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Is it realistic to apply to a Master at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford with a Bachelor of a German Fachhochschule?
I am a 31 year old German Bachelor-student in his 5th semester in a University of Applied Sciences, studying in Business Information Systems. The total time for receiving the Bachelor is 7 semesters.
I am starting to search for a good university for my Master (same area of studies) and I was thinking of the big ones like MIT, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and Stanford. Having checked on their websites, the costs got my main focus, as they are all quite expensive.
My question here is, whether there are studentships to support the costs. Does anybody know whether my idea of studies in these universities is realistic? How big can I expect my chance given my age, nationality, university in Germany, money situation?

Does anybody know whether my idea of studies in these universities is realistic? — No, nobody here knows.  Whether studying at the top schools is realistic depends on several factors you don't mention, like your grades, standardized test scores, research/internship experience, and recommendation letters.  Talk to the faculty who would write your letters.

A more fundamental question: what benefit are you looking for from a Masters?  I don't think this major actually exists at any of the elite US universities, because it is much more of a vocational/applied discipline, while the institutions that you list typically focus on more foundational subjects.

@jakebeal maybe something like a 'masters of information systems' would be possible

@user1938107 Actually, no: if you look at which institutions are offering information systems masters, you will notice that places like MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley simply do not offer such programs, because they are more research focused.

@jakebeal I see, i guess i was looking at the online school http://www.extension.harvard.edu/degrees-programs/information-technology

@user1938107 That is effectively a completely different university that happens to share a similar name.  A degree from Harvard Extension School is much less valued than a degree from Harvard University.

@jakebeal it is actually Harvard. Well, a school in Harvard. It's appears to be a part-time Master's Program similar to others offered by big-name schools, focused on career and industry education rather than research education. It's not stealing Harvard's name, or anything, it just has a different goal from most of Harvard's research university background.

@jakebeal apparently there's a bunch of red tape for this one compared to other industry Master's programs.

@Compass Right: it's a school in the Harvard educational complex that, despite the administrative linkage, is treated de facto very differently by the rest of the world.

@jakebeal Exception rather than norm, from what I can tell >_>

Harvard Extension has almost open admissions. The classes are sometimes taught by Harvard faculty, sometimes by adjuncts or grad students. An education from Harvard Extension is actually pretty valuable as far as experience is concerned, because in my experience (as someone who has taken graduate courses in multiple programs) the instruction is very good, but it will be undervalued as a credential because of the open admissions process and the perception that it is not as demanding.

tl;dr. I think it's unrealistic at this stage.
Note that the Masters degree in America is different than in Germany, in the sense that bachelors are typically longer and the Master and PhD are somewhat parallel in something called 'graduate school'. One question that arises is to what purpose do you want a Masters? Are you interested in doing research on the longer haul? Then it's a PhD you need. Are you mainly interested in the prestige?
My advice, if you are interested in doing academic research would be to already find a German university that will accept you in a Masters program (I don't know if it's possible...). You will be better armed to apply for a prestigious American graduate program.
More precisely about your concerns:

my age,

It's fine, people start grad school later than that.

nationality,

Nationality is a non-issue providing you are accepted in a program and have secured funding (see below). If anything it might take a bit longer for visa procedures, certainly not a killer criterion at any rate.

university in Germany,

German institutions are generally highly regarded in America, the problem is not Germany, it's the type of your institution. A German 'university of applied science' (Fachhochschule) delivers vocational degrees. The focus is to give graduates a set of practical skills so that they can enter the workforce directly upon completion of the degree. It does not prepare you to enter a prestigious graduate school, whether in America or anywhere else. When applying, you will be competing with people who are far better prepared than you.
Top American graduate schools give a enormous importance to recommendation letters. It's already hard to find professors at German/Swiss universities who know enough about the American recommendation culture to write something competitive, I suspect few (none?) of the teachers at a Fachhochschule have experience in that matter.

money situation?

You will need funding. For Masters you already realized how much tuition you will have to pay. Many student fund their studies with loans, and in the business schools it's common for employers to pay tuition. Departments sometimes pay tuition.
For PhDs, It's (almost) never the case that graduate students pay tuition out of pocket, that's also a reason why these programs are so competitive. Your potential adviser will have to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay your tuition and stipend. For the reasons listed above, I think you will struggle to find funding, but it's unrelated to your current account balance.

It is not true that graduate students never pay tuition out-of-pocket. It is true that PhD students almost never pay out of pocket. But many master's programs charge tuition that is not covered by the university. (Moreover, for a master's degree, it's not the advisor who usually covers the tuition, but the department, if it happens at all.)

@aeismail edited accordingly. In what cases do departments pay tuition? It sounds an institution giving money to itself.

@Capecode: For example, in mathematics in the US, very little funding for graduate students is provided by the advisor or their grants. Most PhD students receive teaching assistantships which cover tuition and a stipend. A few may get fellowships that provide the same without requiring work. These costs may come out of  the department's budget, but you are right that the tuition part is really an internal transfer within the university.

@CapeCode: It is an internal transfer, but usually that's the way it's handled when there's no advisor to speak of (for instance, master's by coursework programs, and the math programs Nate mentioned).

even universities within DACH countries don't want to admit applied sciences bachelors without them taking integration courses (which often translates in 1 more year), so I don't think he'll be able to trick big name american universities into thinking it's a normal bachelor degree either.
They will have never heard of the place too maybe.
The fact that americans do one less year of high school and their bachelor is 1 year longer (although it is more interdisciplinary) further increases the gap in theoretical knowledge for someone from a UAS.
So the chance of being admitted is very low.

@Formagella yes that is my sentiment as well. I know of at lest 2 Swiss unis that would not consider OP's bachelor sufficient to enter a Master. "americans do one less year of high school" do they?

well they do get the high school diploma at an earlier age and so also go to college earlier, I don't know how much the total number of years is though, as that depends on when they begin.
Where I live it's normal to be 19 when you get the matura, as is in most of Europe (not France maybe, they're 1 year younger when they reach the end of their education compared to others as a result I guess).


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How should a new professor sign their name in emails to students?
I just finished my PhD and am starting an adjunct position at a local community college.  I was responding to my first email from a student when I came across a problem I've never had before: I don't know how to sign my email.
Some options I've considered are:

First Name: this is how I've signed every academic email my whole life.
First Name Last Name: I have signed business, legal, or other official letters like this, and I suppose since this is my first job I could sign it the same way?
Professor Last Name: this makes the most sense because that's what I want to be addressed in the classroom, but I have never seen a professor write their title out like this.
Initials: I always thought professors signed their emails like this to shave precious seconds from their inbox time, but I'm now suspecting it has more to do with avoiding making the decision of how to sign.

I'm sure the best answer isn't going to be one of the above suggestions.  No matter what I pick, I want to be consistent, so there's no confusion as to how I should be addressed.

Edit: this is in the US.

Any of the above is fine. Really.

I almost concur with @ff524: Any of the above but the third are fine ;-)

I sign with my first name, but also don't mind being called by my first name in person. Signing with your first name could be seen as inviting the recipient to refer to you by your first name, so you should probably avoid that if its not what you want.

This is a poll, so I vote #4.  RK

In the US I would say: definitely Professor LastName.

You don't need to sign emails. The header says who you are.

Have you formally been given the title of professor?  Often times adjuncts are simply instructors.  In that case, you should use "Dr. "

Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16898/how-to-sign-your-email-to-students-so-to-avoid-their-immature-behavior/

@GEdgar - This varies according to region.  In the midwest professors were called Prof. X.  In New York state I found the younger professors going by their first name.  It may also vary by department.

Sign as you wish to be addressed by the recipient. When I sign an email with my first name, I am giving the recipient permission to address me by my first name. I almost always sign off with my first name, but in the rare instances that I don't want them to address me that way and do want to retain more formality, I use "Dr Firstname Lastname" instead. If I'm really feeling ambivalent, I'll use "Firstname Lastname", which I feel leaves the decision up to them.
I usually also have my full name with title and contact details in the sig at the bottom of my email, separated from my sign-off by a line containing only "--". This is so my contact details are handy, but also for clarity -- even if I am giving them permission to use my first name, it is sometimes useful for them to know my position and qualifications.

I would recommend signing your emails in the way that you would like your students to address you.
In my own experience in the US, most of the professors that I interacted with were quite informal with their students, preferring to be on a first-name basis in class, and likewise signed their emails in that manner (or even more informally, e.g., "-P").
Not all were, however, and those who wanted to be called Prof. Lastname tended to sign their emails thus as well.  A few signed as a full "Prof. Firstname Lastname", which I found frustrating as a student, because it gave no indication as how they actually wanted to be addressed.
Note that in other institutions or other countries, the general custom may vary greatly, but I think the principle remains the same: if you sign your emails how you'd like your students to address you, it will be a clear and unambiguous signal to them, which they will likely appreciate.

I'd read "Prof. Firstname Lastname" as meaning they want to be addressed as "Prof. Lastname".

@Significance Usually, I find "Prof. Firstname Lastname" to be the first part of an automatic signature block, which just tells me that they aren't thinking about their relationship with the recipient.

Do as your colleagues.
There might be a specific tradition in your department, and you should respect it (especially if you just arrived).
If you are in a Department where the professor are referred to as "Dr. Last Name", you would seem too familiar by allowing your students to call you "First Name". On the other hand, if everyone goes by "First Name", it would seem pedantic to go by "Pr. Last Name".
And, as all the answers pointed out, you want to sign the way you want to be addressed.

#2, Firstname Lastname
Students will automatically call you Professor Lastname (or more likely Dr Lastname, in a community college), unless you take the first move to call you Firstname, or more affectionately, Dr Firstname.
If a student calls you by your first name (it could happen!) but you are uncomfortable with this, there is a simple solution.  (This is also a good preventative measure.)  Address your emails to students as Dear Mr./Ms. Lastname.  You will come across as old-fashioned and respectful.
I predict that with time it will become less important to you to be called Prof. Lastname.  But for now, that's what you want, and it's not hard to achieve.
I suppose if you find yourself in an informal environment where students naturally want to call you by your first name, it might help you achieve your goal if you wear a suit and tie to class and office hours.
You could also post a formal photograph of yourself with the caption "Prof. Lastname" on your home page and your office door (or next to it).  (You may allow yourself to smile for the photograph, if you wish.)
By the way, make yourself an automatic signature for your email, with your title, department name and contact information.  But don't use "Professor" in your signature.  You may certainly put ", PhD" after your name, though.

This is all context-dependent. In some parts of the world these days, students will not "automatically call you Professor Lastname", but will instead default to Firstname. In the US, I understand putting letters after your name is considered less formal than putting a title before your name. In Australia, the reverse is true and putting letters after the name can look pretentious. See what others are doing.

@Significance - I think this Professor is in the U.S. because s/he said "community college" and "adjunct position".  I will see if there's a U.S. tag I can add.

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"Undergraduate graduation research assistant"?
I have a question regarding on how to list this specific activity in undergraduate school.
I have helped many students (for free) in my undergraduate school with their graduation research by guiding them, reviewing their work and making sure everything is correct.
How do I list this in my CV?

How did you "guide" them and make sure "everything is correct" if you were still undergraduate by yourself?

I suspect many readers of whatever you write will be looking for how what you're describing is different (and worth mentioning) from the typical case of a strong subject-matter student (e.g. one who is planning to attend graduate school) tutoring friends, dorm-mates, friends of friends (e.g. a friend of yours recommended seeing you for help about some topic), etc. -- activities that nearly every such student (at least in my experience) partakes in as an undergraduate.

What is "graduation research" in your context.  I am not at all familiar with this term.

You don't list this on your CV.
The only items that belong on your CV are accomplishments, as determined by 3rd parties. For example, work history as evaluated by employers (or paid clients, if you were, for example a consultant), educational history as determined by a diploma granted by a university, publication history as determined worthy by peer-review, etc.
Any item for which you evaluate yourself does not belong on your CV, and that includes help you gave fellow undergraduate students and which you consider valuable. This would also include self-published books (ie vanity presses), articles in predatory journals, etc.
If we all listed on our CVs every instance of helping someone out, every academic CV would be hundreds of pages long.

Good advice here. Such things are better mentioned in letters of recommendation by faculty members.

I would first choose a common term for whatever it was you did. It's not clear exactly what that was. Maybe "editor", maybe something else. "Research assistant" doesn't seem to fit. Also "graduation research" isn't a common phrase. Do you mean you helped them with their undergraduate dissertation or final project?  If so, you might want to be sure that this is OK to do before listing it!
I was a statistical consultant for people doing their PhD dissertations, but I made sure to tell each of them that they had to get permission from their committee.  This was rarely a problem.
Then, I would describe what you did.

Graduation research might be the uncommon term for this. That being said, you can just list that and explain what you mean by that term or use the alternative term that is more common. You do not need to use your university term and there is no rule that you can't have the explanation in your CV.

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Is it safe to publish a number theory formula in OSF or preprints.org?
I have a new number theory formula. I am a software engineer, but I am interested in number theory. I do not have an endorsement on arXiv, so I am left with two popular choices, OSF and preprints.org. Which one is safe, so my formula will not get stolen?

Did you get feedback from a colleague more specialized in number theory?
Be aware that publishing INCORRECT results on an ARCHIVING website will result in a permanent stain associated to your name, coming out each time someone is searching for your list of publications. I think you should be more afraid of publishing PERMANENTLY something incorrect than of your formula to be "stolen"...

Yes and no, it is really simple algebraic formula I searched for it for days I didn't find something like it even on Wikipedia. I verified multiple time with online math solver like symbolab it got it correct. I verified with calculator and it is correct. I think from your comment the safe archive for me is preprints.org when it got reviewed by editor?

What do you mean by "stolen"?

I found this in researchgate.com where they discuss stealing preprints ideas, https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_preprints_on_research_gate

Independently discovering something certainly isn't "stealing".  It happens all the time.  The backpropagation algorithm is great example of that.  Good job nobody published a book claiming that there was no prospect of discovering an algorithm to do something for which an algorithm had already been invented some years before ;o)

I fear you have a misconception about intellectual property and publishing. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you don't and can't "own" ideas. Publishing (somewhere that has a firm date attached) can associate your name with an idea and give you a claim to priority, which is really a social construct. It is proof against plagiarism but not against use and extension.
Publishing an idea, anywhere, doesn't give you exclusive rights to it. Any one can use it. Anyone can extend it. Anyone can dispute it. Ideas are free.
There are certain protections that can be applied to certain expressions of ideas. This permits the originator to exploit the ideas financially for a time. Copyright protects the specific expression of an idea (words, figures, ...) so that creators can be rewarded for their ideas, even though they don't own those ideas.
Patent law protects certain expressions of ideas ("devices") for a time, again to permit commercial exploitation.
But, if someone needs to hold ideas "close" so that others can't take any advantage of them at all, they are held as trade secrets and not published. Some (likely weaker) protections apply to these but in the form of sanctions against those who reveal them without permission.
The very purpose of publishing is to make the ideas public and available to others for use and extension.
Publishing anywhere in a venue that provides a verifiable date of publication and is stable (i.e. not a personal website) gives you a "receipt" that can be proof against plagiarism of others. But plagiarism isn't the use of the ideas, nor their extension, but only an improper claim of priority.
And, keeping the ideas to yourself, while it may prevent others from knowing what you know, has the disadvantage that your discovery might be published through the independent work of others. You then have no proof of priority.

Thank you so much for your detailed information, let me please lightly introduce myself  I am computer scientist and software engineer and I am math lover. I discovered new formula for i^x where x can be any value including irrational numbers and non integer numbers without knowing about Euler formula but the formula I discovered doesn't use the constant "e" it is directly using trigonometric function. So can I put it in math-overflow instead writing research paper and considered my discovery? I searched the Euler formula can be little problematic for irrational numbers and non integers.

Math overflow is actually a question answer site, not a publishing site. And things are subject to disappearance there. Formal publishing (or at least submitting a paper) will give you feedback from reviewers, which is probably what you need.

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How do I stay motivated in my PhD research when my advisor doesn't seem to like me very much?
My PhD advisor and I simply do not get along. I think it has a lot to do with the language and cultural barriers (we are in Germany). We had an argument this week that almost led to me quitting, but on Friday we discussed how things could be improved. However I still can't shake the notion away that he doesn't seem to like me very much and that things won't get any better.
Here is my situation: I got a fully funded, 100% research position throug the Deutscheforschung Gemeinschaft in what is loosely translated in English as a "graduate school" (Graduiertenkolleg). We were told that we could concentrate on our own research (no teaching requirements), but our funding only lasts 3 years, so we have to finish by then. When I took the job, I thought I would be working more closely with the other fellows hired by the graduate school, even though we are based in the research teams of our PIs. In my case, my PI has 3 other PhDs with teaching obligations, i.e., not under my funding scheme.
I had thought I won't have any other obligations other than my own work. But little did I know that my PI has been harbouring a grudge against me this whole time. Here's a list of things he mentioned:

He told me that I always seem so depressed, so I should think about whether I really want to pursue this path. I have been diagnosed with depression, so this is unlikely to go away overnight. He never once asked me what was wrong.
He says I "don't seem interested" in the research going on in his team because "I don't ask any questions".
He also told me that I hadn't followed through on my promises to help out with the team. I had once offered to set up a social media strategy, and he just said "sounds good" and moved on to the next point, so I didn't think he was interested.
He says I never engage in team discussions or offer helpful suggestions to my other PhDs. This is categorically not true, since I always tell my colleagues whether I see something (journal articles, workshops) that could be interesting for them.
He says I didn't offer to supervise any bachelor's or master's theses.
He is always critical about the way I present information. For example, I have sent him presentation slides and he says it has too much unnecessary information. Then I send him presentations that he says lacks crucial information. I never know which information he needs, and I get shut down either way.
He says I favor the events of the graduate school over his team, since I have had to miss some meetings to attend required coursework.
I explained to him that I had thought my obligations are to the graduate school, that I have to finish on time.
When I explained to him what I had thought I was hired for (no teaching obligations etc) he told me that he doesn't believe me, that I should have known that I was part of his team primarily and that the graduate school was just a funding scheme.

I felt like he couldn't see my contributions simply because I wasn't behaving in the way he was expecting and doesn't seem to understand that I don't have it all figured out. Later on, when things calmed down a little, he explained to me that in Germany, most positions in my field are only supported up to 65% (if you're lucky), so I should think of my work as a fully paid position for work that can be done in a 65% position. But how was I supposed to know that?
It's worth noting that he is very accommodating to the circumstances of other PhDs in his team (e.g., one home office day a week for those with children). But for some reason he doesn't seem to care all that much that I have depression or that there are some things about German academia that I don't know about. I still want to continue with my PhD, but how do I motivate myself from here on?

Have you actually told him that you have been diagnosed with depression? (from what you write I would have guessed "no" until one of the conclusing remarks). Also, I don't see how you go from you suggesting to do something to which he replies "sounds good" to thinking he is not interested. That one might be a language thing, but to me that would be a clear signal to go ahead and do it (and indeed with an implied promise from you to do it).

@TobiasKildetoft I did, though he didn't comment on it further (he just kind of nodded). About the suggestion, he usually says things like "that sounds interesting, I have been thinking x y z..." when he's truly into an idea, so for him to only say "sounds good" seemed like he wasn't so enthusiastic about the idea.

First thing to do and the best one would be to not worry so much on such things. Also, it seems that you should interact (a lot) more with your peers, your team. In time, these things will be balanced somehow. Concerning depression, taking up a sport constantly have very good effects. Good luck!

Not enough time for an answer, but I wanted to add that nothing in your post seems to indicate that your advisor does not like you.

@Dirk it was his assertion that I should probably think about leaving when he noticed that I was depressed, instead of asking me what's wrong, kind of tipped me off (vs. how he approaches other PhDs in the team about their personal situations).

Perhaps he thinks it's none of his business what's wrong.

@JeffE his exact words are "I feel responsible for your you as a member of my team, so if you're unhappy.."

The cause of this issue appears is the advisor and advisee coming into the relationship with different expectations of each other. **Advisors - please always set up a meeting on the first day with the student where you discuss your expectations of them and also allow them to discuss expectations of you!!!!!!! This will help avoid such terrible situations later on.

What a shame that your professor hasn't been giving you constructive feedback as you've been going.  I think I would end up depressed, working with someone who waits, and then dumps a lot of negativity in a complaining and blaming way.
So... I see two choices.
1) Find a different advisor.  OR:
2) Try to make the best of a less than ideal situation:
a) Take all of his feedback and rewrite it, with positive phrasing.  Read the constructive version a couple of times a week, telling yourself, "This is what he meant, only he was held back from expressing himself this way by his own cultural upbringing, personal shortcomings, etc.  This is like the Fats Waller song, "I'm gonna sit right down, and write myself a letter." (lyrics).
b) Pick a couple of his feedback items at a time to tackle, to see if you can make some progress with.
c) Guide him to give you guidance in a more positive, constructive way.  Here are some ways to do that:
(i) Next time you share a powerpoint draft with him, include the extra material, and in the body of the email, when you send it to him, say, for example, "I know that this draft needs to be pruned down.  Can you help me cut it down, by suggesting which slides should be removed, and which ones should be edited?"
(ii) Ask for an appointment specifically to speak about coping mechanisms for your condition.  Take an outline on an index card with you.  Use I-messages.  (You and I know that he has contributed plenty to the difficulties in your relationship, but it won't help matters to let him know that.)  For example, "I need constructive criticism, as part of my training.  But I get easily discouraged and overwhelmed by negative criticism.  So, when I share a draft with you, could you please find something positive to say for every three negative things you say?  That will help me keep my perspective."
(iii) Make sure to give him positive feedback whenever he makes a step in the right direction, for example, "Thank you so much for helping me edit my powerpoint.  Your comments were extremely helpful."
d) As others have suggested, work on breaking your isolation.  (I understand completely your explanation of how it came to be.)
Last comment.  You might be right, he might not like you very much.  But what struck me more clearly was that you don't like him very much.  Sometimes when a person struggles with depression, it is hard to give oneself permission to have strong opinions of this type.
Here's hoping that if you decide to stay in this group, the two of you find  more to like about each other!

The said situation comes often in many cases. Though frequency is very less, but it really helps to make one strong to work in adverse situation. Since you want to continue your PhD and keen to get a doctorate degree, so my suggestion is to tell yourself that your supervisor's expectation is natural of being you productive more and more. Don't care much about your supervisor's negligence or disinterest in your work. Because such thoughts will never help you to achieve your goals, but definitely impact on your inner piece and creativeness to perform well in PhD.
So, long story short, it is temporary and may persist maximum until your PhD. Good Luck!!

OP now wants to quit PhD :(

In this Situation. I would go ahead and find a different advisor. He does not seem to be that very helpful. If you cant do this, then your best bet would just try to make the best of the situation and persevere.

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Coping with not speaking local language, as an academic?
One requirement in academia, especially as an early career scientist, is the the willingness to study or work in different countries.
Personal motivation for the question: Apart from the professional side (having a job, developing as a researcher,...), the positive aspects of going abroad are clear to me: I really enjoy getting to know new countries, their mentality, culture, nature, etc. It is also a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. But on the downside: I only speak English and German, and I’m really bad at learning new languages, I might add. Also, I’ve seen a lot of non-German speaking colleagues struggle with learning German at my home University for years (and I assume that a lot of people in academia must have the same problem).
I’m currently in the third year of my PhD and doing a medium-term research stay in Norway. Not understanding most of what is said around me makes everyday life more difficult and also somewhat more lonely (even though most people do speak English in Norway, so I am able to get by). Moreover, I feel that I really miss out by not learning the language while I’m here. But for my job it is not required to know the language, which makes it not immediately necessary.
Thinking about PostDoc options for after my PhD, I don’t want to limit myself to only English/German speaking countries. However, I hesitate to take a longer position, knowing that I might not be able/willing to learn the language. Knowing that I will always force people around me to either be impolite or to not speak in their native language.
If an academic doesn't learn languages easily apply only to jobs in countries where s/he already speaks the local language?
I’m specifically posting this here as opposed to some language forum. I’m interested in how other people in a similar position deal with this situation. I'm aware that it is in theory of course possible to learn every language but I'm interested in in opinions and experiences from real life.

Is this not, in essence, a boat question? There is a massive amount of information about learning new languages available through a cursory Google search. Fortunately for you, the work needed to learn a new language can easily be divided into many small chunks, so that you can do it whenever you want and can (e.g. commute, lunch break, right before bed). As for tools, have a look at Anki, I think it is great for memorising words and whatnot.

At many universities they offer a broad selection of language classes. Maybe you can join one so you can have (1) an actual teacher, (2) fixed dates to practice and get feedback and maybe (3) other students to help you practice outside of classes. If you put in some extra effort using apps, books, etc. this will give you a pretty solid start within a semester.

I am facing the same situation, I am doing my PhD and just started learning German, although it's not required for the job but everyone around me is always talking in German and it makes me feel left out and lonely. I am finding it quite difficult to learn it at the moment since I am learning all by myself. I did go to a German language course for beginners but it was being taught in German so I could not understand or learn anything. I was in Norway for a few months so really didn't need to learn the language apart from some basics like ha det bra!!

@101010111100 "Boat question" was precisely my thought too. The answers to "How to I learn a language as an early career scientist?" are essentially the same as the answers to "How do I learn a language?".

@101010111100 most definitely boat programing, but no one have voted to close yet.

I’m voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not specific to academia. Either narrow it down to ask for possible solutions that are exclusive to academia or ask (more specific questions) on sites dedicated to this, such as [languagelearning.se].

@Lukas: To understand what people here mean by "boat question", "boat programming", read "What is the boat programming meme about?".

I have tried to make the question more useful to other academics, and have voted to reopen. // I think this is an interesting question and have had both good and not so good experiences as an expat academic, but will wait to post.  Lukas, please ping me once it's clear whether question is reopened or stays closed.

@aparente001 I not sure why expat academics have different problems than any other expat.

@StrongBad - I've been both and it's not the same. But if the question needs more work to reopen please feel free to help fix it!

Learning a language is a lot of work, particularly if it is not that similar to languages you already know.  So it's not an endeavour to undertake just because you might get a job somewhere later.  You need real motivation to learn a language properly.  The main reasons I see for an academic to learn a language properly are: because you enjoy learning languages, because you plan to spend a lot of time in a place it will be useful, or because you need it for your academic work.
If you are serious, in academia there are resources that may be easily accessible to you.  The main ones are:

take/audit language classes at your university before going there
take language classes for foreigners at your destination university

Universities get a lot of foreign visitors, and depending on the university, they may have other support besides their own language classes.
I did a 1-year postdoc in Japan, and one piece of advice I got from someone who was doing a postdoc there before me was start learning Japanese as soon as possible.  So I studied Japanese for about a year beforehand both by taking university classes in the US, as well as some extra studying on my own.  I also took lessons in Japan, as well as studied on my own.  While my Japanese is still far from a native level, after a couple months in Japan, I could handle most non-technical communications on my own in Japanese.
I do want to stress this requires real effort on your part, and it's hard if you don't really enjoy it or aren't serious about it.  I met several foreigners there who just attempted to learn Japanese by osmosis and maybe some small efforts on their own, and even if they had been their many years, they couldn't have a real conversation in Japanese.

I had a similar situation back when I was a post-doc from America in the Netherlands. All of the science was done in English, all the talk at coffee was in Dutch. After a few months settling in to the work side, I went to my boss and asked for two weeks off to take an immersion course in Dutch at a local Dutch language institute. I followed that up with several night courses at the same institute. Coupled with making sure I spoke Dutch during coffee, reading a Dutch newspaper every day, and reading general book in Dutch, after a year or so I was pretty fluent. The trick is, of course, that you have to work hard at it. Fortunately, the language and my science were different enough that one would be a break from the other.
Now, twenty-odd years later back in America, my Dutch is pretty rusty. But, I still think it was well worth the time and effort to integrate in while I was there. (Note the biggest problem was getting many Dutch to speak Dutch with me - they could tell I spoke English from my accent, and wanted to speak in English with me to practice their English. It led to some interesting conversations where each side spoke the other's language.)


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Should I pay the teammate of the research if they don't contribute many things?
I am an undergraduate student and I join the research project with two other friends (same class) under my professor supervision. I got some money for the project, this money is divided equally to every member and I have a bonus for the leader position.
During the research, my teammate doesn't contribute much work.  When I submit the paper to the conference, they said I should remove their name and give them the money.
In my opinion, I don't want to give them the money because the total budget is not much, just enough for the submission fee.
So what should I do now, this is the first time I submit the paper and I don't want to feel awkward with them because we still have to study together?
Update:
After considering all the advice from you guys, I decided to give them their money as the team discussed at the beginning of the project. I think it is fair and they deserve to be paid because they do put their effort into this project.

I got some money for the project, this money is divided equally to every member and I have a bonus for the leader position seemingly contradicts the total budget is not much, just enough for the submission fee

@user2768 "some money for the project" is the total budget. My team agreed to divide the money equally and I will have some bonus.

A submission fee may suggest a predatory publisher, do check

@user2768 I just check again and it is the publication fee, I only need to pay if my paper is accepted.

Use the money for whatever purpose it was assigned: If assigned to pay project team members equally plus your bonus for the leader position, do that. If assigned for submission fee, pay that. If assigned with no remit, do as you see fit. Personally, I think everyone deserves to be paid for their work, after costs (i.e., the submission fee).


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How to work with teammate who cannot handle stress well?
I am a leader of my undergraduate thesis team and we have 3 members. My team performance is lower than every others team in my class (i.e, they will need more time to complete a task than anyone).
Because of that reason, when working with them, I don't rush them or set too many deadlines, instead, I just usually ask about their progress and help them solve their problems.
But the deadline is coming, and I ask a member that "Can you give a day that you think this task will be completed?".
He said that "why you keep rushing me, how about your work, have you done it?" and after I told him my progress (does not finish), he said, "Instead of rushing me, why don't you finish your works?".
And after this, it is a conversation of him question what I have done so far.
The problem is I do not rush him, I just want to know the time he estimates it.
About this member, he often gets angry if the task is hard and has to do it by himself. He usually judges others' works and when they ask how to do it, he just says google it by yourself, this is your task.
How can I handle this situation? How can I help him stay calm and listen to everyone when working as a team?
Update:
To answer @Lewian's question:

This project is our final thesis for the undergraduate.
We formed the team by our choice. So after we formed our team, they chose me to become a team leader for this project because I have more experience in research and works.
"How these "teams" are organized?" - I don't really understand this question but each team will do a different thesis topic, each team will have 2 - 3 members and work with a supervisor from the faculty.
"How can you know that "my team performance is lower than every other team"?" - Because our class size is small, we usually learn together in almost every course. I worked with them on some course projects so I know how they work and can compare their performance with others students in our class.
"To what extent is your course result dependent on how your team members work?" - The course result will be graded by our faculty committee, they will judge on our overall results and each member's works.
"On previous tasks (if they exist), to what extent was your performance affected by the teammate this question is about, or actually your own work?"

So his task is like DevOps (he will install all the libraries, packages, etc), we need him to make everything available so we can work on the algorithm. He did this before on our computer so now, he does it again on our university server (because we need a more powerful machine).
I said the deadline is coming means the research paper submission. We need to run many experiments on our university server to have some results for the paper. So if he doesn't finish the installation, we cannot run anything and we may not submit our paper on time.

"Instead of rushing me, why don't you finish your works?" Well, he's kinda told you what he wants you to do, and it's fairly reasonable, honestly.

@user3482749 Yes, I still have to work on my task. I just don't why he reacts like that because I don't rush him.

Some people do not like to be prodded. If they have a history of completing on time, leave them alone. If they have a history of being late, you have your reason why you ask. However, make sure you are always on time, in this case. Either this, or else adopt a more collaborative decision-making process.

Can you explain more how these "teams" are organised? Who put them together? How did you become a "leader"? To what extent is your course result dependent on how your team members work? Is there an open competition on a series of tasks, or how can you know that "my team performance is lower than every other team"? On previous tasks (if they exist), to what extent was your performance affected by the teammate this question is about, or actually your own work?

@Lewian I just updated my question, hope it helps you understand more about my situation.

Am I right then that the role of a "leader" is entirely informal? Do teams even need a leader? Because I'm wondering what your job as a leader actually is, and whether this is accepted by everyone. Am I interpreting the part 1 of the last answer correctly by thinking that you need him to do this task before you can finish yours?

@Lewian Yes, I need him to complete his task so I can complete mine.

@Lewian So my work as a leader is: planning what to do for a week, a month, assign tasks, report the progress to the supervisor, and some paper works. Besides that, as a member, I still have to work on the thesis like others.

Assuming this is not a course on management or psychology:
Teaching students how to treat each other politely, or how to manage stress, is not something that students need to do.  It is something faculty need to do.  Ask your instructor for help.  If this is a final year thesis, maybe this student is having a hard time learning those skills.
Do "lead by example" by being patient and calm.

Thank you for your answer. I will do the "lead by example" and ask for help from my thesis supervisor. I think he just needs some time and maybe it just lacks communication because we have to work remotely.

"Teaching students how to treat each other politely" should have happened in high school. Unfortunately, often even professionals do not know how to do it.

I should first say that there's quite a bit of speculation in this answer - I don't necessarily believe it is as I say, I rather offer this as a possibility to potentially understand the situation.
"How can I handle this situation? How can I help him stay calm and listen to everyone when working as a team?"
It seems to me that in this setup he doesn't have any incentive to respect you as a leader, at least not when you do something that annoys him. You probably have to accept that. It may be that you have a different interpretation of the "leader" role - you seem to think that some real responsibility and authority comes with it, whereas I suspect he just sees you as an equal who doesn't have any particular right to "lead" him. He may think that there's a "leader" just because there has to be one (somehow maybe enforced by the way this assignment is run in the class), but he wouldn't want to be "led" anyway. Maybe it goes against his pride.
Unfortunately the problem is that it seems that in this setup you don't have any particular power. You can only "rule" as far as the others are fine with your rule, but if this person disagrees with your authority, you have no way to enforce it. I'm assuming that you are "leader" only for the limited time of this assignment, and there is no need in the long run for him to respect you as authority. "Help him to stay calm" - I'm afraid that this cannot be your job realistically, as long as he doesn't want it to be your job.
Ultimately I agree that asking the instructor for help is pretty much the only thing you can do; otherwise you maybe need to accept that being "group leader" really doesn't mean that much here, and you will have to live with his way of working and communication for the time being. (Hopefully you are not constrained to have him in your group for a long period and several tasks.)

I agree with your perspective about the power of my leader role here. But I just feel a little bit disappointed when there has to be a power for someone to respect me as a leader for this kind of project. I think respect is a standard behavior when collaborating with others.

My answer is not meant as some kind of moral evaluation. This is how I see it; I have nothing to say about whether this is "disappointing", "OK", "standard" or whatever.


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How to appear legitimate when asking authorities about sensitive data for research?
I am a graduate student, and I am interested in doing my thesis on the modeling of utility networks, and how they are related / dependent on each other.  A specific case I would like to model is the effect of simulating the effects on water treatment and delivery networks, from interruptions in electrical networks.  I have located some open water network data, and I can also extract electrical network data from sources like OpenStreetMap, but I would still need some information about where water treatment plants are located, and if they also happen to be connected via underground cables.
I thought about contacting the city on which I am planning on doing my modeling, but I feel as though it may be alarming to them to have a random person (currently going to school in a foreign country) suddenly asking questions about their critical infrastructure.  When asked why, my truthful answer of "I want to assess where the network may be most vulnerable to interruption" would likely not settle any uncertainties.
I am wondering if anybody has any experience in approaching this kind of situation.

Well, for a start, send the email from your official university account and begin it with "I am a research student at City University working with Professor Expert on modeling utility networks and their interdependencies."

Maybe ask for outdated data (and of course include the advice David gave)? They might have data that is helpful for your theoretical model and your work, but is not a danger to the city. Still, it might be a simple question of "this data is secret, so you can't have it, no matter who you are", so be prepared to not get anything.

Perhaps one should focus on a nearby city in the country you are in. They might be willing to help their local university, and you can go over there in person with your professor to kick things off. I have found utility/facility folks to be quite open, likely because normally nobody cares about them.

Academic fieldwork is often a political game and appearing legitimate is certainly a key issue. I think if you are legitimate and upfront about where you work and what you want to do that aspect can be covered quite easily. But if there are sensitive data that they are not allowed to share, it will not matter who you are.
I think the first thing to do is to disclose your affiliation and explain what your are working on and how this organization's data are relevant to your study.
There are other aspects to consider so I will go slightly off topic here. It's sometimes very difficult to explain academic imperatives even to highly educated staff who work in other types of environments. They might perceive your work as an audit of their practices and can interpret your analysis as a challenge to their expertise. They might also want oversight on your writing and ask you to present their work in a positive way. You will have to be very diplomatic in that regard.
I think it safer to discuss data policy in advance: what you want to gather, what you will be showing in your thesis. They might ask for control over how their data will be published. You need to know in advance, ideally in written, what is OK and what not. The last thing you need is them to give you trouble when you're finishing up your thesis or after a paper is published.


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How to get academic reference for grad school admission if I didn't interact with professors in my online bachelor's degree?
I need a letter of recommendation, but am unsure how to get it.
I am applying to graduate school. I need three letters of recommendation. I have 2/3. Some schools to which I am applying require the third to be from an academic, such as a professor.
My undergraduate education was online. I never interacted with a professor. Even if I could get a letter of recommendation, I am not sure that it would be relevant. I am applying to graduate school in a field completely unrelated to business.
Do I submit a non-academic reference? Do I ask a professor with whom I have no pre-existing relationship?

Did you have e-mail contact with any professor, perhaps in turning in assignments?

I would contact the institution that provided your online degree and ask them how they propose to help you solve this. It is a weakness of the system they created - perhaps they have a solution - otherwise, they certainly need to start working on it. It is of course unfortunate you discover this now- but maybe you can help future students (they might make some changes). Did they not appoint an academic advisor who knew you a little bit at least?

First of all, what I'm about to say may vary depending on the field. I'm in mathematics.
The role of the recommendation letters is for someone who can be seen as an authority to tell the admissions committee how well you will do in academia. Someone from outside academia is unlikely to be able to tell them that. You need at least one recommendation letter from someone with experience in academia. Part of the work you do in undergrad, once you realise that you want to go to grad school, is build relationships with professors who could potentially write recommendation letters. A letter from your supervisor at work will tell an admissions committee nothing about how well you will do in academia, unfortunately. You need someone who can say, based on personal experience with grad students, that you will be successful.
Unfortunately for you, it sounds like none of your professors know enough about you to write a good recommendation letter. However, an application (at least in math) without any academic reference would be very unlikely to succeed. I would say that you should pick a professor from a class where you did well, and there was considerable coursework that the professor can base his recommendation on, and email that professor and ask for a recommendation. It won't be an excellent letter, since they don't know you personally, and they may refuse to recommend someone they don't know personally, but you should try. The recommendations are one of the most important parts of a grad school application, and by not getting to know any of your professors well enough that they can write you a recommendation letter you've put yourself at a huge disadvantage.

PhD programs of any worth in the United States require three letters of reference from faculty who can attest to your academic qualifications - and who have met you in person.
MA programs (especially unfunded ones) are much more lenient and will take students who are borderline.
I'd recommend looking into a physical (not online) MA where you can work intensively with some faculty for one or two years who will write for you. Choose carefully though, because students at some poorly run MA programs have little contact with faculty. Be sure to talk to students in the program right now as well as graduates. A good program will be proud of its alumnae and happy to introduce to them to prospective students.

"PhD programs of any worth require three letters of reference" - probably, this extremely general-sounding statement should be qualified with a location for which it is valid.

@O.R.Mapper - I added a qualifier, but I'd like to ask you a question: is there a location for where this isn't the case? That is, we get 150 applications for 8 slots every year. As a top program, we're not unusual in this regard. We can afford to be very selective and next to the statement of purpose, the letters of reference are usually the most important part of the applicant package.

@RoboKaren: I cannot provide any global (or even very wide-spread) overview, but from what I have seen in Germany, getting a position with the opportunity of getting a doctoral degree (at least of the unstructured style) works a lot like applying for a job; you send an application letter and a C.V. to the head of the department you are applying to, and you get invited to an interview. If it is an "in-house" application (at the same uni or possibly even department where you got your Master's), there might be some communication between the Master thesis supervisor and the professor, but ...

Interesting. Thank you. It seems clear that this doesn't apply to the OP's situation (as he wouldn't be asking about letters if the practice is as you represent it to be) but it's useful data for us to have.

... that does not necessarily happen in the form of a written letter. At the same time, it is not very likely students actually get in touch closely/frequently enough to warrant a meaningful letter of recommendation with any university employees other than their Bachelor and Master thesis supervisors (who are often doctoral candidates), i.e. normally no more than two people. Incidentally, letters of recommendation are very rare over here in general, and during my academic career, I have only ever encountered two instances of people needing any; in both cases related to going abroad.

@RoboKaren I think the entire letter writing business is rather specific to North America. As such, I think most places outside the US / Canada don't traditionally ask for any letters. I certainly didn't have any letters when entering grad school.

Well, the OP is from the USA  so I think raising that objection here is  rather pedantic.

@RoboKaren: The only mention of a country in the OP's question refers to the university where they did an online degree, so strictly speaking, that does not indicate that the OP is necessarily from the USA. But even if so, I'd consider it rather absolutely reasonable than pedantic to mark a country-specific statement as such on a site that is directed at a global audience.


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How does one properly indicate a translator's explanation of a word within a translated passage
I have a paper with one or two multi-sentence translations from classical Chinese.  How do I explain certain things in the text that are assumed by the author but would not be known by modern readers? I have seen where a translator presents within his translation comments or explanations; however, I don't know the proper way to format and mark these.  Is it (xxxxxx xx xxxx x, tr.)?

@earthling, promote your comment to an answer.  I'd vote it up.

Any time you need to give additional information for readers, and you do not want to interrupt the flow of reading, footnotes are generally considered the best way.
This is common for translation notes or any other information which the reader might need for a fuller understanding of your text.


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What does this mean when I submitted the revised manuscript (the decison is minor revision )?
I have submitted a manuscript to IEEE TRANS Journal.
After rounds of revisions, I have gone through the major revision, minor revision, and minor revision.
I have just submitted the revised manuscript for the latest minor revision accordingly, and after one day, the status is "awaiting reviewer selection".
What does this mean?
Does it indicate that my manuscript will go through another complete review by the newly invited reviewers?
Or, is it just a status means that the ADM is handling the manuscript?

See: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/55665/75368


text:
Advice to get new PhD opportunities
I have a master's degree in Mathematics in a specialty X. I got a scholarship to do a PhD thesis in a specialty Y in another country. I have started working on my thesis and I have devoted most of my time to read books and articles in order to get familiar with the speciality Y and with the subject of my thesis. My relationship with my advisor was very bad, he was not supportive and he wanted me to quit my thesis in first year, since he was convinced that I couldn't succeed it.  Four years later, I have finished my thesis (I did the work that my advisor told me to do), However he has refused to approve it. Now, I have quit this thesis and I want to get another chance to do a PhD thesis in the speciality Y because I have worked so hard for four years and I have gained a good research experience (even though I don't have publications).
I want to contact some professors to ask them for PhD opportunities in their lab, but I don't know how should I talk about this (negative) experience so that I can convince them to work with me ?

Are you limited in where you can move to and live?

@Buffy, I don't have any problem to move to any country where I could work on my research area.

It would be useful to know why the professor "refused to approve it".

In the US, the concept of a "lab" for (pure) math is a bit foreign. You apply to a department and are evaluated by a committee. Advisor selection only comes later, often after you pass qualifying examinations.
There is no reason that you couldn't apply to a doctoral program in US in the normal way. You need good letters of recommendation to predict your success, though they might not come from your current advisor in this case.
You should also write a CV with a good "Work in Progress" section, listing the projects that you worked on up to now, including the work you have abandoned in the short term.
Point your Statement of Purpose at topic Y and emphasize that you have extensive experience in that area, which would be echoed in your CV.
Make a broad search. Make sure that any department that you apply to has one or more faculty specializing in Y (or related areas). If they have several, with an ongoing faculty/student seminar in Y then all the better. There is no need to contact individuals prior to applying, though you could ask a few people for an evaluation of your work. If they respond positively then your prospects are better, though many will not reply at all because of the admissions process here.
I would emphasize the positive in any application. Don't mention conflicts and things that might be seen as failures or disputes in any written materials.
The same might be true of Canada, but less true in some parts of Europe, especially Germany. In the US, funding is normally from the department, not an individual professor. And applied math will be a bit different, even in the US.

Thanks a lot for all that information. What is the process to apply for a PhD position in Europe ? Is it by contacting professors by email ? If so, how should I speak about my previous experience as a PhD student ? I'm thinking to write something like " I have already a research experience since I was a PhD student in the "Z" University  for four years, I was working on a thesis called "abc", I didn't defend my thesis because of many reasons including that I didn't have any background in Y when I started my thesis and since there was some communication difficulties with my advisor" .

See this for general information: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/176908/75368. I suggest you keep it positive. "... didn't defend..." isn't positive. "... seeking more supportive environment..." is better.

thank you for the link I will look at it carefully.  Could you please elaborate further in what  is the best way to say that I didn't defend my thesis  and to talk about the communication problem with my advisor ?


text:
Dealing with an unhelpful and unresponsive thesis advisor?
My thesis advisor is based on another city and we barely had meetings during my master thesis process.  At most three times. He responds very late to my emails and I have to wait weeks sometimes.
But the deadline is approaching and he has to give feedback to me.
(Instead he advised me to find a second advisor from where I work to continue quickly with her and that person helped me ten times as much as the actual advisor did!)
When should I remind him about my emails and that I'm waiting for his feedback? I know they can be busy but I was too alone and isolated in this process except the guidance the second advisor from my workplace..

@Buffy my question starts with (When)... in the body of the text.

Sorry, but it was hard to read. I think he did give you feedback, which is to work with the other advisor. Perhaps you and the other advisor can seek guidance together. Otherwise, the time to ask is probably now.

If I understand correctly you're waiting for feedback on the final thesis, right?

@Erwan exactly, it's like a final draft and i have limited time..

Ideally, you should make an appointment and meet in person with your advisor. If this is not practical you could send an email to propose a skype meeting or a phone call.
If they don't answer your emails, wait at least a few days and preferably a full week before sending a reminder. If there's really no answer after a couple weeks and the matter is urgent, then try to call them directly in their office (during office hours).


text:
Faculty search decision timeline
I had a campus interview at the U.S. R1 University (Assistant Professor, Social Sciences) in the second half of November 2022. The interview went well, I was asked when I can start the job. I received responses from all SC members for my thank you note after the visit. References were called in mid-December. Right before Christmas break I received message from SC Chair saying that they finalized feedback for all candidates and submitted them to College Dean and Dept. Chair. He mentioned that I am still under consideration and I am a very good candidate but ultimate decision and offer to be made by Dean and she cannot share any other info at this point. It is almost two months since my interview, I have another campus interview coming and I guess my question would be - should I request update on my status and inform them about another campus interview or stay quiet?

Usually informing the potential employer that you may have other options as well raises your value in their eyes and makes them move a bit faster. When exactly to do it is another question. You might want to wait until the other interview actually takes place and you get at least some vague idea of what to expect there, but I'm not really sure here.

So what happened with the OP? @Farlas?

Still wondering what happened to the OP...

It's still the holidays in the United States, so I imagine this might contribute to the slowness of a response. This does not seem out of the ordinary.


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To what extent can good Honours marks and research experience make up for middling undergrad grades?
I am halfway through my Honours at an Australian University and am wanting some advice about grad school admissions and acceptance.
Last year I got accepted into an honours program at one of the top universities in Australia, despite my unimpressive grades. I attained a WAM of 56% in my Undergrad and 70% in my grad-dip. I never finished high school due to hospitalisation and it has taken me a fair few years to catch up with everyone else. Despite this, my honours WAM has been significantly improved and is sitting at 91.5%. Additionally, I have been hired as research assistant for one of my Profs, presented my research at a post-grad conference, and will have (fingers crossed) my name on a published paper by the time I graduate.
My supervisor has told me to think about doing a PHD once I graduate. However, I am worried that my past performance will restrict my ability to get into a good program. I would love any thoughts as to whether my recent positive achievements could out way my poor previous mark. Also, would it be wise to explain why my past grades where so poor when applying to grad programs?
Any opinions or advice would be deeply appreciated!

Congrats for your Honours WAM. You have already met the requirement for all PhD programs in Australia.
For Higher Degree Research (HDR) application in Australia, basically, you need to get the approval from a potential supervisor before applying. Once you manage to do that, everything else is just for formality. I also assume that you are Australian.

Really!! Thank you for letting me know that! That really helps to stop my worrying.

Yes, don't worry. the next step is to find a potential supervisor.

Your WAM in your honours year is in the high-distinction range, and depending on the weighting used across the years in your degree, you might end up with First Class Honours.  In the Australian system that is sufficient for entry to a PhD candidature and is usually also sufficient for a scholarship.  Depending on the school you apply to, you might need to identify a supervisor willing to supervise you or you might be able to get entry prior to identifying a supervisor.
When schools review applicants for a PhD candidature they are trying to determine whether the applicant has the skills needed to start learning research work, including the relevant undergraduate background.  High marks in the honours year usually means that the applicant has a good grasp of the undergraduate material and this is likely to be more important than earlier undergraduate grades.  Having previous research experience on a conference paper and another publication is also much more valuable than higher grades in earlier undergraduate courses.  Reviewers will probably look primarily at the honours class received in your degree (e.g., first class, upper second class, etc.), which is determined by the weightings used in your current university.
So long as your overall honours class is good, it is unlikely that lower marks in earlier undergraduate courses would cause concern.  At most, your lower grades in earlier undergraduate courses might lead a reviewer to conclude that you may have some skill gaps in undergraduate material that need to be plugged.  Your high grades in honours year show that you are able to overcome any such deficiencies and improve rapidly, so it is unlikely to be a big concern.

To confirm this, when I was doing honours and going into PhD the rule of thumb I remember we had was class 2A honours (upper second class) means you could do a PhD if you found a supervisor, class 1 honours (first class) meant you would definitely be able to get a funding scholarship from the government if you found a supervisor. This might have changed since then and may be field dependent (this was just under 10 years ago, and in physics).

I don't have a way to evaluate the Australian system, but my guess is that you are fine and you should relax. You've already demonstrated that you can succeed despite some serious issues and the implication is that some parts of your CV make you stand out.
The strong support of your supervisor is also something that points to success in moving to the next level.
Some places might put overmuch emphasis on the grades but not everywhere. Cast a wide net for places to do grad work and you should be fine. (View from across the pond. No, the other pond.)

Thank you for the advice and reassurace Buffy! I will deffinetly cast a wide net.


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Where to find official publication ethics guidelines and best practices?
I am quite confused by publication ethics issues in academics, related to:

redundancy of data using the same data set in different publications
redundancy of description using the same figures or part of text to describe instruments, data set or samples
redundancy of results using results in more than one publications for highlighting different aspect of the results

I have tried to find some guidelines, I found Int J Clin Pract Suppl. 2007 Jan; 61 (Suppl 152): 1–26., but I was wondering if there was a white paper or something more official.
I would, however, appreciate any guidelines or advice to solve these doubts.

Check out your professional societies and their webpage. For example, the American Statistical Association has published professional ethics and also here. The second link does address some aspects of publication, but not necessarily the answers you are looking for. Hence a comment rather than an answer from me.

I would suggest to follow the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines to get enough idea on your mentioned issues. You could also find the some exemplary cases (here) and how are then being handled by journals or the COPE boards.
Briefly, it says:
"COPE is a forum for editors and publishers of peer reviewed journals to discuss all aspects of publication ethics. It also advises editors on how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct." (Source: COPE Homepage)
Further, you could also find publisher-wise publication ethics guidelines, though they follow more or less the same practice:

Elsevier Publishing Ethics Resource
Springer Publication Ethics for Journals
IEEE Publication Ethics
Wiley Publication Ethics Guidelines for Authors
ACS Code of Ethics

A brief browsing through the above would give you a lot of information on such stuff, which one must know before entering into the research world.


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What should a letter of motivation/statement of purpose contain?
I am applying for some postdoc programs and have come across a requirement called "motivated letter of application" which I assume is essentially similar to what many here refer to as statement of purpose.
Since I never had to write such a letter before I am not quite sure what it should contain. I couldn't find any specific instructions regarding the letter so I wonder whether or not there are general (subject-agnostic) guidelines or expectations regarding this type of personal letter.
Is it essentially about:

who I am, or
what I have done so far, or
what I want to do in the future, or
why I am applying to this specific position?

(1) is essentially answered by the CV, so it would be mostly re-iterating the same stuff in a less verbatim/list format.
(2) is again answered partially by the CV and partially by the list of publications and thesis.
That leaves (3) and (4), where the first one is dependent on what resources I can get. I mean, coming from a cross-disciplinary field I can imagine developing towards a number of different fields. I don't feel like there is one very specific thing/project I want to do. Finally, (4) is also a bit tricky to answer, since the truth would be as simple as, "it's a cool position". The more elaborate answer would be something like "I like the project description and consider myself fulfilling the requirements"
Those of you who do read such letters of motivation, what do you actually look for in specific terms? Things like "suitability of the candidate" doesn't help much in terms of structuring the letter, I think.


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Personal Life Dealbreakers for Academic Jobs
There are certain academic jobs such as Baylor or BYU that require a certain way of life. BYU, for instance, requires one to adhere to the Church Educational System Honor Code and Baylor typically requires a letter of recommendation from your Minister/Rabbi (their words) with one's application. For example, being in a gay relationship would be enough to be expelled from BYU.
These require a certain type of personal life choices and lifestyle, and, while they are very religious schools, there are other possible dealbreakers at secular universities. For example, secular schools have retracted offers due to the fact that the applicant for a faculty job is on the sex offenders registry.
There's a huge amount of gray area between these two data points that I have. Where is the line drawn on how much one's personal life matters at a secular school? What would have to be publicized about a faculty member's or applicant's personal life in order for the person to have an offer rescinded or tenure revoked?  Is it only about the research/teaching/service, or is there any examination on the person's life if that common knowledge in the community?
My question is mainly about the United States.

You may find this article interesting. It describes the interplay between religion, research and hiring at St Louis University, which is 'Catholic Jesuit institution' but is nevertheless 'governed by a board of trustees with a layperson majority'. In particular, though the job advert being dissected starts off describing SLU as a religious institution (which other universities might also do) there are more secular spaces than you would tell from the posting.

Making controversial public statements has caused at least one secular university to retract an offer.

Some research facilities require a security clearance.  Perhaps a situation could arise in which a very leftist candidate would make the hiring committee uncomfortable because collaboration with key department members could be difficult if the security clearance couldn't be obtained.  But I'm just speculating.

As a foreign counterpoint, Brooke Magnanti was outed as "la Belle du Jour" in 2009: she worked as a call girl to fund her PhD studies and subsequently wrote about her experiences in a pseudonymous book. Needless to say it generated a lot of press coverage. She was working for Bristol University at the time it was revealed. The official statement from the university was simply, "This aspect of Dr Magnanti's past is not relevant to her current role at the university."

I appreciate what @shane is saying about hiring legalities.  But potential employers have so many resources available these days that would reveal things about a candidate's life, and I would bet money that somebody on the hiring team is going to google your name to see what they could see.  And the things they find may be more or less relevant to your teaching or research.  If it comes down to two candidates that are equally qualified, and one of them has unsavory things floating around the internet, that might be the deciding factor.
Being a registered sex offender would, in my mind, pretty much take you off the list.  We have so much trouble with sexual harrassment at the university level, and in my time, several faculty were summarily dismissed when what they were doing came to light.  Wouldn't a school want to avoid possible difficulties if they had another qualified candidate?
Of course, everything on the internet has to be taken with a grain of salt, and if you are dead drunk in Cancun on spring break or heeding the call to "Show us your boobs" in New Orleans at Mardi Gras time, well, kids, you know?  But if there's something serious easily accessible on the net and they can't bring it up in the interview because of the legalities, might you want to bring it up?


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Is it a bad idea to say in my statement of purpose that I want to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics primarily to work in industry?
I am seeking some general advice from applied mathematicians at American universities. In my statement of purpose, would my stating that I want to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics primarily for the purpose of working in industry be a bad idea, in general?
This would be sort of "keeping it real" and being honest, when knowing that the vast majority of phds will end up in industry and not in academia, where jobs are extremely scarce.
Or is it still better to tell them what they want to hear?  I am assuming that what they want to hear is that I want to be an academic and make contributions to teaching and publish in academic journals, etc.

I'm not in mathematics, but I imagine they want to hear that you're passionate about pursuing a PhD, and they want to see that you're intelligent enough to complete one.  As to what you do with it - beyond making the school/department look good, I doubt the admissions committee will care.  And lying on your application likely isn't going to win you points either.

Related: Are there any research careers except professorship for a person holding PhD in pure mathematics?

Instead of thinking what they want to hear, isn't is a good policy to be honest with them and yourself? Well, its a personal opinion, but I believe the committee will appreciate honest remarks in SOP.

Kinda related: Is it OK to mention dreams and future plans for a specific company in my SOP when applying for master's degree?

In computer science, this would likely be seen as a refreshing lack of naïveté.  There are significantly more jobs for CS PhDs in industry than in academia.  I'd be shocked if the same weren't true in applied math.

I have done graduate admissions for my math department.  I am a "pure mathematician" but my department is just the math department: there is no formal separation between pure and applied.
Others can speak for themselves, but I always find honesty refreshing, and the idea that a prospective PhD student does not want to pursue an academic career does not horrify me: rather, in some ways it relieves me.  Moreover, if you know this "all along" and don't disclose it right at the outset, when will you disclose it?  There is no natural time until you are graduating / going on the job market, and then it will be way too late for your programmatic experiences to be tailored to your true goals.
The worry here, I suppose, is that you risk looking "less serious" than other applicants.  In my opinion you can completely counteract this by including, a plausible, specific post-PhD career plan in which having a PhD plays a natural role.  That is, don't say "I don't plan on pursuing an academic career" or even "I plan on pursuing an industrial career", say which industrial career you are aiming for and why the PhD will be helpful and/or necessary.  Math PhD programs would like to have students with specific, realistic future plans that they can work towards steadily during their time in the program.  We don't see many such students, but we would like to have them anyway.

"There is no natural time until you are graduating / going on the job market" - why not? In my field, it is common for students to decide (or change their mind) about academia vs. industry at any point during the PhD. Is mathematics so different in this respect?

@ff524: What I had in mind is that there is no natural time to reveal that you were not honest about your intentions until the point when the dishonesty would be revealed anyway.  But since you ask: yes, it is pretty common for math students to change their mind about academia versus industry and, very unfortunately, if so it is very common to keep that to themselves until the last possible moment so as not to "disappoint their advisor".  If you've started up the process of keeping this to yourself before you even arrive, what event will make you change your mind?

+1.  There are certainly some faculty who still view students who opt for careers in industry as failures, but from my experience, I'd be happy to work with a talented student who was well aware of the realities of the post PhD job market and has realistic career plans that don't begin with "Plan A.  Tenured faculty at an R1 university.  Plan B: there is no plan B."

Oh, I see. I understood the "it" in "don't disclose it" as "your interest in an industry career" rather than "your failure to indicate your interest in industry career on your application."

One reason mathematics is different is that (even for applied mathematics), there are very few jobs in industry for which a PhD is actually relevant.  Hence, unless a student is very close to finishing, if they decide they do not want an academic career, it is usually in their best interests to drop out of their graduate program as quickly as they can do so gracefully (usually at the end of the semester after they have lined up a job).

+1 Notes from experience rather than speculations, I believe this is helpful for a wider audience in different fields, furthermore a good advise.

@AlexanderWoo how far from applied mathematics to the industry compared to the distance between other applied sciences and their related industries?

@Ooker - If by "applied sciences" you mean engineering and medicine, then on average (but not in every instance), applied mathematics is much farther from industry.  "Applied mathematics" frequently means the uses of mathematics in the theoretical aspects of other academic subjects, usually science or engineering.  So, as an extreme case, some applied mathematicians work on mathematical aspects of string theory.  If you are comparing instead to "applied physics", then I would guess the mean is about the same but the distribution much wider.

@AlexanderWoo citation needed for your string theory applied mathematicians. I never heard of any applied mathematician having anything at all do with string theory.

@DanRomik - this depends on what you consider "applied mathematics" - both Cambridge and MIT have string theorists in their "applied mathematics" department, and certainly many math departments not separated into Applied/Pure have mathematical physicists including string theorists.

@AlexanderWoo A few years ago, I had a student deciding between dropping out in year 4, or getting a Ph. D in year 5 and then heading to industry. I wrote some of my friends in software and finance jobs to get their take. Several of them thought that the Ph. D was more hireable, despite the lack of any relevance of his research to their companies, because it demonstrated ability to see a project through and because it would otherwise not be clear that he had done anything in those 4 years. So it might not always be best to drop out as quickly as possible.

@AlexanderWoo: I don't know about Cambridge, but MIT is famous for having many pure mathematicians in its division (not a separate department) of applied mathematics.  Of course "applied mathematics" is an ambiguous term, but in my experience, there is very little overlap between people who describe themselves as "applied mathematicians" and people who describe themselves as "mathematical physicists".  Also of note: NSF's Division of Mathematical Sciences has a policy that applications of mathematics to physics do not count as "broader impacts" in mathematics grant proposals.

If you mean by a job in industry working at a research lab sponsored by a company (or the government) that is like being at a university minus the teaching, then you can ignore the rest of this answer.  Those positions are practically like being in academia, minus the teaching.  They are also almost non-existent these days.
If you don't mean a quasi-academic job, then you need a realistic reason why you will need a PhD to work in industry.
There are very few jobs in industry that actually require a PhD in Mathematics.  For almost all jobs, a Masters degree or a solid Bachelors degree is more than adequate.  The jobs that require a PhD have some specific, unique reason why they require someone with research abilities.  Unless you can articulate what some of these jobs are, why you want such a job, and how earning a PhD helps in such a job, I am going to be quite worried that either you will waste your time getting a PhD for no reason, or you will drop out after a year when you realize you don't need a PhD.  Neither is optimal.

+1 for your third paragraph. (I was tempted to -1 for your first paragraph, which I think applies to only a minuscule proportion of "research" jobs in industry - most industry math "research" jobs are certainly not "like being at a university minus the teaching". I work such a job. Yes, I can do actual research and publish - but most of that happens in my spare time. At the office, I do extremely applied & specific research that does have an impact on our product, but that academic researchers would not be interested in at all - nothing to present at conferences.)

Edited first paragraph to state rarity of such jobs (it was actually in my draft version).

I wouldn't say that positions in national laboratories are non-existent, although they maybe harder to get compared to professorships. Nevertheless I fully support your third paragraph.

@NajibIdrissi check out http://www.economist.com/node/17723223 - which makes the case that doing a PhD is often a waste of time.  Of course, if you had to choose between 2 identical candidates except one has a PhD and the other doesn't, then you will choose the one with the PhD.  But if you had to choose between 2 identical candidates except one has a PhD and the other has 4 years of industry experience, wouldn't you choose the one with experience?  Maybe in your industry you need a PhD, but I wouldn't just take your university's word for it.

@NajibIdrissi you are already there, but there is nothing stopping you from quitting.  (1) Think about the kind of job you want.  (2) Make an effort to get it. (3) If successful, why are you wasting time in a PhD program?  (4) If unsuccessful, think about why.  (5) If why=no PhD you have validated your university's argument.  (6) If why=something else, why are you wasting time in a PhD program?

@NajibIdrissi it is a personal decision, there is no general answer.  if you want to be an academic, it is all but certain that you need that PhD - so you are making the right decision.  If you want to work in industry you probably don't.  The PhD with no experience needs to be trained.  The worker with 4 years experience has 4 years of savings.  Compound interest says that s/he will be better off in retirement.

@NajibIdrissi - I only have anecdotal evidence from what my friends in industry tell me and what I experienced in industry before graduate school.  I suspect there may be a significant difference between Europe and the US.

To address emory's point with hard numbers: I left a $60K/yr job to live on $15K/yr in graduate school.  Six years of studying for a PhD cost me $300-500K in lost income (and staying in academia has continued to add to this number).  I'm happy with it because I don't want to be in industry, but it is certainly not the economically optimal decision.

With applied math, the sky's the limit.  The variety of areas math can be applied to is more than one person can conceive of.
Yes, you can go out and get a real job with a PhD in applied math.  Here's a small example for you: Carl de Boor, whom I think of as Mr. Spline, did a lot of work for the automotive industry in Detroit, using splines to help design auto bodies.
I would not expect an applied math department to hold its nose when considering an applicant who's intending to get a job outside academia after graduating.
If you already have some ideas about what sort of math and applications you'd like to do in industry, share your ideas in your essay.

You might get several possible reactions.

That's great, industry needs more people with solid academic training and it's our role to provide the educated workforce that's needed in our competitive industrial economy.
You're being naive. Do you really think you will be more employable in industry if you have a PhD? They would much prefer to take you three years earlier and train you in relevant skills on the job.
This is a university, not an apprenticeship scheme. We're here to pursue scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge, not to help our students earn a living. If you don't share those ideals, find somewhere else.

So by all means put forward your motivation, but be prepared to handle such objections.


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Do the top journals actually read papers?
Let's say there is a physicist who is merely 21 years old, has no relation with academia and is only beginning, but has came up with a contradiction/refutation in the theory of relativity. His 25-page and extremely complex paper has no grammar/mathematical mistakes, is written in LaTeX. However, it is 25 pages and extremely complex, and its title is modest, not cranky.
Q: Just how well are the editors of Nature at reading and understanding papers? Would it be possible to describe the accuracy of their decisions?
Assuming Nature receives more than 10,000 papers each year. And surely, one may say that they would first look at the name and if it is unknown and the paper itself is concluding revolutionary matters, they could say to themselves, "Ah! Another crackpot! I received 25,000 of these already. Time to throw it in the bin." But since they are professional, I assume that they would read it. But how much?
Even if the author was to submit the paper double-blinded, considering the amount of papers they receive and the realization that since it's double-blinded it is surely from a newcomer, can doubt be casted upon Nature's consideration of such a paper?
Planck said that revolutionary paradigm-shifts are not immediately accepted but are rather brutally opposed and rejected in the beginning, and as time passes little and little, only then the world bows down to them.
Academia today is too complex, there are too many people, too many papers and too much "drama" (many things going on). Would people really consider such a paper in the future, would they really not forget? Who knows, there could very well be such a paradigm-shifting paper out there published, but nobody ever cared about it!
P.S: Such a physicist, I would say, is expected to be a great nonconformist. Einstein himself ridiculed academia in saying that they kill curiosity. (Source: https://newrepublic.com/article/117028/carl-sagan-albert-einstein)

This question seems to be more related to philosophy of science than academia in particular. You might be interested to take a look at the latest developments in that area, such as Kuhn's work, Social Constructivism, Actor-Network Theory, etc.

"it is 25 pages and extremely complex."  Which means it would be rejected from all the best journals without reaching the editor's desk, because it would be over the length limit.

There are very young people that are extremely talented (e.g., Terence Tao, Erik Demaine). But why do you assume that they are "despisers of academia". They are all tenured professors. Also, Einstein was awarded a PhD, BEFORE his groundbreaking theories. It is nice to fantasize about lonely guys who fight the scientific status-quo from their mother's basement (there are many cranks who relate to that image), but guys who are that smart know it is smarter to play by the rules of the science and prove their theories within the boundaries of the science and education systems.

Related: I believe I have solved a famous open problem. How do I convince people in the field that I am not a crank?

I downvoted this post for some of the reasons described in the answers to this meta post and the [help/dont-ask]. If you edit the post to remove unnecessary editorializing and irrelevant detail, and focus on a specific question that is neutral in tone, I will gladly remove my downvote.

You are free to settle the tone within the question, @ff524, I do not mind.

@ff524 I've edited it a bit. Would it be better?

I can't say for Nature in particular (being from Computer Science myself), but no "top-journal" editor would reject a paper for being too complicated. The editor normally takes a first read to filter out spam, very badly written papers, or out-of-topic submissions, and the rest goes through peer-reviews.
So in your example, the paper would be reviewed by several physicists who can understand what is being told in there. Their experience will tell them that most papers breaking down a well-established theory contain a flaw (this is statistics, not prejudice), so they will probably go through the paper once looking for said flaw. If the paper has one, then it will be pointed out to the editor and the paper is rejected. If the paper has none, then the reviewers will make the effort of understanding every little detail of the paper until they are convinced it is correct. Then the paper will be accepted.

As an addition, in physics, I assume that any paper claiming an accepted theory is false must come with a reproducible experiment showing the flaw in the original theory. If anyone can come up with such an experiment without the support of a research lab, then most probably it's simple enough to be reproduced by the reviewers, so that they directly see the flaw by themselves.

Unfortunately, I suspect that an "extremely complex" paper written by a 21-year-old (who almost certainly doesn't know how to write a paper, nor the usual conventions and language) will fail already the "very badly written paper" test.

Let's ignore for a fact the length. A paper must communicate, or there is no recipient. So, if there is some message in the paper and the message reaches editor or reviewer, it has a chance of being read (not necessarily agreed with, but read). Nature/Science are probably the wrong journals for this, as they are more interested in compactly to describe results, but there are good journals for that purpose.
"Extremely complex"? Well, the problem is not complexity (see Perelman's work), as long as there are people who are experts in the general language you use. The question is, is there a community that is able to connect with what you aim to say? You argue about revolutionary discoveries, but often, the revolution isn't realised until after the fact. I am not sure how much Einstein was intending/expecting to upset the existing framework in 1905. Things could have gone: "Oh, yes, dispensing with the ether is a good idea, why didn't we realise it ourselves?" and return to daily business with a new framework. Or consider Galilei: he wrote in Italian, precisely to avoid his language being a hurdle to understanding.
If you look for real revolutionaries of the kind you seem to think about, your best bet is probably Galois. The good news: he was not a crackpot. The not so good news: it took some decades for his stuff to be understood (basically, because he never bothered to explain so that others could follow). The bad news: he was killed (not because of being a scientific revolutionary, probably not even because of being a political revolutionary, but because of a woman).

With apologies to Tom Lehrer: "People like that make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for instance, that when Galois was my age, he'd been dead for 14 years."

@NateEldredge It's not so sobering - in fact, I consider myself lucky to have known some people with such a superior intellect to understand how much more space there actually is above to reach for. I think it is more comforting than sobering, especially in light of everything else that goes on.