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Business card for a student?
I know there are quite some questions about business cards, but as far as I can see they are all about professors, PhDs, and so forth. I have finished my Bachelor's degree in Germany and I am currently taking my Master's (computer science).
Although there is a certrain trend in Germany (especially in STEM-related fields, even more in Startup culture) towards a more casual way of dealing with each other, there are still some things that are considered rather negative. I guess compared to other countries we are still kind of strict in our behavior, even in defiance of globalization.
One such thing is business cards for students. Albeit scientific degrees enjoy a very good reputation in a CV in Germany, students are often seen like non-professionals. It would be an exaggeration to say "school-kids"...but sometimes even in this direction.
Hence, many (business) professionals would not recommend business cards for students. Some even consider students with business cards as self-exposers and would disrespect them.
However, I am mostly talking to people in Academia (or sometimes human resources people). Since I have written my first publications, people started asking for my contact information at conferences (and sometimes at exhibitions, like CeBIT for example). Even though many of them are German, there are also lots of international people.
In fact I will visit a big conference in my field in Japan this year.
So I am wondering what "etiquette" does exist in other countries for business cards (as a student)?
Is it probably helpful to have some that you can hand out at events? Or is it considered rather negative (at least in business quarters), like in Germany?

"Albeit scientific degrees enjoy a very good reputation in a CV in Germany, students are often seen like non-professionals." - I do not see a contradiction here. Especially because scientific degrees enjoy a very good reputation, those who do not (yet) have them cannot claim the same reputation. With that said, people can have achieved something in a given field beside studying toward a degree in that field. But in that case, it is not clear to me whether they should primarily present themselves as "students" rather as (e.g.) "freelancer" or "founder" or whatever they have done so far.

Did you see https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7624/business-cards-for-graduate-students?rq=1 ?

Many people in East Asia apparently view business cards as culturally important.

Students (generally graduate students, who have a contact info valid at least for a couple of years) tend to have business card in Japan and South Korea, and it does definitely not make a bad impression if you have one.

First of all you mentioned that you already finished your bachelors. In Germany this is normally considered a "berufsqualifizierender Abschluss" which means that with your B.Sc./B.Eng. (at least "on paper") you are considered a trained professional capable of doing a job related to your field of study. So nothing "pretentious" about that.
When I was in the same stage (B.Sc. finished, M.Sc. in progress, also in Germany) I also had no business card and in hindsight it was bad to not have any. I was very often asked for a card at conferences or after presenting our work to potential or current industry partners. One older guy at a conference in Germany even got a little "angry" at me when i couldn´t give him contact information in form of a card because he thought it was unprofessional for students not to have one.
As suggested in an other answer just keep it simple (just your name, kind of your bachelors, department and contact info). Maybe your university even has a template or guidelines for it.
And if you worry to be seen as pretentious, just don´t spread them like flyers but wait for people to ask for them.

+1 for an answer that specifically relates to Germany :)

I can't comment on Germany, but from the perspective of somebody in the UK, my answer to this pretty much reflects my answer re postgrads over at Is a business card necessary for a graduate student?:

If there's any chance that you're going to be interacting with industry as an individiual, rather than as one of a class, you need business cards. It's part of that culture.
If you're going to be going to an event in Japan, you definitely need business cards for that - and, ideally, a briefing on the etiquette of giving and receiving them.
Within academia (and not in the far east), I wouldn't expect an undergrad to use them while studying at their institution, but if you find yourself going to any conferences or any jobhunting events, they might be useful. They can save time with scribbling details and a good card, offered appropriately, may make meeting you stand out in the fog of somebody's post-conference memory.

Summary: it's worth having some, but try to judge what is "normal" before pressing them on people, and don't make a big deal about it.

Perhaps you could strike a happy balance between German expectations and international expectations.  To avoid appearing pretentious among your German peers (I'm just going by your description here), you might be best off keeping it very simple and drab, with no graphics or fancy fonts or colors, and a minimalist approach to the content, e.g.:

Daniel Schmidt (or whatever)
Computer Science, University of (name)
(your email address)

(but centered.)
If a German peer gives you a hard time about it, perhaps you could say

Having my email address printed on a small card makes it easier to get in touch later with people whose work I'm interested in.

If you might be giving it to some people over 40, don't use a tiny font.
The alternative to the business card approach is to use a folded piece of paper or small notebook, kept in a pants pocket along with a small pencil.
To give your contact information to someone, in the case that you don't have any cards of your own, you can write your name and email address on the back of one of their cards.
(The only thing that would appear pretentious about a student having a business card in the U.S. would be if it had a fancy title under the name, such as "doctoral candidate."  I did see this once in someone's email signature and I felt embarrassed for the person.)

A warning here, based on the OP saying they will be going to Japan: In Japan and Korea, and possibly other places in the far east, never write on the front or back of somebody else's business card. It's seen as very disrespectful.

@SimonW: does that include writing on the back of your own business card?

@SimonW: I am not that far in the East and I find it annoying, too: So, I'm having one out of many conversations with a stranger, and I decide to give them one of my (depending on my many I brought, precious?) business cards - and then, all they do is, note down/photograph my contact info in some way and use the back side of my card to jot down their info? Well, thanks ... now what am I doing to do with that card? If they want a piece of paper to write something down, they should say so rather than using other people's business cards.

@tonysdg I'm not sure. I've tended to avoid it in case.

@O.R.Mapper well, the more usual scenario in which i'd write on somebody's card (if not in Japan) would be to note down something about the conversation we'd had, and then keep it. Yes, taking a card, defacing it and giving it back again just sounds generally rude

@SimonW - Not everyone takes it that way.

@O.R.Mapper - See above comment.


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What can be done about a professor who doesn't seem to know what they're doing?
Maybe I'm just frustrated and nothing can really be done (or nothing that will affect me). But anyway...
I'm taking an upper level course (an elective directly related to my major of Computer Science) and the professor has been horrible. Lucky for me, I came in with a pretty solid knowledge of the subject. My friends (and group mates for that class) didn't have this and I have explained much of the material to them. The professor has to stick to his notes and while he "prepares" for the class, it often feels like its the first time he's actually thoroughly reading the material (despite having taught the class before!)
Our quizzes so far have been from an online reference source and our professor admits that. Our projects have been from another school's website for an equivalent course. Which okay, it can be hard to come up with projects (though the instructions are horrible and the guy seems clueless when he is explaining them to us). We recently had our midterm. Considering the years of experience I have in this subject, it should have been a cake walk. It was not. And it was also taken from the same source as the projects.
Now i'm not complaining about a bad grade (and it was even open note/book, which didn't actually help any for honest students). I actually don't know my grade yet, but I came out of that test surprised at how hard it was for tricky, dumb reasons. But that isn't even entirely the point. Today in class, he goes over the exam. On the questions I found most difficult, he says something along the lines of "I haven't got this working, maybe you guys could help me out?" Murmurs rippled through the class. It wasn't just him trying to engage the class in working out a solution together, he could not get his code to work.
I am not the only one who knows where the solutions are on the other school's site. My professor had shared his attempt with the class asking for anyone to give it a try to see if they can get it to work. I look at the solution and compare it to his code. They are practically the same, except that my professor had attempted to get things working by changing a few things that really made no difference.
The question said to assume that we had a resource (a javascript framework). I included this framework (which was not included in the solution) and his code worked. This should have been an obvious thing (I think) or at least something he should have figured out prior to giving us the exam. This framework, by the way, has not been taught in class and we have not been allowed to use any framework in our projects thus far.
I've bombed tests before and this test is only 10% of my grade, so my grade is not why i'm complaining. Its what I have explained prior combined with the high likelihood of cheating from those previously mentioned solutions. The open note/book test included the use of digital books - on laptops. He never walked around and there we no TAs in the room to monitor people, he only asked for everyone to put their device in airplane mode. I could see the guy next to me googling stuff.
I have had some bad teachers over my time at Uni - mostly just boring, can't convey information well, long/super hard assignments, etc. But overall, they have been fair courses. The sum of everything this professor is doing is just beyond frustrating.
Should I just suffer through this guy and move on with my life (only 1 semester left) or should I make a fuss about this?

This is a rant, not a question.

@SantiagoCanez I had to reload the page when posting, it appeared to have saved the post but it cut off the end. I fixed it.

"I haven't got this working, maybe you guys could help me out? So, did you help him out?

If the lecturer is as bad as you say he is and I have only read one side of the story then lots of people will fail horribly and then he will scale the grades up to avoid getting in trouble with the oberstumfurher .

In my opinion, yes please make a professional fuss (a formal letter with specific detailed evidence, not a rant). There is no faster way to weed out totally incompetent teachers that do not even care to prevent cheating.

Education is a very important resource and I'm glad you're concerned in getting your moneys worth from this course and more specifically the aforementioned teacher.
While I cannot completely understand your grievance (I come from a completely different field) I do see a similarity in dealing with difficult people in the first place. What I would suggest is talking to your professor and sharing some of your concerns, I'm not telling you to go up and flat out tell him he's doing something wrong but perhaps give it a more suggestive tone and phrase your concerns in the form of questions. Remember a teacher can learn from his students too.
If all else fails and your teacher continues to show his incompetency then I suggest reporting this to the proper authority, whether that be the department in question or other staff related to administration. Remember to be respectful when voicing your concern.

You asked the question "What should I do". I cannot answer that, as you have given no more information about your situation (Is it a required course? Is this course otherwise important for you?).
I think there are two separate issues. The first one is that the professor is not as well prepared as he should be, and it would be perfectly within your rights to invoke a process around academic grievances (or whatever it is called in your institution) when you have evidence that the professors behavior affects your learning or your grades. Clearly, you should raise this with the professor first and only escalate to the next steps (head of department, dean etc) when no resolution could be found.
I suspect that the second issue is that this professor should not have taught this course in the first place. It all sounds like he/she has no experience at all with the material of the course, and if "upper-level" course means a course that is already close to some area of active research, then this course is perhaps completely outside the research area of the professor. In that case any feedback to the department could help them to re-consider teaching allocation next year.

You've mentioned your primary concern is not grade. In that case, the most important thing you can do is leave a candid review at the end of the semester. Apart fro that, be grateful your past experience let you pass the class (in spite of klutzy teacher), and move on. If he get enough poor reviews, he will either do some self-analysis, or get some training, or realize that teaching is not his strength. Or maybe he won't. But that is the most you can do as a student.

In the same way that a strong teacher can get a weak student, a strong student can get a weak teacher.  However, it seems that the student in the latter situation is at a disadvantage when compared to the teacher in the former situation.

Students pay the school to get good teachers, but teachers do not pay the school to get good students.
Teachers are paid to help the students get stronger, but students are not paid to help the teacher get stronger.
Weak students fail the course, but weak teachers do not fail the course.

Teachers are expected to be stronger than their students, and not the other way around.  I believe that you have the right to "make a fuss about this" but I am not so sure if you have the obligation.
When I started as a teacher, I had no experience and so I made a lot of mistakes, just like the teacher you describe.  If the teacher is a beginner to the course (that is, has taught it before only once), I suggest that you be lenient and "cut him/her some slack."  But if the teacher has taught this same course many times, you might want to alert the administration, either through a student evaluation or (for extreme cases) through a signed letter (in which case, you'll need strong evidence of incompetency).

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Unfair Peer Assessment on a Group Project
I have just completed a 13 week group project on an undergraduate Electronic Engineering degree at a UK university. I am already an Electronic Engineer by trade and have been for 5 years since finishing an apprenticeship.
Naturally, the project came easy to me and I worked very hard. Unfortunately, the rest of my team members were underperformers and showed little ability. I took on an uneven load early on, and this only worsened throughout the project.
I was also tasked with the Team Leader role, where I also had to plan the task, write reports & proposals, cover Health & Safety etc. I tried to assign complex tasks to the team members but they were unable/unwilling and I ended up completing most of them.
At the end of the project, all teams were asked to conduct a peer assessment where each member must sign a document stating their contribution. Teams ideally split the marks evenly.
My team members are friends from previous courses and all agree to split the grade. I disagreed as I have done more work. Now, the team has stormed off and left the assessment incomplete.
I have tried to argue the case for my extra marks, by listing all completed tasks throughout the weeks and dividing up the workload. I calculate 50.29% for myself conservatively. However, the team are non-native English speakers and since the argument, have abandoned discussions.
If I do nothing, the university will default to an even split.
Is this a legitimate method of marking the course? The built-in default seems to reward freeloaders and punish hard work. Should I pursue upper management's opinion? I feel utterly betrayed by the system here.
Kind regards,
MILSPEC
EDIT-
In response to the "it's your fault" answers, I would like to provide more context.
Tasks were assigned to all team members. I assigned myself less tasks than the others for the first 8 weeks, as I work full-time as a Design Engineer and the others are full time students. I used some of my time to review their work, give feedback and rework anything that needed it. I also investigated some separate hardware that could have worked (but didnt). This extra work and uneven split was agreed upon Week 1 when I agreed to be team leader (which I did not want to be).
At week 8 there was a formative assessment where the team had to stand up & present the prototype to the tutor - I was on holiday this week so the other 3 did this without any of my input. It was a tragic failure as the prototype did not work, they didn't fully understand the code and they weren't really sure how it was supposed to work. The tutor was shocked, as all the planning & proposal work had looked so good. After this, the tutor called a team meeting to discuss the problems and I was surprised to hear that the team members felt they did not have enough support from the University to keep up with the project. Basically, the students did not know how to code. All the coding tasks I had assigned to different students weeks before had been done by one of the students, and he did them poorly. This was hidden from me as the original assignee's handed the work back to me, unless they were a week late on the deadline and I would take the work back off them.
For the final 5 weeks, I took on a rapidly increasing workload as my tutor advised me to set the others simpler tasks and that I should take on the complex work. I made this clear to the team and it was agreed. The final 2 weeks I went full-throttle, took time off work and blitzed the project (and finished it).
In this dynamic, the tutor is fully aware that I have been a good team leader as she knows I assign tasks each week, provide a Google Drive for the finished tasks to be uploaded to, provide feedback to tasks and answer questions throughout the week - because we use a social media platform called Edmodo. It's like a facebook for teachers and students. Everything we have done is recorded on Edmodo, every update I post, every link, every comment. Each time I set work - it is recorded! She (tutor) has access to this aswell and sees the interactions. She has praised the team for good teamwork on Edmodo in the past.

"I tried to assign complex tasks to the team members but they were unable/unwilling and I ended up completing most of them.": This part seems the most material if there is a legitimate case and could do with some expansion. What do these terms mean here: assign, complex, unwilling? If it's, for example, people agreeing to do things, then disappearing for weeks not participating at all then that's a different situation to one where they struggle or one where they don't have the same idea of what they're doing as you (or, also, to one that results in a 50% split). It's hard to discern currently.

Tasks were assigned with specific deadlines (usually one week as we met on mondays) and were almost always missed by two of the team members. Monday would come around, and instead of discussing the completed task and incorporating it into the project, the team members would BEGIN their tasks on Monday. Often, the tasks would not even be completed that day and the knock-on effect was severe. I ended up relieving team members of assigned tasks after 1 week past the deadline so they could pick up new tasks. Usually, the job would have to be completely reworked as the quality was so poor.

I signed the paperwork today and claimed 40% of the group mark. Here is how I did it:
I generated a spreadsheet with every task the group did and assigned value to each task. There were around 380hours of task value. I assigned each member value for each task, some tasks were done by one person, who claimed all the value. Some were shared, and so all members claimed the value. Some tasks that I finished off or reworked, I claimed a half hour or an hour on as well as the original member claiming time.
Next, I withdrew access to every piece of work I did on the Google Drive I created for the team. 118 pieces of my work disappeared overnight. Now, the team members could not refer to anything I had done for their Logbook - which is 50% of the module grade.
This spreadsheet worked out a split of roughly 50 (me), 25, 13, 12 percent.
I sat and listened without saying a word to their arguments for 30minutes. They said I should help boost their grade, that it looked shameful that we would have such an unbalanced split, and that the tutors would think poorly of us all.
Once the spreadsheet was accepted as the truth (or close to) by the group, I agreed to come down from 50%. They offered me 30% but I said 40% and I will sign now. They agreed in exchange for access to my files again.
You might think I screwed my team over, but you would be wrong. They still take 20% home each, as opposed to 25%. If they knew all they had to do was stall for a week, the uni would have defaulted to 25% split. They would have screwed me over if they knew that. Luckily, they didn’t. Also, the Individual Mark (Logbook, 50% of grade) is a record of individual contribution and so the other team members should not be referencing any of my work. I know they need it, because otherwise their logbooks will be quite empty, but they will be claiming my work as their own!

You should not put it as an answer, but as an edit to your question.

Why? This was the solution.

Plus 1 for being smarter and reading the assessment rules and working the system as compared to the others who did not check out the 25% default. Well done. So, the short solution is "if all else fails, read the instructions"... :)

@SolarMike: RTFM! :-)

You may not like this answer, but I think you should settle for equal grades.
The situation you describe is very common and so are the disputes you have wound up with. The expectation was that all should share equally and you didn't, apparently do that. You basically, rather than being the team leader/manager, took it on yourself to do all of the work. That wasn't necessary, but it is too late now to correct it. What you should have done (sorry) is to work physically together as a team. I suspect that you tried to divide up the work, making the problem bigger since you add the integration task to the work of the parts. It is a formula that has been proven to fail since around 1960, or so.
The instructor may be partly to blame for this if you haven't learned about project management in any modern style (say, agile), but, again, it is too late to go back.
In the real world, this also happens. Someone does more, others do less, or nothing, but the work is the important thing. In the education world, the learning is more important, actually, but not all students or professors recognize that.
So, in building the thing you have been a success. In managing it you have been less of a success. If you have learned something it is worth it.
Yes, the built in system rewards freeloaders, but you should have recognized that from the start and acted so that it didn't work out that way. The milk has been spilt.
I don't, however, disagree with the conclusion here of Vladhagen. Talk to your professor and get an opinion. But you should have done that by mid-term at least.
Never mind that your "partners" may get something that they don't deserve. Think about your own actions and what you have learned as well as what you haven't.
In my view, this project was pretty typical and so the typical grading scheme should apply - same grades for all.
Had someone else been team leader and closed you out, not giving you anything to do, or a way to be a success as a team, then, I think, you'd have a more valid complaint.
Of course, in the peer assessment that you write you can describe the project life as you see it. But your "teammates" will also do so.

This is not an answer I disagree with. For a 13 week project, requesting professorial intervention at week 13 is a wee late. Midterm would have been better. And, again, life is not always going to give you credit for your contribution down to the 100th of a point.

Thanks for the reply. I did request intervention at week 8, and was told to give them simpler work which sort of worked but left me with all the technical. My expectations were that grades are a reflection of merit, but clearly not in this project.

"Yes, the built in system rewards freeloaders, but you should have recognized that from the start and acted so that it didn't work out that way. The milk has been spilt." Yes. Yes. Yes.

" you should have recognized that from the start and acted so that it didn't work out that way."
--- I did. I assigned Research Tasks to the weak team members to build up their knowledge base alongside their project tasks. They failed to complete either so I cut the Research to focus on the actual project. They eventually failed to do the project tasks so I ended up taking those tasks too. Understand that I anticipated this 100%, but now have been ganged up on selfishly.

50.29% seems like an incredibly specific number. Are you sure it wasn't 50.28%?
If your teammates have left the assignment for you to handle, could you not inform them that you have done the bulk of the work and will be filing the signed grade sheet accordingly unless they return and help? If they are ignoring you, it would seem like you could simply finish the project, take the bulk of the credit, and submit the grade sheet stating what you feel their contributions were. Inform the professor why they never signed the paper (a submission on their behalf, in absentia). If you have email records of your attempts to contact them, it seems like it would be relatively hard for your team to dispute your account.
I am somewhat unfamiliar with the UK grading system here, but it would seem that as long as you received high marks on the project, credit for who exactly did what will be conclusively irrelevant. Get the win and get off the pitch (so to speak). Does it really matter who made the most goals and passes?
If possible, I would show the professor what you have so far and seek his/her opinion. The sooner the better perhaps.

I will add that life rarely will split exactly equitably in terms of work load and recognition. "That's life."

That’s the maths, I’d be happy to round it down to 50%. The issue with the paperwork is that without all 4 signatures, it is invalid and defaults to 25% each. The project is finished now, I spent the final 4 days working dusk till dawn whilst the “team” studied for an upcoming exam. In any case, my question “is this bs or par for the course?” has been answered - it’s both!

I agree with everything written in the other answers and Buffy has given a particularly carefully worded response, however I wanted to add a UK perspective.
UK Engineering degrees are usually accredited by a professional body for admission to the Engineering Council to lead to Chartered Engineer status (this includes EE, CS, and other engineering disciplines). I am a member of such a professional body (as are most UK academics in the field) and am familiar with  the accreditation processes from both the professional body and academic department side. During their undergraduate study my experience is that few students have made themselves familiar with the professional aspects of their degree and the requirements of the body that they will join in their later professional life as part of their practise. I am also familiar with the construction of syllabus content and degree programs that lead to appropriate accreditation and the assessment elements they must contain.
An engineering degree will be required to contain group work, not to make things easier for the assessor or to permit larger course cohorts to operate or for economic reasons of lowering the cost of delivering the course, but pedagogically to deliver certain learning outcomes. Achieving those learning outcomes and the degree to which they have been achieved is what determines (or contributes towards)  the grade or mark for these courses. Experiencing group interactions is one of the learning outcomes; successful co-operation in a group is one of those learning outcomes. Learning and experiencing what can go wrong is often an implicit learning outcome. Interestingly, making the damn thing (the physical result of the engineering labour) is only a small part of the learning outcome.
Consequently, being the hero and doing the whole thing yourself is exactly NOT what a group project is about and can lead to reduced marks. I have even seen students given totally failing grades for sacking their team and doing it solo. Engineers with these qualities are not the ones that fellow professionals want to work with in their seriously large projects and hence the reasons for marking sanctions for group disputes over contribution. We need engineers that can work together and leave their egos behind.
Later in their degree students will learn more about project management, but it is often necessary for them to experience sink or swim to understand the need for such structured methods.
You would have got short shrift from me if you complained about your mark on one of my assessments!

I am no hero, nor do I want to be. I work full time as a Design Engineer in the Defence Industry and have done for 5 years. I have worked on numerous fast-paced, intensive projects of which this University project pales in comparison.
The issue here is not that I did the whole thing myself, stealing their work - it is that I did work that those team members were unwilling/unable to do even though they were assigned that work.
They are now trying to claim that I did the same amount of work they did, which is not true.

-1: I simply do not understand the "group work learning experience" responses. OP did everything to get a successful team work, and, if when that didn't work out, get at least the project saved. An even distribution of marks is fundamentally unfair under these auspices, and "fairness" is supposed to be one of the main criteria in UK-based assessments. It is not a justification to say that since in business the world is unfair, so it may be in academia - academia should be an idealised learning environment where feedback and improvement requirements are particularly transparently delineated.

So are your assessments geared to producing groups who can "work together" or "work together AND deliver an effective solution"?

@SolarMike Good point. I can easily design a group that gets together well and sings "Kumbaya" or plays cards. Without an external criterion, there is nothing to compare with. On the other hand, if OP, good capability, is thrown together with a bunch of layabouts, he will be marked unfairly compared with another one, good capability, put together with hardworking guys. It is inconceivable that the outcome of OP's mark should depend on such a completely random allocation of collaborators when every other aspect of potential unfairness is controlled for in the UK system.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1049/sej.1989.0027

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text:
Forth year PhD student having trouble with his supervisor
I am 24 years old, studying electrical engineering. The major is communication systems, which mostly working on wireless problems. I came to grad school in 2015 directly from bachelor. I had an advisor from beginning and I did my masters thesis under his supervision. I graduated in 2017, and started the PhD program, again under his supervision. Let me describe him a bit.
He was not pushing me at all. He was paying my tuition and stipend. He literally did not have any plans for the research we are doing.
It is my 4th year in grad school, and I have zero publication. We did several projects, but all of them failed. Either the reviewers said it doesn't have that much contribution, or I ended up in a dead-end situation where I had no idea what to do. He was supposed to guide me and advise me(as an adviser), but every time we had a meeting, he was like what do we have. what are you going to do. Even when I was facing problem, he was asking when can you think you can solve this.
Anyway, suddenly he became aware that this is my 4th year and he is telling me that he's graduating me next year in 2020 and I need to publish. But I don't know where to start. He thinks he is pushing me but honestly I have no idea how to research. I feel dumb. I am seeing my friends that publishing papers, but I'm not capable of publishing even one! And because I don't know what to do, I always try to avoid the work and waste my time on the internet.
My advisor asked me what I am going to do on the Christmas break and I had no idea. So I made up something to tell him. So he is expecting me to do some work on the break, and I am LOST.
(All people have told me that my advisor is perfect because he is paying me, so I don't need to be TA and he is giving me freedom to do whatever I like, But tbh this behavior made my the laziest version of myself.)
I hate this life that I gradually made for myself. I was wondering if anyone could advise me what to do?
I really appreciate your answers.

It would be helpful to know a bit about your field of research - at least roughly. Habbits differ a lot between different sciences.

@OBu Sure. I added it.

This is one of those questions with too many personal factors to really be asked here. Basically, you need to work through your issues with the help, if possible, of your advisor. A different advisor, if available, might help you get back on track, but with a delay, of course.

Does your advisor have any other current or former grad students that you can talk to about all this? Was he able to properly guide and advise their developments as researchers? Is your situation with him unique or were the other grad students also all having problems with him?

When your adviser asked what you planned to do during the Christmas break, you "made up something to tell him." Is this thing that you made up something you could actually do, or at least begin doing? If so, then I suggest you begin doing it.

Well, in CS I know many people using the same approach. It works well for some students, for others it is terrible.
One thing really went wrong: You wrote several papers which got rejected - this is something a supervisor should avoid by giving feedback beforehand. This feedback could have helped you finding your way in the scientific field. Did you involve your supervisor in the paper development process?
One thing is strange about your situation: You worked for four years right now, he is paying you and he wants you to finish. If you really did not achieve anything, I would have tried to get rid of you and hire someone else. So there might be something in your work you are not aware of at the moment. Or your supervisor is very lazy. Or he just trusts in people.
If you are hired to work on a specific project: Is this project related to your PhD? Or are you just working on your PhD topic?
I would suggest to really use the christmas break to

Build a mindmap of your field / your work. Indicate all items which are mandatory for your PhD.
Honestly try to figure out why your papers were not accepted. Try to figure out if you are having any chance to change thr source of the problem.
Build a work plan consisting of simple steps which will lead you to a "just-made-it"-PhD. You can improve it later on
If you feel you are lacking skills (e.g. programming, paper writing, ...), find a way to adress them. Train the skills. It's worth the effort.
...and take a break. It sounds like you need one...


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What is the proper way to ask for ideas for a research topic to a professor on a different institution that I have no connection with?
I am planning to start a new project on a certain topic, which nobody in my institution is an expert in. I have spent several weeks on literature research on this topic (by superficially reading papers without studying them), however it is very hard and inefficient to find a well-defined problem all by myself.
So I need help from an expert, currently my knowledge on this specific topic is very superficial. I plan to properly get my self ready while doing the research after I find a well-defined problem, because without a well-defined problem it is very hard to make a structured well-defined path, I would end up wasting time by jumping from one paper to another blindly (I have been there).
I have prepared several questions related to this topic that may lead to a research problem, however it is very likely that those questions are very ignorant.
I have sent emails to several people, after the first email they usually respond but when I send those long questions I don't hear from them anymore.
So I would like to learn what is the proper way to ask a an expert that I haven't met before, for a help direction guidance to find a well-defined problem?
The thing is, I really need this problem on that specific topic, because of several reasons, I tried to find by myself, but without proper experience in that field, it is hard and extremely inefficient. Also, I know it is something pretty unusual but I must find this problem, and I know for an expert it would be pretty straightforward. Any advice would be great!
edit:
I need this specific topic because, I have finished the first year of my 3 year PhD, and so far it was jumping from one project to another randomly with the direction my advisor, and it was mostly a dead end. Thus I need a well-defined project that puts me on a track and helps to have a good understanding of my current field. Currently, what I do is not efficient, I am not learning the important first principles of the field it is just random drafting. I need a systematic, structured path. It is hard to explain without telling the specifics. But that certain topic I want is not that a narrow topic it is quite broad. and if someone spends a year on a project involving that topic, he would really have a very good understanding of the overall field that I am working on. I mean that topic, would really teach most of the very important fundamentals, also would be really beneficial.
To explain this more, what I am doing now is like watching a tv series starting from episode 150, so it makes some sense but always something is missing, in order to get the overall picture in order to have a bottom-up approach I have to start from episode 1. And that specific topic would provide that. There are a lot of papers coming out on that topic I know there are accessible problems for a PhD student without a deep background on that topic. The matter is, this is getting out of scope but, I know I can have a very good productive PhD. But as things going now it is not going well. I am certain if I keep doing what I am doing at the end I will be one of the failed PhD's. So I think I have to take the wheel and make good plan respect to my aims. And I think a project on that rigorous topic that will teach most of the fundamentals of my field, also which will give a deep insight and the first principles would be really what I need. Otherwise, this PhD and my career, my potential(?) are just fading away. I mean PhD is knowing something very well, but currently for me, it was just having superficial ideas on a lot of different stuff. So I have to turn things around. Focus on this important topic, which will help me to be very good on one thing.

But why does it need to be in this specific topic?

My gut feeling says that if you could elaborate a bit on why you need this topic (your last paragraph), it would be easier for us to give some guidance.

What incentive do you imagine such an expert would have?

@OBu     I edited the post elaborating the paragraph.

I think you need to take a deep breath and step back from this approach. You need to have a deep discussion with your advisor for a research topic that he or someone else at your institution can help you with. People at other institutions will not have the time to keep answering your questions as your work on your dissertation.

@mkennedy  The topic I want is very realted to my advisor topic, but only a little bit specialized. Also, I did those discussions a lot but they were not very productive, he is encouring for me to make collabrations or finding my own topics. But that's it find a a good topic was aproblem for me from the start.

While it would be nice to imagine that we all do research for the betterment of mankind, the reality is that it is often transactional. This is because you’re asking for some stranger’s time and efforts, and they don’t see why they should give it to you.
If you manage to show them that you are able to come up with non trivial results by yourself, or offer them some indication that they’ll get something out of it (a publication hopefully), you might get a chance.
The reason that this is the way things are is because professors get approached with these requests all the time, and they have to prioritize them. First dibs go to their own inner circle of collaborators. Guess what circle random strangers are on?
If professors responded seriously to each such request they’ll end up with no time, and because most of these requests end up as dead ends, they tend to be wary of allocating their efforts to high risk collaborations such as the one you’re offering.
Good luck!
EDIT: if you really want to impress a professor, take their class and shine! Alternatively, open a literature review, and start doing the hard work of familiarizing yourself with the field. You’ll need to anyway if there’s gonna be a paper coming out of it. Also, write down your thoughts. Start a draft paper and write down your initial ideas. What is the problem? Why is it important? What is your proposed solution? Even if it’s a draft or rough or stupid to you, just write. Then you can send this to professors! This tells them two things: you’re serious about this and that you can formally write out your thoughts. It’ll also help you crystallize what exactly is it that you want to do.

The professor is not in my institution. However, about the litreture reaserch, this was exactly what am I doing the last two weeks. I had 10 specific questions. But as I said, without any direction it is hard to eloborate this literature research. Now, I am justing reading to see what is done what is left. And I  have taken notes for about 20 pages but I got start to get lost. As I said, I can formally start to learn that topic, but without any help to narrow down the topic,  even starting to a formal learning is not very wise. I mean at least a minor direction from an expert would be very go

I also send that draft to three professors the response was not very good. (Only one of them responded after I asked a very specific question on their paper, and I didn't get any response after I asked a more general question) I also don't want to ruin my relationship with these people at the beginning, because they are the guys that define the field.

Two weeks is nothing, to be honest. I spent a few good months reading papers before my first publication, but perhaps I’m a slow reader. See what are the latest publications in the field and work from there. The fact that you have so many questions means you’re not sufficiently familiar.

yes, I am not at all familiar. however, that's the thing, without a definite problem or even narrowing down the topic. where do I start to familiarize my self? It would literally take 2 years to really be familiar. I mean I am not sure If I can express my self clearly but. The principle I follow is to learn while doing research not before. However, If I start to familiarize my self formally and rigorously. It would be really learning before starting research. I mean the topic is very broad. there are hundreds of papers.  What I need is someone to help me to narrow it.

anyway thanks a lot for your advices. Espcially about showning that you are serious, and determined to finish the project. I will try to send another email to another expert. Hope it works. Also, I talked about this with my advisor and the other people in the institution they all recomend me to find an expert.


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How to ask student for more information in order to grant makeup final
A student of mine has asked to take his final early because he is "going out of town." He has only just mentioned this to me and we are already halfway through the quarter.
I have spoken with some faculty in my department and one has suggested that if not taking the exam early would impose an undue financial burden (i.e. he bought tickets months ago and didn't know he would have a final this day) then he should be allowed to take the exam early, but if he planned a road trip with his friends last week, for example, then he should have to take the exam at the scheduled time.
I like this policy, so my question at the moment is: how can I ask this student for more information about his vacation? It certainly seems as if it will be the latter since he has not mentioned it to me until now, but I would like to be sure before I decide.
Additional comments: I would obviously rather him not take the exam on an earlier date because I am worried he might share test information with other students. This is a calculus final so it takes effort on my part to write a different exam,  and I feel a bit miffed at having to write an entire new test so someone can go on vacation.
Edit: The syllabus statement on makeup exams: "In this course, we will have one midterm and a final exam on the dates mentioned above. These dates are firm and cannot be changed except under extraordinary circumstances. Make-up exams will be permitted at my discretion.'

When was the final scheduled? At my university, you know your final schedule when you register for classes; which is about six weeks before the quarter starts.

@AzorAhai That is a good question- I am not positive but it is definitely published by the time the quarter begins.

So, allow an early final for a documented medical reason but not for a “party” just planned...

"Going out of town" and "buying tickets early" are explicitly not sufficient justifications to miss a final exam in my department.  (So my answer to your student would be "No.")
But this policy is explicit, so students know in advance not to buy tickets until final exam schedules are announced ("only" four months before finals).

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32997/why-would-my-teachers-dean-care-when-i-took-the-final/33002#33002

Unless this is a very urgent trip, then there's no way I'd allow the change.  There are always students who want to play "airfare wars."  They buy airline tickets for a date half-way through finals, knowing full well they might have an exam scheduled late.  They think that coming to me and showing me their ticket, "But I already spent $480 on tickets!"  will leverage compliance from me.  The best they'll get from me for their manipulation is that I'll give them an incomplete and give them their final MUCH later (so they have to retain their fresh knowledge a couple months.)
If his sister is getting married or the Army Reserves has called him up or is mother is hit by a bus, then OK, I'm happy to accommodate.  But I didn't take "But I have plans" from my own children as an excuse.
I'll mention here that my syllabus contains a sentence that says plainly that I won't budge just because you already bought your ticket.
To your specific question, I'd say to, or e-mail the student and say something like, "Unless this is a crisis, then I can't move the date of your exam."  Then it's up to him to convince you that it's a crisis.

Since no extraordinary circumstances have been mentioned, I would not allow change.  I personally think you should take a more extreme stance than what you are describing here.  It's irrelevant if he bought the tickets a while ago (in fact, it would argue against offering a dispensation because he could have bought them after the end of all exams, versus gambling.)
You gotta draw the line when tested like this or all kinds of excuses will come out of the woodwork to take advantage.

I would not grant them a makeup exam unless they can show me that it is indeed an extraordinary circumstance. They're adults and should be treated like ones.
Here's why I think that you should stick to your guns (and how I explain things to my students when they're asking me to bend the rules for them). What about all of the other students in class that did not approach me for an additional exam? As far as I know, there are some students in the class that canceled vacation plans, missed a friend's wedding or their sister giving birth because they knew that this was exam period and Prof. Spark does not grant makeup exams unless there are extraordinary circumstances.
So, by letting this student off the hook, you're telling all those other students that they were being idiots for following the policy that you put in place!
I like this explanation because it doesn't make you sound like it's too much trouble ("of course I would love to set up another final just for you, but think of the other students..."), or that you don't trust the student not to leak the final exam details. Plus it is extremely difficult to argue against. I use this reasoning for almost every unreasonable request - from grade forgiveness to pushing deadlines.

I usually accommodate such requests. It makes a big difference to me if the student has asked about an accommodation 4 or 5 weeks in advance of the final, since then it is relatively easy to be creative about a solution that is fair to me (not a lot more work) and fair to the class.  However, most courses in my university (US state school) have several lesser exams that combined may count as much as the final exam.  If the majority of the course grade was based on the final, I'd probably feel differently.
So my primary motivation is to make sure that the student is going to show good faith effort to cover any final material that wasn't on earlier exams.
I make a contract with the student to weight the other exams more. That way I don't have to create a separate final.
The contract usually also specifies additional required work/assignments. The student has to do 'more' to show me their mastery of material that would have been on the final. (I try to figure out things easy for me to 'grade'. If making it easy for me to grade means that it takes more time and energy on the part of the student, that's fine!)

If, as you say in the comments, the final was known by the time the quarter began, you certainly have no obligation to make any accommodations for them. (The university I did my undergraduate study abroad at announced finals like halfway through the semester. It was really weird.) Yes, 10 weeks ahead of time means tickets will not be very cheap, but that's a risk you take when buying tickets around finals.
When I was in school, we often planned trips around having a final on the last possible date (Thursday afternoon). Once or twice it paid off, most of the time it didn't.
Your other options when your final conflicts with your travel is to change classes. This person didn't, and is now hoping you'll feel bad that they completed half the quarter and you don't want to toss it all.
I don't see "undue financial burden" as mattering here. They had all the information they needed.
If they have extraordinary circumstances, such as needing to visit an ill family member, then by all means, help them out. But, since they didn't already mention an extraordinary issue, I suspect that's not why they're traveling.

I don't see why the circumstances of the trip matter, unless it's for a funeral or similar unforeseen emergency. It's incredibly unlikely that your university doesn't have final exam schedules posted long in advance, so the student either knew or should have known the date of the final when he registered for the course and bought his tickets. You really should have put this in the syllabus, but there's probably a university policy stating that the instructor doesn't have to give a final at any time other than the time in the official schedule.
On the other hand, it's entirely up to you whether or not you want to give the exam early. Making a distinction between a road trip and a "financial burden" is irrelevant and leads down a slippery slope. Is it a financial burden if the student's rich family paid for the ticket or if it's a cheap flight? Regardless of the circumstances, the student wants to start spring break early and wants you to do extra work so that he can do that. Taking that additional work on is your decision.


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Graduate Admissions and Earlier Programs
I began an undergraduate program in subject A and because of circumstances outside of my control (receiving threats from someone with a history of violence against me), had to repeatedly withdraw from courses in that program.
I am considering going back to school in a totally different subject, and I very strongly feel that I have the ability to do well. If I do well in this subject and want to enter graduate school for it, would they be willing to only consider my grades in the relevant second program and overlook the earlier unrelated one, especially considering I had a legitimate reason for it and did well afterwards in the related program? Or would the withdrawals send up too many red flags?
(Edited in later) I think this question is rather different from the How does the admissions process work for US Ph.D. programs question because that's a more general question about making up for bad grades or things, but I am asking about special consideration for extenuating circumstances. There's a difference between getting a bad grade in a class because you weren't good at the material as opposed to having to withdraw from it because you are receiving violent threats from someone who has previously beaten you.

You should definitely address this issue in your personal statement and/or other application materials when you apply. It is very likely that the extenuating circumstances would be taken into account.

possible duplicate of How does the admissions process work for US Ph.D. programs, particularly for weak or borderline students?

Although I think the linked question above addresses in general terms what your plan of action should be, here is another possible duplicate question: Trauma affected my grades while in undergrad, how will it affect me getting into graduate school?

I see this question as quite different from either of the proposed duplicates, because (1) this is not a weak student and (2) the student is proposing to return to school in a very different area. I disagree with any close votes.

Did you finish any courses in subject A? If you didn't (or maybe even if you did), and the university was aware of why you were withdrawing, you might ask if the university would remove those courses completely from your records. I have no idea if this would be possible.

First of all, I'm sorry for your painful experiences. To answer your question:
Based on my extensive experience directing a graduate program at a leading public R1 university, your initial experience in the initial program will have very little bearing on your chances of admission. I say this for a number of reasons:

We are concerned with trajectory even more than overall grade point. I am relatively unconcerned by someone who gets C grades during freshman year, so long as I'm seeing A and high B grades by junior and senior years.
When a student goes to school for a couple of years, then does something else for a few years, and then returns to school, I consider the grades subsequent to return almost exclusively. In most cases, unlike yours, this is because the student needed time to grow up. But I'm happy to accept that he or she (frankly, it's usually a "he" that fits this pattern) has grown up and to accept the high marks after the return to school as ample proof. I don't care what somewhat was like as a 19-year-old, I care what that person will be like in my program.
You can and should explain the switch of programs in a graduate application. Having a letter-of-reference writer explain it as well would be a wise move. Once an admissions committee sees the highly valid reasons, there is little chance that they would hold your record at the first institution against you.
Everywhere I've been, if grade points are used to prune or order applicants, only the gradepoint at the final undergraduate institution is used. This may not be universal, but frankly I find it unlikely that most graduate admissions programs would go to the trouble to compute the proper weighted average across programs, even if they did care about your earlier performance.

I hope this is helpful and perhaps even encouraging.

I definitely agree with the above answer that in cases where the grade does not reflect your true academic ability, it would be a good idea to add a reference letter that speaks about it. Often, there might be different reasons for a student's decision to withdraw, apart from academic ones, and a reference letter that speaks highly of your academic abilities would I think make up for your withdrawals.

I realize that from your point of view, including your specific reason for withdrawing seems like it would draw more sympathy, and help your case.  But consider that those reading your application packet will be leery of admitting anyone they think could be more trouble than they are worth.  So, unless you can include some paperwork to show some objective evidence of what you are talking about, it would be best not to even hint at any specifics regarding the causes for your poor showing in Subject A.  Your accompanying statement should just say that the poor showing in Subject A is not an accurate reflection of your academic abilities, and draw their attention to your performance in Subject B.
I can assure you that academia recognizes that young people withdraw from courses frequently, for a variety of reasons that don't necessarily predict future results.  By withdrawing instead of staying in a course and failing, you did a very sensible thing, and minimized the long-term ramifications.  Even a string of W's in a transcript are not as bad as a couple of F's.
Here are some ideas for documentation -- items that you might have, that you might be able to get a copy of, or that you might be able to request after the fact:

order of protection or other court document
statement from a doctor or mental health professional
statement from an administrator of the institution you were attending

Having worked in an admissions department at a large university it can be hit or miss (depending on the officer that gets your application) in my experience.
This may only be the case at the institution I worked at, so take it with a grain of salt, but there was strict adherence to a minimum admissions average.
My best advice would be to retake the course if you can and try to get a better grade THEN explain in your letter your circumstances. If that isn't possible try to include documentation from a professional (depending on you issues) if you can.
I know it sounds pretty awful that is how a liberal minded university behaves behind closed doors but I wish I could tell you otherwise.
Best of luck

At least in the US, graduate programs generally don't have "admissions officers", but rather admissions committees composed primarily of faculty within the department hosting the program.

Indeed -- were you doing graduate admissions, @RyanDavis? And if so, Masters or PhD? Everywhere I have ever been, PhD admissions have always been the responsibility of the faculty in the department in question.

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