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How to improve writing skills when writing a manuscript for the first time?
After a year of researching for my Masters project, I am writing a manuscript for publication. I have spent nearly 3 months writing it now. My advisor has read my drafts, but after nearly 4 drafts that I thought were successively better, he says that I am in still the pre-draft stage and that I don't know how to write a manuscript properly. Of course, he gives me adequate guidance and is very helpful, but I am demoralized by my own shortcomings.
I have a hard deadline of 3 weeks to submit my edits to my advisor, after which he has said he will finish editing for me.
I understand this sort of thing happens to all new writers, especially in technical writing, and I could hear tons of personal stories about how difficult his/her experience was - but in the end, pain is very personal.
Anyways, the purpose of this post is not just to get motivated or feel better - it is to ask for concrete advice on where and how to begin, especially given that I don't have that much time?

Concrete advice on where and how to begin, especially given that I
  don't have that much time

I work in biomedical science so my advices may not fully apply to you, feel free to take whatever that is useful.
Don't write too much: Most students I work with who are trying to turn their paper into a journal article tend to write too much. It's usually described as a painful process because it would feel like chopping off a lot of work from their thesis (which was done with much blood and sweat.) But the trimming and refinement need to happen because thesis format is not suitable for journal.
Concretely, these newbie articles tend to

Have an introduction that is overly long
Contain abundance of details in the methods section, documenting the conception of the idea to every little details, with meticulous follow up of citations
Justify every single decision, some of which trivial
Cover too many hypotheses or fail to boil down the structure to bite-size, thinking everything in the chapter has to go into the paper
Elaborate lengthily in Discussion, failing to highlight the most important aspect

But also don't write too little: And yet, most students tend to overlook these components:

The paper goes into technical way too abruptly, doesn't account for the fact that some non-specialist may be reading this. And this is really an art, you'll need to see your target journal and get a sense of who are the readers, and then decide how broad to start with
Fail to explain the "so-whats" in the Discussion
Did not address the strengths and the weaknesses of the study. Or quoting weaknesses that actually can be alleviated but were not. For instance, I have a lot of students stating weaknesses like "this is a cross-sectional study so causal inference is not feasible," which I tend to agree; but some may say "in this analysis we did not adjust for income levels" while the income level variable is actually in the data set. In those case I'd request a re-analysis. In short, if you can have done something about it, don't list it as weakness.

General style mismatches: Sometimes the articles have nothing really wrong about it but the style just make it clunky as a journal article. For instance:

Overly sensationalizing or flooded with emotional adjectives. E.g. "the obesity epidemic is indeed a human tragedy," "our results are surprisingly encouraging."
Mixing up facts and arguments, ending up with a lot of statements that are not backed up or statements that are accompanied with a tsunami of facts without a trace of synthesis.
The objectives and the conclusion do not match. And this is very common in theses because we set off with a plan and things may fail to work in the middle and we have changed direction. In journal article, the objective statement and the conclusion need to resonate so that they read nearly like Q&A.
Trying too hard to make the whole paper self-contained and complete. Common signs are including too many details that can be included in the form of citations.
Calling the same concepts or things with many different names. In English composition we are often encourage to diversify our word selection but this is a big no-no in scientific writing. If the variable is "occupational stress," call it so throughout. Do not use variants such as work-induced stress or even worse: work-related mental problems or job-site related depression, etc.
Drafting, writing, and editing at the same time. Most of the students lost steam because they want to churn out perfect sentence from the get go. This causes the process extremely slow and painful. It's easier to do a brain dump and then come back to edit the work. On a good day you may save 50-60% of the dump, on a bad day maybe 10%, but I found it worth it because I can be more focused in either laying out ideas or perfecting the wording, separately.

So, how to start? Before writing, read a bit. Download the "guideline to the authors" from the target journal and use a highlighter to indicate all stylistic requirements. Follow them to the t.
Then, download about 3-5 articles related to your fields from that journal, and read for word-uses and syntax. Generally, when reading each paragraph, ask yourself "Why did the authors put this information here?"
Now, when it comes to writing/drafting. I find it easiest to do in this sequence:

Identify 1-3 main analysis outcomes (table, graph, regression model, etc.) Paste them on a wall or a board and they will be the staple of this article.
For each of these output, write about 2-4 main points or interpretations people should take away with. Imagine you're at a conference manning a poster. What would you tell the audience to focus on in each table or each graph? If one of them has overwhelming amount of talking points, you are trying to pack too much. Consider breaking the analysis output down, and trim, trim, trim. In this stage, do not throw away unused outputs, put them aside in a folder or a box in case you have a second thought.
For each of these output, write out the methods. Remember to only contain enough information to allow readers to replicate, not too much so that the readers have to endure the whole story. For instance, reason for picking a certain concentration or threshold can be explained with a citation rather than writing it out.
Now combine your selected output into the Results section. Write it in the driest style you can think of. No interpretation, grievance, celebration, defense whatsoever, just plain, hard, cold data.
Break Discussion into segments A, B, C, D, and E. In A, use one paragraph to summarize what you found. In B, incorporate the talking points you generated for each of the output, so that the first paragraph makes sense. In C, compare and contrast your work with other literature and discuss the potential differences. In D, delineate the strengths and weaknesses of your study. For each weakness, discuss what you had tried to make it less a matter, or what else could have been done in future work. Finally, in part E, go slightly wider and wilder: elaborate what these results mean to your target audience and their field. You can quickly see that this section can get overwhelming if you have too many objectives. For starters, one main objective with a sub objective will be a good challenge.
Write the Introduction. Focus on some "what's known" to bring your audience to the same page so that they can understand your work. Then, discuss what is not known or what challenges the field is facing. After that, explain how your work may help, and lastly, lay out your objectives clearly.
Cut and paste the objective at the end of the paper (or use split screen so that you can see the objective section), and start writing the Conclusion. Introduce no more new information there, simply answer the objectives point by point. Make sure the objective part and the conclusion part resonate. When you feel it's good enough, you can then take out the reference objective you just pasted there (or close the split screen function.)
Go back to write the abstract.

Other nitty-gritty
Don't feel bad that people are not happy with what you write. A lot of the time they do not even concretely know what's wrong with the piece. Ask for actionable suggestions and then thanks for their comments; take whatever applies to you.
Your supervisor may not appreciate your writing quality, but will definitely appreciate your attention to details. So, make his/her life easier by following the journal's guideline tightly when it comes to formatting.
Check if all the figures and tables are correctly indexed.
Check if all the pronouns connect well and leave no room for misunderstanding.
Use subtitle to introduce another layer of structure if you feel too overwhelmed.
It's true that some papers can take years to write. But you have been working on it for more than 3 months and it is more than probable to write a decent article in 3 months. Some other users may say a paper can take years, but remember the duration is also a factor of i) how much time the person is putting in every day, ii) how much the work is being held up by co-authors, and iii) personal writing style. I myself have papers that were done in the span of 2 months to 6 years; there is pretty much no rule when it comes to time.

I think this is very good advice.  Another tactic that I find useful is to work out how I would convey the main narrative using approximately one figure per page. I then make those figures and build the rest of the paper around them.

"Most students I work with who are trying to turn their paper into a journal article tend to write too much.": Yep! :-) This fact is frequently based on the false implication "I've done a lot of work -> I should write a lot, describing all the work done".

A great online course called "Writing in the Sciences" is now available free of charge, and it provides really great advices. When I was writing an article recently, I just had the time to watch the first week's lectures, and it helped me a lot to finish my manuscript.
To summary some quick tips to do a good writing:
1- Read papers and copy (everything but the content) from the ones you like. This will give you hints on how to structure a paper, style you can have and many other things. Mimicking is a fundamental learning mechanism of humans that helped us achieve the knowledge we have, don't overlook it.
2- Just get to write, even if you don't feel like it. A good paper is reworked several times before it's ready for publication, so just get going on your first pass, you'll enhance later.
3- Don't try to make overly long or complicated sentences. Just try to make short sentences, and try to use simple formulations (present tense instead of past tense, standard sentence form: subject-verb-object). Also avoid jargon and initials as much as possible, this will be one less burden for your reader (even when they're specialized in the domain you're writing in).
4- Be logical in your progression. Try to be logical and gradual from chapters to chapters (for this, generally there are common templates, like the OHERIC methodology: Observation/Problem introduction, Hypothesis/Your Model, Experiment/Simulations, Results/Interpretation, Conclusion/Opening) but also inside each chapter, so that the end of a chapter naturally leads to the next.
Usually, the introduction is the hardest part and usually too much overlooked so you should really focus on this part ; the conclusion is the easiest part (just summary what problem you tackled, what you did and what you've found and potentially future avenues that could extend the findings on this problem) ; and the abstract and title are done at the very end when you already wrote the whole paper.
5- Add lots of pertinent references. A good example is any well-developped article in Wikipedia (since this encyclopedia follows some common editorial guidelines that are just as well used in scientific publishing). For any claim you make that isn't yours, try to reference, and most importantly, your reference must be pertinent (avoid referencing an article you barely read or that isn't focusing at all on the claim you are making, ie: an article about brain's memory making an hypothesis about consciousness at the conclusion as an opening isn't fit to be referenced for any claim about consciousness since this is just speculation).
6- Be yourself. This can be difficult if you are not comfortable in the language you're writing your article in, but if you are comfortable enough, try to keep (or create) your own writing style.
7- I think this one is less important at first, but later if you want to be a pro: uniformize your editorial line. For example, if you use American English words in your abstract, don't use British English words suddenly in later parts. A very good listing of editorial tips can be found here:
http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html
8- Use a spellchecker, always.
9- Ask other people to read your paper, and be open to feedbacks. This is crucial and the final step to make a good paper, as it is very difficult to see the big picture and the small glitches yourself. If possible, try also to get your paper read by non-specialized persons, like your relatives, they will tell you if your work is pleasant to read even if they can't grasp every technical subtletlies.
Good luck for your paper. And remember: writing is always painful and feels unnatural for most people (including professional writers), so don't feel out of place, just try to do your job and try to be proud of the result.

Your spellchecker from item 8 did not complain about "peoples" in item 9, did it? ;) Interestingly, this is precisely one of those small glitches that are only seen by other people ...

Three months? Try two years!
I'm trying to write a manuscript since two years.
This is because my advisor is a perfectionist, which makes me an extremely lucky guy (in this case, you as well).
I have a friend whose advisor's expectations are below the average and he ended up submitting a thesis even lower quality than below the average.
Believe me, what you go through is a perfectly normal stage, for who wants to be in academia. At least, this is what I've seen so far.
I suggest you to do the following:
First, write the core of your work. Not the intro, not the conclusion, not the experimental results or methodology. Just tell what your work is about and why is it precious. Tell it like you're telling it to a five-year-old.
Try to tell it using the least number of sentences as you can. If possible, tell it in only one sentence.
Afterwards, read. Read until you memorize it. You will realize that it sucks (unfortunately). Then, change it. Try to change your point of view.
I have written at least thirty manuscripts if not fifty. And I have started over at least ten times. Now, I got "OK" from my advisor for the last version of, wait for it, introduction chapter.
"The most important thing is organization of the manuscript", my advisor told me. "It should both teach and entartain the reader." By entertaining, of course, he means that the reader should tell to himself "this is good job!" Like reading a really good novel.
I suggest you to keep your expectations low at this stage, since your last work is still a pre-draft. In a period like three weeks, it is extremely hard to complete a work.
Besides, if you do not rush, you will complete it in a shorter time.
I hope I'm wrong and you publish your work.

To echo cagirici. THREE MONTHS IS NOTHING!!!!! I, took, over a year to finish my first manuscript.
My biggest advice is to put the paper away for a week and revisit it after you've done some reading (and not necessarily in the area that you are writing in, but in areas surrounding that topic). I cannot emphasize enough how putting away your work for a bit of time can help clarify the process and help things become clear within your writing.

It is surely painful, as you're being assessed on something as intimate and self-defining as cognitive potential, and think you're not measuring up. And academia is a rather terrible environment when it comes to taking into account how this sort of thing affects productivity and happiness. But.
The thing is, the goal is not to make the manuscript good for your supervisor, it's to make it good for a research journal. In this process, the supervisor will help. The help will come in the form of a very red, very re-written manuscript, but it will be useful. For me, the single most helpful event in academic writing (and I have taken courses on it previously and I generally like writing) was when I received my first manuscript back all in red. I looked at it sentence by sentence, and paragraph by paragraph, and man have I learned a lot! So don't look at that deadline in three weeks as the end of the road, but as the beginning. After all, it's not as if the supervisor doesn't know your output so far. So take it exactly for what it is: feedback that's more detailed than what you have received so far.
Other than that, it's very helpful to find similar papers, papers you thought were particularly clear, and look for hints there. Personally, I like short papers that try to drive a single point home, where the intro is short and to the point and where the discussion doesn't go too much beyond the data obtained. Such papers give up on telling you everything the authors know about a question, or even discussing all possible implications of the data, in order to keep concise. But that's just me.

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Healthcare in the U.S for foreign graduate students
I will be moving to the U.S next year to start my MS in Chemistry, and one of the things that are still not clear to me is how healthcare works in America. I know that you have to purchase an insurance before enrolling to classes, but what I don't know is about the coverage, frequency of usage etc.
Let me give an example, I am from Brazil and the healthcare plans here gives you a wide coverage in which you have access to specialists in basically any medical area, exams (from blood test to tomography and MRI) and other benefits. You can also use it as long as you need to, for example: if a doctor demands you to take a blood test 2x a week than the healthcare provider will allow you to do so (some very specific procedures are limited unless proven really necessary, but they are rare).
I've heard from a American student once that the health insurances available in the US don't cover much, only a generalist physician (I don't know if this is correct term for it, but I mean those doctors who are in first contact with you and send you to a specialist) and simple exams. Even with the limited coverage, you still have to pay for the procedures to some extent.
I would like to know more about this since health is a very important topic and when you're abroad you want to be sure that you will have coverage if something goes wrong. Of course, even here in my country there are some extreme situations that are unlikely to be covered by a healthcare private plan (for example if you have a rare tumor or a rare disease). I'm talking about common stuff that have a significant chance of happening while I'm in the US.

While there are some aspects of health insurance for students that are unique to academia, your question may be a better fit at expats.se. If you would like it migrated there, just flag the question and ask.

Unfortunately the way you access to health care will be largely governed by the specifics of your situation and the institution which you are going to, so we can't answer your question with any degree of certainty. The general answer to this kind of question is that you will probably have access to good health care but you might pay more for it than you would at home. Make sure that you have some savings that you can rely on in the event of unexpected medical bills.

It is common for full time graduate students to be offered some kind of subsidized health insurance through their university, or even require graduate students to participate in a group health plan
The affordability of such plans (how much you pay) can vary a lot by institution
It is common that such plans have restrictions on how you access care, for example it might require that non-emergency care is provided at the campus health clinic
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) your health plan providers are generally required to cover any common illness or treatment. However, there are current political efforts to repeal or defund the ACA, so this may change in the future. In particular the ACA greatly expanded coverage specific to women, pregnant women, and children.

You should direct questions regarding health coverage to your university's international student's affairs office, as this will no doubt be a common question for them. They will be able to tell you how their graduate students access health insurance. Many existing students are more than happy to talk about their experiences as well- ask your future department whether there is a graduate student or international student group that would be willing to answer questions.
Edit: Update on how to plan for medical expenses. Yes, unfortunately it is common for major medical events to cost several thousand dollars in the US. Your friend paying $2000 for a broken arm is entirely possible.
The coverage of health insurance in the US is commonly expressed as three numbers: the deductible, the out-of-pocket maximum, and the coinsurance rate. These can give you a ballpark estimate for how much health care might cost you.

Deductible: How much you must pay, in a year, before your health insurance pays anything
Out-of-pocket maximum: How much you must pay, in a year, before your health insurance covers everything
Coinsurance rate: How much your insurance pays after you hit your deductible, but before you hit the maximum.

For example, my grad student plan was:

Deductible: $350
OOP Maximum: $7,150
Coinsurance rate: 80%

Suppose you break your arm and go to the hospital. The hospital sends your insurance a bill for $5,000.
First, you are responsible for paying up to your deductible without any assistance, so you pay the first $350.
After you have paid the deductible, your insurance kicks in and pays 80% of the bill. The remainder after deductible is $4,650 and your insurance will pay 80% of that, and you will pay 20% of that amount.
Your total cost would be $350 + $4,650*20% = $1,280.
Suppose later in the year you get sick and go to see the doctor. The doctor bills your insurance $100. Since you've already met your deductible for the year your insurance pays 80% of that $100 and you pay 20% ($20) for the visit.
Your deductible and out-of-pocket expense resets every calendar year (January 1st). If you went back to the doctor on January 2nd and they billed you for another $100 then you'd have to pay that entire $100 on your own, and you'd have $250 left on your deductible for that year.
So, how do you plan for medical expenses? If you have a medical crisis then you should assume you will pay at least as much as your deductible. If your deductible is $500 then have at least that much in savings (you should have 6-9 months of living expenses in savings anyway as a precaution).  If you have a really serious health problem, then I would assume that you're going to pay up to your out-of-pocket maximum, and that is your worst-case expense every year. Additionally, if you have a chronic health problem that requires a lot of management, it might be wise to assume you're going to pay your out-of-pocket maximum every year.
It is not uncommon for people in the US to go into debt due to a medical crisis. A lot of people can absorb a $500 medical bill, but not a lot of graduate students can absorb a $5000 medical bill. If you cannot pay your bill in full within a month or two, then the hospital will start charging interest as though it were a loan.
In a personal example, I had a health crisis about a year and a half ago that required a two week stay in the hospital. The hospital billed my insurance several hundred thousand dollars. I paid my out-of-pocket maximum out of savings, after which I am no longer responsible for the balance. After haggling back and forth the insurance finally paid about $150,000 to the hospital. So yes, health care in the US can be obscenely expensive.
Note that a lot of health insurance plans will cover routine care for free. Annual physical exams were paid at 100% by my insurance provider, and separate annual gynecological exams were covered at 100% for women. Same thing for routine screenings (prostate, mammograms, etc.) and immunizations. This is because preventative care is cheaper in the long run than treating acute or chronic conditions that could have been prevented.
Again- find graduate students in your prospective school who are willing to talk about their past healthcare experiences and how much it cost them. They will give you a reasonable expectation.

Thanks for the answer David, I know this is a very complex subject and that it can vary from an institution to another, I just wanted to hear from graduate students who have been through a situation that demanded healthcare, to see how it was addressed by the insurance company... Because I have the idea (perhaps a wrong one) that you can get into a big financial trouble if you break your arm or need a small surgery there... My friend went to the emergency once (she broke her leg) and she was charged about 2000 dollars just to take an X-ray and put that white apparatus on her arm..

@RaulLuciano Yes, unfortunately healthcare in the US can be quite expensive for unexpected health crises. Your friend's story of paying $2000 for breaking her arm sounds entirely reasonable.  I've updated my answer above.

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Reflecting bad experience with previous graduate program in statement of purpose
I am applying to master program in computer engineering, but I have some concerns and not sure how to present them in my statement of purpose.
First, my undergrad was in computer engineering but after moving to US I pursued biology in graduate school. I had bad experience with my adviser. He moved to another university right when I started my research, but since I had a fellowship that came from a school in our university, I was forced to stay. He promised to help me, but didn't do anything after he moved. That being said, since I just started my research and we had a small department in which no one else worked on the same area, I couldn't make progress on my own.
But, then I started taking some online courses and became really interested in some new areas and also coauthored a paper in computer architecture. Now I want to apply to computer engineering for masters.
I also had to extend my graduate program in Biology due to some immigration related stuff, so now my graduate degree took more than five years, while I don't have any result in it. I was wondering how can I represent these stuff in my statement of purpose without hurting my chance of getting admission. I should also mention that I took almost all the PhD courses in Biology and have a very good GPA in graduate school.

It's tough to explain this, but here are a couple of things to note:

Explain the situation without being disrespectful to your adviser. If it were me I would not even blame him for anything, I would just make sure my writing leads the reader to that conclusion without me explicitly stating it.
I don't think that your immigration status issue would sit well with the committee as a reason for you staying in the program for five years. If you had the intention of finishing your degree despite your new-found interest you should mention it.
I'm getting the understanding that you will not be receiving any degree for your efforts over five years. I'm guessing that the school does not award M.S. degrees to PhD students who have not been able to conclude their research. However, if this is not the case, I highly recommend you try to get a master's degree. You mentioned that you completed most of the PhD coursework. You may be able to get a course-based master's degree even if your research has not progressed enough for a master's thesis. An SOP stating that you had difficulty with your research and ended up getting a course-based degree reads a lot better, especially since you seem to have a valid excuse for it.
Completing your PhD would disqualify you for being admitted to EE PhD programs at many universities (many schools do not award PhD's to people who already have one). I would assume if getting a PhD (in your new area of interest) became your goal at some point during these five years, this would be a good reason for you not to complete your current PhD, so you may want to mention this to justify not completing your degree. Again, if you are able to get a course-based degree, this will sound a lot more convincing.
Don't lie in your letter. Not that I'm implying that you meant to do this; however, it is usually pretty easy to detect an untruthful SOP.

Good Luck!

Emphasize the positive! Your statement of purpose should focus on your new field of interest and your publication in that field. The fact that you already have a publication in computer architecture is a very attractive quality. Don't focus too much attention on your PhD work in biology in your personal statement. Write a narrative where you treat your struggles in the biology PhD as "a fortunate opportunity" that allowed you to succeed in this new field that you are truly passionate about.


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Teaching a student (as a TA) when there is flirting, etc. and mutual interest
I am  a graduate student with an assistantship. I met an undergraduate and we hit it off (talking about sex, but not sex with each other). But now I assist a class with her (and I'm not good at hiding my feelings) and she is very flirty. She also put her hand on my arm outside of class (which was welcome). I am performing my job, but I am worried that if things go bad with us she'll claim sexual harrassment. What should I do?

Just don't. Really.

Wait until the course is over and all the grades published. Make sure you're never going to be a her instructor again. Then, you may ask her out for coffee, but only then. If she comes on to you, tell her to wait until that time.

paraphrasing someone who will surely also say this, run, don't walk. At least while you have any kind of authority over her, this cannot end well for any of the involved parties.

@FabioDias the positive is I have no authority; I just walk around and help people with their work the best I can.

@StephanBranczyk I don't need a woman to do my laundry and a woman doesn't need me to buy her coffee. (Sorry if that's off topic). At any rate, I'm not evaluating her (academically).

I thought the question was directed at how to further the interest of a student in the subject material when I saw the title in the hot questions list :(

@shortstheory Perhaps the juxtaposition helps her maintain focus and interest. She is learning.

@gfjhjgfhj Yes, you do. Even if you do not grade her, you are there as a representative of the university. You are trying really hard to rationalize it, but you do know that, otherwise you wouldn't be worried about sexual harassment claims... Cool down, wait for the course to be over... It is not worth the trouble...

@gfjhjgfhj, Where is that coming from? I didn't tell you to buy her coffee. I suggested you ask her out for coffee (once the grades are published and the course is over). Let her buy her own coffee, or take turns paying for it. It doesn't matter to me. It doesn't have to be coffee either. It's just that coffee shops can usually be found anywhere on a campus. And coffee is super easy to agree to. Just don't offer to study with her, make it clear that you're interested in getting to know her.

Are you her peer (i.e. you are both TA's or she is an undergrad assistant) or are you her TA (i.e she is taking the class in question)?

@daaxix No, she is just a student.

@gfjhjgfhj, so she is a student in a class that you are TAing?

@daaxix yeah but that's not how I met her. I'm not that sleazy. The difference in class is mostly that i smile more, show more enthusiasm, etc.

Your department and university probably have specific rules laid out for this which you have already explicitly agreed to.  Universities, and businesses in general, long ago realized that humans have sex, and that this can lead to many complications.  There may have been a TA Handbook given to you when you were first hired, or there is a section in your contract pointing out that there are policies about this that you agree to, and where to find them in full.  Find them, read them, follow them.

@zibadawatimmy - This is  the answer.  Could you transfer your comment to an answer?

I am performing my job, but I am worried that if things go bad with us she'll claim sexual harassment. What should I do?

Don't let things go bad.  I.e., stop talking about sex, try to hide your feelings, don't flirt, etc.  As long as she is in your class, you have a professional obligation to treat her the same as your other students, regardless of whether she welcomes your interest.  Doing anything else is dangerous.  (Even if she makes no complaint, other students may raise the issue with the administration, if they are upset by it or suspect favoritism.)
In principle, you could try to change your teaching assignment to another class.  However, I'd strongly recommend against asking for this.  It might not be possible (maybe there's nobody available to switch with you), in which case you'll be in a real mess if you have implicitly announced that your current assignment is untenable.  Any changes will be disruptive, which will annoy the professor teaching the class as well as whoever handles the teaching assignments or has to switch with you.  Plus the teaching change will be public enough that it will probably create rumors of impropriety.

But there are no professional obligations. If they can't use me anymore, they will fire me.

But couldn't she retaliate about a cooling off? I don't think she's that crazy...

@gfjhjgfhj: I'm not sure what you mean by your first comment.  The university may not feel any sense of commitment to you, but that doesn't mean professional ethics no longer applies.  As for whether she might retaliate about a cooling off, it's theoretically possible (although I hope it's highly unlikely), but if she's the sort of person who might do that, then not cooling off is even more dangerous.

"Any changes will be disruptive" - this should be bolded, because it is the primary problem here in my opinion. Had classes not begun yet, this should not be much of a problem, requiring only a simple note to whoever is in charge of assigning TAs to courses saying "For your information, I am in a relationship with a student from class X. You may want to consider this for the assignment of tasks." (whether or to what extent that relationship has actually started shouldn't matter, at least as long as the OP doesn't pick a new person of interest from another class during the same semester).

As a female student who is currently VERY interested in one of her TAs, I have to agree with what everyone is saying: DO. NOT. ENGAGE...
Wait until you are no longer teaching her (and there is no chance that you will ever again teach her), then feel free to accept any invitation to coffee. Asking her to coffee yourself could be risky, if it turns out that she is not as interested as you think.
If she likes you as much as I like my TA (who has unconsciously also displayed interest in me, but has been very careful to not show said interest... I have no way of knowing if he is actually interested until after the term is over, when I plan on asking him out), then she will ask you out after the term is over. If she does so beforehand, politely explain to her that it would be highly inappropriate.
At this point, it's not even smart to tell her to wait until the end of the term, because you would still be implying that you like her. You have to act uninterested until the term is over. Period. She will get it. And she will wait. Be patient, and don't obsess or it will show.

Under the assumption that you're in the US, it may be the case that you've already violated your school's policy on sexual harassment. It's important to recognize that quid pro quo harassment does also constitute sexual harassment under most (if not all) school harassment policies. Simply put, quid pro quo harassment occurs when a person incentivizes engaging in sexual or romantic activities with him or herself in the workplace. Again assuming that you're in the US, quid pro quo harassment is most likely prohibited by your college's sexual harassment policy. Title IX generally requires college's to have such policies.
As someone who is in a relative position of power over this student, any attempt to initiate or maintain a relationship with her is almost certain to be a violation of your school's policy, and could end up having quite serious implications for you, regardless of how your hypothetical relationship plays out. While you may view this student as being the initiating party, as the person in the relative position of power, it's your responsibility to set boundaries.
From your question, it's not clear to me exactly where you are getting the idea that this person is interested in initiating a relationship with you, so I would avoid broaching the subject directly, however you need to stop any further discussions of the sort you mention as soon as they come up by saying "I'm sorry, but that's not an appropriate topic for us to talk about". It isn't exactly what you're asking, but I can't help but notice that I don't see any evidence from your question that she's actually interested in having a relationship with you anyway. You say that you had a conversation where sex was mentioned, and that she touched your arm once. Neither of those things to me necessarily imply "interested in starting a relationship", though of course there may be other reasons that aren't in your question.
Other commenters here have suggested trying to switch teaching assignments, however I would suggest that that will not entirely mitigate the power differential necessary for quid pro quo harassment to occur. The best way to prevent her from claiming sexual harassment, is to not commit sexual harassment. It's not the answer that I think you want to hear, however it is the answer that you're likely to get from your school's HR/Title IX department.

I am not incentivizing romantic activities in the workplace. I would help her with her work regardless. I should reiterate this to her. Of course there might not be the same interpersonal energy, but this is similar to a star student who arouses the energies of his instructor. How am I supposed to treat her the same when she is smiling, thanking me for doing my job, etc. etc.? She is also a weak student who needs lots of help

She may just be basking in the attention. But that is a form of interest to me. I'm not big on the "relationship" bandwagon.

Galen those are the basic facts but the world of the positivist is a subworld of the world of a human. Sorry if I have too much to say here (its a general gift of mine).

So what you're saying is that you've given or are giving this student preferential attention on the basis of your perceptions about her attitude towards you?

not academically. She asks for more help in class and receives more help. But there is obviously a difference in cambre while performing the help.

Talk with your Professor about this.  Depending on the course, the Professor may have some leeway in having another TA take over the grading of her materials and interactions with her, etc.
And if not, it would be good to have your concerns "on the record."
You are very right to be concerned, but you don't have to make decisions (on how to handle the concern) all on your own.

In addition to Anonymous Mathematician's fine answer, I'd also recommend that you also take steps to make sure that all of your future interactions with students are in public places where witnesses will be present. For instance, hold office hours in a library or café instead of in a private office. Note that this would be a general policy for all of your students, not just your interactions with the student in question.

Yeah I was never too comfortable meeting with professors of differing genus especially when they closed the door. Luckily, I don't do office hours.

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Professor and Class Laughed When Asking About Overflow In Project. Did I do something wrong?
I'm looking to stop lurking the stack exchange community and actually participate a little more.
A little background, I am a student in University in my freshman year of my Computer Information Systems - Programming Track Degree.
So this issue I have occurred about a week ago in my freshman visual basic class. Now I have been programming on/off since I was 11, so I knew quite a bit of the basics already. I understand that I am a little farther ahead than some of the students, but I don't ever talk about it or show off. I am very reserved about that kind of stuff.
Actually, this instance was the first time I openly talked in the class and asked a question. We were assigned a lab to add up every integer between 1 and the number entered by the user, and then display the sum. So if the user entered 10, it would display 5050. No big deal, so I get started.
Now this is where the issue happened. I realized that the user could enter a large number and cause an overflow error if we just used Int32s, which was all he went over in the class. I wanna figure out if he wants us to use Longs so we can calculate those higher numbers, or if he just wants to use Ints and catch the overflow.
So here I am, hand raised, about to ask the first question I have ever asked in this class. I said something along the lines of, "Would you prefer us to use Longs or to use Int32s and just catch for overflow."
I kid you not the response I got from the class literally made me slide down in my chair. The Professor starts laughing and says "Use Int32s without checking for overflow." And the whole class around me starting giving me weird looks and some even vocalized, "Why would you do that?", "That's stupid", etc.
In my head, my question made complete sense. I mean, I'm not going to claim to be a programming god, but I thought that by now I had basic stuff like checking for errors understood. Why would not encourage us to do that / am I just being stupid?
All I know is that I was extremely embarrassed.
PS : He did already go over Try Catch in the class, and the Long data type. So the class would have the knowledge to check as long as they knew what an Overflow error specifically was.
TL;DR - I asked if we should check for overflow in a program in my class, Professor and whole class acted like I was crazy. I feel embarrassed.  Did I do something wrong?

If you can get over the fear of feeling stupid in front of your peers for asking questions then you will likely learn much more than those who were too afraid to ask.

Imagine yourself, a big success in your field, ten years from now.  Now imagine your classmates ten years from now, checking you out at the grocery store. // Asking questions in class gets easier with practice.  You made a great start.  Keep up the good work.  It really will get easier the more you do it.

Don't obsess too much about social interactions that take place over a very short amount of time. They might have been laughing at something happening (not involving the actual data in your question) that you were unaware of. The professor might have laughed as you asked something outside the scope of the class (and maybe you even demonstrated knowledge atypical of a student at this point). I have TA'd, and the times I hope students realize that if I smile or laugh it never has the intention of putting anyone down.

(cont) In seminars, I still get people laughing at my questions (in good faith and with no ill will held against) when I ask silly questions. These people also ask silly questions, and while you should do your best to not ask silly questions they really are unavoidable.

Your example doesn't add up to 5050.... 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10 = 55

Is it possible that you misread the situation? I have been teaching (introductory) programming subjects for a few years now, and I deem it extremely unlikely that this kind of question would evoke the response you describe. Is it possible that the laughter was not (directly) due to the question itself, and/or that the student's comments was about something else?

@XLeitix I second that question. The task at hand naturally involves overflows, it is very easy to reach one using this program. Easier than that only if it was factorial (which is the classic operator for overflow)

I suggest you edit this down to the question you want to ask. The details you provide about computer science will not mean anything to users here with no background in CS. And there's no real question here other than "Am I crazy?" in the subject line. But this is not a CS forum, so we can't be expected to evaluate the craziness of your CS question.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because "am I crazy?" is not answerable by us, and the TL;DR version does not even pose a question.

I edited the title and the question to bring into focus what I think OP is trying to ask.

I will just say that for me, this is a very believable and easy situation to read. The exercise is obviously an introductory loop with accumulator; these are commonly asked glossing over error conditions. The instructor chuckled because of how unusually advanced the question was. The other students did not understand and misinterpreted the chuckling as indicating a stupid question. OP does need to get a thicker skin for this kind of interaction.

@DanielR.Collins Lol, It's not like I'm offended and need a thicker skin. It just seemed like a weird reaction and I wanted to know if I was legitimately asking a silly question.

Assuming that there are no missing information on the situation:

Your question does make perfect sense. Overflows are a serious flaw that can lead to security problems, not a laughing matter.
However, I can see myself leading the students to an overflow as motivation to explain how to deal with them, that might include answering your question with the same words your professor used (to not disrupt the 'plan' for the topic - Indeed, I did that a couple of times already).
This would not, however, include me laughing (a smirk maybe), and I would certainly not tolerate that reaction from your colleagues, which would lead me to reveal what I was planning and that your question was not only valid, but the point of the whole thing.
Ignore the reaction of the class. Herd mentality... As if they knew any better :)
On a side note, who teaches visual basic nowadays? :)


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Error in PDF conversion led to lower score on test
My daughter is a college student. During her test she was required to use their online system to log in and answer the questions, then convert the results to PDF and upload to the professor. She answered all questions correctly and converted data to PDF on their site and uploaded as instructed.   The PDF however had one blank page (an error) that was deducted from her total score. Her answers were correct but due to circumstances beyond her control there was a faulty PDF. What is the best action?

Immediately inform the professor. Too late now, but she should have checked the pdf before submitting.

In almost all cases I know of, you have an opportunity of looking at the final PDF displayed on screen when you upload something. Was that the case here? If so, the circumstances were within in her control.

It's always disappointing when we're reminded that there are institutions that give marks for pdf conversion and the like.

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text:
Is a professor allowed to take off points for an assignment they messed up?
In the final week of a class, our final project included an essay, presentation, and discussion board responses to the presentations. This is an online class so we depend on the availability of discussions to complete some work. There were two due dates for the presentation: one for Wednesday where you post your slides, and one for Friday where you should post at least 5 responses to classmates.
Today, I logged in to complete my responses but the discussion board was closed and I was not able to access it. I sent an email to the professor, but they have not been timely on their responses recently (I wrote a separate email last week but have not heard back). The professor does not have a phone number listed on the syllabus either. Could the professor still take off points for the discussion even though it was out of a students control to complete the assignment? I’m a little worried my grade might drop a letter if the points are taken off.

Something messed up. Why conclude it was the professor? Until you work out why this happened I think your question is moot. Or at least ill-stated.

@Buffy Strvwberry said they were supposed to post a discussion board comment before tomorrow, but the board was closed today. That sounds like a not-very-helpful frame challenge, as only the professor can set when discussion boards are open.

Seems like it depends on precisely what your institution's regulations on grades are, and what your opportunities for appealing a grade under those regulations might be. However, I would consider that most professors are not evil people trying to find sneaky ways to punish their students and take off points.

If this is a large part of the grade, it may make a difference in how it is treated. For a pass or fail situation dependent on a resource that was unavailable accommodations can sometimes be made on the departmental level should you fail the course. Next time around you should make a screenshot and send it both to the professor and the IT department (with the IT department as a carbon copy). This isn't going above their head but it still provides a chain of evidence for accountability purposes. After the fact it may take a few emails to determine if classmates had similar issues for evidence.

Allowed? Refer to the policies of your course on how grades are determined.  Nobody outside your institution can tell you what is permitted.
Would I?  No, provided the student could provide evidence that they were unable to post to the board during the time it should be open.  Did you - work through any troubleshooting steps provided for the boards? Contact IT support? Screen shot the error and email (before the due date and time) your professor with clear evidence?
If other students were able to post, and you provided no evidence, I would grade you as not completed.  It is amazing how often students "cannot access" an online assessment item, and are simultaneously struck by great (undocumented) misfortunes preventing them from doing the above steps.
I understand you are worried, but expecting a response in <24 hours is unrealistic.  Your email is just one very tiny part of your professor's job, and quite likely isn't an urgent priority.  Some professors are unreasonably slow to respond - but students can also have unrealistic, and unfair, expectations that do not acknowledge the genuine workloads their professors have.  Your email might be just one in 100 they received that day (or hour!).
Give your professor a chance to respond. If you think your grade has been unfairly impacted, then act on that - not the fear that it might be.


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How to push supervisor so I can publish papers?
I have been a while in my postdoc. I need to publish papers so that I can move ahead. I specifically need papers from this job because papers from my current job shape my future positions. My supervisor is not in a hurry to publish papers with me because he has enough papers coming out with other authors. For example, in the early days we worked on a paper and my supervisor held it to review for several months and did not make it a priority. Later, big changes were made, so it is taking longer.
Everything else is perfect as a supervisor except the paper publishing part. If my supervisor was pushing papers little bit harder, I could have 2-3 papers so far. How should I push my supervisor to publish those papers? Is this common among other postdocs as well?

I think you need to add some details to make this answerable. Why do you need you supervisor to publish?

Is the supervisor a co-author or is your work independent? Are you willing/able to be corresponding author?

Afaik if your paper gets published, that is a result also for the supervisor; at least if its content is something for which the SV can be pride. So, poke his ego and try to understand him in this frame.

@Buffy supervisor is a co-author.

You need to write a draft, present it to him and follow up. That is how you push. You say your PI is supportive. If that is true then he won't mind you taking the initiative and even having a conversation about how important you think it is to publish your work.

Indeed, the purpose of doing a postdoc is to show you are an independent researcher. The OP should be driving the interaction, not continuing to act like a new PhD student.

Still needs to do work towards the project goals. There are very limited time to do things independently while being in a project. @Jon.

@Dr.Baje - one can be in charge of things on a project, demonstrating independence. After 40 years as a student, postdoc, PI, and manager I’ve shepherded several dozen postdocs to being good PIs.

@Dr. Bake As a postdoc you should be expected to lead projects not just "be in a project". That leadership includes publishing and presenting your work. If you really want to publish you have to own that responsibility.


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Is it ethical to present a math work on two different seminars on the same department?
I wrote a paper in mathematics and I would like to present it to the right community of experts.
I believe that the work might be of interest both to geometers and analysts. Hence I am thinking to propose it to two seminars on my department: analysis and geometry.
Is it common to present the same work on two different seminars on the same department? Is there any conflict of interests here?

How difficult to invite both groups to the seminar?

@Nobody : I expect that it is not easy, and only very few people from one group will come to the seminar of the other group. I think usually people come only to their seminar unless there is a famous speaker or something extraordinary.

What conflict of interest do you think there might be?

@Buffy : Well, I do not know. But once I visited a conference which was not in my usual field, and met there another person from my field. He kind of hinted (if I understood correctly) that the fact that I am there creates a competition, and he was unhappy about that. This is a different story, but I am wondering if something similar can happen in the situation I posted.

@MKO Both of your comments sound like something slightly toxic is going on in your community / department, to be honest. Is there a feud of geometers vs analysts? (things I never expected to type)

Why not pick the most relevant seminar and, in the advertising blurb for your presentation, mention its possible interest to those in the other seminar? I don't know how things are done now and where you're at, but in the 1970s-1990s the departments I was in (or hung around in) would post weekly seminar talk/speaker titles on several bulletin boards throughout the math classroom/office building(s) locations, and it was often the case that if a topic was thought to be of more general interest, then this information was included under the title.

@xLeitix : As far as I know there is no any feud of different groups. But I do not want that my behavior will invite one.

Just a comment regarding semantics: there might be good reasons for giving two talks or for giving only one; but this is really not about ethics, and I fail to imagine how this could be related to any conflict of interest.

If these two seminars normally have disjoint audiences, I see no problem whatsoever with this. There is even an advantage to use exactly the same title and abstract in the sense that then it should be clear for people that it doesn't make sense to go to both seminars (which they wouldn't normally do anyway).
However I think it'd be a strange thing to do if seminars of one group are regularly advertised to the other group and there is regular audience overlap, because then "the standard thing" is that people from both groups go to the same seminar if they're interested, and two seminars on the same topic are not needed.

I don't see any ethical issue here. Perhaps there is an institutional issue (time, space,...) but not an ethical one.
Comments have correctly stated that you can just use advertising among the various groups to get everyone to attend a general talk.
But, there is another option. If you want to give two seminar talks, make them sufficiently different and tailor them to the specific audience. If something in your work is especially interested to those in analysis, build a talk around that. Build another talk around another field. Offer them sequentially, perhaps, once you know how the first was received.

I think you are misreading the feedback you got at the conference. The person may have been unhappy that you were there feeling that you might poach on their work and that you had the skills and interest to do so. There is a fair amount of that going on, both fear and poaching. But it wasn't an ethical problem on your part.

Regarding the conference.  The situation was as follows: I had some recent work with new ideas which I wanted to advertise to other people. In fact I was invited by an organizer of this conference. The person from my field could be unhappy that I share my ideas with people from a different field (this is my guess). Although it should be in a different post, was that unethical on my part?

It is not common. It would be easier to choose just one seminar, or try to arrange a "joint session" of the two seminars.
But if you must present twice, I think it would be OK, as long as you make a best effort to be transparent about it, and no one is surprised, especially the people who run the seminars, and those who choose to listen to both talks don't feel that their time was wasted. If you don't satisfy these conditions, then there's a problem.
I suggest that you make it clear in the announcement for seminar A that yiu will present substantially the same results that you also plan to present in seminar B, but from A standpoint. Likewise for B. And then you make the A and B discussions different enough so that listening to both won't be redundant.
Of course, this assumes that both sets of people who run your seminars agree to your proposal. If only one seminar accepts your talk, then you'll only present there. And if your department is so political that even proposing the above arrangement might unreasonably offend or anger someone, then you should not even propose it.


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How do I bring my work in a new field to the attention of experts?
I am an expert in mathematics in field A. In recent years I got also interested in another field B, being initially motivated by my field A. I have some ideas in field B and I published 3 papers. The first paper is considered to be really interesting by a number of experts, while the third one is not: the referees of the paper claim that the main result easily follows from some folklore in the field.
I feel that I am working mostly in isolation in field B being in e-mail contact only with a couple of experts. In particular I do not attend conferences in field B and have no chance to present my results to a broader community of experts in B.
Being out of community I have less opportunities to learn most recent results and folklore. In order to make further progress on the ideas I have, it would be most helpful to find collaborators in field B.
What is the best way to change the situation? I believe I have some ideas to offer to experts in B. How can I get a chance to convince them while they do not know me at all? Is it OK to find a relevant conference, write to organizers, send them a brief description of my results, and ask for an opportunity to speak?

Publishing, that would be the traditional route. Are you looking for more than that? Specify.

@Aruralreader: As I said I published 3 papers. But I feel that only the referees and a couple more experts are aware of it. Also I would be interested to discuss it with experts in order to know better what is currently known in the field and have more feedback.

The organizers are unlikely to help you much as there is competition for speaking slots at most conferences and the organizers need to be fair. But, you can submit a paper to any conference that accepts them and they will be reviewed. If the paper is good, it might be accepted.
But, the best way, perhaps, is to submit good papers to the journals that those people are likely to read. They will find the papers and through them, find you.
You can also, simply attend conferences in the field and spend your time talking to people, asking questions, and sharing ideas. You aren't likely to go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, but you can get there if your work is good.
The people that you are in contact with can also, perhaps, introduce you to others in their circle, thus increasing your own.

Many conferences don't have that much competition for speaking slots, and many organizers are likely to be accommodating to someone bringing in ideas from a different subfield.


text:
Sources supporting sabbatical in the US for foreign mathematicians
I would be interested to spend my sabbatical year at one of the US math departments.
I am a tenured mathematician affiliated with a non US university. I do not have a US citizenship.
What are the sources available, e.g. grants, I could apply for in such a situation from which I could pay for my apartment in the US during the sabbatical?
As far as I know in my country there are no such grants.


text:
Are private US universities just a OPT mill, without much concern to teaching quality?
I started a Master in Engineering Management in Santa Clara University, a quite respected university in the Silicon Valley, in order to have a degree better recognized in the US as I've just studied in Brazil and France so far. I've run in a few issues to adapt to the US academic reality that are making me rethink if that was a good decision. Although the pandemic has affected some of the academics, it doesn't seem to be be much of the issue here. Here are some issues I've run into:

Professors don't have much knowledge out of the scope of their classes. One day I asked a professor about alternative tools to the one he was teaching us and he said he haven't heard of any, despite a quick Google search showing several that I quickly tried to check that indeed they were alternatives. This shocked me as usually my professors in Brazil would be PhDs in the subjects that they were teaching undergrads and were constantly publishing papers with a very advanced knowledge of the skill they were introducing us to. So if a student wants to follow that field, they can just contact the professor that taught the introductory course.
Grading appears to be more based on clerical work of delivering homework and finals with very little of the subject's knowledge are more about working on it. My projects, midterms and finals as an undergrad student in Brazil were much more detailed and expected the student to have a very high skill on it to earn good grades. The clerical work on writing the papers was the least of the efforts for each course. This leaves the courses of quite bland academic taste.
While I don't hear much, I noticed that vast majority of students appear to be international students coming to graduate and get their OPT, so they can immigrate to the US. I don't see that vibe of genius students that I would expect in a respected university in an area with high demand for skilled workers. It feels more those private colleges in Brazil that people go just because they can't go to a good university so they just study enough to graduate and get a certificate.
There is next to no activities outside the academic field I'm pursing the degree for. My university in Brazil would demand us to earn credits from at least three extra-curricular activities while at SCU the only credited (and even there optional) extra curricular activity is internship. In France we were expected to learn at least two foreign languages, do a few 'human development' courses, like arts or sports and have plenty of off-curriculum courses, like marketing, law or management, despite being an engineering school. I don't see any of that here at SCU.

I'm thinking that maybe I should transfer for a university of the UC system, where possibly there would be a more academic vibe than a OPT-driven vibe, just to provide students with the documents to allow them to work and immigrate to the US.
Me question here is, is it because private universities are there just to give students an advance STEM certificate that I'm getting bored and unable to motivate to study? Should I move to an university more academically renowned so that I could relate more and be more motivated to conclude my degree?

Can you clarify  the abbreviation OPT mill for a multi-national audience of readers? [edit]

@BrianTompsett-汤莱恩, probably this: https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/students-and-exchange-visitors/optional-practical-training-opt-for-f-1-students

@Brian OPT mills are universities with the sole or mostly purpose to provide the paperwork for students without the right to work on US soil to work legally in the US for a limited time, typically one year to three years. The students typically use this as a mean to get the foot in the door in tech companies to have them provide the paperwork to immigrate to the US.

@GabrielDiego Please [edit] your question to be stand-alone without your comment, as comments are ephemeral. Thanks :-)

For point 4, I would refer you to the difference between undergrad degrees and professional masters degrees in the US. Breadth requirements are a characteristic of the former, almost never the latter.

@Dawn, not necessarily. In France, were I did my exchange, Master students were also required to have extra curricular activities or just offered some. And for a Master in Engineering Management in the Silicon Valley, knowing some foreign languages is really essential.

That is an awfully broad brush to use to try to paint more than a thousand institutions.
Most private colleges and universities in the US are primarily undergraduate institutions, though many have a small graduate division. A small number are renowned research institutions as pointed out in a comment. But most are not. Instead, their mission is to provide a good "well rounded" broad undergraduate education that enables graduates to move into a wide range of careers after graduation, including, but not exclusive to, academia. Many graduates move on to graduate school and many professors (myself) encourage graduates to go elsewhere for their grad degrees even if the school has a corresponding graduate division.
But, you may well be better off at a state sponsored institution, since nearly all of them (and all the higher ranked ones) stress research. However, they may or may not put heavy emphasis on masters level education.
But, I doubt that there are any (not-for-profit, accredited) schools in the US that have a specific goal of being an "OPT mill". I'd be surprised to learn of one.
Note that the quality of private schools can vary quite a bit, though accreditation by the traditional organizations tries to limit the range. But not every small school can provide deep specialization in all fields.

Disclosure: I have family members that attended SCU and all are happy with it and have encouraged their children to also go there. But that is for the undergraduate program and the general academic environment.
Many, perhaps hundreds of thousands or more, successful academics and high level professionals started out at such institutions.
Note that my interpretation of "private" includes only not-for-profit accredited colleges and universities of which the US has over a thousand.

Thanks for your through response, but it doesn't address some issues, like lack of interest of faculty and students on their subjects and lack of out-of-scope activities. I followed recommendations of friends and online reviews to join SCU and they indeed reported a mucb greater quality in the past, but the current situation doesn't reflect their fame. I don't think this is explained by the pandemic

Well, if you enrol in a Masters in Engineering Management, you can expect to find both the university and the students are only there to get some money.  That's what the program is for.
That is not necessarily indicative of the broader environment of the university or the nation.
An "OPT Mill" would not have any classes at all.

There are Zoom meetings, but content is often not delivered, that's why I would feel like they are just milling units to mill an OPT in the end.


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What is the use and importance of recommendation letters?
In my country recommendation letters to enter the equivalent to an MBA or PHD are just a suggestion, not necessarily, and/or irrelevant. In some cases they are shunned because they are considered related to nepotism. The only time they are needed is when applying abroad.
The question is: Why are recommendation letters considered important (if they are) in your universities and how is that importance measured?

Related answer of mine, about the different expectations about recommendation letters in different countries.

I think you need to make this question more specific by telling us which country you are interested in. As you've noted in the question, the importance (and use) of recommendation letters varies a lot by country.

@Flyto rather than being interested in 1 country, I want to see the differences between countries and arrive tot he general consensus.

In some other places, such as the US, no one would likely view them as nepotism unless they came from a relative.
The purpose is to give the receiving institution an independent evaluation of the candidate from someone, such as a professor, who is in a position to know both the background and the likelihood of success of that person. Usually the recommender has some standing in the academic or professional community and who can be trusted to give an honest evaluation.
In many places, such as the US, they are all important, outweighing many other factors. It is unlikely you would be admitted to a program based only on letters, but very difficult without good and supporting letters. Don't neglect them if you are applying internationally.

"In other places, no one would likely view them as nepotism unless they came from a relative": In my country too recommendation letters are frequently viewed as a form of nepotism, from whoever they are written. Actually, almost any sentence containing the word recommendation is looked suspiciously. I'd say that only recently, for a few selections, recommendation letters have been accepted, but it's not a generally accepted practice around here.

@Buffy would I be right in guessing that you are writing this from a US viewpoint? If so, I suggest saying so in the answer.

@Buffy I too suspect you are from USA. Can you share which (with certainty) other countries you are mentioning?  In the rest of America (minus Canada) recommendation letters are generally suspicious due to  problems of corruption, discrimination and nepotism.

@deags, sorry I can't offer details, but this saddens me immensely.

@Buffy It's alright. You offered the reasons why such letters matter in your country at least, meanwhile for other countries it also stands why it's exactly the contrary.