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How much help is a PhD supervisor if you only see them 30 minutes a month?
I often hear from PhD students that they see their supervisor only 30 minutes per month, or 30 minutes per semester even. According to my calculations, this adds up to a whopping 13 hours and 6 hours respectively over a three year period (if there's no contact during the holidays). This is less than the typical amount of contact hours during an undergraduate week of lectures.
This made me wonder: To what extent does such a PhD supervisor really help you? Even if this supervisor is a star professor, does 6 to 13 hours over a period of 3 years, really help you that much with your PhD?
To formulate the question differently, let's say you're getting 10,000 education/career points out of your PhD. How many would you get if you got rid of the supervisor and basically had to do it without official guidance?

Some PI's offload the advising part onto a postdoc and save their time for writing the big grants and making the overall strategies for the group.

Just because face-to-face meetings are infrequent and brief doesn't mean there no other interaction or guidance is happening. I'd be curious to know how much email traffic goes back-and-forth during those 30 days between meetings.

Wow, I am very surprised by the overall sense that meeting for 30 minutes a month should be sufficient. I would certainly not agree to be advised by someone who has so little time to "spare", nor would I agree to advise anyone if I had so little time to offer. 30 minutes is not even the length of a proper meal and certainly not enough time, at least for me, to discuss the results of a paper or of an experiment.

@FBolst: Not everything happens in meetings.  See the comment by J.R. and the answers.

What's your actual question here? My experience is that most supervisors in STEM subjects meet with their students for vastly more than half an hour a month/term (an hour or two a week is more normal with the people I've worked with). Is your question "PhD advisors barely meet with their students, so what's the point?" If so, I dispute your premise. Or is it "If your advisor barely meets with you, what's the point of that?"

I would have been happy to receive 30 minutes every month, instead of 5 minutes every two months, I am not even exaggerating. I think during my phd I must have seen him for less than 1 hour total. My supervisor was completely useless for research, but he took care of any urgent administrative needs. So I think 30 minutes face-to-face time might be ok if he/she reads some of your work.

What kind of PhD students? I'm a maths PhD student, and during the academic year I meet my advisor weekly, and usually for at least an hour.

@pedroTamaroff, I asked multiple people, one of them was a math student. Also an archeologist and psychiatry student

That sounds like an excessively small amount of time. Even assuming that email is exchanged. Ask those PhD students how much email they exchange with their adviser. I suspect the answer may well be none.

@Programmer2134 there may be something wrong with the university. Or a particular definition of advisor, and offloading the actual supervision to postdocs.

Your supervisor's job is to be sure you're on the right track, not to do any of the work.  Thirty minutes a month ought to be more than sufficient for that.  Also, the supervisor either takes care of the administrative details or is responsible that someone else does that.  Finally, you appear to have omitted the amount of reading required of the supervisor.
I'm absolutely sure I didn't see my supervisor for 13 hours over the course of my degree, but he read every word I wrote and provided feedback without which I probably could not have finished.

Thank you. The same I said to Solar Maike: It's very helpful to hear from people who already went through the process. Would you mind elaborating on how his feedback was so critical? It's helpful for me to know what to expect.

@Programmer2134  I'm not sure I can elaborate very much within the constraints of Stack Exchange, but your supervisor is presumably an expert on your topic and also on how things get done at your institution.  As such, he or she can keep you on track.  Without that help, you could be drifting and not even know it.

When I did my project my supervisor could look at my work for 5 minutes, and ask me 3 questions that would give me 3 weeks work to do.
So, depending on the topic etc that may well be possible in terms of time and can be more than sufficient help.
To do a phd with no supervision will require someone to support it and organise the viva etc - which means they have to be happy with the contents / direction of the material.

Thank you for the response! It's very helpful to hear from people who already went through the process. Would you mind elaborating on how its possible for your supervisor to know in 5 minutes what questions to ask that you couldn't come up with yourself?

@Programmer2134 "experience"

Experience - exactly, as he was an expert in fluid mechanics, steam, turbines and supersonic flow...

Legend of experience: https://www.snopes.com/business/genius/where.asp

@paulgarrett, Yeah I know what "experience" is... I'm looking to gain insight which is why I asked for an "elaboration". I'd simply like to get a better insight into the kinds of questions he would be able to ask you that you couldn't ask yourself.

if you can come up with all the questions with no experience in the field then you are a genius - most people find the depth and breadth of knowledge and understanding based on experience is profound...

@Programmer2134, the details are very field-dependent, but a general pattern is that for an experienced person there will be a huge repertoire of "the usual/standard..." stuff that a novice might not have heard of at all. So it's not about "coming up with a question" in real time, but just remembering the standard-operating-procedure templates and applying them to the situation at hand.

@Programmer2134 Maybe you'll like this explanation: how much sense you make depends on the choice of the words, and not on the length of the statement. And the choice of action is exactly what the brain learns to do while getting experience. Possibly the most useful advice that I ever got in my life was formulated in just one verb, said in a very quick conversation. My problem was, as an unexperienced person I had no way to choose this word among many others.

OK, as a retired professor, I am surprised that someone would spend as little as 30 min/month to advise a PhD student. Still, that can be valuable. In my experience, it was sometimes possible to determine in 5 minutes where a student had gone off-track and get them moving along again. OTOH, problems they faced were often much more complicated, so more time would be necessary. However, within 30 minutes, it is generally possible to decide what the next steps should be, e.g., what experiments to try, calculations to do, or resources to access, in order for the project to get past the current dilemma. However, I would expect the advisor to wish to know how that worked out in the next several days or so.

It depends on what your expectations are
As with most things our expectations are the driver of how satisfied we are with a relationship and the outcomes.
The best known method that I am aware of to set proper expectations in a professional relationship is ask the individual you are engaging with what their goals are for their own interaction.  You may find that by asking questions of your PhD supervisor regarding their goals for student interaction that you will set proper expectations for the results and allow you to see a strategy for the interaction that can be very beneficial to yourself.
I can almost guarantee you that by asking questions about their goals for students the answers will allow you to make those 30 minutes very valuable and allow you to formulate a strategy to use those 30 minutes in a very productive way.
Rather than seeing the minimal time available perhaps you can reframe the discussion with yourself to see the benefits of the interaction and how you can leverage that time for very strategic questions rather than tactical ones.
Asking them how you can improve your grade may be considered tactical and asking them how you can improve your overall knowledge footprint for long term benefit would be an example.  Try to discover the benefits of the relationship by asking questions in order to see the true value for yourself.

I've never met a PI that didn't love to talk about how great their work is. The onus, I'm afraid, is on you, to schedule more time, express your desire to interact more, and to be persistent. Outside of your influence, he/she is going to do the minimum required. Make it fun for them and watch as their schedule seems to clear.


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Is it possible to outsource some tasks of thesis writing? How and what kind of tasks?
I think that thesis writing is a big project which can be divided into several small-scale tasks. The contribution of the thesis must be done with student himself/herself, but other tasks such as figure preparation, writing in LaTex, editing, training, advising, etc. can be outsourced. Am I right?
In your opinion what kind of tasks can be outsourced and how?

I would definitely hesitate to EVER use the word "illegal" in describing an issue of this nature.  No court of law ever is going to be even the slightest bit interested in the "legality" of your ghostwriting a thesis.  By writing someone else's thesis you might have committed a "fraud" on the institution...but strictly speaking that's not ILLEGAL, but rather "Anti-contractual."

In my opinion, the most ethical and legal answer to someone who is unethically and illegally asks others for writing his thesis (some parts or the whole) in any form (from doing research to typesetting and etc.) is a big NO!
By hearing NO!s from others, that person will understand that he is the only person who is responsible in writing his academic manuscript and he has social responsibility as a student to do his own research.
Thesis research is not something like procurement or construction project to be outsourced.
Help such person and help your society by saying NO to such requests!

Suggestion: change "his" to "his or her" and "he" to "he or she"?

I changed the question to not be duplicate

"... to typesetting". I learned English at a much younger age, than my father, thus I have a much better command of it. He frequently asks me to check for typos, grammatical errors, etc, in papers, he's preparing for submission (I obviously do not expect to be acknowledged in any way in the paper). Is that unethical? If not, why is a thesis different, and where should the line be drawn (and why specifically there)?

@LLlAMnYP you say your father frequently asks you to check for typos [...]; he neither outsources his typesetting to you, nor pays somebody else to write his thesis for him (as described in questions). Asking questions is appreciated in either academic or other situations; but paying money to do research duties is not really acceptable anywhere.

@LLlAMnYP Imagine somebody who received some funding or scholarships, and pays some less money to other people to do the research for him, some other people to write papers for him and some other to typeset his texts and draw graphs! After all, he may save some money from that amount he received as his scholarships besides to a PhD degree which he perfectly managed other people to do it for him. This is absolutely not acceptable in academic context. Research and university is not a place for such people to outsource their academic duties. Students are responsible for their own research duties.

@EnthusiasticStudent Let me be blunter then. How is LaTeX wizardry relevant to research? If someone does not know and can't be bothered to learn LaTeX, or good typesetting skills in general, what is unethical about paying someone to do the tedium for them? Allow me also to point out, that the OP explicitly excludes research work from the question. Also let me note, that re: typesetting, many journals typeset the article for you anyway, while the authors are required to submit in a draft format without prettifying the layout.

@EnthusiasticStudent I am, e.g. thinking of a situation, where the lazy student would honestly write up his thesis in a .txt file (or otherwise convey the text to the typesetter), supply him with a scan of handwritten equations and say "make this pretty in LaTeX" for me. Now admittedly, this student will be a bad scientific employee, because employees are far more efficient, when they can do these tasks themselves, but I cannot see, why his degree in science (not typesetting) would be undeserved.

@LLlAMnYP Let me give an example, do you know any car driver who does not know how to use horn and consequently asks someone else to do it for him? Do you call such person a qualified driver? I do not think he is qualified as a driver at all. The same applies here. Being accepted as a student and wining a scholarship means that the person has some minimum skills. He has minimum capabilities in studying and doing research, knowing English and computer skills. If he lacks some skills, he should try to learn, or pay for some classes to learn that skill, not to pay somebody else to do it for him.

@EnthusiasticStudent In that case we have to agree to disagree, as the car example is, IMO, not equivalent at all. Obtaining a driver's license requires knowledge of, among other things, sounding the horn. Knowledge of LaTeX is not yet common on the list of requirements for research positions (not to mention, that many journals accept Word). Finally, and most importantly, things such as typesetting are simply not enough to merit co-authorship. Therefore, while I agree, that this practice makes the outsourcer a poor employee, it does not take from the value of his research.

@LLlAMnYP I still cannot agree with you, because not having skills in typesetting or LaTeX is not a good reason for the student to outsource his duties. Minimum requirement for a student is the ability to learn new things, and typesetting his own thesis and drawing its figures (as described in the question) are the easiest skills to be learnt if the student does not know them. Nobody expects a student to typeset his thesis or papers texts in a week (because he is not having a typesetting career), but he can do typesetting his texts in a longer period of time (for instance one month).

@EnthusiasticStudent 50 years ago, typists were part of the staff at some institutes to type up papers from scientists' handwritten notes. LaTeX came as a huge step forward in automating the typesetting. I can envision a future, where a more advanced software will typeset a wall of text from notepad properly without any \environments{} input by the user. Universities will likely purchase campus-wide licenses for this software, and suddenly everyone will be outsourcing their typesetting at the expense of the university, again.

@EnthusiasticStudent Wiki entry, explicitly states "... they would have typed up dissertations..."

@LLlAMnYP I am not neglecting typists' specialty, but we are not living in 50 years ago. Now, students have personal computers which give them tools for their research, from searching data and programming, reading papers and books and etc to typing their publications. I think, students should have minimum skill of typing their thesis and papers in a simple notepad document. Even they have not knowledge to work with LaTeX, they should be able to type their documents in a simple notepad page. This skill, at least, does not need to be outsourced.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


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Writing someone else's master's thesis: Unethical and illegal?
It is really difficult for me to decide on this situation: when someone calls me and asks for work-for-hire for his/her thesis. I don't know what to do. I want to help and earn money but I think this way of earning money is unethical.
I think that receiving the title of thesis and giving back prepared manuscript is the intention that some people have, when asking for their thesis to be written.
There are plenty of websites offering such services!
The question is that: Is it legal and or ethical to write someone else's master's thesis as work-for-hire?

there are websites that offer simular services, so it is legal

@SSimon A website offering a service does not imply that it is legal.  And it definitely does not suggest it is legal in every location.

If the question is, "is X legal," then academia.SE is not the best forum to really be asking it.

@Rori you should check those website, they have legal disclosure and privacy policy, dont worry, it is legal

of course, if it is not plagiarized !!!

@SSimon Anyone can put a legal disclaimer and privacy policy on their website.  That does not make it legal in general, and it does not mean it is legal where you are.  The laws around plagiarism vary from country to country. For instance, Polish prosecutors in this case were seeking a 3 year jail sentence against a professor for plagiarism.

Your added paragraph changes the question fundamentally, and it no longer really agrees with the title (nor with the answers as of this writing). Maybe it's best posed as a new question.

@virmaior: I understand that theoretically, each legal question depends on lots of details that can significantly influence the result, which leads to some internet users almost obsessively adding IANAL or similar disclaimers to anything remotely law-related. Still, in general, the best place for asking "is X legal?" for an X specific to a field Y is, for all intents and purposes, a community of professionals in field Y. A world whose inhabitants have no idea whether they are behaving completely legally or committing a severe crime with each action in their daily lives unless they ...

... consult a lawyer is neither realistic nor desirable, in my opinion.

Submitting a thesis written by someone else is unethical, and a violation of the academic integrity policies of most (if not all) universities.  Whether the practice is legal is irrelevant.

A website might legally offer to write your thesis for you (depending on your local laws), but that doesn't mean your university is legally obligated to accept a plagiarized thesis (as indeed, no reputable university would knowingly do so).

@JeffE within the context of academia (and academia.SE), yes, I agree that legality is not our main concern... but before the edits, the question was precisely about legality, making academia.SE and not legality irrelevant.

@O.R.Mapper that's not really what I said ... but also wouldn't field Y in question here be something other than academia proper? Instead, wouldn't it be something like technical writing? Again, making this not the best venue. After the change (at least to the title), the question is a better fit about academia.

@virmaior I disagree.  OP's primary question about legality is completely on-topic for academia.SE; its correct answer is "You're asking the wrong question."

@Rori are you aware that these services and web sites are advertises and recommended by publishers, (elsevier, acs, springer) why is that ok and ethical but thesis writing not? it is not as he is asked to do all thesis by himself, to plagiaze data and made up information.

Which country or countries are you asking about? Ethically, this doesn't make a difference, of course: it's wrong and attacks the the foundations of education. The answer about what the practical legal consequences are depends entirely on location. The laws will be different (and this is not a place for actual legal advice, obviously) but what is of more relevance here is that in some places there will be people more likely to make an example of you and prosecute you to the full extent of the law.

If you want to not assist students in cheating, but still want the possibility of thesis work, contact the school involved to find out what outside assistance they let a student hire. Depending on the school, it could be determined on a school-wide basis, department by department, or professor by professor. What's allowed is not likely to be anything more substantial than proof-reading, or maybe formatting.

As an aside, what exactly do they mean when they want you to write their thesis? I know an old couple who back in the early 80's the husband couldn't type but the wife could so he dictated his masters thesis to her and she typed it up. So technically she "wrote" it down but all of the research and ideas were his.

How legal / ethical would it be to take the money, write the thesis, and then submit it under your own name?

Unethical, yes.  Illegal, almost certainly not.

As a former academic editor, I agree. You are absolutely right!
Whether or not the act is legal, writing someone else's thesis is helping them commit fraud. You would be helping him or her to obtain a degree that he or she has not earned. The question is, do you wish to participate in that kind of activity? I think you have answered your own question.
Yes, there are (depressingly) many, many, thesis "services" out there. There are many people doing dishonest things in the world. That doesn't make them less dishonest.
It sounds a bit as if someone is pressuring you to do this. If this is true, then for me, dealing with such a person involves finding the wording with which I am comfortable making my stand.  Sometimes setting the individual decision in a larger context helps to de-personalize it - I might say that I had considered it, but have decided not to take on full thesis projects as a rule. Or, maybe, I would say that I am going to stick with editing projects for now. Both of these statements relate what my decision is. That is not arguable. I get to say what my decision is. If the person continued to try to argue, I simply repeat what I said, until s/he got it that I was serious. A friend of mine is great at saying, very politely, in many kinds of situations, "I'm sorry, that is not going to work for me," and then offering an alternative. She is voicing a personal preference, against which others can have no legitimate or polite argument. However, every situation is different - each person has to say what reflects his or her thoughts and boundaries.
If this person is desperate because they "have to graduate in May" or whatever, being a former advisor, I would recommend they send see their advisor and confess the truth.  Then, try to figure out some options. The world doesn't usually end if students have to finish a course or two over the summer, perhaps you could offer your services for that time. Many students struggle with a large project without supervison.  Having a writing coach to keep them on track (you) can help a lot.
If you are an editor struggling for money, that is a familiar problem! More marketing may be necessary, and/or check if your rates are what they should be.  If no one ever hesitates when you quote, you may be undercharging. Also, making sure all of your friends know what you are doing, giving them business cards or a flyer, (relatively inexpensive) can help because if you have thirty friends/acquaintances, and they each have thirty, then someone in that 900 must need some editing. This is actually a useful way to search for "regular" jobs too.  When I was editing I did find it did take time for marketing to pay off - it seemed like people would file my name away, and when the time came (like six months later) suddenly I would get a bunch of calls.
Hope some of this is helpful; please disregard the rest! And please excuse any typos - I am edited out for today!
Good luck.

I think this answer really looks to the problem with a deeper level of insight. Noting the OP may be under all sorts of pressures financial or social to do this. However do note, depending on location the "have to graduate in May" thing can be a lot more serious, certain professional courses that require accreditation in certain territories can have truly hard deadlines, failing which results in a failure of the entire degree. I can attest to this and the pressure it results in. I understand why someone would want to pass any way possible in such circumstances, not that it it is justified.

Think about it this way: Eventually one of those people for whom you write the thesis will be working for your stockbroker and influencing your investments, or working for your doctor or a hospital and influencing your medical care, or working for your government and influencing permits and regulations, or ...
Leaving aside the potential immediate consequences for your "principal" and yourself, you would be making the world a worse place for everyone.
Does that answer your question?

It is (or should be!) self evident that doing this is not ethical. The OP's question was whether it was legal, and presumably that means "legal for the OP". I can't think of any legal objection anywhere in the world to person A making a contract with person B to create some written work for them. The legal question is what A does with the work after receiving it, and possibly also whether B knew beforehand that A was going to use it for some illegal purpose.

Actually, OP answered the legality question himself with a NO.  (That may or may not be correct.)  The real question lurks in the last paragraph, and seems to be, "Can I coach someone through their master's thesis, possibly doing most or all of the work?"

+1 for last part of your answer: Leaving aside the [...]

@djechlin I am not sure why this would not be bad in a deontological or virtue ethics framework. The argument works well in those frameworks as well...

+1'd. Any unethical action generates more overall harm than the individual benefits granted by said action.

Depends on what the thesis subject is.  Stick to those subjects for which the degree holder will end up a barista, and you've got no problem.  Except getting paid (50% up front, 50% on delivery!).

@djechlin what if they were being funded by ISIS/Al Qeuda/North Korea to study Chemistry/Biology/Physics/whatever in order to build a weapon of mass destruction in the future.  If the OP does not take the money to write the masters thesis, it is the same ethically as if he performed the beheadings himself.

Just saying, being skilled and getting the job done does not equal being ethical. And I just finished writing my master thesis and don't feel the the writing itself helped me learn something new at all... For me the master thesis was more about the ideas, programming, testing and implementing. Writing is boring and a waste of time for the person who would rather implement and test more stuff instead. So this issue is context dependent and the question was not clear (just writing as in reporting about the work itself or writing as doing the full research etc..)

when someone calls me and asks for work-for-hire for his/her thesis; I don't know what to do

Just say NO.

I am struggling to earn money

There are plenty of ways to make money. Why do you want to do this? Writing a thesis is not an easy way to make money.

I think this way of earning money is not good

Okay. Then why do you want to do it?

However there are plenty of websites offering such services

There are plenty of websites offering good jobs, why not pick some other decent jobs?
Now, back to your main question,

Is it legal to write someone else's master's thesis as work-for-hire?

I am not a lawyer. I don't know the answer in your location. In my location, I do know that you will bear serious consequences if you write someone else's master's thesis and get caught . There are cases that people did this and their own degree would be revoked by the Ministry of Education.

I do agree with you. I never accept such offerings. But when I see that some websites offer such services (e.g. we write your thesis from scratch), it makes me doubted whether I am mistaken.

In our country:
It is not legal to do such work.
But there is no action from ministry of education to prevent it.
There are advertisements across the city announcing such services.
Most of the graduates are unemployed.
There are a lot of universities offering Master.
So, the graduates when offered with paid thesis writing, they accept it. Advisers have less time to help their students.

Re "There are plenty of websites offering good jobs such as helping poor disabled people.": Supporting evidence, please?

Re. 'people did this and their own degree would be revoked' Do you have examples? Some degrees have been withdrawn when cheating within those qualifications has come to light, but I think it would generally be impossible for a university (or any other body) to remove a degree on arbitrary grounds of disapproving of something. I might be the most callous arms-smuggling, wife-beating murderer, writing other people's homework in my spare time, but no-one (including my universities) can control or modify my legitimately-achieved qualifications. That would be illegal, would it not?

I don't see anything legally or ethically wrong with writing someone else's masters thesis.  I do suspect that the kind of person who would hire this out would be difficult so I would refuse this work on practical grounds.

@CaptainCranium universities can set their own policies.  My university reserves the right to revoke degrees for a broad range of offenses committed during student times.  If one of my classmates smuggled arms while studying and the evidence only recently surfaced, the university could revoke his degree - so many years later.

@CaptainCranium in fact one of the professors at my alma mater did some illegal funded research for Saddam Hussein related to advanced weaponry.  No one revoked his degree, but the Mossad assassinated him.

@emory Exactly my point: if I misbehave(d) during my own studies then a university can retrospectively disown me, within its own policies. It cannot, however, do anything about the degree that it legitimately awarded me if it suddenly starts disapproving of my later Nazism, flat-Earthiness or oil painting.

@emory And I have to say that, personally, I feel that a sharp pragmatic distinction should be made between academic disapproval and being targeted by Mossad. The latter seems almost flattering.

@CaptainCranium In my location, degree awarding needs to be approved by Ministry of Education (MoE). If somebody is caught cheating, say plagiarism on their thesis, the MoE can revoke the degree. If someone hires somebody to write master's thesis, both the degree awardee and the ghost writer's degree would be revoked (assume the ghost writer did have a degree). I can find examples, but they are in Chinese (our language). I do not want to include here for reasons.

@jamesqf I edited out "helping poor disabled people". Thanks for your feed back.

@R.GholizadehR. : some websites offer other services. Some offer cracked software or pirated media. Some offer child pornography. Some offer recipes for bombs or illegal drugs. The fact that such websites exist do not make those services legal. Many such sites operate in countries where either corruption is very high, or have no extradition treaties with countries where the target users of those websites live.

@vsz, to complete your comment:  "...Nor does the fact that those websites exist make such actions ethical."

There are cases that people did this and their own degree would be revoked by the Ministry of Education. Supporting evidence?

The primary question is that: Is it legal to write someone else's master's thesis as work-for-hire?

No, it is not illegal in the US to ghostwrite someone else's thesis.
The source is a former Texas Tech professor who did this to get through hard times.
Your other question about what you should do has been beaten to death by other, highly-upvoted answers.

What in the OP's question leads you to believe this is about the US?

@MichaelKjörling, I didn't any specification in the comments or question about what legal jurisdiction he was asking about, so I specified one.

How does it help if you jump to conclusions about where the OP is working/studying?

Moreover, without knowing more details of the case at hand, how do you know that the rules have not changed since 2009?

Unfortunately, this is probably correct in the USA legal context, which, of course, may be irrelevant to the OP. There may be some gray area if the student made false reports to a government scholarship committee.

I doubt this is correct when you know the intended use even in the US, as you would be complicit in fraud.

I also find the link to be an inadequate source (a HuffPo article from 2012, which does not link to any legal ruling, only the claim of the former TT prof.)

Since you partially reverted my edit, perhaps you want to reconsider the grammar of the text in your quote-box. Indirect speech versus direct speech, and all that

@YemonChoi, thanks for the edit suggestions; I think you were right about the large font formatting. However, I'm not comfortable changing OP's direct quote.

If you are aware (or have enough reasons to believe) that your work is going to be used as a thesis, you may be considered a co-conspirator, a necessary accessory to crime, or something else, depending on your jurisdiction. So, in my non informed opinion, you are not legally safe.
You point out that there are many of these cases, and they seem to get away. The problem with a broken system is that, at some point, someone is bound to annoy the wrong person: think the surgeon operating on the minister's son, or the Dean's favourite student not getting the top grade, and then heads will roll, and you may find yourself being the scapegoat for the whole country.
Lastly, the existence of websites is not guarantee of legality. First of all, it will be difficult to find out who is actually behind it, and second, it may be difficult to enforce punishments. For example, I am based in Europe, and I am pretty sure if I started writing theses for US students, it would be nearly impossible for the Department of Education to get to me: they would have to get an extradition (if even possible), get my country to cancel my degree, etc. You, on the other hand, are in the same country, and therefore, accessible to the full weight of the law.

have enough reasons to believe as in having the phrase Master Thesis on the title page?

Just let's treat this as a theoretical problem.

We are now putting ethics aside and focusing on the legal aspect.
(I BELIEVE that what I am presenting is COMMON - meaning that it is true for many countries, and for sure is in line with the European Union laws).
If you do not have samples (let's say - patient's blood) you can pay a company that will arrange a clinical trial and pay the patients for participating in this trial. Data acquired this way are legal.
If you do not have a PCR machine in the lab you can ask another company to do the PCR for you and pay them for it. This is legal.
If you can not interpret the results you could pay a consulting company to write you a report, analyze the samples. You will have to pay them for it. It is legal. This report might be of course big and vast - meeting full requirements of a thesis. This is still legal.

BUT
If a person takes this report - discards the first page with the company's logo, writes his name on it and claims they have written it - this is illegal.
So writing a thesis/report for someone is actually legal, and it is best if you never knew what this is actually for.
The actual fraud is when a Ph.D. student signs a disclosure where he states that this work is his own.
Now if you know that this report is going to be used to commit fraud - then you should have ethical dilemmas - and they are there for a reason.
If you decide to write it anyway - do not tell anyone about it because it may cost you your academic career.

For everything but the last sentence: +1

Let me complement the other answers by pointing out what and how helping with a thesis is legal and ethical:

Expert help during a thesis in itself is both legal and ethical.
As @WojciechF points out that typical situations range from getting samples over measurements to data analysis. In addition, you'd typically discuss the interpretation with colleagues and your supervisor and in my field (natural sciences) having someone proofread your thesis is even recommended (and as legal as using spell correcting software).
It is also legal and ethical for the student to pay someone to typeset their text and to make high-quality graphics/drawings/diagrams according to the student's instructions/draft and from the student's data (though that would be considered a luxury).
But the student (here: Germany) declares which help they had for the thesis. This has to include (typically in the form of acknowledgements) everyone from the TA that took samples/did measurements (who would not endanger instrument by letting other people's master students fiddle around with it) to the supervisor and colleagues for helpful discussion and advice and proofreading friends/family.
If that does not leave enough own work, there are no ethical problems but the student will fail because of poor performance. In order to avoid this, it is advisable to discuss with the supervisor beforehand which help will be obtained and what is the student's very own work in the thesis.
I'd also consider an opposite ethical point of view: for everything that is not to be done by the student and that is not considered luxury the institute/project and not the student should pay. This way, there is no discussion whether it is OK to have help for sampling, measurements, data analysis consulting.

I do consulting, also for students. However, that's on the basis that the institute pays (hired me as remote-working part-time postdoc instead of as a freelancer - but that'd just legal contract details).
If I had the impression someone may be tempted to omit the proper acknowledgements, here are some steps to take:

Ask the student whether this consulting has the OK of the supervisor. This can be done when asking who is to pay: the institute or the student. Suggest that the default is the institute should pay, and that you'll accordingly send an offer for the consulting to the institute.
(business perspective: even though universities are very bad at paying in time)
In the consulting contract, make the student sign that

they will properly acknowledge this help in any work using the results of this consulting
as far as this consulting constitutes proper research authorship, you'll be co-author of any papers that use the results of this consulting
the use of figures/diagrams/tables in theses is permitted on proper acknowledgement ("Courtesy of ...."/"with kind permission by ...")
you'll get an electronic copy of the thesis (this gives you the means of checking whether your reserved copyrights are violated).

I don't feel competent to comment on the the legal or ethical aspects of your situation; my answer is strictly economical.
You should simply demand so much money that you would be equally happy whether your prospective client utilizes your services or not. (This principle is actually independent of the kind of service.)

While being able to write up your own work is an important part of the education, the students who use these thesis writing services are not going to stay in academia, they only need to have a degree as a pure formality to get a job outside of academia. Usually, only a fraction of what they learned is of use to them. With very high tuition fees to deal with, these students often have multiple jobs and suffer from sleep deprivation as a result. From their perspective, it's quite reasonable to cut corners to get the degree they need asap.
We also need to keep in mind here that someone doing the thesis writing work won't be able to do a lot of nontrivial research work for the student. This means that if the student is able to outsource the bulk of the total effort for research and writing to a thesis writing service, then it follows that the research part is quite trivial. We can thus safely conclude that the academic value of such a degree is quite low, we're certainly not talking about Ph.D theses in hard sciences like physics or chemistry, instead it could be a master thesis in a soft science like sociology. But in practice, as I pointed out above, it's typically going to be used by students who need the degree as a pure formality.
As far as pure academic work is concerned, it is uncommon for people to not write up their own research work, but there are exceptional cases e.g. if a scientist suffers from dyslexia. Also, non-native English speakers may have difficulties writing up their scientific papers, Elsevier has a professional scientific writing service for such scientists.
Niels Bohr is a notable example of a great scientists who was so bad at writing that his mother had to write his thesis for him:

Bohr could never master the language he spoke or wrote. In fact in his school, Bohr’s worst subject had been Danish composition. It is said that even for writing a postcard Bohr would first prepare a draft. Bohr was not at all comfortable in writing. He dictated his entire doctoral thesis to his mother. While Bohr’s father thought that a PhD student should write his own thesis but his mother firmly believed the task was hopeless. Most of Bohr’s later work and correspondence was dictated to his wife and his secretaries or co-workers. He took long time to write a paper. Seven or eight drafts were very common. Bohr shaped his ideas while orally communicating with other fellow physicists.

In conclusion, while at first sight it may not look ethical to work for a thesis writing company, if we take into account the context in which these companies operates, that should lead to a different view. Context matters because it's no good applying very strict ethical norms selectively, e.g. if you don't want to work on ethical grounds for a thesis writing company and instead consider getting a job at McDonald's, are you then going to consider the ethics of selling Big Macs to obese people?

@djechlin That's irrelevant, the question is about whether or not there is anything wrong with doing thesis writing work.

Paraphrasing Stephen Jay Gould, a man does not achieve Bohr's status just by having difficulties writings, he must also be right. One thing is transcribing the student's work, another is writing the report by yourself and sell it finished. Also, what kind of job requires a MSc, and does not involve writing up reports, documentation, protocols, or similar? I honestly cannot think of any.

You seems to have misunderstood the question. The question is not about getting people to "write up your own work" (i.e. typesetting as in the Bohr example), but rather about getting people to do the whole research for you (including writing it up). Also "In academia you must of course be able to write up your own work" is not correct. Dictating a thesis to your mother/friend/secretary who types it in is perfectly OK even today. Having for example dyslectia does not exclude you from being a good scientists.

What others have said. Keep in mind the difference between doing the work (like the OP is being asked to), and writing down what someone says about their work (like the example of dictating texts to friends/family members/coworkers/secretary/etc.).

@Winther Doesn't the last paragraph of the OP in its current form imply, that the question, in part, is also about the write-up?

@LLlAMnYP That is a valid point which I missed. Thanks for mentioning this. The question do ask about this, though the main question is about the ethical issue of doing the whole thesis for someone. Given the reception of this answer it would be useful if the answerer would clarify what issues he/she is (and is not) addressing in the first few paragraphs when saying "this is not a ethical issue". On rereading it some of the preceding paragraphs seems to suggest that this also applies to writing the whole thesis as an degree is "only a pure formality" and "only a fraction is of use".

@Winther "getting people to do the whole research for you" can only work if that so-called "research" is quite trivial in the first place, so this whole idea that somehow due to these thesis writing services, you're going to get people with degrees suggesting that they are highly qualified in some specialized discipline while they are incompetent, is a bogus idea.

@Winther I have heard of occurrences in Russia, where internal bureaucracy at the workplace suddenly decides, that all employees holding certain positions must have a degree. They are usually sent to diploma mills to sort this out ASAP. There the degree and thesis are indeed "a pure formality".

@CountIblis Forget I used the word research then and replace it with "doing the acctual work of coming up with the thesis". Do you claim this is "not an ethical issue"?

@LLlAMnYP That is completely irrelevant to the discussion here.

@Winther it's a practical example of a situation this answer describes, and also a response to your quote "only a pure formality"

@Winther One has to consider the relevant context here. This is not about  people getting degrees/qualifications that they are totally incompetent for. It has a lot more to do with the situation in the US where a high school degree is worthless because the level of the education there is too low, you have to get a college degree to get a decent job, but most of what you then learn there is not going to be useful for you, and with a few low paying jobs to pay for college and severe sleep deprivation, you may want to skip writing your thesis.

@CountIblis What about the hard-working student who did not get a job because a guy that cheated himself to a higher grade by using such services got it instead? You suggest an ethical standard where cheating is ok as long as it's not too severe.

@Winther That's a problem that should be fixed by Hillary or Sanders, they should tackle the root causes of the problem, i.e. improve secondary education and make college affordable. A hard working student who is able to do without these services will still do better than someone who needs to use these services on the long run.

@CountIblis That argument can be used to justify almost any action and your last conjecture is wishful thinking at best. Anyway, thank you for clarifying your position and I appologize for suggesting that you might have misunderstood the question which was not the case. I don't have much more to say here except that I strongly disagree with your take on this.

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text:
Writing a Master's thesis for 2 years ... is that appropriate?
I am currently three months into writing a Master's thesis for a Master's degree in Mathematics, and the school I am currently attending is a California state university. I was asking my thesis advisor if I can expand the scope of the topic of my thesis, which means I would have to anticipate 2 years of working on the thesis (instead of 1 year).
However, as I am also applying to various math Ph.D programs after completing my Master's thesis and degree, my thesis advisor is not keen to the idea of working on a larger scope of my thesis for 2 years. My advisor says that this would be "inappropriate", that he thinks the faculty on admissions committees would be confused and that my advisor would "not be doing his job" (in having me finish in 1 year, or "soon enough").
I for one disagree with my advisor personally, because I thought that expanding the scope of my thesis, even if it would take longer for me to complete and defend, would look even better on my Ph.D applications. I thought this would actually impress the committee rather than confusing them. I wanted to demonstrate that my finished thesis would reflect my having looked into more mathematical papers in research literature, as opposed to only two papers, which were chosen by my advisor, that I'm reading currently for my thesis topic.
So I'm asking here simply for more thoughts on this matter. I do hope my point is valid, but if it seems most of the people here are agreeing with my thesis advisor, then I'll understand either way.
tl;dr: I want to write more to my Master's thesis and plan to take 2 years instead of 1 year. My advisor disagrees and thinks the Ph.D admissions committees won't like this. Is this true?

Of course it's hard to say without knowing a lot about your specific situation, but I doubt spending an extra year on your master's thesis would be worthwhile.  In particular, if your advisor doesn't think another year is a good use of time, then I'd bet he is right.
Completing a master's degree is not necessary before applying to Ph.D. programs in mathematics in the U.S., and the primary purpose is to make up for a weak background or to shift fields.  From this perspective, the main goal is to do good work and move on, not to spend extra time trying to accomplish even more.  That comes across as eccentric, like you are wasting time on a side track rather than moving on with your academic career.
Two years in a master's program is the upper limit for what's normal in mathematics in the U.S., and this includes coursework.  Spending two full years working on a master's thesis would be unusual.  If you spend an unusually long time on your master's thesis, it may look like you just weren't able to write one more quickly, either because you weren't adequately prepared or you aren't good at getting things done.

I thought that expanding the scope of my thesis, even if it would take longer for me to complete and defend, would look even better on my Ph.D applications.

If you write a much better thesis, it could be worthwhile, but it needs to be dramatically better even after normalizing for the time spent.  Linear scaling can't help you: if you spend twice as long writing a thesis that looks like it involves twice as much work, then it won't end up being a significantly better demonstration of your abilities.  The only real benefit is if your thesis is much better than twice as good.  (For example, if you have almost proved a significant new theorem, you might be better off taking longer and actually proving it.)

"the primary purpose is to make up for a weak background or to shift fields" ... This is exactly my case, too, because I was an undergraduate engineering major

I was curious, if I may ask: Were you a member of an admission's committee in your department at your university? Your answer seems to reflect this, I think.

Yes, I've served on admissions committees.  Regarding transitioning from engineering, it could be worth spending more time if it really helps with the transition.  (But I wouldn't recommend it if you have already caught up and are now just doing additional graduate-level work.)

And even if you aren't in the U.S., spending more time on a master's than you need to is probably not worthwhile. When you're passionate about your research, it's natural to want to make it perfect. But part of the advisor's job is to balance out your enthusiasm with practical considerations. If you want to do more on the topic, you can do it after your master's.

To be more explicit about what others might be implying, it is important to realize that spending an unusually long time on your Masters Thesis is almost certainly going to provide evidence to admissions committees that you could spend an unusually long time writing your Ph.D. Thesis, and this is almost certainly going to be viewed as something negative about your application.


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Financial Support for Master's Programs in Pure Math
I'm an undergrad studying pure mathematics, and graduate school applications are around the corner. My ultimate aim is to do a PhD in pure mathematics. I understand that in several places (e.g., Canada, the UK, Germany, France, & Switzerland), it is the norm to require a Master's degree before one can pursue a PhD.
While it is clear that PhDs are funded, there doesn't seem to be a blanket rule for Master's degrees across universities, in terms of any financial support. I have visited several universities' web pages, and some do provide funding through TA/RA stipends, but this seems quite variable. I figured it would be helpful to ask a question here so that I can understand the situation beyond the fine print (i.e., if there is financial support, is it sufficient? What ways of securing funding exist?). I am certain this post and the answers to it shall be of massive help to everyone looking to do a Master's degree in pure math.
Question: Are there universities that have financial support (in terms of TA/RA stipends, fellowships/scholarships, etc.) for a Master's degree in pure math? In particular, I'm asking for universities in:

The US & Canada
The UK
Germany, France, Switzerland

Note that I shall be an international student in all of the above countries.
Also, if funding is available, is it guaranteed for the duration of one's Master's degree, or are there any strings attached (such as excellent academic performance and/or research)? If there are any country/region-specific scholarships/fellowships one should know about, feel free to let me know!
I believe graduate students and professors may be most equipped to answer this question, perhaps based on first or second-hand experiences, or even just common knowledge. Thanks a lot!

In Canada, most if not all provide funding for master's because you do not apply directly to the PhD program from undergrad (with exceptions, I imagine). What I suggest is that for schools in the US, apply to the PhD program. You will get your master's on the way. If you do not want to pursue the PhD after getting your master's, you can simply leave. The vast majority of PhDs in math are funded. A minority of terminal master's in math are funded. Typically, preference is given to PhD candidates when it comes to TA/RAships over terminal master's students in the US.

@CameronWilliams Thanks a lot! For the US, I plan to apply only to PhD programs. About Canada: Could you possibly elaborate on the nature of funding for master's? Is it by means of TA/RA stipends, fellowships, or something else? Wouldn't the university prefer PhD students over master's students for TA/RAships, even in Canada? In that case, is the funding guaranteed, or is it a grey area (i.e., it depends on whether or not you get the job of a TA/RA)? Lastly, can one live off solely the funding obtained from the university during master's, considering that tuition needs to be paid as well?

No. Direct application to PhD programs seems to be isolated to certain countries/cultures. From what I gather, a large portion of the world does formal bachelor's->master's->PhD tracks rather than bachelor's->PhD with an incidental master's partway through. Tuition is typically covered on top of TA/RAships, and you are not typically accepted to schools in Canada without them (you can't actually live in Canada if you are not from Canada without a paying job). As for whether the pay is enough.. I'm not sure in Canada. Their rent/housing market is absolutely insane. (The US is getting there.)

Money was a little tight when I went to Waterloo for my master's. I got a second job as a tutor through the university which paid pretty well ($25/hour? with allowances for more IIRC). That with my TAship was fairly comfortable living at the time (10 years ago).

Regarding Germany, check this page
https://www.studentenwerk-muenchen.de/blog/artikel/2022/02/arbeit-waehrend-des-studiums
the last two sections apply to you.
Yes, the page is in German, use the online translator of your choice (an excellent alternative, much better than the famous Alpha product, is https://www.deepl.com )

Regarding Germany, the DAAD would be my first point to look, see for example this program: daad.de/go/en/stipa50026200 but there might probably be others as well.

I can only answer for the US, though it might apply to Canada as well.
Since people get directly accepted into the Ph.D. program, there is no support for people who only want to get a M.S. degree (or, like you, who want to get the M.S. in order to apply for a Ph.D. elsewhere). Also, funding in pure Mathematics is tight. The reasons for someone to only want the M.S. are usually that they see it as a good investment or because they want to be student a little bit longer. The time is too short (two years or less) for a student to be likely to be productive in pure Mathematics, so faculty are not incentivized to spend time and resources on an MS student. They are more likely to spend time than money, because they do not have the money.
You might be able to find support as a TA, but if there is also a Ph.D. program, the TA positions are given to Ph.D. students. Thus, you should be looking at Mathematics departments that do not have a Ph.D. program, but since you are coming from abroad, it is unlikely that you will get hired into a TA position (just because of fear of lack of language skills or teaching skills).

Unfortunately, the answer here is sometimes yes, sometimes no, and that you have to read the fine print at each individual place.  Masters programs in particular are a grab-bag of different kinds of programs.  This is very crude, but basically they tend to fall into programs that function like the first year or two of Ph.D. or like an extra year of undergrad.
At most universities in Canada, a masters is a required part of the progression to Ph.D., and in that situation, I think you can start with the expectation that master's programs will have funding packages similar to a Ph.D. program: they will include a stipend and cover your tuition, that this will be a part of your offer of admission, and that while "guaranteed" is probably too strong, since you can always get kicked out of the program, any withdrawal of it is quite rare.
On the other hand, there are other kinds of masters, the most notable one being as part III at Cambridge, which typically do expect students to pay tuition and to function basically as a bonus year of undergrad (these are also called "post-bacs" at some schools).  Master's programs at US schools are often in this category (NYU's is one I've seen come up often).
So, you're just going to need to do your research on each individual program.  You shouldn't be shy about emailing the relevant graduate administrator at each program, to ask them the questions above, since they know far better than we do.  Even people on here with experience in particular systems can't really speak to what will be happening next year.

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text:
Do reading projects get any recognition?
Background: I'm an undergrad math major, starting my third year of college soon. This summer, I worked on a reading project (some graduate-level math topics) under the guidance of a professor from a foreign institution (all interaction was online.) Besides reading, I also prepared the solutions' manual of a significant portion of the textbook I was reading (not readily available on the internet, so definitely a good deal of original effort involved here.)
The issue:

I wish to put this on my Curriculum Vitae, but I'm not sure how to.

The professor hasn't been very responsive with regard to any recognition for the project either, though they have showered a lot of verbal praise (trust me - everything went great.) Of course, I'm grateful for whatever I learned over this summer, but also it seems important to have some sort of concrete recognition of the same for obvious reasons.

Did I make a mistake by not discussing this with the professor in advance? In any case, if reading projects of the kind that I described above are generally recognized, what should be my course of action at this stage (or can nothing be done)?

Thank you!

By "cv" do you mean a resume, or a formal curriculum vitae like the ones used by academics? The word "cv" means different things in different places.

I think a formal curriculum vitae. Basically the CV they ask for when undergrads apply to research programs, graduate programs, etc.

More important than putting the reading course on your CV would be getting a letter of recommendation from the professor, describing what you material studied and your work on the solutions manual.

I feel somewhat stupid now. I never discussed the possibility of a letter of recommendation with the professor. Is it implicit, or does it have to be discussed? Moreover, I just asked them "how do I put this on my CV" since that never came up earlier. Is it too late to ask for a letter? @AndreasBlass

I think you should explicitly request a letter of recommendation.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but don't letters of recommendation work the following way - when applying to grad programs/research programs, we request the professor to write us a letter, and they send it directly to the concerned authorities? I'm very unsure. What purpose would asking for a letter now fulfill? Can I reproduce the same letter later when applying to places? Thank you.

@epsilon-emperor "when applying to grad programs/research programs, we request the professor to write us a letter, and they send it directly to the concerned authorities" - Yes, this is the normal way of doing things, at least in the US where I am familiar. You might prompt someone that you'd like to ask for a letter in the future so that they A) Can let you know if they'd have a problem with this, so you will know not to count on them, and B) it'll give them a moment to think about it and even take notes so they are more prepared to write the letter in the future.

Answering your questions in order:

Yes, it would definitely be effective to list on your CV.
From my experience with professors, supervising students, and interacting with faculty around supervising students, faculty don't always have top of mind how to recognize concrete work. A reason for this has been, to some extent, changing conventions of how to recognize work between academic generations (i.e., when they were in grad school the conventions might have been different).
I think it probably would have been helpful for you to consider with the professor how you would describe this project on a CV. And, given that the project went really well by your own description, and since it's your own CV, you have some flexibility on how to describe it. See below on my suggestions.

I would agree that you could put it under "Additional Scholarly Activities" or a "Projects" section, but it would likely be helpful to you to call-out, in the title of the section, the fact that it was graduate-level math topics you were dealing with. Because you're still an undergrad this has special significance to an admissions committee, in that you've demonstrated competency engaging with graduate level course work before even being in grad school. In other words, it speaks to your potential ability to succeed in a grad program.
My suggestion would be to:

First, have a separate section on your CV labeled "Graduate-Level Coursework" and describe the reading project from a topics perspective like you would describe any other kind of coursework.
Second, create a section that is called "Unpublished Solutions Manuals," or a similar type of phrase, and list the solution manual you created in the citation format used in your field.

This way, you get credit for both the coursework and the work product (the manual) you produced.

Amazing, thanks a lot!

My view is that, yes, you should put it on your CV or resume or whatever you want to call it. That is more important for an undergraduate than for someone with more experience, however. And yes, as comments suggest, ask the prof for a letter as well if you think it would be supportive.
Note, however, that my experience is with the US, in which graduate admissions is based on a broad view of the candidate with many things contributing to acceptance. Things that are unusual, if positive, should be mentioned. If your readings and work were for a non-typical undergraduate subject, all the better. It shows interest, hard work, and dedication.
It won't be a major thing, but, at the margins, can make some difference. You might make it a separate section on a CV: "Additional Scholarly Activities".
Whether you made a mistake or not is irrelevant as the past is the past. But it is worthwhile keeping up the contact if possible.

That makes sense! Yes - I'll be applying for grad school in the US. My thoughts are I could just add it to the "Projects" section, stating that it's a reading project and what all I accomplished, etc. Sounds good?

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How do I find summer projects in math?
I'm a sophomore undergraduate majoring in mathematics, and I'm pretty sure about eventually applying to graduate school in pure math. However, I haven't done much other than coursework so far, and I'm trying to plan a productive summer (learning something new, perhaps interacting with professors). By the time summer begins, I will have completed all basic math courses such as Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, Set Theory, First Order Logic, etc. Apart from this, I've spent some time self-studying advanced topics such as Graph Theory, for example.
I think the above background is sufficient for me to at least learn about advanced math topics, if not do research at this stage. By advanced, I mean anything that would have at least one of the above topics as prerequisites, for example, Category Theory or Algebraic Geometry.

What do summer projects in math look like? I believe, for the most part, these would just be directed reading projects (which is great too). How do I find such projects?
Big Question: Would it be a good idea to cold email professors (ones who I've had no prior interaction with, but I really want to work with them at some point) and ask if they'd be willing to advise me on a reading project or such? I'm thinking of approaching professors at institutions different from mine - in particular, places where I'd like to go to grad school too. Would this be a good idea? I'm aware that professors are busy and they're not likely to respond to undergrad students from other institutions easily, but seems worth trying.
In addition, would it also be a good idea to reach out to postdocs or senior PhD students in math? I guess they could be good mentors for reading projects, too.

Lastly, if anyone has any other ideas for spending a productive summer in pure mathematics, do let me know! (apart from summer schools and REUs, I guess. Most of them are limited to US citizens/residents, making them useless for me).

Related (for finding problems): https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/116377/19607

Talk to you current professors.

Few professors will have any incentive to work with you. They are either busy in summer months or unwinding from otherwise intense efforts. If you have a personal connection to someone it might be different, but "cold contacts" probably will fail, even not getting any response.
But there are a few things you could try.
First, it may be that your current instructors could guide you if you don't put much burden on them.
Next, they might have maintained contact with their own teachers and can introduce and recommend you to a distant university professor.
Third, you can find the course requirements online for some topic of interest to you and get a copy of the textbook. Get the syllabus if available and follow it. This will give you access to readings and possibly exercises that you can do. Do a lot of them. Getting feedback on your results will be an issue, but maybe someone local can help you.
Finally, you might consider forming a study group if you can find others who are interested and work together to learn and give each other feedback. A local professor might help you arrange such a thing and even provide minimal guidance.


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How can I politely request a professor to avoid late evening/night classes?
Background: I am a junior undergrad math major in India, and I am taking a graduate-level math course this semester for which attendance is mandatory. This is the last week of instruction (i.e., Friday is the last working day of the semester), and it is immediately followed by endterm exams (starting Saturday itself). One of my professors wishes to take certain classes and meet for presentations (by students), after dinner time. This is quite unusual, keeping in mind that the official university timetable does not have any lecture slots after 20:00. Regardless, I do not mind it, as long as the classes/presentations do not run for too long. We plan to meet at 20:00/20:30, and it's no trouble if the classes end by 22:30, or even 23:00, in the worst case. I am an early sleeper, I have faced certain sleep issues in the past, and I strongly do not prefer late night classes, i.e., ones that may run beyond 22:30 for example.
Question: How can I communicate my concerns and politely request the professor to perhaps ensure (i) some upper bound on the classes/presentation time, (ii) that I do not have to stay too late, or (iii) find some other time, earlier in the day? It seems like a reasonable ask since the class timings are abnormal, and later than usual. I would prefer not to play around much with my sleep schedule, especially since finals are starting soon.
Update: Thank you everyone for your advice! I voiced my concerns firmly to the instructor and requested a different, possibly earlier time slot. With consent from other students in the course, we were able to figure out a time in the afternoon/early evening for the final presentations! It's a win.

These are really late times. I can't imagine listening to a presentation given at 22:00 and not falling asleep!

So in the last week of class he suddenly scheduled late night classes?

I doubt the professor likes being that late either they are unlikely to be doing this if there was a viable alternative.

@StephenG-HelpUkraine Requiring students to attend classes and present after normal class hours (10 pm and even later!) should absolutely not be considered a "viable alternative."

@Andrew the OP is asking about classes which, as far as I can tell from their post, have not yet begun, and are scheduled to start at about 20:00 hrs (not 22:00 hrs).  The OP seems to be worry about what might happen rather than addressing an actual consistent pattern over an extended period.  It sounds like something that has to be fitted-in by year-end and we don't know the backstory to that.

I think you’d get better advice asking somewhere India-specific. Nothing at all like this happens in any university I’m familiar with, and the same is true of the vast majority of users of this site.

For context, in the USA the latest class I ever took was a 2-hour lecture from 18:30 to 20:30. It was brutal and I dropped it after a few sessions.

@shadowtalker I had one that was later than that at the start of the (fall) semester.  It was an once/week astronomy lab class.  IIRC the initial sessions ran from 20:00 to 23:00 (plus a half hour bus ride back to campus afterwards); because other than an initial 30-60m lecture it had to be full dark before we could begin.  By the end of the semester start/end times were about 2 hours earlier.

To those saying this should never happen or is unfair, there are many evening degrees courses that are designed to have lectures starting at about 6-7pm and ending at about 9-10pm.  That's something people typically attend afetr working in a full time job all day and requiring them to study and do course work after that (not to mention weekdays and weekends when they don't have lectures).  The people doing these courses work just as hard and take the courses just as seriously as the "day" students.

@StephenG-HelpUkraine indeed, but that doesn't make it less difficult; I think in general society fails to acknowledge just how difficult something like a night course can be.

@StephenG-HelpUkraine Yeah, but people sign up for those knowing the schedule. It's unacceptable to require students to do their final presentations outside of class time, much less outside of the university operating hours. No one said anything about evening courses being less serious.

Could you rephrase that, at least to recognise the conceptual difference between  broad process and specific meaning?
If you truly have trouble understanding how to politely request anyone - including your  professor to avoid anything - incluoding late evening/night classes?
How can I politely request a professor to avoid late evening/night classes?

You just have to ask, but you probably can't affect the schedule since the professor has other constraints. But you could ask to make your own presentation early in the time period or at some alternate time, giving the reasons.
They might make an accommodation or not. But your ask is probably reasonable as long as you don't make it a complaint or try to move the entire session.
If the presentations are by groups, not individuals, you might even be able to request an excused absence, offering to make it up, somehow at some other time.

The presentations are by individuals, and I shall request to make my presentation early in the time period. While it is mandatory to attend other students' presentations, I hope the professor won't mind if it gets too late (I have an exam the next day, and invariably, I need to get proper sleep).

Make sure he is informed of your constraints, especially the next-day exam. You might also explore options with that other professor about a special exam for that course.

Thanks, I have informed the professor of my constraints!

Since this is a graduate-level class, one of the constraints may be that the other students are working during the day and can only take evening classes.

Don't forget you're probably not the only one with a similar concern. Your request will help the instructor understand just how many people are impacted and can reduce the likelihood of similar late events in the future, even if it doesn't result in any changes for this particular instance.

Keep in mind that if one person wants to be done early and leave, then this will likely cause a flood of such requests and some resentment from those obliged to go late.

Not sure about India, but in the US and other countries I have experience with, a professor cannot schedule mandatory class meetings at a time that contravenes the normal university policy about when classes can be scheduled. If this also applies in India, then you do not need to request anything, only to inform. For example, by writing an email like this:

Dear Professor,
I am looking forward to our presentation session this Friday at 20:00. I wanted to let you know however that I will have to leave at 22:00.
Sincerely,
connected-subgroup

Well-intentioned advice, but not applicable in most Indian universities (which are diverse in their norms and practices). OP, please don't do this. I should also add that these unusual times are often popular with a large set of students who (supposedly) find it productive/convenient etc.

@AppliedAcademic can you explain in what way specifically the advice isn’t applicable?

Instructors are often given large leeway with scheduling. If the university is residential (most students live on campus- I think this is OP's situation), this is a fairly common practice, and not clandestine. A request may be considered for genuine reasons (I believe OP's might), but summary information will not be taken well in the cultural context.

@AppliedAcademic okay. I admit I do not know Indian culture well enough to judge the relevance of what I wrote.

With the cultural context & geography in mind, I suggest you determine how important this issue is to you. Is it the hill you choose to die upon (something you stand by, irrespective of the cost), a minor inconvenience, or something in between.
If it is minor, I agree with @Arriel that you should try to put up with it. The instructor is probably operating under some time constraints and this may be the only available slot.
If the inconvenience is severe, please speak to the instructor and try to work out a mutually accommodative solution. If others are in the same boat, you will have a stronger case. Conversely, if most of the class enjoys this time, then you may consider evaluating what makes your requirement different from theirs- this could also help articulate your case clearly.
I have been part of similarly scheduled activities, and found them to be more common in residential universities (the logistics of off-normal classes are simpler here). My impression is that these are the only ways long activities (longer than a lecture hour) can be accommodated. The presentation model you describe- where other students are required to attend and critique- is one such. Personally, I (and most others, if I remember right) found these rather enjoyable and relaxed (partly because the instructors were generous with coffee and snacks). This may also be because the focus of the activity was different than a usual lecture; paper discussions at times, seminars at others, applied tutorials occassionally.
You may have an entirely different experience; if you feel strongly against it, do communicate with the instructor amicably. Don't escalate unless you've done this.

Thanks a lot for your advice! Kindly check the updated post. Also, yes, you had the most accurate judgement of the situation - in that instructors here are given large leeway with scheduling, and even though the time slots were outside usual university operating hours; there was no "official" way to show that this contravenes university policy. Furthermore, quite a few students also found it convenient, given that all of us stay on-campus, so traveling is not an issue. Anyway, I'm glad we figured something out!

Well done, congratulations!


text:
Is undergraduate research typically funded? Should it be?
Are undergraduate research positions typically funded? If yes, why so - given that undergraduates do not have a lot to offer in terms of research outcomes? Also, which type of research positions are funded?
I ask this because, one wouldn't expect mathematics research opportunities (other than REUs, I guess) for undergraduates to be funded, right? Undergrads do not put a lot on the table, and more than adding any substantial value to the field via research, it is about gaining useful experience and making connections with professors in order to secure future LoRs. Do I have the right idea here, or am I missing something?
If we think specifically about pure mathematics, then quite a bit of the initial process before even trying to do any research is essentially directed reading. I wouldn't expect being paid for that either, just doesn't make sense. For computer science, though, (eg. machine learning), one can ask undergrads to do coding jobs and perhaps pay them for that.
To summarize:
Which undergraduate research positions are typically funded? How about pure math, applied math, and computer science (theoretical or applied) fields in particular?
Why (and also which) should undergraduate research positions be funded in the first place, if at all?
Thanks for your valuable insights, in advance!
Clarification: By funded, I meant that the student researcher receives a monthly salary or stipend of some sort. Apologies if that wasn't the right term to use, but I hope that it's clearer now.

There is no "typical."  Each funder does their own thing.

The "should it be" part is probably a duplicate of Should professors pay undergraduate students doing research in their labs?

And, the "are they normally paid" part is probably a duplicate of Should undergraduate researchers expect payment? (the title should perhaps be clarified, but the post does specifically ask what is "normal").

I'd answer the questions in the title with "No" and "Yes".

If by "funded" direct payments (wages) are meant, then my experience at US universities (science/engineering departments) is that they are typically not during the semester. The mindset goes something like this:

The positions are effectively unpaid internships that will provide the students with experience and skills, which are a form of compensation in applying for jobs, grad school, etc.
The positions are "entry level" and there is high turnover, so the students are expected to first demonstrate competence in the lab and long(er)-term interest in working there before payment becomes an option
Alternative to cash payment, many US schools reward students with course credit for research, which, at a private school in the US, works out to better than minimum wage (and an an hourly basis better than the what the doctoral students are getting...)

Summer undergraduate research is typically paid, but for my labs, the "interning" during the semester is the gatekeeping - we would never hire a total unknown to work full-time in the lab over the summer and potentially do more harm than good. Such students then are usually elevated to acknowledgements and authorship on published research work, because they're making significant contributions.
The system in Germany, where I currently work, is worth considering for contrast: we have extensive formal, paid undergraduate labor ("HiWis"), but the students are formally employees with work contracts. They do contract work - all the repetitive, grunt tasks (lots of cleaning, in particular). This is also often perceived as a kind of gatekeeping to joining a research group as a master's student, but I am unaware of HiWis being considered for real research, like the summer programs in the US or being added to papers as authors or contributors.
The preceding all addresses the factual part of the question (even if lacking hard facts), but as for the normative question, I believe student researchers should be compensated and that depending not only on the student's financial situation, but also career goals, compensation in the form of wages, experience, course credits, and research credit (e.g. authorship) all have different kinds of value and should continue to be options.
Finally, from the perspective of someone managing research, funding is often tight. Being able to offer non-cash compensation to get students into the lab and started on work has a potential to be a win-win - this is exactly my experience from my doctorate: new lab, not a lot of money, eager student. Two semesters of unpaid assistance in the lab and we wrote a proposal for summer funding (accepted) and then we were able to do it again the next year plus get the student on both conference and peer-reviewed publications as an author.

First, I said that many US schools offer course credit for research, not all. I have seen both and I have worked at both. I do not fully understand what you're trying to say about the cost of credits as there's a unit price (let's pretend it's $1k/credit) and there's the number of credits needed to graduate (pretend 120). So one credit awarded for "unpaid" research lowers the overall tuition paid to graduate in that scheme, which is not universal.

I guess a counter example I will offer where there is not a unit price for credit is that where I did my undergraduate work, full-time study meant 3-5 classes and the tuition was a fixed amount for the semester.
Thirty classes had to be passed (and at least 32 attempted, IIRC) to graduate. It was possible to conduct research as an "independent study" and receive a class credit. By taking more than four classes (traditional and/or research) per semester, there was the possibility of graduating in 6 or 7 instead of 8 semesters.

German chemist here. We distinguish between the paid HiWi (where the student is expected to produce a net output of work, i.e. receives less/no training and does the grunt work) vs. unpaid research internships which are prescribed by the curriculum. Those are clearly a teaching activity (at least if not abused). With such a research student, I'd typically expect that I could do the research work in a fraction of the time I spend on teaching the student. Students have to do them as prescribed for their studies, and I've never heard of anyone doing more than prescribed (both sides).

(Another alternative over here are Werkstudenten, which are students working e.g. a paid summer job in industry that corresponds to their field and level of studies. )

@cbeleites-unhappy-with-sx thanks for the additional information. I guess my research group only makes use of HiWis - I was unfamiliar with the Werkstudenten and research internships in Germany.

You don't have Werkstudenten at university or public (basic) research institutes, they are pretty much by definition an industry thing. However, when discussing the broader issue of how students can earn their life, this is an important option in fields like chemistry or engineering: these jobs typically pay way better than, say, flipping burgers and they provide relevant working experience. They are also not primarily training, like the HiWi jobs. Looking at your profile, your colleagues may be able to tell you more about that. At least where I was, the research internships are usually done..

... during lecture time - but there is no particular reason to not do one in the semester break (other than having a shorter semester break for something that can be used to fill up the odd block of free time during lecture time)

+1 My experience as an undergrad in the US is exactly as you described (except that at my institution, the summer period is where students “prove themselves” to the labs, and then they might e.g. continue their project during the academic year). Administration (or, in special circumstances, a department itself) provides a stipend for summer research, and (a variable amount of) course credit is given during the year.

@MoinMoin I have never heard of a university where you get any credits for free, you pay for research credits. However, universities often have a flat rate for full-time credit loads (e.g. 12-18) so taking a 3-cr research seminar might not immediately raise your tuition.

Mine were. In the late '90s. At UT Austin's Aerospace Engineering department and at the no longer extant Institute for Advanced Technology. They were both jobs that paid hourly. I didn't publish anything related to my work there, but the latter job did lead to a couple of technical reports. The former was open and kind of exploratory work for a professor in fluid dynamics whose class I had just taken, and the latter was some MATLAB programming for a full-time researcher.
They were jobs, and US law requires them to be paid. They didn't pay a lot, but I kept them going as long as I could since they covered my rent until I graduated and went to grad school at UT. At the time they had no benefits (health care, retirement, etc.), which I think is wrong, but that's the way it was then. I think that these two positions gave me a good start on applications to grad school and kept me interested in research as well as two good letters from people known to the department I applied to and getting a PhD from (also Aerospace at UT).
I don't know how either of them was funded. I think the prof I worked for may have had some departmental money and some NSF money, but he just asked me to do some little projects that seemed to only be of interest to himself and maybe part of his personal experimental interests. At IAT, they had Army and Navy funding that probably had room in the budget for a couple of undergrads, but we weren't required to know that.

I had a similar experience. A professor had a funded research project and found himself with too much on his plate during one particular summer.  He outsourced to me some of the time-consuming grunt work that didn't require much in-depth knowledge of the topic. His grant didn't include funding for that, but the department paid me (thus freeing up the professor's much more valuable time to do higher priority things).

In STEM fields in Canada, UG summer research is paid like a summer job, usually from research grants.  Particularly strong students can obtain NSERC USRA awards.   The downside to this is that there are far fewer jobs than applicants.  This is compounded by the fact that a 3-month summer students costs a researcher nearly as much as a full-year graduate student, since the latter are also funded by the university for TAing and through fellowships.  There is always a balance to be found between hiring more productive graduate students, and training the next generation as summer students.  Occasionally, students volunteer to work for free during the summer, but I avoid this as they would be working alongside students getting paid to do the same job, and for the reasons other posters have mentioned.  Lastly, in my experience, it is not unusual for summer students to qualify for publications.

They should but in my experience too many aren’t or aren’t paying enough.
With limited exceptions, all work should be paid, and especially student work as students will likely face tuition fees, which are NOT unsubstantial in many cases.
Personally, the idea that this is an internship and thus could go unpaid is simply a problem with internships, which should also (with limited exceptions) be paid:  I do not hire students or interns unless I can pay them properly.
Hiring students for free is IMO an abuse of power, and creates situations where the student is working for favours rather than a wage, and working for favours can definitely take you in the wrong direction.  If the researchers is not satisfied with the work (rightly or claims not to), he or she can refuse the favour and then the student will have spent time for nothing.
My own time is precious so I don’t see why the time of others isn’t.


text:
How should I acknowledge a friend for giving me a RAM module, which enabled me to run bigger simulations?
As a part of a research project, I perform numerical simulations in my computer, and initially I could not work with bigger systems due to lack of computer memory.
A friend from college had a spare RAM module, which was compatible with my computer. He gave it to me (for free), and I would return it when this project would be over.
This enabled me to work with larger systems. We got some new results, and we are in the process of writing a paper. How can I acknowledge my friend? I don't know if it is a standard practice.
Also, I had once told my research supervisor that I obtained this RAM module from a friend, but did not say that I want to acknowledge him if we write a paper (because back then I did not even know if I would get publishable results). How should I ask my supervisor about this? My supervisor is a friendly person.

My friend is a classmate, but not a part of my research group, and did not contribute to the research. But I feel that I should acknowledge his help, because without it I would not be able to run these simulations. Something like "I acknowledge X for providing computational facilities" might seem confusing.

Just in case, my work is related to numerically diagonalizing Hamiltonians of certain non-interacting quantum mechanical systems, and my supervisor said that using a cluster for it would be an overkill. I could work on my PC after upgrading the memory.

I think the most appropriate way would be to buy them lunch or some such.

@Buffy how about both? I know acknowledgements don't count for much, but it's nice to say publicly that someone is helpful and a good collaborator.  It's not clear whether the friend is still in academia. OTOH maybe they're working for a tech firm on a massive salary and would feel awkward having a lunch bought for them by their grad student friend

The friend is a classmate. Buying a lunch is something I certainly had in mind, I wanted to know if I can also acknowledge in the paper, and I got the answer to that.

This question comes to my mind but may be a duplicate of yours: “Providing facilities for research, such as computational tools, software, laboratory tests, etc; are these a form of contribution to papers? How much of those forms of supports should be just acknowledged and how much more should be counted as a significant contribution and name of contributor may be mentioned between authors?”

I'm surprised there aren't top of the line computers available in your school to do this work on?

@Issel it's quite easy to fall into a gap with a project that's a bit big for a standard-issue desktop, but too small to be worth the hassle/cost of getting onto a supercomputer. Or it looks fine at first on the standard desktop, but doesn't scale well to the full problem. Sometimes the solution is a custom desktop but uni purchasing policies can make that very difficult and expensive. I've just beefed up the RAM in my uni machine at the expense of an idle machine for similar reasons (slightly different - I need a Win10 VM to run CAD packages under a Linux host)

@ChrisH Exactly. I only needed to expand RAM from 8 GB to 16 GB. I could buy it, of course, but found someone who was willing to lend a spare RAM stick.

On how to ask your advisor:

Hi advisor - I got this RAM unit from friend X for the research, should I acknowledge them in the paper?

If you decide on doing the acknowledgement (I think you should):

I would like to thank [friend] for lending me some of the hardware used in this research.

The acknowledgements section in your paper is the right place. Although it is used a lot for more or less mandatory information (funding etc.), there are no strict rules what you can express there. You can just write it the way it was: "I gratefully acknowledge X for making the necessary computer memory available to allow the calculations." The sentence you suggest yourself is also good. Do not overthink this. There is nothing wrong with adding a personal touch, either. You know your friend,  so you might know how to express your gratitude in a way he would appreciate.
In any case, acknowledging the help of others is good practice. So if your supervisor is a kind person, just ask the way you would ask any other question.

"Memory" could be confusing especially if the simulations are only one aspect of the paper so the reader isn't fully  thinking from a computing point of view. "Computer hardware" would be sufficiently detailed and clearer

@ChrisH Thank you, I edited a bit.

There is no set format for Acknowledgments in papers. You can acknowledge anyone and anything, and a reasonable statement would be something like this:

The author acknowledges Joe Shmoe for enabling this research by loaning out a memory module that has allowed to run larger computations than would otherwise have been possible. The loan is much appreciated!

And, if you really want, you can always add something like this:

... The loan is much appreciated and will be paid back in the form of an invitation to the local pub, with the tab paid for by the author.

I once recalled a paper that promised a free car in the footnotes that was offered as someone read through the volume, or something to that effect. I don't recall the actual conditions or circumstances, nor can I verify that such a story is true, but this seems like an opportunity to insert something whimsy in academia.

@BestQualityVacuum Absolutely. I've thanked jetlag in one of my papers, a friend his favorite beer. You find all sorts of odd things in the acknowledgments.

You can mention the hardware in the main text and mention the help you got with this in a footnote. Alternatively, you could also include a reference and in the reference section you write his name and then specify in a short sentence the type of hardware that was provided. This is then similar to how people mention private communication in the references.
In the acknowledgements section, you can thank him for the help you got in an informal way. See e.g. this paper  were colleagues were thanked for discussions and for "being cool":

We would like to thank Shakir Mohamed, Fabio Viola, Oriol
Vinyals, Irene Garnelo, Daniel Burgess, Kevin McKee and
Ellen Clancy for insightful discussions and being pretty cool.

I think mentioning the hardware in the main text is rather excessive.

@Brian This will depend on the subject matter. If you were to publish in, say, Phys. Rev. E on the results if a simulation of a condensed matter system, then mentioning the way the simulation was done and mentioning some details of the hardware so that readers get an idea of what sort of computing power was used to obtain the results, would be useful information.

@CourtIblis: Sure.  In the OP's specific case, he is running the software on a standard consumer device.


text:
Using of the word "Mathematician"
Is is true to call a newly Ph.D graduated of mathematics a

Mathematician ?

I think this question is better suited for https://english.stackexchange.com/

In what context?

When using it in a website  ?

Anyone who practices mathematics is a mathematician.

It is not a protected title, so you can call anyone you want a mathematician. More practically, I would call someone who identifies him or herself as a mathematician, a mathematician.


text:
acknowledgement part of thesis
I am going to prepare the draft my Ph.D thesis and plan to submit it to my PhD advisor. Should I write the acknowledgement part in the first draft, or it must be written in the final draft?

You could add a placeholder area/page(s) for acknowledgements. Showing that you are going to add it in, without actually having to write it out explicitly until the final draft.

Perhaps you could start by omitting it, show it to your advisor, and prepare to be asked to fill that part in immediately.  (Draft that section and store it on your computer so you'll have it ready to plop in if need be.)