text:
Formal letters: is it okay to list your credentials in a long sentence?
In the context of writing formal letters, usually it is required to mention person's credentials, e.g., their degree along with the dat on which the degree was conferred.
I was wondering if it would be OK if I wrote something with the format:

<'degree title'> conferred upon <'name'> by <'the dept., college, university'> on<'data of the award'>.

Is it too long for a formal letter? You might also need to add opening words, something like:

This is to further acknowledge that The College of Computer and Information Sciences at XYZ University conferred a Master of Science in Computer science upon Ms.Sara XYZ on 1st of July 2011.

Note: if the addressing language looks odd in the example, it is because the letter will be signed by the registration office.

I thought about going to the university that matched my last name, just for kicks. Decided not to, figured I'd get a lot of jokes.

A sentence like you present looks just fine to me: there's nothing wrong with being a bit formal in an official formal statement, and although the sentence isn't short, it's not too long and it's very straightforward to understand.


text:
How to deal with dramatic drop in grade due to strict attendance policy
I'm currently taking a required class where attendance is counted at 15% of the grade.  The policy is that if a student misses more than 2 lectures, they lose all 15% of those points.  The class itself takes place 5 days a week, and attendance is taken daily and uniformly.  I currently hold a 91% in this class, but I missed my third class today and I'm trying to decide how to proceed from here.  I feel like all of the time and effort I've put into the class has been totally discounted for a reason that has nothing to do with my knowledge of the course material.
Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?  On one hand, I knew that this policy existed and the consequences for missing 3 classes.  On the other hand, dropping a grade from an A to a C for such a small reason feels absolutely unacceptable to me.  How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade?

This is a reasonable question to ask your instructor. I'm not sure how strangers on the Internet can help, though.

Were your absences due to circumstances clearly beyond your control (illness, death in family, etc), and do you have documentation to confirm this?  If so, you might be able to argue that you should be allowed to make up those points somehow.  If not, I don't think you have much chance.  Attendance policies like this are fairly common in academia and I don't think higher administrators are likely to think the policy is unfair.

To look at it another way, the time and effort you've put into the class has not been "totally discounted", by any means; it's the reason your grade is now 76%, instead of something even lower.

"time and effort I've put into the class has been totally discounted" - Actually no more than 13.6% of your work is discounted. In fact I would argue none of your effort is discounted since it's not like they took away your exam grade. Only the part concerning attendance is discounted, because the instructor felt you didn't put enough effort into attending. (PS: Yes I do think that a 15% penalty for missing 2 lectures out of such a frequent class is silly, but rules are rules.)

@Superbest: It's completely possible that OP could have gotten a C on exams with only 2 hours of study per week, but requires 20 to get an A.  In this case, 90% of his effort is cancelled out by the attendance policy.

@BenVoigt Regardless, it is not his exam grade being discounted, but his attendance grade.

You may not have any way to mitigate this situation. I commiserate with you though - 'attendance' grades are childish. If you miss for good reason and catch up on the work, it seems perverse to penalize you relative to a student who attends class only to spend the hour goofing off on their phone.

@user37208 not everyone is necessarily equally able to attend. Perhaps that does not speak for the policy's fairness as much as it does life's fairness, however.

The class itself takes place 5 days a week, How long is the class?  10 Weeks? 16 weeks? Please clarify.

File Credit/No-Credit. The stricter the attendance rule the more worthless the class.

You do not currently hold a 91%. You may have held a 91% percent yesterday, but now you hold a 76%.

Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?

Given that you knew the policy in advance and the teacher seems to have been consistent in taking attendance, you seem to have no logical reason to feel the mark is unfair.
You state that attendance is a "small reason", but for whatever reason the teacher feels is is a big reason (15% to be exact). If you felt that the grading policy was unfair, you should have discussed this at the beginning of the semester, not after missing 3 classes.
Realistically, the only thing you can do now is beg (aka grade grub). Your mileage may vary, but most professors do not look kindly on grade grubbing. It is important to realize that to an outside, the policy seems fair. For example, in a typical US semesters of around 17 weeks each class accounts for between 1-2% of the taught material. Further, missing a class likely means you are not at the right point in further classes so each absence is like missing 2-4% of taught material. That sets a minimum of 6-12% of missed material for 3 absences. Multiple absences probably means you have missed even more material. In other words, without knowing the specifics of the class, a penalty of 15% for 3 absences seems reasonable.

+1 "Knew policy from day 1" is a big issue to start. Even bigger issue: you challenge the policy and attendance shows everyone else is getting along just fine. Lesson learned: Come to class.

It used to be the case in continental Europe that attendance was not compulsory and students were expected to take responsibility for their progress. With the increasing streamlining of studies what happens is that students start complaining about this and that, low marks, and when one checks attendance sheets one finds they haven't even attended and nevertheless complain about low marks. I suspect OP is victim of past generations of students making life unreasonably hard to their lecturers. Maybe he "punisheth the just with the unjust", but you had the option of attending, and didn't.

17 weeks? Holy crap that's a long time to take a class

I am not aware of any US university that has 17 weeks of class per semester.  My own big state university has 15 week semesters, which is much longer than what I experienced in the private American universities in which I was educated.  One can never know what happens everywhere, but I would be very interested to see an example of a 17 weeks (of instructional time) semester.

If you miss 15% of the material, that would be reflected in the exam grade. If the student is able to get that material through some other means, then he hasn't actually missed out on 15% of the material. The fact that he has missed some material doesn't seem like a reason to automatically lower the grade (and I doubt that's the reason the policy was put in place to begin with) since it will already be lowered on the exam. The professor must think absences are more important for some other reason.

I recall one of my brothers, as a college freshman, mentioning that a math professor always went over the book assignments in his lectures.  He said that that meant if he didn't read the book he could go to the lecture, and if he didn't go to the lecture he could read the book.  He aced all his exams and got a C for lack of class attendance.  Lesson learned...

@CaptainEmacs AFAIK it is stil the case that attendance isn't compulsory in Europe, except for things like medicine or some specific laboratory courses.  I myself decided to not follow the lessons of some courses because I found them completely useless and a waste of my time (and still got 27+/30 at the exam, i.e. A).  In any case there will always be people complaining about marks. It doesn't matter the policy you follow about attendenca, the material, how the exam is done etc.

@Bakuriu Indeed, I personally believe that compulsory attendance is not worthy of an academia. On the other hand, academia increasingly has to sort out things that used to be handled in schools (childish behaviour, disrespect, mobile use etc, and yes, it has measurably changed, it's not just a "good ole' times" effect), so I am not surprised that school-like rules are being introduced in academia. That being said, most of the time my own experience is that if you as a lecturer radiate the message that you consider your students to be responsible adults, they will respond as responsible adults.

@CaptainEmacs - most of the time my own experience is that - Unfortunately, my experience in that that "most" is nowhere near 100, or even 90, percent.

@Kimball Of course, it goes without saying that you have to establish some "good ole' school"-type rules of engagement immediately at the beginning. You'd be surprised how far that goes, as long as you communicate how they are fair in intent and make sure they are consistent in execution.

Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?

Yes.  You only concluded it was unfair once it applied to you.  Prior to this moment, you accepted it as reasonable.  Since the "fairness" never changed, then only your perception of it has changed, and only that once your circumstances did.

How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade?

First, focus on getting exceptional grades for the rest of the class.  You apparently already lost 9% (over one third of your total loss so far).  You may or may not be able to affect the lost 15%, but you still have the rest of the semester and a lot more to lose if you don't renew your focus on your work.
Second, discuss this with the teacher.  I advise you to 1) not suggest that it's unfair and 2) don't ask for a reprieve.  Instead ask it as though you accept the penalty, but would like to see if there's anything you can do - extra credit, an additional paper covering the subject discussed on the days missed, etc - which the teacher could take into account when finalizing grades.
By accepting the penalty and not suggesting it's unfair, you are showing that you are responsible, and that you don't want to erase the penalty, you want to prove to the teacher that you are interested, engaged, and willing to work harder to show your effort.
This should allow the teacher to avoid being put on the defensive, and they may open up paths for you to take that will help you recover some of the loss the penalty cost you.
Humility and patience will often work better than accusations and whining.

"extra credit, an additional paper covering the subject discussed on the days missed, etc": Bear in mind that if such an option is possible, it should be disclosed in the course syllabus, so that all students are aware of it.  You can still ask, in case there is some opportunity you missed.  But if the professor invented a grade-improvement opportunity just for you, that really would be unfair - you'll want to ask in a way that makes it clear you are not requesting special treatment.

it really varies from professor to professor.  I got an A from a German prof, although I rarely if ever went through the AV sessions that he assigned.  He told me at the end of the semester that since my accent was quite good he  didn't see me as needing the AV sessions, and didn't discount my grade for not attending.  You might ask the prof if he's willing to cut a break to students who ace the final or whatever.  If he's willing to do the same thing for all the students, it's not really unfair.

@NateEldredge we don't know any details about the situation. Perhaps it's a three month class with only one class per week, and three absences is truly significant. Perhaps it's simply a professor that wants to discourage absences but in reality never actually takes that penalty. Unfortunately life isn't fair, and the syllabus doesn't always have every little thing spelled out. Asking won't hurt, as long as one does so with respect and humility. I've seen many situations where leeway is granted to those who put forth effort despite prior assurances that none would be given. It's worth a try.

That said, I much prefer professors that put all grade information in the syllabus and stick to it. Those that provide off-syllabus help make it harder because they create student expectations that may cause both students and professors difficulty later. The students feel like everything should be challenged, and the professors end up turning everyone down, even when there is a hardship, simply because it's become too common for students to believe the syllabus is only part of the story. We simply can't assume, however, that this is the type of professor they are dealing with in this case.

Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?

In my opinion, no, you are not wrong. Furthermore, the arguments that "since you knew about the policy to begin with you don't have a leg to stand on", and that "since the policy applies equally to all students it cannot be claimed to be unfair", are simply invalid and miss a key point (which I'll address at the end) about where the unfairness comes from. Let's examine these two superficially compelling arguments more closely.

"You knew about the policy"
You yourself say:

On one hand, I knew that this policy existed and the consequences for
  missing 3 classes

and StrongBad in his/her answer says

Given that you knew the policy in advance and the teacher seems to
  have been consistent in taking attendance, you seem to have no logical
  reason to feel the mark is unfair.

a sentiment that is also echoed in some of the comments.
To this I would reply: if the policy was unfair at the beginning of the semester, it is still unfair now. Conversely, if it was in fact fair to begin with, it would still be fair now. Why on earth should it matter when you come forward to complain about the unfairness? It actually makes a lot of sense to me that you, being a busy student with many things to worry about, would not devote much time and energy to thinking about (or even noticing) this unfairness and thinking what to do about it until you found yourself in a situation where you saw yourself personally harmed by it.
So yes, perhaps it would be more commendable if you had the foresight to step forward at the beginning of the semester and complain about what seemed like an unfair policy, either out of concern that it would hurt you personally, or out of an altruistic concern that some other student might be hurt. So what? That does not change the fact that the logical question regarding the fairness or unfairness of the policy has nothing whatsoever to do with the timing of the complaint.
Note that I do agree with the that from a practical point of view, complaining now certainly stands less of a chance of achieving anything, but the point is that that's not because the policy has stopped being unfair (if indeed it was unfair to begin with).
"The policy applies equally to all students"
This argument was raised by @user37208, who says in a highly upvoted comment:

Unreasonable? Maybe. Unfair? Certainly not, as long as it's the same
  attendance policy for everyone.

But this argument compares you to the reference group of the other students in your class. What about all the other students all around the world who have more reasonable instructors who do not penalize their students so severely for missing three lectures in a semester? If we assume the premise that such a grading policy is simply a poor way to evaluate someone's knowledge of the material the course is designed to teach, then by comparing yourself to this much larger reference group (or even focusing on a smaller group of students in your country or region who would be competing with you for jobs, or even just students in your university who took the same course but with different instructors who had more sensible grading policies), clearly you would have pretty good cause to find yourself discriminated against based on what you see as an irrelevant grading criterion.
We can further illustrate the falseness of the "applies equally" argument by taking the same argument to an absurd extreme. What if the grading policy said that 15% of the grade would be given for the ability to recite the first 10000 digits of pi? (Let's assume that memorizing those digits was not one of the goals of the class, which seems like a fair assumption.) And let's assume that all the students except the OP managed to perform this feat and got the 15%, and he alone failed. Well, the policy was the same for everyone, so it is "maybe unreasonable" but "certainly not unfair" - right? Clearly that's nonsense, because the point is that (as I explained above) such a policy is grading based on completely irrelevant information, and hence discriminates against the OP compared to all other students everywhere who are evaluated on their knowledge of the same material as covered by the course.

Now, I still need to explain why the policy is unfair (I only explained so far why two specific arguments saying it is not unfair are incorrect). In fact, that is somewhat more debatable, since grading for attendance is clearly more commonplace and at least slightly more logical than grading for one's ability to memorize digits of pi. Nonetheless, I think ultimately it comes down to the question of whether the grading policy, however well-intentioned it may be, is evaluating you for the right things, or for anything valuable at all, so that the grade will contain at least some minimally informative value about you to future employers or decision-makers. I argue that it simply doesn't, and hence is just as silly as the digits-of-pi policy in my example.
The bottom line is that you have missed three of the course lectures. I don't know why you missed them, but one would be hard-pressed to convincingly argue that that says anything negative about you whatsoever. When I was a student there were many courses in which I missed such a number of lectures, and I did just great and am now a successful academic (and am probably considered an expert on some of the subjects those courses I missed lectures in were about...). Many of my students today are making equally reasonable and good decisions about when they want to come to class and when not to. They are grown-ups, and are using their time at university to acquire not just concrete knowledge but also to learn productivity and work skills, which include developing the judgment and self-knowledge to be able to make those sorts of decisions. Occasionally they make mistakes and learn from them. This is precisely as it should be. On my part, I give them exams and other assignments to learn whether they learned the material. Again, this is precisely as it should be. Nowhere in the process does it make sense for me to abuse my grading authority by requiring them to learn in a specific way, whether it be to do their homework between 8:17 p.m. and 9:44 p.m. every night (which I'm sure everyone reading this would agree would be outrageous and unreasonable) or to sit on a chair in a specific room in specific hours of specific weekdays.

Finally, this answer is already too long, but let me briefly address your other, more practical question:

How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade?

The other answers already addressed this. I share their somewhat pessimistic view that in practice there's not a whole lot you can or should do. In any case, since the main part of your question was about the principle of whether you're reasonable to feel that you are being treated unfairly, I thought it would at least make you feel a bit better to have someone agree with you and give a reasoned answer. My recommendation is to treat this as a learning experience and hopefully show your instructor through your excellent performance (and even more importantly, show yourself) that you indeed mastered the material, which is the main thing that counts.

I once avoided a low grade, by avoiding an instructor that grades with criteria I would've done poorly at.  Instead, I delayed graduation by 6-9 months and took the course by an instructor who was much more lenient for this particular course (even allowing me to take the course almost entirely off-site).  We are all subject to assessments' criteria, and usually an individual instructor's grading criteria (unless we're graded on more universal/standard exams).  I may prefer that knowledge be the criteria's basis, but shouldn't that choice ultimately be the course designer's, not the student's?

@TOOGAM yes, indeed the course designer sets the criteria - I never said anything to the contrary. And the students and outside observers have a right to express their opinions (on academia.SE and elsewhere) about whether those criteria are fair. So I'm not sure I see your point...

Agreed w/ last comment.  Though I favor knowledge assessments, other approaches may have a place, so aren't necessarily wrong.  Your answer said "I don't know why you missed them, but one would be hard-pressed to convincingly argue that that says anything negative about you whatsoever." Well, it says the student did not meet the criteria demanded by the instructor. Many businesses have supervisors demand attendance, so a person unable to fulfill the required criteria would fare poorly.  You seem to be arguing that the evaluation of a student should not reflect this aspect of real world.

Side note / different topic: May I suggest adding quotes around the two points in your second sentence, just for clarity?  (I propose that would make the run-on sentence easier to read.  Also, "they miss" would be "active voice", rather than "are missing".)

@TOOGAM the problem is that your "be able to follow instructions" argument (also brought up by others in @Superbest's follow-up question) also applies to things like my memorizing pi example. Treating grading as a game whose purpose is for students to prove that they are capable of performing completely meaningless and counterproductive tasks is counter to the spirit and purpose of a university. The goal of universities is absolutely not to teach blind obedience to arbitrary commands.

@TOOGAM implemented your editing suggestions, thanks.

@TOOGAM to expand on my previous comment, there are many aspects of the real world that a university does not and should not seek to emulate. E.g., there are bosses who are mean and abusive to their employees - should some professors be deliberately mean and abusive to their students to "toughen them up"? There are workplaces with Machiavellian political machinations and un-meritocratic advancement policies, should a university simulate that with some cleverly designed grading policy as well? Etc. Bottom line: this argument about attendance is simply spurious.

I recall a corp's pro trainer training about abusive customers.  He stood next to a trainee and raised his voice.  Co-workers were sympathetic at the relatively smaller woman who took that from the larger man.  Is this desirable?  Fact is, the trainee went on to work, to take phone calls from many irate people mad about their bill.  The training may have been useful for the experiences she had later in the field.  I believe different edu institutions have different goals.  Even if undesirable, I find it true.  To my dismay, your bolded sentence didn't match much of my university training.

-1 Although "the goal of universities is absolutely not to teach blind obedience to arbitrary commands" is also not to learn the students how to bend the rules and get a headstart by whining, complaining, kissing the behinds of their professors or requiring special treatment for themselves. If the student finds the rule unfair he has the right to disobey but he should also learn to pay the price for that (i.e., get a lower grade). Staying true to your ethics / integrity has always a price and this is a lesson that the universities should teach to their students.

@Alexandros seriously? Pointing out an injustice is the same as "whining, [...] kissing the behinds of professors or requiring special treatment"? That's a truly bizarre point of view, but you are entitled to your opinion. In any case, note that my answer simply argues that the policy is unfair and does not advocate any specific action (in fact at the end I advocate accepting that the grade probably cannot be changed and learning from the experience), so the anti-whining reasons you cite for your downvote have little connection to what I actually wrote. Thanks for your feedback anyway.

I'm sympathetic to the idea that this particular course requirement is unreasonable. But the argument that any instructional method to inculcate discipline is out-of-bounds is a crazy overreach of the argument. Showing up to work on time (say, to service customers or technical problems as they appear) is not equivalent to memorizing arbitrary digits of pi. At the moment I'm grading statistics tests and taking off points for incorrect rounding: important for precision, or frivolous pedantry? It may vary depending on the beholder's use-case.

@DanielR.Collins agreed - I think it's quite reasonable to take off points for sloppy calculations. That is a specific skill whose mastery is one of the educational goals of your class. But unless your syllabus mentions that one of your objectives is to teach the students to show up for work on time, then taking off points for showing up late for class (for example) would be unreasonable and unfair. Honestly, the "skill" of attendance is simply not something 99% of university classes should be trying to "teach".

Given the asymmetric power dynamic of instructor-student relationships, your routes for recourse are limited. As StrongBad mentioned, you are basically at the "mercy" of the instructor. Though, I would not go so far as to call this "grade grubbing" if you have a rational explanation for your decision making and/or if you think you can challenge the underlying assumptions for the attendance requirement. Here are my thoughts:
If the purpose of the attendance requirement is to make sure you learn material from the lectures and to test this, the course makes use of homework and exams; I would challenge the value of mandating attendance if you are able to complete the knowledge assessments with 91% ability.
If the attendance requirement is about in-class participation; I would challenge the value of removing 15% of the grade for two missed classes. It would be more equitable, in my opinion, to proportionally decrease the 15% based on the fraction of attendance vs total participation course days. For example, if there were 90 days of instruction, and you missed 2, your grade value for "attendance" would be 88/90 * 15%. I quote "attendance" because at this point, it would be more appropriate to call this participation.
To the "well, you knew this going into the course" point some people are making, I would balance this against a few factors:

Were there other offerings for the same course by different instructors?
If so, did those instructors offer a different "attendance" policy?
If not, could you have taken this course another semester from a different instructor with a different policy?

If not, I do not believe it is fair to blame you (or a student in general) for ending up in this situation. As mentioned above, the instructor-student power relationship is not symmetric. For an example in another area of life: the landlord-tenant relationship shares a similar power dynamic. Given a person looking for housing is usually in such a disadvantaged position when compared to the person who has excess housing to rent, traditionally landlords are able to request unreasonable requirements of those renting. We have created laws to put limits on these requirements to protect those in such a disadvantaged position. The instructor-student relationship is not much different: especially if the above three alternative options do not exist.
In my time in education systems (K-12, Undergraduate, and Graduate), where I have both learned and taught, I have seen many cases of completely unreasonable grading policies adopted by instructors. Many based on good intentions who's net effects were unreasonably burdensome: sometimes to all students, sometimes only to a few. In my opinion, it behoves us as educators to focus on the root value of our grading policies: do they measure what we are intending, are they balanced, do they take into consideration how many people come to class with different world-views? This isn't to say we should have no rules (or complete open rules), but from what I have seen, attendance requirements are rarely needed and are frequently unfair to students who are otherwise capable of learning the material but who have different day-to-day life demands.
From this perspective, I can completely see where you are coming from. However, outside of trying to use reason with your instructor, a route I have seen fail for many, I'm afraid you may be out of luck. Though, as a last resort, you could always approach the department chair or dean if you feel they may be sympathetic to your situation.

A syllabus, or even better a learning contract, sets out the rules. Students have the right to not agree, but once the drop period ends, they are committed.

I can see strong principled objections to the grading policy, but the student should have objected at the start of the class, not waited until after accumulating three absences. It would be very difficult to fairly change the system in mid-course.

@PatriciaShanahan, I agree, changing mid-course is difficult. Not that it isn't done, especially if the instructor feels like the current system is unfair or somehow biased for some previously unforeseen reason. Sadly, if the objective of grading is measuring what a student knows, this policy will fall short for this student. I suppose this will "teach" the student a lesson, but with the intense value we place on grades, it seems like a costly one.

"I feel like all of the time and effort I've put into the class has been totally discounted for a reason that has nothing to do with my knowledge of the course material."

Yes, it has been discounted.  And, yes, the reason for that discount has nothing to do with your knowledge of the course material.

"Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?"

Whether it is fair, or not, may be a quite highly subjective question where people may be very opinionated.  Regarding whether you have a right to feel certain emotions: you may.

"dropping a grade [such a large amount] small reason feels absolutely unacceptable to me"

Again, you're welcome to feel however you like.  However, such a requirement was probably not created for the purpose of being popular with students.  So, frankly, you aren't expected to feel like this is acceptable.  However, this is likely beyond your power.

"How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade?"

First, don't just try to figure out how to proceed, based only on your desire to reach a certain end result.  Before going through the effort and dealing with the stress of even trying, make sure you're understanding your situation and what your likely obstacles are.  Before looking further at "how should" you proceed (which is what you actually did ask), first consider looking at: should you proceed?
Realize that you may not be able to get the desired adjustment, and that may be due to circumstances beyond your control.  Circumstances may even be beyond your instructor's control.  This academdia.stackexchange.com question (that is being looked at right now) seems to have spawned another question, “Why do some instructors care so much about attendance?”  Some information on that question may describe some of the position that your instructor may be dealing with.  (Specifically, the information I added to my own answer discusses why the instructor might not even have some flexibility in this matter.)
Then, if you decide you wish to proceed, affecting your grade will need to be done by someone with the proper power to do so.  Most likely your instructor will be involved.  If you wish to have the college take action based on your instructor being unreasonable, then you might need to involve some other part of the college's administration.  That may result in some other staff getting the instructor's perspective.  So, don't expect that this is going to happen without your instructor finding out.
Start by determining why you missed class, and whether any of those reasons seem rather justifiable.  (In other words, were were they caused by some sort of officially-backable causes, like a medical reason tied to a doctor's note?)
Check official writings, especially including your class's syllabus but also your college catalog, for details about attendance policies and final grades and how you may be able to challenge undesired results.  There might already be policy.  If so, that policy probably will need to be followed.  The policy might be very favorable or very unfavorable.  The only way to know is to look up what policies exist.
Once you understand the process as best as you easily can (at the start of the process), come up with the best arguments that you can, so you have the best knowledge you can imagine.  You may be tempted to feel empowered by seemingly-compelling logic of your own favorable arguments.  That may temporarily be okay, in your effort to get yourself as prepared as possible.
After all that is done, prepare to approach the situation humbly.  Start by contacting the instructor to see if mercy is available, or some other recourse (like if the instructor has a pre-designed way to achieve some lost points).  Going through the instructor is most likely to be the easiest route.
Alternatives may be more troublesome, which could unnecessarily add workload (to yourself, to the instructor, and to other staff) and may even be a bit offensive, particularly if you didn't even bother to go through the expected common process of trying to work it out with the instructor first.  If the results of contacting the instructor did not go as you had hoped, consider whether you wish to just accept this as a costly learning experience (many learning experiences do have costs), or if you wish to pursue some other alternative.  (This is where you need to check into the policies of your "student catalog", if such policies exist.)  If you can't find any such policies, consider contacting a department head, and/or a college dean.  A friendly receptionist might also have some advice about what other resources may be available.

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text:
Color CV vs black and white CV
I see most people use a black and white academic CV. Will it be any problem
if I use a color CV like this template, which is mostly monochrome but uses blue in some places.
(I am applying for Graduate admission)

If you do use a color CV make sure it still looks good when printed monochrome!

I agree with @NoahSnyder. Chances are, if the CV is printed out, it will be printed out in black and white.

@dgraziotin: Ok.

@NoahSnyder how likely would a CV be printed?

Whatever you do, dont use coloured paper!

@Ooker, quite likely at the shortlist stage, so the interviewers have it to refer to.

@NoahSnyder if one is crafty, they can even include the CV twice in two separate layers in the PDF — one in color for screen viewing, and another in black and white for printing. Then again, that is a bit of overkill ...

@guifa what do you mean by "two separate layers"? I've not heard of such a PDF feature. Not all PDF readers support every feature, so using such wizardry is likely to cause problems. Best to keep things simple.

@Moriarty if your layers have a white background (or are exactly identical but for color), the worst case scenario would be that less advanced APIs would always show/print the top one. For how, here's a SE from 5 years ago: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5524101/ I remember years ago joking around with friends sending them documents that on screen said "print me" and then have something funny print out (definitely don't do that for a CV!)

The general advice is that CVs should be outstanding because of their content while their form should be relatively dull-to-boring.
The example you link to has very subtle use of color (a dark blue for headings) and is tolerable. However, you still run the risk running into faculty  with the perception that:

your over-designed CV is either hiding things (i.e., lack of content)
your over-designed CV is just a dressed up resume and that you don't understand academia at all

For those reasons, it's safest to go with a boring CV style and work on building content instead. This is generic advice for both graduate admissions as well as academic job searches.

I disagree about making it boring for the reasons you list. Design is a game of psychology with remarkable power. If you can convey the information in a more impactful way, then do it! Also, I think this must be field dependent because there are many top HCI researchers with extremely nice CVs with a lot of embellishments and images throughout.

Conversely, the bigger your name, the more latitude you have to make your cv more beautiful.

Definitely. I suppose HCI might just be an exception since a lot of grad students in the field also have CVs to match. A picture is worth a thousand words!

@AustinHenley A quick google search for cv in HCI reveals to me that they are still in simple format.

@Ooker Ok, I'll be more specific: Many CVs in HCI do not follow the typical boring format.

I should note that as a faculty member on search/admission committees I do appreciate a well-laid out CV that allows me to quickly find the most relevant information (education; publications; prior positions) as quickly and efficiently as possible, without extraneous stuffing, fancy fonts, or dead white space.

A basic implementation of the moderncv package is hardly a case of over-design. Really, all it means is that the applicant preferred to write their CV in LaTeX rather than Word, which is a pretty common situation in STEM subjects.

Yeah, the general advice of this answer is good, but Moriarty is right that this particular example is well within the norm that no one will be distracted.

If you do use a color CV make sure it still looks good when printed monochrome!  Some people on the committee will prefer to read hard copies, and in all likelihood they will be printed in monochrome.

It's a good general rule in academic writing to fall back gracefully when printed in monochrome -- most journals make it a (soft) requirement as well.

also often photocopied in b&w

(+1) That's true for every electronically created file that is destined for reading. Think how it would look on printed page... the even stronger test is "think how it would look after being faxed" (still around, these old timers).

The content is the most important thing on a CV.
Those reading your CV will be reading many others, and you want to do everything possible to make your CV easily readable, but you also want to make it stand out.
If you can use color in a professional way that makes important stuff stand out and enhances readability, it is my opinion that you should go for it! Just make sure your colors do not stand out too much against the rest of the text. (Bright red and black on white paper doesn't look good, but black and a gray-blue theme could go well.) Some color palettes are better than others, and different palettes might go better with different fonts or layouts.
Make your design simple (so as to not distract from your accomplishments), easy-to-read (to make the document easier to skim), and visually attractive (to make it stand out from all the other CVs). Choose a color that enhances these qualities.
I would also caution against using more than one color, unless you really know what you're doing and/or graphic design is part of the job you are applying for.
If you choose to use color, you may want to consider how different colors may be perceived by your reader, e.g. "Colors That Give Good First Impressions".
I strongly advise against using color for the background of your CV (again, unless you really know what you're doing). This is probably too unconventional for most people and that may be seen as undesirable to your intended audience.
I suppose you could choose a color palette that reflects your current institution's color palette and you could include your institution's logo/seal/etc. However, this is probably a bad idea. Your CV, like a resume, is meant to advertise you, not your institution. You should not show "brand loyalty" if you are looking to leave that institution.
As mentioned in another answer to this question, if you do use color, make sure it can print well.
Finally, if you must use more than one color, make sure it's colorblind-friendly. "Coloring for Colorblindness" by David Nichols is a good resource for choosing good colors. If you have a different color scheme, you can use the Color Blindness Simulator to help you evaluate your colors.

The moderncv class is the left-justified Times New Roman of CVs in LaTeX.
It looks good, uses color reasonably, and has well-engineered defaults, so don't worry about issues when printing in black or white.
It is a very popular package; for sure, everyone who has ever had to scan an academic CV in a scientific field has already seen a CV formatted to look exactly like yours. This isn't a bad thing in my view: it is unlikely to attract negative attention. As for attracting positive attention, generally you want to do that with the content of your CV, not with its unusual formatting. :)

In my point if view, a CV with colors is for digital viewing purposes. For instance, I usually color links in my CV for a person who views it in a PDF viewer to be able to click on the links.
However, if darker colors are chosen (such as navy blue or brick red), it would not cause any problems when printed grayscale. However, if one chooses to use colors like bright green, then the links (or references) will be printed obscure.

I agree with most of the replies given above. Most of the PIs use hard copies of applications while doing a video or phone interview with you and that is when they will look for specific points to frame a question for you. As such having a CV with black font is better. You can always use differences in font sizes for topics, sub-topics and text such that it becomes easily readable.

My thoughts:

Body text should always be black. At small sizes on normal printers black text will be far sharper than any other color.
Background should always be white.
Larger text doesn't have to be pure black but shuold be in dark colors that will stand up well to black and white printing and/or photocopying.

Overall the template you show doesn't look too bad but a darker blue would reduce the risk of bad copies.

I agree. The big header of each section in the CV could be in dark blue color. The detailed text inside each section should be black.  Overall, don't make your CV look like a children's color book. :-)

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When do postdoc positions typically start?
Do postdoc positions (joining date) start only in the fall semester or in the spring semester also? I mean, can it start at any time during the year?

Why don’t you look into your contract or the job ad? How should we possibly answer this, in particular since you are providing no information regarding your location and similar?

Postdocs are often so informal that they can start almost any time.
I had one starting in early August and one starting in February, both not at the start of either semester.

I had one where I could choose to start whenever I wanted between August 1 to December 1.

The start of a postdoc is far more informal and fluid than the start of either graduate studies (which are governed by the academic calendar) or many faculty positions with teaching obligations etc. to them.
They essentially start when the PI says they start - or more accurately, a mutually agreeable date between the PI, the postdoc, HR, etc.
For example, my postdoc started in the summer. I am currently looking for postdocs whose starting date is "When can you get here?"

@RichardWilliams At least for project-based postdocs (as opposed to ones paid through some scholarship), Formite gives the typical starting date in his last sentence. It is almost universally "how quickly can you be here?".

Even PhDs and faculty are not governed by the academic calendar everywhere :)

The start of a postdoc is generally dictated by two things:

The time when its funding starts, and
The time when people are available to fill it.

While the first can be any time, the second is often aligned with academic cycles, simply because that's when people are most likely to be graduating and wanting to join a new position.  That, in turn, does tend to align postdocs to be often aligned with the academic year, but theoretically able to start and stop at any time.

One consideration is that in some cases, postdocs may be expected to teach.  (This is typically the case in mathematics in the US, for instance.)  If so then the start date would normally be aligned to the start of an academic year, or at the very least the start of a term.


text:
How to discuss job search with your advisor when your career plans differ from what your advisor wants you to do?
I'm on the job market this fall (will earn my Ph.D. this spring), and have culled a list of open positions I would like to apply for. I'd like to talk to my advisor about this soon in regards to recommendation letters, as well as for their own information. I'm at a big US research university with an untenured advisor who would also like us all to be at an R1 school or doing research in industry when we graduate. However, my preference is for small teaching schools or lecturing positions, and my list reflects that. Additionally, I have a spouse with a Ph.D., and we will be prioritizing my spouse's job for personal reasons.
I'm among the first to graduate from my group this year. We've all been vague about our job aspirations in previous years, since we've learned that our preferences would often be discounted and it wasn't worth the argument. I don't anticipate anything drastic in this discussion, but I would like to be respectful in conveying the information while still getting across my point that I won't be applying to anywhere my advisor would be happy with.
Any recommendations on how to approach this discussion? Tips on how much to share on what's influencing my/our decisions would be helpful too.

This is tricky.  I won't answer, since I'm not sure I have any advice about the discussion.  But it is really important that you and your advisor (and your other letter writers) understand what sort of schools you are applying to, and can change their letter accordingly.

In my field, you probably have to do a postdoc at an R1 to get the kind of job you want.  So you may have no choice.

A reasonable advisor should think that any successful placement reflects well on the advisor.

Honestly.  Directly.  Like adults.  It's your PhD and your life; don't let your advisor suggest otherwise.

@guest - I think the keyword there is "reasonable" :)

@JeffE couldn't have said it any better - it really is your life, your advisor doesn't dictate your future aspirations and career plans.

I think a lot of how to approach it depends on the reason that your advisor things you should be heading for a traditional research career.  It's likely one of two things:

Your advisor thinks very highly of your work and doesn't want to "lose" you from the research community.
Your advisor is afraid that not placing students "highly" will reflect badly on their tenure case.

Neither of these is a good reason to choose a career path that you aren't interested in.  If it's the first, maybe you can get your advisor to listen by explaining that you really do want to embrace a teaching career.  If it's the second, then maybe you can explain that it will look a lot better on their tenure case to have an advisee placed at a well-respected teaching institution than dropping out of academia altogether.  At the end of the day, though, it's your choice and not your advisor's.
In either case, however, I would strongly recommend also seeking out other faculty members or external colleagues who understand you better. If you can find such other allies, they will be important in helping back you for the career that you want, whether or not your advisor comes around.


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Is it ethical for a university dean to be a full-fledged member of BNI?
I recently attended a networking event hosted by BNI (Business Network International) to explore opportunities outside academia. To my surprise, a dean from a prestigious university in my city not only participated but also claimed to be a founding member of the chapter.
For those unfamiliar, BNI operates on a referral system where members exchange business opportunities and recommendations—essentially a "you help me, I help you" approach. As someone with a European academic background, I found this troubling, as it could easily be perceived as nepotism.
This raises several ethical questions:
What value can a dean bring to a business-oriented network, and what could they gain in return?

I'm finding it hard to see any issue. Why do you think there is one? You seem to, as this is sort of a rant.

@Buffy it is NOT ethical that you as head of University help other company find business. At least in my book.

Hmmm. So definitely a rant.

This would be very unethical in Europe @buf

@Buffy do you think selling citation and authorship position is also rant and something not worth talk about? because this is same situation.

There is a real answerable question there, but your own concerns about potential ethical problems hides that question. I edited the question in the hope that it won't get closed.

You need to be more specific about why you think this constitutes "nepotism". I am from Europe and I do not see the supposed ethical problem here. It sounds to me like you are describing networking. Nepotism means: giving jobs or other opportunities to people based on personal kinship or friendship. I do not see how this is at all involved here.

@AdamPřenosil YES that is point of BNI, recommend job to your friend, and your network, t

@looktook I highly doubt that the purpose of BNI is to encourage personal friendships between its members. It seems like you are having trouble differentiating between "personal friends" and "a network of business contacts".

@AdamPřenosil they meet every WEEK. do you understand concept, they are very closely related and attand many activities. it is build on social theory and it is very troubling.

I'm no fan of capitalism, but you seem to be presuming that any recommendations are only based on being friends. Have you considered that people in businesses have actual knowledge about recommendations to make? For comparison, I refer people to papers and researchers all the time. Sometimes I'm friends with them, but that just means I know their work.

@AzorAhai-him- what kind of business you can bring to them?

@looktook Not business, but for me, academic information.

@AzorAhai-him- because you dont have what to offer business community, most academician DONT

What is distinct about a dean in this regard, as opposed to any other kind of organizational leader that has business-to-business interactions? A university is a business, too. Are you suggesting all types of business networking is unethical? Unclear why it would be more unethical for a dean to make productive business contacts than a CEO.

@NuclearHoagie you need to offer something in return, in BNI you have quotas, so he needs to bring business and profit to someone, how can dean do that?

What domain is this? Around here it’s not uncommon for faculty to maintain business relationships. The closer you are to engineering, the more important keeping up with industry is.

@looktook What?

@MisterMiyagi please put this into answer and collaborate. because for me it is so much wierd. im wierded out

@looktook Put what into an answer? I asked you what domain this is, that’s not an answer. If they are in engineering then the context for me asking is an answer (though your self-answer already categorically rules it out) but if they aren’t it’s just a random tangent.

@looktook The same way a CEO can, by buying goods and services from other companies. You seem to be asking how a dean can choose where to spend the university's money, which is a basic part of their job.

Networking with outsiders, who might make contributions to a Dean's college or might hire their graduates, seems highly appropriate. Any possible conflict of interest should be reviewed by the Dean's university. Relationships with the local community are often seen as desirable by universities.

I vote to close. The post reads as if BNI is a cult or secret society. If that's indeed the case (I know nothing about BNI), make that a part of the question: "Is it ethical for a university dean to be part of a cult?"

@WolfgangBangerth it is a cult!!! you need to bring something in the game to receive it.

@DavidSmith this is not simple networking, it is referral system. highly inappropriate.

@NuclearHoagie DEANS need to follow LAW on how to spend money and need to follow tenders, at least in Europe

Please don't edit a closed question to add your "answer", which continues the rant. You are in danger, here, of getting banned for a time.

@Buffy it appears people dont comprehend why is this unethical it si very troubling why they dont see it

@looktook If people don't understand what BNI is, then that is a problem with the question you asked.

There are legitimate reasons why the dean is part of such a network, for example:
A lot of research is funded by private companies. This differs considerably by discipline. So the benefit is that the university gets money and the funding company gets a particular bit of research done.
The companies are the providers of internships and are the future employers of students trained by that university. The university wants to place those students and the companies want to get access to next generation of employees.

sorry I missed the point, but who can Dean recommend? He needs to bring referrals, what kind of referrals dean can bring for business?

The answer says what the dean has to "offer" and what the university "gets" in return. What else do you need?

research in Europe is not a PROFIT rather expense, so it is not taxed as such or reported. so it doesnt have any sense

Please don't SHOUT. We Europeans find that rude....

not y experience on the conferences.

The profit is indirect. We (or at least I do) want our students to find good jobs when they are done. So a connection like that enables me to find them a good internship. While the company gets access to potentially good new employees. That is the profit both sides get from that.

BNI is based on direct profit @maarten'

BNI markets networks and makes money with that. That is not the same as you are saying.

Anyhow, since you are already convinced about your answer, there is no use in continuing this discussion.

you dont know what is BNI and how it function, so you are not aware why is not ethical, I wonder if someone in ethics would answer this question

@looktook I genuinely don't understand why you are even asking the question here if any response other than the one you want to see is dismissed. It's fine if your mind is already made up that this is a bad thing, but what were you hoping to achieve by asking the question on this website if your mind is already made up?

@AdamPřenosil i wanted to hear different perspectives, because this is not legal in Europe,

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text:
Writing a topical review paper with co-author(s)
Let assume a journal accepted a topical review proposal I submitted. It's often a good approach for a student like me (PhD student) to coauthor the paper with a more experienced researcher who is quite known in the field. In my previous papers, when was the first author, I wrote the whole paper and asked for feedback from the coauthors at the end of the writing (since they contributed in the experimental data acquisition for example, but not on the research development).
For the specific case of a topical review, I wonder how the coauthoring is done in practice ? Are the coauthors expected to write some parts of the review ?

In the scenario you described, you have the 99,99% of the work. The prof might pass some relevant papers to you and will check if all is in shape. Assuming you are pretty good already. Assuming s/he know and agreed with the proposal.

Who does the actual "writing" (i.e. putting pen to paper or fingers to keys) is actually immaterial. I've published with half a dozen people where everything was "written" by one person, since he is (by far) the best writer in the group. He chose the words and the sentence structure.  But the ideas came primarily from two other people and the rest of us contributed ideas from our own experience. The "writer" synthesized all of that into a nice expressive form. But without the rest of us he wouldn't have been able to do it.
Authorship is (or should be) about intellectual contributions, not physical manipulations of keyboards or even of experimental equipment.
At the other end of the scale, I've written books with major publishers and worked with a copy_editor who helped with some of my (occasionally!!) awkward syntax. In no such case would anyone expect that their contributions were authorship.

I wrote a couple of reviews with 5-7 coauthors in the last years, and indeed, in all of them almost every coauthor was asked to write their part. Some of my co-authors were indeed PhD students. On top of that, there was one "main guy" who was basically responsible for getting everything together, making sure that different parts have comparable weight/length, taking care of the figures etc. This person was a corresponding author too.
Interestingly, while generally in my field there is a tendency that the first author is often a PhD student and the last author is a group leader, in review papers the order can be very random.

Coauthorship in academic publications has two very important, distinct perspectives. One is a matter of scholarly principle, the other is a matter of scholarly politics.
Concerning scholarly principle, probably the most thoughtful and influential guidance on coauthorship is the authorship recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (often called the "Vancouver Protocol"). In summary:

2. Who Is an Author?
The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4
criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any
part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she
has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are
responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors
should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their
co-authors.

I personally strive to follow these principles in all my coauthorship. I recommend that you read the full document to develop a sense of what is appropriate.
However, especially as a PhD student, you must also pay carefully attention to scholarly politics. The reality is that not all of your supervisors, chairs, senior professors and so on will follow these principles--some of these people might not follow any of them at all. You need to learn to astutely navigate the institutional environment in which you find yourself. On one hand, you should never do anything that violates your own conscience. On the other hand, as a PhD student, some people who have direct power over you sometimes constrain you to do things that you are not confortable with and which you do not have the authority to oppose. (From my PhD days, I have a few publications with "coauthors" who certainly did not deserve it, but I and my fellow PhD student coauthors were powerless to do anything about it. However, since I became a professor, I do not tolerate any such nonsense on a publication where I am a coauthor.)
To take care of the politics, I recommend that you find a trusted mentor at your academic institution who knows the power plays going on among the people around you and whom you trust to advise you in your best interest. Such a mentor might or might not be your official supervisor. It would be wise to consult this mentor about any coauthorship decisions, such as this one you are asking here. However, politics or no politics, you need to always take care of your conscience.

What you wrote is certainly true and everyone shall be aware of it. But I don't see how it really relates to the question.


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To which extent I should let my PI know that I am not feeling very well with my PhD study
I am a first-year international PhD student at a U.S. university, and as the semester approaches its end, I am planning to meet with my PI to reflect on how my first semester has been. While my research is progressing very well, I’ve faced some significant personal and academic challenges earlier this semester, and I’m unsure how much I should share with my advisor.
Two key factors have contributed to these struggles:

The graduate-level classes I’m taking are general and not closely aligned with my research focus. This has left me feeling unmotivated about coursework, and I find it challenging to balance my time between classes and research.

My father passed away from cancer before I moved to the U.S. earlier this year. Navigating this loss while adapting to a new environment has been very difficult, and it has impacted my academic performance at times. Additionally, as an STEM-majored student, I only have a one-year student visa studying in the US. The optimal solution for my academic path is to stay here in the US until I graduate, but I’m not sure my mental health can support me through the next 5 years of living abroad.

I recognize that my advisor is not necessarily the right person to address mental health concerns, and I don’t want to burden him with these issues or give the impression that I’m struggling, as my research is going well. However, I also feel that some transparency about these challenges might be important. To what extent should I share these personal struggles with my PI, and how can I communicate this in a way that maintains his confidence in my work while addressing my concerns?

Do you need to pass comprehensive/qualifying exams to get the degree as is common in the US?

Another question suggests that the OP studies Physics.

@Buffy Yes, I need to pass 3 comprehensive exams.

First your general classes are meant to give you a broad overview of physics. Most of them will not directly relate to your research topic. If you want to stay in academia you will most likely have to teach at some point, and generally not about your research. The qualifying exams exist to test this general mastery. It is normal that some of them are not as exciting to you as you research area but you can't completely neglect them.
Second the family issues. You don't have to stay in the US consecutively for the full 5 years to finish your degree. You can go home and apply for a new visa to continue your studies. In general this should be granted but there is some risk involved that it will not or that it will take longer than anticipated. Unfortunately these risks depend primarily on what country is your home country and US politics and are thus out of your (and your universities) control. Having your father pass away is definitely a reason where your university, your department and your PI should understand that you want to travel home. You can try to talk to the international office in your university for counsel but in the end you have to decide yourself whether you want to travel home or not.

You should meet with your advisor regularly. I'd suggest weekly, though if you both prefer a different schedule that's fine, but once a semester isn't going to work. Your topic of conversation should be your progress in research. I don't know how you would have this conversation without mentioning things that bother you.
PhDs are very specialized. It's not possible to have courses that are more than general with respect to a PhD. If there is more than just you in the class then it can't relate too closely to your PhD because you are pushing the field down your own personal path. You can have this conversation with your advisor though and they can tell you the same thing.
I'm not clear on what the relationship between staying in the US and your PhD is. I would assume you need to be in the US physically to continue, so leaving is a discussion about quitting. If you don't think that's the case it's definitely something you need to discuss before you make a decision.
It's not really your advisor's job to manage your overall mental health - I'd highly recommend seeing a therapist or similar mental health professional. It's likely your school has resources. That said, personally I think it's worth talking about these sorts of things at a high level with your advisor so they understand where you are at. But, your focus should be on moving forward and making satisfactory progress, not on making excuses for past unsatisfactory progress. If there's something you need right now to help you move forward, you can ask for that.

Given this is a 1st year PhD student, they may not have a research advisor yet, just a default 1st-year-grad-student advisor who advises them on what courses to take and whom they should talk to as part of beginning the process of finding a research area and research advisor.  In that case, meeting with them once a semester is entirely appropriate (though they should meet more if there are specific issues to discuss).

Thanks for the answer! I have an assigned advisor and we have weekly meetings to discuss the research, the research is going well and I only presented research-related topics during the discussion, I was trying to figure out whether I should also let him know of some of my personal struggles.

@AlexanderWoo They described them as their PI which I think implies they're a research mentor and not just a temporary advisor.

@IGY I don't think things that impact your work are merely personal struggles - especially the things that directly involve your graduate studies.

It’s important to remember that your PhD studies are indeed a job—one that comes with unique pressures and demands. Just as in any workplace, it’s appropriate and necessary to communicate with your "employer," in this case, your PI, when you're unwell or facing significant challenges. Transparency, when handled thoughtfully, strengthens trust and collaboration, rather than weakening it.
Your research progress speaks volumes about your dedication and capability, even in the face of personal hardship. Sharing some context about your journey this semester can help your advisor understand the resilience you’ve shown and the hurdles you’ve overcome. For instance, you might start the conversation by focusing on the positive—highlighting your research progress and how you’ve adapted to this new phase of your life—before briefly mentioning the challenges you've faced. Here’s an example of how you could approach this:
"This first semester has been a significant adjustment for me, and I feel that my research is progressing well despite some initial challenges. I wanted to share that balancing coursework, which feels less directly tied to my research, has been an adjustment, and I’m working on strategies to better manage my time. Additionally, I’ve been navigating a major personal loss earlier this year and adapting to a new environment. It has been a lot to manage, but I’m committed to making the most of this opportunity and continuing to grow. I wanted to share this context with you, as I value open communication and your guidance as my mentor."
This kind of framing communicates your challenges while also showing your resolve and proactive mindset.
Additionally, do consider seeking support from counseling services at your university or from trusted peers. You’re not alone, and finding spaces where you can process these feelings will help lighten the burden. Compassion is a cornerstone of a healthy mentor-student relationship, and any understanding PI will appreciate your openness and resilience. It’s okay to ask for help—it’s a sign of strength, not weakness.

Other answers here have addressed the fact that counseling is probably a needed element, and that, yes, discussions with your supervisor can be helpful, but primarily in relation to your research. I want to say something about your coursework.
In the US it is pretty typical, if not universal, to have required coursework in a doctoral program. These courses are designed, primarily, to help you get through comprehensive/qualifying exams. You also probably have a very limited number of attempts to pass those exams, and failing any of them (perhaps twice), ends your scholarship at that place.
The exams, in turn, are normally designed to assure that a candidate has a broad view of their overall field. So, the courses aren't like the research and dissertation, which are designed to be narrow. So, a US doctorate in many fields requires both breadth (field as a whole) and depth (very narrow expertise in a sub-field). Both are considered essential.
Thus, your supervisor isn't going to be able to solve the coursework problem for you. The program is what it is, and advisors have no control over it. They might not even be involved in any oral exams that might occur as part of "comps".
It may be that you need some advice on time management. It may be that you need to accept the philosophy behind the program design and work hard on the coursework, with the real goal of passing comps. They can be very difficult.
I'll guess that as an international student, you started here with a masters. Most US students don't, having only a bachelors. In many places research for these students doesn't really begin until they have done the coursework and, perhaps, passed comps already. If you start with a masters it can be quite a bit more compressed. Just a fact of life that you have to deal with.
But various kinds of counseling, both for personal issues and for time management, might be the key to moving forward effectively. Your supervisor probably can't help much with that other than giving encouragement, but it is still wise to keep in contact with them.


text:
How to deal with a colleague who won't accept they're wrong
Sometimes an argument will arise between collaborators where two (or more) contrasted views or (mis)interpretations of a scientific issue exist. Sometimes both views are partially correct, sometimes they're both incorrect, and sometimes one is correct and the other is not.
Some people don't handle being wrong in a very "gracious" manner, even after realizing they are wrong, and will not admit their mistake. I have a previous experience with a more senior colleague who would not admit they were wrong even after confronted with a lot of evidence. I should also add that I was intimately familiar with the research problem at hand and they had just some very superficial knowledge of it, which probably led to their mistake. I suspect that at some point they realized they were wrong but were trying to hold the upper ground ("I'm right because I'm the more senior person") and "win" the argument. Also their ego got in the way of reason (not the first time that happened). The situation was very frustrating for me and things went sour with this person, not only because of this incident but also because of previous history.
I am facing the same problem again (with a different colleague who is also my senior) and would like to handle the situation in a less destructive manner. However, I cannot write a statement on a paper that I know to be wrong just to avoid hurting somebody's ego.
What is a good way to resolve the issue with a colleague who you know to be wrong, anticipating they may have a hard time admitting it?

Just to clarify (based on what I can read in the comments): my question is not about situations such as pointing out a mistake by the speaker at the end of a presentation, sometimes even with the malicious intention to embarrass a "competitor" (things you witness at conferences!). In such situations influencing factors are, e.g., present audience and lack of time to think things through. It's about stubbornly persisting on one's mistake even when confronted with evidence and given the time to think about it.

Ugh. People who put belief and/or pride over evidence has no place in STEM.

@xDaizu nor in ethnology, for that matter.

@henning nor anywhere that what they say should be given any form of consideration at all.

@xDaizu where are you finding people who don't do that?  Technically I can count at least six just from the above three comments [and their upvotes] who are acting purely on belief and/or pride.  +1, though, for the irony.  And I think it's a nice sentiment.

@DarrenRinger I know plenty of people who have admitted they were embarrasingly wrong when confronted with evidence. I, for one, also do. Tim Minchin's "Storm" comes to mind: If you show me / That, say, homeopathy works, / Then I will change my mind / I will spin on a <<frakking>> dime / I'll be embarrassed as hell, / But I will run through the streets yelling / "Its a miracle!" / "Take physics and bin it!" (...) You show me that it works and how it works / And when I've recovered from the shock / I will take a compass and carve FANCY THAT on the side of my <<rhymes with dock>>

@DarrenRinger I'm gonna reference Storm once again: Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed / Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.. My statement comes from observation and evidence; one of which is this very question. If you have a counter example to my statement, some evidence that those people are in some way good for STEM, post it and I (and the rest of our peers) will evaluate it. If not, I won't engage further (no hard feelings, this comment section is just no place for debate, even if is an interesting one) :)

@DarrenRinger Most people might/will "bluster a bit" and initially deny they're wrong, especially if "put on the spot" but (hopefully) most people (especially those in STEM) will accept things (even if grudgingly) in the face of real evidence, and once they've calmed down and/or had a chance to think things through. I take "who put belief and/or pride over evidence" as referring to those that won't do this and continue to persist that they are right.

One tangential thing: take some time to consider whether they have a legitimate complaint/concern that you're not hearing because you misunderstand what they're intending to say.  Someone can be absolutely wrong about something I understand well, but my own perspective can often be biased to see things from the context of my specialty.  If they are in fact discussing something completely different, the communication gap results in us both thinking the other is obstinate, when really we're not actually having the same conversation.

That person might come from a background of "It doesn't matter if what is said is fact- if somebody can be made to mistake it for facts, then that is a hard fact after all!". Obviously, not good in STEM :)

People who have made up their mind don't want a lecture. It's a waste of time. Just drop it and talk about beer or soccer instead.

@DanBryant That's a fantastic point.  I find often when people are at extreme disagreement, even when presented with an excess of facts to the contrary, they aren't arguing about the same thing.  It's either an argument about a semantic difference, or completely different things.

Don't forget an important consideration: What probably matters most isn't that they admit or know they're wrong. What matters is that you get the correct information published. Right? If so, then, as the top answer below states, frame the issue in a way that gives them an easy out without admitting their mistake but lets you correct the error. For example: "Ah, I see. What you're saying would make perfect sense if it were about x. I might not have been clear enough—it's about y. So I think this applies instead. So can we say __?" This lets them save all the face, while still winning the point.

Especially because, as you said, such a person often realizes that they must be wrong partway through the conversation but can't yield the ground for pride or propriety's sake. So you open a wide, wide door for them to change their mind without seeming like they're doing so.

Maybe a case of cognitive dissonance?

Great question, but "What is a good way to confront them...?" is bad wording. Suggest "What is a good way to resolve the issue with them...?"

I tend not to bombard with facts since it will only make then more defensive and we know about the "The Backfire Effect". I would suggest using the Socratic method, ask questions.

@xDaizu how about Albert "God does not play dice"/"Your calculations are correct, but your physics is atrocious"/cosmological constant Einstein? ;o)  Even the very best of us have difficulty overcoming our preconceptions every now and again, thinking yourself as an exception to this removes a guard against falling into that very trap.

"would not admit they were wrong even after confronted with a lot of evidence" - Evidence doesn't speak for itself. It has to be interpreted. Perhaps your differing interpretations are an issue here.

@DanBryant Indeed, many times I have been in situations that turned somewhat argumentative simply because the other person did not understand precisely the point I was trying to make (and also situations where I did not initially understand the exact point the other person was trying to make) and so attempted to dismiss it as incorrect. Sometimes after a long time the point would be clarified, or sometimes the point was not important enough to continue arguing. It has been frustrating, however, to have my arguments treated as invalid based on a mischaracterization of said arguments.

@xDaizu: So, you want to fire about half the professors then? :-)

Use impersonal language
Hopefully this is obvious, but make sure that your language focuses on the ideas rather than the people. Rather than

I don't think you're grasping the subtleties of the situation

try

I think that there are some extra complications that need consideration in this case

Ask questions
Rather than taking a confrontational approach, try to adopt the role of the inquisitive student. Rather than

There is evidence in publications X and Y that directly contradicts what you are saying

try

What are your reasons for disagreeing with publications X and Y?

or

I'm having trouble understanding why the conclusions from publications X and Y do not apply here. Can you elaborate?

This will hopefully give your colleague a graceful way out without having to turn it into a matter of "you're wrong and I'm right". As a bonus, it also gives you a way out if it turns out you were wrong after all (however unlikely that is) or that you misunderstood your colleague's point. But as @R.M. and @CaptainEmacs have pointed out in the comments, take care not to overdo it, or you could come across as either clueless, or patronising.
Make someone else the scapegoat
Rather than voicing your concerns directly, put them in the mouth of a hypothetical reviewer. Rather than

I think there are these reasons for rejecting that argument

try

I think that a reviewer could object to that argument for [reasons]. I think we need to anticipate this using [different argument].

Good advice for rational people!

@PsySp Hopefully of some use with "irrational" people as well... But yes, there will always be some people out there who will be awkward no matter how carefully you tread.

Indeed. In any case I agree with the message of your answer that the best strategy to handle a stubborn person is to treat them politely like infants and use the Socratic method to make them realize their mistakes.

+1 These are the techniques that I have found most useful.

@PsySp One of the important things, though, is that you must avoid the other person coming under the impression that you are "treat[ing] them ... like infants". Any whiff of condescension and the other person is likely to get even more offended. - Best to avoid thinking of the interaction in such a manner, even privately/internally.

@R.M. that's why I said "politely" i.e., not in a way to become obvious but apply the Socratic method to them.

Good advice and also R.M.'s comment. Careful with the Socratic method, people are not stupid. You can blame the reviewer (usually a good idea) for creating trouble, or also your own "stupidity" for not getting a point. The latter with care and spare, though, or people will start thinking you are really not up to their level of intellect.

@CaptainEmacs I agree with both yours and R.M.'s comment. An observation though: Why you imply that Socratic method is reserved for "stupid people"? Making one extracting the knowledge has nothing to do with their intellectual capabilities.

@PsySp: the Socratic is certainly not reserved for "stupid people", but it's not to be used with everyone, on every topic, or in every interaction; take care not to overuse it on some people with passionately-held viewpoints, they feel attacked or get defensive; each of us is not rational at some level.

@smci I agree it needs skill and care (probably even more with this kind of people)

The Socratic method can imply a patronising undercurrent. "People are not stupid" - what I mean, they can notice that and feel manipulated (in fact, rightly so). If used honestly in the pursuit of truth rather than for ego matches, my experience is that it works ok, but unfortunately, there are  considerable Socratically packaged manipulation techniques in rhetorics which, for an educated listener, won't go down well.

In my experience, those who find Socratic method patronizing do so largely as a means of avoiding addressing the problems with their position.  At least in STEM subjects you should be very willing to set out your position explicitly and unambiguously and answer questions put to you on the consequences of your beliefs regardless of where they might lead.  It is either an efficient way of demonstrating that you are write, or of showing where the problems with your position lie.  You ought to be happy with either outcome, as there is little worse than being wrong and not knowing.

Of course being only human, none of us want to admit we are wrong, so it is natural for part of your brain to say "I don't like this, am I being patronized?", the thing is to ask "but should I find this patronising, or should I go along with the exercise because it is in my (academic) long term benefit, regardless of the outcome?"  My experience agrees with @CaptainEmacs, but it needs to be truth-seeking for both participants to work.

Leaving a line of retreat is indeed very important, and has been used by great military commanders since antiquity. If a beaten enemy is completely surrounded and cannot run away, they will fight to their deaths and cause you great losses, possibly turning it into a Pyrrhic victory. Similarly, when having an argument with people, and they feel that by admitting defeat they will lose their job or their social status, they will defend their arguments viciously.

You still have to be careful asking questions.  There is nothing more irritating than being led down a particular line of inquiry only to feel like the intent was to entrap you at the end with a question like, "Aha! But how would X apply in that situation?"  It's better to lead with direct questions about where you think the misunderstanding might be coming from.  For example, "I don't think I understand your point of view.  My understanding is that X doesn't apply in that situation.  Can you clarify why you think it does?"

User2390246's answer offers great advice if you need the other person to confess that they are wrong. I just want to add that this is not always necessary. In that case, the best way to deal with your stubborn interlocutor is to agree to disagree.
I can think of three situations in which it is desirable to have the other person concede an error:

Improving your interlocutor's knowledge: You are essentially providing a free service to the other person by pointing out their mistakes. It is their decision whether to accept this service or not. If they don't, agree to disagree. You certainly can't be expected to make someone else happy against their wish.
Improving collective knowledge: If you are working together, there are certain issues on which you have to come to an agreement -- at the latest, when it comes to writing down research findings and their interpretation. Other issues may be tangential and can be allowed to rest, or they may allow different interpretations, which may lend themselves to be framed as a discussion of the results. However, if you are not collaborating on the same project, there is even less reason to agree.
Status signaling: Insisting on a wrong (or weak) point can be perceived as being necessary to protect social status. A senior person who feels their status is already precarious may feel "called out" by a junior person who points out their mistake. The junior person may want to consider if they want to go through the trouble of holding their ground, or if they wouldn't rather play along in the status game, while distancing themselves internally. ("I know I'm right, but if you need to save face, that's fine with me.") Of course this is not an either/or question but a matter of degree.

If you don't really need to protect your status, and if by insisting on the truth you neither realistically improve your interlocutor's nor your collective knowledge, it is best to agree to disagree.

I agree with you (+1) but this is not always possible. I tend to "concede the point" if I see the other person may feel threatened, the problem is when we are discussing about some issue that will either make it to a paper or influence the course of the research we're carrying out.

@Miguel I can see how then you rely on a more "conceding" attitude of your co-worker. I thought it still useful to point out when this might or might not be the case. In your particular situation (2.) you could consider which disagreements are fundamental and which can be discussed "from different sides" in the publication. This is something that reviewers with different backgrounds will also like (which makes it easier to sell to your colleague). However, clearly it won't completely resolve your problem.

When you agree to disagree, is it reasonable in some fields to consider submitting 2 papers (say a research result and a dissenting 'letter' or 'communication') and ask the editor to consider publishing them in the same issue?

Given that the top voted comment states that "People who put belief and/or pride over evidence has[sic] no place in STEM," and other answers have given diplomatic approaches for bridging the gap, I would like to address why such a situation might occur. In particular, this situation is reminiscent of Kuhn's
Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
While that book did spawn generations of middle-management rambling about "paradigm shifts" and "thinking outside the box," it contains a very fundamental insight: as much as we would love to believe that we are purely logical researchers driven by objectivity, we are (un)fortunately loosely contained sacks of meat. We are still governed by heuristics and social dynamics, even if we try to place a higher emphasis on logical reasoning. The history of science does not read "Darwin published On the Origin of Species and nobody ever questioned natural selection ever again" or "Einstein wrote a couple papers in 1905 and every physicist immediately agreed with his views and threw away their old texts."
However, Kuhn does give you some solace: eventually the old guard will die out and the new theory will be regarded as the dominant paradigm. Unfortunately, you will also age until you in turn become the old guard, arguing about why the new upstart theory can't possibly be correct.

+1 "loosely contained sacks of meat" made me bust out laughing.

"Unfortunately, you will also age" - empathy is a helpful thing.

I am reminded of a quote from the Tao Te Ching: "He just does not contend, so no one can contend with him".
From my perspective, having had similar issues in the past, I came to realize it was me generating the issue. This is why it keeps recurring. It will keep recurring until you resolve whatever it is inside of you that is combative or argumentative or a part of you that threatens people or whatever it is.
Of course, I'm sure they are wrong, I'm not denying that, but that isn't really the issue. It isn't their wrongness that's generating this, again I say: it would not keep happening otherwise. Their behavior is in response to something you're doing. Even the details are the same, senior person, at work, ego, factual error etc. Best of luck.

It will keep recurring until you resolve whatever it is inside of you that is combative or argumentative or a part of you that threatens people or whatever it is. You can be right... and wrong... at the same time. Just ask my fiance. (ba-dum-ching). But seriously... There comes a time when you have to decide which is more important: Being right or being happy. You can be right and in constant struggle... or put your opinion forward and let those "in power" make their own decisions.

Let some time go by; strengthen your relationship in other ways; let humor diffuse the tension that's causing the logjam.  Somehow this person needs to let go of some inner schematic view that's interfering with his perceptions and interpretations.  Humor can work wonders.  But I'm not sure you can plan it.  When I've been able to use it, I had to just let it happen, rather than making it happen.

The desire to be correct, and to be seen to be correct, can be overwhelming.
If you have evaluated the necessity of pressing your point until something's got to give - and you really must follow through with your point, and your own ego and facts are in order.
His ego likely has a 'sunken cost' on his opinions, and his ego might appreciate a way out of it.
Is the same level of defiance present in front of others?  Has there been an opportunity to have a franker discussion or to level with him?
A professional disagreement can be maintained wholeheartedly if handled professionally.
If you are certain about your own standing - and are yourself committed - then maintain your stance.  Maintain!  If circumstances compel you to push forward with your view instead then be sure to shape it accordingly.  If his view threatens to drag you backwards then by all means be defensive.
I hope this would not constitute handling the problem in a destructive manner, in your opinion.  What I mean is nevertheless be prepared to categorically destroy his viewpoint: This is only in a professional setting with time-critical consequences - in any other situation simply agree to disagree.  Arm yourself fully with facts and have at him.
Basically, I am advocating 'having teeth'.
Henning's third point, Status signalling, is of particular note:

Insisting on a wrong (or weak) point can be perceived as being necessary to protect social status. A senior person who feels their status is already precarious may feel "called out" by a junior person who points out their mistake. The junior person may want to consider if they want to go through the trouble of holding their ground, or if they wouldn't rather play along in the status game, while distancing themselves internally. ("I know I'm right, but if you need to save face, that's fine with me.") Of course this is not an either/or question but a matter of degree.

You definitely want to pick your battles carefully.  Be prepared to back down... temporarily.

tl;dr: Ask another coworker to pose the same matter to your senior.

Note that sometimes the person who is telling them they are wrong matters.
Some people will happily accept being told they are wrong by someone they trust/respect, but if they are told the same thing by someone they don't trust/respect/like then they will argue until the cows come home even if they know full well that they are wrong.
So one solution might be to get someone else to tell them.
If you tell one of your coworkers about your situation (preferably someone who also knows about the subject area) and can prove to them that you are right, they can go and present the same argument separately.
Firstly it's harder to argue against two people in agreement, so having two separate cases of someone telling your senior that they're wrong might lead your senior to change their mind.
As my earlier comments may have suggested, if this works it's also possible that it's actually you or something about you that your senior colleague has an issue with. It might not be the case, but if this is a recurring thing then it might be worth looking in to why that might be the case. (I've had similar issues with students at school/college in the past and have found this to be the case. Getting people they did not have issues with to present the problem as if it was their idea worked nearly every time.)
And lastly if the senior still does not back down, that will show that it is indeed a problem on their part (refusal to accept being wrong) and there's little that can be done about that.

Post Script:
Originally this was a comment but I decided to try posing it as an answer.

I've run into similar situations, where I was brought in to manage one aspect of the project.  What I didn't know was that they had developed some jargon in the years they had been working on it, which conflicted with terms from my field.  But I suspect where I really went wrong was that I tried to jump straight to a solution based on what I understood the issue to be, rather than go through and get buy-in at each step.  (I was overseeing the long-term archiving of the project's data, and saw that they didn't have checksums ... which they saw as unnecessary as they were using RAID6)

But going step-by-step would've also meant that I could've figured out where the disagreement was, and I might've been able to figure out some of the terminology disagreements and have had a chance to re-word what I was saying.

So,

Some people... being wrong... will not admit their mistake... [when] confronted...

Wow, really? :-) Frankly, I think your question answers itself. Think about it.

... their ego got in the way of reason (not the first time that happened).

without considering any specific case (including not the ones your mentioned) - are you sure your own ego is not partly in play here?
PS - That's not to say that you weren't perfectly in the right; I assume you were. The thing is, in interpersonal relations, that does not necessarily matters all that much. Even if we like to think of ourselves as scientists who are "above this" somehow.

Don't let your ego win you over to fighting the battle you can never win.
So they are wrong, you know they are wrong. However you can't stop them spreading the wrongness if they truly believe it.
Let them, others will notice they are wrong too, in time.
You say about how their ego won't let it go that they are wrong about something, but you're ego is what is making you follow it up all the time. If it's important that you work with this person, accept they are wrong.

You are getting voted down because the OP pointed out why it is important that he cannot just let this go.

Why is it important though, is it the ego issue?

He made it very clear: This is a matter of getting accurate information into a published paper.

@djsmiley2k This is science. There are things about which one can argue or disagree. But there are things which are just plainly wrong, and they should never knowingly enter a paper, ego or not ego.


text:
Is it possible to correct a small mistake in a formula in a paper some days after publishing?
My paper is recently published in an open access journal (4 days ago). One day after publishing I spotted a small mistake in a formula. Although it is a small mitake I am worried that it might affect citations to my paper. In the day I noticed the mistake, I sent an email to the production group and they told me that they have forwarded my request to the editor. Since then, no one has contacted me from the journal.
My question is that is there any chance they will agree to my request? If so, will they make this correction in both online and printed versions of my article? I would not care if it was just a typo. But unfortunately it is in a formula.

Only they can say. They might also be able to publish an erratum separately, or you might be able to do so separately if you have a web page on which to do so.

Thanks @Buffy. I know that pubishing an erratum is the last solution. But I do not prefer it since publishing an erratum is itself a source of confusion for the readers.

It is possible only if the journal makes it possible. They likely hold copyright now. Their policies will rule the day. Since it is soon after publication it may be more likely, and you can ask, but their own processes and procedures may not make it possible.
While you may not "prefer" an erratum, it may be your only option and is probably preferable to just letting it go. You don't really want the first citations to be ones that point out the error.

They told me that the editor has approved the corrections. Does it mean that they have agreed to apply the correction in the main text? if so, will the correction also take place in all the websites (like PubMed) that index journal?

Maybe. Ask if you need to be sure.