text:
How do faculty pick which students get RA funding?
Suppose a faculty member has external funding for PhD students (who would otherwise have TA positions). How do they decide which of their PhD students get funding? For instance, I've seen faculty who give priority to their most senior students or who rotate funding between all students. Are these choices at the discretion of the PI, or does the department/university/funding agency have some fine-grained control?
In particular, are there constraints with regard to non-discrimination in the same way there are when hiring students in the first place?
I'm in the US, but would be interested in hearing responses from different academic cultures as well.

There are often constraints about which mechanisms can be used to pay which students.  For example, students who are not citizens of the country they're studying in may have visa restrictions against mechanisms of support which may be labeled as "jobs", and other times government funding mechanisms may require citizenship.

We try to constrain questions such that there can be a "correct" answer rather than a collection of equally-valid answers. So: can you restrict this to a given country (sounds like US) and field?

I suspect this is too varied to give a good answer, but here's the general sense in my department, which is not a "wet lab" department where cheap labor is needed from grad students.

Any funding body rules. The only major one I'm aware of is citizenship, as mentioned in the comment.
The university and college (a collection of related departments) do not have any rules like "seniority first." If there were anti-discrimination rules, this is where they'd live.
Then, it is up to the PI's discretion. (a) First, they will fill things they need done, e.g. experience with certain equipment. Then, (b) students dissertating or close to it first (if they have the money to not need the students to actually do anything). Faculty will also fund (c) first year students so they do not have to TA as they are getting settled their first year.
Finally, the department will hunt around to find funding for students that don't have TAships or other funding. I know many grad students who have RA'd for a professor that isn't super related to them, or split two appointments between two faculty.

About point 3: In most cases, grant funding is tied to a specific project, and you need a student who is working this area or they can't get funding from that project.

@WolfgangBangerth I mean, yes, profs aren't funding people working on psychopathology on physics grants, but for somethings reasonably close, many of my peers are technically on RAships but given pretty wide range. Plz don't report us to NIH.

Ha, no, I won't ;-)

Faculty members in US can always choose their doctoral advisees from among admitted students. For most, they will already have some experience with the student through classes or other interactions. So, the faculty member, perhaps in consultation with the head or even post-docs working with them would be the most likely way to determine who gets RA funding from the grant.
It doesn't make sense, in US, for a student to be imposed upon a professor, nor to have other determine who does research with them. The RA position assumes that the student will have certain research tasks in that group.
How they decide is up to them, but in some cases it might be that they choose someone "interesting" who can't get other funding for some reason. In other cases it might be that they choose the person with the most promise for the present and future.
A somewhat less frequent option, I think, is when a faculty has a research/study group in which they work closely together and perhaps have a weekly seminar. In such a situation, a senior professor might defer to a junior one on choosing a candidate even when the senior professor holds the grant. I've seen similar things happen in a particularly collegial faculty.

I think OP was mostly thinking of the situation where a professor already has supervisory roles for multiple students, but only so much research funding to go around such that some of their students will be funded other ways like with a TAship.

@BryanKrause, for individual cases, maybe it's pistols on the green at dawn, like the old days.

Firstly, anti-discrimination laws are not generally restricted solely to hiring decisions; they apply more generally to any type of decision-making  that has consequences for the employee/student in an employment/educational context.  So in jurisdictions where anti-discrimination laws are present, it is likely that they would apply to the allocation of research funds to students.  Usually this would mean that the person allocating the funds cannot discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics like age, race, sex, etc., unless some legitimate legislative exception is met.  In the USA this matter is covered at a federal level by Title IV (education) and Title VII (employment) in the Civil Rights Act 1964.  There may also be applicable state laws depending on the jurisdication the university is in.
In terms of the locus of decision-making, it is usual that the PI on a grant will have discretion to allocate the funds as they wish, but obviously they are still going to be required to abide by applicable laws and university policies.  In particular, the department would not generally micromanage a decision by the PI unless they have reason to believe that a legal breach would occur otherwise.  As to the particular methods of allocation you have mentioned, both are probably okay within the scope of anti-discrimination law.  Rotating funding between all students is non-discriminatory.  Giving priority to senior students might argualy raise a question of age discrimination, but it is probably okay, and courts have tended to allow decisions based on "experience" without considering this to be age discrimination.

In the US age discrimination rules start at 40 so it’s not likely a factor.


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Is it appropriate to ask about the number of applicants to a position?
Is it generally acceptable to ask how many applicants there were to a position I applied for, and does it depend on the current stage of my application? For instance, immediately after applying, at an interview, after receiving an offer, etc.

why would you ask that? getting a position is not a stochastic process.

@EarlGrey: Getting a position is, by all means, a stochastic process (it just has a lot of complicated properties).

@JochenGlueck Are you not confusing stochastic with  political?

@ZeroTheHero: Well, it is in many cases impossible to savely predict the outcome, even if one knows all parameters that are typically considered relevant (including the political and social parameters within the hiring committee). So there is some randomness involved, which makes it appropriate to model the situation stochastically.

@JochenGlueck the motion of the infinite number of PhDs and the likes may seem Brownian, but being accepted for another position is definitely quantum tunnelling. It does not matter if you are among n or n^24 candidates, the probability for each one to cross the barrier is the same.

@EarlGrey: Well, the question seems to be about the number of applicants for one particular position. The chances of a fixed applicant A to get this position will in most cases depend on the overall number of applicants for this position: A higher number of applicants increases the chances that one of them is more qualified than A. Moreover, if there are several candidates with comparable qualification to A, there is some randomness in the decision between them; more applicants for the position will often result in more candidates comparable to A, thus in lower chances of success for A.

@JochenGlueck I guess you are focusing too much on the micro-aspects. If there are many applicants comparable to A, it means there will be many positions open comparable to the one A is applying to. Students interested in topic X are not generated in vacuum, but they are the end product of faculties "investing" in topic X.
I admit I should stress more my sentence "getting a position is not a stochastic process.

@EarlGrey ...that is just incorrect. There are a lot of applicants for the position of "rock star", but very few openings. There are not so many applicants for the position of "extremely underpaid manual labor" but many openings. Students often base their choices on what they enjoy studying rather than the prospective future job market. Some areas have large markets outside of academia to provide more jobs but some just don't. This is why it's recommended to ask not just what percentage of graduates got a job, but what percentage got a job in their original field.

I think @Roland is unfortunately correct.  What OP really wants to know is how many applicants made the "short list", but since "short list" is ambiguously defined, who knows what the answer would mean.

@user3067860 I am discussing academia only. Example? see the openings for PhDs in CS. There weren't so many 20 years ago.
There are not so many applicants for the position of "extremely underpaid manual labor"  ? Are you kidding? Ever been to East Africa?

@EarlGrey OK, so in your estimate positions available is proportionate to applications. So PhD acceptance rates would be about the same across fields. Using a random college website picked because they happen to have a nice display of statistics: https://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/economics-phd-admissions-and-enrollment-statistics and using some napkin calculations, we have PhD acceptance rates of Electrical and Computer Engineering 25%, Computer Science 16%, Mathematics 8%, Business Administration 6% ... these are not the same number.

@EarlGrey And people in East Africa didn't apply to be underpaid manual labor. They simply ran out of other options. The 94% of people who didn't get into the Business program at Duke didn't just disappear off the face of the Earth, they had to find other things to do. Probably one or two of them ended up flipping burgers. Unless you define "positions open comparable to the one A is applying to" to include McDs....

@user3067860 regarding the napkin calculations: that is exactly the point. You will find that acceptance rate of different PhDs at different universities (similarly sized) will be very similar for the same topic, i.e. Engineering PhDs acceptance rate at MIT will be similar to Engineering PhDs acceptance rate at Stanford.
Reg. East Africa: people are applying to underpaid manual labor. They could stay and work their fields, but they move and apply to work in the construction or mining sector for chinese/western contractors.

You should generally stick to asking pertinent questions whose answers are meaningful to you, rather than asking questions simply to satisfy your own curiosity. The number of other applicants will usually not have a major effect on your own interview process, and knowing that number won't make you any more or less likely to get the job. The hiring process is usually not something that's shared outside of a company, so you may come off as asking about irrelevant information that the company would be reticent to share anyway.
I could see asking about the general number of other applicants if you're trying to get a sense of the interview process time frame. If they tell you they'll call back after a first phone interview with other applicants, it might be reasonable to ask in a general sense how many there are and if that will take days, weeks, or months. But idly asking just for the heck of it serves no real purpose, and may not be received well.

I disagree with "The number of other applicants will usually not have a major effect on your own interview process". Imagine if there is a million applicants or there is just 1. The chance of getting the position when there is only 1 just depends on whether that 1 person is better qualified than you, If there is a million it is so much more likely that there are people better qualified for the position

@IvoBeckers I don't want to speak for Nuclear Hoagie, but I don't think they meant that the number of applicants doesn't affect your chances of getting the job. Rather, I think they meant that the number of applicants shouldn't materially affect how you are interviewed, how you answer interview questions, how you prepare, etc.

@IvoBeckers it doesn't matter how many applicants there were, only how many are left. Asking "How many other candidates are being interviewed?" might be reasonable, but "How many candidates applied for this position?" is not, and the latter seems to be what OP wanted to know about.

@EspeciallyLime exactly! The competition is amongst the qualified applicants who make it to the interview process, not the entire pool.

@IvoBeckers I'm not saying the number of applicants has no effect on the likelihood of getting the job, I'm saying that the information is not actionable. Asking serves no purpose other than to satisfy your own curiosity. Whether there are 1, 10, or 100 other candidates, all you can do is your best is your own interview.

@NuclearHoagie It is actionable.  If your best estimate of the probablity of success is 0% (calculated off the number of applicants), why even spend an hour of your time interviewing (unless you anticipate that the interview itself provides value in terms of feedback, networking, etc).

@emory Such a situation would never occur - why would a company bother to interview someone that they believed had a 0% chance of being hired? If you have an interview, the company must believe you have some reasonable chance of getting the job, or you wouldn't have an interview at all. I suppose you could have different levels of "acceptable chance" than the company (e.g. if the company will interview people with a 1% of being hired, but you won't interview for less than a 10% chance), but now this gets into estimating probabilities based on a lot of conjecture.

@NuclearHoagie People have been laid off before their first day on the job.  Why did the company even bother interviewing them (or the other "unsuccessful" applicants)?  But I agree that the number of applicants is not that useful for figuring out the probability of success.

I would recommend not doing this. It is probably done rarely and when done not always responded to. The numbers also change, both up and down during the process.
But, it also makes you sound a bit desperate rather than confident.
Some places will publish some numbers from prior years, so you can get an idea.

After a position is filled, it is fine to politely inquire about how large the applicant pool was.
If you are interviewed or short-listed, it is fine to politely ask how many other interviewees or short-listers there are.

The basic parameters here are that you don't want to do anything to compromise your application, and you don't want to be a bother, but you do want to get information that might help you in future applications.
Asking right after applying is probably going to seem overly forward, and will probably be incorrect information since the application hasn't yet closed.
If you are (unfortunately) rejected, there is probably no downside to asking whoever communicates with you regarding the rejection how large the applicant pool was. Most hiring committees will be fine with sharing this information. The worst that will happen is that your request will be ignored.
If you advance in the process, it is OK to ask how many applicants are at the same stage. In fact, many hiring committees will proactively share this information. In academic hiring there is often a short list (on campus interviews) of 3, and applicants may want to know if the short list is more or less. Long lists are often more variable (e.g., 8 phone interviews). Hiring committees may proactively share this information (i.e. "We are doing four on campus interviews."). I might not ask this during a phone interview, but if you get an on campus interview, there is probably little harm in politely asking how large the applicant pool was. For example, "Do you mind if I ask how large the applicant pool was?" If the person asks why--and, frankly, anyone on a hiring committee will know why--you might say something like "I'm just trying to get a handle on how competitive hiring in physics/economics/English/sociology/biochemistry is this year."
In short, it's probably OK to ask, but be polite, and ask after you have advanced in the process or been rejected.

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How is work with students judged?
I imagine it is fairly common for students (at the PhD level) to produce work of lower quality than their advisors. Indeed, even excellent students must start somewhere, and if they were able to produce work of the quality of professors, then they need not be a student. Moreover, not all students will be exceptional. At the same time, it is often the case that papers of a student would be co-authored by the advisor. How are such papers are evaluated by the broader community. Does taking on students who publish papers of lower quality (relative to the advisor) impact the advisor's reputation in any meaningful way (e.g. by "diluting" the quality of their work)?

As a PhD student, I do not possess a very good overview on this issue and can therefore only talk about my personal experience: My advisor is always listed as co-author of my papers, typically getting involved shortly prior to the proof-reading-stage, when most of the work is done. This seems to be a very common approach in my field, at least as far as I have experienced and heard from my peers. Hence, as a vast amount of workgroups in my field seems to work in this manner, I would guess that, interestingly, nobody really seems to care. I am very interested in the view of others on this issue.

Setting aside the issue of mentor coauthorship, some good papers are better than other good papers, some more important. Some journals are better or more influential than others. Established professors don't produce work of uniformly high significance. Over time the community evaluates scholarship and offers appropriate rewards - reputation, citations, jobs, tenure, prizes.

While the practice of adding advisor's name to student publications varies by field, as does the interpretation of it, the advisor in such fields has no incentive to have low quality work published with their name as "author" (whatever that might mean).
Thus, an advisor will, for their own purposes, push the student to do more so that the quality is high.
You are likely correct that most students, at that moment, are less skilled in research and publication than their advisors, but that is only at the moment. If it were generally true over time then the quality of research would decline as time goes on and nothing significant can be done any more. Person A (good) produces student B (less good) who produces student C (sort of bad), etc until all is garbage. Only Euclid's work in math would be worth reading.
Also, the advisor has the opportunity to feed ideas to their students, which can be a justification for advisor authorship in the first place. Thus, the quality can be as good as what the advisor could produce - at that moment.
My dissertation was a fine piece of work. I was congratulated by members of my defense committee on its quality and completeness. My advisor (an eminent, senior mathematican) could have done it himself, certainly, but he expressed pride in my work. This being math, he wasn't a co-author though the idea for the original exploration was his. He had an idea that "such and so might be true", which is IMO the highest form of math insight and I hadn't attained that yet. But doing the work led me to that level. The overall trend is upward, not downward.

So, if you ask how such work is judged in general, then the answer is that it is judged by the research community like any other. On its merits.
But the judgement by the university for matters of promotion and salary advancement is probably a bit different. In that case, more is better, I suspect.

You are likely correct that most students, at that moment, are less skilled in research and publication than their advisors, but that is only at the moment. - It can still be that most students never get to the level of their advisors, as most students don't stay in academia, or at least not at the same level (e.g., at R1 schools).

No.  For a supervisor to coauthor papers with a student, which are lower quality than the supervisor's solo work, does not harm the supervisor's reputation.
The researchers judged to be most successful publish both quality and quantity.  Publishing somewhat lower quality research with a student contributes to the quantity.
Publishing in disreputable journals or presses will harm the supervisor's reputation.
From an ethical point of view, routine and unremarkable research provides great value to society even when it does not get judged a "success" by the research community.  Much technological achievement comes from boring, systematic experimentation.

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What does it mean to state my opinions impersonally and objectively
I am writing a review for a journal. In the instructions, it contains the following quote:
"Your comments may be forwarded in their entirety to the author by the Review Editor, so state your opinions impersonally and objectively".
What does this mean? Are opinions not by definition personal and subjective?

In peer review, you are asked for your professional opinion. This is distinct from your personal opinion.
The editor would not like personal opinions like "the authors are foolish idiots who must have failed any basic statistics training". The editor would like professional opinions like "the authors did not use a statistical model that accounts for repeated measures in the same subjects, which could increase the risk of false-positive errors; I recommend they use repeated measures ANOVA or mixed effects modeling instead".
The editor would not like personal opinions like "the authors clearly have no idea what is going on in this field". The editor would like professional opinions like "There is recent work by Baggins (ref, ref) and Bombadil (ref) that would help explain the result in Figure 3. The manuscript would be improved if the authors discuss their results in the context of this prior work."
These professional opinions are objective in that they are grounded in your training in the field you work in. They are not based on your hunches and feelings, but based on your expert assessment of the work that is done. They are not based on your personal feelings towards the authors who may have once been rude to you at a conference or forgot to cite your paper or published a paper that supports a theory you oppose. They are based on the work you are reviewing and would be useful feedback to anyone involved: for the editor to make decisions about acceptance, for the authors to make revisions, and perhaps to any other reader.

Asimov's novella Sucker Bait has an interesting take on "professional opinion". No comment on your answer. Just brought it to mind.

Is this orthogonal the choice to use more "personal" language such as "I feel the manuscript would be improved if ..." which can sometimes make it more clear what is my (professional) assessment vs an actual fact?

@overfullhbox I think using phrases like "I feel" is not a big problem in reviews, but also doesn't add anything useful so you might as well avoid it.


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PhD advisor making start up company based on my thesis work. How do I prevent this from delaying my graduation?
I am a fifth year PhD student who has independently developed a project for my thesis. Recently, I have presented some promising preliminary results. My professor called it a 'gold mine', and wants to start a company based on it. I prefer to publish it and make most of the data open source.
Today, my advisor hired a senior research scientist who intends to learn my work and start a company based on it. Apparently, they have been talking to each other for several months without my knowledge. The scientist intends on becoming CEO of this company and eventually wants equal inventorship, despite not having any experience in this field yet. My PI has made it clear that it is my responsibility to transfer the ideas and technologies that I have developed over to him before the end of my PhD.
I have argued with him that this work is not ready for a company, and such a start-up would rest on shaky foundations (I have not published or patented, or finished animal studies).
I also feel that he is holding my PhD degree ransom, as he has done more than once with other students in the past. He has a pattern of doing this with other students- hiring a 'CEO-type' senior research scientist to learn from a younger PhD student, working with the research scientist to start a company while the PhD student does most of the work, not allowing the PhD student to graduate until the company is off its feet, and then making millions selling the company, with minimal benefit or recognition to the student.
How should I approach this? Is there legal recourse and should I approach a third party? I have already discussed this many times with my PI, but he will not listen. I fear that my graduation will be delayed, andI would like to avoid burning any bridges.

You need to talk to the doctoral degree office. If they deny you help (which would be seriously unethical), you probably have no other chance to protect your IP rights than go legal. However, legal action will not help you gaining your PhD, be aware of that.

The intellectual property almost certainly belongs to the university.  There is no point in trying to "protect" it.

Patent your work yourself, start your own company, and tell him to screw off.

Seriously -- what gives him the right to force you to do this? You should start your own company. Use that same research scientist. Offer him a better deal than your advisor did.

I want to support Anonymous Phyicist at this one: unless you wrote all papers without any co-author, there is no chance you will get the property all to yourself.
Additionally, I wonder why this is actually a thing. Wouldn't it be much better for the professor if the one actually worked on it became CEO? In our department we have lots of those startups, but each one of them has a PhD as CEO who actually "invented" the idea.

How willing are you to burn bridges with your advisor? If you’re willing to do so, you could deliberately act to sabotage their new business by handing over the products of your research to somebody else associated with the university and then releasing everything you can open source. I wouldn’t be ask them for any letters of recommendation if you do, though.

@AnonymousPhysicist: while the university (and not the prof!) does usually hold the transferrable IP rights, they may still be required to give a fair compensation to the inventor in case the company takes off. And e.g. in my legislation, the employer has to choose within a certain time frame whether they want to patent or not. If not IP would go to OP.

How should I approach this?

Jump at the opportunity! Your professor considers your work a "gold mine" and wants to commercialise. This is an extremely rare opportunity for any student and I recommend that you seriously consider embracing the opportunity. Let me consider some of your ideas and alleviate some of your concerns:

I prefer to publish it and make most of the data open source.

This is a worthy academic goal, but it mightn't result in your desired outcome. Academics share results for others to build on, yet many results have no impact: If you're hoping your results will have impact, then why not make sure they do yourself? Keep the results private, build a company, make an impact.

Today, my advisor hired a senior research scientist who intends to learn my work and start a company based on it...The scientist intends on becoming CEO of this company

Is there any reason to believe that this scientist should be CEO? As opposed to CTO, for instance? Why is the scientist even necessary? Consider taking the CEO role for yourself and maybe consider hiring the scientist.
Whether your supervisor should be involved is open for debate. They seem well-connected, so they could perhaps be very useful.

[The senior research scientist] eventually wants equal inventorship

Inventorship (in terms of IP law) cannot be shared: An inventor has to have invented, they cannot come onboard. Perhaps you meant equal ownership?

I have argued with him that this work is not ready for a company, and such a start-up would rest on shaky foundations (I have not published or patented, or finished animal studies).

You can start a company, strengthen the foundations, and patent the results. (NB: Your university may actually own the rights to any patents, it depends on your precise scenario. Regardless, you might not need to patent results that would be owned by the university, since patenting later results might suffice.)

My PI has made it clear that it is my responsibility to transfer the ideas and technologies that I have developed over to him before the end of my PhD.

That is correct.  These things almost certainly belong to the university.

not allowing the PhD student to graduate until the company is off its feet

This is an inappropriate conflict of interest.  There is not much you can do about the conflict of interest.  But you can:

Transfer all the information as you are obligated.
Complete your thesis
Obtain a job offer

If you have a job offer in hand which requires a PhD, it puts a lot of pressure on your supervisor to recognize that your thesis is complete.

Why must a PhD student transfer...ideas and technologies to a third-party? (I agree that transfer to the university might be expected, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Also, it is a little unclear who owns the IP, the OP wrote, independently developed a project for my thesis.)

@user2768 You are wrong, everyone mentioned in the question is affiliated with the university.  If it's for the thesis, most universities have a policy saying it belongs to the university.

I might be wrong, you most certainly are, and you seem to have chosen your words to mislead. We can assume a university exists, even though none is mentioned, since universities - exclusively, to my knowledge - award PhDs. So, everyone is affiliated with the university (by proxy). Whether they are employed and what contractual obligations they have is unknown. Nonetheless, it's likely, but not certain, the OP and professor are employees. (It's plausible neither are.) It is unclear whether the senior research scientist is. We only know they've been hired, not by whom.

Assuming the senior research scientist isn't a university employee (which seems unlikely given that the professor is looking to commercialise), my question remains: Why must a PhD student transfer...ideas and technologies [beyond the university]? Regarding a policy saying it belongs to the university, that depends what the OP meant by independently developed a project. If the OP meant that the project was developed without university resources nor aid, then the project might belong to the OP. Admittedly, that's unlikely (which is why I wrote a little unclear).

No, @user2768, it is very obvious that "Senior Research Scientist" is a university employee.  They are not employed by the company that does not exist yet.

It isn't very obvious. Actually, it seems false. Indeed, searching a jobs site for "senior research scientist" produces twenty first-page hits, just two of which are (obviously) universities.

@user2768 That's not relevant.  "My advisor hired" is slang for "The university hired (and my advisor supervises)"

If that's true, then the advisor is failing to successfully commercialise: A university employee creates value for the university; not for a spin-off company. (The advisor may be trying to financially exploit the university, but that seems like a really bad idea.) The advisor should be hiring for the spin-off company to best exploit the OP's work.

@user2768 1.  The company does not exist yet.  2.  The university will own part of the company or part (all?) of the company's IP, so the advisor cannot prevent it from getting value out of the work.

(1) You know this how? (2) Attributing more IP to the university will reduce the company's value

@user2768 The company is described as future tense in the question.  I won't respond to you again.

The OP described the company in the future tense. The OP doesn't know what the advisor has been doing, as is apparent from the question. (I don't really have the will to continue this discussion. You have decided upon your position and you seem unwilling to reconsider, regardless of what may or may not be relevant.)


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I was a rapporteur of the main session of an intergovernmental forum, should I add the final report as a publication in my CV?
I was an intern at an intergovernmental organization, during an international forum I reported the first and main panel, should I add the final report in my CV as a publication?
The final report's bibliography has: the organization's name, date, forum name. Within the report there is the list of the editors and then the rapporteurs were my name is listed. However, as I did not participate to edit the report I hesitate to add it. What do you think?

Is this CV for academic jobs or for some other purpose?

You should ask the organization specifically what is appropriate. It might be fine, but I know of other such international collaborations in which it is specifically forbidden to claim authorship. The work is attributed to the committee as a whole, by name.
An additional reason for not doing this is the question as to whether it is a creative work on your part. I can't judge, of course, but it seems unlikely.
You can, of course, include your participation elsewhere in the CV.

Why has someone downvoted this excellent answer? I draw attention to @Buffy's final sentence: being a rapporteur is an important accomplishment in its own right whether or not you are permitted to claim authorship of the resulting document. In my earlier career I was the principal author of numerous reports which, for legal reasons, had to be attributed to another legal person. Later I was such a legal person and large numbers of reports written by my staff are legally mine, although I did not necessarily contribute much to them.

My CV would certainly mention what I did in these jobs but I could not claim actual authorship of reports not bearing my name, or take credit for those that did  when I was merely the titular author for legal purposes.

@JeremyC, people vote for their own reasons, of course. Sometimes a single word is enough. I'm comfortable with the answer, of course.


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Arxiv email address issue
Can I provide different email address within the paperwork in the end of it ? Other than what I've used to register myself on arxiv.org ? Is it okay to have different emails for contact purposes specifically?

Papers do not actually even need an e-mail address. So there should be no problem to use a different e-mail address in your paper.

@DCTLib thanks a lot for this clarification!


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Which scholarship is better for international students to apply to U.S. Ph.D. programs?
I am a Japanese student who will apply to U.S. Ph.D. programs this year.
I successfully acquired two external Japanese scholarships, but I should choose the one.
Which do you think is better when we consider chances to get into Ph.D. programs (biology, STEM fields) and financial matters.
Scholarship X covers two-year stipends ($2500 per month), two-year tuitions and two-year medical insurance. When I consider applying to Harvard University, the amount of payment will be 185k dollars in total.
Scholarship Y covers five-year stipends ($1835 per month), two-year tuitions (up to $55k). When I consider applying to Harvard University, the amount of payment will be 165k dollars in total.
The Ph.D. programs which I will apply to provide us complete financial support including stipend, tuition and medical insurance.
Therefore, the purpose to acquire scholarships is to increase chances to be admitted to the programs by decreasing their financial burden.
In this sense, scholarship X is better.
However, some universities provide a bonus for students who acquired external scholarships.
In this sense, scholarship Y may be better because we may get the bonus in the remaining three years as well.
Which scholarship do you think is better?
Thank you.

I'd be surprised if an ivy league school cared much about the money. Maybe a  public school might, but even then I'd again be surprised if any of the elite public schools did. The scholarships will help as awards and accolades, where you can list both of them. As for a bonus, sounds like something you'd need to figure out for each school.

Thank you for your comment! Most of the money comes from the NIH grant which can support just only domestic students. Thus, the grant to support international students is limited even in the ivy league schools, which makes the situation worse for international students. I have heard that scholarship is very effective in this situation.

Seems somewhat uncommon. Most grad students in my field are internationals, and typically they are all fully funded. Usually by NIH or NSF grants to the faculty advisor. Generally at a major research university in the US, to get accepted to the PhD program is to get funded. The is certainly the case at the highly-ranked schools. It's quite different from many other countries in this regard. Some schools (stanford used to do this) might accept you into the MS program as a first step without funding, with the expectation you will find an advisor to fund you at some point to continue to PhD.

Yes, you are correct. International students are also supported, but what I would like to tell is that the population of international students will be small due to the limited resources. For example, Yale University states that "The financial resources we have available to pay for students who are neither U.S. Citizens nor U.S. Permanent Residents, however, is very limited. As a result, we are able to admit only a small percentage of our international applicant pool, and students should take this into consideration before applying to the Program."

https://medicine.yale.edu/bbs/apply/faq/

This largely depends on the fields of studies, maybe.

I'd rather expect Yale to accept only a small percentage of domestic applicants too. But yes that case sounds fairly unusual. I guess the funding source that pays for the two years of rotation in that program is a special grant, perhaps state funding rather than federal. Typical research grants (which fund most students) are not so restrictive.


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Contacting a Professor for a PhD in the US (Engineering)
I am new around here so go easy on me :) this question is directed at anyone with experience with graduate studies in the US.
A little background information about myself:
I am wrapping my up my M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering in Germany and currently applying for a PhD in a well-known US University. I already did my GRE and TOEFL and have gathered all 3 Letters of Recommendation in time for the December deadline for start in Fall 2020. Regardless of my chances of getting in, I want to give it my best shot.
I have been told that in the US, it is very common or even expected for prospective PhD students to introduce themselves to their Professor before applying. I have been told that not doing so may even be interpreted as lack of interest on my part.
So the question is: is this true? Should I write my Professor an e-mail and introduce myself and tell him I am applying?
I would be extremely thankful for any advice or insights you can give me, as I kind of have no idea how such things work in the US!

I think the answer may depend on the field and institution. I am also currently applying for a PhD in Engineering at a highly-ranked US university, and I have been getting the strong impression that the norm there is: "get admitted first, then we can talk".

Having said that, I would also be interested to read answers from people who are currently faculty members in the US.

Did you contact them already? I think I will send an e-mail to the professor, I mean, there's nothing to lose, I guess.

I sent e-mails to a handful of PIs that I am interested in. Most ignored, but one replied to say effectively "Get admitted, then we can talk." The advice I have received is that it won't hurt to try contacting them, but the chance of a reply is probably low.

I just sent the mail. If you want to, I can let you know what the reply was (if I get one). Cheers!

Sure, I would be interested to hear what sort of reply you get (if any).

"Talk to the professor first" is the norm in most of the rest of the world, but in many graduate programs in STEM in the US admissions decisions are made by a graduate admissions committee and students are matched to research supervisors (and funding sources) after they've been admitted to the program.
It's quite common to have some specialized source of funding (e.g. teaching assistantships or fellowships) for first-year students to support them until they have matched with an advisor who can fund them through a research grant.
One reason for this is that many Ph.D. programs in the US have substantial course requirements, while in other systems it's more common for the graduate coursework to be completed in an MS degree and the Ph.D. degree only encompasses the dissertation research.
An important advantage of this approach is that it allows the faculty in the department to compare applicants and pick the best overall group of applicants while maintaining an appropriate balance between subfields in the department.
There's nothing particularly wrong with sending an introductory email to a professor and expressing interest in working with that professor, but don't assume that the professor has the power to admit you to the program.  A response of "Get admitted first, then we'll talk" means exactly that- the professor can't make any promises to you until you've been admitted.   Even then, the professor might want to see how you do in course work before agreeing to be your advisor.

What you describe is pretty similar to Canada as well.

Thank you for your answer. I just don't want to come across as not interested or not motivated enough because I didn't introduce myself beforehand.


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How to schedule PhD defense
Currently it is my job to schedule (Date+Time) my PhD defense which shall take place in approx. 2 months from now. Hence, I have to ask all committee members about their availability. How should I approach this task:

Using a tool like doodle. I worry that this is too "modern" for some committee members.
Proposing some dates and hoping that all members will accept one or more dates?
Asking for their availability and trying to find an intersection set. But what if there is no intersecton set with respect to their time?

Any help is appreciated

Great question, though I am afraid it may not have great answers.  There's a standard joke that this is actually the hardest part of getting a PhD, and it's not even really a joke.

See: https://youtu.be/xbT4G8XR2io

I worry that this is too "modern" for some committee members. — Really?  Seriously?

Until now, whenever I've been on a dissertation committee, the defense has been scheduled either by the candidate visiting each committee member to ask about available dates and times or by e-mail.  I don't see any reason why doodle wouldn't work just as well. The only problem I've ever encountered with doodle is that it didn't explicitly say whether to mark one's available times or one's unavailable times. I learned pretty quickly, and Ithink most faculty would also. If someone really can't handle doodle, then email or visit that one person.

While the question addresses a problem that many PhD students face, it is not really different from scheduling any other meeting. Do not overthink this. Professors are just people.

Reading this I am so glad that at my institution it was my supervisors responsibility to invite the committee members

Scheduling anything with committee members is a big pain. The way I scheduled my defense and comps was to just send a doodle poll (like you mentioned) and have them select all the dates. Two of my committee members were very nice and checked all the dates going through almost 4 weeks and two of them never responded or even clicked the link. I just used these dates to check the availability for a conference room in the dept. and sent a final set of 4/5 days to the ones who didn't respond. After sending that a few times and reminding one of them in person, I just scheduled it on a day that I thought was OK and went ahead with that. Everything worked out great and even the person who never responded didn't protest when I picked the time and date. Good luck o
n this. I will celebrate the fact that I never have to do this again :)

Step 1 -- rule out dates/times that are not possible
Start by sending an electronic-mail message asking for each person to summarise his/her availability during the relevant few months. This may not immediately elicit an obvious date or time, but allows you to rule out dates and times which are definitely not possible, thus sparing everybody the hassle of keeping lots of specific options available.
Step 2 -- suggest some specific options
Compile a set of numbered/lettered options, again by electronic mail. A message might read something like:

Dear all,
Further to our previous correspondence, it looks like one of the following options is likely to be best:
a) 29th February 2100 in the morning;
b) 29th February 2100 in the afternoon, finishing not later than 4pm (NB: Prof. X has a train to catch at 5.20pm);
c) 31st April 2100 at 11am (NB: Dr Y is giving a lecture in the same building at 9.30am–10.30am);
[a few more options]

The numbering/lettering of options is vital, since this makes life easier for writing quick replies, such as:

Dear all,
a) most convenient for me
b) possible (but would need hotel that night as well as previous night)
c) not sure, since it is around the time of the International Conference of Futile Studies, for which I am the keynote speaker
[comments on other options]
Yours sincerely,
external examiner

Or even...

Good -- a, d, e
Possible, but not ideal -- b
Impossible -- c

Crucially, numbered/lettered options are amenable to quick updates such as:

Dear all,
UPDATE: sorry, option c) not possible (unless the university can charter a private helicopter to take me to the conference immediately afterwards!?!)

Use doodle and for those do not respond, print the schedule and walk it to their offices.

I think that you should begin with part 3 of your suggestion and also take a phone number from each committee member. If you succeed in intersecting among these times then everything is solved!
If the intersection won't work then you should consider an order of importance for your committee members. You can get several times from the chief member and consult with the other members.
My strong recommendation is to speak very conservative and respectfully with the members. Also if the intersection doesn't take place then you should consult with your supervisor and request from your supervisor to talk with the committee members in hopes of solving your problem.

And maybe add a little extra weight and options to your externals, especially if they are coming from abroad.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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APA subsequant citation for two different studies with same first author and same year
I have a question with regards to APA in-text citations. I wanted to cite 2 studies (with 3 authors for each article) that are of the same first author and same year. I have no problem with the initial in-text citation but the issue arise when I am using subsequent citations for both of these studies.
For example,
1. I have a study by John, Tom, and Harry (2014),
2. as well as another study by John, Gary, and Frod (2014).
Now, since there are 3 authors, subsequent citation for 1. should be John et. al (2014). However, for 2., the subsequent citation will also be John et. al (2014). Therefore, I am quite confused about what I should do in this situation. Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance!

This page from the APA says to just write them out with the number of authors necessary to distinguish them on the second and subsequent citations. So, for yours, I think you would do: (John, Tom, and Harry, 2014) and (John, Gary, and Frod, 2014). Since the second name is enough to distinguish, you could stop there, but "et al." and just listing the third name are equivalent, so you list the name.

Hi Bill, thanks for your response. I am aware of the use of alphabets in citations but they are mainly used for differentiating studies of the same year by the exact same author. The references for the study will also match the citations used with the respective alphabets next to the year.
However, I am uncertain if it is also applicable for this situation since the 2nd and 3rd authors are different and I do not think that the references for the two study should include alphabets beside the year since the 2nd and 3rd authors are not the same.

See edits after some additional web searching.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
How much administrative experiences help for a faculty appointment?
Imagine a full professor who served as the head and dean in Russia. Definitely, he has good chance to be appointed as VP in Russian (but unlikely in UK as the education systems are different and his experiences cannot be applied directly).
Now, if he apply for a faculty position in a UK university along a colleague who had no administrative position (then, he published more papers and supervised more graduate students). Which one has a better chance to get the position?
My hypothesis: Administrative positions are valuable if someone want to get the next job in the same country or countries with similar education systems.
My question: If someone wishes to take a faclty job in a different country, is it useful to spend time for administrative jobs in his home country OR it is better to focus on academic/research matters, which are global and appreciated anywhere?

In general, being a university administrator (e.g., Dean or Provost) is good experience for being a university administrator. I do not recall any high level administrators changing countries, so my guess is that the experience is country specific. For traditional research and teaching faculty positions, prior experience as a university administrator is not helpful. While hiring committees try and take into account the "lost time" associated with being an administrator, in general, I think administrators trying to switch tracks are at a disadvantage.

It depends. While as you say a researcher without any administrative duty is likely to have more papers, hiring committees are often not only looking for people that publish a lot but also for people that will 'contribute' to a department by doing their share of collective tasks.


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How can one start as a book reviewer?
I just came across a question which related to the topic of book review.
I wish to know that how can I start as a reviewer and where can I find sample reviews of some non-technical books or novels?
In this case do I need to directly contact the publisher or there is any other means for doing that.
Thanks.

By book reviewer, do you mean reviewing the published book, or the book proposal?

Academic books, children's books, fiction?

@Allure, I mean review the published book

@SolarMike - fiction

From the publisher's point of view the point of these reviews is to sell more copies of the book. Therefore you need to be one of these:

A well-known authority in the field. It's especially good if you're affiliated with a well-known university like MIT.
Some kind of well-known personality. For example if you have 100k Twitter followers, that would work. Or maybe you host TV shows like "The Planet", that would work too.

If you are one of these then feel free to write to the publisher offering to review books. If your review is complete early enough it's possible they will add your comments to the book cover; otherwise it'll mostly be in the promotional materials. One thing to note is that if your review is poor, it might simply end up unused.
Alternatively, you could write to the editors of magazines that publish book reviews, such as Physics Today or Scientific American. It's possible they just need the text and are less concerned about who is writing it (you will still need some credentials though). Being neutral 3rd parties, they can publish negative reviews.


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How conditional are conditional offers
I've already accepted an offer from my dream school for a phD program and already set up rotations with professors. I was accepted on a conditional offer though and am now 0.4% below the average they stated I must maintain in my final year (or offer may be rescinded). Is there a high chance that they'll take back the offer? I know they can, but has anyone ever heard of this happening? I'm reluctant to contact the program directly (although I know I must) because the person in charge of making admissions decisions just so happens to be the person I want to be my future advisor...and I would hate to start the relationship in such a negative way.

Depends on the specific program, I'm afraid.

Just contact the person and get it sorted out. I find it unlikely they'll rescind the offer for such a small difference in their standard and your average. And if they will rescind, it benefits you to learn about this as early as possible.

"How conditional are conditional offers?"  It depends!

An awfully far worse way to start the relationship would be to not be able to start that relationship. Please do yourself a favor and bite the bullet, contact the relevant person right away and calmly explain your current lapse/fear -  then listen carefully to what they tell you. There is no standard or law on how to handle such a situation, the program is likely able to do pretty much whatever it wants. The sooner you find something out the more time you have to work with to try to work something out - or to at least be able to relax!
I'd go so far as to say that if someone outside your program tells you with any certainty whether or not such an offer will be rescinded or not, you really should ignore them utterly - talk with your program! Every University, department, and program is pretty unique unto itself in questions of graduate school admission.
This is just one of those things best handled directly with the responsible persons, as advice in this form is worth it's mass in gold. Good luck - deep breaths!

Thanks for the answer! I think this was one of those instances where I already knew what I needed to do (contact the program), but was trying to put that off as much as possible. I did end up emailing them though, and basically got a slap on the hand, but they will not be revoking the offer. Now I just need to work my butt off in grad school to prove myself, which I'm actually looking forward to the work!

@Cornyvita Sometimes we just need someone else to tell us what we already know :) I'm very glad to hear it ended well for you, thanks for the update - and congratulations!


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Lab Rotation Placement
I'm starting in a phD program in September, and am in the process of finalizing my three lab rotations. The two PIs I'm really interested in working with are not available for the first rotation, so I'm going to do my second and third rotations in their labs. In our program, we hand in a list of lab preferences for the first rotation, and are placed in a lab on that list. However, none of the PIs I listed have agreed to take me on as a rotation student, and I've only talked with one of them (my first choice), as I was hoping that I could do my first rotation in his lab. I just got my rotation placement though, and was placed into another lab where I've had no communication with the PI.
This lab does research in an area I'm interested in and I'm looking forward to the rotation, however, I'm really kicking myself for never having reached out to this PI before. I think this really makes me look unprepared and not that interested in his lab, which is not a great start to graduate school. I now need to email this PI for the first time to ask for reading material, rotation projects... and I'm at a loss for how to set up this email. Ideally, this sort of introductory email should have been sent before this point. So I'm really interested in hearing from any professors whether you would reflect negatively on an incoming student who has never contacted you. As well, how would you phrase the first introductory email at this point? Obviously, I'm going to first introduce myself and attach my CV, but should I request a meeting with him to then talk about rotation projects? The problem is that I live about three hours away from the school, and so it would be a little difficult for me to go in for just one meeting (but I will do it if that is the best way going forward). Alternatively, should I request a skype meeting, or simply ask questions in the email? Also, should I apologize for having never reached out to him before this point, or just not mention it at all? Thanks!

Assuming the department has been using rotations for a bit, I can't imagine this is such an unusual situation for the professor. Simply based on my own experience, I imagine that that most students don't reach out to the professor they're paired with prior to assignment. (I very well may be wrong here, but that's definitely my experience.)
Within that framework, I would read up on the professor's research and simply send an introductory email with an offer to meet at his or her convenience. They'll probably be able to walk you through expectations and requirements when you first meet.
If you're really nervous about violating social norms specific to this department, I would consult with the head of the graduate program and ask for their advice. They can guide you better than we would be able to in any event.

Great answer from @eykanal....  Here is a first draft to get you started:

Dear Prof. So-and-So,
I am an incoming student in _____, and have recently learned that I
  have been assigned to your lab for my first rotation.  This is very
  good news for me, since your area _______ is one of my main interests.
  I'm attaching a copy of my CV.
If you'd like to talk with me before the semester starts, my phone
  number is ________ and my skypeid is __________.
Are there any particular articles or books I can be starting to look
  at over the summer, in preparation for my rotation?
Thank you.
Sincerely,

It's natural to be a little nervous before you start, but please don't kick yourself about not having written before now.  Just focus on the happy news that you've been well matched for your first rotation!
Also, please don't feel alarmed if you don't get an answer right away.  The professor might be on vacation!


text:
"Professors do talk, you know" - What exactly does that mean?
This is a phrase that I have heard on multiple occasions, both on this forum and in real life. But what exactly does that mean (in reference to talking about students)? When I hear this, I can't help but imagine a group of emeritus professors with grey beards sitting around in a room gossiping about the latest incoming student, with pipes in hand. An image that is both comical and scary if true, although hopefully far from accurate. So what I'm wondering is:

When do professors typically discuss students (performance or otherwise)? When they are going out to lunch with other colleagues or after committee meetings...?
What do the conversations usually revolve around? By that I mean are these conversations typically strictly professional, or are they more gossipy in nature like you would expect at some workplaces?
Have you ever been in or heard conversations that were "malicious" towards certain students? Like warning other colleagues off on advising someone?
Are these conversations more likely to be positive or negative? Do profs tend to spend more time praising star students or complaining about the non-star students?

It mostly means don't be any more memorably stupid than you must be...

This probably originates as part of the student tendency to not recognize their Professors as social beings, working their way through social networks and obligations, just like everyone else.  In some sense one may even say students fail to acknowledge them as human beings.  You seem a little guilty of this, in fact.  Secret bearded cabals?  Really?!  Professors engage in socialization, and manage a work environment with coworkers and customers (students, namely), in much the same way and degree that everyone else does.

@zibadawa timmy ... I was obviously joking about the "bearded cabals", I don't actually think profs sit around in a room and smoke pipes :)

More worrying than the fact that they talk is the fact that professors used to be students themselves and know that "I read that paper but can't remember the details" really means "I know I'm supposed to have read that paper, but haven't" as well as other similar things...

Emeritus professors are retired.  They don't sit around and talk about students any more.

But you are also kind of guilty at least regarding to the 4 points. You are asking about profs are doing this things or ask in what they do. But they are human beings as you and I so. some do it this way and soem do it in another way. and maybe even soem sit around in a room and smoke together their pipes. But the point is, thats nothing one can answer for professors in generall.

What is "malicious" about warning a colleague about a student? There may be cases (hopefully very rare) when this is warranted.

@ewormuth again, it was a joke. I'm just a very visual person and get images in my mind sometimes (mostly comical and always in cartoon). Obviously not all of them would make sense in the real world...

@SashoNikolov It can be malicious. For instance colleagues might be warned against a student who interferes with the professors' livelihood by, for instance, forcing them to read student work before assigning grades, knowing student rights, etc.

@Insulin69 As much as I remember what I meant a year and a half ago, I think my point was that the question makes it seem like a warning is apriori malicious, and I disagree with that premise.

@SashoNikolov agreed; you aren't wrong. I am just a pessimist.

In the U.S., currently, it would be against university policy (at my research-oriented large state univ) to divulge information about students to anyone other than authorized people. To other faculty? I think not. And in the style of "gossip"? Certainly not. We can hope that the "good ol' boy" days of academe are coming to a close...

Since students are a big part of our life, we discuss students both in casual situations (e.g., lunch) or professional settings (e.g., committee meetings).  Of course you shouldn't think students are all we talk about, and discussions about students mostly only come up in committee meetings when they're relevant.
The conversations are mostly professional, particularly the ones in meetings, but some things you might consider "gossipy" I would consider professional, e.g., where a student is going for grad school.  (As a department, we have an interest in what our students do afterwards).  Not that there is not no gossip going on, but at least I personally am not so interested in it, and I don't know too much about the personal lives of most of my students.  Most "gossip" is about other faculty.
Well, faculty often discuss about bad experiences with/performances of students with other faculty. Sometimes to get advice, sometimes to vent, and sometimes because the student has done something amusing.  Sometimes the student's name is used and sometimes it is not.  In my department, I think the student's name is not normally used in the case of undergrads unless it is in a professional context (needing advice or reporting a possible problem student).  But we don't often give explicit advice like "stay away from this student."
In general, I think people have a tendency to spend more time complaining than offering praise.  However, at least at the undergrad level, when names are used, I think it is more often to speak positively or neutrally of students than speak negatively.

Note: my experience comes mostly from mid to large sized universities.  At small schools, where the faculty and students all know each other, I can imagine there's a lot more gossiping going on in both directions.

In general, we talk about students' performance and how they are digesting certain materials.  The latter is important because it allows us to calibrate our delivery to a given cohort of students.
As for the former, we flag top performers and problematic students; not so much those that failed once or twice, but consistently failed or those who always have an excuse to skip assessments or pretend to be sick during exams.  As for the top performers, we may want to recruit them for projects or encourage them to go into research.
If a student approaches me for a project, then I would definitely talk to other Profs who have taught the student to get a bearing on the student's abilities.

I can provide some student perspective. I remember once I unexpectedly met my advisor, who was a chemistry professor, in an airport when I was flying back. The next day I bumped into a physics professor I knew of, and he asked me how my flight was yesterday. There was no way that he could have known my flight except by gossiping, since I did not tell anybody I was coming back. In another occasion, I went to talk with a math professor about grad school, and he inquired about some of my work done in the psychology department. Again, he must have known this through another professor, since I had never discussed it with him before.
There are also many other less obvious situations where I suspected that the professor was aware of my academic performance with other professors through "words on the street". Overall, I think these examples show that professors do talk with their colleagues about students. The topics can be as serious as the students' work or as trivial as the student flight back to college. The occasions in which they talk can be as formal as a faculty dinner and as informal as a quick chat down the hall way.

Yes, I've had similar experiences as a student, some of which I'm still not sure if I'm imagining things. One memorable occasion was when my work boss asked me about a scholarship I had applied to that I certainly had never talked to him about. I do know though that he is best friends with the husband of the PI down the hall from our lab (who I've also not told) who then knows my PI. That's a lot of people that needed to have talked about me for information to be exchanged, and I'm not sure if I want to know what else was said...

I can give a worst-case scenario from a staff perspective: All departments will talk about students to some degree in most higher education establishments. By bulk they tend to be general observations or discussion of where support is needed, or where somebody needs particular investment in time to reach their potential.
There is certainly no best practice when it comes to talking about students generally, both in work hours and out-with, but recorded messages such as email and intranet are generally a big no-no as it can be recovered at a later date as part of a SAR. Now this would suggest that professors/lecturers are of the mind that what we say can be malicious or more conductive to personal intent of harm rather than objectively making things the best for every student, both emotionally and academically.
Things tend to reach a breaking point when dealing with problem students.  We had a situation where a mature student returned to University for a career change in a new subject in order to gain the correct 'letters' to pursue a career they had already achieved relative acclaim in over a number of years. Indeed, in some subject areas they were better known and more respected than some of the staff that then found themselves appointed to teach the student.
Some staff had prior knowledge of the student whilst others were oblivious. As the department was quite small then it compounded the level of discussion on students between the close-knit staff, and especially so when so few students take it forward to honours. What I found was that the semester started off with insightful ideas from the student which were unexpected by some staff. This led to hot discussions over coffee about the gratitude of having a potential once in a lifetime innovator on our hands. Over coming weeks two of the staff actually started a campaign of complaints of arrogance about the student and the pestering of staff.
By the time of coursework grading there was a complaint lodged by the student about an essay where they were marked as a Low B when the student (who had marked work and worked in editing journal articles previously) suggested the essay could be no less than a mid to upper A. Naturally with an appeal in place another member of staff marked the essay and corroborated their colleagues result. It later turned out that the student was externally upgraded to nearly the topmost grade and the report was that the bulk of the downgrading relied upon staff not understanding the essay's concepts and questioning the style of English, and the verdict was that the English used was erudite and the use of unusual words which were very specific and relevant were considered the most economic use of English. In other words the student was using such good English and novel ideas that instead of lecturers realizing a dense read on their part with new research ideas, they mistook the work for poor grammar and making hyperbolic conclusions not supported in published literature.
Like most establishments we employ blind-marking, yet the amount of background staff communication led to the student's identity code being 'shared' which probably impacted on the marking. I think with this scenario the lesson became apparent that regardless of the reason and expertise of the experienced staff circle, the human drawbacks of jealousy and lack of acumin ultimately infiltrated and led to the gross mistreatment of a gifted student. The student became aware of the unusual change in behaviour across the staff body, which alongside the complaint concerning the essay then led to a legal complaint and enquiry which lost the institution several tens of thousands of pounds and two dismissals of staff. The student is now at a certain more famous university and the establishment narrowly avoided a scandal in media. So yes, to answer your question; Staff do talk about students, and the worry for students is it only gets bad when we discuss problem students. Some students are generally resentful and wish to cause trouble, but sometimes the genius students get severe mistreatment at the hands of resentful staff.

As for when, that would depend on the department. In particular, is there a scheduled student-evaluation meeting? In mine, there are about 5 a year, where each student is mentioned and the advisor gives a summary of problems and progress w.r.t. scheduled requirements (anyone can volunteer anything, though). This is for the entire faculty. For entirely non-problematic cases it takes about 5 minutes per student. "Problematic" would include someone reporting that X is struggling with important topic Y and maybe needs to shift focus from Z to Y. In terms of time spent, more time is spent talking about problems and specifically what to do about it; if someone gets an NSF fellowship and a couple of publications, we spend a couple of minutes praising the student (in their absence) and move on.
Faculty in a particular specialization will, in addition, "talk" on an ad hoc basis on topics like should X prepare a grant proposal on Y, does X understand Y well enough of do they need some tutoring; basically, the same topics as in the official meeting, but designed to head off the need to report a problem. Or, dissertation committee members will talk about the current chapter.
I've never encountered malicious talk, but I've encountered negative talk. The worst case scenario for a mis-performing student is that they can't work with their current advisor, and there has to be a discussion of what is wrong with the student, which leads to the question of whether a different advisor would solve the problem. Nobody has ever warned  off other faculty, but they have made the nature of the problem clear enough that indeed no other faculty member would work with the student.


text:
Are there any differences in how new vs. well-established professors select students?
For any professors out there, do you feel that there are any differences in how you selected and recruited students from the time when you were newly hired, to a well-established stage (i.e. after getting tenure)? I'm asking this out of curiosity. There are oftentimes questions about whether students should choose a new/old advisor, but I haven't seen any that asked about this from the prof's perspective.
I would assume there are since the challenges and priorities for the two groups are normally somewhat different, but I'm not sure exactly how it would differ. For instance, it might be more difficult for the new PI to recruit students (especially good ones) when they have to "compete" with older, better funded peers. This would lead one to think that new PIs might be more likely to take on students they might not necessarily love, but just need bodies in the lab. However, on the other hand, new PIs are more likely to have limited funding, and if they are on the tenure-track, would need their few students to succeed in order to establish a name for themselves in the industry. In this case, it would be detrimental if they chose the wrong student(s) in the beginning, especially if they are limited to the number of students they can afford due to funding issues. I realize that this is field and situation specific, but I'm looking to hear stories/insights from people who have gone through/know about the process.
Thanks!

This will indeed  be highly  dependent on field. For instance,  in pure mathematics, there's a rather dramatic difference: most faculty don't take on any graduate students at all until after tenure.
The American Mathematical Society has written one of their culture statements about this issue. Generally, (pure) mathematicians have no labs and hence no need for bodies to fill them. And in math, on the time scale of a tenure clock, advising grad students is felt to have a net negative effect on research productivity (in the longer run there can be dividends). So the clear incentive is to wait until after tenure, and departments are usually fine with this.

Although this is generally true in pure mathematics, faculty in more applied areas of mathematics are often expected to be advising graduate students (and having external grants to pay research assistants) before they are tenured.  This is much more akin to the situation in the sciences and engineering.

"most faculty don't take on any graduate students at all until after tenure." I don't believe this is correct. At any rate I personally know several pure mathematicians who took on Ph.D. students while not yet tenured (and I also did so myself) and I haven't heard it suggested until now that this is rare.

@Anonymous: It certainly isn't unheard of (I also know people who have done it) but the statistics in the AMS statement suggest it is the exception rather than the rule.

@Anonymous: At minimum, we can agree that there are many mathematicians who get tenure without having advised any grad students; in some other fields, as mentioned in other answers, this would be next to impossible.

@NateEldredge: Certainly I agree with you on your last point.

By contrast to Nate Eldredge's answer about mathematics faculty, for faculty in engineering/science fields at some institutions, graduating Ph.D. students is actually one of the key requirements for obtaining tenure.  The theory is that successfully supervising Ph.D. students is one of the primary tasks of research-oriented faculty.  As a result, selecting a graduate student is likely to be much higher stakes for such faculty, and they may be either more conservative (i.e., "Can't risk a bad one") or more risky (i.e., "Gotta make sure at least some graduate!") depending on their personality and funding.

In deciding whether or not to take on a graduate student advisee, the main factors are

Funding.  The student will either need their own or departmental funding (by e.g. a fellowship or teaching assistantship) or the advisor will have to provide it.  Conversely, if the advisor has a funded research assistantship position it is often necessary to find someone to fill the position.
Fit.  Broadly, the student and advisor have to agree on the topic of the student's thesis and if the student will be working on a research assistantship then that topic has to fit with the grant. The project might also require special skills (e.g. knowledge of a particular programming language.)
Aptitude or ability.  Some students are more capable than others.

For the first two points I don't think there is much difference depending on whether the advisor is tenured or not.  With respect to the third point, advisors who are tenured can afford to be more careful in selecting only students that they think will do well.

How important would you say "aptitude or ability" or even likability is for faculty in the selection process generally (I know this is a broad question), when compared with research fit? In general, you hear a lot about how first impressions are for interviews, sometimes more important than even skills required.  Do you think this is also true for PIs in science, or would they be more likely to quantitate student abilities, and be less affected by emotion?

Also, do you think that if new faculty sometimes can't afford to be too selective in the aptitude field, that when they do find a capable student, they would be more willing to actively "attract" that student into the lab? I'm in the process of finding a phD supervisor, and have found that one newer faculty is not shy in trying to "woo" me into the lab, even though we've just met once. I'm not sure whether this speaks more for me as a student, or for their lack of students...

Personally, I won't take on a student until they've taken at least one course with me and done well.  I don't trust my first impression, and I don't care much about personal traits ( one of our new graduate students once asked to go on a run with me and found that he couldn't keep up with me.  I took him on as an advise anyway...). The most important factors to me are fit and ability.


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How to work effectively with an unpredictable advisor?
I'm not sure if many grad students face these struggles, as my advisor is in no way abusive or "bad". In fact, she is extremely nice, but just very unpredictable at times. For instance, the same request or question will elicit a very different response depending on the day, and that's really confusing to navigate. I think predictability is kind of key to any type of managerial work.
In addition, she will also play her cards to get what she want. For instance, the advisor I thought I will have through her actions/words during the rotation period, is different from the advisor I ended up getting (little time to talk about my project now, and doesn't seem to care). This happened again when she was trying to have me stay on longer for a project. I wrote a research proposal, but once she realized I was staying, there was attitude change again. Meetings were post-phoned to the point that we never actually discussed any part of the proposal after two months. Now I'm having second thoughts about the whole thing, but would it seem immature to back out of it now? In general, I can't figure out if this is acceptable behaviour, and if I'm just not learning the best way of handling it.

You might want to give more examples of the behavior in question. So far, you state that your advisor is unpredictable, but provide little to no facts.

Are you productive? Is she good? Do her students have a good publication/academic record? Then you may overlook her disorganizedness (or manipulatively, depending). If not, you may want to switch.

@CaptainEmacs I have been very productive so far... at producing negative results. Hence the need for mentorship, which is non-existent at times from her end. She is a good scientist, but probably not the greatest manager, although that's not rare in academia. None of her students have publications, since she's a newer professor.

Well, you answered your question yourself: she is a new professor, new to the job. Sometimes it may help to give her a indication what you would need from her, very diplomatic, very polite, but clear. If she does not follow up on that, consider switching supervisors. It is fine to back out from a supervisor that doesn't do their job well and do not promise to improve. It is your right to know what you expect from a supervision.

@CaptainEmacs - I think the comments you wrote should go in an answer.  Good response.

Perhaps you'd like to glance around to see if there are other options.  That is a very important aspect to the decision, after all.

@aparente001 Made the comment a response, as per your suggestion. Thanks!

Your first and second paragraph don't really tell the same story. In the first paragraph, you mention that the same request will lead to two different answers "depending on the time of the day". In the second paragraph, the problem has little to do with predictability, and just seems to be that your advisor does not have as much time for you and interest in your work as you hoped (which is a very common complaint, as a short browse here in the archives will tell you).

@CaptainEmacs I've attempted that but haven't had much success unfortunately. Every conversation basically starts and ends with the words "I'm really busy with..." When she wants to though, she helps with really small things for other people's projects right after telling me this, that it's almost like a slap in the face sometimes. Meetings are cancelled etc. In a public setting though, like when other PIs are around, she's a super helpful mentor figure, giving me advice on all things. To the extent that if I told other people I'm not getting enough help, they'll probably think I'm crazy..

@CaptainEmacs I'm really trying to make this not get to me, but it's really becoming difficult. Having a manager who "shows up" when she feels like it, getting absolutely no support, but still being micromanaged on small tasks just doesn't seem right. There are so few supervisors in my program I could switch to though, and they are all collaborators. I'll burn bridges for sure. She gives off such a nice vibe to any "outsiders" that people will probably just wonder what is wrong with me for not making it work.

@Cornyvita That doesn't sound good. Either she is very disorganised and only external "peer pressure" makes her behave like a superviser has to, or she is a - excuse the word - manipulative personality. The micromanagement part may point to the first and she tries to cover that up in public. However, it could be the second, in which case, do you have the chance to switch to some other department/uni?

@CaptainEmacs Yes, I think it's the first as well mostly, although that doesn't make it easier to cope with. There are definitely other universities I can switch to, but I don't think I'm up for that level of change at this point in grad school, and consider my last year lost. I do have job offers though, and am seriously considering just dropping out and getting away from this.

@Cornyvita And dropping a PhD is less of a loss than one year? This is the calculation you want to do.

She is a new professor, new to the job. Sometimes it may help to give her a indication what you would need from her, very diplomatic, very polite, but clear. If she does not follow up on that, consider switching supervisors. It is fine to back out from a supervisor that doesn't do their job well and do not promise to improve. It is your right to know what to expect from a supervision.

@Cornyvita - Yes, do provide clear feedback and guidance, i.e. assert yourself gently; but also take a look around you to see what other advisor prospects there are.  You wouldn't want to go from the frying pan into the fire.


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Seeking Your Advice on Preparing for Mathematics Graduate Programs
S.E advisers,
I am a rising college junior (five-years tract) in US with a major in mathematics and an aspiring mathematician in the fields of theoretical computing and cryptography.  I apologize for this sudden interruption but I wrote this post to seek your advice on preparing for the mathematics graduate programs; I am currently attracted to the applied mathematics.  Through introduction to the computational biology, I found my true passion and love toward the mathematics, which led me to switch my major from the microbiology to mathematics on the last (Spring) semester.  Since then, I have been taking basic calculus courses and also self-studied the preparatory materials (such as proof-writing) for the abstract mathematics.  I am currently self-studying the abstract algebra (Artin, Dummit/Foote), abstract linear algebra (Hoffman/Kunze), and vector calculus (Lang).  I will be taking the following courses on the Fall:  Vector Calculus-computational, Linear Algebra with introduction to proofs, and either Abstract Algebra I or Mathematical Statistics I.  At the start of August, I will be starting to conduct the supervised undergraduate research on the theoretical computing (abstract and math-heavy) and computer security (more on the programming than mathematics), which I am very excited.
I am curious what are the essential factors for admission into mathematics graduate programs.  Do undergraduate research (such as mine) will be an important factor too?  I know the biology programs strongly require the research experience but I frequently heard that the mathematics programs focus less on the undergraduate research since most undergraduate-level research in mathematics are viewed as less matured than the graduate-level research.  Does Putnam score also play an important factor?  I am interested in preparing for the Putnam Competition as it has many interesting problems on algebra and number theory (topics of my interest) and I have been preparing vigorously with the problem-solving-strategy books as I never participated in any mathematical competition before.  About my current course schedule, should I take the Abstract Algebra I with other courses?  At my university, the AAI hs the pre-requisite of linear algebra, but I was granted a special permission for enrollment since my research advisers strongly recommend me to take the abstract algebra for the theoretical computing and computer security.  I am currently studying the abstract algebra and linear algebra to prepare for the courses and upcoming undergraduate research.
Thank you very much for your time, and I apologize for this long post.  I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
PK

If your main interests are theoretical computing and cryptography, you may be better off looking for a graduate degree in computer science instead. My guess is that professors in these fields are more likely to be found in CS departments than math departments, even if what they do looks more like mathematics (theorems and proofs). In any case, before applying to any department, make sure there are professors there (ideally more than one) whose interests overlap yours.

No, undergraduate research is not a very important factor for graduate admissions in mathematics.  It's nice if you have it, and if by any chance you publish a solo author paper in a respectable journal that's fantastic, but that kind of fantastic stuff is done by people who would assured of admissions to top programs anyway.  Since every letter ever written about a math student's undergraduate research is positive, admissions committees just don't get enough information to use in tough admissions choices.

I am a rising college junior (five-years tract) in US with a major in mathematics and an aspiring mathematician in the fields of theoretical computing and cryptography. I apologize for this sudden interruption but I wrote this post to seek your advice on preparing for the mathematics graduate programs; I am currently attracted to the applied mathematics. Through introduction to the computational biology, I found my true passion and love toward the mathematics,

You have named at least four different fields in one introductory paragraph.  This is a bit disconcerting to a potential admitter.  We might worry that you have not managed to settle down on any one thing for long enough to study it in any depth.  Maybe that worry is totally groundless, but you should do what you can to allay it.

Does Putnam score also play an important factor? I am interested in preparing for the Putnam Competition as it has many interesting problems on algebra and number theory (topics of my interest) and I have been preparing vigorously with the problem-solving-strategy books as I never participated in any mathematical competition before.

Similar answer to the last one but more extreme.  If you score in the Top XX, that looks good, but it would be very rare for that to be the breakthrough good thing about your application.  Moreover, whereas one must admit that undergraduate research in mathematics is becoming increasingly popular and viewed increasingly seriously over the years, the same cannot be said about the Putnam: if you never take it, no one cares.  If you got a zero every single time, no one cares.  (I took it in my freshman year only, honestly don't remember my score but suspect it might have been in the single digits, and I got into every program I applied to, including the top three.)  I was never excited about contest math so I need to ensure that my own proclivities don't creep into my answer, but quite soberly: studying for the Putnam (or any university math contest) might be fun and it might be educational, but it is not much of an investment in your future.  If you like algebra and number theory, great (OMG! me too) -- study algebra and number theory.  Working Putnam problems would teach you more of that than watching Game of Thrones, but it's still quite indirect.

About my current course schedule, should I take the Abstract Algebra I with other courses? At my university, the AAI hs the pre-requisite of linear algebra, but I was granted a special permission for enrollment since my research advisers strongly recommend me to take the abstract algebra for the theoretical computing and computer security. I am currently studying the abstract algebra and linear algebra to prepare for the courses and upcoming undergraduate research.

This type of question needs to be answered by someone who is familiar with you and with your department's program.  We're not.  It's exactly the sort of question you should ask your faculty advisor.  If you don't have a faculty advisor yet, no problem: this is an excellent opportunity to get one.
One final comment: based on your writing, I suspect you are not a native speaker of English.  Good English language and writing skills are important for an American PhD program in mathematics: a low enough GRE verbal score can kill an application.  (Conversely, in my program, in order to be competitive for the top drawer internal fellowships you have to have a high "academic index", which is some weighted numerical measure of your GRE quantitative, your GRE verbal and your GPA.  So it's serious.)  Shoring up shaky English skills is more of a priority than studying for the Putnam exam, if you ask me.

Dear Professor Clark:  Thank you very much for the detailed. insightful advice!  I was introduced to some of your works on the arithmetic geometry through graduate and faculty seminars at my university.  Although I did not understand the technicality of your research, they sparked the curiosity and interest to me.  I am actually interested in the theoretical computing and cryptography, and I am fully devoted to learn them until my death.

I apologize for the grammatical errors and inconvenient style of writing...I am aware of my English problem (I am Korean immigrant), and I actually registered for the writing class and seminar to resolve my malfunctioning grammar skills.  If it is comfortable with you, could you inform me some of problems you noticed with my grammar?

Regarding to the undergraduate research, should I then focus on the coursework, GRE+MGRE, and Putnam for the applied mathematics programs, and postpone doing the undergraduate research until my senior year (thesis)?  What are other recommended routes for the mathematics majors?


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How long it takes to hear from a APS journal
I have submitted my paper to a reputed APS journal. It has been 65 days, and I still did not get any response. Should I contact the editor regarding this? I have two papers published in this journal and last two times it only took around 45-50 days. However, I am in a dilemma, if I contact the editor will he get mad at me. Hoping to hear useful thoughts from you.

The difference between 45-50 days and 65 days is only two to three weeks. It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Many people take days off or in the slow mode. I would wait another two weeks before doing anything if I were you.

For PRC, PRD, the review time for me and my supervisor was about 2 months for a round (I also have 2 papers published with APS last year). So, I believe you can wait 2 3 weeks before contacting the editor.

@MikeyMike thanks. I think I should wait few more weeks then :)

@ user50724 I am curious what is the paper about if you don't mind.

@MikeyMike its about controlling energy transfer rate/optical switches based on quantum theories. And good news, I got the response and the paper got accepted with minor revisions :)

As an author, I have had to wait anywhere from three days to seven months to get referee reports back from APS journals.  The time lapse is highly variable, although two months is a typical time.  I wouldn't even start to worry until it has been at least three or four months.  The APS editors are also generally pretty good about letting authors know if there has been an extended delay (most commonly caused, I understand, by a difficultly in finding willing referees).  If there's going to be a really long delay (over five or six months), they will probably send you an e-mail.
As a referee for the same journals, I can tell you that the editors like to hear back from referees within two weeks, but that doesn't necessarily mean the referee needs to submit a report within that time.  Often, a potential referee will take the whole two weeks just to let the editor know that they are not available.  And if they do promise a report, it may arrive another two to four weeks later.
In any case, if you are curious about the status of your article, you should consult APS's Author Status Inquiry System before contacting the editor.  The system (located at https://authors.aps.org/Submissions/status/ ) provides automated information about the workflow status of your paper.

thanks for your useful comment.  In my case, one referee has submitted the report in two weeks and other referee has not submitted it yet, which makes the delay in the process. Last two times editors waited only two months (or less than two months) for the delayed report and concluded that report will not be received. The decision was made based on one referee report. Anyway, I guess i should not be worried this soon then :) Thanks anyway

The average length time in review differs between journals but also depends quite a bit on the reviewers themselves. I once had one held up 4 months due to one reviewer, who was ultimately replaced, which then took another 2 months, and that was just the first round.
It is totally acceptable to contact the action editor to ask for a status update, and I don't think he/she will get 'mad'. It's probably common and part of their role to field such questions.
Reviews do often get held up; this will also serve as a reminder to the action editor to make sure everything is proceeding as it should.

thanks. That's what exactly my supervisor says. I will wait few more weeks and contact the editor.

Thanks all I just received the response. It has taken around 70 days.

Unfortunately that's about average. Hopefully it's positive!

that's true. yeh its very positive :)


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Not properly announced homework assignment
I skipped my last homework assignment due to the fact that it was not properly announced by Professor at the and of the class. I am not experienced in writing this kind of letters and have no clue how to request an opportunity to submit my homework.
Any suggestion would be very much appreciated.

The wording for the letter will strongly depend on the country you are working in. Could you please indicate that?

I am working in USA. Thank you in advance for your help.

Would you care to give a little more details about "it was not properly announced by Professor at the and of the class"?

Usually, at the end of each class the Professor announces which is going to be the next homework assignment. This time, he didn't do so.

You are in college - you have to take responsibility for your actions and education. Be proactive.

From my experience in the USA, the deadlines for the homeworks were possibly in the syllabus / in the online course management system, and the professor was not obliged to announce them at the end of the class. Your experience, however, might be different.
In any way, I would simply write a short note explaining that you failed to submit the homework on time, and asking for an extension / for the possibility to submit the homework. If technically possible, most professors will agree to do that.
Do not: blame the professor for not having announced the assignment. That won't take you far.