text:
Are college students forbidden from sharing their grades with other students?
I am currently in an anatomy class and had an issue. I and three other students worked on an 18 page packet together. We had the same answers since we worked on it as a group.
However, two of us received a 35/50, one of us had a 50/50 and the other had a 30/50. When we asked the teacher why we got different grades, we were scolded for sharing grades with each other and told we were not allowed to.
I can't seem to find this anywhere in our welcome packet or any paperwork and I was wondering, are we really not allowed to tell other students our own grades?

On what country, college happend?, I lived in 4 countries and never heard of something like that.
On the US some colleges have a policy of not sharing to employers the grades but not between students.

In the US- on the east coast

And I have ever heard of this either. I was under he impression it is my grade- basically I "own" it and if I want to share it with another student I should be free to do so. However if that's not the case I wanted to know.

This is not a question random strangers on the internet know the answer to. You need to look up your institutional guidelines.

Luigi- as I stated in my post- I couldn't find anything related to grade sharing in my school paperwork or welcome packet which contains the guidelines.

So, you worked on a "packet" together.  Did all of you turn in identical material?  Was that allowed by the terms of the assignment?

Bob- this packet was an 18 page homework assignment and yes we were urged to work in groups but it was turned in individually.

And yes our answers were all the same- we all studied and looked for the answers together and discussed them to further explain to eachother and understand.

Probably a misunderstanding of FERPA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Educational_Rights_and_Privacy_Act . I'm not a laywer, but my interpretation is that the institution isn't allowed to share, you can do whatever you want with your grade...

Thank you Fábio, this was my understanding as well prior to this issue but wanted to make sure.

All your answers may have been the same, but perhaps the quality of work still differed – particularly for an 18-page assignment. (Many professors will emphasize the "show your work" part of an answer at least as much as the final result, if not more so.)

@FábioDias Another possibility is that it's more like employers' preferences (and sometimes rules) not to talk share your salary/bonus info with coworkers.  (Not that I am endorsing this attitude.)

If your answers are equivalent, it is the problem of the lecturer's quality control. They cannot punish you for you having found out a "bug". This is not like salary where everyone negotiates for themselves, there needs to be at least a reasonable push at mark consistency. In a properly run institution, you should have the option to reveal your marks to whoever you want and, as consequence be able to point out potential inconsistencies in marking. The lecturers will have to argue why the marks are different, so expect them to have a response.

To answer the question you didn't ask, which is why this is a comment and not an answer: One explanation for the difference in marks is that your papers were graded by different TAs with different interpretations of the grading rubric and/or different levels of strictness and pedantry.

It is important to realize that asking why you got different grades puts the instructor in a difficult situation. While I have never heard of a policy that prohibits students from sharing grades, instructors cannot talk about the grades of other students.

@StrongBad that argument is weak if the other students are there in person also discussing their grades. at the very least, the 30/50 student should be able to ask "why isn't this a 50/50 quality answer" and compare what the instructors claims is missing against the other answers to see if higher valued answers actually do have that

@user1663987 it might be "weak", but I do not discuss grades in groups. Further, a mistake of overmarking a student (i.e., the one with a 50/50) does not mean everyone should get a 50/50.

@StrongBad if an instructor cannot directly answer why one answer is worth half what a very similar answer is worth, then there is a definitely an inconsistency or favoritism that needs to be addressed by the larger organization. Refusing to discuss grades in groups when you tell student to work in groups is just a jerk move, and opens the door to individual favoritism. But everyone is free to be a jerk; if an instructor cannot explain what is missing in the 30/50 graded answer, then it is just an arbitrary grade and the issue needs to be escalated.

@user1663987 yes the instructor needs to be able to justify why the 30/50 got the mark. If the instructor mis-marked the 50/50, he is not required to fix it. If the instructor shows a systematic bias in mis-marking, that needs to be addressed.

30/50 and 35/50 are equivalent grades, well within acceptable grading error (and also attributable to minor differences in the solutions).  However 50/50 is either an error, or attributable to something outside the paper (e.g. extra credit or favoritism).

@user1663987 My understanding of FERPA is that before the instructor can discuss grades in groups, he must have the written consent of all students whose grades are being discussed (or their parents if they are under 18), and each of those students must explicitly list in the consent document the names of those to whom their grades are being revealed.

@shoover if a second student walks in with the first and says out loud to them both "I got a 30/50" then the teacher is not releasing any information when he talks about it. And FERPA only covers personally identifiable information. Professors may post a list of grades for the entire class without names, without violating FERPA.

@user1663987 If I were the professor, and a group of students walked in announcing their grades, I would either echo StrongBad and refuse to discuss it in a group, or exercise a CYA maneuver and get consent in writing. If the students later decided to file a FERPA grievance saying the professor revealed their grades to other students, then without that paper it becomes a messy he-said/he-said situation.

I've certainly graded things where it was obvious that students worked together.  They were friends, and they got to the same answer, but it was clear from the intermediate steps that some of the students understood what they were doing but some of them had the right target and put together enough errors that cancelled each other...  I graded those intermediate errors pretty harshly because it showed they didn't understand the material.

There's also the problem of not knowing why you got a certain grade in the first place: do they just write a number on your paper? Are there no comments?

KEY QUESTION: Was each student responsible for a different portion of the assignment, and do you each take a different degree of responsibility for these portions? Unless you all had a versioned-controlled master copy of the final document which you all iteratively updated piecewise, this might make sense.

I have a lifetime of experience in academia in the US, and in all of my experience your instructor's claim is completely without merit.  There is no regulation or cultural norm that requires students to keep their grades confidential from other students.  Moreover, comparing assignments or exams for learning purposes and/or to confirm that the grades have been assigned fairly is a very common practice among American students: at any American institution I would assume students have a "right" to do so unless given explicit information to the contrary.
So, bottom line: there is a very good chance that what the instructor has told you is bogus.  What should you do about it?  I would begin by politely asking your instructor whether there is any written confidentiality agreement that you are subject to.  If he says yes: good to know!  If he says no: I would seek aid from someone at your institution.  Good places to start are (i) your faculty advisor or (ii) your student ombudsperson.  Eventually you may want to speak to the department head and/or the relevant dean, but I would proceed carefully and get as much advice as possible rather than escalate too quickly.  It is very likely that you are in the right here, as others should recognize without your needing to press too hard or further antagonize your instructor.  (Someone at an American institution who says this to a student is likely to be well towards the "unreasonable" end of the spectrum, so I would try not to hand them an excuse to retaliate against you.)
Good luck.

I agree that the instructor is almost certainly wrong here.  But, absent more details, I'm inclined to give the instructor more benefit of the doubt and guess that they are not so much unreasonable as confused.  Some institutions make a very big fuss to instructors about confidentiality of grades (my institution has sent several such almost threatening messages to faculty recently), and an inexperienced instructor may get the mistaken impression that even the students themselves are not allowed to reveal their grades.

@Mark: Thanks for your comment.  It is certainly possible that the instructor is just (very, very!) confused.  If so, then while checking up on the polite inquiry about written confidentiality agreements, the instructor will presumably learn that he is misinformed.

@MarkMeckes An interesting detail, especially since the 'spirit behind the law' would seem to be as the OP hints on in passing: the grade belongs to the student (as part of their personal information I'd say) and they are generally speaking the main legal entity with the right to decide who does and does not learn of that grade. Still, as a third party we cannot be aware of all the factors that go into the grade. If it's just the paper being graded on its merits alone, differing grades make no sense, but for all we know the grade also contains a factor rating the student's homework up to then.

@Cronax all the more reason why the teacher giving the students a meaningful explanation would have been a good thing. I figure this is all part of the general gist of the academic marking I'm familiar with: we expect (at least in the STEM disciplines) to be marked in just and consistent ways, and clear marking schemes and the ability to compare marks go a long way to accomplishing this.

@MathieuK. I certainly agree that the teacher should be giving the students a meaningful explanation of the grading process, ideally beforehand rather than when the grade is dealt out. I was simply trying to show that while it seems that the instructor has a flawed grading process, we don't have the required information to determine that as fact.

There may be absurd non-disclosure agreements who-knows-where, but I would consider such a ban a violation of my rights. This raises the suspicion that they have a problem with marking consistency and wish this not to be exposed.
However, it may be that your submissions are indeed of varying quality, despite you having worked together, so be prepared for a response, but a response you deserve.
Finally, take into account that they might cite you for collusion if you insist on a very similar submission quality.
As for the comparison with salary, this is quite a different issue: different people may negotiate different salaries for similar work and that may be considered part of the skill gradient of the worker/employer coupling; introducing a comparison may, however, damage work relations; some countries, however, have transparency, so the attitude to this is country-dependent. Whereas marks are supposed to focus exclusively on the quality of the particular work, everywhere in the world, at least in principle.

I agree that it is a violation of my rights. I appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

@CaptainEmacs, actually the comparison with salary is not so inappropriate. So-called pay secrecy policies are mostly illegal in the U.S.; see here and here. Also I completely disagree with your rationalization of why imposing pay secrecy may be legitimate. Yes, it is legal in some countries, but it is immoral everywhere, just some countries haven't gotten around to fighting it yet (and even the U.S. still has pretty far to go).

We encountered a similar situation in academia. There was an assessible presentation by groups of 4 & when the results were published (by posting on a noticeboard) the highest score was given to a group that had made an incomprehensible presentation. When challenged, the academics explained that they needed the revenue from overseas students, & they'd be returning to their homes & wouldn't be competing for jobs. One of a number of incidents. Sadly, x% must pass or the course loses funding for being too hard. y% of those passing must be in w demographic group or there's discrimination, etc.

@DanRomik I agree completely that salary secrecy policies should not be legal. However, as an employee, good luck to you if you share your higher salary numbers with your less fortunate colleagues, who attempt then to use this in negotiations and you nevertheless hope for salary increases in the future. Legal does not mean practical or wise.

@CaptainEmacs thanks for agreeing with me, but if you agree then you should delete or modify the last paragraph of your answer, which sends a completely different message than "I agree completely that salary secrecy policies should not be legal." What you wrote in your answer sure makes it sound like you don't completely agree and are actually excusing or rationalizing retaliation by employers against employees who "damage work relations" by talking about their salaries. ...

... You also implied that employees who don't possess "the skill gradient of the worker/employer coupling" (which I understand as code for "not good at aggressively negotiating a higher salary") deserve the lower salary they will be paid even if negotiation skills have nothing to do with their job description. So I'm sorry but I don't see how you can claim to agree with me that pay secrecy should be illegal when you're saying something else that's completely inconsistent with that position.

@DanRomik I am not in the business of politics; which means that I can see both sides and respect the other side's points, even if I would prefer it another way round. Also, saying what I think is wise is not the same thing as saying sth. should be made law. I think it should not be legal to enforce secrecy, but, independently, I still think it is a good idea (as individual) to not blather around one's salary. Above answer tries to give my judgement of why salaries are not comparable to marks. It's not a statement of what I think should happen. The latter belongs into comments, not response.

I don't know of any university in the U.S. that does not allow students to share grades.  I would not worry about sharing grades.  No university in the U.S. (or probably anywhere) would make such a stupid, unenforceable rule.
What to do next assignment
While its not unethical, don't continue to let the prof or his TAs know you're sharing grades.  When you have questions about grading next time ask.

Could you explain what changes I would have to make to receive full credit.  I'm not asking for a re-submission, I just want to know the best way to answer the questions next time.

Also, if this grade is the difference between pass/fail for you, you can usually contest the grade, and use the other grades as proof.  Be warned though, doing this is likely to cause retaliatory behavior from the prof (which would be unethical).  This is the nuclear option, so use it as a last resort.

It's also interesting from within the perspective of learning the material. I'd get with the other students and try to figure out what about those answers is possibly wrong. If you can't figure it out, then the students with those marked wrong could individually talk to the teacher and ask him to explain what was wrong about those answers. That would help complete understanding what the issue is, or, if the marking was a mistake, get you appropriate credit.

@dronz yes we had thought to compare answers directly from the graded paper however- our teacher refuses to return the packets we did and just posted a grade in our online account system through our college. We still have no idea what was wrong out of the entire assignment to have warranted such a grade.

@IsaacFields That sounds like a broken situation to me. There's no way to learn from mistakes if you can't see which answers were wrong, and then one is grade 100% and others 70% and 60% for the same answers, that all seems to add up to teacher error and/or maleducation or incompetence.

That sounds absolutely absurd.
If you are banned from sharing the grades, checks on legitimacy of the academic system, teacher, class can't be confirmed.
Sharing grades in my view is one of the most fundamental checks and rights of a student by any common sense.
If it is banned legally in your specific case I highly doubt but yeah i can't really comment on that I'd say.

Working in higher ed, I'd have to say this comes off as a professor who either is doing lazy grading (unfortunately common), or who's letting their opinion of the students affect their grading, even if unconsciously.
To the issue of saying you can't inform other students of your grades; that is completely false. I have never heard of an institution having this policy. Perhaps mention to the professor that you do not believe this is a policy of the school, and if they continue to insist on it speak with your advisor or possibly that department head depending on who you're closer to (I know that at my university I worked much more closely with my major's dept. head than my academic advisor).

I would have to point out that grading is not and never will be entirely fair. I understand that this goes against the generally accepted truth, that grades are or should be entirely objective.
They can not really be. There are so many factors at play. For example: I made a few tests about this and secretly submitted two, as near as possible, identical exam answers on several occasions(I was in a position to arrange this and neither actually gave anybody a real mark just to test). The only difference in these papers was the style of the handwriting. I would expect there to be a fluctuation. But the fluctuation is about twice as large as I expect when I use a good handwritten style versus a poorer one.
Simply everything matters making some statement even slightly different can lead the grader to wonder about whether it is the right answer.
But in general because of this I am always open for a discussion on the grade. And it seems weird that you couldn't compare, in fact it is in students interests to do so. It is not possible to be infallible. So I expect people to come forward with these things, but in general they do not.
Anyway, the 30-35 difference sounds well within error margins and the 50 sounds like an error to me. Are you really interested in dropping the grade of the wrongly marked one? Most likely in this case the end result is the same as now as the damage is minimal.

It is trivial to devise a "fair"grading system.  One of my profs announced at the beginning of the term that his grading system was "everyone gets an A."  This is also the grading system I used when I taught classes.  It has its pluses and minuses.  It is useless for comparing students.  But it is absolutely and totally fair.

@emory ive used that approach. Ive also used one based on attendance. But in general there is allways noise and bias if you try to measure the quality of learning.

Just wanted to throw in my .02:
Whether your professor is correct depends on two things:
1) As others have stated, college/university policy.
2) The legality of said policy. In the United States, any attempt by a public college to regulate the speech of its students is technically illegal, as such colleges are government entities. Private colleges are another matter.

You might want to quote sources / elaborate on the reasons why there would be such a difference between pubic and private colleges.

I do not believe the public/private distinction is true.  (1) Most private universities do receive public money; (2) Most public universities are underfunded and need to seek alternative revenue; (3) if the commandant of the United States Military Academy announced grades were a military secret, cadets sharing grades could be court-martialled.

@emory: Military academy would probably be a different beast. I'm not well versed with military law (or, really, law in general), but I would imagine that in that instance the government has established what amounts to an employer-employee relationship. If you're in the academy, my understanding is that you have a legal agreement that you will work for the military for a certain period of time following your time in the academy.


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Hobby during PhD studies has taken its toll, how do I recover?
In the first two years of my PhD I made a big mistake by spending a large amount and passion on a hobby (making video games). In this hobby, I saw an opportunity to make this into a career, either by being a full developer or by finding a way of fusing game development with my scientific work.
Looking back at this, I feel guilty for the amount of time and passion spent on this side project, and I understand now that my career ambitions were poorly researched and far from reality.
I am now in the final year of my PhD in applied maths and I have one paper submitted, another (more ambitious one) in the making. My relationship to my supervisor has been good from the start, however his satisfaction with my work dropped in my second year and he criticised me for somewhat disperse work style and not enough results. He is still supportive but never misses an opportunity to remind to hurry up. But he has remaind supportive throughout.
I reacted to these warning signs, but slowly. Towards the beginning of my third year I realised that my game development efforts (which have a scientific bend) could not provide a full time career and did not provide better solutions to existing science problems either. So I gradually stopped coding games, focusing on my research project 100%. I finished my first paper, gained a feeling of ownership for my research project, got my scientific curiosity back, adopted a get-it-done mentality in terms of writing up results. But still, every day I keep hating myself for having wasted so much time on an ill-thought, ill-planned childish dream.
This affects me. I have had a very good work ethic which got me into top schools. It feels like for the first time, I slipped, and I bet more than I should have on the wrong horse. I think about it every day. I want to avoid this feeling of guilt to slow me down, or make me feel that I am not suited or "don't deserve" this or that postdoc position or fellowship.
How do I recover from this?

You need try to get to a more concrete question out of this, as this risks being viewed as too broad and thus closed.

You cannot change the past. You can only change the future. The feeling of guilt has a role in making your "gut" remember that it was a bad thing to do, but, depending on personality, it may not work that well to prevent this from recurring. Therefore, try to focus on understanding what made you procrastinate on your PhD (because that's what you did, or else you would have done full-time programming, without guilt). When you encounter such an impulse next time, trigger yourself away from following it. That's the closest to what I think you are asking about.

I have submitted an edit that I think will help you get an answerable question out of this. I recommend you accept the edit ASAP.

I sympathize with your situation, but I'm not sure it's really on topic here.  I don't think the academic setting plays any specific role, and what you should be doing now in terms of research or your studies is exactly the same as what you would have been doing if you hadn't made this detour.  Instead, the important question is how to avoid feeling guilty or depressed.  That's a good question, but it's not really about academia.

What is your actual question about academia? I've read your post a couple of times and can't find it. If your question is really "I hate myself - what do I do" then we can't help you; your friends & family, your institution's pastoral support, or a psychologist may be able to.

There's an obvious simple answer to this, that isn't going to even take two sentences:  your game development stint was research.  Research into whether gaming concepts and/or game-style interfaces were useful for certain kinds of activities, and also a "basic training" for you in core computing concepts that will never be irrelevant in your ongoing pursuit.
Professional coders have MOUNTAINS of code that are discarded, serve no useful ongoing purpose, are total feces, and/or seem to be in a content domain that bears no relevance to their work.
Myself personally:  I have about 10k lines of code growing mold in a drawer somewhere for a dartboard app. It isn't worth spit, but the javascript I write NOW for the biggest banks in the world is quite better because of it.
You also discovered that you like your profession more than you like gaming.  That's NOT AT ALL a trivial result.

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Title for a paper that theoretically compares several algorithms and implements one
First, I am not asking for name suggestions. I am just not sure how to express very well the content of my paper. The paper theoretically compares four algorithms, and nominates and implements one of them. I found many papers in the literature which started with the name Comparative analysis. Does this term apply to my paper? (In all the literature I've found they implement all algorithms, not just one.) If this term does not apply, is there a proper term that can pinpoint the content? More specifically, my paper compares four pattern recognition algorithms and implements one of them that theoretically seems to be the best. Does (Selection and Implementation of an Algorithm for optimizing ... system) properly express the content of my paper ?

What's the contribution of the paper? What kind of evaluation do you perform and what kind of conclusions do you extract from it? If the analysis is the important, then it's a comparative analysis, but since it's only theoretical I doubt it has enough relevance as such. If the important part is the implementation then it's a system for pattern recognition, but since it was already designed, the relevance is again doubtful. Please note I don't really know the answer to the questions posed in the first place, which is the key.

@Trylks Thanks for the enlightenment. First, the paper analyze the algorithms from a certain point of view. Based on that analysis the paper chooses one of them and implement it. I know implementing all algorithms will be much better and give a more solid results. But I'd rather leave that for other research. So I implement the winner and prove it perform with heterogeneous system (cpu+gpu) better than it's performance with (cpu only). Of course not all algorithms achieve that

I understand the analysis of the algorithms is to check which one is (most) suitable for using the GPU, this is an analysis of the state of the art. Then the implementation is an engineering requisite for the real scientific contribution, the evaluation of this algorithm when used with a GPU. Then you conclude how good is using a GPU with this algorithm. AFAIK, using a GPU is the real contribution, so it should be something like: "Testing [Benchmarking?] Pattern Recognition using the GPU power." or "Using GPUs for efficient Pattern Recognition", "Adapting $Algorithm for GPU enabled PR", ...

Difficult to choose a title without more information, but why not choose:
Performing ..., theoretical comparison of four algorithms, and implementation of ...

Don't you think it's gonna be long title? isn't there any shorter expression?

If the focus of your paper is the comparison between algorithms, then I think it should appear in the title, but you may drop the implementation part. If it is the implementation, then you could use a shorter title by dropping the comparison part. I don't know of a shorter way to express both ideas together.

I would go for something brave:

Algorithmic Jungle on GPU: QuickSort, HeapSort and ShakeSort Compared.

The fact that you implement one of them should be mentioned in the abstract, however, it seems to be too long for the title, and people don't like too long titles.
On the other hand, if the implementation is more important for you, then maybe:

QuickSort Implemented on GPU for Sorting Ducks.

I would go even shorter: Sorting Ducks.

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Final check for dissertation; what are some common bugs?
I am currently in the process of completing my dissertation.
I am a big fan of unit tests, so I would like to implement a procedure that corrects my writing ( or removes bugs so to speak.)
A few examples:

check spelling of all text
do all figures have a description that is up to date with the picture
search for "like" and replace it with "as" or a better sounding word
has every head and subhead one or two sentences of introduction
are the figures at the right place in the pdf?

I am looking for a lot more of these "Bugs" that I was unfortunate enough to introduce into a text and found them only at the last-minute check. What else are common bugs that need to be eliminated?

Welcome to AC.SE. What you are looking for is called a copy editor.

Are you looking for an automated approach?

You might want to start with style-check

Oo this question gets closed, even if it gets upvoted and answers with upvotes?

This seems relevant: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7586/what-is-a-good-checklist-for-last-minute-changes-before-submitting-a-phd-thesis

You should have written the unit tests first before writing the dissertation. It's called TDD: Test-Driven Dissertation. :)

Not helpful, but funny. Do you have a suite of tests ready for automted use?

This doesn't cover everything you want, by any means, but it is an attempt to automate similar things:
http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voice-weasel-words-duplicates/
You could probably accomplish some of what you want with similar scripts.  Some of the checks you wish to do are easily scripted as long as your thesis file(s) are plain text.  If you're using Word, automation will be more challenging.

i am writing in word, but i will try to adapt

@tarrasch, a fan of unit tests and you aren't using latex?!

Workgroup policy. There was nothing to be done there.

Just to add the previous answers:
To my experience, there usually is something wrong with the title page:
Wrong year, typo in the title or supervisors name etc.

The python unittest framework is very good for this sort of thing: http://docs.python.org/2/library/unittest.html.  You would need to extend it to include the particular set of features you are looking for; I am not aware of a library that has the specific ones you mention already built it.
However, there are a lot of free dictionary lists for spelling (http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/) that would be fairly easy to incorporate.
As for putting the figures in the right place, you would need some kind of specification to check against.  I assume you are doing this in TeX?  There are a lot of good packages available for that sort of thing.  Check out this question (https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/553/what-packages-do-people-load-by-default-in-latex) on the TeX stack exchange.

unfortunately i cannot write in tex. i really would like to import tex features into word, but i don't know of any project like this

Nowadays Word saves in zipped XML, so it is possible to adapt the other tools to read and write a .docx document. I really doubt that anyone has ever done it before though --- when it comes to open source programming geeks, all cool guys use tex. :)

A few that I can think of:

Check that font is consistent on captions for tables/images. Same for headers.
Check that referenced items, are in fact in the references at the end.
ex: [2]item2, you have at least 2 items in your reference list.
Check that you don't skip numbers for labeling tables/images

Note: You can have a software doing this for you, just don't forget to refresh/update it.

Please give examples for software that does this formal checking.

Word, used right (something very few of the people I know do) handles these chores on its own.

@vonbrand yes, just dont forget to refresh/update when you are done, or when you make changes. I used word for my thesis.


text:
Compound used in publication
There is a paper in which the authors find a compound that is antimicrobial. I would like to experiment with it (I haven't yet asked the authors for it), but I'm anticipating the worst, that is that they will refuse. What can be done there? Are they obligated to provide the compound besides requesting being paid for postage and other expenses?

The academic standards require that the paper explains how the compound was obtained, so that the results can be reproduced by others. So, either:

The product is commercial, and the paper should say how it was obtained? if it's not stated, you can ask the authors for the provider and reference.
They extracted the product from a natural source, and then the authors will describe the extraction procedure.
They synthesized it, and thus they report the details of the procedure, as well as the reagents used (and providers). You can buy the reagents, and reproduce the synthesis.


text:
Why is headhunting uncommon for academic positions?
In scientific conferences, there are usually many headhunters who come to offer newly graduated scholars jobs in the industry sector. As a matter of fact, the recruitment in industry mostly works with the headhunting system.
However, academic recruitment is mainly application-based, and they are stuck with Equal Employment Opportunity, in which even when planning to appoint a Vice President to a vacant President position, they need to follow public call for application.
Why doesn't a department chair offer faculty position to exceptional scholars to attract extraordinary people?
In an application-based system, only those who are looking for new jobs will apply, but in a headhunting system, headhunters tempts satisfied employees with attractive offers.
In general, when someone is averagely satisfied by his/her job will not check current job ads.

This does not mean that head-hunting does not occur. It does, but the applicant is generally obliged to apply through the regular channels.

In general, when someone is averagely satisfied by his/her job will not check current job ads. — [citation needed]

@JeffE myself :) I just meant normally people who seriously look for jobs are looking at job ads. Someone might be open to special offers, but one cannot find special offers in job ads!

I'm just going to reiterate as what I said before: don't take this as an insult, but you've now asked a very large number of questions that indicate you are totally clueless about how academic job searches work. That's fine if you just want to satisfy your curiosity, but if you are actually trying to get a job you really need to sit down and have a serious conversation with a senior person in your field who can give you specific advice about your situation.

@BenWebster don't worry, I will not take it as an insult, instead, I will learn from more frank answers. Btw, ain't Q&A websites some kind of virtual conversations? ;)

@All They are conversations, but we don't even know what discipline you're in, what contacts you have, what your CV looks like, etc. so we can only give you general advice, not specifics.

"Equal employment opportunity" means something a little different.  It refers to the US law that forbids employers from discriminating on the basis of race, sex, religion, etc.  The law applies to nearly every US employer (academic or not), and you can comply with these laws whether you recruit via open application, or headhunters, or some other means.

Why doesn't a department chair offer faculty positions to exceptional scholars to attract extraordinary people?

Ah, but they do. For high profile academics, there are many behind-the-scenes discussions between department chairs, deans, and other faculty members. If a department really wants a particular academic for a particular chair, they'll have discussions about it with the candidate. I imagine that certain faculty get calls rather frequently asking if they want to move universities. Some professors can pretty much move at will; see, for instance, Cornell West's move between Harvard and Princeton -- West got in a tiff with Harvard President Lawrence Summers, and then he up and moved to Princeton, where they were happy to have him.
The networking system within academia is broad enough and the number of open positions small enough that hiring headhunters is not really necessary, although for really high profile positions -- presidents of universities and the like -- a headhunting firm may be hired to make sure certain protocols are met.
For run-of-the-mill assistant professor and associate professor positions, and for other candidate-search positions such as department chairs, the application process works well. But don't think that there still isn't any wrangling between various faculty members and possible candidates -- if you're an excellent researcher that has been making a name for yourself as a graduate student or as a junior faculty member, you may be asked directly to apply for positions that are open.

Good young people are very often invited to apply for assistant professor jobs.  And they're usually the ones who get them.

However, academic recruitment is mainly application-based, and they are stuck to Equal Employment Opportunity, in which even when planning to appoint a Vice President to a vacant President position, they need to follow public call for application.
Why a department chair does not offer faculty position to exceptional scholars to attract extraordinary people?

At least for public universities in the US, you've answered your own question.  Public universities cannot directly offer jobs to anyone; they must follow Equal Employment Opportunity laws, which require open applications.  Even with an open search, department chairs often don't have unilateral power to offer a job to anyone.  At my university, all faculty appointments must be approved by the dean of the department's college, who among other things, is supposed to verify that all EEO procedures have been followed.
But as Chris writes, less direct headhunting does still happen.  For senior positions, especially endowed chairs and department heads, most applications submitted in response to the public ad are hopeless; the only strong applications come from candidates that faculty identify, contact directly, and convince to apply.  (That's the explicit reason my department has a faculty recruiting committee, and not just a faculty search committee.)  But even for assistant professor positions, faculty do contact  promising PhD students—by email, by phone, or in person at conferences—and strongly encourage them to apply.
For even higher-level positions like deans and university presidents, universities often work with professional search firms to identify and contact promising candidates, but my impression (having worked with such a firm in one search) is that those firms are mostly good at identifying people who aren't interested.  Strong candidates for those positions—the ones that are actually invited for public interviews—are almost always people that the university faculty and administration has been courting for months.
Departments do sometimes identify people they'd like to hire even before they've advertised a position.  In that case, the university may create a position specifically for that person, with a very narrowly tailored job description.  But then sometimes the department gets an even stronger application in response to their narrowly tailored ad, so they don't end up hiring their original target after all.

good at identifying people who aren't interested, you mean encouraging people who normally do not apply, OR just attracting noncompetitive candidates to choose the candidate selected before the search?

@All I believe JeffE means that the firms find a lot of people who don't want the job. I.e., they aren't worth the money.

@ChrisGregg I always wonder why such search firms are very popular, as their job is not very special. They just collect the applications and deliver it to the search committee. A secretary (probably from HR) can fairly do this.

Even with an open search, department chairs often don't have unilateral power to offer a job to anyone. At my university, all faculty appointments must be approved by the dean of the department's college, who among other things, is supposed to verify that all EEO procedures have been followed. Not to mention that the other members of the department might have thoughts.  The exact structure of different departments varies, but in my experience overwhelming support from the department would be needed for such an appointment as well.

My understanding is that probably a half of senior, tenured openings are actually written up after the potential candidate has been identified, approached, and broadly agreed to move. Then the department moves with EEO, public release of the job ad, and just keeps their fingers crossed that a stronger applicant won't show up, to the mutual embarrassment of the two parties, as JeffE said is entirely possible. So for positions at the senior level, it often makes sense to privately talk to the chair to see if they really have an open search, or their target candidate has  already been identified.

In order to answer this question it is important to understand what a head hunting firm does. For a substantial fee (potentially in excess of 25% of the annual salary) head hunters use their networks to identify (and convince) people to apply for a job. They talk to the contacts they have, plus individuals identified by the hiring department, and try and get names of not only potential applicants, but also people who might know potential applicants. They may also use web resources, but in general I believe they like to use named introductions instead of cold calls.
In industry where HR firms often do not have networks in the area of expertise of the job, outside consultation is necessary. Industry jobs tend to also be less worried about costs. Additionally, it is harder for potential applicants to find out about job openings at smaller companies and figure out if they are interested in working for the company.
For academic position networks in the required area of expertise already exist. Search committees and most faculty in the department will email their colleagues when a search opens and try and attract candidates to apply. Additionally, even small colleges would qualify as a large company and are much better advertised and described. This means departments don't really need head hunters to reach potential applicants.
The second issue with head hunters is that the candidates they identify didn't respond to the open call and are therefore either less interested or feel the are less qualified. In general academic searches do not have a problem with attracting qualified candidates to apply.
Which brings us to the final issue. It is often difficult to make an attractive enough offer to candidates to get them to accept. Adding 25% of the annual salary onto the search costs means less money for recruiting and start up package. This makes it less likely to get the candidate of choice.
Head hunters do have a role in academic job searches. Sometimes a department is trying to expand in an area they do not have expertise/networks or are looking to make an unusual interdisciplinary appointment.

There's another serious issue, which is finding a headhunter who's knows enough about an academic area to helpfully find candidates the department can't.  I certainly have no idea if such exist, but it seems unlikely in mathematics.

very subtle perspective to make an informative answer!

@BenWebster I think it depends on how specialized the search is and how big the field is. The field of Math is pretty big so reaching out to everyone is difficult. Finding a situation where the existing networks don't exist is harder, but maybe something like the university wants to support a large grant bib by the Medical School and therefore wants a theoretically oriented Math Department to add an applied medical statistics person.

Have you ever seen such a thing happen?  My sense is that in a situation like this you would form an interdisciplinary search committee that would use the usual routes for advertising jobs, not a headhunter.  I think the typical attitude of a department is that if someone's work is so far from what they do that they can't run the search (perhaps jointly with other departments), then they don't want to be responsible for tenuring the person.  Applied math is in a tricky gray area, but generally if the medical schools wants someone for a big grant, we let them worry about it.

@BenWebster Yes http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/2723/929 one of the reasons we had difficulty was we didn't have a good network in the fields we were looking to appoint.

Fair enough.  It sounds like a situation very foreign to my experience, but presumably it's just disciplinary/continental difference.


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How does a university award honorary doctorate?
Important scholars (e.g. Nobel laureates) regularly receive honorary doctorate from different universities. I know that the Board of Trustees (or a similar board) reviews available nominations and awards an honorary degree to a person, but I wonder how the nomination process is conducted.
It seems to be very chancy, as there are many universities and many famous scholars. Usually there were no previous relationship between the awarding university and awardee.
For example, it is common for a Nobel Prize winner to receive honorary doctorate from 30 universities. He/she could have previous connections (e.g. collaboration, contribution, etc) with only a few of them.
How does a nominator suggest awarding to an eligible but irrelevant scholar?

The policy depends on the institution, so you'd have to check each of the ones you're interested in. Examples: Cambridge, McGill, etc.

My impression is that people are given honorary degrees when they are invited by the university to speak.

This question seems to be well answered by wikipedia. Is there something more you need?

@DanielE.Shub I did not find any point on my question in the Wikipedia page. My question is: University A awards honorary doctorate to Noble Prize winner A, not B. Is it merely chancy? Every year about 10 scientists receive Noble Prize, and all of them receive honorary doctorate from higher education institutions. How this match is made? Only by chance?  Just by chance University of Cambridge choose (through chancy nominations) to award an honorary doctorate to one of them?

"He/she could have previous connections (e.g. collaboration, contribution, etc) with only a few of them." - are you sure you aren't underestimating the amount of networking going on in academia, as well as the frequency of collaboration? Even during the few years of getting a doctoral degree, I collaborated with people from five different universities. I would not at all rule out the possibility that nobel laureates indeed have some connections with 30 or more institutes from different universities.

Some universities allow faculty to nominate those chosen for honorary degrees. From what I understand, some even allow certain members of the graduating class and/or student council to nominate & vote. At other institutions, the senate, department heads, deans, president or chancellor may pick the candidates. Some institutions may have a nomination body and a voting body. I would think that it depends upon the size of the institution.
To find out for sure, check out websites for specific universities. Often times universities have focused areas of research or a campus wide research goal for which they have TONS of funding. On most occasions, honorary degrees are awarded to those who are conducting research in that field. They often award honorary degrees to those who are active in their communities as well.
Another common thing with honorary degrees: once an individual has been granted one other institutions will sometimes scramble to recognize that person as well. This is especially true if both institutions are located in the same area, or if they largely focus on the same research matters. People who make a difference on a global scale are often chosen as recipients of honorary degrees not only because they've made a difference, but because a university is, after all, still a business. If they give someone famous an honorary degree, you can bet it will be on the news. It will even get better coverage if other universities have also awarded the person with honorary degrees! Sometimes they look for a unique person to give an honorary degree to- because that will also get more coverage (for example, people from minority groups or from third world countries).
Each university has their own policy regarding nominations and different criterion, but they're all about creating a buzz. They may pick a First Nations community leader as a recipient in hoping that they will attract more students from that community. They also use honorary degrees as a way to network. If they want to meet their idol, they award them with an honorary degree so that person has to come and meet them to accept it (it is, after all, only polite, right?).
If you're curious about individual schools, you can look up the honorary degree recipients - they will often state why the person was given the degree. The key thing to remember is that they could come across anyone and find a reason to nominate them. They may see a firefighter on the news who saved the lives of people by rushing into a burning building. They attribute great courage to that person, so they nominate them to receive an honorary degree in emergency service operations. Their spouse, friend or neighbor may tell them an inspiring story which urges them to do more research on the person. Then that person ends up nominated! Yes, they have criterion, but it is flexible. They can word their statements for nomination in such a way that anyone would be fit for an honorable degree.

Often honorary degrees are awarded because an individual is seen to have done some service to the field in question, often outside the normal confines of academia.
A notable example is Jeremy Clarkson  who holds an honorary doctorate in engineering form Brunel University, even though he clearly doesn't have the equivalent technical or academic knowledge. In this case it is more about his prominence as a motoring journalist and broadcaster. Note that this was a bit controversial at the time.
This is often a two way street, with an academic institution recognising a person who has some links to the institution itself or the local area and may be a way of attracting or rewarding high profile patrons.
On one hand an honorary degrees is a 'free' form of currency for a university to dish out at virtually no cost to themselves, but of course they don't want to dilute it too much or it will loose it's (already rather vague) value.
The actual decision making process will depend on the management structure of the university but would normally need to be approved at a high level ultimately by the Vice-Chancellor via the Senate, or Equivalent body and it is fairly reasonable to assume that formal nominations originate at Chair or Head of Department level vial whatever political structures exist in any given institution.

As other answers and comments have pointed out, the policy and process for awarding honourary degrees differs by institution, but it usually has some common threads.  To flesh out the other answers here, I am going to give you an example of the process at my own alma mater, the Australian National University.  This is just one example of the process, and it may differ from other universities, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what this process may look like.

The university has a formal policy on the award of honourary degrees, which sets out the types of degrees awarded and the eligibility requirements of those degrees.  The three main eligibility requirements are that an individual to be awarded an honourary degree must: (1) be highly eminent; (2) have made an exceptional contribution to the relevant field; and (3) be recognised internationally.

Some notable aspects of the ANU policy are that the degree cannot be awarded in absentia, meaning that the individual awarded the degree must attend the university for receipt (and presumably give a speech and do some glad-handing).  The policy also imposes higher requirements to award an honourary degree to a serving politician or public servant (presumably due to the political signalling that this might entail) or a member of staff of the university.

The university has an honourary committee composed of senior executive personnel in the university who make decisions on the award of honourary degrees.  The committee meets twice per year to decide awards.  This committee includes the Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Chair of the Campus Planning Committee, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor, senior faculty members, two external members, and a student representative.  Most of these are the top executive leadership positions in the university, so the awarding of an honourary degree essentially requires the support of the most senior leaders of the university.

The university maintains a public Roll of Honour listing all the recipients of its honourary degrees.  The number of awards made each year varies quite substantially.  You can have a look at the Roll to get a sense of the number of honourary degrees awarded and the eminence and accomplishments of the recipients.

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


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What is the best way to decline an interview after applying for it?
I have applied to 2 postdoc jobs in the same university and have been selected for a 2nd interview in one before doing the first interview in the other lab.
The interviews are set at different times and so I will not be able to attend both so I wish to cancel the one where I haven't been yet. Should I say to the professor the truth "I will be interviewing with another lab" or shall I just say that for some reason I have to cancel it without mentioning the other interview?

Have you considered simply asking to reschedule the interview?  But if you really want to cancel, you can always say something vague like "I'm pursuing other opportunities".

+1 for @Nate = ask to reschedule if you're interested in the job.  Otherwise, you don't even need to say "I'm pursuing other opportunities".  Just give as much notice as possible (to maximise the chance they can invite someone else etc), give a brief apology for the inconvenience (if you are indeed sorry :)), thank them for considering your application.  Done.

If they are at different times, why can't you attend both?

The OP's language is confusing. I'm assuming that "interviews are set at different times and I will not be able to attend both" means that both interviews were set on the same date, but at different times (and of course different locations). So the solution is to change the date.

@Karen That makes no sense to me, unless the interviews are in (relatively) quick succession. If they are on the same day but at (vastly) different hours that would be beneficial, as only one trip will be required to do both.  On topic though: It's not the prof's business that you have a meeting with another one. Both are separate things.

Actually I will be coming from Japan for the interview and can't make many trips to Europe and the interview can also not be reschedule during the time I will be in EU (prof away) so that is why I should cancel it.

Title
Name
Address
Dear University B -
Thank you very much for notifying me that I am on the short list for position W at University B and for scheduling me for a first-round interview on February X, 2015.
I have recently been notified by University A that I am a finalist for a position at Lab A and they want to schedule a second-round interview, also on February X, 2015.
As the Lab A request is for a second-round interview, I feel that I must prioritize this against first-rounds, even though I am still very much interested in pursuing the position at your lab.
Would it be possible for us to reschedule my interview for Feb (X-7)?  I understand that this may raise logistical concerns and appreciate your consideration.
Sincerely,
User34154

Absolutely this.

I think, but am not sure, that the interviews are at different times, so it would require two visits to the same university. I still like your answer.


text:
Having trouble getting recommendation letter for masters
I completed my undergraduate degree with good grades five years back. After that I have been working for a well-known organization for the last 5 years.
I recently decided to pursue a master's degree. One of the major requirements being recommendation letters from professors, I am having a bit of trouble providing those, since I have not been in touch with my professors for a long time.
I can provide letter from my supervisors from my past and current organizations, but I am not sure how much value it will add to my profile, since none of them are from purely research-oriented background. I have been worried regarding this from quite some time, will it be a road block for my application though I have good grades and relevant industry work experience.

In what subject do you wish to pursue a master's degree?

I want to pursue master's degree in Computer Science, have under graduate degree in the same and working in software development from last 5 years..

Are you looking for a research-based or coursework-based masters degree?

course work based master degree..

You are not required to provide a recommendation from people who are professors. What is needed is people who can comment on your ability to do research. While it is helpful to have recommendation letters from people who work as researchers (whether in industry, academia, or other non-university organizations), if they are not available, you have to work with the resources you have at hand.
What can such people comment on? Well, your ability to solve problems independently and creatively, as well as any capabilities or skills in teamwork and leadership would also be helpful. Other "soft" skills relevant to research—good oral and written communication skills, and so on—would also be helpful. Of course, just mentioning that you have the above abilities is insufficient; the letter writers should provide helpful examples to support their claim (just like in research!).
One thing to also note here is that having letters from your undergraduate professors is not entirely helpful if they only knew you in a classroom context. Three recommendation letters from such people would probably not be as helpful as someone who knows you in a more work-related environment.

I think this is excellent advice for some academic fields and less so for others. For instance, in my field (pure mathematics), an applicant who had all letters coming from industry would be at a huge disadvantage, whereas having all three letters coming from professors who knew the candidate (sufficiently) well in the classroom is totally fine.  That was the case for my recommendation letters, for instance, and I got into all five of the programs to which I applied.

@PeteL.Clark I'm not sure if that holds for many fields other than (pure) mathematics—just because of the nature of the field. I also can't imagine many people on such a trajectory (five years in industry, then back to school for just a master's in pure math).

I think it would probably be similar in fields for which the strongest undergraduates show their strength through coursework rather than research, which would be the case in much of the humanities, for instance.  If we don't know, we could try asking about it on the site.  Anyway, pure mathematics is one of the most common things asked about on this site -- and sure, some people spend time in industry and want to come back to academia.  A lot of these people want to start with a master's degree.  (I didn't see the word "just" in the question.)

What is needed is people who can comment on your ability to do research. This of course assumes that the OP is heading into a research-based masters program.

Okay, after further clarification the answer seems quite on-point for the OP.

@payalc, there is a way of asking someone from the past to provide a letter (if you feel that would bolster your application): when you write to the professor, include some information that would jog his/her memory of you, give a brief update about your life in the last three years, attach an unofficial transcript, describe your motivation in pursuing a Master's, and ask whether s/he would be comfortable writing you a recommendation.  (That's a way of sounding the person out to see whether the written recommendation will be helpful for your application.)


text:
Is my advisor right, am I a turn-off?
I'm doing a Phd in math. Unfortunately it didn't go very smoothly. I'm in the fifth year now, and a Phd is not in sight.
This is due to several things, personal problems (I suffered from a depression for several years), but also my advisor and me just not getting along very well.
I know I should have left him years ago, and I tried, but I'm still stuck in this situation. That's my background.
Now today I had a depressing conversation with my advisor. He offered me to continue my Phd with him, but at the same time he also said it would be "highly unlikey" that another advisor would accept someone like me with this difficult background, as there are "plenty of talented people".
So I would like to know how other people (preferably people who advise) would rate my situation. Is my advisor right? Is it too late for me to change? Is my background such a turn-off?

At least in the title, you're asking whether your advisor is correct in his evaluation of you as a person and as a student...anonymously?!?  I don't see how it could be possible to answer this question, unless you're looking for the pollyanna answer that no math PhD student is a turn-off to their advisor.  Is that what you want?  (On the other hand: "it is highly unlikely that anyone else will want to work with you" could be true but seems more likely to be the sign of someone who is fed up with you, has an unhealthily mean/abusive relationship with you, or both.)

I vote to close as "Unclear what you're asking" because I don't understand what your situation is.

I agree that whereas "it is highly unlikely that anyone else will want to work with you" could be a fair assessment, cognitive biases are extremely likely to be weighing (IOW, the adviser is speaking from emotion, or from a too-narrow view of your situation). Best way to determine if you can change advisers is to ask other potential advisers, right?

It sounds like your advisor is right, and your situation is a turn-off.  He wants you to succeed to improve his own track record, as he is at least by reputation partially responsible for your success or failure.  And other potential advisors don't have that motivation.
Since you're both in this together, and since you have so much to lose relative to him, I think you need to come to a plan together, and you need to listen to him very carefully and be as cooperative as you can muster yourself to be. He wants you to complete. He wouldn't have had that blunt conversation if he just wanted you to flounder. You need to now cast the past into the past and move forward with whatever you choose to do.


text:
Advantages of attending a conference
I am a co-author in a paper. How can attending a conference be beneficial to career and resume since I am not sure whether to attend it.

Unless you are presenting a paper at a conference, there isn't much advantage for your résumé. From a professional and educational perspective, however, conferences can be very informative, for the reasons Peter outlines.
I would go a little bit further than Peter, however, and recommend that, if possible, you try to attend multiple conferences per year, particularly if you are relatively early on in your career. At least one should be a relatively large meeting, where you can make many contacts in your general field; and one, if possible, should be a smaller meeting or workshop, where you can interact with your peers in your specific field. That way, you get the benefits of learning about the overall field—which is important for networking and job-finding, as well as the close-up exposure to work related to your own.

Since conferences are the places where new science results are typically first presented, going to conerences can be very rewarding. You will most likely get an overview of the area within which the conference lies. You will meet and hear many researchers you may only have heard about or read. You also have the opportunity to network and find others that are working on similar or related topics. So there are several reasons for going and if you intend to stay in academia you should make it a habit to attend at least one per year (depending on costs and travel etc.)

Conferences provide opportunities to learn about the latest research in your field. Additionally, conferences also help in networking. Networking often increases your chances of collaboration in future projects. You should attend as many conferences as possible as this will make you a known figure in academic circles. It will also be beneficial for your CV as it will create the impression that you are an active member of the academic community.


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Is it possible to become a research assistant just after b.tech?
I am a recent bachelor of technology graduate from India and want to become a research assistant just after b.tech at any abroad university (USA,CANADA,UK, etc). If it is possible then what kind of qualifications, GPA, academics are required? Also for becoming an RA at these universities is the GRE exam necessary?

What do you mean by "research associate"?  There isn't a standard position with this name in the U.S.  Do you mean a graduate student?  Another possibility could be working as a technician in a lab without being enrolled as a student.

By research associate i mean to ask for working on projects in which the professor is working upon.

FYI "RA" typically stands for "Research Assistant", and refers to one way in which a PhD student might be funded. Certainly you can gain admission to a PhD program directly from an undergraduate program.

@Aaron: In the US, yes. In other countries—particularly in Europe—it is not so straightforward. First you have to get a master's.

Yes.
First be admitted to graduate school.
Then convince a professor to hire you.

.So if i want to apply for abroad for this position would i have to give GRE exam or directly i mail the professor in that particular field in which i want to apply.

@mia Please read the answer carefully. You need to get admitted  to graduate school first.

so i have to follow the whole procedure of recommendation letters, SOP's, etc .

Yes.  You have to follow the whole procedure.

This is a bit misleading; it seems that the poster may be looking for a job as an employee, without wanting to study for a degree.  I would call such a position "technician".  Of course, the process to get such a job is completely different than applying for admission to a graduate program.

In my field is it quite common to hire recent graduates for a year or two as a research assistant. Typical duties of an RA include scheduling participants, collecting data, and doing preliminary data analysis. Depending on previous expertise and experience gained on the job RAs can also design and implement/program experiments. There is also a fair amount of house keeping work (e.g., sending equipment off to be calibrated and making sure the supply cupboard is stocked).
Most people hiring for these types of positions look at GPA and classes taken as well as practical skills. I have never heard of anyone requiring or looking at the GRE. As far as qualifications are concerned you will need to have whatever paperwork is required to allow you to work in that country. I don't know anyone who would go out of the way to get a work permit type visa for an RA.

To be clear, a research assistant in your sense is an employee, but not a student?  They are not necessarily enrolled in any educational program at your institution?

@NateEldredge exactly. In my field an RA is an employee. Sometimes they are also doing a PhD, but not usually.

Yes it is possible to become a research assistant just after completing B-Tech.
Qualifications needed for it could be categorized as:-

Good Academics
Research Papers published in International Conference that are indexed IEEE (required)
GPA of 3.6/4

Also for becoming an RA at these universities is the GRE exam necessary?
 The answer to this is Yes for some universities and NO for other universities. This is mainly because Not all the universities require GRE EXAM. It all depends upon university requirements. You need to check out their website for the details. Even they have Cut-off score for GRE and TOEFL Exam.
Advantages of becoming RA

Tuition Fee waiver
Increases chances for off-campus placement.
Exposure to Subject in depth.

.I have a query that if suppose i have one year research experience in certain field with two international publications, will this increase my chance for getting off campus placement.Please let me know.Thanks.

Yes definitely it will increase your chances. Make sure that those two papers which you are talking about are indexed in IEEE ieeexplore.ieee.org

Unfortunately there's some ambiguity in language here that I think is causing a wide variety of different answers.
"Research Assistant" means many different things to many different people. Most commonly in the U.S., this invokes the idea of a funding mechanism for a graduate student that doesn't involve teaching. If this is what you mean, then the answers about getting into graduate school apply. And then yes, in that case, it is possible to get admitted to graduate school straight out of undergrad, and work for a professor doing research - the requirements of that will vary depending on the type of school, department, etc. you're looking at.
If you just mean "Someone who works on research projects", then I'm going to suggest another title - in the "wet lab" sciences I'd say "Lab Tech", and unfortunately most of the computational researchers I know come from a biological heritage, so use "Lab Tech" even when referring to programmers and the like.
If this is what you mean, then you're talking about being a research employee of the university, paid for likely by grant money and working for a particular professor. It's certainly possible to do this - a former group I worked for regularly hired people out of undergrad to work on programming projects that made like easier for other people in the department, and we've got a researcher now who came straight out of undergrad. As for what's required? Likely not a GRE, but your academics should be fairly strong, and you should have some evidence of the quality of your work. That can be publications and independent research, or it could be a portfolio of things you've done for other people - after all, the job is "Can you do things well for other people".
It's likely a particular professor you'll have to contact, and be warned - if you're looking to come in from another country, you have to be worth more than the visa and immigration hassle, and it's going to be an uphill climb when there's likely undergraduates at their own university who probably wouldn't mind a job after graduation either.


text:
Do I have a chance to be accepted for a political science master's despite a low CGPA?
I'm studying political science. My CGPA is awful at around 2.95, however, my GPA for the last fall, winter, and summer semester for my 3rd year have been 3.3, 4.0, 3.8 (I did really bad in first and second year). At the best, I am looking at about a 3.1/3.2 CGPA by the time I graduate.
I am wondering how competitive I actually am? Do I even have a chance with such a low CGPA knowing that meeting the requirements does not guarantee acceptance?
In terms of professors, I'm in the DSA of my program and know a couple of professors who would write me a good reference letter. I'm currently doing a independent study research project with a prof as well. And I worked through my entire undergrad: about 4 years of work experience in administrative and retail work.
Do I have a chance or is this a pipe dream? Is it true that grad schools only look at last 2 years?

I edited your question to remove the parts people might think make it off-topic. Your question about a sharp improvement in grades is on-topic. But please, put way more effort into preparing your grad school apps than  you did this post.

Yes.  For example, get a great score on the GRE.

It will depend on the admissions committee, of course, and I would recommend applying to a range of programs

Yes, you have a chance.
There is no guarantee, but graduate admissions committees do more than just look at GPAs for applicants. If your work for the past two years has been consistently strong, and you have strong letters of recommendation, then use your cover letter to explain what affected your grades earlier. It is equally important to explain what changed, so that the admissions committee does not worry about the problem reoccurring. This does not mean you have to get into personal details; a general explanation is sufficient. The ability to overcome adversity and persevere to reach your goals can be a compelling story about who you are and what your are passionate about.
It will depend on the admissions committee, of course, and I would recommend applying to a range of programs, including your ideal schools and some others that have good programs and less competitive applicant pools. But that is always good advice for applying to graduate school.

Just echoing others - as somebody who has sat on Canadian graduate admissions, you have a good chance. We look at trajectory, and in our program (a U15 university) if you had a supervisor who wanted you in the program, compelling references, and a good program of statement you would likely be accepted.
The reference letters are key, actually, as they can help us contextualize the marks.
If your cumulative GPA was below a 78%, we might mandate some qualifying activities.

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Professor doesn't respond to notice of inability to take a test in his class
I currently have a concussion that has hindered my ability to do work or study. I went to the doctor and got it diagnosed (got a medical note and all that). I have a midterm tomorrow, and I emailed my professor yesterday regarding my concussion and asked to make it up sometime the following week as I am in no shape to take the test. However, he has not responded (even after I followed up on email). He also posted on my classes discussion board, so I am not sure what to do.

Have you tried contacting him through the class discussion board or its software, assuming it is something like Canvas, Blackboard, etc. that has a more private means of communication?

No I have not! Should I do that? I was thinking about doing that, but I did not want to as I felt like I was "pestering" sending him so many messages.

is there a school policy regarding doctor's notes?

if you are to miss an exam or final, you need a doctor's note to be able to make it up.

Isn't there a school secretary?

What does the instructor's course syllabus say about excused absences from exams?  Does it tell you to go to some university office to be excused rather than contacting the professor directly?

@CaptainEmacs I can't imagine the entire university having a single secretary. I assume we have different words for this position, can you go into a little bit more detail about who you're asking after?

@AzorAhai A school secretary... that would be one hell of a job!

@AzorAhai, in the UK school is occasionally used interchangeably with department, and is never used to describe an entire university. Elsewhere, this position may be a departmental secretary.

Thanks Emma, indeed! @AzorAhai Of course, I did not talk about a single person, but the face/contact point of the institutional teaching administration, whoever that may be on that particular day and that particular shift.

@CaptainEmacs Still though, you're suggesting they email the professor's department secretary? Or the director of undergraduate studies? It would be unusual for me, in the US, to email the front desk of the dept. about being sick.

@AzorAhai With no country tag, I used UK terminology. I should think that every country or university has their own way of dealing with student sickness on days of exam. I also would assume that that they are sufficiently alert to replace "secretary" or "reception" in the question with . This is something students are likely to be informed about early in their studies (even if they typically won't care about until it is needed). TBH I didn't expect such a nontechnical term to create such confusion.

@CaptainEmacs I've never heard of contacting anyone besides the prof when you have to miss a test. So I curious if you actually meant contact the reception desk, or if a "school secretary" meant something else wherever they have those. Thanks for clarifying, tho.

Have you read the syllabus / course instructions? If so, what does it say in there about missing tests for medical reasons?

Professors get a lot of emails every day, and depending on the size of your class, they could be getting even more. I would not after only a day
In any reasonable department, you are fine.  You documented your case by emailing him as soon as you knew you needed to reschedule, and have a doctor's note dated yesterday. If you really want to cover your bases, call his office and leave a message.
In the US (at least), it should not be necessary to go to the exam and ask to be excused*. You don't say how bad your concussion was, but I know that the last time I had a bad one, it would not have been safe for me to travel.
Please rest, you have all the documentation and can figure it out after.
As pointed out in the comments, if your professor is truly a nutcase, you may be able to go to your disabilities services department for help.

* Some might wonder if you're healthy enough to do that, why can't you take the exam?

I think emailing the office for students with disabilities (they deal with temporary things too) or the director of undergraduate studies for the department would have more of an effect than calling the professor. That would also get an official case started in case the professor decides to be difficult.

I think this is clearly correct. You have given notice. A system that required you to get prior permission in such a situation would be unethical, in my view. Even insane. There are situations, of course, in which an accident occurs that makes it impossible even to send a prior notice and these can be resolved in any sane system after the fact.

@johanna My point was to create a third time stamped evidence of your request. It's probably not necessary, but could be helpful. Contacting disability services could be helpful but idk if it's necessary just yet.

@Buffy In fact, that's what I did with the concussion I referenced! I was sitting in the clinic waiting to be seen while I missed a test. It turned out fine.

Oh. And stop doing the things that give you repeated  bad concussions.

@Buffy Yeah, I've been trying to avoid getting hit by cars recently

Do not wait to contact the disabilities office -- they are the people officially tasked with this kind of thing.

@Elin Meh. One day of no response is not panic mode. I wouldn't stress over contacting them ASAP until the professor makes a problem out of it. This is really a non-issue in any reasonable department and the OP should focus on healing, not navigating bureaucracies. I doubt the resolution would be improved by them contacting now vs. in a couple days.

First, this student has a serious temporary disability that may end up impacting more than one class. Just because it is one now doesn't mean there won't be others later. He does not have the flu.  Second, legally, accommodations for disabilities are only required if you have registered with the office in advance.   There is no downside to being in touch with them.

@Elin I'm not sure what the distinction you're making with the flu, since that can also knock you out of multiple classes for a long time. I don't know if you know, but it's recommended you avoid screens directly after a concussion, which would make disabilities services difficult to interact with. Having experienced this situation myself, I'm happy with my recommendations, but you can always add another answer if you think contacting disabilities ASAP is necessary.


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Applying for a PhD. Is it OK to reach out to a member of the lab who gave me his card before for advice?
I am currently in the process of applying to graduate school in the US. Earlier this year at a professional conference, I met a research scientist in one of my top choice university labs who told me I should "reach out when I'm applying" and gave me his card, to which I followed up later that day telling him I would be in touch.
A couple of months ago, I reached out to the professor who is head of the lab asking if he was taking student, who told me I should apply and we can talk further after being accepted.
I would like to follow up on the offer of the scientist and ask for some advice on my application now that I'm applying, but I'm not sure what is considered too much to ask him for. Ideally, I'd like for him just to look at my SOP and tell me if he thinks my goals are clear and align well with the group. It's worth noting that the university isn't too far from where I am, so I could potentially offer to meet him for lunch or something of that nature.
However, if he ends up discussing it with the professor, I don't want the professor to think that now I'm going around pestering members of his group after we spoke and trying to push my way in, so I think it would be important to somehow remind the scientist that he told me I should get in touch and that's my motivation for contacting him.
My question is: is there a way I can accomplish this without anyone being insulted or annoyed? Is this asking too much of his offer? Should I forget about it and look for my advice elsewhere?

Is there a way I can accomplish this without anyone being insulted or annoyed?

Of course, especially since the research scientist explicitly asked you to get in touch. Some people will be annoyed by contact no matter what, but the invitation to contact them seems to indicate this will not be the case. Be polite, professional, and brief in your initial email.

I don't want the professor to think that now I'm going around pestering members of his group after we spoke and trying to push my way in, so I think it would be important to somehow remind the scientist that he told me I should get in touch and that's my motivation for contacting him.

The first line of your email should indicate exactly this sentiment. Perhaps you could write that you are following up after meeting at X event, for example. Alternatively, you could reply to the earlier email that you sent, which would convey that more explicitly, though I do not think it is necessary.

Is this asking too much of his offer?

Asking them to read your SoP is perhaps asking too much, but perhaps not. I received help on my SoP for applications from multiple professors, but I only ever sent it to those who asked for it explicitly. Conveying your goals in a short email will probably suffice if you would like general advice, but I would avoid asking for direct editing help.
You could mention your close geographical proximity in your email if you think that it would be more helpful to have this conversation in person during office hours, for example.

Should I forget about it and look for my advice elsewhere?

There is no reason why you should not pursue this avenue of advice and others that you feel may be beneficial as well.


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Professor expressed interest in collaboration, but remains unresponsive and unreliable. How to proceed?
About 6 months ago, when I was searching for postdoc positions, one of the professors whom I contacted encouraged me to write a joint paper to make a possibility of my invitation to his group. I tried to prepare a manuscript during this time, but as a joint work, he has not contributed yet. For instance, he has told me that he send some useful references or put some materials into the work, but never did that. I think he is no longer interested in that. What Should I do? The last time which I sent an email, he replied that he will write something about that to me "tomorrow". Today is almost 10 days after that "tomorrow".

Having to write a joint paper to obtain a postdoc position is highly unusual.

So he says he's interested but acts like he's not?  Then you are probably not very high on his priority list.  You could e-mail him again after a week or two, but it probably won't get a different outcome. I'd suggest you move on.

Thanks for your answer. If I move on, I want to continue this work with one of my  colleagues. In this case, is it necessary to inform professor?


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What is the weight on the applicant's personality for tenure?
Assume that someone is an excellent researcher (many awards and at least 7-8 publications a year) and a very good teacher but he is not "liked" by some of the tenured faculty in the department (due to differences in opinions on how things should go or how decisions should be taken regarding different matters in the department).
Shouldn't being an excellent researcher and a very good teacher outweigh any social issues?

This is a really contentious issue (typically referred to as "collegiality" in the context of tenure decisions), and there's no clear standard for what to do.  There have been a lot of opinions, such as this one from the American Association of University Professors, but there is no universal rule.
On the one hand, it's outrageous to deny someone tenure just because you personally dislike or disagree with them.  That's an abuse of the tenure process.  The goal is to end up with a good colleague, not a friend or sycophant, and other considerations are not relevant.  Furthermore, there's a danger of discrimination if the current faculty prefer to be around people like them, which just compounds the individual unfairness.
On the other hand, how someone acts can be a fine reason to deny tenure, regardless of how good their research and teaching are.  For example, it would be a mistake to tenure an abusive jerk.  Being a good colleague involves treating people decently and participating successfully in committees or other administrative tasks.  If you behave poorly enough that you can't do that, then you shouldn't be a member of the department.
Of course the difficulty lies in distinguishing between these possibilities.  What one person sees as courageously standing up for their beliefs in the face of opposition, others can see as being rude and disruptive.  It can be difficult to tell whether someone is behaving in a genuinely objectionable way or you just don't like them.
I'd recommend extreme caution in these sorts of cases, since there's great potential for unfairness and poor decisions.  (When these issues come up, it's a good time to think about implicit bias.  Maybe this behavior wouldn't have bothered you if it had come from someone else?)  At the same time I can't endorse a policy that says it doesn't matter how you treat your colleagues, so the best I can say is "it depends."

Should't being an excellent researcher and being a very good teacher outweigh any social issues?

No. Being a senior professor is to a large extend a management and leadership position in the faculty. Being good at the "technical" parts of your job is not sufficient if you are terrible at the management and role model part. Further, I really cannot think of a good reason why somebody who is actively disruptive to the running of the faculty (such as the one annoying faculty that everybody seems to have, the one that takes a stand on everything) needs to be kept in the faculty despite better knowledge.
At the end of the day, tenure is not an individual teaching or research award. It is the department telling an academic "you are really valuable to us - we want to keep you around". Clearly, there will always be cases where somebody is ok at teaching and research, but other (more inter-personal) factors keep them from being "somebody you want to keep around". You may think this is sad, but really it is not much different to the cases where a really likeable person does not get tenure because her/his research isn't great - in both cases, it is just that one integral part of the job that is missing.

+1. Many people have a tendency to view academic decisions like admissions, hiring and tenure as rewards given to high achievers. Instead, all of them are, as you say, about the candidate's overall value to the institution.

At my university (a large private, research-oriented institution in the United States), tenure has several stages.

The senior faculty votes on whether to try to pursue tenure for a junior faculty in their tenure year.
Outside letters are solicited and the tenure portfolio is put together.
On the basis of the portfolio and letters, the senior faculty votes to recommend tenure or not.
If the department vote is positive, it goes to the Provost's office. The divisional committee responsible for promotions examines the portfolio (including external letters) and the department chair makes a presentations of the materials. This is the most difficult hurdle to clear.
If the divisional committee approves, it then goes to full senior faculty and then to the Board of Trustees. The full senior faculty and BoT rarely decline to offer tenure at this point (c.f. Steven Salaita).

Personality only really plays a role in stages #1 and #3 and only weakly at my R1 institution. And almost everyone receives a positive vote from their own senior faculty -- even though it is not always unanimous.
The real hurdle for tenure is the divisional committee and there it is the scholar's portfolio (which consists entirely of their research output) and the outside letters that matter.  In a sense, the evaluation is entirely blind to the personality or character (or amount of service and teaching) the individual made.
I also don't want  to downplay the role of the outside letters. These are extremely important. You want to be known as a major player in your field by the time you come up for tenure. In a sense, having an outgoing personality will help tremendously here but only to a limited amount. After all, the external tenure reviewers are also reading your entire portfolio and judging you based on that, rather than on the really great drinking games you played at the last conference.
I like to think that the system is relatively fair. An Evil Chair® can deliberately sabotage a junior scholar in many way before coming up for tenure and in their tenure bid, but absent such malfeasance it's not inherently a bad system.