text:
is it ethical to publish the same paper in a conference proceedings and a journal?
The papers for a conference are limited to 3 pages. On the website, however, it says Transactions of the IEEE offers a special feature edition (whatever it means?), so I think it would be good to submit the full manuscript to this special issue.
But that means I'm submitting two papers with the same title to a journal and a conference proceedings.
Is that ethical? How should I deal with this?

The extended abstract is accepted. Meanwhile the special issued journal is open for submission. I contacted the editor of the journal and she said you can present your longer version in the transaction journal.
But basically I think I will use the same text and figures. Maybe 2 more pages than the conference one. Is it considered as self-plagiarism ?

An IEEE conference with 3 pages limit to the final paper? Which society sponsors that? Usually they are 6 pages long and can pay for extra 2 up to 8.

@o4tlulz IEEE allows for a wide variety of formats: a 3-pager would generally be an extended abstract or short paper format.

@jakebeal I have never come across a final paper that is limited to 3 pages (even Letters are limited to 4) and that makes me curious on what IEEE Society would allow that. If user3327426 refers to the extended abstract that is just for review purposes then he might have to do a lot more for the final version of the conference paper before worrying about the extended version for Transactions.

the conference asks for an extended abstract as the final submission. So basically it is limited to 3 pages dude.

In computer science, the typical rule of thumb is that a conference paper may be 'upgraded' into a journal paper with at least 30% new material.  Certain subfields and other related fields covered by the IEEE may have different standards, however, and ultimately, the standard for this particular conference/special-issue pair is whatever the organizers have decided it is.  Since a 3 page paper is a very short form, though, the full manuscript will almost certainly be reasonable to submit to a journal.
It may not, however, be appropriate to submit to this special issue. Special issues associated with conferences are sometimes open submission (in which case, you can probably submit immediately), sometimes open to extended versions of any accepted papers (in which case, you need to wait to see if your paper is accepted), and sometimes only for a select set of invited papers (in which case, you need to wait to see if you are invited).  The organizers should have posted this information on their site: if they have not, you can email them to ask.

I will agree with what @jakebeal said, but will say that the main answer is his last statement:  you should ask the editors of the special issue.
In general, when concerned about the ethics of reusing text or resubmitting, I would always (ALWAYS) err on the side of asking.  If you want to do something that is reasonable, they will likely say yes.  If they don't think it's reasonable, they will probably say no, and tell you why.  You can discuss it, and perhaps find a balance (in this case, between old and new content) that is acceptable. Asking is never a bad thing, IMHO, if your concern is "doing the right thing."
But, if you DON'T ask, you run the risk of them "discovering" the duplication and treating it as an unethical move. I have seen this happen.  A person submitted to substantially similar papers to two conference simultaneously, and had the bad luck of the same people seeing it for review.  Not only were both papers rejected, but the committee took action (which I won't share).  Furthermore, everyone involved now thinks less positively about this person.
You do not want this to be you.
My rule of thumb is:  if I feel like I need to ask about this, that's a pretty good indication I should ask!


text:
Is it true that having no prior connections with the university makes me a less desirable candidate?
I've just finished a conversation with a professor at University X. The majority of questions were on topics regarding the graduate admission. A quote that has both negative and confusing effects on me

It is almost impossible to get accepted normally. Aside from sending in all the required documents, passing the tests (GRE, IELTS), having a good GPA score, etc. the only chance to be admitted is to have ongoing, strong research and collaboration with the faculty.

However, the admission criteria states that only the particular set of documents is required. Can it be true that having no prior connections with the university makes me a less desirable candidate?

All else being equal, are you going to choose the person you know already or the complete stranger?

@Nij "the person you know" == "professor" and "stranger" == "the university homepage" ?

No. "The person you know" is the candidate with ongoing, strong research and collaboration. "The stranger" is you.

Even if the stranger might be a good candidate? It sounds unfair to my ears.

All else being equal, it is fair. You might be good. You might also be terrible. You might be just a fraud. They don't know you.

Even if the professor you spoke with from University X is wrong, the fact that he was so discouraging and snotty does not create a positive impression of University X.  Maybe consider some other options.

@aparente001: To me, the quote reads more like the professor is openly pointing out the actual situation without creating false hopes. While it may indeed be (realistically) discouraging, I would not consider it "snotty", and moreover, that openness creates an excellent impression at least of that particular professor to me. The resulting conclusion, though, is of course the same as yours :)

@O.R.Mapper - I think it may be a difference of culture (i.e. different countries).

I could be misreading this but it sounds like he means that to get in, someone actually has to want you.  I think he's saying it's unlikely you would be admitted to some sort of incoming class of new graduate students and then get assigned to an adviser as you likely experienced as an UG.
One big reason for the difference can be the money.  At many (most?) research universities, if they accept you as a PhD student, you will be funded.  But that funding has to come from somewhere.  If it's not from some big department pool but from an individual faculty member's grant money that they sweated to get, they're going to want to pick someone they like, not uncommonly someone they already know and have worked with.

Yes, you've got me correct. Strange, but some students (including myself) are aware that education costs money and are actually searching for ways to get financial aid. So even if I am eager to pay the money, they are not willing to accept me?

Perhaps surprisingly, the answer can be no.  If they only take PhD students for whom they have funding, they may not care that you'd be willing to self-fund.  It's just not how they work.

And the application process? Yet another fundraiser for them?

No.  It just means that if you're going to spend the money applying, you might as well think about how the admissions decision will likely be made.  Since it matters if someone actually wants you, one thing you might do is consider if there's a way to make that happen.  You might browse through the faculty bios to find people with interests similar to yours.  Send each an email, introducing yourself and asking if they're accepting new advisees.

@NicoleHamilton - There are departments with lots of TAships, and there are departments with very few TAships.  It sounds like you are extrapolating from your field and assuming all fields are like yours.

I could be wrong about all of this but no, I don't think it's about TAships, it's about how the department works.  For example, I happen to know that the EE department on our main campus will not admit a PhD student unless they have funding and they do not care if a student is willing to self-fund.  Period.  It's sounded to me like this is what the OP was being told is the case at University X.

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Are multiple PGCE required to teach multiple subjects in the UK?
I'm currently finishing the 3rd year of my Computer Science course at University. My expected classification is Second-class honours, upper division (2:1). After I finish this course, I'd like to go ahead and study further for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and become a teacher.
The question I have, is how do people / teachers approach teaching multiple subjects? Do they do a PGCE in the subject they've gained a degree in and then move on to study teaching another subject after they have their teaching capabilities? Or do they do 2 PGCEs at the same time?
The reason I'm asking this question is because I want to become an ICT & Computing teacher, but also a P.E. teacher on the side and I'm unsure of which path to take (or which path I must take?)
It's worth noting that my interest for P.E. has purely been from a personal  experience as I've become keen of the gym and realised the importance of staying fit and healthy since University. I don't have a GCSE (or any equivalent qualification) in P.E. as it's something I never liked when I was younger.
Any advice from fellow academics would be greatly appreciated!

Have a look on the Get in to Teaching website (https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/). From there you can be put in contact with an advisor to help you through the system.

You just do one PGCE and (in the case of secondary education) you pick one subject - I expect the best idea is to train in the subject which you are most experienced in because the main thrust of the PGCE is learning to teach so you want to have command of your subject knowledge; you don't need to be worrying about being "found out".
The equation is about how desperate the school is, especially in shortage subjects like maths, physics, computer science.  I had a computer science degree but trained as a maths teacher and then I was able to offer computer science teaching as well once I was established as a maths teacher.  I had colleagues who taught (as recently as this year just finished) across all sorts of faculties, so you probably can do what you say you want to do.  You'll have to look out for opportunities to gain PE experience, e.g. by running an after school cricket club or something - you are then demonstrating your ability to work in that very different environment to the more traditional academic subjects.

It's not uncommon for teachers to teach related subjects, but computing and physical education is a bit of a stretch.
You would not need a second PGCE, but it would probably be in your favour to get some kind of professional experience or some kind of qualification that displays your dedication to the subject.

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Will submitting an overly long article decrease my chance of acceptance?
After several months of work, I have almost finished a paper about an alternative axiomatization of quantum mechanics. The work is linked to the quantum reconstruction program.
The problem is that the final version is excessively long, approximately 56 pages in the two-column APS template formatting, 85 in the one-column formatting. Making the article shorter is extremely difficult because to reach to the main result all the steps presented in the article are necessary.
The question is: can the length be an issue that impacts the acceptance decision of the journal I submit to (especially with regards to print journal vs. online only? Should I take it into account when deciding where to submit the article?
Additional info: I was thinking of submitting to Foundations of Physics, it seems the one closest to my article's topic. But it is a print journal, and the excessive length of the article could be a problem (although I couldn't find an official length limit on their site). I also considered PRX Quantum, which is online only, but it seems more oriented towards topics such as quantum computing, probably it is too application-based.

Can you move most of these "steps" to appendix/supplementary and keep only the essentials in the main text? That seems much more reader-friendly imho

@Wouter Some calculations have been moved to the appendices. This surely makes the paper more reader-friendly, but it does not alter the length of the paper.

Many print journals have online appendices. I don't know the physics field at all, but you might see if there is such a physics journal.

I would contact the editor of Foundations of Physics and see what they say.

One approach could be to split the paper into a series (i.e. Part I, Part II...).

@Anyon As far as I know, sometimes this solution can be proposed by the journal itself.

Bless your heart, best of luck with this! Please share here how this progresses for you!

Not sure whether this makes sense here, but some publishers publish small books, e.g., https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/book-authors-editors/springerbriefs

This is a classic shopping question I think. https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3657/why-was-my-question-put-on-hold-for-shopping

In theoretical physics, virtually all papers are read online now, a lot of the time as preprints before they are even submitted to journals.  So it should not make any practical difference whether your paper appears in a print volume or not.
Fifty-six pages for a Physical Review journal is long, but it's not excessive, especially for one of the online-only journals like PRX Quantum.  I imagine that Foundations of Physics would be less well disposed to a paper of that length.  Both are respectable journals, whose theoretical subject matter has a great deal of overlap.  In particular, while Foundations of Physics focuses heavily on foundational, formal, and interpretational issues in theoretical physics, PRX Quantum is a larger journal, and while its scope is broader, it also publishes papers on fundamental and foundational questions.
Personally, even apart from the length issue I would recommend submitting to PRX Quantum, since it is a non-profit APS journal, unlike Foundations of Physics, which is published by Springer.  Moreover, although PRX Quantum is a much younger journal, it already has more than three times as many open access articles published on its Web site.

Thank you for your answer,
PRX Quantum was the first journal I selected, but later I realized that it is more focused on applied physics or quantum information technology.
On the other hand my paper is a the foundations of QM, and it is closer to many of the articles I cite, which have been published in Foundations of Physics.

For example:
Zeilinger, A., 1999. A foundational principle for quantum mechanics. Foundations of Physics, 29(4), pp.631-643.
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=4de2c25145b194cfaca41dc75f306be255b8611e
Clifton, R., Bub, J. and Halvorson, H., 2003. Characterizing quantum theory in terms of information-theoretic constraints. Foundations of Physics, 33, pp.1561-1591.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0211089
By the way, the bad news is that both of them are very selective...

@PFerro If you have truly made a substantive contribution to the quantum reconstruction program, then the selectivity of the journals should not be an issue.

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text:
When paraphrasing over several paragraphs, how to cite an ebook with chapter and section?
Here is a sample dummy text:

Davis and Jones (2020) explore different leadership styles and their
effects on employee motivation in their ebook. They highlight
transformational leadership as particularly effective in enhancing
employee engagement and fostering organizational loyalty.
Furthermore, Davis and Jones (2020, Chapter 3, Team Dynamics section)
delve into the dynamics of team collaboration within organizations.
They discuss how effective team leadership and communication
strategies can optimize team performance and achieve organizational
goals.

I am using APA 7th. Is the above text formatted correctly? I am mainly interested in the source locator, where I want to say, look in chapter 3, team dynamics section. Please note that, this is an e-book (so no page number).

I probably would write (if these paragraphs are adjacent) Furthermore, in Chapter 3 ("Team Dynamics" section), the authors explore .... ChatGPT has ruined "delve."

For PDF ebooks I tend to just use the page number given by the PDF reader if actual page numbers aren't available in the book itself.
If its in a different ebook format like EPUB, you could open it in a ebook reader like Calibre which should do the same thing as the PDF reader and give you a page number.
You could subtract the first few pages with the cover, acknowledgments, etc, from the page number given by the PDF/EPUB reader.
So if the page your on is 72 and there's 2 cover pages, just say the quote is on page 70.
Just be sure to make a note of this in your citations table to avoid confusion.


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My PhD supervisor is leaving for MIT and wants me transfer along, which could prolong PhD. What to do?
I'm a third-year PhD student in applied mathematics at a Canadian university, focusing on a particular scientific field. Having nearly completed all my coursework and passed my comprehensive exam, I'm at a pivotal point in my program.
Recently, my supervisor received an offer from MIT, suggesting that I transfer there with him. According to the information on the MIT Web site, transferring credits is feasible but seems contingent on a strict one-to-one mapping with MIT's course requirements. The website lacks detailed information on this process. I'm concerned that any degree requirements misalignments might require me to take additional courses, extending the duration of my PhD — a situation I cannot afford due to personal circumstances and finances.
Has anyone here undergone a similar transfer, particularly to MIT? I'm particularly interested in understanding how flexible the credit transfer process might be and whether there's any leeway in aligning degree requirements that don't exactly match. Any insights or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated!
Alternatively, could there be other possible venues that do not involve my transfer and losing my supervisor? I don't want to lose my supervisor near the end of the PhD. I also know that working remotely with my supervisor won't work well, as they are inefficient with remote stuff.

This is a question for your supervisor. Most likely they will accept you as if you had passed their exams because you are coming with your advisor as his PhD student. This is common in the situations I've known about over the years. The alternative is you finish up in the next year or so at your current institution and graduate from there (again, usually, as the advisor's student there). A courtesy, so to speak, assuming your advisor did not burn bridges.

It would be helpful to know if you would prefer to transfer or stay, assuming the issue with credits can be worked out. You say you don't want to lose your supervisor and they're not great at remote stuff - how would you feel about keeping them as a co-supervisor and getting another supervisor at your current institution?

@JonCuster, thank you very much.

@deee, thank you. I actually don't know if I want to transfer. I have a scholarship and a job here in Canada. If I move to another institution outside Canada, I could lose both. I was considering the co-supervisor option. This would mean "losing" my supervisor, as I'm very sure their focus will shift to MIT stuff. But I'm seriously considering this option.

Has your mentor considered any options that would allow you to remain matriculated where you are while finishing up your research at MIT? Profs change schools with regularity, and schools are generally well versed in many options (some "creative")  to help their graduate students finish up.  Maybe start a discussion w/ your mentor and the head of your departmental graduate program to see what all your options are.

You say:

[T]ransferring credits is feasible but seems contingent on a strict one-to-one mapping with MIT's course requirements.

But in fact this is pretty much the opposite of the truth.  The MIT applied mathematics doctoral program is very flexible about coursework requirements.  Essentially all that is required is that you take a sufficient number of graduate-level courses (which do not all need to be in math; suitably mathematically sophisticated courses in other fields can also be used), with sufficient breadth beyond just your immediate area of dissertation research.  (The details of the applied mathematics breadth requirement are stated here—and I see that while they were pretty relaxed when I started the program a quarter century ago, they appear to be even less strict now.)
What needs to happen is that you advisor needs to talk to his contacts at the MIT Math Department.  That may be the department chair, the head of the applied math committee, or the search committee chair who hired them; any of them ought to be able to point your advisor to the right person.  Your advisor needs to tell them that there is a senior graduate student that they want to bring along.  The MIT people will want to see what classes you have taken already, to see how it matches up with the department's course requirements (described above).  Make sure your advisor has that information readily available to pass along.  They will also want your advisor to explain your current university's qualifying exam procedures.  You may or may not need to retake the exam at MIT, but unless your current institution's exam seems particularly non-rigorous, probably not.

Thank you very much for the valuable pointers. This is very helpful.

Unable to give you a definite recommendation, I would just offer you some food for thought.
No matter how stellar your present university happens to be (Waterloo, U of T, McGill), your position on the job market will, statistically speaking, be stronger with a PhD from the MIT. Whether you go to industry or finance or academia, an MIT degree will often carry a greater weight in the eyes of those interviewing you.
Although a smart PhD from a less fancy school can make an outstanding career, an MIT diploma oftentimes gives its owner an additional boost.
Also mind the geographical factor. An MIT student has an opportunity to attend seminars and strike collaborations at Harvard (15 min by bike), Boston University (25 min by bike), Northeastern, Brown, and other great schools nearby. This brings additional opportunities, both in research and in the future quest for employment.

Assuming you succeed, of course.

Tangential to this though.. It is not easy being an international student. Pay can be worse as your host institution has to pay for the student visa. I experienced this in grad school, and it was tough. I ran out of money by the end of the month a couple of times.

@CameronWilliams  My son, an international student, received a PhD from Tufts.  His pay was the same as that of US citizens.

I said can be, not is. It's just something to be mindful of when considering graduate education in another country.

@Michael_1812, thanks for the input. I agree with your argument. If I had more time and money and fewer family commitments, I would be transferring, even if that meant prolonging my PhD duration.

@Moonlighter In the presence of family commitments, my advice would be different. I would certainly put family first.

Buzz's excellent answer has covered the issue of transferring credits. I would like to cover the scenario of you not transferring to MIT. My supervisor transferred to a different university about one year into my PhD, so I have some experience with this. I kept him as a co-supervisor and have a new main supervisor. I seriously considered transferring with him as I took this PhD specifically to work with him, but decided the upheaval would be too much for me.
You say your supervisor is inefficient with remote stuff, and I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds like keeping him as your only supervisor remotely wouldn't be a great option. I suggest talking to him about a co-supervisor arrangement with him and another academic at your current institution, as part of a discussion about what the options are in terms of you transferring or staying.
If you switch to a co-supervisor type arrangement like I did, it's important to make sure everyone has the same expectations around time commitments. I have a video meeting every two weeks with both my supervisors, and they both give me written feedback on my work. My old supervisor has gradually become less involved in my work, but shows up to at least one meeting a month. If your sense is that your supervisor would not reliably stick to regular remote meetings, I think keeping him as a supervisor without transferring with him is unlikely to work. If you go down the co-supervisor route, someone he already collaborates with is likely to be smoother in terms of communication.
If there are specific parts of your remaining work that would benefit with working closely with your current supervisor in person, would it be feasible to plan a couple of in-person visits lasting a week or two?
I would weigh up the upheaval from moving, how much time is left in your programme, how much input your supervisor currently gives you day-to-day, and how much of that can be replaced by a different supervisor. Really think about how losing the scholarship and job would affect you financially, as even if the transfer is the best option academically, you can't finish your PhD if don't have any money to live off.
Good luck, a supervisor moving part-way through your PhD is really tough!

These are very good points; I was also thinking about these kinds of options. Moving with my family to another country, which also seems to have a turbulent social situation, is taxing, but finding a suitable new supervisor might be no less problematic. Thank you.

I'm concerned that any degree requirements misalignments might require

Here is the word "might", which I take to mean you don't know. Find out. Probably it is impossible to state precise rules about what constitutes such a "misalignment", since there are many ways in which universities can organize courses of study. Whether such a misalignment exists in your case can probably only be judged by some authority at M.I.T. who knows exactly what is in your record. So there would be no way to be sure except by submitting your case to whoever that is, with complete information on what you've done so far.
(I know a person who followed his advisor from the University of Minnesota to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore when his advisor got an offer there. He ended up with an M.D. degree and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins.)


text:
Is it appropriate to ignore emails from a student asking obvious questions?
A student often sends me emails asking obvious (homework) questions whose answers can easily be found in the teaching materials.
I do not always keep the teaching materials with me, so I cannot reply immediately to the student that, for example:
(questions whose answers are in the lecture notes)

The answer to the question can be found in p.59, Lecture Note 5

or (questions that can easily be solved using the teaching materials)

It is similar to what we did in the previous lecture. For this question, the only difference is that...

As the result, I always decided to do it later (not an urgent/important task), and sometimes forgot to reply. It often took me a few days for me to reply. It is actually fine if students ask me these types of questions during tutorial lectures as it is my duty.
As a teaching assistant, can I just ignore these emails from the student to save my time?
Thanks for all the valuable answers. I realized I made a mistake. It is clear that the answers to the questions are in the teaching materials; however, it does not mean that students will manage to answer the questions despite the fact that the answers are already in the teaching materials. It is still possible that students may not understand the proposed solutions.
I will also suggest the instructor to create a Q/A section on Moodle for students enrolling in the course in the next academic year. It may be very helpful.

Some more context is needed: in general, are you expected to answer emails from students, or is your work for the course supposed to be confined to tutorial lectures?

It's not explicitly written that I have to answer their emails, but as a TA, I think we have a duty to help students (to an extent)

I wouldn't ignore the email, but send a generic reply, such as "This was covered in lecture", etc.

If it is a single student doing this, then you might try a different approach. The student has some issues/problems that you aren't recognizing and I can't diagnose. But a sit-down with this student might help them learn how to learn on their own without so many questions you tag as obvious, but they may not.
If it were many students, not one or two, then my advice would be different, but here, the student seems to be drowning and you could throw them a life jacket or (better) help them learn to swim.
I was surprised to learn that some fairly advanced undergraduates had never really learned how to learn and when things got hard had difficulties. In my case it was a failure to take notes in class, depending on memory too much. That worked for them in the past, but didn't in more advanced courses.
Because of your position as a TA you have a certain way of thinking that is effective. Others haven't reached that level yet and it is good to recognize it. Don't assume that your students are just like you. They aren't.
If you just ignore their emails, they are unlikely to make the progress that they could and which it is your responsibility to assist.
I also advise folks like yourself to give minimal hints when asked questions. You seem to already recognize this by pointing them to relevant resources. Just enough to get them past a block - or to recognize the nature of the block - is better than a full answer.
But, a sit down might give you insight into the real problem they are having, which might make it go away.

Perhaps in addition to doing as Buffy says, you could give the student some help on how to study.  A web search on "how to study" produces a lot of information.  Here's what I told my students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMD_1vOogXo

I was surprised to learn that some fairly advanced undergraduates had never really learned how to learn and when things got hard had difficulties. Sadly, it's already happening with graduate students, too.

A sit-down session with the student is a good idea. Ask them to bring the notes they take in class.

Never ignore emails without first saying you are terminating the conversation. It's rude, and it leads to all sorts of problems. Even something like "come to my tutorial lectures and ask me the questions there" is more useful than no response whatsoever.
Just check out how many questions there are on Academia.SE about "no response to email" or "no answer to email". As of time of writing, there are 180 results of the former and 229 of the latter, out of 40,207 questions asked. In other words, a full ~1% of academic problems stem from people not answering emails and leaving the other person in the dark.
Don't be one of them.

This. Also not answering will discourage the student from asking questions, which would be devastating

"In other words, a full ~1% of academic problems stem from people not answering emails and leaving the other person in the dark" makes the assumption that questions on academia.SE are representative of academia questions. I very much doubt this.

@marts Yeah, it's probably higher

@marts There's probably a higher proportion that don't have the confidence to even ask their question due to some form of perceived discouragement, along the lines of having a previous question ignored, leaving it unanswered prior to asking.

Considering that 1% of more advanced academic problems are coming from whatever problem with "google scholar" or similar way about own publications/h-index/other_crap, I consider this answer enlightening (disclaimer: I totally agree with the tongue in cheek comment. from @AzorAhai-him- )

Do not ignore emails, even ones that may be repetitive or ones that feature "obvious questions". It's unprofessional, may lead to problems on your side and, most importantly, may lead to some students falling behind simply because they were not attended to properly. Obviously, you're teaching adults and you don't need to babysit them, but all of us have gaps in our knowledge and any student may struggle with parts of the curriculum, guidelines or any other things that may be obvious. Ideally, you'd either spot these gaps and try to reformat your approach to curb these questions in the future or, if this is an isolated incident with one particular student having trouble, try and boost them, providing information in a simpler way or simply reiterating things. Yes, it takes time, yes, it's tiring. But you can't assume that a student is being deliberately ignorant or isn't worth your time. Such bias is unbecoming.

I suggest not to ignore any emails from the students. You as a teacher might be finding it easier, however the student might have some problems and they are not able to find out from the teaching materials.
It will be better to sit with the student and ask them to change their approach towards doing homework so that they will understand how to use teaching material effectively and complete the homework.

Others have suggested that responding to the emails may be a good idea, if you have the patience or energy. I generally agree. However, here are some other pragmatic approaches to consider:

Hold regular office hours at a pre-announced time. When someone emails you, you can give them a short reply and politely ask them to come to the office hours.
Ask the instructor to set up a Campuswire or a Piazza forum. This will let the students post their questions on the forum, and often, there will be other enthusiastic students who will help you answer them.

I used a simple mail list to which all were subscribed in the same way you describe in your second bullet. All were encouraged to ask and answer questions. I only needed to step in when there were errors. Such things need some rules, however, such as not posting answers to exercises. I had to read all posts, of course so the scale needs to be reasonable.

Don't ignore them.
What's obvious to you might not be obvious to others.

An answer that's clearly stated in the lecture notes should only necessarily be obvious to someone who's memorised (and properly mentally indexed) every word in the lecture notes. Otherwise such things can be quite easy to miss.

If something's a similar to what's been covered in a lecture, with a minor change:

they may have forgotten that part and/or didn't think to review that
they may not have understood it properly
they may not have spotted the similarity
they may have missed that lecture
they may feel overwhelmed and just don't know what to do (at which point they may be unable to think of even the most obvious thing)

If they just thought asking you is easier, that might be a reason to ignore them eventually, but it would be difficult to establish that this is the reason initially, and it may still be polite and useful to reply, even if it's just to establish that asking you questions they can easily figure out, doesn't give them easier answers.
Don't (always) just give them the answer.
Teachers shouldn't just teach the information contained in the course, but also, when necessary, help students learn how to learn and figure things out.
Sometimes just giving an answer is the best option.
Other times, this could or would stifle their ability to learn to figure it out themselves. In such cases, you may still want to point them roughly in the right direction (e.g. tell them it's in the lecture notes, even if you don't say exactly where), while leaving the door open to future questions.
This may involve a back-and-forth where you repeatedly point them in some direction or ask them a leading question, and this leads to them making some progress. There's probably a lot more to be said about that, but I'll just leave it there.
This type of teaching may not work that well over email, as you may come across as just unhelpful, in which case they may just not send you another email. I might suggest pointing them in the right direction and then, for example, inviting them to your office hours if they have further questions.

It would be unprofessional to simply ignore the student's emails unless you're absolutely sure you can't reply without coming across as arrogant, condescending and unprofessional. Keep in mind as a TA the answer may be obvious to you but a student's role is one of learning so it isn't always going to be obvious to them. A teacher's role is to guide the student. Answer the question (no matter how stupid you think it is) but also let them know where they can find the answers in the future and point them in the direction of tools they can use to help them succeed not only in class but also in life.
Don't simply say "Answers are in the lecture notes" or "The answer to the question can be found in p.59, Lecture Note 5" or "These questions can easily be solved using the teaching materials" or "It is similar to what we did in the previous lecture." It's very blunt, comes across as condescending and implies that you think the student is an idiot and you consider yourself a superior being.


text:
Is it good to follow your own direction for the bachelor dissertation?
I am writing the bachelor dissertation. I have two options.
The first option is to choose the topic that a professor suggested
me to do which is somewhat novel. The professor likes it, but I do not like it. It does not align with my future (research) plan as well.
The second option is to write about something I like but not in the interest of the professor. The topic is not novel at all but quite heavy, and it will require a lot of reading (journal papers & books), simulations, so it is not easier than the first one. The professor can still supervise me.
Which one do you think is better for me? (for graduate school application)

Is a professor willing to advise you on option #2?

That is not his interest, but I think he can supervise me.

What is your future plan?

My plan is to do a research project on the second topic (which is approved by another potential supervisor)

Why not make that the third option rather than a future plan?

You are right. I have not thought of the third option :) @Buffy

One of the strengths of faculty is usually their ability to devise feasible research plans. I would go with option 1, as it is much less risky and will be more likely that your efforts will provide you with something positive to talk about after you graduate. If you go on in a research career, the bachelor thesis will be the worst piece of research you ever complete- but the goal is completion! Trying to make it into a magnum opus is not a strategy for success.

You are right. I want to take into account the risk of going nowhere as well.

Agree. A first research project normally needs quite a lot of guidance. It is too easy to go off the rails or wind up with something trivial.

This isn't exactly an answer, and user Dawn gives the correct advice, IMO. Rather it is an anecdote from when I was your age, deep in the previous century.
I did something like your second option. I studied math and wrote something like a thesis (honors thesis) in the philosophy of math. Lots of reading, thought, writing, but no real guidance.  It was pretty muddled at the end, though I guess the grade was good. Not something to look back on with a lot of pride years later though.
But, this being the US, where few undergraduates do much actual research due to inexperience and severe time constraints, I came out ok and was invited to grad school, though not on the basis of that paper (never published, thankfully). You don't say where you are applying for grad school, but in the US, the admissions committee looks at a lot of things and all positive indicators are, well, positive.
See the canonical question for information about how doctoral admissions works various places around the world: How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in Country X?

Upvoted for "and all positive indicators are, well, positive". :-)


text:
My college laptop went kaput and I don't have any writing samples to include in my grad school application. Do you have suggestions?
Practically all programs require a writing sample from applicants. I'm preparing to apply by the end of 2022 but I'm stressed about this aspect of it since I have very few options.
The hard drive in the laptop I used in college is unsalvageable, so I don't have any papers from college where I was the only author.
I can think of two samples:

a senior design report on google drive that may be 20+ pages (that is, if I still have access, plus it was a group paper)
a report from a work experience (also 20+ pages) with my name as an author, though a coworker wrote it. However, I was involved in the work that gathered the data used in writing the report so it seems fair to use, if necessary.

I contacted my university's technology center to see if they can share any papers I may have saved on their network. Otherwise, I'm struggling to think of options. I don't write reports in my current job. Aside from what I listed above, the only other writing samples are cover letters for job applications.

What are the requirements for your writing sample (e.g., can it be just a page or two)? How much time do you have?

@cag51
Trying to have everything submitted by December 1.
Requirements vary. Someone told me to go through my college email to see if there are papers. I hadn't thought of that and found some already. They're a few years old, but will save me from having to write something entirely new. So I may have found my solution!


text:
Professor has not responded to request for letter of recommendation after a month, what to do next?
I am applying for Masters programs and I am trying to get my letters of recommendation squared away. One of the professors I asked has failed to respond to my emails. I sent her an initial email a month ago, and a follow-up email at the beginning of this week. This professor seems like my best option for a recommender, so I'm very reluctant to try to find someone else.
I truly cannot think of a reason why my advisor/professor would decline to write me a letter, but I wish she would at least answer yes or no. Should I continue to contact her? Should I try calling during her office hours? See if I can set up a Zoom appointment with her? Or, should I find someone else, even if this would just be someone I took a single class with?

When are the letters due?

This is a very common topic in our archives, but surprisingly not a duplicate (that I could find), since (1) OP has already waited a whole month and (2) the professor has not agreed to write yet; this is not a case of someone agreeing to write and then going dark.

Since this professor was your advisor, and also had you for several courses, this is a situation where it is certainly reasonable to expect a response from her (even if the response is that she can't write the letter for some reason).  You have waited a substantial amount of time and sent multiple emails, so I would suggest following up with a phone-call (or ZOOM/Teams call, etc.) or a visit to her office.  It is certainly reasonable for you to escalate to closer forms of contact to get a response here.
Knowing academics like I do, there are a million reasons that she might not have responded.  Perhaps she has just forgotten about it and has an inbox so clogged that your email is lost in the mess.  Perhaps she is under the mistaken expression that you are going to take longer to finish your program, so she has plenty of time.  It is possible that there is some reason she can't write you the letter, but if there is then she can certainly explain it to you rather than being non-responsive.

There may be some reason that the professor can't contact you. If you call the department office you might learn something, but you can have a message delivered and be assured that the professor actually gets it.
A month is a long time.


text:
Did I anger my PI by not sending my data/notes after leaving their lab?
Last year I was informed by my PI that the lab was too busy to take on undergrad students. I said that I understood and found another lab that I was interested in to join.
However, I had been working on a project for a year before I left, and didn't get around to sending them any data/notes related to my project after I left. The lab members also didn't ask for any data. So, I'm not sure if maybe my project as a undergrad wasn't that important, or if I was unprofessional. Would it be late now, more than a year after I left, to send in data? Did I leave a bad impression?
I was hoping to ask the PI for letters of rec for grad school, but (1) He has new undergrad students now and I haven't spoken with him for a while and (2) I'm not sure if I left a bad impression when leaving the lab.

So first, it seems a little strange that after an entire year of work, they would suddenly be "too busy to take on undergrad students." Of course I am only speculating, but my guess is that they (rightly or wrongly) didn't think your project was going anywhere and decided to cut you loose. This would also explain why they didn't ask for your data or notes, and why they have since hired new undergraduates. If this is the case, this PI would probably not be a good choice when asking for letters of recommendation.
At any rate, to your questions:

I'm not sure if maybe my project as a undergrad wasn't that important, or if I was unprofessional.

If they wanted your data or notes, they should have asked for them. I assume there was no directive that you failed to follow, such as "upload your results to the portal every week." So no, I don't think it was unprofessional.
Why didn't they ask for your data or notes? Two possible reasons:

In my experience, first-time undergraduate researchers do things literally hundreds of times slower than I can. So, I would likely start from scratch rather than trying to turn the student's product into something useable. Of course, this will vary by field -- I can imagine that some "wet labs" have very time-consuming processes for which undergraduate data would be valuable (if we trust the undergraduate).
Everyone always has more ideas than they have time. If an idea gets consigned to an undergraduate, it's probably not very high-priority. So, it could be that no one is pursuing that idea, or that a new undergraduate will start from scratch on it.

Would it be late now, more than a year after I left, to send in data?

Personally, I would not offer. As noted above, this is unlikely to be useful; further, it raises the question of "if you thought I needed this, why didn't you provide it a year ago?"

I was hoping to ask the PI for letters of rec for grad school but I haven't spoken with him for a while and I'm not sure if I left a bad impression when leaving the lab

I wouldn't worry about not having spoken with him in a while -- everyone is busy. And I wouldn't worry about the data/notes situation. But I would think carefully about the circumstances under which you left the lab -- generally, we don't fire students if we think they deserve a very strong recommendation. But of course there are exceptions. You can certainly ask "Would you be able to write a strong recommendation?"

If they did not ask for the data I would not be worried about sending the data. If the PI were interested, they would ask you for the data.
We cannot possibly know what the PI's impression of you. But if you were to ask for a recommendation letter, you should summarize your achievements in their lab and ask them if they could provide a "strong" recommendation letter in the email.

The lab is obligated to keep records of its data, if that is reasonably feasible.  If you did not leave the data with the lab, you should make it available to the lab.
In my opinion, it is the supervisor's responsibility to ensure this is done.
This isn't likely to have a significant effect on letters of recommendation.

Don't understand the downvote; this is afaik mandatory in Germany. OP's PI probably does not care as explained in cag51's answer, but I see no harm in following best practices either. (although it would be pretty delayed here)


text:
Can I read from notes during an online PhD interview?
I am preparing for an online PhD interview soon.
I took notes about every possible question that the board would ask me during the interview.
My question is : is it totally fine if i had to read from those notes (to provide a detailed answer) during  the interview in order to answer their questions ?

Obviously, it depends on the question. For "easy" questions, you should have an answer ready by heart, for more difficult it is okay to look at your notes. But for most (probably all?) questions you should not read from your notes, just look at them.

I would suggest you answer without any kind of visual aid: you may come across as inauthentic or the interviewer might think you are cheating in some way. Just practice your answers a couple of times until you feel comfortable.
However, you can write down your own questions to your interviewer and read them when you will be asked if you have any questions. I reckon this is highly appreciated.


text:
What should I do the day before submitting my PhD thesis?
I am submitting my PhD thesis in less than two days. I have checked all the tables, figures, appendices, references, and also checked spelling and any potential typos (which I believe there might be more!). I would like to ask, in addition to all of this, for those of you who have submitted PhD theses before, what would you recommend doing the day before submission? Anything that I should check again? I am planning the read through the thesis again to spot more spelling issues, I would like to hear your thoughts.

Update two days later. I successfully submitted my thesis this morning, WOHOOO! Due to COVID-19 restrictions, however, all the submissions in my university are online now (no pic of holding the printed thesis in front of the library unfortunately etc :/)
I ended up spending the last day checking the format (my ToC crashed for no reason when I was formatting yesterday!), making sure no page numbers are missing (it turned out that the page numbers are missing in some horizontal layout pages, glad that I checked!), and finally reading through the lit review chapter (which I had first drafted three years ago, though I had revised it since then) and making sure citations are correct.  Thank you everyone for your great suggestions

Relax. You've earned it. Obsessing over details at this point will only induce panic.

This has led to some friendly conversation; let us continue the conversation in chat. Please read this FAQ before posting a comment below this one.

Are you using typesetting software that doesn't take care of the page numbering for you?

Rather than editing your question with an update, it's recommended that you post an answer containing the update, so that the question is easier to find for others asking the same

I would suggest reading through it one more time for pleasure. Savor the writing you labored so hard on, marvel at just how much work has gone into this, and reflect on where you are now compared to where you were when you started this labor.
To abuse the poetry of Genesis:

And the student saw every thing that they had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Thus the thesis was finished, and all the host of its data. And on the seventh day the student ended their work which they had made.

Nice, if a bit blasphemous.

You should see the psalm I wrote for our Digital Systems Laboratory class back in undergrad.

Thank you for your suggestion! It's indeed a long and tough journey!

This is a great idea. For mine, I took great care in the formatting, readability, and overall look. Looking at it again is always a source of satisfaction.

But please don't do that after you sent it for printing, because that is the best way to find typos you no longer can correct.

@mlk, right on. The first time I opened my thesis after committing it to printing was 2 decades later, to marvel at the simplicity of CS/uni life back then.

I came here to say, "Have a glass of something fancy - a really nice coffee or tea, a glass of wine." This answer is more fruitful, but might pair nicely with a cold glass (or hot mug) of something delicious which might make reading for pleasure easier.

I suggest that you let an application read it for you. Some reader applications like microsoft windows Edge has the natural voice option. It may surprise you how different it is when you let someone else read it for you.

@mlk Also not before printing, because then you fix the typos, learn that the printing studio is already closed and rush to get it printed the next day before handing in. Then you got to keep the old version around if something happens to the new one and in the end worry whether you handed everyone the new one in or mixed accidentally an old one in and perhaps offend that person when they find out. Been there done that. Not worth the hassle^^ So only do that when you really can disconnect even before handing it in. So I'd personally only do the the day after handing in, not before^^

@jakebeal nice. https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5820/how-can-i-make-my-carstianity-joke-question-on-topic-serious-question

Congratulations! It's very likely that you have a sort of tunnel vision right now and are probably not in a good position to proofread it effectively.
The most useful thing you can do is double check all your submission criteria: when, where, what other documents do you need, how many copies, do you need to print it etc.
Also, I would make sure it has the required structure that your department requires: title page, abstract, any declarations etc.
You will have a chance to correct any typos and some style issues in your corrections.
Well done, relax and maybe do a little dance.

Yes, dancing is good too.

Thank you! I have finished all the paperwork and the thesis will be submitted electronically. I will make sure to double-check the department requirements!

A big picture check, yes, of the thesis and the process.  By this point proof-reading won't find typos because you know the text too well, but it will get you worrying about text that's perfectly good and that you don't have the time (or need) to rewrite.

If you do your little dance well, this contest to keep in mind.

I would just make sure you have the copying and the like lined up.  I got Kinkos to do it.
Don't sweat it any more with the typos.  It actually sounds like you have overdone it already.  Remember this is a pass-fail (in general, in the US, blabla, caveat, blabla) situation.

Yes, I think maybe it's worth reading it again "for pleasure" :)

What is kinkos?

@astronat I believe Kinko's is a print shop chain in the US, so not applicable for those of us who aren't there, or if you're  submitting electronically

@ChrisH A defunct one at that. Though the name Kinkos is still synonymous with a particular type of print shop, FedEx bought them several years back and rebranded the stores as FedEx Office. I don't believe any Kinkos still exist.

@BryanKrause they must have made some impact if I've heard of them from the other side of the Atlantic!

@ChrisH Indeed, their brand recognition is up among the companies that rename the thing they do (I forget the technical term for this, but examples are like Google to mean search, Kleenex to mean tissue, or back to the copying world, Xerox to use a copier). At least in the US, not sure which of those are equally internationally known.

Genericised Trademark? (@BryanKrause).  I know them all, but only use "Google" generically from that list.  Kleenex and Xerox are used in this generic way only rarely in British English, along with FedEx.

Now would be a good time to make a physically separate backup (external HDD or offsite server for instance) of the finished, clean masterpiece !

Eh, just email it to yourself and it'll be on whatever email server/system you use. They'll make sure to back up your backup, too.

You can never have too many backups.

Add an open archive https://zenodo.org/ for good measure! The record can be kept restricted until the thesis is officially published, if necessary.

Now would be the „better late than never“ moment to make backups.  I had mine under version control with pushing updates to an offsite server at least daily.

F-cking print it, for god's sake. Good paper lasts much longer than any electronic storage or company.

In case you really want to re-check your thesis (this also holds for papers, etc.), you should probably first take some time off. Occupying your mind with something completely different will help you take a fresh look without the blind spots one develops during the process of constantly editing. (I generally recommend a few days, but that's not going to work here.)
Of course, you can combine all the suggestions in the answers here: first wait and relax, then read for pleasure. It just might happen that the reading for pleasure turns into a correction suggestion as there are always issues waiting to be found, so be prepared.

I found a typo on the title page of my thesis, when I handed in the physical copy -> speaking of blind spots and tunnel vision.

Congratulations!
Most PhD reviews start of the reference section because it's easy to make a mistake, it won't show up in any spell checking software,  I don't care how good you are there will be at least one mistake.
I would also check the printing  requirements of your college, just in case it needs to spaced at 1.5 instead of 2 lines etc.
I would also check the binding services as well, with mine I had to get it bound, you had to give it to the library, they sent it off and would give back in 2 days. I groveled at the library, got the name of binding firm and drove to their office, they did it on the spot.
If there is a declaration of authorship in the document, sign it, they normally check that type of detail when you hand it in, but just check it yourself.
Good luck!

Embrace the work you have done and pour yourself a drink.
The work is already done. There is nothing you could do at this point to substantially improve anything.

Funny story: a colleague of mine discovered that \LaTeX had screwed up his references a night before the defense. He spent the last night freaking out and preparing an addendum with correct reference numbering.

This should be a SINGLE drink, not like some of my coleagues.

Well, if it is going to be more than one drink, invite the committee as well. To level the playing field so to speak. True story!

I must ask now what happened to that colleague and his screwed up references?

@maksimov Where I am from, students are supposed to send their work to the committee months before the actual defense. Thus, the defense itself is very much a formality. Yet, you do not want to look stupid in front of the audience anyway. My colleague is a successful academic now and lives to tell the story.

I agree with others that you should probably just relax. But if you are going to read it again, I suggest reading it out loud. At this point it's very difficult to see any problems, because you've read through it all so many times already. But reading out loud will help you spot sentences that are unclear or too long, or could benefit from a comma.
Two days is not enough time to read the entire thesis out loud, because unless you're a trained speaker, your voice will get hoarse after an hour or two. So perhaps just read the Introduction and Literature review out loud.

Thank you! I did read one chapter out loud and spotted some mistakes!

Ask someone else to read the most important parts (you yourself have probably done so already and can't fully see the words anymore because you already know the sentences). Remember that the most important part of the thesis is probably the acknowledgements section. That is the part that most people will actually end up reading.

Good job, congratulations!
To be honest, there is close to 100% chance that some errors are left in your thesis, no matter how many times you would re-check it.
Therefore, as many has been already mentioned, I would recommend you to relax, at least try to! :-) Do something you really like but is not related to your thesis/PhD; exercise, listen music, read (non PhD related) book, ...
That is probably the best way to prepare your PhD defence. Good Luck!
Edit: Can't comment on mhwombat's answer (not enough reputation), but I think that is very good suggestion: if still reading it, better reading it out loud.

Thank you! I will take a short break! :)


text:
Do master's degree grades affect graduate school applications?
Recently I got my master's degree from a relatively unknown university, (500-600 ranking). Due to psychological implications, (signs of severe clinical depression) of COVID quaranteens and other factors I did not manage to get very good grades, 9.11 out of 10.
Due to a number of factors I want to apply for graduate school at the US. Will my master's degree grades be taken into consideration along with my undergraduate ones? These produce a total grade of 9.3 out of 10.
I mention my grades because many of the professors I whould like to work with are employed at Harvard, Yale, University of Chicago, and in general, high-ranking universities. Is there any chance for me to get into such institutions with such grades?
Thank you!

We can't really answer individual questions about whether an applicant has a chance for a specific program at a specific school. Instead, we have a canonical Q&A covering how these decisions are typically made in the US. The only way to find out about your personal case is to apply; the advice for everyone is to apply broadly, that is, not to apply only to the most selective schools (yet also not to avoid them entirely if that's your interest), even if you have a very strong application. Admissions decisions are quite stochastic.

Unless we are misinterpreting the grading scale, having grades corresponding to >90% of the grade scale does not actually sound like bad grades, it is the other way.


text:
Sending the same motivation letter to the same university
During summer 2023 I applied for a PhD position in mathematics at a European university. I got invited for an interview but did not quite make it to being offered a position due to a number of factors.
A professor of the university emailed me and proposed that I apply again for a new PhD position at the same university.
My question is the following: During the period between the two applications nothing changed in my CV, and the letter of motivation I sent during the first application adresses the new position as well, since it is on the same mathematical field. Should I attach the same letter adapted for the new position, changing the name of the project and bureaucratic numbers? Is this a bad idea? Should I change its structure? Should I write a brand new one?
Thank you!

You probably don't want to hear this, but if a professor has asked you to apply again, they remember you, so it's likely they'll remember your letter too. If you send the same letter, it might be fine, but it also won't send the signal that you're keen/eager enough to try harder than last time and it could make it look like you're just treading water instead of developing constantly. Just write a brand new one - it doesn't have to change everything, but make it more specific to the new position (it's rare you can write the same specific letter for two different positions anyway). At the end of the day, it comes down to how much you want that position.

Of course, you can equally well reason in the opposite way: if you write a completely different letter of motivation for substantially the same position, then this decreases your credibility. So I think it comes down to how similar the two positions are.

Thank you both for your answers! The positions are pretty much identical. I have already produced another letter just changing its structure and exposition without changing any special aspects about me. I do not want to make an impression as a "lazy person" but I believe that even the first letter adresses the position well enough.


text:
Teaching assistants in UK university
I have accepted a math PhD offer from a university in London. One of the main reasons, other than research, I applied for a PhD is beacause I realy enjoy teaching and I am keen on pursuing a career in academia, if all goes well.
As such, I would like to ask about TA experiences from people that studied at UK universities as well as other countries.

Were you allowed to teach whole courses?

Were you doing only tutorials and excersise sessions?

How many hours did you do TA?

What was expeceted of you? Did you have to write notes or prepare any other material?

Did you teach subjects outside of your PhD speciality?

Did you get Higher Education Academy (HEA) accreditation if you were in the UK? How is HEA perceived in the EU?

Was TA-ing enough to help you with the outrageous cost of living in London, if you studied there?

Do you have any tips or tricks for delivering good and engaging lectures?

I did TA for several courses during my PhD (in Scotland).
I also taught a course as a Teacher.

The only time I taught a whole course was then the university was missing a lecturer for this class and resorted to ask PhD students. As I was qualified for the subject (a 2nd year undergrad course) I got selected, and had to give the course, modify/adapt the slides which were given to me, design the coursework, mark them, etc.
As a TA, I took care of the tutorial/notebook for my supervisor course, both designing them and presenting them in class, which was half of the course timeslot.
I don't think teaching a whole course as a TA is usual. It depends on your definition of teach. Does that imply making the material? Just presenting it? Normally your university has policies which describes exactly the scope of work a TA has to do. There are probably other type of "rank" you can have. E.g. I had to get approved as an "Approved Teacher" for the course I taught instead of just Approved Tutor (which is TA). Additionally, the policy said a TA shouldn't contribute more than 25% of any course.
You could maybe present all the slides for the entire semester. But if your duty includes also modifying them for example, if you were a simple TA, I'd say you would be scammed. A lecturer has a higher salary than a TA because they do more work.

For two courses I helped only during the lab/tutorial/exercise sessions. For one of this two class, I also marked the coursework (which was done during the lab, giving live feedback to the student). For another, I designed notebook (exercise) and presented them. I also had a course where I dedicated 1h per week answering students question, like a sort of office hour (either by email, or during online meeting).

My university had a guideline for the hours done per week. I think it was less than 20h per week, but they usually discouraged anything more than 10h as it would impact negatively the time spent on the PhD. During one semester, I did up to 10h I think, which was a lot. When teaching the whole course as a teacher, I was spending 10h+ per week (as I was modifying slides, answering students, etc)

I was expected to know the material I was talking about/helping the student with. I was always given the slides and the exercise description, as well as the solution when available. The university started giving us 1h of prep time for each 10h of TAing towards the last part of my PhD, as we were expecting to at least spend a little time reading the course. Except for some course where I had forgotten the topic of a particular class, I usually prepared very little since I was only helping for course I was proficient with. When designing the notebook for my supervisor course, I had to go through it entirely to make sure the exercise would be link to the course.

As I said earlier, not really. You can consider technically yes, as a lot of my knowledge came from my undergrad rather than my PhD which was way more specific. But I was familiar with everything.

No.

Not in London, but I definitely did more TA than most of the other PhD due to the cost of life and to repay my loan. It did help substantially, but I also "lost" a lot of time for my PhD.

How to make very long lectures interesting? / How to make tutorials more interesting
That should be a question by itself to be honest (like maybe some other as well). It's hard to grab students attention if they don't want to listen. I always make sure to explain things in two different ways, if possible from very different point of views. Using concrete examples is very useful. Same for metaphorical example. Get familiar with the material you have and make sure what the lecturer want you to present. For example if there's a slide you find hard to understand/explain, you can ask them to modify it, or add more details. If they don't, you will have to make sure you explain it properly. On the opposite hand, if a slide covers something you find trivial, you still need to explain it. The slide is here for a reason.

More generally: Teaching while doing a PhD

6-10 hours (averaged) is fairly typical guidance even in London (see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/postgraduate-teaching-assistant-code-practice#Teaching%20Load or https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mathematics/postgraduate/doctoral-programme/current-students/gta/) International students (i.e. those studying on a Student route visa also have a Monday to Monday limit of 20 hours. This is taken seriously by institutions, although not always by individual members of staff.

Just as a warning: PhDs in the UK are short and depending on who is paying for it and which university this is at, there might be a hard cut off sooner than you think. I work at a London university and we have a maximum of 6h/week for teaching related activities for PhD students.


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Should I postpone doing a PhD and focus on publishing my finished research instead?
I'm 31 years-old, which will be relevant to my question later. I moved from my home country after high school to do my bachelor's in Canada. I ended up moving to Germany to do my Master's degree in philosophy of science. In two week's time, I'll be submitting my Master's thesis to receive my degree in physics. Doing two master's degrees instead of moving on to a PhD in philosophy was a really tough call, but I really wanted to take GR and QM at a graduate level.
Now I'm at a crossroads because I failed to receive a scholarship from the International Max Planck Research School. I have a great working relation with my current supervisor and really love the research project we've been collaborating on, but he's been clear from the get-go that he can't guarantee me any funding for a PhD. He's encouraged me to apply everywhere in Germany and to move to another city for a PhD in physics.
I've made up my mind that I don't want to move at all. I've uprooted my life twice to further my academic career, and don't really want to do it again. It's one thing to do it in your 20's, but now that I am in my 30's, I really want to settle down and start a family. Moving all the time for precarious employment won't offer any financial stability to a potential partner, either.
At the same time, even if I do get funding, I've come to terms with the fact that academic wages for PhD students in Germany are straight up garbage. I've worked with blue-collar people who make twice as much from their main job as what I would be making with a funded position. After having worked side jobs for the past five years to put myself through my two Masters' degrees, the very thought of taking an unpaid PhD position to stay in my city makes me want to throw up.
But research and teaching are two of my biggest passions. I don't want to give up on my dream of publishing great papers, and people who know my work keep telling me that I have tremendous potential. I've been thinking about striking it out on my own after I hand in my thesis and getting a full-time job in industry because it's high time I improve my standard of living after having had to hustle for so long. All the same, I want to dust off the 5+ papers I left in the back-burner and submit them for publication. It dawned on me recently that you don't need a PhD to get papers published: Julian Barbour and Freeman Dyson both built successful careers without having graduate degrees. Moreover, the research I am truly invested in getting published is more philosophical and theoretical in nature; you don't need access to a lab for that.
How realistic, then, is this plan? I know it's all up to me in the end, but I am worried that people won't take my paper submissions seriously if I am not actively "working" for a research institution at the time of submission. At the same time, I am worried that deciding to do a PhD a few years later will be even more difficult. But I'm really torn because it feels like a terrible financial decision at this point.

"I've come to terms with the fact that academic wages for PhD students in Germany are straight up garbage." This is not true, starting PhD students make 52k€, provided they get full funding: https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/allg?id=tv-l-2023&g=E_13&s=1&zv=VBL&z=100&zulage=&stj=2024&stkl=1&r=0&zkf=0&pvk=0&kk=15.5

It sounds like you have a lot of difficult decisions to make. I think its difficult to answer the question as there are many personal and professional factors at play. Perhaps asking a more specific question could be helpful.

Wow, that’s a tough decision.
TLDR: I promise, it doesn’t matter what field you end up in (e.g. journalist, high tech engineer, technical writer, finance) You will find the topic fascinating as long as you stay on the cutting edge. Stop worrying.
Long version:
that any I would say, but it just my personal thoughts inspired from 40 years post-PhD in physics .

Once a physicist, always a physicist. You have been trained to think like no other field of study. You can’t take out your willingness to imagine there is a better way to do anything. You’re abilities to analytically criticize any idea and naturally realise the scientifically based truth (or falsity) is rare. No matter what you choose to do, you will always have this advantage over your almost all of your peers. This is also a painful liability for you in any inflexible job/environment where the boss’s truth or conventional wisdom is not allowed to be questioned. Beware.

If you don’t get your PhD now, there an approx 90% probability that you’ll never get a chance until after retirement. Those are just stats. How exceptional are you? Enough to beat the stats?

Sadly, having a PhD will often hinder your options for a satisfying career over your lifetime. See next.

B/c of grade inflation in almost all other fields, a PhD is not impressive anymore. In some fields, which I won’t name, almost any average human can get a PhD. It is likely to not be of help to you.

Master degrees make more money over any other education level; true in every field. A LOT more. Many more options are open to you.

The world has moved away from physics research, which has already been mined out (diminishing returns) — unless you have billions of dollars for a large project. Even then, you would work only a tiny piece. The job you want might not exist anymore.

Let’s be serious. Getting any gainful employment in philosophy of science is very competitive. Universities are very ageist ( ie favoring the youngest) when opening a tenure track or research position. If you stray from the most conventional education, like not getting your PhD before age 30, then - worst case scenario.

I’m not trying to discourage you if you’re willing, perhaps driven, to sacrifice, toil, and bet you’re career on a path that requires very good luck to succeed no matter how good you are.

And now for me most important advice of all.
I guarantee that you will find fascination in any field that is experiencing exponential growth. I’ve been a tenured prof of solid state physics, then left to join the software explosion in Silicon Valley, followed by starting as a tech engineer building a new kind of radio telescope, working my way up the ladder till my job title was astrophysicist (ironic b/c I had no interest in astronomy when I started).
The capstone of my career was to get in at the ground floor of Machine Learning (with no experience) and finishing with NN and developing amazing new apps with ChatGPT. Which I still do part time.
I apologize for bragging but I do have a point. Forget your graduate research and find a place in the most cutting edge, exponentially growing field that you can. As a physicist, when employers are desperate b/c there aren’t enough people with Bona fides training in a new topic, they will happily hire a physicist b/c we’ve got the ability to learn.
For example, how about doing philosophy of physics in a completely new way that leverages AI. You’ll be the first in the field and anything you do with it is easily publishable. Or extremely valuable to a desperate employer.
I promise, it doesn’t matter what field you end up in (e.g. journalist, high tech engineer, technical writer, finance) You will find it is fascinating and will be happy with your choice.

Thank you so much for your super thoughtful response! It is indeed very inspiring. I was glossing over the 8000 hours website and came across "AI safety" as a very high-impact and important career in demand. Technical knowledge in machine learning topics as well as humainities knowledge in ethics and Bayesian epistemology seem like great assets to break into this field. I'll look into that soon, but first I have to wrap up my dissertation :P


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How to balance looking for fast journals and avoiding predatory journals?
I found this question regarding a list of predatory journals. This list is said to record many fake or shady publishers.
I am under special circumstances where I would benefit from "speedy" publication, but by no means want to avoid peer editing and submit to falsifiable journals. I have found many shady sites such as http://gssrr.org, which I assume are scams (they look really scammy to me) but are not on the aforementioned list.
I want to avoid things like this at all cost. My question is how/where to search for reputable journals that have a fast publication time (maybe journals which publish short articles?).

Almost no reputable mathematician (I do know one individual exception) will promise to complete a review of a paper in less than 2 months.  This is a hard lower bound on the expected time for legitimate review of a mathematics paper.  Indeed, in mathematics, promising quick review is a very strong sign of a shady journal.

If I may ask a specific question, does that mean "Applied Mathematics Letters," from Elsevier (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/applied-mathematics-letters), is fraudulent?

I don't think it's fraudulent, but I also don't see where it promises a specific timeframe for review.  It promises 3 months for research announcements, but I think they mean 3 months from acceptance, not 3 months from submission, and, in any case, it's a lot less work to review an announcement than a paper (because you don't have to check the details to see if it's correct).

You could post a pre-print to arxiv while your paper is in submission. That offers a compromise. Your paper appears publicly with a time stamp within a few days and in due course you will get a “proper” peer-reviewed publication.
Unfortunately peer review is hard to accelerate, since the reviewers are unpaid and busy. (Some economics journals offer money as an incentive, but even that doesn’t always work.) All the journals are going to ask more or less the same people to review, so they are all going to be equally slow. Any journal offering rapid peer review is making a promise they can’t keep.
One other thing you can try is to submit to a peer-reviewed conference. (This is standard in computer science, but rare elsewhere.) Conferences have a fixed turnaround time (usually 2-4 months), since there is a physical conference that needs to be arranged.

Any journal that promises a fast turnaround time isn't being completely truthful because it's just not something the journal has firm control over. Even if the editors drop everything to handle the paper immediately every time the status progresses, they have no direct control the reviewers. Reviewers can decline. Reviewers can agree to review but fail to actually submit a review. Reviewers can submit reviews late. Reviewers can write bad reviews.
A journal can say something like "our average time to first decision is 34.6 days", but to say "we will definitely make a first decision in [timeframe]" is dishonest unless the timeframe is so long (say, two years) that the statement is useless.
Therefore, pick a suitable non-predatory journal and submit your manuscript. Don't worry too much about the turnaround time - it's not something that you (or they) can realistically control.

Since you mentioned mathematics in the comments: The Notices of the AMS publishes data from participating journals on this every year. The most recent seems to be here. Obviously not all journals are listed but this should give you a rough idea of the timeframe.
But in my opinion the best option, if possible, is to ask your colleagues (or your professors, if you're a student) where they had the best experience publishing. You'll get better advice from someone who knows a little about your work.