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Can different departments offer similar courses?
Some courses at different departments are very related in content. Is it fine or a university should offer 1 specific course across all departments?

This is a non-sense question. The university can teach whatever they wish, as long as someone funds them. And this depends on who funds them and how. And that depends on the country, type of school etc.

That happens fairly frequently. For example, at my university there was a large overlap between the Discrete Math course offered by the math department and the one offered by the computer science department. Similarly, there was a large overlap between the Differential Equations course in the math department and the one in the engineering department.

To give another example, my university had three Statistics classes: one from the Math department, one from the Business department, and one from the Psychology department. The difference was largely on what the focus of each was (mathematical theory, finances, and applicability to psychology research respectively). Students also perceived them to be of different difficulties.

During grad school, I had an Optics class that was taught as a Mechanical Engineering class and an Electrical Engineering class. So students in the same room listening to the same lecture taking the same exams, quizzes and homework were taking two different classes.

Well, all science-related degrees need at least an exam about mathematical analysis, and each one may need a slightly different approach (e.g. engineer versus pure math degree wont do exactly the same things in exactly the same way). Would you provide a single course for, possibly, tens of thousands of students? It's simply impossible and even if it was possible it would be worse because although the topic is similar the approaches to the topic can be significantly different.

Wroclaw University of Technology has full 10-semester-long BSc/MSc programs in Computer Science on three different faculties (Faculty of Electronics, Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Management). These programs differ, but they also have lots of similar classes… organized by each faculty on their own.

There are a number of reasons why a department would want to teach their own version of a class, even if it's very similar to a course taught by another department:

They think they can do it better. Imagine if most graduate students in your Department A end up taking a class in Department B. Department B views this as something of an imposition, not really interesting, not taken by many of their students, etc. so treats it as a dumping ground for new or poor teachers. Department A might decide to teach their own version to the level they think it warrants.
Different audiences. What one needs to know may differ by department in terms of sophistication or focus. For example, very few students in departments who use statistical methods might need to know the nuances behind how variance is calculated, or be equipped with the background to develop their own estimator, whereas a student in a statistics department might very well need to. Splitting these courses allows for fine-tuning of content and pre-requisites (do you need to know Linear Alegbra?).
Field specific focuses. Epidemiology, as a field, is by and large uninterested in prediction for its own sake, and so really doesn't do much with machine learning (see here). Other fields are keenly interested in exactly those methods. So rather than try to teach a course that's a little unsatisfactory to everyone, why not split them? Similarly, while an Applied Math department could very well teach a class on "Mathematical Modeling", the assumptions and methods needed in Physics vs. Chemistry vs. Ecology vs. Epidemiology vs. Engineering are all different enough that those departments might be well served by bringing their class in house, if for no other reason than to make sure most of the examples are relevant.
Geography. As @tomasz points out, the "logical" department for a course to be held in might be quite far from a department, leading to students not taking a class, not knowing about it entirely, or complicating their schedule. For example, a statistics or math department might be on the "main" Liberal Arts campus of a university, while many of the potentially interested students may be located on a specialized Health Sciences campus a considerable distance away (at the University of Iowa, for example, they would be across the Iowa River from one another).

It can be done, but it often takes political work from curriculum committees. The chief danger of different departments offering "the same" course (for certain values of "same," obviously) is that they split the enrollment, such that neither course is an efficient use of instructor time. Departments sometimes also guard their turf jealously against perceived encroachment.
Ways to avoid turf wars include:

Clearly delineating audience. Taking the statistics example in Bill Barth's answer, "Statistics in Political Science" and "Biostatistics" can probably coexist peacefully; they're aimed at completely different audiences, neither of which would find the other's course congenial.
Clear change in course intensity or focus. Some institutions, for example, have "computing for non-CS-majors" courses alongside standard CS introductory offerings. Some CS departments frankly turn up their noses at teaching non-majors anyway, so if it's going to be done at all, some other department will have to do it.
Clear change in desired learning outcomes. I teach one of the abovementioned computing-for-layfolk courses; my department avoided upsetting CS by including a large "tech for social justice" component that our local CS department wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Sometimes conflicts can be avoided by crosslisting a course; this also allows the crosslisting departments to share the teaching load if the course becomes popular.

In addition to other good answers: by-now-many years ago, in my math dept in a large state uni, it occurred to me to literally (!) do a poll of engineering (and some other) departments to see what they wanted from a calculus course (and related), ... and why they didn't just want to do it themselves.
Yes, this is an opposite issue to that in the question. But, in fact, as I've seen over a few decades, and, unsurprisingly, knowing how to answer one family of questions answers the other.
The reason they didn't want to teach basic mathematics was that they didn't want to spend their time that way. Bang. Oooookeeeeyyy, service department math, sure, ... Well, ok, we don't want to spend out time that way either, but somehow it seems advisable... maybe...
About calculus, then: the College of Biological Sciences here has a high reputation, does not want to teach calculus (because all the faculty there are doing something else, srsly, get-a-life, ...) and the math dept (despite some vulgar, stupid blunders) has generally been cooperative with that "College of...", so we have calculus courses tailored to their students. Yes, for some years various math faculty railed against this, or tried to sabotage it, or simply did a horrific job at it (while claiming good faith), ... but through the substantial (and risky!) efforts of a few of my colleagues, there appears to be a useful, stable situation. (Note to self and note to all: these sorts of things apparently depend on the on-going effort/energy of one or more individuals, not rules or policies...)
One opposite sort of example in my uni is about "numerical analysis"... especially when seen in some historical perspective. Years ago, this was not so much a dignified academic subject, despite WWII's illustration, and other, that literal mathematics/physics could matter in the world. Indeed, not all natterings in such directions are of any consequence. Things have certainly evolved in the last several decades so that "numerical methods" are "a thing" (as they say on the introwebs...) in many scientific pursuits. While several of my colleagues have very incisive mathematical (and more) insights into such things... it would be ridiculous to pretend that there should be homogenization across the uni in the explanation to students how these things work.
That is, in the end, the very descriptors of "content" are routinely so naive as to be irrelevant. So two things that get the same labels by external, uninformed parties (yet who control some PR aspects, course catalogues, ...) should not be interpreted as anything but ... a hint.

It used to be the case (I'm not sure whether it still is) that the number of math courses offered in the Engineering College depended on the availability of research funding. Engineering faculty often had much of their salary covered by research grants. If their grant funding dried up, they were put to work teaching, and one way to do that was to have them teach math, for example a discrete math class. (After all, every engineering professor is perfectly capable of teaching math courses, right?)

There are different approaches to this, sometimes within the same university. Until recently at mine, for historical reasons, the teaching of basic statistics was spread all over the university. Now a new department has been formed to deal with stats and a few related thing. Psychology had its own version, and so did physics. Calculus, on the other hand, was taught as a service course by the math department for students from all over the university. Physics teaches one version of each of the basic courses that students from all disciplines that need them come over to Physics to take.

Around here you have to justify yourself to a committee if you try to step on someone else's territory. It can be done but you have to show that the "owner" of that territory is unable or unwilling to teach a course that meets your needs. (It is considered a pretty hostile act to suggest teaching it yourself until you've been around a couple of times in trying to work out an arrangement.)
An unwritten corollary is that if no one claims a subject as one of their own, then anyone who needs their students to know that subject will have to teach it themselves.


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Can a course title be similar to a book name or a course at other university?
Is there any issue with using a course title that is similar to a book title or a course at other university, or it would be better to have a unique name?

Could you provide some examples? In most universities I am familiar with, course titles are ... simply descriptive and bland. Without changing this convention, it would be extremely hard to come up with something that is guaranteed not to be also a book title, let alone a course name at another university. To name a few examples: "Data Structures". "Programming Languages". "Introduction to Computer Science". "Mathematics for Computer Science". "Human-Computer Interaction". "Operating System Basics".

How many books and courses are titled "Calculus", "Mathematical Analysis" or "Topology"?

@O.R.Mapper let's say "Calculus for scientists and engineers"

@ThomasLee your example seems to be a perfectly legitimate way title for a course that covers calculus for scientists and engineers - I presume this is to distinguish it from "calculus for English majors" and "calculus for real mathematicians"? If your department does indeed offer three different calculus courses, an informative title seems entirely appropriate. No need for originality here.

It might be confusing though if an introductory course to analog black-and-white photography was titled "50 shades of grey" ...

I think the question here hinges upon how specific the book title is. If you could not repeat book titles, there would be hundreds if not thousands of calculus and organic chemistry courses in violation, for instance.
However, if the title of the book in question is Sprockets and Doohickeys: A History of Widgets in 20th Century Television, you might want to find an alternate title do the course. Technically it's not a copyright violation, but it does betray a lack of independent thought on the part of the instructor in a specialized course.

I don't see any issue.  There is no copyright issue since a title would not generally be protected by copyright (see here).  It doesn't strike me as plagiarism unless the course title is especially unique and you are passing off its creation as your own.
The only possible problem I could see is if it is for an online course that is still be offered at another online source.  This could create confusion for students searching for that particular class.
For most courses there are not a huge number of informative course title one could plausibly use.

As others have commented, using a course title that's identical to the title of an existing course or book does not raise issues of copyright infringement, at least in the United States. However, it may raise issues of trademark infringement, e.g., if your course title is or contains a protected trademark, as in "Quantum Mechanics For Dummies".
See here for a related discussion.

There is a very famous introductory CS book named "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP) by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Julie Sussman in MIT. This is known as one of the best books ever written about introductory computer science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_and_Interpretation_of_Computer_Programs
I don't know if other universities have any similar courses (they probably do) but University of California, Berkeley has a course with exactly same name, twice. CS 61A and CS 61AS are named after this book probably due to legacy reasons:
http://cs61a.org/ http://www.cs61as.org/
Considering that both MIT and Berkeley are top-notch universities in CS (arguably top-3) it convinces me that it is okay to give name to your course after a good textbook in your field, written in a different university.

If you use said textbook, probably no problem. If not (and you do something very different), it might be (considered) misleading.

@vonbrand True. In this very case I brought up, CS 61A uses a Berkeley edited edition of SICP (because SICP was written for Scheme, but CS 61A uses Python). So, you can say the textbook is a different edition of the original textbook; but definitely curriculum (topics covered) is just the same. In fact, homework assignments are coming from SICP (edited for Python) and there are allusions to SICP characters (Alyssa P. Hacker etc...) in exams/homeworks too. Thus, it is very explicit that CS 61A is just the class version of the textbook. If class is not related to textbook it would be misleading.

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Are there any reasons or benefits for the very long process of reviewing grant proposal?
I talked with some colleagues and it seems that the review process for most grants proposals (NSF, NIH,etc) are taking months (~6). This is probably not helpful for science and innovation. I understand that reviewers are busy people but papers submitted for a conference would usually not take more than 2 months to be reviewed. And some reviews that I read for conferences are even much better than grant proposal reviews.
Are there any reasons or benefits that grant proposals are taking long time?

There is more at stake. If you make an error with a conference admission than an uninteresting conference talk will happen. If you make an error in a grant proposal a couple of million euros/dollars/... (depending on the field and type of grant)  are thrown down the drain.

@MaartenBuis true, assuming the reviews for a grant proposal are much better than a conference which is not always the case. Also, funding agencies can reject the weak proposals early and spend more time with the top submitted proposals.

Also note that, under a Continuing Resolution (assumed US since NSF and NIH are called out), there may well be uncertainty about what the actual budget will be, so grant awards are being delayed.

I think part of the problem might be that reviewers are not paid, if there were people only paid to review grants the process would be quicker. Some NSF can take up to a year.

@HermanToothrot conf reviewers are also not paid but they do the work in less than 2 months

Not only do months get wasted on the process of grant review, but applicants waste months writing the grant proposals in the first place. Casual observation suggests that much funded research is of dubious quality and most grant proposals are over-inflated mis-selling. One has to wonder whether it wouldn't be more efficient just to distribute the money by some other means (e.g., randomly, as a reward for publication in top outlets, or uniformly across academics).

These are two fundamentally different processes. About the only thing they share is that they're both competitive processes important to academics.
Why does funding evaluation take so long? Think about the process from the perspective of a NSF program manager. Let's say you get 600-700 proposals for a single program (not an exaggeration). First thing you have to do is to deal with the logistics of partitioning proposals across your team of PMs on the program. Then work on classifying proposals into distinctive subgroups for review by panels with expertise on the specific subtopic (e.g. imagine the # of subareas included in a general call for computer security like SaTC). Then once you've got the dates, you need to solicit volunteer panelists or identify names, then filter for conflicts of interest across programs (i.e. did they submit a small SaTC proposal this cycle). Then you send out invites and hope they can accept and be there for a specific panel on a specific date. Repeat until you've got enough experts for each panel, and there are likely to be 30+ panels to organize (assuming an average of 20 proposals per panel).
Just the time to hold the panels will be significant. Each panel takes 2 days, and each PM can do at most 2 panels per week. You can maybe double up a bit, but you're still looking at 10+ weeks for the panels alone. Then process paperwork and aggregate results, deal w/ consistency issues, then make recommendations. Then wait for paperwork approving funding amounts. Then you're close to notifying the PIs.
Compare this to chairing a conference, where the PC selection, TPC meeting dates and logistics are all done way ahead of the paper submission dates. You know who will review which papers, who will be at the TPC meeting, and there is no further approval necessary once the PC chairs finalize decisions after the PC meeting. Having chaired a few conferences, I can tell you that the PC selection/invite process, and logistics of the PC meeting, can easily take up to 2-3 months. That alone accounts for most of the difference, not even considering post panel approval and funding paperwork.

The processes for grants and papers are very different. Once the editor or programming committee has reached a decision, there’s not much left to do.
Grants are much tougher. After the decision by the panel has been reached, there are several additional levels of bureaucratic approval that must be secured before a grant can be formally awarded. It’s these latter stages that lead to the extended time between submission and decision.

Ok, then why they don't notify the rejected proposals soon?

That’s at the discretion of the grant agency how to handle it. Note that panels don’t make yes-no decisions—just recommendations for what should be funded. If suddenly additional funding becomes available, more grants might be approved. It’s better to wait until the decisions are fully made rather than reject something early and not be able to fund it later if circumstances change.

@aeismail this is nice comment, it should be included in the answer on differences between paper reviewers and grant reviewers.

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With most applications status available online, follow up or not?
Many applications in academia have their status available online. Starting from school admission, faculty jobs, and research funding proposals. If there are no updates on the application, does it worth to send a follow-up email to show interest or that might have negative consequences (desperate move?).

I think usually the answer is "no, follow up is not necessary" but I think this question is quite broad, because its scope includes three very different processes (admissions, job search, grant proposals) that themselves vary tremendously.

A single polite e-mail after a respectful amount of time (which varies greatly depending on field and whether you're talking about paper review or job application) is not likely to hurt you. Badgering, demanding, and aggression are likely to hurt you.
Admissions and job hunts are probably the places where you might consider a follow-up e-mail as a way to demonstrate continued interest.
With a journal submission you might send an e-mail if the editor is clearly "sitting" on the paper, or the status hasn't changed in some long period of time (2-3x the typical review cycle for that journal, for example). But in my case this kind of e-mail almost never yields a useful result except to have the editor write back "we're still waiting on reviewers."
For a grant application there is zero chance that this will help you or yield any useful information. There is usually no information until all of the information is publicly available and you can't do anything except sit back and wait.
So, to possibly try and get a general trend here: the utility of a follow-up e-mail is inversely proportional to the size of the organization you are e-mailing. For a small research group or company where only a few people are likely handling all of the applicants for a job posting, it might be helpful. For a governmental organization of 1,000s of people with a highly codified way of doing business (or possibly even laws regarding transparency), an e-mail is just shouting into the darkness.

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Are the university's acceptance rate something trusted?
When universities are being compared using TOEFL or other standard exams, those numbers are trusted since they are managed by a single organization. However, when universities announce acceptance rates, are there agencies or auditors that check those numbers?

I imagine this is going to vary by country...

There are apparently cases of dishonesty across several key ranking components of the system U.S. News uses (including selectivity that you ask about). The article also says that colleges are responsible themselves for providing numbers, and so no external auditors exist. What a college internally audits is likely hard to answer in general (I assume though that they typically trust those in charge of the calculations).

It's natural to guess that standardized exam statistics would be compiled by a central organization, but they are usually supplied by the universities themselves, since they are the only ones who have databases of exactly who was offered admission or enrolled.

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In teaching evaluation, does the number of students a faculty teaches matter?
Does it matter if a faculty member teaches a small class or large class? Does anyone cares about the size of the class or only the number of classes the faculty teach each semester?

It is unclear whether you are talking about student teaching evaluations or workload assessment by the department. However, in either case the answer is "It depends". Some institutions do not record student evaluations if the enrolment (sometimes even the number of responses) is small; likewise some institutions count large classes differently from small ones.

To see if teaching evaluations are reasonable, compare them with other evaluations from similar classes.  For example: If you teach only large-lecture remedial courses, compare your evaluations to others from large-lecture remedial courses.

Who is "anyone" and who is reading that evaluation? Potential employer, hiring committee, or your supervisor/dean?

@Penguin_Knight tenure committee for example

@user3697176 workload assessment

At my university, the typical number that's looked at is the credit hour production.  Basically, it is calculated for each class as [number of students] times [credit hours awarded for that class].  Since my department doesn't have TAs or other forms of co-taught classes, I'm not sure how this number is divvied up for super-large lecture classes.
Often, to "enable" smaller senior seminar classes, we'll occasionally have the instructors for such classes also teach during the same year a larger lower-level class to balance things out.  But normally for us, at least, these numbers are looked at at a departmental level rather than an individual level.
For evaluations, the only major issue is that if there are less than X students that respond, no one can see their evaluation for (a) fear of identifying the students and (b) terrible sample size = terrible statistics.  IIRC our system will still aggregate them into a semester pool and an all-time pool for the numerical scores, but the comments are gone for good.  Certain aspects of the course size will of course be taken into consideration.  Class of 8 and you took three weeks to get their test back and students dinged your for it?  Not good.  Class of 120 and they complain about not having their 10 page paper returned by the next class session?  "meh".  But got the 8-student class's test back the next day?  "meh".  The 120's papers?  Pretty great.  Same idea applies for other aspects of the class (office hours, speed of response to email, willingness/ability to provide individualized attention, etc).

That depends a lot on local policy. Here (UTFSM, Chile), for load assesment, if a class is small (less than 10 finish it) it doesn't count (unless special circumstances apply, like the last few students taking a discontinued class), if it is very large it counts a bit more (or you might get more TAs or be relieved from other duties). For teaching evaluation, each class counts the same (the class averages are just averaged).


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What are the general rules for faculty attendance?
Other than attending classes and meetings, faculty differ in their daily attendance. Some faculty may show up only during days they have classes, others are in their offices daily from 8-5, others arrive around noon and stay late. Are their any rules or it is up to each department or faculty?

Why would you think there were universal rules for faculty attendance when job description, specifics of contract, laws, the nature of educational systems across countries, and the type of institution varies so widely across the world?

@DanielL I should mention in US, but knowing the rules all over would be helpful.

It varies very widely depending on individual faculty, departmental, and institutional culture, norms, and rules.
For example, many faculty at my institution live in a city two hours away and only come to campus twice a week for classes and meetings. Faculty performance at my school is measured by lines on the CV, so one can argue that not going to school is a more productive use of time if you have a home office.
Meanwhile, while in Japan, I noted that some faculty had to punch timecards that showed their daily attendance. There, faculty performance seemed to be measured by the appearance if diligence rather than actual productivity.
On the extreme other end, adjunct faculty in the USA may not even have an office (or library privileges) to even have office hours.

+1 for it varies very widely. However, I don't get how you jump from punching timecards to performance being measured  by the appearance of diligence rather than actual productivity. Even if you have timecards and mandatory 40h/week attendance, you could measure performance by what people can accomplish with those 40h/week.

I think you answered your own question. It's up to the department and school. Office hours are usually mandatory for many schools, but these might only constitute an hour a week, and the door might not always be open. If you're curious about your own school's faculty, I suggest e-mailing the department head or checking the class syllabi.


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What is a citation style that mentions full details of a paper?
Many papers in STEM fields use IEEE or ACM citation styles. However, those use abbreviations for names and journals. Is there a style that mention all paper details with no abbreviations and no doi.
Something simple like:
Firstname Lastname and Firstname2 Lastname2. Title of the publication. Journal name (Issue), Startpage - Endgpage, Publisher, Year.

Just out of curiosity: why are you looking for such a style? If you are submitting a manuscript, you'll follow the journal's style, and if you are just writing your own manuscript, you can format your references whatever way you want.

E.g. RevTeX with "longbibliography" option. In any case, I wouldn't call details full without a DOI identifier.

@StephanKolassa I have seen it in some documents (theses mainly) and I would like to know if it is available or custom style.

I heard that some astronomy journals actually use unabbreviated journal names in citations, but I do not have more details right now.

@StephanKolassa: One reason where a related information is useful is if you want to build a citation database and want to know whether storing something like the full journal name is worth bothering.

@Wrzlprmft, I always put the full citation in my BibTeX files and let it choose how to represent them based on where I'm sending it. Is that not how other citation databases work?

@BillBarth: Conversion from full journal names to abbreviated journal names is unfortunately error-prone and storing both requires additional maintenance. If no publisher relevant for you cares about unabbreviated journal names (which is the case for our group, despite being interdisciplinary), it is thus much more economical just to store abbreviated journal names.

It looks like the APSA citation style recommends full author names in its style guide. I'm more used to an APA citation style myself, but that does abbreviate first names. Oh, and I conpletely agree with Piotr Migdal in the comments that a citation that could use a DOI but doesn't is just plain wrong.

APSA write the full name, but "Lastname, Firstname" and it also mentions DOI https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=apsa

It uses LastFirst for the first author, since it uses the first author's last name for in-text references and those are easier to look up alphabetically. I think other authors use FirstLast. No modern citation style is not going to mention DOIs, given how fantastically useful they are in finding cited scientific articles.

This will be very difficult to adhere to. When I began maintaining a bibliography, I had a fit of perfectionism and tried to store the full first names of all authors. It needed only a handful of publications until I ran into one for which I could not obtain those names by any reasonable means.


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Cover letter and feelings - use or avoid
A couple of cover letter use:

I believe that I could ..
I am confident
I am very interested

What do you think about them? Should they be mentioned with evidences or avoid since they are feelings and may indicate uncertainty?

How does I am confident that ... indicate uncertainty?

I mean that they are feelings of a stranger, so does they matter?

You're a human, not an emotionless robot - if you're really interested in something, then say so. Just don't express over-the-top enthusiasm in every sentence.

I agree, but I think this could matter from region/country to other.

You should consider how the person reading it will use the information.

As I expected, it seems debatable issue.

If you are writing these people about the position they are offering, I would fervently HOPE that you are confident in your ability to do the job and that you are very interested in the position offered. Otherwise, what's the point of writing them?

Personally, I think your sentence fragments all suggest both a lack of evidence and a lack of confidence.  But more importantly, I think you're simply asking the wrong question.
Instead of focusing on the detailed language of your cover letter, focus on the content.  Who are you?  What have you done?  What makes you an asset to your target departments?  Instead of expressing your interests, demonstrate your accomplishments and your vision.  Instead of stating your beliefs or your confidence, show the reader clear evidence of your expertise and your impact.  Show, don't tell.
The advice that I give my own students and colleagues when they apply for graduate school or for jobs or for tenure is to aim for the next target.

Graduate applications should not say "Please admit me" but rather "I will become an independent researcher.  Let me get on with it."
Thesis proposals should not say "Please let me pass" but rather "I will have a strong PhD thesis. Let me get on with it."
Thesis defenses should not say "Please let me graduate" but rather  "I will get an academic job. Let me get on with it."
Job talks should not say "Please hire me" but rather "I will get tenure. Let me get on with it."
Tenure packages should not say "Please give me tenure" but rather "I will be a full professor. Let me get on with it."

And the way each application should "say" its message is not by stating your interest or belief or intention or confidence that you'll pass the next stage, but by presenting clear and compelling evidence that you'll pass the next stage.  And of course you never want to actually suggest the impatience implicit in the phrase "Let me get on with it"; rather, you want to convince your audience to let you get on with it.
Don't try to convince that reader that you believe that you'll be successful.  Make the reader believe that you'll be successful.  Show the reader that you will be successful.

There is nothing inherently wrong with expressing your feelings in a cover letter.  Your feelings, however, are not generally useful information for the reader of your letter: they don't know you, and so what basis to they have for evaluating how your feelings relate to your likelihood of making a good addition to the department?
As such, statements about feelings are generally low-value at best, and can be problematic if they are expressed in a way that causes people to have doubts about you.  You don't have to pretend that you're a robot: it's fine to say something like "I find the interdisciplinary opportunities of this position exciting."  Just know that it's an inherently low-content statement, and that more value will come from the places where you show more concrete evidence of your connections and value for the position that you are applying for.

I agree to some extent, but all applicants are very excited about any position, so maybe it is better to avoid feelings which could show a graduate student mentality more than a senior mature candidate.

@ThomasLee I think it's all in what you're excited about and how you express it: "I am excited to apply" = junior, "I am excited about the particular opportunities of this program for these reasons" = more mature.

The listed phrases don't necessarily convey uncertainty. Infact, if supported with evidence, they can become strong leading points into reading about your experiences and skills.
For example, consider the following statements in your cover letter:

I believe that I can give the  a different dimension with my skill set because I have been awarded .

This interests the recruiter as (s)he would be interested in knowing how you can bring new dimension to the job and what special skills you possess that makes you stand out from the crowd.

I am confident that I have  which I believe is essential for the role as I have had (say) over 5 years of experience in this field with  honours.

This would again intrigue the recruiter to believe your confidence (if it is ofcourse supported with solid evidence!)

I am very interested in the  because I believe that having already done , this role can help me develop my career in the field in the following  ways and in turn I can help the organisation grow .

The recruiter would be interested in your past experience and look to understand how you can grow and make the business grow.
I hope that the examples are adequately clear.

I agree, but as I mentioned earlier that avoiding feelings could make more sense, look at: The Worst Job Letter Ever Written (Not really…) http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/09/28/the-worst-job-letter-ever-written-not-really-but/

Downvoted.  Given the focus of this site, OP must be asking about academic job searches (or else the question is off-topic.  Academic job searches don't use recruiters, and adacemic search committees generally aren't looking for employees to "make the business grow"


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Is it better to submit a new research grant proposal or an extension of previous work?
When submitting a research proposal for a funding agency, I heard two different pieces of advice from principal investigators that have won several awards. The first suggestion is to submit a proposal that is directly related to the PI work and consider that as a preliminary result. The second piece of advice was to submit something totally new which might extend the boundaries of science. I wonder if there are any general recommendations for research proposals that would increase the chance of being funded.

Can you clarify what sort of proposal you refer to? Is this for an individual fellowship?

@BryanKrause proposals to federal or private funding agencies

Yes but for what? Proposals to "federal or private" doesn't really narrow it down at all.

@BryanKrause to fund students to do research

...sigh...okay, maybe I'm just being ridiculously pedantic here and I suppose no one is required to respond to any comments on their post, but I feel like you're being extremely unhelpful and even obtuse. You mention a "PI" which makes it sound like you're working under a senior person. Are you talking about a grant for your own lab? Or a new grant for a lab you work in? Is this a grant where you are the primary responsible person for the grant, or are you contributing to a grant proposal that is officially under the PI? Is this a "new" stream or replacing one expiring? Budget? Field?

@BryanKrause Yes, grant for my own lab. I don't have an estimate for the budget. It is a STEM-related field.

There is no one-size-fits all answer. The key factors to consider are: (1) alignment to the funder's mission and (2) credibility.
Alignment to the funder's mission. Different funding agencies have different motivations. Some have a particular capability gap (whether mundane or extraordinary) and want to fund the group most likely to fix it. Some routinely fund well-established university groups and just want to see progress. Others specifically exist to fund high-risk, high-reward endeavors. Whether to propose "incremental" advances based on past research or "revolutionary" advances will depend on the funder's needs.
Credibility. Even for high-risk programs, successful proposals will usually provide a basis of confidence that the proposed idea will be successful (i.e., simply writing down some crazy idea to "extend the boundaries of science" will not be enough). In some cases, this basis of confidence could be the involvement of the proposal authors themselves (due to their publication record or performance on other programs). In other cases, this could be that a proof-of-concept of the proposed idea was already carried out and gave good results.

"performance on other programs" like what?

Past work in the same domain, or for the same funder.

No, there are no such general recommendations.

The second piece of advice was to submit something totally new which might extend the boundaries of science.

Some funders give money for research with a high risk to fail.

The first suggestion is to submit a proposal that is directly related to the PI work and consider that as a preliminary result.

Others want to be more on the safe side. It totally depends on where/in which program you apply for funding.

"Some funders give money for research with a high risk to fail." such as?

DARPA is probably the quintessential example. But even on a high-risk DARPA program, successful proposals will have to find the right balance between proposing revolutionary ideas and having a realistic chance of realizing these ideas.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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What are the procedures for a high school graduate to only do exams at university for upper division courses, graduate and become a PhD candidate?
Suppose that a high school student has mastered physics and math subjects taught at university at the level expected for a graduate student. The student has done research in collaboration with a professor in conformal field theory and published 8 papers in various physics and math journals. After graduating from high school, this student does not want to spend several years at university following courses and doing homework for subjects he has already mastered. It should be possible to do exams in a limited number of subjects, say, analytical mechanics, advanced electrodynamics, advanced quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, general relativity, advanced statistical mechanics, and then graduate within one month. The student then wants to pursue a PhD.
How do universities handle such requests from students?

Is there a specific region you're asking this for? I think there might be a big difference between countries how they would handle this.

For many cases that I know of when someone is extremely gifted in some subject (usually mathematics related, but that may simply be due to my biased reading tendencies), the person is working through college classes while in high school and often tend to complete a college degree, or most of one, while doing so -- typical example of what I often read about and see Terence Tao Education here.

It should be possible to do exams in a limited number of subjects, say, analytical mechanics, advanced electrodynamics, advanced quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, general relativity, advanced statistical mechanics, and then graduate within one month. --- As @Jeroen said, you should say what country this is, because these courses are not even required for a physics degree in the U.S., and aside from that, much more than physics and math is required for a degree (probably 2/3 of courses one takes), such as various humanities and social science and other course distribution requirements.

In the end, this is probably something that is really decided on a case-by-case basis very dependent on the university so I doubt this is something that we can answer. Contacting universities and asking might be the only way to go.

In my comment, where I said "because these courses are not even required for a physics degree in the U.S.", I suppose analytical mechanics should be excluded, as this is typically (always?) required for a physics degree in the U.S. Here I'm talking about this level course, NOT this level course. (I'm not excluding "advanced electrodynamics", because I assume you are talking about this level course.)

I don't think this can be answered in general, as it will be based entirely on how the university statutes deal with exceptional cases, which will depend 100% on what university we are talking about.

typical example of what I often read about --- I just realized that the newspaper article I linked to is NOT an example of what I was talking about, because in the article one brother is graduating high school and the other from college. However, I did recently read about a simultaneous high school and college graduation this past May-June graduation period, and I've seen others in various past years. Not that this really has all that much to do with the OP's actual local circumstances, however . . .

Universities have a set of rules, e.g.  the number of required credits for graduation. This is often defined at some extent by the law of given country and the body responsible for accrediting university programs, too. It is not that simple that people think you are smart. 2) While I understand the cool factor of having three PhD at an age of 10, in my opinion it has relatively little practical advantage. Once one is in at undergraduate program, has access to resources for research, collaboration, even grants. Doing research in your free time as undergrad is pretty simple.

Please don't write questions in the annoying "suppose X hypothetically Y" format, it's very confusing to read.

CV until a country is provided.

This is specific to each university. If this is done regularly, they will have a policy. Read the Handbook of the graduate school you are interested in or contact the Dean of the Graduate School. I suggest The University of Chicago, which has done this in the past.

For a direct answer to your question, most universities don't have any policies for this because it is so rare. But many will permit exceptions to the general "rules" for exceptional cases. It might actually be easier at the graduate level than for undergraduate, but I have no data (duh).
But, if you want a university to make an exception, you need to convince them that it is appropriate to do so. The hardest thing, I suspect, is getting heard in the first place. It is likely that a direct request from yourself will go nowhere. You need advocates for your case.
One way to approach this is to get one or more of your teachers to make contact with one or more faculty members at a university on your behalf. It is best if they are already known to them, but you use what you have. And, your collaborator on the papers would be a great advocate if they are willing.
If you can get in the door (hard), then you might be able to have some math and/or physics faculty members give you an oral exam to explore the extent of what you know. You might have a series of conversations in which you are asked to explain things (and solve problems) that are somewhat difficult. If you can get to that stage, those faculty members might be willing to serve as your advocate(s) for admission.
This might be easier in the US than elsewhere, since the undergraduate education is more generalized than specialized and even in  the "major" it is mostly fundamental knowledge that is covered. The course in "Advanced Analysis", for example, isn't the last word on the subject. Furthermore, most US doctoral programs start with advanced coursework, not dissertation research.
However, what you will miss by doing this (for a US student) is the broad education in subjects outside the major that might contribute to a fuller life in the long run. Learning some history and language and social science and (lots more) has value in itself, which is why the US undergrad program looks like it does.
If you are good enough you can probably get it done, but the search might be long and difficult to find an opening.

For what it's worth, it seems much more plausible to me for a university to waive a prior degree requirement to take on a PhD student with incredible potential than to simply award them that prior degree to satisfy the requirement.

@BryanKrause, I think that is correct. I considered only the question of admissions. In any case, it would be hard (at best) to give an undergraduate transcript to such a student.


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How to share the presentation file in full screen in Zoom without that file being displayed in full screen on my computer?
During the presentation I need to access a text file on my computer. However, it is required that the presentation file is displayed in full screen during the presentation.

I think--share the text file itself rather than the screen that it's on will work.

When you ask zoom to share your screen with the other participants zoom aks you whether you want to show the whole screen or just one window. Share the window with your document (pdf, word, whatever).
Then everyone on the call can see the document. You can scroll through it for them.
You will need permission from the meeting organizer to share your screen.

This will still have a full screen presentation on your screen, but should work anyway:
Share Powerpoint (or whatever you use - but DO NOT share your "screen") and start the full screen view. Then alt-tab to your text document when you need it. The full screen presentation will remain in your background and in your audience's zoom, but you can see your text file.
However, check with a friend first (or a second computer, on your own) to make sure it works, and to get used to the procedure.


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How to negotiate salary raise after promotion to associate or full professor?
Several posts on this website discussed the negotiation process and tips for new faculty in US. However, I wonder if there are any possibilities or tips to negotiate the salary after being tenured and promoted to associate or full professor.

Please avoid answering in the comments. This is a good example of a question that should be answered either by personal experience with such negotiations or by references (e.g., to articles that discuss faculty pay). If you have either of these, please consider writing a proper answer.

In the typical nonunionized American university, salary negotiation is not very closely related to promotion.  Typically there is a small automatic salary increase when you are promoted.  You can ask for a higher salary at any time; you do not have to ask at the time you are promoted.  (Some might argue this means the question cannot be answered.)
Two principles to consider when seeking a higher salary are:

The university will not want to pay you more than your colleagues who have a higher rank.  This is because they do not want to give your colleagues who have a higher rank leverage to ask for their own raise.
Your salary request needs to be backed by evidence.  This evidence could be:

An outside job offer.
Data regarding typical pay. You can get it from http://data.chronicle.com/, your disciplinary society, or your colleagues.
Things you have done to benefit the university.

If your university is unionized, your collective bargaining agreement will say what you can ask for.  You can also get advice from your union representative.

Generally speaking, promotion already comes with a salary increment. Traditionally, at least, though some recent changes, including Covid, may be changing that.
But the problem is that you don't have a lot of leverage at that point unless you are willing to move to another institution. Your contributions have just already been considered and rewarded. What additional things do you have to offer at that point?
The possibility/threat of leaving might be powerful for some, especially valued, individuals, but those are the folks most likely to get whatever financial incentives are available under a given system.
Some places with annual evaluations give faculty an opportunity to argue that their recent contributions have been especially valuable, likely to continue, and worthy of a salary increase. Take advantage of all such opportunities.
You probably have a better chance to argue for a change in job duties at a promotion point than a salary increment beyond the standard. Whatever helps you do your job better can possibly be supported.

"change in job duties" like reduce teaching load or something else?

That (reduced teaching) might be possible as long as you have a plan to balance that with something else of value - research, say. Some money to pay an intern or two. Travel money.


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Someone gave a talk proposing the idea; Should they be an author?
I recently started working independently on a project that another student (who graduated) proposed about a year ago.
Should I offer to include them as an author?  Only if they plan to contribute something at this stage, or simply on the basis of proposing the idea?

possible duplicate of What are the minimum contributions required for co-authorship

I think inviting the student to collaborate on a paper is only fair. Whether or not the person should be a co-author depends on the person's contribution to the final product. Originating an idea may well be enough but can only be evaluated when considering the total amount of scientific input towards the manuscript. Proposing an idea can mean anything from just a lucky shot to a question based on deep understanding of the topic. Where "your" question resides is for you to consider. There are many posts covering contributorship (a development from authorship) here on acadmia.sx so I will not repeat what these responses discuss. But, it is clear that one should require any author of a manuscript to fulfil certain criteria and not just add names without thorough consideration.
So as a summary, yes, ask the person to contribute but do not give away authorship without a contributions (and the idea may well be enough).
And a final note, if you have not done so, also make sure you have not independently duplicated the other persons work if the person has continued working on the idea after graduation.


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What to put on my CV while I'm waiting to hear thesis committee's decision?
I just handed in my Msc thesis, but it hasn't been accepted yet.  I expect it will be.  I've since started my PhD.
What should I put on my CV?

I'll put "Graduate student".

@scaaahu: I suggest you include your comment as an answer so you'd be getting up-votes in your answer instead.

You see "degree expected (date)" sometimes.

List your dates as each type of student, with PhD student as your current position. For the MSc, I would put the date you submitted your thesis, so it's clear that you have finished doing the work, and something like 'awaiting outcome' to say that you haven't been awarded the MSc yet.
Having said that, I'm curious why you need a CV right now at all. The main thing is that you should not imply that you have the MSc already, particularly if that's likely to influence whether you get whatever you're applying for.


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When to withdraw other faculty applications: conditional offer letter or contract?
I've heard one should let search committees know when you've accepted another offer.  What is the right time to do that?
If I have an offer letter that is conditional on getting a work visa (which I think should be no problem), and I accept this offer, should I wait until I actually sign the contract?
This would probably mean putting several departments through the entire interview process with almost no chance of my actually accepting an offer.

Are any of your other options ones that won't require a visa?

Normally you should not withdraw your applications until you have received a binding job offer that you intend to sign.  If you are delaying signing it, that does not matter.
Depending on your circumstances, an offer conditional on a visa may be extremely risky.  Visa risk is unusually high right now owing to the pandemic, but even before the pandemic I have known people to wait for more than a year for a visa.

The risk mostly depends on the country in which the university is located. In Europe, visa issues might delay the process by many months, but there's usually no risk that the visa might not be granted (for a university-level job). In North America, one large country was pretty unpredictable until recently, but will probably be more predictable in the next four years.


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Differences in faculty job talks for current faculty vs. new graduates? (especially for STEM fields with large research groups)
Is there any standard advice about how a job talk from a junior faculty member (e.g. let's say 2 years in) should differ from someone who is fresh on the market?
For instance, I've heard it's good to go into technical depth on one project in your job talk, but this might be less important / essential as a faculty member, as you are more expected to be supervising many projects.

I'd guess that the question at hand differs less than you might think it does. What matters more is who the audience will be. If it is a talk to a general departmental audience, including students, then a general talk about your research area is probably best, since one of the criteria is how you appeal to students.
But if the audience is a small number of specialists in your field then a more technical talk is warranted, including the open questions you still see in your area and intend to address in the future.
Of course, the junior faculty member is probably better placed for the second sort of talk.
Ask who the audience will be if you don't already know. In fact, knowing your audience is always a good idea for any talk. Address the audience, not just the field.

Assuming this is a job talk, the audience might be “anyone who shows up” but the decision makers in the audience are likely the voting faculty in the department. How does that figure into your answer?

Actually, @Dawn, I'd suggest the same. Know your audience. Even the decision makers will be taking account of the reception. Or should be, anyway. A sit down with a few specialists is fine for a geeky talk, but maybe not for an open one. Even a zoom presentation might be viewed differently if people drop out after a  while.


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Between jobs, but have affiliations with multiple organizations
I don't have an academic home base, but I am an affiliate or external associate academic member of several academic research groups (listed on their website, etc).  I plan to join one of these full time in a few months.  Would it make sense for me to list it as my current affiliation on publications?

You "plan" to join them. But it may be up to them whether you can or not.
However, if the typical review time for these publications once submitted is longer than a "few months", then it matters little what you list on the initial submission. There will be opportunities for updates.
And, not that if the work for the publications is supported in any way by one or the other of these organizations, it might be necessary to list them as your affiliation, provided they agree.
Most important, an affiliation is a joint decision. You might ask the one you are planning on joining if they have any objections. I doubt there would be a problem if they already list you.
Whether or not the organization has given you an email address might be a (minor) consideration.

I am an affiliate or external associate academic member of several
academic research groups

Would it make sense for me to list it as my current affiliation on
publications?

Yes (assuming your affiliation is official, in whatever sense).


text:
Second master's degree in another field without bachelors
Question: Can I study master's degree in another field (or adjacent field) if I have a master's degree already without a bachelor degree?
Explanation: At the moment I am studying master's degree in computer science while skipping bachelor degree based on work experience. And I was wondering if is is possible to study for example Math's or Physic's master (probably direction a bit more connected with CS) directly ? Maybe some extra courses would be needed as well?

For which country are you asking for?

For United Kingdom, but i'd say answer related to Canada, US if not UK would be very beneficial as well.

This is the entry requirement for (randomly selected) Loughborough's MSc in physics, my emphasis:

A 2:2 honours degree (or equivalent international qualification) in physics, science or engineering, or appropriate professional experience.

So the answer is yes for the UK (which OP tagged) at least in principle. I'd think that your success will depend on a) how many graduate applicants have 2:1's or 1's to their names and b) just how appropriate your experience is.
But surely this will depend on the institution, so I'd advise you look at each potential school's requirements.

Short answer is: Probably ok, so long as you demonstrate graduate-level competency and have good undergraduate grades in the adjacent field.
Long answer: Graduate work (at the Master's level) looks very different from undergraduate, so the key is demonstrating, via your application to the program (support from a faculty member in that area goes a long way too--so contacting such a person and discussing it with them before your application is important), that you are capable of self-learning and can pick up the introductory principles of the adjacent field as you go.

Your case is so weird, and probably the answer to the question is very local-based. Where I come from is not possible at all, by government regulations, you cannot do a master without a bachelor

weird? can you elaborate please?

Sorry for late reply, I totally abandoned this website some time ago. By weird I mean is out of common standards and it's also out of logic, academy, like military, like religion institutes is based on hierarchy, only in exepctional times a soldier become an officer, and a low rank officer become a General, you cannot expect to be accepted in Masters if you don't have a bachelor, it is already questionable to have a PhD if you have not got a Masters (they doit tho）.
your country should have special rules that allow you for that. But obviously you are not asking my personal opinion about it


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Should I put job talks on my vita for positions I didn't get?
I have been on the social science academic market for a couple years, and I have been invited to interview and put together presentations ("job talks). I thought in both cases, the presentations were interesting and thought provoking and I wonder if i should include them in my vita.I have an "invited lecture" section already, so my thought is just to add them, but is that unorthodox? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

@ff524  The question is somewhat of a duplicate.  However, this question pertains specifically to the social sciences.  As you can see by the comments / responses, how they are handled varies across disciplines (and, quite possibly, by country).

@Brian  The linked question is generic (doesn't specify a field). If you think the answers there are not complete because they don't apply to your field, you can answer  the original question, explaining how your field is different. That way, the information is there for people who find the original question through search.

If you are a junior faculty member with a thin cv and the talk was publicly announced, I see no problem in listing it in your public talks section. Most people will clearly see that it's a job talk, especially if you are taking about urban stratification in Shanghai at Wichita Community College.

Edit:  From the perspective of applied social sciences (e.g., social welfare / social work)
No, a job talk is not the same thing as what is considered an invited presentation and should NOT be added to your CV. An invited presentation is connotes something much different -- that is, something that is akin to a keynote or a presentation at a formal conference / meeting.  Keep your CV clean and don't reach for things that don't belong.  I see lots of recently minted PhD's trying to work things into their CV to make it appear weightier than it really is.  Don't water down your CV with activities or products that don't belong.

All the CVs I've seen in my field (mathematics) list talks given at other universities.  Job talks -- so long as they are announced and given "publicly" by departmental standards - certainly count as such talks.  I am also a bit perplexed when you say that a job talk is not an "invited presentation": isn't that exactly what it is?  It is not the same as a conference presentation...but it doesn't "connote" that either, since it specifically indicates otherwise.  Moreover, if I gave a talk at, say, MIT, that seems at least as "weighty" as many conference talks.

@PeteL.Clark Thanks for pointing out that other fields might consider job talks invited presentations.  In the social science, they don't. Yes, they are invited, but in a much different context than an invitation to present at a formal meeting.

Thanks for your response.  I missed that this specific OP is in the social sciences!  That's unusual on this site...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Strongly disagree.  You were invited to give a talk.  Therefore, it's an invited talk, and it should be listed as such in your CV.

@JeffE Where do you draw the line for listing job talks on your CV?  I'm invited to give talks all the time.  Sometimes it is for a class, other times it is for a student group, and I did give a number of job talks before accepting a tenure track position.  Does every single invitation warrant a corresponding item on the CV?  Isn't there any risk that every listing of a talk will water down the CV?  Is your strong disagreement coming from the perspective of social science?

@JeffE Your bio shows you are affiliated with Computer Science.  If you strongly disagree, you might want to clarify that your comment does not represent what is and is not considered orthodox in the social sciences.  Again, my comments relate to the social sciences.

Do social science departments have research seminars and colloquia attended primarily by faculty?  In math and computer science, such talks are frequently listed on CVs, and job talks are frequently advertised as such.

@MarkMeckes Yes, but we keep these separate from "job talks."

I'm in social science. It's my impression that it's somewhat of a norm in my field to list job talks under "Invited presentations".

@Sverre  In the United States?  What discipline of the social sciences?  Perhaps it is country specific and discipline specific ...

@BrianP Yes, in the United States. I'm in linguistics. Maybe your statement should refer to your own field rather than to "social sciences", then.

@Sverre I agree.  My statement has been edited to reflect this.  (+1)


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Can I do research at the university without acceptance to the university
Is it possible to do research at the university without acceptance to the university? What I mean that if I have free time and desire to help with projects, can I join some reseach group.
The question is not a legal stuff (I suppose that's legal :) ), but what are the chances that some university lab accept me?
I do not want to search for work position as little afraid about strict timelines. At the end I hope to get few articles that will help me to get to grad school and nice spent time.
Desired field is robotics.
Thanks for ideas and opinions.

Also see: Nonpaid, volunteering position in a lab

Are you a student in another university? Or not enrolled as a student at all? This is much easier to arrange if you're a student.

No. I will be doing internship.

At least in the US, unpaid internships are generally for students because it's illegal to let someone work for you for free unless it's part of their education.

@ff524: But there are exceptions: you can generally volunteer for a nonprofit organization or public sector employer, which would cover most US universities.  http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp

@Nate the link you gave refers to volunteers for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives which is probably not the case here (my university lawyers definitely wouldn't permit it)

@ff524: There is a note further down about "educational objectives".  I don't know how it would be seen legally, but to me it seemed less clear-cut than you suggested.

@Nate IANAL but my university lawyers tell me I am not allowed to have research assistants work for me that are not (1) students of some kind or in a formal educational program and/or (2) paid

The answer is highly dependent on the country and maybe university. In some places it is not allowed because you will have no insurance if you are not on the payroll.

I believe that this is usually up to the faculty member that is running the research project. A couple of my friends in grad school contributed to our research group prior to their actual grad-school application, so that the faculty would know them better when the application came around.
(My area of research is compilers, different specialty, but still in the Computer Science/Computer Engineering department.)
When/if you do contact faculty members, try to have some concrete ideas and thoughts (and mention that you are looking for experience only for future grad-school applications, not a paid position.) Professors get bombarded with emails about grad students wanting TA/grader/RA positions every day, so you won't get a second thought if you send something generic. If you're very new to robotics, then instead of a concrete research topic, you could say something concrete about your experience and send your resume.
Contributing to a project, especially if it leads to a paper (but even if it doesn't) will definitely improve your grad-school application. It's a good strategy!

You're welcome! Most faculty have little projects sitting around that they could have you work on, so hopefully you'll get a bite from someone!

It's not necessarily a problem that you're not enrolled in the university - it's possible for researchers to hire non-students in many cases.
However, it would be difficult to get someone to take you on when you don't want to make any commitment (e.g. get an official job). From their point of view: why should they invest time and effort training you and working with you, when you have no formal connection to them and can disappear at any time?
It may also be legally problematic (depending on the country) for them to allow you to work for free, when it's not part of an educational program for your benefit (like a formal internship program for students, or thesis research).

Additionally, without being affiliated with the university, you will not have many of the library or other computer privileges that are necessary for conducting research.

@Brian library and computer privileges can often be extended temporarily to "guests" in many universities (I've been in that situation a few times), so I don't think that would be as much of an issue.

One way to effect this is to enroll as a "special student" taking one or two courses.
That way, you have not been "accepted" by the university for a degree. But it may allow you to "qualify" for an internship by being a student. Also, if you attend classes for even one or two courses, it makes it easier to make connections.


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How important is one's first publication in affecting prospects, assuming others are to follow?
With respect to a first publication, how would the following factors affect prospects (in academia, as well as in research-based industry)?

Whether or not the publication is in a top-tier journal. Of course, I realize that the better a journal, the better. What I mean to say is, given that I have some work now (such as, for example, observing certain trends when a simulation is run on a high performance computing cluster, and explaining any anomalies that arise) which may be publishable in a non-top tier journal, and some other work (which works towards providing improvements to a recent paper) which has a chance of faring better than a non-top tier journal, but which will take more time to get ready (say, 6 months more?), is it worth waiting for the completion of better paper (i.e., the paper which may get into a better journal)?
Like in 1, given a choice between publishing as a non-primary author now, versus publishing as a primary author later, should I wait to publish as a primary author later, and only then submit the journal in which I am not to be a primary author (assuming, of course, that the primary author has no issues with waiting).
Would it matter if one's first paper is in a journal or a conference? I have heard that it is better to send a paper in for a conference before a journal (especially for a first paper), since conferences tend to give much quicker replies. Am I correct?
Does the content of a first paper matter? Whether it is a review-based paper, a paper suggesting improvements to an already existing paper, or a paper submitting a reasonably novel idea? Assuming of course, that other methods or ideas would eventually be published, should I, say, wait to propose something more, umm... novelish first?

Long story short, how much would my first publication (in terms of parameters such as reputation of journal, how much it goes towards improving knowledge in the field, whether or not I hold primary authorship and so on) affect my prospects (whether in the industry, or in the academia).
NOTE 1: If it matters, this question is with specific reference to Computer Science (a little more to the applied side than to the theoretical side). Also, I am an undergraduate.
NOTE 2: By a journal of less repute/non-top tier journal, I do not mean to say a disreputable journal, such as a predatory one, merely a journal with lower impact factors, higher rates of acceptance, et. al.

I think this question may be too broad to answer here. You're essentially asking "How can any factor having to do with a first publication affect any possible future I might have?" Please consider an [edit] to narrow the scope of this question. (Note that you can ask several more focused questions in multiple independent posts.)

Thank you. I had grouped everything together because I did not want a sudden flood of "my first paper" questions on Academia SE. Could you please make a few suggestions as to how I could improve this question?

Anyway, I'd tend to suspect that you're over-thinking the issue. And, also, do the work that seems best itself, not in terms of "impressions" on others.

Yes. I'd have to agree about the "impressions" part. I am, of course, going to do the work. What I meant to ask was whether, given that I'm doing the work anyway, changing the order of the work would affect things.

I don't think there is anything special about the first publication.  If anything, people will pay less attention to it than to subsequent publications.  (For example, CVs typically list papers with the newest ones first.)

There should be a category or a wiki for this kind of questions, which follow a pattern like "How important/significant is  for my future career/prospects/whatever?". It should be stressed that an isolated specific fact, whether positive or negative, unless exceptionally positive or negative, rarely affects in a significant way one's future career, which actually depends on a number of factors. That is, in general, continuity is currently more important than isolated peaks and valleys.

A very valid point. Sorry for a question that falls in a slightly cliched category.Its just that a lot of us with less experience tend to worry, perhaps a little more than is warranted.

A first publication matters less than you might think, especially as an undergraduate.  My take on likely interpretations:

If you publish as first author in a credible but low impact venue (of any type), people will think you're doing great for an undergraduate to be publishing as first author at all.
If you publish as first author in a high impact venue (of any type), people will probably assume that the senior author on the paper did the critical intellectual work in defining a high-impact research plan, and that you just executed it (whether that rightly or wrongly describes your particular situation, that is still what is likely to be assumed, given the difficulty of publishing in high impact venues).
If you publish not as first author (in any venue), people thing you're doing good work as an undergraduate on the team, but that the first author contributed more (which will probably be true).

Frankly, all of these sound like nice things to have people think about you.  My recommendation for any undergraduate is to not get hung up trying for a perfect first publication.  Your first publications will probably either involve a lot of hand-holding or else be a pretty rocky experience, as you gain experience in writing publications and communicating with your scientific community.  It's better to start writing and gaining that experience now, rather than saving it for a more painful experience with a larger and more significant work that you are more heavily invested in.

Wow. Thank you. This is exactly the type of advice I was looking for.


text:
How to cite different chapters of a book in the same paragraph?
Background: I'm writing a master's thesis with APA citations.
In one paragraph, I cite two unrelated pieces of information that happen to come from different chapters of the same textbook. It's obvious from the chapter titles where in the book the second piece of information is located, but it's not obvious where the first piece is located. For the reader's sake, I'd like to be able to write something like:

Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, chapter 2, 1946) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout, chapter 8 (1946).
References:
  Trout, Kilgore. (1946). Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

I've never seen this done before and I couldn't find anything like it in the Purdue OWL APA style guide. Another idea would be to cite each chapter separately, as in:

Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, 1946a) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout (1946b).
References:
  Trout, Kilgore. (1946a). Why ice is nice. In Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.
  Trout, Kilgore. (1946b). Containment methods. In Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

How should I cite this? Is there an established convention for this? Am I worrying too much?

I would suggest the following:

Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, 1946, Ch. 2) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout (1946, Ch. 8).
References:
Trout, Kilgore. (1946). Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

However, you should consider whether citing pages would point the reader more directly to the fact than an entire chapter. Only you can judge this but it is rare that a fact needs an entire chapter to be stated. If you cite a theory or some larger concept the chapter may be an appropriate entity to be cited. If pages are better suited your references would look like, for example:

Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, 1946, p 56) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout (1946, Ch. 8).

If the chapters are part of a unified work (e.g., a textbook or monograph), then it's appropriate to use one citation, and to say the chapter in the text:

Here's what I'm doing. Chapter 2 of (Trout, 1946) presents an interesting fact. I
  then fit the interesting model, described in Chapter 8 of (Trout, 1946).
References: Trout, Kilgore. (1946). Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium,
  NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

I'm not quite sure of where APA puts the parentheses; my point is about handling chapters as prose.
On the other hand, if the chapters are separate pieces of a collection (e.g., contributed texts in a "recent results in..." book), then each should have an independent entry in the bibliography.

Chapters and page numbers are not included in in-text citations or the reference list for monographs in APA style. The APA style guide is comprehensive and definitive and my understanding is that deviations are not allowed, even if they are helpful.
Both of your examples deviate from APA style. The APA compliant way is:

Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, 1946) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout (1946).
References:
Trout, K. (1946). Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

You need to decide if you want to give the reader all useful information or stick strictly to APA style.

Thanks for clarity on the official rule. I like Peter Jansson's answer, but I understand that citation rules should be taken seriously. I realize now that I should ask my professor if the deviation is okay; I will edit or comment with updates if they turn out to be relevant to more than just myself.

I would like to know, however, if/where the APA rules forbid citing two chapters of the same book as separate works. Jakebeal suggests not doing so unless the book is indeed a collection of separate works, but it would be nice to know if there is an official rule

Actually, it seems like it is in fact acceptable to cite chapters in text, if the APA style blogger is to be believed: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/02/books-and-book-chapters-what-to-cite.html#comment-6a01157041f4e3970b015436bdd713970c


text:
When is the best time to start reviewing material for final exams?
We know that "cramming" - starting one's study of material the day before the relevant exam - is not an effective study method. Ideally, such studying starts days in advance.
My question is, how many days in advance should one begin studying for a final exam to provide optimum retention of the material?

My answer is "it depends"! Some students need to study days in advance, some need only to skim the materials few hours before an exam!

Cramming is normally an undergrad phenomenon. Grad studies requires better planning than last minute studying

Based on the class I'm teaching this semester, I would say the optimal answer is "112 days in advance" :-)

@DarrinThomas You may be surprised by how many graduate students do not seem to understand this fact.

I don't know why people think this is an undergrad-only phenomenon... I have voted to re-open.

I agree with @jakebeal. This applies equally well to graduate students. Unless this is a duplicate, this question deserves to be open, it fits the regulations of Academia.SE.

While "off-topic because undergrad" may be an arguable issue, I think there are several other equally valid close reasons: overly broad (is this for an art history class, a drawing class, a string theory class...), primarily opinion based (everybody has an opinion on how to "learn" correctly, and most of them don't have significant scientific support)...

I'm going to go out on a limb here with a somewhat radical answer:
Don't study for exams.
You are correct that cramming isn't very effective for retention.  I don't think it's particularly effective for helping exam performance either, since cramming tends to a) deprive you of sleep and b) increase your stress level, both of which are terrible for doing well on an exam.  Moving that cramming behavior earlier in time doesn't change things very much: you're still studying in a way that is stressful and doesn't promote long-term retention.
The best way to really learn the material in a course is to put it to use.  Fortunately, most classes give you problem sets, projects, etc., that are designed to do just that.  I recommend studying by embracing these wonderful gifts:

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

If you do all of this, there is little need to "study" in the cramming sense.  By the time you walk into an exam, you will probably know quite well which parts of the material you know and which you don't.  Instead of studying, I recommend taking the time before the exam period to relax, sleep well, and do interesting things that continue to exercise your intellect in whatever way you find most personally stimulating and inspiring.
Do all of this and you will likely be able to walk into an exam with low stress and a well-functioning brain, get the grade that you deserve, and retain the important material from the class over the long-term, to build on in your subsequent classes and your career.

The longer I've been in school, the more I've come to believe in not studying. At this point my "exam studying" usually consists of skimming over my notes to refresh what topics the class covered, doing a practice problem or two if I don't remember something well, and maybe looking at a previous exam if available. A total of 1-2 hours, usually just a day or two before the exam.

In addition to @jakebeal's answer, I also recommend Cal Newport's book 'How to become a straight A student'.  What is said above can also be found in that book and many more tips.


text:
Why do some US states have multiple universities?
California, for example, has two universities: University of California and California State University. Why would any state not simply have one university for all the higher-education programs it wishes to fund? It'd be easier for the students, as they now wouldn't have to go through a transfer application process just to go to a different state-run campus. They wouldn't even have to worry about whether the course work they did in - or to get into - their current university will be enough to get them onto that other campus.
The only reason I can come up with is feasibility.

You actually have to go through a transfer application process even to switch from one campus of the University of California to another. They're effectively independent universities with a common president.

California actually considers it's community college system to be a state-run university system as well---the three systems form the backbone of the education system described in the so-called Master Plan

Texas has the most state university systems of any US state, with 6. (So says Wikipedia)

Most states have way more than two universities---see this list.  It's just not reasonable to have a single organization trying to serve large, often highly geographically dispersed populations with heterogeneous needs.

For the same reason that most European countries have more than one university?  Also: California has dozens of private universities; you're only talking about public ones.

The reasons are historical. History rarely gives you clean results. The original University of California (now called UC Berkeley) was originally started for the elites. After world war two, like most other universities in the United States, it expanded drastically because of the G.I. bill.  Today, it's only getting 12% funding from the State itself. The reason the University of California system differs from the State University system is mostly because mandates change as time goes on and it's difficult to change an existing semi-independent organization if it was started for another reason.

I just stumbled across this question in the sidebar, and as someone who lives in a pretty small city of 300000 residents which alone houses 4-10 (depending on your precise definition) institutions that might reasonably be called "universities", I find the idea that an entire state would only have one university rather alien. In fact, I would rather expect that every major city has at least one if not multiple.

Your question seems to assume the default is for all campuses to be the same, but there's no reason for this to be true.  For example, the UC schools are far more research-oriented than the Cal State schools.  There's nothing wrong with that: California wants to have some public research universities, but that doesn't mean every public university should be a research university.  That would be extremely expensive, and the net result would be either more research than the state wanted to fund or fewer universities.
There are many ways universities can vary (degree of research focus, graduate and professional programs, selectivity and prestige, etc.), and by default they will be different.  This is typical in U.S. states, not just limited to California.

It'd be easier for the students, as they now wouldn't have to go through a transfer application process just to go to a different state-run campus.

That's not generally true, and indeed you can't easily transfer between UC campuses.  From this perspective, California doesn't have two public universities, but rather dozens of them.  It would require massive changes to make easy transfers work in practice, because some locations are far more popular than others and would be terribly overcrowded if everyone could transfer wherever they liked.

The assumption that that "the default is for all campuses to be the same" is made in most continental European higher education systems. The premise (not always realized in practice) is that every public university should offer similar resources, in terms of both education and research. This tends to make quality education more affordable and widely available than it is in the US. (It perhaps has disadvantages with respect to research.) There is something wrong with California's system - the cost is difficult for a lower or middle income family to assume without taking on debt.

@DanFox: I agree that things are often different in continental Europe. I'm not convinced that this has much to do with costs, though. California's system was super affordable in the mid 20th century, despite having the same overall organization as today, and the existence of the grandes écoles doesn't lead to French higher education becoming unaffordable for students. One difference is that European countries seem better at keeping costs in check, and an even bigger difference is their willingness to subsidize higher education. Neither is necessarily related to making all campuses the same.

You seem to be mistaken in seeing only two universities in California. In fact, the two example you cite are University Systems, each with many universities under them. For example, the University of California system has UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Los Angeles, and many more. The same is true for the other system.
In the end, one of the things to remember is that many of the US states are pretty big. California has a population of 38 million -- more than many countries in the world. It requires dozens of universities to educate its next generation, and for administrative purposes, these universities have been grouped into two systems (or, if you want to consider the community colleges as universities, into three). Other states have done the same.
These systems -- at least in most states in the United States -- do not usually provide any input into research or teaching. This is typically left to the individual university. Rather, the systems do things like property and land management, dealing with some financial matters such as issuing debt or bonds, providing political connections in the state legislatures, etc. In my current home state, the Texas A&M University System provides the administrative structure for the many universities under its umbrella, but the System itself is actually a rather small organization compared to the universities it oversees.

For starters, in some states, there is simply so much area or population, a single university simply can not support the population.
California has several universities because of population. California has over 38 million people. That's more than all of the Scandinavian countries combined. Can you imagine if a single university tried to be the sole university to support Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland? That university would be overcrowded and probably not be able to support everyone.
Florida and New York each have approximately 20 million people, collectively beating Poland.
On the size matter, the state of Texas is larger than Ukraine. Do you think that it's logistically feasible for a single university to be responsible for all of Ukraine?
http://www.ipl.org/div/stateknow/popchart.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density

Your figures look right to me, with one exception: the population of South Korea is more like 50 million.

huh. Must have gotten bad numbers. Will edit...


text:
What is the best way to contact a retired professor for a job reference?
I graduated from college in July, and I need to get someone to be a job reference. I have one from a previous job, but I need a second one. The recruiter indicated that I could use a professor with whom I'd taken a class as a reference.
I've contacted my former faculty advisor, who informed me that as a general rule, department faculty prefers not to be references for people who have only taken one class with them. In other words, the professor who is most likely to agree to be a reference is a professor with whom I have taken at least two classes.
Unfortunately, there is only one professor I can think of that meets the criteria I described, and said professor is retired.
How should I contact him?

Try sending a nice e-mail! Us retired faculty still exist and writing strong letters of recommendation does not come to a full stop instantly. In any event, it does not hurt to ask. The professor’s e-mail address may be on their department’s web site, if you do not have it already. Best of success!
By the way, that “general rule” you mention may be more like “parlay” in the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie: not a real thing all that much. In any event, individual faculty members decide for themselves if they want to write letters of recommendation: they are not in trouble if they do so. And retired faculty have even more freedom: we are free range!

The university gave him an @x.edu address for official communication with students, which, as far as I can tell, is still registered to him. Would it be safe to use this e-mail address, or should I look for a different e-mail address to use?

I think so: mine is of that form. If he decides to write you a strong letter of recommendation, please make it as easy as possible by sending him your updated resume/vita and giving him some highlights you would especially like emphasized. One nice thing is that students cannot really boast about accomplishments, but professors can do that, and do it effectively, having read and written many such letters.

Just to be absolutely clear: This is not necessarily for a letter of recommendation. I'm seeking permission to list him as a reference on job applications (and I told the professor as such)

No problem: a heads up is always welcome, even if the reference never gets called.

@Araucaria Indeed, but there is a problem with retirement I never expected: time flies faster than when not retired! So all those soul-sapping committee meetings and such were actually  keeping Time from going by too fast. Kind of a rip-off.

To more directly answer your question, if you don't have a contact for them or you're not certain if it works, ask the department to contact them on your behalf!
Something like

Good temporal greeting,
I am a former student of XYZ, but I'm not sure if their email _@example.edu is still valid, is there an appropriate account I can contact them at, or would you please help them contact me?
Specifically, I'd like to request a letter of recommendation for a job and also to reconnect.
Choice-of-thanks,
Name

It would imo be unusual for any retired professional not to occasionally assist or be interested in their area of expertise, and professors are no exception - it's likely that if they remember and you both got on well that they'd be delighted to oblige any such small request, and also have more (arguably) spare time each day since retiring