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Can people refer to me as an MD in my recommendation letter if I have already passed my professional exam but my degree is still in process?
This year I am applying to an big university's summer camp this year, and I am not really aware of how US Universities handle this situation. I am a Mexican "medical intern", I call myself like that because I know no better term to describe my degree, which would be literally translated as "In-Social Service Medical Doctor". I have already taken and passed my professional exam, but my degree is still in process, and probably (very likely) won't be ready at the submission of my papers.
If it were a Mexican institution I would just use "MPSS" (Medical Intern at Social Service by Spanish acronym). However medical intern seems like I have just finished medical school and I am at my Internship year (which it not the case, I have already finished it, thanks god).
The only question I have is: would it be recommended that my teachers to refer to me as INSTERT FULL NAME HERE M.D. or Dr. INTERT FULL NAME in my recommendation letters? if it is not, how could they call me in those letters?

I am struggling to understand exactly the position you are applying for and don't know much about the medical field, but would expect your references to refer to you on a first name basis in the letter. This seems even more likely in the case where the degree status is in flux/unclear. At some point in the letter it should probably say something like

Luis has completed their MPSS at University of Mexico, completed the internship year, and passed their professional exam. They have completed all the requirements for their doctorate in medicine and will be receiving the MD degree at the graduation ceremony in May.

Thank you for your kind response. In Mexico, virtually every recommendation letter I've read refers to the person by full name with degree, if it the person does not have an academic degree, a C. (stands for citizen) is written before the name. Is this not the way you do things in the US?

I think the practice varies from field to field. In computer science, first name is standard. Other fields may be more formal.

@LuisE Don't use any titles or letters you have not officially earned in your own system. People in the US are very familiar that the "MD" degree itself can mean a wide range of levels of medical education, a descriptive paragraph like StrongBad recommends is going to explain a lot more than inventing letters (and in your case, you may never be an MD, even after you've completed your study, if that isnt the degree you are granted) and avoids any accusation of misleading, especially if someone happens to be familiar with medical education in Mexico.

In the US, calling yourself an MD would imply and, in some places, possibly require, not only that you hold a degree, but that you also have a license from one of the State Boards as a physician. I'll guess you would have some risk using the term otherwise, even if another country recognizes you as a "Medical Doctor". In fact, many immigrants to the US holding such qualifications in their home countries can't work here as doctors (physicians) and some, unfortunately hold fairly low level positions.
There are people who work in research and hold the MD degree, but aren't licensed to practice medicine. I think they are careful to avoid getting confused with acting physicians, such as MD (Research), or some such.
But saying that you hold an MD degree from a Mexican university would be different from calling yourself an MD and listing it in your titles, I think. People would misunderstand.
On the other hand, "Dr." is ambiguous and refers to anyone holding a doctorate in any field I'm Dr. Buffy, for example, but my degree is in mathematics. But I wouldn't use even that title until the degree is formally awarded.

"In the US, calling yourself an MD would imply and, in some places, possibly require, not only that you hold a degree, but that you also have a license from one of the State Boards as a physician" - Do you have a citation for that or at least a particular example where that's true? Everywhere in the US I am aware of, the MD degree is separate from licensing, and for example I know MDs who chose to continue in research rather than medicine. They are not licensed as physicians, cannot practice medicine, but they don't lose their MD degree.

I didn't say or imply that they lose their degrees. I said that they are careful not to imply that they are "physicians" but researchers. The public generally thinks of a practicing physician when they see "MD" unless it is spelled out.

The context here is an application for some sort of professional development/conference, not the general public. Although the OP shouldn't use the MD title if they don't have it, I think you are wrong that calling yourself an MD necessarily implies you are a practicing physician and I don't think it's even relevant to the answer, so I'm a bit puzzled why it's there. MDs who are recently graduated students in the US are also MDs before they are licensed to practice medicine on their own, so it's especially wrong in a closer context to what is discussed here.

@BryanKrause, I thought it important to warn a foreign national how the use of a title might be perceived in the US. Medical doctors are very sensitive about their "status". Much more so than PhDs, for example. No one cares whether I'm called Dr. of course. But that isn't true for physicians.

Perhaps you meant to write "calling yourself a physician would imply... you have a license from one of the State Boards", then?

I would write "completed medical training (MD) in Mexico". To the public writing MD or Dr. (in a clinical context) means "can function like a doctor I know or one on TV". Residents, for example, are MDs that may have no license or limited licenses depending on the state. Once finished residency to work as an attending physician in a state you must be licensed with that Board, which certifies that you have taken and passed all necessary qualifications. (Source = I am a practicing MD PhD physician)

@AzorAhai MD is, in theory, a broader term, as there are physicians and surgeons (an older but still observed).

@mac Fair. Perhaps Buffy should write "calling yourself a physician or surgeon"


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Convert coursera courses to ECTs
TL:DR version: I took some Coursera courses, I want to know how many credits they are worth by the institution backing it up (as well as how many credits a semester they offer, preferably, in the semester they offer that course).
Full version: I know title may be a little confusing so I will clarify.
I am applying for a Master's Degree program, and the pre-requisites include mathematical knowledge. I am an MD, so math is not a big part of my undergraduate program, however I work as a developer, and there I apply mathematical principles. For this course I need to prove my knowledge on the subjects of Probability and Statistics, Linear Algebra and Calculus so I contacted the institution and they told me I could study those subjects online via Coursera. I chose my courses and I am currently studying them.
However application period has already started, and as part of pre-requisites I gotta fill a form, and some fields are about ECTs in the already mentioned subjects. I asked the institution via email how would I fill these, and they told me I can specify the course duration (in hours) and also how many credits (hours) a semester is offered in that institution, in order for them to know how many credits (ECTs) are they worth.
In this situacion, how could I know could I know how many credits a course is worth in the institution that backs up that course in Coursera? and how could I know how many credits a semester it is worth?
Specific courses are (feel free to suggest better alternatives, since I don't have to complete them due the deadline, rather I have to compromise to take them):
Linear Algebra (Matrix algebra): https://www.coursera.org/learn/matrix-algebra-engineers
The three courses in this program (calculus, linear algebra): https://www.coursera.org/learn/linear-algebra-machine-learning
Probability and Statistics: https://www.coursera.org/learn/probability-statistics?

1 ECTS credit nominally corresponds to 25-30 hours of work (depending on the country). 1 semester usually consists of 30 credits, again this might depend on the country. Since the coursera courses list the approximate time needed, you should be able to do the calculation that way.

@AzorAhai Are you sure, you are talking about ECTS and not some different credits though? There is quite some variance for a system that was supposed to make things comparable europe-wide, but 25 hours per credit seems to be the absolute lower bound: link

@mlk You know, I got ECTS and CEUs confused lol, nevermind me

Thank you very much for the kind responses. The instructions give by this institution's representative were clear. I have to write into the form how much time I spent in the course (measured by the course itself, so no problem), and also how much credits/hours that school has per semester, in order for them to calculate equivalence. My question is how could I could gather this last fact.

Usually European universities have a course schedule that shows also the European credits adjusted. You could access the website of the university that offers the course, look for the class and see in the syllabus/course content how many credits it is. Usually this is not shown in application pages but rather in tabs such as “class search” or something similar

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Is there any problem with students seeing faculty naked in university gym?
This is a strange one. I have been going to the gym 2-3 times per week for stress management. Before summer, our university made some nice offer for staff to register to the on-campus gym. So, I switched. Compared to my previous gym, I pay less money, it's more modern, and it's more convenient.
Over summer, everything was fine. I usually go at 07:30 and it's quiet. Now that the students are back, I realised that many of my graduate and undergraduate students go at the same time as well.
The showers are sex-segregated, but the problem is that the gym showers are open. Meaning that I'm bound to meet one of my students "butt-naked" in the shower. I've never been conscious about this before and I'm used to using shared showers since I was a kid (camping, sports, etc.). However, I've started thinking that meeting your PhD advisor or first year lecturer naked in the shower might lead to a slightly disturbed dynamics in the Professor-Student relationship.
Am I overthinking this? Should I just pretend I don't see anyone? I've thought of switching back to my old gym or go home to shower, but it would be very invconvenient.

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I think that if this is a shared student/faculty gym with open showers, there’s an expectation of seeing some of your fellow university goers naked. I wouldn’t worry about it. Your students are adults and this is the norm at the gym.

Students can also be very childish (I know, I was one) and can make fun of the OP. I think this is where the question is coming from. Imagine some snickering during a lecture. OP may reasonably think it's about him and be off putting and embarrassing.

i guess this really depends on your own comfort level. I personally couldn’t care less about students’ opinions about my body, but I can see why it may bother someone.

You’re not overthinking, you’re just... thinking, and that’s perfectly reasonable. However, neither were the university authorities underthinking it when they decided to set up a gym that’s open to a mixed crowd of students and faculty. Nor were they underthinking things when they wrote the faculty code of conduct (or whatever the equivalent thing is called at your institution) and did not include a prohibition on faculty using a recreational facility used by students.
The reality is that there’s a false premise floating around — a pernicious belief about professors that pops up every now and then and seems hard to shake, even for people who are themselves professors — that professors are some kind of special breed of humans, or a caste of high priests that need to set themselves apart from the rest of society. We’ve seen this come up on this site in questions about professors swimming, using dating apps and doing other completely normal and mundane activities that no other person will ever think of asking for permission to go about doing.
Well, we need to be very clear about this. This belief is completely and utterly false. Professors are ordinary humans and when they are not at work they like to do the exact same activities as everyone else does. They go to the gym, they date, they swim, they eat the same food, shop for the same groceries, etc, and they have naked bodies just like everyone else does, which they sometimes expose in (gender-segregated) showers at local gyms just like everyone else does. Anybody who has a problem with their professor doing those things needs to simply get over it.
I do understand (from experience) that for a professor in a small town you don’t necessarily always want to have a chance of running into your students everywhere you go about your daily life outside of work. If you personally prefer to work out and shower at a gym where that’s not likely to happen, that’s perfectly reasonable and fine. The point is, you should choose which gym you go to based on your own personal preference and convenience, not because of second-guessing how your students might feel about seeing you, or because of feeling hamstrung by some perceived social taboo against professors mingling with the rest of society. If such a taboo ever really existed at all, it was in some long bygone era, and the perception that remains today is simply an anachronistic vestige of those days. We need to let this misguided notion die.
TL;DR: professors are people.

I think those questions are perfectly reasonable. Professors are known among their students, in a high position of power and assumed to be somewhat intelligent/maybe an example for their students. Students often gossip about professors. While professors should not ask for "permission" for such things, they should think about what consequences their actions could have.

Two examples which are related I think and happen too often: (1) A teacher appears in their Facebook picture with a bikini and this becomes a huge public scandal. (2) Someone in a small neighborhood does not adhere to local customs (i.e. has too much/too less flowers on his balcony), leading to severe reprimanding in the neighborhood. In both cases, your points apply: The actors are no special bread and should be allowed to act like they want, but they seemingly face consequences.

@User yes, I agree the question and others like it are reasonable, and said as much in the first paragraph.

Okay, sorry, maybe I misunderstood but I don't think your TLDR is entirely correct: Professors should be treated like everyone else, but sadly, this is not always the case. And sadly, when this is not a case, a professor should think before about what consequences they might face.

@User thanks for the clarification. Well, it’s generally a good idea to think about the consequences of one’s actions - can’t disagree there. As for my TLDR, it is an unambiguous, and 100% factually correct, statement, so it sounds like you’re just interpreting it in some specific way that is different from its literal meaning. I only take responsibility for what I actually wrote. But thanks for the comments, the points you’re making are valid and useful.

Please don't take any offence from my comments, I do think your answer is a good one. However, I think it's easy to interpret the meaning from your TLDR differently than the literal meaning: Literally, it is a very obvious statement which does not answer the question. If somebody would write an answer which could be is a summarized with the literal meaning of "Professors are people" (I think a TLDR is a summary?), i think this would be a spam answer. So, I do think it is easy to interpret it as "Professors are allowed to behave like all other people", intended or not.

Yes, professors are people, and so are students. And people (both kinds) sometimes do things they shouldn’t.  Like retaliate for a bad grade by accusing someone of something.  Or taking a photo to use to pressure a professor or student for something inappropriate.  So, you may be completely proper and innocent yet still have unwanted results.

@User thanks for your comment. You do have a good point that I meant something a bit stronger than the literal meaning of “professors are people”, and in fact “professors are allowed to behave like all other people”, although it doesn’t completey capture what I was saying, comes fairly close. And I’m even willing to stand behind that statement as something that I believe is generally true, with the understanding that it’s only an approximate summary of my more detailed views and isn’t meant to be taken as a universal, absolute truth for which no exceptions could ever be found.

They absolutely were underthinking when they skimped a few dollars on partitions for the showers. Even if you're just thinking in monetary terms and not the wellbeing of your students and faculty using the gym, the lawsuit from a single bad incident will cost hundreds if not thousands of times as much as properly partitioning the showers would have.

@R.. universities do underthink sometimes, but “bad incidents” (whatever you mean by that) can happen in shower rooms with partitions as well, or outside the gym for that matter, so I have a feeling you and others are making a mountain out of a molehill here. In any case, if showers without partitions are the norm in the culture where OP is, and are seen as acceptable for a regular gym, then I don’t see why they shouldn’t be just as acceptable in a university gym setting.

"which they sometimes expose in (gender-segregated) showers" -- for that matter, if non-segregated nudity was culturally appropriate for the location of the University, then presumably professors do that, too. That is, professors are entitled to belong to the prevailing culture, whatever that culture's norms and taboos might happen to be.

@DanRomik: Such incidents might include harassment in the showers themselves, photography and distribution or threat to distribute photos, harassment in the form of later making remarks/rumors about the size or shape of someone's genitals, discrimination complaints based on certain people (e.g. those with history of assault, or those attracted to same gender, or ...) feeling unsafe or unwelcome to make equal use of the facilities, etc. etc. etc.

The whole cultural relativism thing around this is bogus. Yes, in some places people have come to realize these issues matter and in other places they haven't yet. It doesn't make both equally valid.

@R.. Thanks. I don’t have a strong opinion on such legal issues. Fortunately I am not a university administrator who needs to decide whether to install shower partitions, and neither is OP. As for OP’s actual question, your comment hasn’t caused me to reconsider my position.

I am not completely convinced, although the answer is great. Just an example: children in a family would not like to be seen naked by their parents and vice versa, even though they are all adults

@Ooker I have taken a shower and been in sauna with my mother, my father or my sister present, while the involved were adults. Sauna also with adult friends of both genders.

@TommiBrander I've never been there before, and in my country sauna isn't popular I guess (but people do know about it). Anyway, did you (your family) cover you with towels, or just let everyone see everything? (sorry if this question is impolite)

@Ooker No, towels are not used in (Finnish) sauna.

As a student, I would find it mildly uncomfortable to see a person in power over me naked, (especially if you have a different gender than me), more so if I didn't expect to see someone I know there (in big schools, I might expect to be completely anonymous). However, while this might be an embarrassing moment, I wouldn't (and no other serious person would) hold it against you that you use that gym. So, I would advise you to not overthink this and carry on as usual, but do not make the naked moment more awkward than necessary (i.e. don't start a conversation about research while naked).

I like particularly the last advise. I wouldn't start any conversation while naked in the shower. However, it reminded me of an Emeritus professor in the school when I was doing my PhD. Every time you would happen to be peeing in the men's stalls next to him, he would ask "So, how is your research going". I was going to the upper floor toilets when he was at the school to avoid this :)

Good answer, but the first parenthetical remark about different genders seems distracting - how is that relevant to OP’s scenario?

@DanRomik: Because I honestly don:t know whether or not the showers in the question are mixed genders and I do think this would add more akwardness.

@User no kidding! Well, kudos for being careful not to make any assumptions (I wish more people had that habit), but OP is in the UK so I think it’s safe to assume the showers aren’t mixed gender.

@User It's not a mixed one. Someone asked in the question comments as well. I would like to know where mixed gender shared showers at university gyms are a thing :) Nice answer anyway.

@electrique: Okay, sorry - I did apparently not read this comment. (I am also not very familiar with the existence of university gyms.) I would like to keep it in my answer, though, to make the answer more appliable, if you don't mind.

My experience with Finland is that mixed-gender saunas aren't unheard of at universities. It's a pretty relaxed environment when everyone's naked.

Even though, as a graduate student myself, seeing one of my supervisors in the shower would be a little odd, one of the things about being a graduate student is that we are [generally] mature and intelligent. It may be awkward, but the awkwardness can be reduced in two ways.

What time you go: you already go quite early in the morning. The earlier the better, you are much less likely to see students the earlier you attend. Also think about what days of the week you go. On the other hand, you may want to avoid 'planning' like this because it makes too much of a meal of the situation. If that is the case:
How you handle it: when I was at school our showers were totally open and there was no hiding. The teachers used to shower with us regularly. Even though these days this may be looked on as a little odd, back then I thought little of it because they just didn't seem to care, and also, after sports where would they shower anyway? I would suggest that your students' state of mind in the situation will be largely down to your attitude. If you just get on with it and fearlessly shower like any other man would, then there will be much less awkwardness than if you skulked to the shower and looked embarrassed.

Lastly, the very fact that you're going to the gym at all will be met with an iota of extra respect from your students.

I agree with everyone that says you're overthinking it.  The gyms at UT Austin have separate locker rooms for faculty (at least partly) for this reason.  I'm surprised your school doesn't.
There are signs up in all the locker rooms that cellphones are prohibited, and yet, there is always someone with their cellphone out.  There is potential that a disgruntled student might make a video of a professor showering and distribute it.
Additionally, professors might have some potentially physically embarrassing things (scars, adult diapers, hernia belts) which they would not want disclosed.

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Definitely overthinking it I reckon. I think your anxiety over nudity is far more self-induced rather than of actual concern for students and colleagues. Being nude is not sexual despite the media sexualizing everything. Nudism is a good example of this. Nudity does not change dynamics of the relationship.
Sexual interest and sexualized behaviour is far more significant than nudity. I remember seeing a couple of studies where the impact of involuntary indicators of interest such as pupillary dilation, flush skin etc was more significant than the lipstick, short skirt, etc. I can't seem to find the studies now but the principal seem helpful.

I think this is pretty much down to the policy at each university. Similarily here in the U.K., even in secondary schools we have such policies. My advice would be to check on those.

What kind of policies? In the UK university in which I worked the staff was welcome to use the sports centre and it was welcome to join the student sport clubs. Arguably, I was just a postdoc, so the students didn't really care, I was just 10-15 y older, not their prof, but I am not aware of any policy that would prevent teaching staff joining as well. In some clubs (judo) the profesors played an important role. I didnjt notice any separate changing rooms or showers.

I am in a UK university and there is no such policy for the gym. Could you point what you mean?

If there is no policy, then it's not an issue. Period. If I am being honest, I'd not be surprised. As what the OP is asking, it should be common sense.

If it's explicitly allowed, then there is a policy to allow it, regardless of whether there's a document somewhere with "Staff Showering Policy" written at the top :-) "No policy" would only be the case if it had literally never occurred to anyone that employees might use the gym, and the whole hierarchy of the university gets blindsided when someone does...

If you're feeling uncomfortable/unsure enough about it that you have to ask, then yes, there is a problem. Not a problem that means that you shouldn't use them if you decide you want to, but a problem in that the facilities in the way they're offered create uncomfortable or outright unsafe situations for some students and faculty in a way that unfairly impacts their access. As I noted in comments on Dan Romik's answer, the university was

underthinking when they skimped a few dollars on partitions for the showers. Even if you're just thinking in monetary terms and not the wellbeing of your students and faculty using the gym, the lawsuit from a single bad incident will cost hundreds if not thousands of times as much as properly partitioning the showers would have.
Such incidents might include harassment in the showers themselves, photography and distribution or threat to distribute photos, harassment in the form of later making remarks/rumors about the size or shape of someone's genitals, discrimination complaints based on certain people (e.g. those with history of assault, or those attracted to same gender, or ...) feeling unsafe or unwelcome to make equal use of the facilities, etc. etc. etc.

At the very least, if you do choose to use such facilities, as a person in a position of power over some of the other students you might meet naked there, you need to be aware of these dynamics and ensure that you're not doing anything that could make them worse.
If it were me, I would complain to the appropriate administrator about these issues and decline to use the facilities unless/until partitioned or fully private shower spaces were available.
On a final note, I've seen a lot of sentiment in comments/answers that this is a matter of what's appropriate in local culture. That's bollocks. Yes, in some places there's a general awareness of all of the concerns I described above (and probably others I missed), along with efforts to mitigate them, and in other places people are expected to just "toughen up" or "deal with it". That doesn't mean both are equally valid. There is no cultural context in which nobody could possibly feel unsafe or uncomfortable in this situation (even if most people don't), so there's no cultural context in which it's just fine. There are just cultural contexts where the majority of people don't care that it's not fine for others.

Regarding culture, it's one of those irregular nouns. "I/we have a rational response to a situation that is potentially uncomfortable for some people", "you have a taboo", "he/she/they have a superstition". Even if your conviction is correct that e.g. nude sauna-ing in Finland isn't fine because it restricts access, I don't think the different approach has anything to do with "toughening up" and "dealing with it".

If the gym showers have curtains (or doors) you can slide them to block the view while you are showering. In addition, outside the showers you can use the towel to cover your private parts to reduce the exposure.

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Is it ethical to accept small gifts from students? And how small is small?
Is it ethical to accept small gifts from students? In past years I have one or two students have given me small gifts, generally a box of chocolates. I judge the size of gifts on my international beer scale, where things that cost less than 4 beers, (maybe 10 USD) are small token gifts. These have always fallen into the small token gift category. I have typically either left these in my office and shared with people or in bountiful years brought them into the lab or school office. This year I have received over a dozen boxes of chocolates from undergraduate students. Individually each box is still small, but in total the gifts are no longer small. All but two of the gifts were from graduating students. I realised I don't have a well defined personal policy about accepting gifts and I am not sure the university has a policy either.
What should you do when students offer you gifts?

IANAL, but the beer scale seems like as valid a measure as any. I would not be overly concerned about boxes of chocolate, as long as it's not of the Swiss variety (http://www.spruengli.ch). Those can easily blow the beer scale wide open, and move into Single Malt territory :)

Related: On giving gifts to LOR writers

Please.. As a student, I really wish my advisor could accept the small gift, as it is just a sincere appreciation out of my heart. :)

This surely depends on where you are.  I guess it is common in China and Korea for students to give gifts to their professors.

UK: strongly not accepting. If I would get a gift, even if I would be able to keep it because it's small, I have to fill a declaration form, no matter how small it is. It's extra work and any pleasure it would give turns into displeasure. Even before the rule was introduced, I was not particularly comfortable with receiving anything even after my interaction with students was complete - this rule now makes it natural for me to refuse.

In the general case, professors/lecturers/TAs should not accept gifts from students, as these things can lend themselves very easily to accusations of conflict of interest. This falls in the same general category as dating one of your students, or grading your kid's exam.
That said, I can think of three situation where gifts are acceptable.
(1) a graduating student gets you something nice after graduation (e.g., in the department where I did my PhD, it is normal for students and advisors to exchange gifts after a successful doctoral defense).
(2) a current student makes a "collective gift", e.g., a student brings a cake to class to celebrate his/her birthday and offers you a slice.
(3) you go through some major life event and students pitch in to get you something, e.g., when I came back to work after having to get major surgery, the grad students in my department got me a nice coffee machine to celebrate that I hadn't died.

I think it is very different from dating and grading. You can gracefully decline a invitation for a date or recuse oneself from grading. Turning down a gift is often seen as rude.

@StrongBad And accepting a gift can be seen in a negative light as well. Perhaps not by the person giving the gift, but by others.

(1) sounds nice in theory, but isn't very practical in settings where (typically found with Bachelor/Master graduation theses in my experience) the student meets the supervisor for the last time on the day of submitting the thesis, or on the day of a final presentation, and the grade is only decided upon afterwards and sent to the student by mail, often after the student has moved away from the city or even the country.

Th' good news is that some institutions, including mine, prohibit faculty from accepting gifts from students.  That makes declining gifts easy, and any rudeness can be deflected toward the institution itself.  "I appreciate the thought, and thank you for it, but the rules of the university prevent me from accepting gifts."

I will disagree slightly with some of the previous answers. I come from a health-care perspective. A great deal of papers discuss the ethical/moral ramifications of accepting gifts from patients and subordinates and students/trainees. I will say up-front that I believe accepting valuable gifts from students is a problem and should be avoided in the vast majority of circumstances. In contrast, I do not ALWAYS see a problem with accepting small gifts from students/patients. Offering a gift is typically a way to express some appreciation and accepting the gift is a way to express your appreciation of the appreciation. Rejecting the gift can be slightly insulting and harm student-teacher rapport. Coming off in a stand-offish way to one student can have long-lasting implications.
I had two experiences where a student offered me a small basket of cookies and another offered a decoration with a value of 10$. I kindly told them no thank you, but they insisted. I insisted no thank you again, and they re-insisted. I know if I said no once again, she would have been insulted. It alienates the student and puts me in an awkward position of being an authoritarian person who cannot participate in typical activities (i.e., doing/accepting small favours). A teacher is not a friend, and that should be clear, but a teacher can still be warm, and approachable.
In essence, the benefits of accepting a gift (e.g., increasing approachability, seeming nice/human) can often outweigh the potential costs (which are often negligible if the gift is of nominal value). This is, of course, on a case by case basis. It might be appropriate in some contexts (e.g., very small class, clinical supervision) but not others (e.g., very large class). As is often the case, judgment is needed.

I mentioned this in another comment; I tell students that it is the policy of the University that faculty not accept gifts.  That way, it is not I who turned them down.

Yes if that is the case then its a very easy solution!

To me it is a balancing act between me feeling uncomfortable accepting the gift and making the giver feel uncomfortable rejecting the gift. This year it was the number of gifts that made me feel uncomfortable.

I have students bringing me gifts quite often. Like Stephan Kolassa, I am quite uncomfortable with it. I am made even more uncomfortable by the fact that in the local culture (not my native culture) it is common for subordinates to bring gifts to their boss, which seems to me like a continued corruption to keep ones job.
As should be obvious to anyone in a position in power, people subject to that power think it is great to be able to buy preferential treatment. Some of my students get chauffered to school in very expensive cars (>$100,000) so I am sure they have the money to give as expensive of a gift as they feel.
However, as the one in power, I must keep this tendency in check. I, therefore, simply do not accept gifts from individual students. Period. I do, however, accept gifts if they are from the entire class and presented by the "leader of the class" which all classes here have.
There are limits on what I would accept from the class but that has never been in question. The biggest gift I've received would set each student back $1. And to be clear, I would never accept cash or something very similar to cash.

+1 for I do, however, accept gifts if they are from the entire class and presented by the "leader of the class" which all classes here have. I'll forward this answer to my local friends here.

One of the circumstances when I see no problem in accepting a gift is when the gift has no monetary value.
I was offered once a polystyrene toroidal earth at the end of a geometry class, whose cost was only a little time and effort. I accepted it as a token of gratitude and see no problem with that. I was sort of a TA, and I was not grading the students (not that it would have affected my grading, but still an important note). It sits in my office from then, and reminds me that teaching well can be well-appreciated.

I'm surprised that so far noone mentioned that the acceptable ethics are possibly spelled out as legally binding rules.
Giving something to a university teacher is totally unusual here (Germany). It is less unusul that a school class (or the parents) gives something to a teacher they had for years when the teacher will not teach the class any longer. But this is actually a situation where the legal rules can be more strict than what many people would intuitively consider OK
(see also this poll.)
Which is why I mention this here.

E.g. I live in Thuringia, Germany. Rules for employees of the state of Thuringia are in general are that anything above 25 EUR always needs explicit permission. And anything that is close to money is always inacceptable (including e.g. entrance tickets, gift cards/vouchers).
 Rules can be more strict for certain types of employees, e.g. School teachers in Thuringia need to obtain permission for anything with the exception of gifts that are of idealistic (?) value only.
Anti-corruption rules are something that every employee has to sign. Also, the TVL trade agreement I signed with my work contract states as "default value" that I'm not allowed to accept anything that is related to my work without permission. However, "automatic permissions" can be granted for small things. (e.g. the 25 € in the paragraph above).
Some universities (in other states) have spelled out lists of what they consider so small that the permission is granted automatically such as: "collective" flowers from your colleagues for birthday, or the evaluation copy of a book that you review, pen with an advertisement on it.

Fortunately for everyone involved, I am not a professor. I would be very uncomfortable even with "small" gifts (what's small for a professor with a salary could make quite a dent in some students' budgets).
There is a slippery slope involved here, and I personally would rather avoid even having to think about this by laying down extremely simple rules. For instance, I kind of like this:

If I see you out on the town or at a sports bar, and you want to buy
  me a drink, you cannot currently be in my classes or ever take any of
  my classes again. Then probably you can buy me a drink.

I'd probably suggest that if anyone does want to express their appreciation of something I did, an email would be quite enough and would of course be very welcome. If someone does feel the compulsion to spend money, they could always donate to their favorite charity.

(+1) for the link to Palmer's blog. My favorite : "If you are failing this course, do not make sly little suggestions about what you might do to earn a passing grade. You are failing the course — why should I think your performance would be better in any other areas? Besides, I'm too old to care." Old age may make it easier to comment on sexual innuendo, but the grace and ingenuity with which Palmer uses it to pass the message "I am here for education and knowledge, period" is formidable.

That is why I use my 4-beer rule since I believe that all students in the UK can sacrifice 4 beers without making a dent in their budget.

Do you suggest to preemptively make a comment about your gift accepting policy or only when someone offers you a gift?

@StrongBad: I think a handout laying down a couple of basic rules along the lines of Palmer's open letter to his students (if maybe not quite so detailed) makes a lot of sense, and an item about gifts fits in well there.

I occasionally give small gifts or presents1 to the students in my upper division classes---things like the specialized pads that are common in my field but the students are not familiar with (they cost a few dollars each and the students are unlikely to buy the without having tried them).
So rather than the beer scale, I use my donations to the class as a measure: if I could not afford to give something of similar value to every student in the presenter's class then it represents a problem.
None-the-less I am still a little uncomfortable with anything coming from a single student or small group of students. What is true for Ceasar's wife is still more true for Ceasar.

1 Here I make a distinction between "gift" and "present" that I read somewhere. A gift is something you give because you think the recipient will get enjoyment out of it but would not buy it for themselves. A present is something you give them because you think they should have it.

Out of curiosity, what exactly are those pads?

They are often called engineering pads. Low glare so that they are easy on the eyes and the grid from the back shows though so you can use it without it cluttering up your drawing.

Oh, ok, so a technical drawing thing.

I think it's ethical, but I work hard never to accept gifts from students, past or present.
Present students
The reason not to accept gifts from present students is multifaceted:

It sets up the possibility of a conflict of interest.  I want to be as objective as possible in evaluating students and structuring my courses.
It might signal to other students that they should consider giving gifts as well.

Past students
I don't accept gifts from past students as well because even past students still have professional connections with faculty:

I get often recommendation/reference requests about past students.  I have had at least one case where a weak student gave a gift in my name and then asked me for a recommendation letter for a job.
There are reasonable and more appropriate ways for students to demonstrate support for their alma maters (e.g. making a donation to the school/college/department).
It might set up the expectation among students that they should give me gifts.

You are never obligated to write a recommendation.  You _are_obliged to discuss things with the student or former student if you cannot give a good recommendation.

Agreed ... but if you accept a gift and then write a recommendation, I would argue that your support is tainted.

Agreed... but... You should never write a bad recommendation, so if you wouldn't write a recommendation before the gift, you shouldn't write one after, either.  Problem solved.
I just tell students it's the policy of the institution that faculty not accept gifts.  That way, it is not I who turned them down.

@BobBrown we are required by the university to write a "no-liability" recommendation letter for all of our students. The letter, is essentially useless and simply states facts like student X took class Y and received mark Z.

@BobBrown the issue might be where someone did gift and got a letter (on merit). Later there could be rumours the letter was not on merit but because of that artsy thing the student gifted. I'm not saying this is likely, but it is something that could happen.

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text:
Is it OK to publish a book as an undergraduate?
I am a CS student at 4th year in my university. I have done a lot of real-world projects, worked as a freelancer for many years, and have released a lot of software in use by thousands of people. I believe I have good experience about topics which I am interested in.
My question is about whether writing a book about those topics and publishing it in my name would be a good idea? I heard that whatever undergrads write in Academia is not considered reliable/trustworthy. And that even if the thing you write was actually very good, people would still not rely on it. Is this is true?
Is there a possible way to publish a book as an undergraduate student? I would like to write the book now because I feel it is so needed by my local community (non-English). We have a very limited number of books in this field. And I don't think I'll have the same amount of time as when I graduate.

Raffi Grinberg's The Real Analysis Lifesaver, published in 2017 by Princeton University Press and which is essentially his 2012 undergraduate senior thesis at Princeton, seems relevant to what you're asking about. I'm sure there are many other examples, but this came to my mind because I recently purchased the book.

@DaveLRenfro If I was tutoring for a class on real analysis I would probably advise my students against buying such a book.

In the worst case you got a lot of training for your next book. So, go for it. :)

"Is this is true?" – If it is, then it's time to turn the tides.

Teddy Roosevelt wrote ornithology books before he graduated college and look where he ended up!

“I heard that whatever undergrads write in Academia is not considered reliable/trustworthy” Why do you assume your book is going to be an academic book? Why not a “commercial” book? Or high-school oriented?

@DaveLRenfro I would have to agree with Pedro on that one. That book is a far cry from the two other "Lifesaver" books both in terms of quality and depth. I'm surprised PUP agreed to publish it (internal connections seem to have paid off in that case). You could make an argument that the book is helpful, but it's hardly even a book on what it purports to be...real analysis. He even says his exposition is based on Rudin's POMA. Who only covers the first 3 chapters of POMA for real analysis? That book is a bad example of quality undergrad writing paying off I think.

@PedroTamaroff You would dismiss literature solely on the basis that it was written by someone who has yet to finish their education, without first assessing the quality of the work for yourself?

@Cronex No. I scanned the book before posting that comment.

@Pedro Tamaroff: I just posted some critical comments about Grinberg's book in my answer to Proof analysis in Zorn's “Understanding real analysis”?

@Daniel W. Farlow: I just posted some critical comments about Grinberg's book in my answer to Proof analysis in Zorn's “Understanding real analysis”?

Go for it, and see whether you can get one of your professors to do a technical review.  That technical review, acknowledged in the preface, will lend weight to your book.  If you have professors who speak your language, think about co-authors.
Do not, however, expect to make money.  Only blockbuster textbooks make significant money for their authors.  Also, beware vanity publishing, where you pay the publisher rather than the reverse.
If you write the book, Amazon will let you make it available free or very cheap.  (That's true for English language books; you'll need to check about other languages.)

Amazon / Createspace is a good option for those who want to publish a vanity project or any project that a publisher won't pick up, much cheaper to start out than vanity publishing https://www.createspace.com/

Createspace no longer exists as a separate entity, having been rolled into Kindle Direct Publishing.  Amazon remains the easiest way to get a paperback or eBook "out there."  A search on "Kindle direct supported languages" will provide information for languages other than English.

IMHO, it doesn't matter whether you are an undergrad or a professor when it comes to writing books; what matters is whether the material you would like to share has some value for readers. If you strongly and rationally believe in your book idea, approach book publishers with a comprehensive book proposal.
Some considerations:

Objective Be clear about the motivation and objective behind writing the book. Do you want to share knowledge in a systematic manner and/or you want to make money. Be aware that books will not earn you a lot of money unless it becomes a blockbuster.
Time/Effort Book writing is a long and demanding process. Do you have sufficient time to work on it (considering you are a student presently)?
Skills Assess your skills. Assuming you know technical stuff, can you express your thoughts decently in words. If you are writing, for example, blogs that are received well by your target audience, you should be fine.
Market research Carry out some market research. Try to state in words what your book will provide which is not really provided by the existing books.

And, as a converse to point 3, if you're not yet writing a blog but you have a bunch of material that you think will be relevant to your target audience, then that is an excellent way to start. This will (i) help you practice writing, (ii) allow you to gauge your audience's reaction to your writing and the material, (iii) make it much easier to show a publisher that there is a market for the book, (iv) get you name recognition, making easier for the book to find its mark, (v) provide a good basis of material that can then be incorporated into the book, (cont.)

and (vi) possibly be more useful as a long-lasting resource CV-wise than the book itself, particularly if you can build it into "I run one of the main programming blogs in X language". That makes it a win-win-win-win-win-win situation, no? (Keep in mind these types of considerations, of course, but if done with appropriate care it can work well.)

Other answers have touched upon this a bit, but I think it matters greatly whether you self-publish or not. If you can get your book published by a reputable press, then it will surely help you. If you self-publish then it could hurt you by making you seem naive about academic publishing and making you seem overly egotistical if the book isn’t high quality. Whether this will be the perception will depend a lot on whether there is original content and if that original content is seen as having value — but if you can’t get published by a reputable publisher the assumption will (rightly or wrongly) likely be that the book lacks such value. If there is original research that is publishable, but maybe not a whole book’s worth, you might be better served by submitting an article to a journal/conference.
However, it sounds like your main motive is to make existing material available to audiences who speak a different language. If that is the case then being fairly conservative with what you write, making it more a textbook than a research manuscript, can help you (assuming it’s done reasonably well). What I would do in such a situation is to list it in your CV under “service to the profession”. This will avoid giving the impression that you take it to be serious original research (assuming it isn’t), and show that you care about making the relevant knowledge more easily accessible to speakers of the relevant language. In such a case, though, it might also make sense to simply produce a translation of the sort of work you think is lacking (with permission of the author and publisher, of course).

Indeed, watch out for disreputable publishers!

I would like to write the book now because I feel it is so needed by
  my local community (non-English).

On the one hand, if you write an original text it seems somewhat limiting to do it for the sole purpose of helping your native language speakers. On the other hand, if you're not writing a book on an original idea (i.e., a more general textbook) then it seems like translating existing publications, with all of the different revisions they've had by now, would be best.

I wouldn't recommend that. Translating is harder than simply knowing both languages, and I'd strongly recommend translation classes prior to attempting such a project. I'd also recommend a lawyer to deal with the copyright process as you need permission to mess with someone else's work, at least in most cases. And that legality mess is why it's generally more feasible to reinvent the wheel.

@Christopher in some cases there are good “open source” textbooks, often having developed from lecture notes, that a professor makes freely available and can get to be widely used. In such cases you’d only have to contact the author for permission. As long as you promise to make the translation freely available, I’d expect most of these authors would agree. Of course, your points about the difficulty of translation still hold. But, assuming OP has learned the subject from (lets assume) English source material, and they’re competent enough to write a book on  it in in their native language,...

...I’d think they’d be able to produce a decent, if not 100% faithful translation. Or does that strike you as overly optimistic?

I used to work in publishing so I'll add my perspective. If I'm less sure about certain things, I'll say so.
First: why do you want to write a book? If it's for academic reasons (as in, help you find a PhD, etc), I'm not sure how much publishing a book will actually help your career. It certainly can't hurt, and will probably help, but exactly how much it will help I don't know. If it helps only a little it might not be worth doing - you could spend the time on another research project for example and that would directly help you if you continue on the academic path.
If you're doing this for financial reasons then I must say that you're not likely to make a lot of money. A lot depends on what type of book you write, but for monographs, don't expect to make more than a couple of thousand USD at best. If you write a textbook and it sells really well, then you can make some real money, but the odds of that happening are very low because the prestige of the author is a key factor in how well a textbook does. The same goes for popular-level books. I can practically guarantee that a book written by Stephen Hawking will sell well no matter what the topic is or even how well it's written, but the same probably doesn't apply to you. As an order of magnitude estimate, you might expect to sell ~500 copies of such a book.
Finally if you're doing this for altruistic reasons then there's really nothing stopping you. Do whatever makes you happy!
Second: about whether or not a major commercial publishing house is likely to agree to publish your book, as I mentioned, a key factor in how well a book does is the identity of the author. A lot of buyers will only buy a book if the author is an expert. A commercial publishing house is likely to decline immediately unless you have the credentials to back up whatever you're writing. This is conditional on what you're writing about - e.g. if you're writing a GRE solutions manual and you've been accepted by Harvard as a PhD student, then you have the credentials to write the book. It sounds like you're writing a book intended for CS academics however, in which case an undergraduate degree isn't impressive. You write that you've done a lot of real world projects as well as written code used by thousands of people. That sounds like you got substantial work experience before or during undergraduate studies. If you have held senior positions at major companies, then they might be willing.
Real life example: once my former publisher was approached by several undergraduates with a book proposal. We refused, unless their professor was willing to put his name on it, and we also wanted their professor as the first author. It wasn't fair since the professor wrote virtually nothing in the book, but it's what we requested. If you do take up such an option then you can expect a royalty rate of ~10% of net sales receipts.
You'll probably have a better chance with university presses, since university presses aren't as focused on making a profit. If your university has a university press, that's the first publisher I'd approach.
Third: self-publishing. If you self-publish, you'll have to do everything yourself (or engage a freelancer). It's not just writing - you have to do the typesetting, design the book cover, design the title pages, liaise with the printers, and finally talk to booksellers to get them to sell your book. It is a substantial amount of work. Are you sure you want to do this? (See what I wrote above about simply doing another research project)
Having said that, self-publishing also gives you flexibility because you can put in as much time or as little time as you want. A commercial publisher will go through the book and correct typographical errors (e.g. changing >> to ≫). If you don't care about that you can just leave it. A commercial publisher might advertise the book in flyers sent to university libraries worldwide; if you don't care you could also just send the book to Amazon and leave it at that. Of course, the more time you put in the more copies of the book you'll sell.
Finally if you do decide to go ahead, then the thing to do is to go to the publisher's website and look for a book proposal form. An example from Springer: https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/book-authors-editors. You'll need basic details - the title of your book, the estimated number of pages, the table of contents, and so on. You'll also need your CV, and probably a sample chapter as well. Depending on whether the publisher gets formal peer review for the proposal, it can be up to 2 months before you hear back. Peer review for books is similar to that for journal articles, except the reviewer probably doesn't have your entire manuscript and will make general comments instead (e.g. "I think you should focus on this topic, one chapter isn't enough"). If the publisher is willing, they'll prepare a contract for you. Once that's signed, you're good to go.

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Graduate level advising - how to put limits to the nature of questions and make students independent?
I just started advising graduate level students, but I am having a lot of problems. I thought I would be a patient, understanding, helpful advisor but really I am being tested.
One of the students only copies things, she did some literature review and presented it, fine, but when I ask the finer details it is clear that she hasn't grasped concepts that she presented. I talk about the problem that we will work on and hope she will grasp the big picture, but then when she struggled, I thought maybe we should start small. So I gave her a machine learning task, straightforward task, gave her resources. Nothing. She says she doesn't understand how it is related (literally only difference is the dimensions of the data, but she has difficulty grasping high dimensions of data and doesn't see it is just a matter of array size). Then I found her a tutorial, step-by-step, which uses an identical format of data, I asked her to try to understand and write a report so we can talk about it (when I don't ask for something concrete she just doesn't do anything, I asked her earlier for progress email exchanges and she just went missing). For this tutorial, where each line of code is explained, each line of data is explained, she still asked a million questions (only on the format of the data, nothing about machine learning part). I answered patiently, and asked her to please please try to "understand" what we are trying to solve. About her data questions, I sent her a million links to show all she has to do is "google", it is a famous dataset, there are even discussions about it on kaggle. Honestly, this blows my mind because this is not something even undergraduates should ask. Just file operations, she asks "do I use this file" or that file as input without considering what we are solving. So for the report, she sent it the next day, seemingly just translated the tutorial. And I explained her, it is not homework, but it is to help her understand. She said she can't meet online when I offered to talk about what she learned etc. Anyway, I asked her to move on to our dataset keeping this example in mind. And she asked me a million data format, file reading questions. For the sake of moving on, I wrote a very detailed guide (which I really shouldn't have to), and now she did like one step and asks me if it is correct.
I followed a similar route with another student, and when we did a meeting on a small task he was supposed to work on (image classification), it was clear that he learnt -nothing- at all although he had running code. I mean nothing about how the example works. He just repeatedly talked nonsense about input/output and neurons mimicking the brain when I asked what a convolutional layer does. I said it is okay to say that he doesn't know if he doesn't know, and I explained it to him. But, all book and video resources I sent him has this information and he had 2 months on this.
The first student was assigned to me because I was told she had a high GPA and I needed to graduate a graduate level student asap so that I can rise etc etc. (Really not something I care about, but the school does this for everyone who just started a position) She seemed very eager but I am beginning to doubt she has ever written code for a project.
On the other hand, I accepted the other student because he was so keen to learn machine learning, and also because he is an international student (not many people in the dept are open to international students other than me). None of these are project hires. I try my best to tell them that they need to do research, they need to work on novelty, they need to understand the theory and inner workings of machine learning.
**- Can I outright tell them that there is a limit to what I will answer? That I am not expected to answer all their questions? And I really shouldn't? What is the opinion on this? I don't think for a graduate level student, I should be wasting time on file operation. More importantly, I need the students to think on what we are trying to solve, so that they will know what they need as input. I want them to think about it and understand it, I showed them the way but they just won't walk from there. How to not be a jerk but communicate this if they aren't responding to my requests for them to try to understand what we are trying to solve, draw connections with other works, study inner-workings of theoretical concepts **

Obviously, I can't give a whole lecture on the topic, so they need to learn these on their own.

My plans for a journal club seems delusional right now.

On another note, I have undergrads who had failed the graduation design project before (so not the typical "best student" profile), but passed the last semester with flying colors when they worked with me, and they never tired me as much. We worked closely and they were able to complete all the tasks, understand inner workings, even add their own contributions. I made them explain each line of code they wrote, when I asked them to make changes in a short time they were responsive, and they thanked me for my interest and for helping them learn from scratch.

This sounds like a terrible situation to be in, and I'm not sure what anyone here can say that would be of much help beyond providing some sympathy. However, there are some things you could include to provide a bit more context. Are you new to this university? If so, what was it like where you were at previously (whether as a student, postdoc, or teacher)? What have your colleagues said about these concerns? And if you haven't asked any, why not? Are these Masters students or Ph.D. students? Do your students have qualifying exams they need to pass? If so, then maybe that's their main concern.

Yes, I am new to the university. I did my MS and PhD in US, in an ambitious lab so it was quite different. I am aware of the limitations and I don't expect the same from them as my supervised expected from me. I literally started the position with covid, so my exchanges with the colleagues were limited. One of them tells me that our students are not ambitious so I should lower expectations, another only accepts students that he had lectured (which makes sense now). These are MS students, so I am aware they might be academically inclined.

Lowering expectations is okay, but there is no way we can progress if we can't move past a few file operations needed to prepare input to a ML model. I honestly don't know how she has a high GPA, my guess is that she was just lucky in group projects, because if anything, she needs to complete a graduate design project for the undergrad (and possibly a lot more in courses). And she said she did a ML project last semester, I kind of checked what she did and saw all code was pushed to github by another project member.

There is no qualifying exam for MS. She presented her literature review and it was enough for the department. Just after a week of presentation she didn't know the details she presented. Not all students are like this btw, another student had already started working on his method and showed us the demo of what he had so far. I have to put some ground rules I suppose on whom I will advise, but students need to find advisors eventually.

I just get the impression that the students think they will graduate if they do some "homework" and check some boxes, but it is not the case. We are working on a benchmark model, and they need to go beyond that for graduate study if they are doing a thesis (different than project). It is hard to tell them this when they won't catch the clues, and I see myself soon turning into one of those mean advisors which I really don't want to.

correction:  I am aware they might -not- be academically inclined.

It is tied to ML, in fact the input is an insignificant part to her project. I also doubt it is what you are suggesting, all she needs to do is to combine the features, and labels according to the index of training and test datasets and read them in, these information is spread out to different txt files and she needs to combine them. Obviously this is confusing because she thinks there is always an input "file" to a model and that is it, which really worries me. It is not big data or anything.

I actually think the journal club might help. Regular meetings prevent the disappearing act. Another trick is to just be less accessible. Get the students used to the idea that you'll help them X number of times between meetings, and expect results at meetings (X can go to zero when they get stronger. I'd start at X=2).

Thanks, maybe I will start a journal club without the journals. I can ask them to study a topic and present it in the beginning. Asking them to read a journal and present it sounds so unrealistic right now. I have also set up a Slack channel for them to connect with each other but they don't even use it.

And I did try to suggest nicely that she should be able do research independently, browse resources, make mistakes and learn without waiting an approval from me at every step, and it is actually important for her to draw connections with the examples etc. and she sent me a backslash email saying if I am an expert she could as well learn by asking me so she can do it quickly, she also said she is moving forward so slowly because I don't just tell her what she needs to do exactly (after being missing for 2 months). So much attitude, this will be tough.

Well I basically repeated what I said, told her it is important for her to learn and draw conclusions, and then asked her to prepare the input as she thinks is fit for the model, and also I asked for a working model with results. I said we can have a meeting then and I can explain further if needed. A bit counter-intuitive I would think but hope it will work.

Advising students is not easy for a beginner. I have tried and failed myself more then once, and I'm still amazed of the many ways one can fail at the task.
What you need to do:

set a schedule
set objectives for each
set expectations
set clear deadlines
advise students, never work for them
do not allow students to control your schedule
be ready to drop some of them.

One rule of thumb is to make the students work. Whatever you do, they should be forced to learn and do things. Another rule is to set your limits and rules clearly. Then have group meetings if you're allowed to, and make the journal club part of it.
From my PhD, I learned best everything that my adviser refused to do for me. You want them to learn a technique, you give them a starting paper, and a small assignment based on that paper. You do not answer questions, unless you see some honest work done by them trying to find the answer to that question first. Here, on the site, they close your questions if they feel you didn't do some research on your own first. They are graduate students, and just googling some terms is not good enough research. Whatever you do, you should not do their work just to "move on". You have your own work to move on, and their work is their responsibility.
You should limit your meetings with them, unless you feel you need their help with something. If they need help with something, you should remember you're not their technical support. Help as an adviser: suggest papers, suggest possible approaches, but do not do their work. They should be writing guides and documentation, not you.
Group meetings are important. You're presiding over them. Each of them has their own assignment, and should have something to show for it. Some slides, a demo, some results, code. You can also present your own stuff as an example.
You can also have your journal club. Assign papers yourself, at the beginning. Every group meeting could start with one of them presenting a paper. You need to present yourself one, to set an example.
You should not be overly critical of their performance. With the students you described, it's easy to say they do everything wrong. Instead, just pick on one defect of their work, or presentation, and bring it up until it disappears. And when it does, congratulate them on job well done specifically mentioning what they did right.
I think you should think of yourself as a gym coach who is paid to get a bunch of morbidly obese people in shape. You need to take it easy, and realize they might not want to work that hard. Also, if you go too hard on them, they might get seriously injured. But, for them to lose the weight, they do need to work, and no amount of running that you do for them, no amount of saying that you say to them is going to do it. In other words, this pressure to graduate someone as soon as possible is misplaced. I think it's better to give them progressively hard tasks starting at the level of their course work. You also need to be patient. Some need more time, some are too immature, and some may not care.
If it is to set rules, you should make sure your students attend the meetings and do the tasks. Also they need to respect your schedule. They do not schedule meetings. They can ask, but you decide. Then if they consistently miss meetings and deadlines, you should simply drop them. You should not be afraid of that.
Dropping students is not something they or you should take personal. It doesn't they are weak. Maybe you just couldn't teach them effectively. Maybe they didn't like you. It is possible that they go work for someone else and they do very well there.


text:
Should I give professor gift at the beginning of my PhD?
I will be in a PhD program in Germany in which the first year of the program consists of only studying courses under several different professors.
Some people suggested me that I should give gift to the professors with whom I had interview with at the beginning of my PhD. Should I do it? Would it be misunderstood as bribing?

You could give a few snacks from your home country to the group (it is not uncommen that there is a joint coffee break).

lalala's suggestion is nice because it's polite and warm, but doesn't give the impression of giving a gift to one person on whom one will be dependent.

@PieterNaaijkens: slightly varying as the different Länder can have different rules for their public servants. E.g. Hessen says: 20 €, Berlin has limits of 5 and 10 €. In any case: never in relation to their job e.g. as your examiner.

@cbeleites Berlin very rightly put a limit on gifts of 5 and 10 EUR, but if you'll throw in an airport, they'll accept ;-)

@CaptainEmacs: they wouldn't know one if they saw one...

@cbeleites Oh, they do - after all, some people suspect that one reason for the failure of the new one is that some people rather keep the old small one in the north (Tegel). Surely this is not the only reason, but quite a few improper background motives seem to abound in Berlin; it is quite surprising that they so ostentatiously pretend to be strict on trifles such as these gifts and so obviously ultra-permissive on the big stuff.

This looks like an Asia/European culture clash.  In Asia, gifts to superiors are almost expected.  In Europe, they are seen as almost bribery and discouraged.  The OP doesn't indicate their country but I would suspect they are from Asia where it would be the norm to give gifts.

just out of curiosity, which country do you come from?

Leaving aside legalities, that feels out of place to say at least. Do a decent work as a PhD student; that's the best they can hope for .

@lalala Perfect comment that you should turn into an answer!

@SteveShipway: Asia is huge! In Korea, teachers and professors aren't allowed to receive any gift. I receive sometimes snack from students and my gf always jokes she should report me. In practice, bribery still happen in secret though.

@cbeleites: what does a limit of 5 and 10 euros mean?

Taladris: they seem to distinguish different categories of gifts. Just looked it up again and it turned out the newspaper article where I got those numbers is outdated (https://www.welt.de/regionales/berlin/article113406152/Geschenke-Regel-fuer-Landesmitarbeiter-verschaerft.html): They raised it to 10 € for a gift by a single person and 30 € for gift by a group (e.g. class) for teachers (https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/schule/neue-regelung-berliner-lehrer-duerfen-kuenftig-teurere-geschenke-annehmen/13401252.html). (Both school teachers and university teachers are employees of the Land)

(Answer from Germany)
Don't do this. Even small personal gifts in this situation are unusual here and may indeed create a "fishy" taste.
German professors are public officials and public servants (so also other employees at university) are subject to strict anti-corruption rules.
If you get an employment contract as PhD student, you'll also have to sign these rules  among tons of other paperwork.

As soon as there is a relation to their office (e.g. the professor being one of your examiners for some exam such as your PhD defense), any kind of gift is a big no-no.
And not only before the marks are given, this is still true afterwards (even after prof retires!).
This makes a gift at the beginning of your PhD at the very least awkward. Not as bad as directly before the defense, but still...
For other occasions, where the general opinion is that they are harmless small gifts are OK (e.g. in Hessen < 20 €, but e.g. Berlin < 5 or 10 €).
Think along the lines of being allowed to have some of the coffee, cookies or sandwiches another institute/company paid for during the project meeting. Or someone offering a ride to the train station.  Or pens, paper and/or a coffee mug at a trade fair.
If it is or looks more valuable, the receiver has to announce this gift to their boss or to anti-corruption administration who then decide what to do with it.
This of course creates burocratic hassle, so isn't appreciated.
But this is how a professor can solve the conflict and save the face of a foreign student who's from a country where it is customary to give (even a valuable) gift to the professor which is clearly outside all accepable limits in Germany - but it would also hurt the student to refuse that gift.
Still, I'm happy you asked and thus can avoid putting the professor in such an awkward situation.
The workgroup collecting money for a birthday gift of the professor is OK, as that's considered a private gift in no way related to their job.

What to do instead

In contrast, it is not only perfectly fine and polite but in some places even weakly expected that you bring e.g. some sweets from your home country for the whole group (if feasible). Or bake a cake, bring some ice cream or the like.
(Same btw. for your birthday)
It is also fine if, after you successfully defended your PhD, you throw a party for your group and also include your professor in the invitations.

besides anti-corruption, seems need to report to the HR and tax authority to pay tax for the gift.

+1 for reference to germany and suggestions on what to to instead, especially mentioning the "Einstand" which in a lot of companys/work groups is unofficially postulated.

@Shuangistan: I'm not aware of reporting to HR (unless the anti-corruption office is part of HR).  Tax: that has entirely independent limits (and they are independent of public service vs. everyone else). But in general, yes, gifts can be subject to income tax or gift tax.

<5€... can one even pay a round in a pub?

My dad is a retired physics professor.  A few of his former students sent him gifts after they finished their PhDs.  Especially if they were from another part of the world, a small sculpture or something from from shop in e.g. Dubai for one student made a nice gift.  Nothing too expensive, just something you can keep on a shelf.

@VladimirF <5€ per Person per gift and you can get a beer for less than 5€ in Germany. Nevertheless I don't know if a social interaction outside of work hours even count into the anti-corruption rules (if you do not "talk" about work stuff).

@GittingGud: if it's clearly private, it's always fine, e.g. the group collecting for a birthday present. As for the beer, it is far less usual here to throw rounds compared to, say, UK or IRL: if a group goes to the pub, usually everyone pays what they had. It has been known that someone who won a poster prize would throw a round or bring something for the group. But even that is not expected (as opposed to Einstand, Ausstand and birthday: then it's your turn to bring cake or icecream).

This also applies in the US -- even the part about the sweets!

I would prefer not get a gift from someone that is dependent on me. I don't want to end up in a situation of perceived (by the person receiving the gift, giving the gift, or by an outsider) bribery. I realize that in many cases it is an innocent show of appreciation, but just saying (or writing) "thank you" will achieve the same goal without the risk of it being perceived the wrong way.

No way! It puts them in an uncomfortable position, even if they do not (and were not tempted to) accept it. They have the choice of (possibly) upsetting you, considering this a potential influencing attempt, even if not ultimately completed, in some places having to report it.
In our place, we have to report all gifts or gift attempts, and hand them to the institution if they exceed a certain (very small) value. In other words, it creates extra work and we don't even get to enjoy it.
Thank the professors that decided to take you on by doing a good job.

Oddly enough, the most appreciated gift from a student is probably just your thanks delivered personally. Even just a passing conversation in the hall way expressing your appreciation for their help will be remembered.
Students are often very appreciative of their professors, but often feel too embarrassed to actually say it. Of course, the prof will be embarrassed to hear it, but that is partly what makes it special.
We try hard, most of us, to help our students in every way we can. It is nice when that is noticed.

Giving a gift to someone in the department where you will be studying will be awkward and probably inappropriate. A thank you note or card would be more appropriate by far.
It makes more sense to give someone a gift when you are graduating and leaving the program. That expresses your appreciation more concretely while not having the appearance of trying to curry favor with a superior or repay some kind of inappropriate favor.
I also gave gifts to people who wrote me letters of recommendation, but they were very small gifts (like a chocolate bar with a thank you note).

If one remains in academia, one may remain dependent on your advisor for several years during a series of job searches for postdocs, visiting professor positions, and ultimately, hopefully, a tenure-track job.  If there's a reason not to give gifts early, isn't there a reason not to give gifts when leaving the program as well?

@Mars: indeed German law takes this view and emphasises that public servants (including professors) aren't allowed to accept any gifts related to their office. Neither before, nor after. Not even after they are retired.

I say stick with the folks who understand German law and customs. I live in the US, and the moment I graduated, my advisor became simply a co-author and peer.  No one would blink an eye if I gave him a thank-you gift, though I didn't.

Write thank-you letters to those professors who interviewed you. Expressing your appreciation for their time is more than appropriate, but offering a gift at this early stage is not. Reserve gifts for mentors with whom you have established relationships and, even then, only for special occasions (perhaps holidays or the end of the academic year, for example). Otherwise, you’re creating a situation that can too easily be misconstrued as a conflict of interest.

As a PI (in France though) I would say that no, this is definitely not good idea for all the reasons mentioned in the other answers.
On the other hand, bringing something with a low economical value for the team  - and not only for the professor, this is important - would certainly be appreciated. Like a box of chocolates or, as suggested in the comments some culinary specialty from your own country/region if it's different from the lab.
Again, the important point is that it is shared by the whole group.
We have a somehow similar habit in our lab (approx 50 people) : when someone goes on a conference or on holidays abroad he/she usually bring back a specialty to share for everyone. No one is forced to do so, but this is usually highly appreciated and almost everybody does it.

No one is forced to do so: but what if 99% of the guys do it? I guess at this level, people can afford to buy their own chocolates. The whole concept of offering a (bought) present is a tradition. And a tradition is just a habit (mostly produced by cultural evolution, and evolution is driven by irrational and selfish forces). The point is that, it's not because it's a tradition, and feels ok (or even good) that it's something good, and that we should continue to do. (Just an opinion though)

@JinSnow We're not doing it because it's a tradition. Doing so would be indeed stupid. We're doing it because it's nice to give some attention to the other people around you, plus it triggers discussions ("oh you've been to Japan", "how do you say the name of this in Italian?" etc). Again the fact that it is bought is totally irrelevant. We could indeed buy our own chocolates and live in separate caves, but that's not how we feel human relationship should be.

Buying stuff  for other because it's nice to give some attention to the other people around you + how we feel human relationship should be = we need to give stuff to give attention. You don't seem to see the weight of your tradition/culture in things you do. Tradition aren't just the folkloric stuff, they are the kind of things we do automatically, like this.

@JinSnow. We don't agree, and that's ok for me. But please stop using a condescendant tone: I know exactly what I'm doing and with the litlle info you have you're certainly not in a good position to judge how aware are other people of the origin and implications of their own acts.

I apologize if it sounds condescendant, it was just supposed to criticise your comment, nothing else (my point was: it's diffcult to be aware of what culture made us think/do, "us" is for "humans", not especially you). I won't bother you anymore.

Ok, apologies accepted. I get your point anyway.

Just thank now, no gift, as most of the other answers say. I'll add "thank later" too. The best gifts I've gotten from students come years after I taught them, when they remember something I helped them with and they write to say  so.

A close friend who is a professor often has Ph.D. students from Korea and China, who give small gifts--food items from their home countries, for example.  (We both work in the U.S.; I am also a professor, although in a different field.)  I don't think I've heard of American or European students doing this sort of thing.  My intuitions agree with other answers that warn against physical gifts.  However, based on my friend's experience, my guess is that little gifts for professors are common, and considered appropriate, in Korea and China.  If so, then the correct answer may depend on what's appropriate in the country in which you'll be studying--Germany, in your case.  Perhaps other people can specifically respond for that case.  (My sense is that the academic system in Germany is different from that in many other European countries, so it's possible that the culture is different, too.  It could be that there is a different answer that's appropriate for Germany rather than, say the U.K., France, or the Netherlands.)

I've never seen a case of this being done, and I think this is generally a bad idea. The professor hasn't yet really done anything for you to be thankful for and there's a real risk of it being perceived as apple-polishing (bribery would be too strong a word). As a general rule, starting a relationship with a gift makes things awkward without any substantial benefit to anybody.
If you are inclined to give something physical to your new boss, I would suggest you follow @lalala's suggestion and `a few snacks from your home country to the group' or bring some sort of souvenir that connects with your background (e.g., if you were involved in a student association and they had great T-shirts, you could bring one). A reasonable litmus test would be: Would you be comfortable gifting the same thing to your peers?
Also, feel free to give them a gift after you finish your degree. The dynamic is very different then: They stop having any real power over you and they have had a major impact on your life.

As a former professor (USA) (now a full time research scientist) let me add to the chorus: NO GIFTS, EVER.
Gifts to a superior are a propitiation; I would not only refuse gifts from a student but report the attempt to my department chair, so I wouldn't be compromised by not reporting an offer of a bribe in the future. I would probably have to rescind my offer to advise you, and let you find somebody else.
Your urge to give a gift is called propitiation and it should be quashed; it IS a bribe to gain favor, not thanks. If I selected you, it was not to do you a favor, but because I thought with my management you could make a contribution to our field. If I didn't think that, I would spend my time on someone else, or on my own research.
Saying thanks is enough. Don't offer to buy me lunch, don't offer me tickets to something, don't try to use money or anything else of value to establish a personal relationship with me. It is possible we WILL become friends by the time you are ready to defend. I became (and remained) friends with my advisor. If that is going to happen it will be a result of shared cultural interests without any gifts being exchanged.

Yes!
I recommend gifts such as your attention, ideas of your own and questions...lots of questions. No physical gifts though, those aren't necessary.

The point of writing part of your response in bold and large font at the start of your answer usually suggests that it is the most important part and that the rest can be skipped without distorting its meaning. What you're doing here is the opposite.

I think this is a misleading post; due to the headline.

@Amadeus Or misleading due to your perception of what a 'gift' is. Anyone who teaches will tell you they much prefer to be gifted with the things I've suggested rather than anything physical. The point of this answer is to provide a frame change - realise that yes, you can still give them something but it isn't something you can throw money at.

@LioElbammalf You are answering the question from the OP that I believe is clearly considering a purchased gift, and asking if he should do that. You say YES! and then in the small print qualify that to mean "No physical gifts". I find that misleading, to answer the OP's question "Yes" to be clever when you really mean "No".

Or misleading due to your perception of what a 'gift' is. – In particular in the context of the question, there is a clear convention on the meaning of the word gift. This has nothing to do what the reader actually regards as gratifying, etc.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
Could I ask a recommendation letter from a professor who left the university?
One of my friends had a pretty good relationship with their undergraduate professor; however, the professor decided to retire and no longer teaches at that university. In a few months, my friend is deciding to apply to graduate school, and he is wondering if it would still be appropriate to ask his retired professor to write him a letter of recommendation?

If the faculty is retiring to emeritus status then they can still write on letterhead. Many emeritus still maintain an active research profile or use the time to write, but in any case they might be willing to write for you. Many enjoy keeping one foot in the teaching/advising world.
There's nothing to be lost by asking.
And from the perspective of people on admissions committees, a strong letter from an emeritus faculty who compares this student against their thirty or forty years of other students can be very persuasive.

I'm a retired math/cs professor and love getting reference requests from former students. I'll always tell the asker what kind of letter I would be able to write (depending on how good the student was and how much I remember). Then s/he can decide whether to include me.
I've no problem writing on university letterhead.

For what it's worth, I wrote a couple (maybe three) letters in the first few years after leaving academics in 2005, and I had no problem with it --- I was honored to do so, in fact. Of course, it helped that for these particular students it was easy to write reasonably strong letters.

Yes, I think asking them is ok, with a few caveats.
I think it's ok provided the professor has only recently retired (within the last year, say). Any longer ago than that leaves a chance that the professor has forgotten who your friend is and means that the quality of the letter may be diminished.
Another thing to consider is if the professor is still affiliated with a university or institution. When I was applying for PhDs, some universities required the reference letter to be submitted on official letter-headed university paper (or the electronic equivalent). This may not be possible if the professor is no longer affiliated with any institution.
As to whether or not it's actually appropriate to ask, your friend should consider how much the professor is enjoying their retirement and whether they would welcome a request for a reference and all the associated admin or not. This is something only your friend can judge, based on his previous relationship with the professor.

I don't see how recently the professor has retired has anything to do with their likeliness to forget, at least when separated from the context of how long ago the professor has taught the student. (That is, a professor who taught someone 5 years ago and retired last year isn't necessarily any more or less likely to remember them than a professor who taught someone 5 years ago and retired 4 years ago.)

@R.M. true, but in either case asking for a reference letter from someone who last taught you five years ago is probably not the best choice (unless you have no more recent options).


text:
Which career perspectives are open for a graduate student with a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies?
I am a prospective Ph.D. student in Environmental Studies. I came across your profile and I could see you completed a PhD program in Environmental Studies. I need an advice regarding the matter of making a decision to dedicate my next 5-6 years to a Ph.D. program in Environmental Studies, I would appreciate assistance in such a vital decision for me.
I am an International student getting my bachelor's degree in International Relations and Environmental Studies in May 2024. My next step is to skip my MA program (lack of financial support) and pursue my Ph.D. in Environmental Studies. My field of study will be human-environment relations, environmental justice towards disadvantaged communities, equality of distribution of green technologies, and the role of social factors in this matter.
To avoid making a wrong step in meeting my academic and career expectations, I wanted to ask Ph.D. students which career perspectives have opened for them once they get their Ph.D. in Environmental studies.
With this type of degree, there is mostly a chance to become a Professor? Is it a narrow sector of jobs available for you?
I dream about working in the UN environmental assembly and international environmental organizations.
Could you tell me which careers are opened specifically for those who are applying for a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies?
Thank you. I would really appreciate your assistance in this important decision for me.
Respectfully,
Undergraduate student Iuliia


text:
Affiliation for High Schooler who is submitting a Research Paper that was conducted at a university
I conducted a research's project with a Professor at a US University, however it was unofficial. I want to submit the research paper, and I was not sure if I could put my high school as my affiliation or the university which the professor I conducted research with. It was online, and I am not sure if this could make a difference.

It should be your high school, but talk to the professor about submitting the paper before you write one.

Just sharing here an article where many of the co-authors are high-school students: https://academic.oup.com/g3journal/article/13/9/jkad124/7190694

@medium-dimensional Worthwhile to add as a answer (especially with a screenshot, as it took me multiple clicks to find what  you were showing).

Why not both affiliations?

First and foremost, I would suggest discussing this with the professor, who will certainly be a co-author on the paper. It may be that your affiliation with the university was more official than you thought it was, and that the professor feels that it is appropriate for you to use it as an affiliation.
If not, however, there is absolutely nothing wrong with listing a high school as an affiliation. I have published with high school co-authors before, and we simply listed their academic affiliation as their high school, since that's the simple honest truth.
Bottom line: a high school as an affiliation is statistically unusual, but entirely proper.


text:
Is it ethical to take external consultancy jobs during a fully funded PhD programme?
I am on a three year PhD programme which is fully funded. My salary is fair, nothing flashy but definitely enough to get by without having to do anything else.
Recently, I was offered to start a new course and teach it at a different university from the one where I am employed, in exchange for an extra salary. I am very inclined to say yes to this because it is a really good opportunity to gain teaching experience, promote my research center and earn more money.
From a bit of Googling around it seems that there are different takes on this depending on the country, but that the general approach is that bijobs during the PhD is totally fine. My university (a Scandinavian one), however, officially states that applicants to PhD programs cannot have other jobs. It's confusing to me and I'm not comfortable just naively considering it consultancy work rather than an actual job, and playing stupid if bureaucracy catches up.
My supervisor has a very "long leash" advising style so his opinion on the matter is that I should do whatever I'm comfortable with as long as I'm fulfilling my academic duties. I'm pretty comfortable with it, but the rules are fuzzy and what I really want is some examples of what other people have done in this situation.

If you are planning on playing stupid, posting this question from an account associated with your name may not be the best strategy.

@DanRomik Haha. Well observed! But I was simply making the point. In the end I will have to make a decision I can justify.

Some universities have policies against funded PhD students doing other paid work. You may want to consult the dean's office (or the equivalent authority at your institution) about this before you sign a contract for a second job (albeit temporary), since there may be serious repercussions such as the termination of your funding.
Your funding may also be coming from a grant which somehow prohibits another income source. This can be unbeknownst to you, arranged by your professor or school, which may be strange and perhaps even unethical, but not impossible and not unheard of. I have seen more than one grant agreement where an "obligation of the researcher to work exclusively for the project" is explicitly stated.
Thus, before you accept the job, make sure to ask your advisor and your dean if there are any conditions which would prohibit you from doing so. You don't have to be very specific about the offer you received. I would say you don't have to hide the facts either, but there are many flavors of advisors and deans so I won't comment further on how you communicate with them. Just make sure to ask.