, everyone believes that such tests can not be meaningfully done, one can suspect that the accreditation agencies will not accredit The Substitute University of the Internet, and so no trust is conferred.
The upshot is: Degrees, like money, are all about trust.

I never said anything about "University of the Internet" , I just said that the state with the help of a institution periodically to perform examination on someone's desired subject and if he passes , he will get a degree.

There are a couple of problems with just a test. The first one is that in my undergraduate degree I probably did at least 30-40 hours of exams (probably in excess of 50 hours). So you'd expect at least that much in the exam. Then this doesn't account for all the assignments, lab experiments, reports and other examination I went through. This means the exam would have to be essentially full time over 1 or 2 weeks minimum. This would also be expensive since you'd need a specialist to spend their time marking all these exams and you probably won't get the economy of scale that you get in normal university courses which reduces the marking time.
But what this doesn't capture is that not only is your education over years, but the testing was also done over years. You can always cram for an exam and then forget the stuff, but being able to remember the core material you learnt in each course, and then apply it in the next course done months or years later is a hidden test that is not as obvious when you look at undergraduate degrees. In addition by providing courses there is an additional guarantee than the student has been exposed to the connections between ideas as understood by experts. This is the guided learning that is provided by universities and is also a hidden factor that a degree signals. This understanding would also be something you'd want to probe if you were an accreditation giving institute.
So in reality you'd probably want a much longer period of testing (I'd guess on the order of 6-12 months, but wouldn't have to be full time) done by an intelligent agent that understands the field properly and can adjust the tests to make sure the random understanding obtained on the web actually sees all the connections. So I'd say, for this to be equal to a traditional degree, you'd probably need general AI as a precondition, at that point education is going to be very different.
This also says nothing about graduate degrees which rely on undergraduate understanding. For coursework components you could probably repeat the arguments I made for undergraduate, but the research component is a lot harder to test. This would probably require a kind of apprenticeship for the examination (like I mentioned in the last paragraph) as well as demonstration of the appropriate level of research skills, this is very different to just learning stuff off the web. But here we are kinda getting back into what we already have, just maybe on a cut down time scale.

Hi!Have a good day!Yes "But what this doesn't capture is that not only is your education over years, but the testing was also done over years. You can always cram for an exam and then forget the stuff, but being able to remember the core material you learnt in each course, and then apply it in the next course done months or years later is a hidden test that is not as obvious when you look at undergraduate degrees."This is a good argument.We mostly learn by constant exposure to a material there is even a quote:"Repetition is the mother of learning".But I dont agree with your second argument...

...Yes the student inevitably is exposed to connections understood by experts but knowledge and news are spreading out faster than ever (due to the Internet) and there isnt a development in any field science , not posted somewhere in the Internet.

There are certain things that become folklore within fields (particularly experimental fields) which are not really posted on the internet, or are much harder to extract from other postings that only hint at them. But this second arguement is somewhat subtle, any test you take doesn't really test your knowledge, but rather suggests to me that you know the subject. If I was instructing you in something and then tested you I can make more assumptions about the value of your test results. If you come off the street and I test you, I need to be more thorough with the test for the same confidence.


text:
What are the mechanics of negotiating a faculty job offer?
I would like to know the following. This is for the US.
Is the deadline in the offer letter a deadline to come to a finished negotiation, or a deadline to say you'd like the job and then to enter into negotiations.
How exactly and with whom do you negotiate? Is it with the sender of the job offer, and is it usually done over email or a call? It seems email may have the advantage that there is a written record.
I'm thinking of ways of reducing the teaching burden by asking, for example, trying to minimize the number of unique courses over the years, while agreeing to the number of courses taught per semester in the job description. Is this a reasonable thing to ask for, and is it too vague?
What happens after the negotiations are finished? Do they revise the offer letter or do they draft a contract? How long does it usually take from finishing negotiations to confirming that you have the job (which I suppose is when a contract is sign)?

Is this tenure track?

They will specify a starting date, to allow preparation time usually, as the course will start on a precise date.

Please ask one question per post.  Also, these questions depend on the institutional and personal preferences of the employer, so they are off topic.

I agree about too many questions. I’ll answer one: it’s not a reasonable thing to ask for. Teaching duties are subject to the needs of the department. The department chair might have some leeway to promise a teaching reduction for X years (although you’d need some pretty strong leverage to get X larger than the standard), but no sensible chair will agree to tie their hands or the hands of a future chair by promising that you won’t teach too many unique courses or promising specific courses. There are too many unknowns, it’s simply not a promise they can make in good faith.

I'll assume this is for a permanent, not a temporary or part time position.
Unfortunately, there is no general advice that would be applicable everywhere. The US doesn't have a national system for such things, nor even one that applies to any single State. You may have a lot of flexibility or very little. But if the offer lays out a lot of things then you probably have less wiggle-room than if it only says a bit.
But you may get at least a promise that they will try to accommodate the needs of a new member of the faculty. Not too many preparations is a good thing to talk about and most universities will probably try to do that anyway, but it is hard to guarantee. Funding for travel is another thing to explore. But, you may not get any guarantees.
On the other hand, nearly everywhere will have an interest in bringing on a new member of the faculty smoothly and not inundating them with scut work. You might get a pass on committee assignments for a while. You might get a "promise" that you can teach in your specialty. But, depending on the size of the place and its main focus, the constraints may be strong. A large place with a research focus and lots of TAs probably finds it easier.
I was once at a top university where a lot of things were arranged around helping a young newcomer to the faculty advance her research agenda by inviting post-docs whom she favored. I was very impressed that the "old codgers" on the faculty were so supportive of a new person. But this is, I think, an outlier. Not every place can or will be so accommodating.
I also once negotiated a promise that the university would cover rather extensive international travel. I swapped a bit of salary for that, but everyone came out happy in the end.
If you want to negotiate, it is very useful if you can do it in person, probably with the program chair or even a Dean. If you can be flexible about some things, then, perhaps they can be flexible about others. Deans often have some pot of money they can use for such things. They also have a bit more flexibility with "bending" policies.
At the other end of the scale, I doubt that very many offers are "take it as is, or leave it." They will talk to you, nearly everywhere.
Yes, after you come to an agreement, a contract needs to be signed spelling out everything. You will probably only have a short time in which to sign and return it.

In my experience, negotiations always go through the chair and talking directly to the dean would be very unusual.  (Of course the dean will be involved, but through the chair.). I’ve also never heard of anyone flying somewhere for in-person negotiations.

Interesting.  I wonder whether there’s a pattern in which schools work that way.

In my case the Dean was responsible for several departments on several campuses, but all were in computing and information systems. It wasn't like a more general Dean of Liberal Arts, or Dean of Engineering. And I did, initially work through the chair who escalated the conversation for flexibility.

And, negotiating face to face is a powerful tool, whether unusual or not. It is harder to say no to a person in front of you that you want to hire. But, yes, not always possible. Make it happen if you can.


text:
What is the reason that once a student has passed a university course, the student cannot take the course again?
This question geared towards STEM but can definitely be expanded for courses in the arts as well.
Imagine the following scenarios:

A student has taken a course, but passed the course with barely a 60
over the 50 percent required to pass the course.
A student has taken and passed a course with a project component, but found that
it would be beneficial to explore other topics if given another
opportunity, in particular, using the expertise of the instructor and
the resources provided in the course.
A student has taken and passed a course, but due to family
issues/illness/personal issues/financial issues/job/internship, etc.
the student takes a break of one or two years; when the student
returns to school, he or she would like to take the course again as a
refresher.
A student has taken and passed a course, however due to change of instructor, textbook, and other circumstances the course material was presented in radically different way, the student feels that the material presented has been inadequate or non-standard and would like to take the course again.

In each of these cases, from a student's perspective, I do not see why it makes pedagogical sense to prevent the student from taking the course again. The student could improve over his or her previous poor performance, explore alternative topics in a guided way, refresh his or her knowledge or be taught
the material in a different way, perhaps by a more experienced instructor.
However, I suspect that most schools do not allow students to retake courses they have already passed, no matter how poorly the student performed, or how long ago the course was taken, etc.

My question is: what would be a sound reason for this?

From the school's perspective, one reason may be that the student would be at an unfair advantage over the other students. This reasoning however, assumes that there was some measure of fairness to begin with. It is difficult to claim this given the vastly different backgrounds the students have prior to enrolling in a particular course. Even then, the transcript would quickly reveal to a potential employer or an potential supervisor that a course was taken twice or several times. It can probably be said that a course that is passed with a high score/mark the first time is better than a repeated course.

Added:
Since the most common response to my question is: "But I was able to retake courses", please read some of the different policies for various schools and related discussions:
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/aacc/academic-advising-faq,
https://graduatecollegebulletin.ouhsc.edu/hbSections.aspx?ID=586,
https://orapps.berkeley.edu/Registrar/courserep.html,
http://artsandscience.usask.ca/undergraduate/handouts/RetakingCourses.pdf
https://www.revscene.net/forums/572588-question-about-retaking-courses-limit-etc-ubc-sfu.html,
http://calendar.ualberta.ca/content.php?catoid=6&navoid=857

"once a student has passed a university course, the student cannot take the course again" [citation needed] At my university it was possible to retake a course. First, you can always sit in every course you want. Second, you could even retake the exam. The last grade counted, though. So if you pass first time, fail second time, it would could as failed.

At my university there were classes you were encouraged to take more than once , even more so if there were very few students taking the class anyway. Those were mostly non-theoretical classes with a heavy focus on practising a certain skill. With other classes this was discouraged because too many students were trying to get a place in the class anyway and you would be "robbing" others of the opportunity to take the class. To me this seems like a good enough reason to limit the posibility of retaking certain classes.

We could retake a small number of courses to earn distinctions if a single or two 3s prevented it and the average was good enough. (You had to have only 1s and 2s to get distinctions).

My experience was the same as Mark's: you can always retake any class, but the newest grade is the one that counts.

"I suspect that most schools do not allow students to retake course": Why do you suspect this?  My experience is that institutions have a variety of different policies and restrictions on retaking courses, but I don't know of any where it is completely forbidden.

@Nate I am fairly certain that it is impossible to retake a passed course in Denmark. And you only get three tries to pass it or you will be kicked out unless you can document circumstances allowing you to get dispensation.

I've taken and re-taken courses/exams after both failed and accepted grades. I've also signed up to a course three times and only after that actually finished it. I do suspect the practices differ between universities... It might be interesting to see how they vary from country to country, or within countries.

In the system in which I have studied (and which does not exist anymore), the exams that counted towards the mark on your degree were separate from whatever was needed to pass a course. They were also few. It was not possible to retake any of those exams once you had passed them. No-one would have prevented you from retaking a course if you felt that it would help you.

My experience was the same as Mark's and Ian's: you can always retake any class, but the newest grade is the one that counts.

I attended 3 very dissimilar schools in two states during my Undergrad,and none of them had this policy. Nor have I ever heard of such a policy. Do you have any evidence other than your own guess that this happens at all?

@kingfrito_5005 Keyword: "two states". What if a country doesn't have a state.

Note the UC Berkeley link actually gives examples of retaking courses multiple times because it is allowed there. Other than that, I guess things are different in Canada.

@ToddWilcox Point being, not everywhere is the same. So if one claims that "Every school allows student to retake courses", the answer would be, "not everyschool". See Nate Eldredge's comment: "... but I don't know of any where it is completely forbidden"

Most of the reasons you've presented for taking it a second time are addressed by allowing students to audit courses.

@Learningonepageatatime I don't see how that would be even remotely relevant.

Summary: this rule is about efficient allocation of resources.
In an ideal world, people would study whatever subjects they felt were useful or enjoyable for them to study, however many times and for as long as it took them to satisfy their curiosity and reach a level of mastery of the subject that they are happy with.
Sadly, we do not live in an ideal world. Two specific ways in which our world is not ideal are:

In our world, education is a scarce, and very expensive, resource. At any university, there is only a finite number of classes that can be offered to a finite number of students, and the demand quite frequently exceeds the supply. This creates a pressure to strive for efficiency in various ways, and in particular to impose mechanisms that avoid a (relative) waste by teaching people things that they already know.
In our world, education, and grades in particular, have very significant consequences for people’s future, greatly affecting one’s chances of getting a scholarship that enables them to stay in school, getting a good job, making money, and ultimately, having a good life.
In some countries (the U.S. among them, in my opinion), this creates a very intense level of competition over what is already a scarce resource, and results in highly distorted incentives that cause students’ decisions regarding topics to study and how many times to study them to be motivated by highly non-ideal considerations having nothing to do with intellectual curiosity: e.g., it is very common to see students taking specific courses, or taking courses with a specific professor, or wanting to retake a course they did poorly in the first time, for a good grade. This exacerbates the scarcity problem I described above and results in even more waste and an even higher pressure to impose efficiency mechanisms.

The policy of preventing students from retaking courses they already passed is one obvious answer to these problems. I agree with your analysis and with the conclusion that it is not an ideal rule, since there are situations when a student might genuinely be interested in learning a topic better by retaking a course; but in a world with a finite amount of resources in which a student taking a course affects other students’ ability to take other courses, the rule makes some sense and does not sound so unreasonable in my opinion.

And sometimes the opposite happens.  Anecdotal evidence, but I know of at least one school that is making people re-do most of an AS degree to qualify for a BAS track, even though they've been working in the field (networking and programming) for 15+ years.  If I had graduated one term earlier I would be in the same boat... Not sure how this would affect financial aid since we are all employees of various other colleges that cover tuition as a benefit but ...

I don't understand the point of view that "education is a scarce resource". What do you see that points you to say that?

In the United States, institutions that have such a rule do so primarily because of the requirement of satisfactory academic progress, or SAP, that is imposed by some, perhaps many, forms of financial aid.  "Progress" means accruing the credit hours necessary to earn one's degree, and students who repeat courses for which they've already earned a satisfactory grade are not progressing (as fast) toward graduation.  Students who do that more than a couple of times may have a high GPA, but unsatisfactory academic progress, and may lose their financial aid.
Edited to add: Sadly, and to me astonishingly and dismayingly, the subtleties of how financial aid works seem to escape many students.  They overlook the SAP requirement entirely or decide they will somehow "catch up later."  In the United States, it is difficult or impossible to have different rules for similar groups of people, so we generally can't have one rule for students with financial aid and another for those without.  The result is that, even if it makes no difference to your financial situation, in many institutions you can't repeat a class in which you've earned a satisfactory grade.

It's the same in Germany. If you don't progress at least at 50% of the standard student's speed, you will loose governmental funding (called Bafoeg in Germany).

Good answer. Also, in Wisconsin, the state universities (i.e., UW-System) will do a surcharge for undergrads with more than 165 to discourage career students. This rule was motivated by Johnny Lechner.

@RichardErickson thank you for the link, I now have a new life goal.

@JaredSmith, that's exactly Fred Cassidy, the main character from Roger Zelazny's 1976 Doorways in the Sand.  (The summary on Wikipedia is crap; skip it.)  First couple chapters describe some of his methods of managing to avoid being graduated despite the University's best efforts.  ;)  (Then it gets down to more sci-fi stuff.)

@JaredSmith We're going to get our fingers spanked for going astray in the comments, but I really liked the "doodlehums."

I don't think that students should be allowed to retake courses to get better grades. This motivates a lazy attitude from the start, saying "well, doesn't matter, I can simply retake it". However, students are supposed to do their best.
Apart from that, I see two points that might exclude someone from retaking a course:

Spaces available. If the course is full, priority should be given to students taking it for the first time.
Money available. Depending on the system in your university, you (or the government, your scholarship, etc.) either pay for each course or just a general fee. In the later case, the university would run into financial problems if too many students retook the course, as the available money (for TAs, material, etc.) is calculated with the number of people taking the course for the first time in mind.

However, I can understand why you would like to retake some courses and I think it is possible, as long as you pay attention to these two points. Discuss it with the professor in charge, point out that (if necessary), you will not participate in the final exam or not hand in homework, as to not take time from the TAs. From my experience, most professors don't mind if you just sit in the lecture and pay attention, as long as you don't cause more work and as long as spaces are available. But that depends on the professor and on the university in question, so you should ask directly.

the lazy attitude does not really work because in some universities the second grade is average with the first, so no matter how many times you retake the course never be able to reach a high grade if your first time you got a low grade

@user4050 In that case it still works, just to a lesser degree. And only at those "some universities". So you can hardly say definitive "it does not really work".

@VladimirF I don't have any statistics on hand, so I cannot say, but if you get an F or a D, then you get an A, you can never get a grade higher than a C.

@user4050 I do believe you. My comment was not saying otherwise.

Eh. This rationale is flawed - a student can't improve, then? If the personal situation changes and the student is able to study more next time, to do better, he or she would have already wasted his "try"? That defeats the purpose of education, which is improving oneself. Studying isn't supposed to be a competition for grades.

@T.Sar this, a hundred times.

"This motivates a lazy attitude from the start..." well it could, but there's no guarantee that it will. That's a significant assumption to make without knowing the student in question.

There are also matters like changes in teaching staff (what if you happen to take a course when it's being held by a not-so-good teacher) or surprises in workload (If you're going to take N courses, none of which you've been on before, are you supposed to be able to accurately estimate the work you need to put to them) let alone personal reasons (changes in the job, if you're working on the side, family/relationship issues that require time, etc). Assuming laziness as the primary motivator for everything seems a bit... unsympathetic?

This also immensely privileges wealthier students.

If the attitude in this answer were the rules for American universities, I would never have graduated with a degree in mathematics and I would probably not have my current career and I might even be very low income and receiving public assistance. I had to retake my first two entire years of university even thought I passed all but one of the courses. Of course I paid straight up for all of it - you don't get any scholarships for Ds. But I worked very hard both on school work and at a part time job to pay for books and sundries. I'm just horrified by this answer. -10 if I could.

@Fomite also that, a hundred times more.

Not being able to repeat an exam if it was already passed can lead to the situation that a student is better off failing a test than passing it with the minimum passing grade.
In Germany I witnessed it several times that students tactically approached this issue. I saw students erasing or destroying their exam papers 10 minutes before the end to avoid passing. I also saw students walk out of oral exams because they judged their answers to be not good enough.
I think the main reason for this kind of policy is that you are obliged to allow students to retake failed exams and not obliged to allow students to retake passed exams. Therefore, most universities try to avoid the extra work that is caused by students sitting the same exam twice or even more often (there are exceptions, though, but at the one university where exams could be repeated as often as the student wants, a lot of lecturers complained about the workload).

I have witnessed students being asked after an oral exam whether or not they want a barely passing grade.

I had a professor once announce at the beginning of the final exam, "If you're not doing well in the course and want to fail so you can retake it, write 'Please give me an F' at the top of your exam paper."

In the US, this is especially problematic for graduate students who must generally maintain a 3.0 GPA in their coursework used toward graduation but can't retake a course in which they have earned a C (2.0). This can lead to a situation where the student can't graduate due to a low GPA but can't retake any of their classes for a higher grade either.

@RobertColumbia What you really mean is "there are graduate students who aren't good enough to pass the course". That's just the way things work, in "real life." Nobody is entitiled to graduate, just because they were accepted onto the graduate program!

@alephzero Nope. That's a flawed assumption. There are several reasons for a student to have a lower grade that may very well be outside his control. When I took my first couse in Neural Nets, I was working  8am-to-6pm and having classes every night from 7pm to 11pm, including saturdays. Neural Nets was a hard course - I barely passed it. On the next semester, when I was with only two courses, I retook it - and got a stellar grade the second time, because now I actually had time to put into it. Just because I failed the first time, does it mean I shouldn't graduate?

@alephzero The university I graduated on Brazil - one of the best in IT in the country - had a very simple system: you can take any course any number of times you want, and when you're happy with your grades and finished all the mandatory credits you can grab your diploma. That meant that students felt it was worthwhile to try again and study more.

@alephzero Let the student take the course how many times it needs to. If he never pass, he will never graduate, but if he gets better and eventually gets a good grade, well, then - the university did its job. "No, you failed once, go away" it's not a nice stance for a university to have.

@T.Sar no University has a policy of “No, you failed once, go away”. The question describes a policy where students can not retake courses they passed. And there are some problematic policies, for sure, as described by Robert, but you’re exaggerating the extent of it with your comment. As for your suggestion to let students take any class however many times they want, that might work in Brazil, but as I describe in my answer it is also problematic and ends up being “not a nice stance” in other ways by misallocating valuable teaching resources.

@Dan at least in my country, the University is paid for each time a student takes a course, be it by the government or by the student himself. This ends up being a non-issue since it provides the University with extra money and thus more resources to expand.

@T.Sar it’s very much not a non-issue. Expanding a large institution’s capacity isn’t just about money (even if money were available in unlimited quantities, which it isn’t). There’s also scaling issues related to infrastructure and human capital. For example, in some places the demand for high quality education is so big that there simply aren’t enough highly skilled academics to provide that education. At the end of the day one needs to think carefully how to give as many people as possible the education they need given the available resources. That’s what leads to these kinds of policies.

@Dan I agree that for some places that is true. However, my experience with universities that don't follow the model of USA Unis tell me that is pretty much possible to meet the demand if you take a more structured, practical approach to education. Take a look at how Unisinos on Brazil work, and you'll see what I mean.

@ff524: Mine said something along the lines of, if you want to fail turn in a blank final exam. Due to way the grading worked if you didn't have an A going into the final that would result in an F.

@DanRomik are we conflating taking the course and taking the exam here?

@DanRomik you mention "capacity", but surely "retaking the exam" imposes a O(1) burden on the institution's resource, as opposed to "sitting in class for a whole extra period"?

@TobiaTesan OP’s question was about retaking the course, so that’s what I assumed we were discussing, and what I was referring to in my earlier comments, and also what T.Sar was referring to. I don’t think I conflated that with anything else, but it’s possible others were.

In my College (Engineering) after you get graded you have a 20 days timeframe to sign the vote or refuse it.
If you refuse it, you can take the course/exam again.
I once asked, out of curiosity, why this and the rationale provided was: "now that you are a senior wouldn't you love to go back and take again programming 101 just to get an easy A+?"
In the "neighboring college" (Economics) they are even stricter, if you take an exam and pass it there is no refusal, that is your mark, period. The reasoning there is "get used to the world of finace, here too many things must be perfect at first take..."

I don't understand the argument with the easy A+. It this resembles now my knowledge about the subject, why shouldn't it be in my transcript? Anybody reading the transcript could tell "they have the A+ -knowledge now, but they were not a quick learner (as the first time, they had a D)". Then they may interpret out of that what they want..

At my university, students are allowed to retake a class (there might be a limit on the number of times, though). One reason why this is allowed is that some programs have a required grade on a prerequisite, so a student may have passed the class but not be able to use it for his program. Another reason is that a student may be on probation for not having the required GPA, and getting a higher grade by re-taking a class may help them get out of the hole.
To avoid abuse, they are not permitted to retake a class once they have taken the "next one" in the program (i.e., you cannot retake Calculus I after you passed Calculus II). Also, only the last grade stands: I've seen students re-take a class and get a failing grade, and they were forced to take the class yet again.

In my college (I was a professor) a student can retake a course for a better grade, they would have to pay tuition, but they can only receive hours credit for it ONE TIME. The second time around, it will not count toward being a full-time student (which demands completing 12 academic hours in Fall and Spring semesters, less in summer sessions).
Some scholarships, student loans and even paid internships require students to maintain full time status, so they would have to retake the course in addition to a full time load. Also some forms of educational financing may ONLY pay tuition for classes that earn academic hours, so they might have to pay the course tuition out of their own pocket.
On the other hand if they formally quit, withdrew, dropped or flunked, then they did NOT earn any academic hours, and taking it again would earn them academic hours, so their financing would likely pay for a retake.
Anyway, it is not prohibited in my college (American state college), selling seats in classrooms is the business we are in. We don't want students gaming the system to inflate their GPA or defraud their educational financing institution, that would deflate our reputation as a good school and perhaps lower our desirability to potential students and their parents.

Some financial aid systems/programs are limited to "attempting to earn X credits before getting a degree" for "standards of academic progress" purposes.  Even if you've never been on FA before this can disqualify you from receiving it.  Anecdotal evidence but that is the case with me - two AS degrees and an AA mean too many credits w/o earning a batchelor's degree so no FA for me...

I know someone who took a specific course again to get a better grade.  Sometimes it is allowed, usually the average of the two grades would show on the GPA, but that is institution-dependent.
Of course, sometimes one can audit a course.
We had a course number that had rotating sequences of different topics, so of course, that was repeatable (but possibly confusing to people reading transcripts).

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Is there a case to be made for adjusting how academic semesters are scheduled in North America?
From my limited experience, many universities in North America with two-semester (full year) type schedule has the following timeline,

Semester 1: Early September - Late November (or Late August - Early November)
Semester 2: Early January - Late April (or late January - Early May)

During each semester, the students are expected to take 4 - 5 courses. After a designated number of years, the student graduates.
Is there a case to be made for adjusting how academic semesters are currently scheduled in North America (for selected schools)? My question is not whether or not it is feasible/do-able to implement these schedules at this moment in time. I understand that we need to respect the highschool-university-research/industry pipeline, which has adapted itself to the fall-spring schedule.
But I wonder if there is a case to be made (for selected schools, for instance) to adjust these dates to something that takes into consideration of factors such as regional climate or local culture (or some other factors).
For example, here is a possible schedule,

Semester 1: Early January - Late April (or late January - Early May)
Semester 2: Early September - Late November (or Late August - Early November)

The advantage of this schedule could be for high school students to have more time to decide on their major and more time to prepare for their dream universities, instead of having to prepare for it during the semester when they also need to do well on their coursework and other extracurricular activities.
Here is another schedule,

Semester 1: Early March - Late June
Semester 2: Early August - Late October

For instance, for schools located in the Northern parts of North America, this schedule takes into account of the climate of that region, which is characterized by cold weather and short daylight hours, both of which contributes to lower productivity and even seasonal depression. This schedule takes full advantage of the warmer summer months, where students can get more work done. During the winter, instead of staying at school, students can take internships abroad in warmer regions of the world. Furthermore, it gives high school student ample time to explore and decide on their future studies (or  "taking a gap year").
Do these alternative proposals make sense? What are the potential drawbacks? Are there universities that do implement these alternative schedules?

Both suggestions would completely mess up international students exchange. I can talk for Germany where we're altready struggeling with the current situation since our lectures are from Oct-Feb and mid of March till end of June / beginning of July.

@Najib Idrissi, I think OP is asking whether the reasoning is sound.

I don't think I know of any US schools where the fall semester ends in "early November" or even "late November".  I think it pretty much always continues past Thanksgiving into early December.

By the way, your first proposed schedule can already be done by individual students in many cases, since the calendar is really the same - you are just one semester out of phase.  Many institutions will admit first-year students to start in either semester.  If all required courses are offered every semester, then there are no problems with this - if not, then it can happen that one "phase" is more convenient than the other.

This sound vaguely like the quarter system such as at the University of California schools.

American university students do not graduate after a "designated number of years". They apply for graduation after completing all requirements for the degree they have chosen to pursue, which generally include over 100 - 120 "credit hours" and possibly other tasks such as passing tests or completing projects. Many programs only require the credit hours, which are granted for each class passed. The credit hours must be earned in specific areas. Programs are almost always designed to make it reasonable to earn all the necessary credits in four years, but more or less time may be needed by some.

The following are more diverse comments than answers, but they don't fit in the comment box.

In the northern hemisphere temporary employment is generally more available in the summer tourist season (in the low population areas near winter sports areas this is wrong, but in general tersm it is not). Many students, particularly in an expensive system like that in the US, need to be able to work when they don't have classes, and, generally speaking, there are far more options during the summer (beach related, fire fighting, etc.). Most students aren't in internships or degree related employment, at least not until the final years of their study program. Students mostly find internships and summer work locally. Most can't afford to pay for living far from home, and, in any case, it is generally more difficult to find opportunities in a place one does not know.
The premise that "students can get more work done" during the warm summer months is debatable. Before there was air conditioning, one of the main reasons for summer breaks was that studying and exams are difficult when temperatures get above 30C. Outside the US many regions do not have air conditioning in schools. I have had the misfortune of giving an exam at 17h on a 42C degree day in July (the air conditioning broke). It was worse for the students. On the other hand, the long dark hours of winter are often good for studying - there are not as many distractions available as there are in the warmer months.

Many considerations work in favor of some level of homogenization of academic calendars across systems. For example:

The scheduling of classes should take into account the needs of professors as well as the needs of students. Professors also engage in research, and the scheduling of classes should take this into account. Currently conferences and the like are concentrated in the summer months when it is easier to travel. I work in a system where exams continue through June and July, and realistically it sometimes complicates attending research activities.
International exchange programs suppose some homogenization of schedules. In Finland the fall semester starts in August, the spring semester in early January; in Germany the fall starts in late October and the spring semester can start as late as April in some universities. This already makes exchanges difficult between these countries and others with the more standard September, late January or February starts. Likewise, such disjoint calendars complicate research visits by faculty (who travel more easily when not teaching).
Beginning the academic year in January might make sene from some point of view, but it would require also rescheduling primary school calendars, and making similar changes in multiple countries, and those sorts of changes seem hopeless in the current situation. In most universities simply changing a class from 9 to 10 causes lots of headaches ...
The premise of giving students more time to choose a major is almost peculiar to North America. In most systems the student chooses a field of study before entering the university, and is admitted directly to a specific degree program. I personally prefer the US system, but changing the structure of other systems in this regard would be very difficult, even were there sentiment in favor of doing so, which I don't think there is.

Yeah, I too work in a system where exams continue through June and July, and if I want to attend a conference in that period (like this year), I have to plan the attendance almost one year in advance to allow the faculty to define the exam calendar as to leave me one free week across the right dates.

"I work in a system where exams continue through June and July, and realistically it sometimes complicates attending research activities." - of course, that is only a real problem if any particular staff members must be present when a given exam takes place.

"In most systems the student chooses a field of study before entering the university, and is admitted directly to a specific degree program." - while that may be true, having the "first semester" start at a later time after high school graduation is just as beneficial in those systems where you choose your major before entering the university, if one wants to gain "more time to decide on their major". However, I am skeptical about whether that is a worthwhile goal, given that it may well just lead to more procrastination rather than a more thorough decision, and if you discover you want to ...

... switch to a different major after the first or second semester (based on the actual content of the major you started, rather than "hearsay" you found during your decision phase), you will have lost even more time.

What does "at 17h" mean?

@ToddWilcox: 5pm.

@O. R. Mapper: In many (most?) university systems, professors are obliged by university rules to be present during the administration of final exams, and required to grade the exam within a relatively short predefined time period after its administration.

@DanFox: Ah, I see what your statement is based on then. In Germany, exams are scheduled by the central exam office of the university based upon when rooms are available, arbitrary employees from the department will be assigned as proctors (not necessarily someone connected to the exam course), and the concept of a "final exam" (in contrast to a "non-final" exam) doesn't exist, anyway. I agree setting a rather tight deadline for grading is beneficial for students, but that factor alone can still allow for some flexibility of a few weeks rather than requiring presence on a fixed date.

@O.R.Mapper: The semesters are also standardized in Germany: the Winter semester runs October 1 to March 31, and the Summer semester from April 1 to September 30.

@aeismail: Well, unless you look at universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen), or a few universities that have decided for a different rhythm.


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How much research experience do I need for PhD programs in the USA?
I am a rising junior, looking to apply to PhD programs in Statistics in a couple of years. I go to a liberal arts school and there is almost no research going on during the semester. I did research (3 months) this summer, which went really well. We managed to write three papers, and one of them is going to get published at a proper research journal while the other two will be submitted to undergrad math journals (hopefully). I will hopefully get into another research program somewhere next summer. Is this much research experience going to be enough for grad schools? I've seen applicants mention that they have 1-2 yrs of researches by working over the semester but I clearly lack that. My GPA is pretty solid though (3.9 + ), and my recs should be fine too. Any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks!

Does this answer your question? How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?

If you apply to a doctoral program in the US with a BA/BS you are expected to have a good academic record, especially in the field of interest, as well as good letters of recommendation from professors who can attest to your likelihood of success.
You aren't, for most applications, expected to already have research experience, though it is a plus. The decision will be broad-based and all positive factors contribute. But the competition is also fierce.
The first years of the doctoral program will be taken up with advanced courses in field, leading to the comprehensive examinations. You may not even do much research for a year or two of doctoral study (though this varies). At some point you choose, by mutual consent, a dissertation advisor and then get down to the serious stuff.
Note that this is a very common path to success in the US, since the undergraduate degree is normally intended to give a broadly based education, not a particularly specialized one.
Your GPA is good. Make sure you get good letters.

Thanks! Does this mean I am fine in terms of research experiences if I have two summer researches? Just worried because many seem to have years of experience throughout their undergrad degree

You will have more than many applicants. Especially those from similar colleges. Get what experience you can, but other things are just as important. Letters. Oh, and letters.

The ideal amount of research experience is as much as you can get.  It's great that you can get publications already because of your summer research experience; know that these such experiences are intended for people who would not be able to get research experience otherwise.  I would definitely recommend that you do another such program next summer, as you mentioned.
I would suggest you try and see if there is any way to get involved with research at your school during the semester if you would like, although part of me assumes you have tried this already.  I don't think that this is necessarily going to limit you though, since many people are in your situation (liberal arts institutions with not much research opportunities available or started research late).
Barring the amount of research that you have done or have been able to do, the best ways to strengthen your application would be on the other portions, which include getting good recommendations from your research experiences.  Also, you will want to focus on writing a good statement of purpose and explain what your research interests are and how they may align with your prospective graduate programs, as well as how the research experiences that you have had have shaped those interests.


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Should I contact potential PhD advisors as an undergraduate applicant?
I've heard that people interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in the US contact potential Ph.D. advisors to ask if they have space available in their labs. Does this apply to undergraduates (students with just a BA/BS degree wanting to go for a Ph.D. program directly) as well? I am looking for Computer Science Ph.D. programs. I thought all I had to do was apply to the university directly and then wait to hear back on my acceptance/rejection like with undergrad college application. Any input would be helpful.

Probable duplicate: Emailing potential supervisors in the US before submitting application (among many others, please search our archives)

Going through the same process, the way I see it is that the "normal" way to do a PhD straight from undergrad is to take courses for the first year or two, and then find a formal advisor.
That being said, I've seen that if there is a very good fit, professors can accept individual students directly to their lab/group as well.
So it is not a requirement to contact potential advisors, but can definitely  help if you are absolutely sure that you want to work with them.


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My recommender does not personally know any of the faculty members at the PhD programs I'm applying. Is this bad?
Basically, will my recommenders not being known to the faculty of my targetted PhD programs hurt my chances of admission? I am an undergraduate student, looking for PhD programs in CS.

Given that this is the most common situation, it is unlikely that it is a negative. In fact, since US doctoral admissions in US are normally by committee it might not make a lot of difference even if they do know someone. Admissions isn't based on personal contacts but on the record of the candidate and a judgement of the likelihood of their success.
Members of a committee can, of course, look for information about letter writers online, but, given the scale of things, that isn't a universal practice. The reputation of the college you apply from will normally be trusted to extend to its faculty.
So, no, it won't hurt your chances. Hopefully the content of their letter predicts your success in grad study and beyond. That is the more important thing (along with all of the other indicators).

There are exceptions to the above, especially for a positive effect when someone is known.


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Will studying abroad for a year during my undergraduate hurt my PhD admissions chance?
I go to a top 30 liberal arts college in the US, and I'm planning to go on a study-abroad for one year. I want to go for a Computer Science PhD after I graduate. I will be a Math major with a scientific computing concentration since my college does not have a CS major -- we have some classes like "intro to CS, data structures, software development, coding theory, comp organization, software & system design" but those are all when it comes to CS classes. Therefore, I am looking to go abroad for a year and take all of the core CS classes and many more -- like database systems, algorithms, compilers etc.

One downside that could come into play is that these classes that I take abroad won't count towards my college GPA although the grades will be posted. To elaborate, I will get transfer credit and the grades I earned in these classes will be shown in my transcript, but they just won't count towards my GPA. Is this going to hamper my PhD admissions? Will it be a bad idea to go abroad for a year in this scenario? I also have summer research in Information Theory that went quite well (we have three papers in arXiv that we aim to get published.)

I cannot imagine how this could affect you negatively, unless you completely fail in your courses.

the grades I earned in these classes will be shown in my transcript, but they just won't count towards my GPA. Is this going to hamper my PhD admissions?

Most likely this will have zero effect on your PhD admissions.
If you study abroad, do it at a university with a good reputation for the topics you will study.  Get good grades.  Then apply for a PhD at universities that are sufficient quality that they will read your transcript in detail.

Thanks! I am going to Queen Mary University of London -- it's ranked within the top 100 or thereabout in the world. I hope that is going to be considered a reputed university by the admission folks.


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What is the process for PhD applications and contacting professors in France?
I would like to apply to a PhD program in France, but I am having trouble understanding the admission process.  How should/could I submit my application?
Is it proper to contact the Professor I would like to work with and ask about any openings? If yes, what should I include in my mail?
I am only familiar with the admission process in US institutions.

Related:http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/924/contacting-professors-for-phd-vacancies

@Bravo I am aware of that question, but i am asking specifically about the situation in France and if directly contacting professors is a common approach.

I suspect that this will also be discipline-dependent as well.

TL;DR: in France you have to find first the supervisor, then you apply for a funding. If you have a funding of your own, you have to find a supervisor to be admitted. In both cases : you need the supervisor first.
There is various things to know when you apply for a PhD in France :

It is forbidden to be a PhD without having funding. In France a PhD student is considered both as a student and an employee.
The funding can be a state funding, an industrial funding, a funding on a research contract (either from a national funding agency or a company), or you can also do your PhD while working elsewhere (some teachers in secondary schools are doing their PhD this way).

Industrial funding and research contract are basically given to the supervisor, who can choose alone amongst all candidates. So for PhD with those fundings you have to contact directly the targeted supervisors.
State funding is given by a committee to a bundle (candidate, subject), this means that a professor, with a subject, has to find a candidate and then propose to the committe this candidate on his subject. Then the candidate is on his own : (s)he will generally have to send an application letter, with a reference letter from the supervisor, and if (s)he is shortlisted, (s)he will have to make a short presentation (either on location or using skype or a similar service).
Last case: you are funded on your own (job, external funding for foreigners). Even in this case, the procedure is that you find the supervisor, then you apply.

Great answer... just wanted to add, that it is possible that the supervisor already has funding when you apply to him, and can just give you a position (I know some first-hand cases two offices down the hall from me)... but still, the conclusion holds: you have to contact and find a supervisor first.

I'm a PhD candidate in France (economics) and yes, you can (and, in fact, must) contact a professor first. He or she will then direct you to source for funding and through the whole administrative process (the funniest part...).

Could you provide some guidelines on the contents of the mail as well? Like issues to address, how to introduce oneself, tone/style etc

@Prospects You should ask this in a separate question.


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When would be a good time to ask a professor if he will consider being my PhD advisor?
I just started working with this professor, I am beginning to really like the work they are doing in his lab. When do you  think I should ask him if I can do a PhD under his tutelage?

You said you're working with this professor already ? what (if any) discussions have you had about the prospect of continuing work with him.

None actually, I spoke with him about available projects. He said he has several open ones and we had a discussion on the project and my probable contribution. He told me that one of his students working on the project currently is graduating very soon. That got me wondering if I should ask him for an available PhD position.

I would tell the professor that you're interested right away, but don't necessarily expect him/her to say yes or no immediately.  Rather than saying "would you advise my Ph.D. research?", just say, "I'm planning to do a Ph.D. and I'm interested in working under your supervision."
You'll probably get a "let's see how this first project turns out", but it will be easier to discuss in the future and the professor will know you are interested.

This depends on how far out you are from starting your PhD (are you a first year undergrad, halfway through a masters or somewhere in between?).
Ideally you should ask as early as possible so that if you are rejected you have time to find someone else. Although the earlier you ask the less likely you are to be accepted, since you may not have shown ability or determination yet. I feel that the best time to ask is probably after the professor has indicated that they like your work.

Thank you. I am a first year master's student, I have an option of switching to a PhD instead of master's degree. That being said, I know for a fact that the professor has funding and a lot of exciting projects. I don't want to wait too long because he has a number of open projects and I can get started right away.

By first year undergrad I assume you mean first year grad?

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