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How to make a 40-minutes presentation about a research paper I've read?
I have to give a 40-minute presentation about a research paper that I have to read in mathematics.
What I’ve done so far:

read the paper :-) and taken notes on unclear/non-obvious parts.
started crafting a presentation. However I’ve caught myself on putting too many definitions in the presentation.

How should I proceed?

Welcome to Academia SE. You’ll probably get better answers if you [edit] your question to elaborate in what context and to what audience you have to give that presentation and in particular whether you have been given a clear goal regarding what you should convey to your audience.

I second the comment from @Wrzlprmft .  It makes a huge difference whether you're giving this presentation to an audience of random undergraduate students or to your thesis adviser (who already knows everything in this paper and just wants to see whether you understood it).

What always helped me is one more step between your (1) and (2):

(π/2) Explain the paper to anyone who can listen.

As a listening ear, I used my partner, a dog, a cat, a tree and a portrait of Albert Einstein. They all did the job really well (although I probably prefer those who are breathing). My trick is to repeat this step at least 5 times, trying to do it differently each time. Then it is suddenly becomes much more clearer to me how to proceed with the preparation of slides and/or writing.

The most common mistake I observe in the presentation of mathematical work is for the presenter to try to cram in too many definitions, equations, derivations, etc., and then rush over them to try to make their talk fit into the allocated time.  Occasionally a misguided student will also decide that it is impressive to show off vast tracts of complicated algebra.  This often makes it difficult/impossible for the audience to follow, even when the audience consists of mathematically-literate professionals (e.g., professors in the faculty).  This error is ubiquitous among students, even at graduate level.
The general problem that occurs here is that students fail to simplify their presentation to a level that allows it to be presented clearly, and they also massively underestimate the amount of time required to explain a single equation/result.  As some general rules for a mathematical presentation, I would suggest the following dos and don'ts:

DO put the problem in context: Put this problem within the context of the broader subject.  Use the literature review in the paper to get an idea of where this work fits in, and what it is adding.  Give a clear statement of what this paper adds, and its limitations.  If it is a small part of working towards a larger theoretical goal, explain the larger goal, and explain how this paper adds to it.  If you found the paper particularly interesting, say why.
DO simplify the problem, then simplify it again, then simplify it again: You should present the problem in your research paper in its most fundamental simplest form.  Minimise the number of variables you are dealing with and minimise notation.  (It is generally best to be consistent with the notation in the paper, but you can still minimise this.)  Present the problem clearly, with a small number of mathematical statements and lots of intuitive explanation.  You do not have to present every equation describing the problem/model used in the paper.  Make professional judgements about which parts need to be shown as mathematical statements, and which parts can be described in general terms without mathematical equations, and which parts are side issues/distractions that you will ignore.
DO obey the crow epistemology - people can remember three things: Do not burden your audience with remembering lots of variables outside the context of their equations.  Pick no more than three important variables in your problem and drum their meaning in with repetition.  Assume your audience will forget the meaning of every other variable.  Definitions should generally be on the same slides as the first statements they appear in, so people don't have to remember them.  I like to give equations with arrows pointing to the variables with their meanings, and I back this up by talking about each of them, and giving reminders.  Some people like to colour-code variables, or use other memory aids to help.
DO allocate enough time - Presenting unfamiliar mathematical statements = 5+ min: If you present a mathematical statement that is not common knowledge to your audience you must stop, and patiently explain the statement, including the meaning of each variable in the statement.  Give an overview of what the statement is saying and what each of the variables is.  You must do this slowly, possibly with repetition to stress key points, and you must give your audience time to "mull" over it, before you proceed.  For every statement like this you have in your presentation, allocate at least five minutes to talk about it; don't rush.
DO allocate enough time - Presenting familiar mathematical statements = 1-2 min: If you present a mathematical statement that is common knowledge to your audience, you will still need to stop, identify the statement, and explain the meaning of each variable in the statement.  If it is a standard statement with variables in standard notation you can probably do this pretty quickly, but you should still allocate at least a full minute to describing it.
DO show graphs (if relevant) and explain them clearly: If the paper presents some of its results graphically, this is usually the simplest tool for presenting the results in a simple manner, that can be absorbed by the audience.  Use your judgment here, but as a general rule, graphs are good.  Again, you must stop, and patiently explain the graph, the axes, the lines, etc.  Explain the intuition of what the audience is seeing.  Tell them why this line goes this way and this other line goes that way.
DO leave time for interjections/questions: Make sure you have left enough time at the end for a reasonable amount of questions.  You may also get some interjections as you go through your presentation, so make a time allowance for that too.

DON'T show a long list of definitions: Under no circumstances should you present a notational slide with a long list of definitions.  If you have a slide like this in your presentation, I am not bothering to read it.  Instead I am watching "Heat" in my head and wishing I could get out of watching such a shitty presentation.
DON'T show a wall of algebra: We get it - you're very clever and you can do algebra.  Unless the derivation of a particular equation is the whole point of the paper you're presenting, we don't want to see that shit - get rid of it.  If you have a slide like this in your presentation, I am not bothering to read it.  Again, I am watching "Heat" in my head and wishing I could get out of watching such a shitty presentation.  Instead of bombarding me with a wall of algebra (which you don't have time to explain), explain the methods and the results (e.g., "To get to the next part, we need to complete the square in this exponential and then use the law of total probability to simplify.  After you do that, you get this next result").
DON'T be a flasher: Whoa!  What was that slide you skipped through in two seconds?  It was your list of references?  If you're not going to take me through it, why flash it up there at all?

I hope some of this is helpful to you.  As a general rule, the quality of student mathematical presentations is so woefully bad that you have a low bar to reach.  If you're the guy people can understand, and you are not rushing them and throwing walls of algebra at them, you will emerge as champion.


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Unethical policy of ETS's ScoreSelect option
I am faced with a dilemma after seeing questions like this in online graduate school applications:

I feel that ETS has been seriously unethical in their advertisement of the ScoreSelect option of score reporting.
I took an ETS GRE subject test last April as a junior. As a junior, I had no experience with the online graduate school applications that I do now. I took this exam with no preparation under the assumption that "ETS has the ScoreSelect option, so since I am fortunate enough to have the money to take this test, I ought to take it to have the most exposure I am. After all, with the ScoreSelect option, the schools I apply to won't see my score on this test."
Now that I have begun the online applications for graduate programs, I've become aware that many schools require not only a self-reporting of one's scores within fill-in boxes in the online application as well as the scores sent directly from ETS but also the PDF that ETS provides called the Score Report.
This Score Report contains ALL of a test taker's scores. This document completely negates ETS's mission with the ScoreSelect option of score reporting, and moreover, for ETS to not mention this alongside any advertisement of the ScoreSelect option is seriously unethical. In fact, (having taken some form of an ETS GRE test 4 times I have heard this spoken verbatim 4 times) after testing a GRE exam and outlining the process of cancelling one's score, ETS proctors urge test takers to "seriously consider one's options before opting to cancel one's scores. With ETS's ScoreSelect option you have the option to only report those scores that you wish to report to graduate schools."
The fact that many top tier graduate schools require the score report, ETS is not displaying their ScoreSelect option in an informed way. If ETS does not make the option available to users to make a custom score report PDF, then they have treated a great many test-takers who have this issue very unethically. Particularly, ETS has wronged me in not informing me of this score report policy before registering for a test with little to no preparation, which I did specifically under the umbrella of comfort that the ScoreSelect option provided.
In not allowing customization of a customer's score report, ETS has rendered any positive aspects of the ScoreSelect option invalid for those of us who are applying to schools that feature questions like this in their applications.
Can anyone recommend a solution?
EDIT:
Here is the document in question (redacted):
link
EDIT2:

From GRE The Score Select Option: GRE® tests all provide the ScoreSelect® option, which means you can take a GRE test once now, or again in the future, and only send the GRE test scores from whichever test date(s) you want schools to see.  (emphasize is mine) Would you please clarify what exactly you are asking?

So, the ScoreSelect option for reports scores is an incredible feature. It also customers to SEND i.e. official send from ETS to the schools we choose, which scores we want. However, we are often faced with online applications questions like the one linked above. Let me take out the sensitive info of my "Score Report PDF" which is the document requested from that online question and is also the document that I have an issue with ETS not giving us the option to customize. I will edit my question to include this. Thank you for asking your question, hopefully it helped others

Since ETS said they will send the scores whichever you choose, you should ask them how to do that by e-mail.

@scaaahu: The point is that the scores sent (or not sent) by ETS are irrelevant, since the university demands that the applicant submit a copy of their own personal report, which also includes the scores that you asked ETS not to send to the university.

@NateEldredge Can I black out the scores on the copy I don't want anybody to see?

@scaaahu: Sure you can, but the university will probably reject your application as incomplete.

This is the first I've heard of any school requiring anything about multiple GRE scores, no school I've seen requested such a thing. Not to make this specific to just one school, but can you give an example of what top school states this requirement? The current trend for the last few years in top programs I'm familiar with has actually been away from the GRE, making it optional, or not wanting it at all. This seems like an odd abberration to me that any program demands all scores or any non-official report from the applicant. I'd like some more info to look into it a bit further.

@scaahu I would not alter the document due to this being unethical. Unofficial or not, doing so could jeopardize my admission.

@BrianH there are so far two schools that ask questions like this. The question pictured is from MIT. Another is University of British Columbia, which I will include a picture in my question. I have just started my applications, I have done 5 and seen these questions 2/5.

Are you sure you have this correct? Schools sometimes request the PDF of your score report as an unofficial report. They still want the official scores mailed from ETS. I have never heard of a program wanting to see all of your scores because of ScoreSelect. Were you specifically told by graduate admissions that this was what they wanted?

I don't think there are any "solutions".  If the university wants to ask for all scores, even the ones you wanted to block, then they can ask that.  If you want to apply there, you don't have much choice but to answer honestly.  Omitting material facts from an application is a pretty serious academic offense; even if they don't notice it at first, it can still get you kicked out of the program if it's discovered years later.  Photoshopping the Score Report to erase the undesired scores would make that offense even more severe - now it's obvious fraud and falsification.
(It wouldn't really help even if ETS offered you the option to omit scores from your personal Score Report, since the university could demand that you submit the full version with nothing omitted.)
I agree that it seems a bit shady on ETS's part to suggest that this feature can really prevent universities from finding those scores, when in fact the university can still demand that you share them, and it's unfortunate that this led you to choose a less appropriate test-taking strategy.  But none of that really has any bearing on your applications at this point.  You could complain to ETS or sue them for false advertising or whatever, but that seems outside the scope of this site.
If it's any consolation, my impression is that universities are more likely to pay attention to recent scores, unless it's clear that you've taken the test a zillion times in hopes of randomly scoring well.  So the older, lower scores may not hurt your application very much.

Your thoughts mirror mine. Altering this document, unofficial or not would be unethical on my part. Thank you for the comforting food for thought regarding whether a university will look down as much I as fear they would on retaking tests. My adviser suggested I simply address my lack of preparation for the test my first time taking it and that I made it a point to improve drastically over the summer (and the evidence that I did should make this a helping point rather than hurting).

@LopeyTall: I agree with your advisor.

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How to optimize the next years of PhD
I am in the first half of my PhD (Pure Mathematics) in the U.S. In this period of time I've read all of my advisors papers (apart from the very early ones), discussed all of them with him, and improved on many of them. My advisor is great: he has been extremely helpful, he'd always read all my stuff, and I definitely learnt a lot from him. I think he also got something from me, since I was able to answer a conjecture and a couple of questions that he had formulated/thought about for quite some time.
However, I feel like I know all the stuff he does at this point: he has very little left to teach me, as I noticed in the last six months.
My current situation is not too bad, I am capable of finding my own projects and most of my publications are based on my own ideas (I have 10 preprints/publications), so I could just go on like this for 2-3 more years. However, I think it would be better for me to go somewhere else, to learn from some other mentor, maybe in some different but related field.
Indirect sentences make me believe that my advisor does not want me to leave, although I never asked him directly. Before I do so, I would like to hear your opinion (I understand that the information I gave is not exhaustive, but nevertheless...).

Can you stick with your advisor but start collaborating with other professors or researchers in your department?

This is a possibility. The problem is that even the professors closest (research-wise) to my advisor work in rather different subfields. I think I could do it, but I am not sure if it is the best use of my time. What do you think?

@Monika Mine is merely a question on how to optimize the years to come, given the circumstances that I described.

If your professor really doesn't want you to leave, he needs to offer you a permanent position. It may be that keeping your association going would be good for you. But you need to leave the nest eventually and fly on your own.
But it sounds like you are in a good position to finish your doctorate early. I suggest that you do that, at least. Accelerate anywhere you can.
There is no reason that you can't explore a position elsewhere as you get closer to the end, to see what is on offer. It is good to have options.
To maximize your future, stay as helpful and cooperative as possible.

My advisor said I am ready to graduate (I have been ready for a while actually). However, he suggested that I stay a bit longer in the program, so that I have done more stuff. I take it you disagree with this?

I don't have all the details. Your funding may affect the decision. So might the state of the economy. But if you are ready, you should, at the very least, explore your options there and elsewhere.

"explore your options there and elsewhere." I am not sure what you mean. Right now I don't have any options, in the sense that nobody invited me anywhere.

@Santaro Have you started asking around and applying for positions? Best time to to look for your next job is while you still have one.

People seldom get invited. You've got to look, and ask.

I am in my second year of PhD, so to be honest I was planning to stay in my program for at least 2 more years (judging from your comments, I guess this is a bad idea, but it was actually suggested to me by my advisor, so it must make at least a little bit of sense). So no, I haven't even started thinking about a postdoc. Is that the only alternative to staying in the nest for 2 more years?

Postdoc isn't the only option. Not everyone in math needs to go through that route to a regular position. Of course, it depends a bit on where you are. I finished long (long) ago and postdocs were very rare then. But if you are very productive, you might be able to bypass that route.

Another option to consider: you could spend a semester/year visiting another institution, while continuing your phd.

Push on out of there.  You are a capable, independent researcher now.  This is normal in second half of Ph.D. but happens at different speed for different people (some never get there).  Write up your thesis and dump it on the committee.
Of course advisor wants to keep you since you are so productive now.  But you need to do what is right for you.  You have already done enough for the old man with the 10 coauthorships--lot better than the unpublished slugs.  Go find new mountains to climb.  Don't dawdle in grad school, if you are a superstar.

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What to do when your supervisor is not really supervising you?
Context:
 I am a first year master student in mid-level university in North America. I started in September and I’ve almost finished all the required course works. My supervisor is very well-known in his field and he is currently supervising many graduate students.
Problem:
My supervisor is a nice guy and he’s very knowledgeable in his field, however, he’s too busy and does not have any time to actually supervise me(or other students in his lab). He is always traveling or busy doing other things and since his lab is huge, it’s not possible to see him more than few minutes a week.
Additionally, the area that I work in is a bit far from his expertise and I feel like I’m all by myself and I’m wasting my time and efforts.
Question:
Is there anything I can do to improve my experience in the graduate school?
Since no other professor in my department work in my field, changing the supervisor within the department is not an option.

A few minutes a week is not unusual. If you're in a huge lab, you're not alone. Seek help from postdocs and more senior grad students in the lab.

Given the constraints and assuming that you can't move to another institution, I think you are stuck with coming up with your own plan. A well known and respected advisor is an advantage to you provided that he signs your thesis and writes a good letter of recommendation, even if he doesn't do anything else. Sad? Yes. Probably true.
My suggestion, in your huge lab, is to try to start up a study group in which a group of three-six students decides to meet regularly and discuss their work and any blocks they have. Study groups are a feature of Law School, of course, and some other disciplines. Perhaps you can adapt the idea to your work. It would depend on how closely your work aligns. If too different, it probably wouldn't work.
I will also note that some professors consider letting students work almost entirely independently as a feature, not a bug. This is probably more common at the doctoral level, but the large lab you are in makes it almost mandatory. But the ability to work as an independent researcher is an important skill for any academic, though being forced to do it too early is a disservice.
The best advice, however, is to get the thesis done, get it signed, and move on. Look for a better situation in the future.

Thank you for the answer. I think I have to stick with the “get the thesis done” since nobody in the lab knows enough about my research topic. Is it acceptable to contact researchers outside my university with a collaboration offer?

Certainly. Collaboration is always a good thing.


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Is being the second author always good?
I work in an institute where I am more concerned with Development of systems and solutions rather than actual research, but of course the head is a professor and writing papers is an important task when it comes to productivity.
My ordeal is that I would rather be:

on the programming, developing side of the research, where I like to give things a try than just writing ideas and concepts

I have however been a second author on a couple of papers; one a demo/poster paper and one for a conference (in the pipeline).
I have been stressing myself because I realize that writing papers isn't my thing but the work that I do is still enjoyable and fun and I would like to continue working as much as possible
Is being a second author most of the times accounts to something similar to publishing things as a first author?

Field? ........

Production Engineering / IT

What is your status? assistant professor or similar?

@Erwan Research Scientist. Not a professor or similar.

imho the only possible issue is in case this would slow down your career progression (assuming this matters to you, it doesn't even have to). I don't know if this is the case for research scientist

This depends strongly on the field. In some, it is a big deal, in others not so much. But it is always a good thing to be an author, wherever you appear in the list.
If you are comfortable with it, don't worry too much. Your preferences may change, of course, in which case you may want to take more of a lead in the research and thus in the "perceived rank" of authorship.
Of course, your institution might put more emphasis on "first" authorship and it may affect your advancement. Don't neglect that.
In some fields we don't worry at all about that and just list names alphabetically, assuming that if they are listed, they contributed.

Is there an unofficial list which states which field has high stakes for authorship which fields dont?

There are a lot of variables here. The author contributions section of the paper will matter a lot too. For example, I'm a biomedical statistician so I have a huge number of 2nd/3rd author papers where the author contributions statement says the 1st author designed the experiments and stuff, and I did all the stats.
If I'm applying to stats focused positions, that 2nd author 'did all the stats' contribution could mean more than a 1st author 'designed the experiment'. Make sure the author contributions statement accurately reflects what you did. This was commented on in my interview for my current position.


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Citing Blogposts from official governing authorities
I am revising a conference paper and I in fact have a blogpost from the European Commission. The Post mentions about about Business-to-Business Platforms and Europe's involvement.
A reviewer mentioned this explicitly that

there is a blogpost cited which is seen as a shortcoming for the literature review.

But the post has some relevant information for the paper since one aspect of the theme ponders upon the B2B platform development opportunities in Europe and current progress.
I have cited it as following:

Lemke, M.: European Commission. Available Online: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/blogposts/business-business-platforms-race-europe-cannot-afford-lose, last accessed 2019-03-02

But I wish to obtain some insight as to how such relevant blogposts can be used within Academia. There are many examples where the European Commission provides statistics and data regarding different strata of research.
How do I inculcate the information within the paper?

Unless you are citing it for the fact that Max Lemke said something in a blog post, it seems like anything you would cite from there would be available in a more official publication.

You can cite blog-posts, and whatever citation style you are using will explain the right format. Citation styles are written to be all-encompassing, not just for citing papers. I suggest including an archive link of the page, because blog posts can easily disappear from the internet and then the citation becomes invalid. I actually saw a case where the person cited an article and a few weeks later it was gone, I couldn't even find it by googling.
Keep in mind that blogs are not peer reviewed, and are not afforded the same authority on facts that papers would be. So you should be careful about using the blog as support for your claims. Generally, taking what is said in a blog post at face value and accepting it as fact would be foolish in an academic text. People can write anything they please in their blog, it doesn't make it true. However, the fact that a person has chosen to write that, is a fact. That fact may be interesting by itself. For example, if a senior official claims a certain thing, they may or may not be right, but the fact that they claim it is enough to suspect that they will try to exert their influence to make the claim true. That part is significant.
In the text I would also make it clear that you are talking about a non-peer reviewed source, instead of simply citing it as you would a paper. I find it very annoying when you see a very interesting and cited claim, excitedly go to the reference list, only to discover that the citation is really just some blog so the claim is effectively pulled out of thin air - the citation only proves that the pulling was done by a third party, rather than the citing author.


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What makes a transcript official vs. unofficial?
What really determines whether a transcript is official or unofficial? (I am wondering mainly in the context of US high schools and colleges.)

Is it entirely about the process by which it is delivered, i.e.
directly from an institution to a the receiver such that there can be
no tampering?
If an issuing institution (such as a high school) does not print the
transcript on special security paper, but sends directly to the
receiver in the mail on regular paper, would this still be considered
official?
Are there cases where an official institution would consider a
transcript to be official but an receiving institution would not consider it to be official?

An official transcript is usually sent under some sort of seal, with measures to ensure that the document has not been altered. When delivered to a student, it will usually be in a sealed envelope in such a manner as it will show proof of tampering or opening.
The usual method, though, is for the issuing school to send it directly to the intended recipient. The transcript is then authorized as "official" through some combination of stamping or seal. (Nowadays much of this can be and is handled electronically.)
There may be some schools that have specific rules that would prevent them from accepting what another school sends, but you'd have to look at individual schools' policies to know for sure.

I note only that there are too many independent jurisdictions in the US (thousands) to make any definitive statement. If people are suspicious they tend to check with the issuing organization when possible. It isn't always possible, actually. My HS no longer exists and I doubt that its records were saved anywhere.

@Buffy Not to mention international jurisdictions!

Electronic transmission of transcripts (with special security provisions) is becoming very common.

Indeed. People should note, of course, that unlike some other countries, the US has very few national standards for education. Whether this is a strength or a weakness here has been debated forever - often bitterly. The same is true for University education. There are statewide standards in many places, but they don't necessarily cover all schools.

@BrianBorchers, can you give a reference for that? It seems a bit unlikely unless you just mean PDF files or the like.

See for example: https://www.parchment.com/blog/press-release/docufide-announces-availability-of-pesc-xml-transcripts-to-all-universities-nationwide/

Or, https://www.parchment.com/send-transcripts/

@BrianBorchers, that looks like an "available" service. It doesn't imply that it is widely used.

Pick your favorite university and see whether they have provisions for sending transcripts electronically.  I haven't encountered one recently that didn't use Parchment Send or similar services.

I'm speaking of the US context- I don't know much about other countries.  I'll also add that a standards consortium named PESC has developed an XML schema for transcripts that is sometime used, although PDF's are also still commonly used by services such as Parchment Send.  The main point of these services is to provide some assurance that the document is going to/from the right places.

Conversely, some student-records systems provide a mechanism to send a verification link so that the recipient can read the transcript directly from the institution's Web server. (Obviously, this would be sent to some e-mail address at a student's request.)


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Will a 3.8 GPA and 1 F with an explanation on transcript allow me to get into graduate school?
I am currently in my junior year, studying abroad in another country. The advisor at this school told me that I was enrolled in 5 businesses classes. I had asked her to drop one of them because I didn't need it and she said okay I will drop this course for you and you have 12 credits. I left her office and went on with my day and I came to find out later that she had not dropped my course and that I am still enrolled in 5 classes. The way the school works here is that you are unable to add/drop once that period is over.
Upset and frustrated, I went to her office and she said she can't remember what had happened because she has too many students. She had told me that I can either take the course or fail it and it won't affect my GPA. But on my transcripts it will say grade not available aka "F." I normally take 4 classes at home and I do want to enjoy my time here, so I don't know if I should take the "F" and explain what had happened to graduate school admissions office or just suffer and take the class that I don't need toward my major. It will not affect my GPA whatsoever if I were to take the F it will just be on my transcripts.
I trusted my advisor that she dropped my course, had I known that she wouldn't do it I would've done it myself. I do understand that I am at fault to for not checking it right after she'd done it, but by the time I found out it was too late. Thoughts?

What is your major? Business or something else?

Marketing & International Business, but I plan to go to graduate school in another department (Travel Industry Management).

Having just gone through the applications process this year, on several of mine, there was a section that was designed for you to include any comments that didn't fit anywhere else. If you left them blank, that was fine, but I remember at least one saying something to the effect of, "if you have something that you want to explain, do it here." If there is no way to change it with your university, you can likely address it in your applications. Or, if you are really worried, you can take the class. I suppose it comes down to how comfortable you are with having that on your transcript.

Don't overthink things -- these things happen, and the people who make the selection among graduate students know this as well. If the rest of your grades are good and you have a good explanation, then that's all that's necessary.

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Failing on purpose an oral exam
I am not well enough prepared for an oral exam I will have soon. I should probably pass the exam but with a bad grade I wouldn't be happy with. This comes due to some bad time management and some personal problems during the semester. Unfortunately I still decided to take the exam....
Since we have 2 tries I am planning to fail it. Now I am unsure how to do it politely. Is it ok to come by and see how the exam is, but answer bad on purpose or should I sent a mail that I'm not well prepared and apologize and come to the retake date?
I'm grateful for any advice how to handle the situation.

@NajibIdrissi That sounds extremely harsh. I failed my first math calculus exam. I got a lesson, I learned I need to really study at a university and I got an A at the end of the same week. It seems unfortunate to be se harsh, some countries it can ruin someone's chances to get a grad position. I got my masters with distinctions and later a PhD.

Doing your best during the first exam (and taking it) will help you know how better to improve/study before taking it again.

@You can put it that way. But if the "passing grade" is actually an uncleanable mark of someone unfit for future education... Even talented students can trip and talented people are resources which only the best universities can waste.

@mbomb007 - Want to put that in an answer? I agree.  Also, by taking the exam, it's possible OP will end up doing much better than planned, and may not feel the need to re-take.  I don't think it's a waste of time to take the exam, doing your best, and just retake later.  The alternative to either email prof. and tell them you're going to be absent for the first test, or going in and bombing hard on purpose, IMO aren't as good of an option as just taking the exam.

Related: Purposeful fail - effect on Master's admission

@VladimirF I failed my first calculus exam, barely limped out of the course with a C, graduated with honors with my BA, got a Masters, a PhD and a tenure track position. The idea that failing a single exam will somehow "ruin someone's chances to get a grad position" isn't anywhere close to universal.

Can you do your best and, if the grade you get is not satisfactory, ask for a retake? That way you can go through the experience, and learn from it.

Personal anecdote here: due to timing and other circumstances I was not well enough prepared for an oral exam. I could have gotten a bad but passing grade, but the professor knew me well and knew I was capable of doing better, so at the end he offered me the choice to give me that passing grade or to fail the exam. I chose the latter and got a much better grade on the next occasion.

Don't waste other's people time, and be respectful to your professor and to your fellow students as well. Send an email and apologize: the time slot allotted for you can be better used in another ways, e.g. to improve other students' exam schedule.

Be respectful of those who teach you as well.

@SolarMike Yes, indeed! ;-)

Been there, done that. And it was the right thing to do.

Also you should consider that pissing off your committee by deliberately failing an exam is likely to make them much less forgiving on your second try. Also, even if you do well on your second try, the bad first impression you will have made will hurt your reputation and chances for good recommendations and networking which will be much more important than the grade on your qualifying exam.

Never Intentionally Fail
You should absolutely never intentionally fail an exam. Always strive to do your best, even if you do not expect to pass. Your (intentional) failure will be indistinguishable from an actual failure, and it would be hard to convince somebody later that you tried to fail. Moreover, intentionally failing will cause some people over you to think you are more ill-prepared than you actually are. If you expect to fail, try to get out of taking it instead.
As @MassimoOrtolano noted, don't waste peoples' time — including your own. Nothing annoys people more than wasting their time.
Improve Your Situation Where Possible
As with all of us, you need to take the initiative to improve yourself in any possible way to allow yourself to succeed. Consider yourself and your situation as levelly as you can and work to improve the things within your control. Get help for the things that are beyond your control, such as health or mental health issues. I've needed to cut out certain parts of my life and introduce new habits in order to be more productive.
Communicate
Many faculty are understanding of personal issues, to a certain extent. Life happens! You can prevent the faculty from speculating as to why you're failing by actually telling them. They may even offer you some alternatives (take exam at later date, etc.), help support you in some way, or point you to helpful resources. This is in every way better than just intentionally doing poorly and not telling them why.

Intentionally failing won't even show up on many certificates, bad grades do

@DonQuiKong grades are not the only thing that matter, and one mediocre grade isn't the end of the world.

@posdef unless thats one that counts a lot and brings your average down so you don't get into the masters program or whatever. Never say never

What a terrible answer. Good grades matters in a lot of places, easier to get a job afterwards, getting paid more, getting into master's or PhD programs. Maybe you are from some place where failed attempts are recorded on your diploma, I haven't heard about such a thing before, what makes you think that is the case for the asker?

I’m confused by your comments. Isn’t intentionally failing the same as you intentionally getting a very low grade? Why would failing the test not be the same as getting a poor grade? If a failed attempt does not appear on your transcript, please clarify in your question how your institution reports things.

It depends, specifically on what level you are in and where you are studying, i.e. what regulations you have to play by. Based on that my answer would be somewhere between no and NO! :)
First of all as others have pointed out already, it's extremely disrespectful to waste people's time. Time is a commodity, and a very precious one at that, especially in academic setting. Many professors and lecturers (indeed even TAs) are juggling their own work, assignments, deadlines and lives outside work on a tight balance. To presume that someone has time to entertain your desire to "come by and see how the exam is"; well, quite frankly that's a flagrant 2 in my eyes.

This comes due to some bad time management and some personal problems during the semester.

sh*t happens, it's no big deal to have a bad grade here and there. I know not everyone share's this opinion, but we are all human and when you are at the uni there are a lot of things going on. It's part of the learning process to mess up things every now and then, expectation of, and desire to get, a flawless track record is what gets people into trouble in many cases.
If I were you, I would just take my chances with the exam and do what I can do. If you get a C/D whatever, so be it. If you fail, you can prepare better for the retake.
If you insist you don't want to take your chances, I'd notify the teacher that I cannot take the test for whatever reason, and ask when/how you can register for the retake. If the teacher calls you on your made-up excuse though, you are gonna have to weasel your way out of it though. Thus I recommend you prepare as much as you can, and give your honest best shot.

It's part of the learning process to mess up things every now and then Totally agree. I had extraordinary marks throughout my studies (and ended up as the top student for my year across the whole school), went for a PhD program, got excellent marks again and then, on the easiest exam, had the shame of my life when I failed it.This was because I got used to be very good and got sloppy with this "simple exam". I will never forget how the various teachers were looking at me (there were a few during the exam) - this excellent student who failed their exam. This is a lesson I will never forget.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава

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


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How to politely remind a Professor to re-review my application?
I recently applied to a Graduate School and also wrote to a Professor, I really want to work with. She scheduled an interview and it went immensely well and she also said that I would be a fit for her lab. But just before ending the interview, she told me to e-mail her my unique application ID, so she can have a look at my complete application. She said she'll get back to me.
This is was before the Christmas/New Year holidays. I was anticipating a reply but thought of waiting further until the holidays got over. I never received a response. Now that the holidays are over, I want to draft a mail re-reminding her about my application. What would be a polite way of doing this?
So far, I've got this

Respected Professor,
Thank you for interviewing me for a position at your lab on MM-DD-YYYY.
According to your instructions, I've mentioned you in my application as a potential supervisor. My application ID is XXXXXXXX. This is a gentle reminder for my application.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
Kind Regards,
XXX YYY

I'd probably wait for some more time. The professor probably took Christmas holidays as a chance to have some time off to spend with her family or doing other things. Don't put pressure on her, let her have another week to carefully look at your application and reply to you with no hurry. In case you don't get a reply by next monday, then it will be appropriate to write an email.

Thanks for the advice. In case she still doesn't respond, any improvements you'd suggest over the mail I've already drafted?

I think the draft you wrote was pretty good. Maybe I'd remove the "This is a gentle reminder for my application", since the mail itself has the function of a reminder.

Yes, as @Gixuna comments, first there's no point in noting that your reminder is a reminder, and, second, saying that might be viewed as patronizing or in some other negative way.


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How many new course preps before tenure (R1, US, Humanities)?
I'm a humanities researcher at an R1 university, just a few years into the tenure track. So far, the job's been pretty dominated by prep for my courses. I've been getting better at it, but there's no way to get around the fact that writing lectures, especially, is really time consuming.
Given this, I'd really like to be as strategic as I can be about what courses I agree to teach going forward. What's a reasonable and realistic cap to aim for, in terms of the number of ready-to-go courses an assistant professor might have under their belt by the time they come up for tenure? I'm thinking mainly about undergraduate lecture courses, as seminars are less up-front work.
This is very general, but if you happen to also have advice on the kinds of courses as well, that would be really helpful! - e.g. the big intro survey, a course on a trendy topic that may or may not be canonical in your discipline long term, a course that extends your research, etc.
[Edits for clarification:

As @Buffy suggested in the comments, I did indeed mean "new course prep" as a distinct course one is more or less designing and teaching for the first time! Especially with lecture courses, once you have your lectures written every subsequent offering of the same course is infinitely easier.
Not worried about tenure at current institution, but do want to leave flexibility to move if other opportunities come by.]

It's not just about the R1/R2 status, my understanding is only the higher tier R1 schools (say, the top 50) will have the lighter teaching load

You don't say whether you are at risk of not getting tenure because of this. If you are to be judged primarily on research it can be a problem.

@Taw, teaching load and prep might not mean the same thing. A course recently taught or one with sections taught simultaneously doesn't need (much) preparation. So, (I hope not at an R1) one might have four courses but only one or two preps.

To avoid some possible confusion, in the following I take "prep" to mean preparation for either a course not previously taught by a person or one that, for whatever reason, requires significant revision from past offerings. This doesn't include teaching essentially the same course again soon after previously teaching it, nor does it include needing to teach more than one or two distinct courses simultaneously, provided that one has the require materials.
My experience is that this is something that can and should be negotiated and the aim should be for not more than one or two per term, with the goal being zero when possible or one. However, things vary for many reasons.
In the first year(s), someone with no teaching experience at all is going to have more preps than usual since they don't have materials for their courses in the bag already. My experience is that TT people in research institutions shouldn't be teaching more than two courses per term, though whether they are small or huge depends on lots of things. (My experience is with STEM, however).
I wonder, however, whether you are in a special situation in which you were hired for a specific field in which the university has a need that only you can fill. And I wonder how much the university, especially the department head really supports you for tenure. It is possible that you are being taken advantage of.
Big classes with the associated TA management are a special problem and I think those should be avoided in the first years and administration should be aware of the impact on a young researcher.
Again, my experience is with systems in which we had annual evaluations and as part of that we presented a plan for the coming year. That would include elements of the big three expectations (Research, Teaching, Service). The department head and dean would sign off on it and we would all work to keep to that plan and explain how we covered it in the following year.
Finally, I was lucky enough to see a system in which everyone in the department went out of its way to pave the road to tenure for new faculty. This included other faculty as well as administration. This is how it really should be when a place respects you and your contributions to the big three. And if (as in an R1) research is paramount in getting tenure then the institution needs to do what it can to make that possible.

As a note, I think that the humanities are being hurt in the current climate in the US due to a reluctance to fund them adequately. While I studied math, it was many courses in the humanities that made me a scholar in the classic sense. My political opinion is that if we don't support them better than at present we are destroying our future as a nation. Well and broadly educated people are one of the most valuable assets of any nation.
Some advice you didn't as for, however, it is possible in some cases to ease the burden of a first time prep to ask a colleague who has taught the course before if they have anything (notes, especially) that they can share with you. That, along with advice on pitfalls can be helpful.


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back assign DOI to extant dataset
Would it be possible for researchers back-assign a DOI to an existing dataset they have rights to - where there is no permission to share it publically (privacy, organization proprietary, personnel to clean data...etc)?
This would at least allow tracking the same dataset usage across multiple papers (+ - stages of).
To clarify (30 Jan 2019): What I mean is for example there are many papers already published that use the same dataset. In some cases it is not possible to get rights to the dataset. However, at the very least I believe it is useful to back-assign a DOI to these datasets that would allow for people to track datasets across multiple papers, particularly in this age when we may inadvertently commit the sin of deriving effect sizes from the same population if the dataset being the same is not clear, as we sometimes may surmise where people who collected the data get authorship rights directly grandfathered in -  but in cases where they are not we may not be able to tell that we are using repeat datasets!
One way to get around the fact that these datasets are not available on open access is to have, under their DOI, descriptions of items that are included, waves of collection, and sample size - these can generally be derived and gradually pieced together from past studies. It then becomes clearer for replication or es. estimation whether the re-analysis actually used the same parts of the dataset. For example using only wave-2 instead of both waves, and using depression from Beck's inventory rather than depression based on interview.

So, if this was possible, then who would be prepared to pay for that to be done for the historical stuff? Future data could have it completed as part of the submission.

What do you mean by back-assign? Assigning a DOI to a previously used but not published dataset? Or a backdated DOI assignment?

I think is to a certain degree possible. One can potentially put the dataset in a data repository that assigns DOIs to the dataset. Then the dataset can includes the links to the published article as references. DataCite DOIs have a mechanism to do this. One can look at the documentation in  their website.
edit: Full disclosure, I work at DataCite as a developer.

Be alerted by their fee page

@scaaahu The fee page is for the repositories themselves, not for the users of the repositories. I don't think any data repository (e.g. Zenodo, Figshare, etc) would charge users for for assigning DOIs.

This reads like possible case for figshare which accepts many data formats (including images) or raw data, and offers you a doi easing citation by you and others, too.   If the data qualify for academic research, storage of the first 5GB is granted for free.


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Chances of Getting into a Top PhD Math Program
I know many people have asked similar questions and admissions can sometimes be a crapshoot. But, I am currently a sophomore mathematics major at a non-target top 25 public school. If I can maintain a 3.8+ GPA and major GPA, is that a respectable range for a top grad program? I know GRE scores are a factor too, but have not taken them yet. But I am currently doing undergrad research with a professor (maybe will get my name on a paper) and plan to do departmental honors, which requires me to write a thesis by the time I graduate. Struggling with trying to decide if I want to do industry or grad school. My advisor of course is pushing me towards grad school and tells me if I maintain my grades I will have a good shot. I also plan to take hopefully 2-3 grad courses by the time I graduate. What realistically are my chances? I know it is hard to say without GRE's and no answer is definite, but is it even worth me looking at top tier programs?
Thanks.

If industry is a consideration for you, then I would advise against grad school.  You might be able to get into a top tier grad school and even get a decent postdoc, but what next?  The job market in mathematics (outside of data science related stuff) is bad right now and worse than 5 years ago.  It might be even worse 10 years from now, as universities discover that they can cover all their calculus classes with adjuncts paid $3000 per course (just as they discovered 30 years ago they could cover first year writing this way).  (continued)

Outside of top research universities and top liberal arts colleges, many colleges/universities will never hire another tenure-track mathematics professor.  The top research universities and liberal arts colleges don't have enough jobs to absorb all the Berkeley PhDs, never mind all the other top departments.  Now, if you can't stand (the thought of) working in industry, or gambling that you can get a permanent position is fine with you (you probably won't go into debt or serious financial trouble, though you might forego $500K in lost earnings), then grad school is a reasonable choice.

@AlexanderWoo "Outside of top research universities and top liberal arts colleges, many colleges/universities will never hire another tenure-track mathematics professor. " Do you have any evidence for this claim?  I won't be surprised if we hit this point not too far into the future (what I tend to describe as us "pulling up the ladder"), but I didn't really think we had gotten there yet. MathJobs has well over 200 TT ads up right now, and certainly not all of them are places I would describe as "top research universities and SLACs."

It depends on the definition of "a top grad program".
I think your GPA is good. GRE is usually not a (big) factor. I would expect most applicants to have >85/90%. If you are worried take the test as soon as possible. You can choose to send only your best result at the end.
Graduate courses are good only if you get good grades from them.
Try to make sure you get at least 3 strong recommendation letters by the time of the application. You want them to be from your field of interest. At least one should be from a more experienced faculty.
Also if it is possible try to get some undergraduate research experience. It helps, but it is not necessary.

Your chances are likely pretty good if you can keep up the grades and the rest of your application is strong.  Here at UMich in the computer science and engineering department where I teach, for example, it takes about a 3.8 GPA to be a competitive applicant for our PhD program.


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Professor asked to write part of reference letter due to time constraints
I am applying to graduate programs and one of my research professors will write me a recommendation letter, but wants me to write a rough outline of the letter. He will add his own content and edit all my work, but wants me to highlight things he might not know.
I am not sure how to write this outline, advice from people who have written graduate recommendations on what to put in one?

This is pretty common, actually.
I'd suggest making it an outline, not a narrative. But use complete sentences so that he can copy paste if he wishes. Include the things from your background that you want highlighted in a letter. But, I'd probably not recommend writing glowing praise for yourself. Let him add that part.
You can also include some forward looking things, such as what you intend to focus on in grad school.

When asking for a reference letter, it is customary to provide materials that will inform the recommender of what you've been up to. In addition to an example cover letter and CV, you might also provide a brief synopsis of work that's relevant to the recommendation. Think about what you'd want to show the graduate school:

evidence of research skills, like a research project or two - what did you do? How was it effective?
evidence of communication or leadership skills, like serving as an officer in a group or giving a presentation at a conference
evidence of work and life skills, like serving in an internship or volunteering

Providing that to a recommender will help them connect the dots between what they've seen from you and what else you've been up to. They can add the praise, clear statements about your skills and dedication, and so on.

That said, while it sounds like the recommender will write the letter, in the future you should know that a similar practice exists where recommenders will ask their students to write the letter, make superficial changes, and then send it off. There are three big issues with this practice:

It's unethical to purport to send someone else's writing under the recommender's name in a situation where the words are assumed to be the recommender's own.
The recommender is performing a professional duty in writing recommendations for students and colleagues from time to time. They can choose who they recommend and how strongly they do so, but writing the letter themselves is a courtesy.
You probably can't write a letter that sounds like a faculty member wrote it. You don't have the general experience of being a faculty member or the specific experience of writing recommendation letters for others.

It doesn't sound like that's what is happening here, but I have worked with students in the gray space between "give me a brief of what you've been up to" and "write your letter," so it's good to know the dangers of the latter practice in a situation like this. Good luck!


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Register in IEEE A ranked conferences - Student or full registration?
I am trying to follow up with the instructions to register my paper for the conference. However, the system is not allowing me to finish the process.
I just emailed the editor and he answered after a while, seems quite busy to explain. So I am assuming that if I asked him again for an explanation would take a lot of time too.
'' That error message is telling you to need to pay the full registration. In the instructions at "Fees and Registrations" appears that each student needs a full registration for its paper in order to be able to pay the student's fee. For example, if you wrote your paper with a professor, your professor should pay the full registration so you can pay student's.'' can any help what that means?

That seems clearly written to me. You aren't allowed to present a paper unless at least one of its authors has paid full registration. Maybe ethically questionable, but clear. What is your doubt? Have you read the instructions to which you were referred? Do they confirm it?
EDIT after your comment: "full registration" very likely means "IEEE member" or "non-IEEE member" (whichever applies).

I am a PhD student where the final author is my supervisor. Actually, in the registration form, there is nothing called full registration. it either IEEE Member
Non - IEEE Member
Student IEEE Member
Student Non - IEEE Member
Life/Retired IEEE Member
Participant without paper


text:
Problem with relative grading system?
My college (IIT) follows a relative grading system and each professor was given freedom in choosing how to grade the students.
As far as I know, Some professors give 5 students (less than 8 percent of the batch) the grade of S and others give A grade to 6-7 people in the class. I am looking for to apply for Phd, where I see colleges asking for a certain percentage in marks, like X percent in a taught module.
It is almost impossible for me to know how much I scored in a particular subject as we were just given relative grading. How should this issue can be resolved?

Sorry, explain what you mean by "relative grading".

"As far as I know" so without real evidence what do you expect?

Actually, as I mentioned, my university provides complete freedom to professors in choosing grades. So some professors go on like top 5% to be awarded S grade and som goes on like the first 6-7 scores get distinction grade. It is totally up to them and no professor neither informs the students about their real score, nor they clarify our rank within our batch. All we got is grade.

Your best bet is to contact the department and just ask them how they'd like you to handle this. They have perfect information over their own preferences.

I think grad schools are used to dealing with different grading schemes.  This is one reason, why GREs exist also.  But they can probably infer that top 10-20% is an A.  Bottom 50% is bad, etc.  Maybe even implicitly compensating for differences in how competitive the undergrad is.
Maybe grad schools aren't perfect but they seem to even be able to (in the US) evaluate students from all over the globe to try to pick the better ones.  Although even the US is very different from school to school.


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Minor revision changed to major revision
I submitted to a journal, in which I got a minor revision. In the minor revision, I was asked to do nothing other than to include a future research direction in the end after the conclusion. I submitted with the minor revision two days ago and today, I got a mail saying that a major revision is suggested.
The mail reads as follows:

Thanks for submitting your paper to this special issue. Please add a section after introduction for literature review. The current quality of paper is not sufficient to publish on the journal. Please include most recent literature as well.
You will need to state the research motivation at the beginning and conclude the research questions in the end.

Now, I am not asked to do anything regarding the analysis part or anything. I already have stated the research questions in the manuscript. I also don't understand what it means, "current quality is not sufficient."
Is this usual? Any advice on how to deal this?
Update: My paper got accepted. Woah..!

Have you talked to your supervisor or the other authors on the paper?

I don't think this should be closed - this would be highly unusual in my field, enough that I would question whether an error was made.

(Especially because it was not returned to reviewers in two days).

@astronat: Ya I talked with him. Even he was confused but suggested maybe the editor is not okay with me not adding literature review part and for some literature review is a must. He asked me to add literature review part and send it back, but I feel so weird that earlier there was just a minor revision and now a major revision...

@Roland: The fact is that even now I was asked just to add a literature review. Even now I was not asked to change anything in the paper (Analysis or anything I have already written). That's what confused me about the mail.

@AzorAhai--hehim: Highly Unusual, even I felt so..regarding the reviewer part, well this is a COVID special issue and so the process will move on fast.

This appears to me to be an editorial screening, but it reads like you do not have any literature review in your paper. If this is a full report from a peer-review, I am raising an eyebrow.

"current quality is not sufficient" means that you need to improve the paper before the journal can accept it, but that it is good enough for the journal to consider it again after (major) revisions.

I have had minor revision turned into rejection.  Anything is possible.  Not until the fat lady sings.

In my field, biomedical science, it is highly unusual to hear back from a peer-reviewed journal within 2 days of resubmission. I would recommend double-checking whether the journal is a peer-reviewed journal and whether the papers published in this journal provide a significant contribution to your field. It is important to always check that as there are multiple predatory journals out there. As Roland said, you have two options. Certainly, you should always consult with your supervisor prior to any action.
Another point I would like to add is that usually when the reviewer finds issues regarding the quality of the manuscript, the reviewer will point out the specific issues in order to clarify where the authors have to work on before resubmission. It is very strange that you did not receive a detailed review.
As for the change from minor to major revision, that can happen. Particularly because not always the same reviewer will be available to review all versions of a manuscript, so in some cases, your manuscript may be sent out to a different reviewer after resubmission.

It would be weird, though, for a predatory journal to ask for more revisions. Usually they would just accept

Well, I checked and it is a peer-reviewed journal and is also indexed in Social science citation Index and in Web of Science. Since my article is about Covid, I got a quick reply.

This entire situation is strange:

to start with: you submit a paper that apparently lacks a good introduction with motivation for the research, a conclusion, and references
the reviewers did not notice the lack of references, a big and obvious problem with the paper (but hopefully easy to solve)
the reviewers did not comment on the lack of presence of a motivation for the research and the apparent missing conclusion, another problem that should be immediately obvious
although directions for future research are sometimes added to a paper, any paper should be publishable without this being present, and I have never seen reviewers or editors ask for those
the minor revisions being changed into major revisions is uncommon, but given the seemingly poor quality of the reviews it is understandable if the editor read the paper afterwards

The papers I have reviewed myself that lack the basics such a motivation, conclusion and references always had many other problems and I have always had to recommend rejection for those other problems. I hope that your paper is not one of those.
Taken together it seems to me that the reviewers are inexperienced and the editor did his best to give you valuable feedback to improve the paper. From what you tell us yourself, it does indeed sound like your paper needs major revisions.
To proceed, I would suggest to:

Make sure that the journal is sufficiently good for your paper (normally you have done this already before submission). Also see the answer by Ray.

Revise your paper by adding or improving the introduction and conclusion, and adding the relevant references. This is a lot of work so hopefully it is possible to do within the timeframe given to you by the journal to carry out these major revisions.

I would not include any suggestions for future work unless I actually had some and wished to disclose them before doing the research.

Do not see the change to "major revisions" as unreasonable, but learn from the suggestions you got and remember them for your next paper.


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I left college in the last semester (did not finish), but the college "transferred military experience to credits" and gave me a diploma. Normal?
When I was in community college (2016), I wasn't on good terms with the school. I was harassed occasionally and complained about it very forcefully to representatives of the administration. I passed my classes, but didn't do homework and had an average GPA. In my last semester, I decided to stop going due to continuing issues with the faculty.
After a few months, I got a diploma in the mail. I called them and asked about it and they said it was all on the up and up, and that the VA representative had taken it upon himself to transfer some of my military experience into credits (my remaining requirements were very basic, like P.E.), which is what pushed me over the edge.
I still have a hard time believing that I could graduate without knowing it. The VA rep was new and had recently replaced the old one, and I'm stoked he took it upon himself to transfer those credits over, but I am curious if this is a normal thing? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Am I worrying too much? I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I also am afraid there could have been some mistake.
The reason I'm worried about it now is that I want to go back to school for a CS degree in the near future now that I've matured a little and have a better idea of what I enjoy learning. If there's any chance I need to be worried about my previous degree I want to know about it.

It's most likely that the CC did this in order to get credit for another graduate.  One potential downside for you is that if you do enter a four-year degree program and try to get federal financial aid, the credits that you earned at the CC could count against your lifetime limit of credits paid for by federal financial aid while probably not being helpful towards earning your bachelor's degree.

Even if I was using the GI Bill while I was there?

I'm at a loss what you hope to gain by trying to get your college to invalidate your degree. Say 'thank you', then move on.

I don't want anything of the sort I just want to do an integrity check now so I'm not blindsided later in life.

Maybe it is simply a case of "just let him finish so he stops pestering us and waste our time..."

Please clarify: Are you concerned that your degree may get invalidated in the future? I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but even if it is exceptional, why why it be a problem?

That's definitely my concern. I don't want the rug pulled out from under me down the road over someone's not crossing t's and dotting i's.

@mathreadler agreed, it's almost like awarding a conceded pass for the balance of units. The service could have elective value, and varying the course is allowed at their discretion, just as for students with special interests or wanting to overload.

When I was a student, I had to fill out an application and pay a fee when it was time to graduate.  But I could easily imagine that your college might be incentivized to award degrees and might forego the paperwork and fees.

I still have a hard time believing that I could graduate without knowing it.

Me too. I would request a transcript and perhaps investigate to see whether "transferring military experience to credits" is something that routinely happens. It would be nice to document your concerns and get a written response from the college saying that everything is on the up-and-up. When documenting everything, I suggest not going into detail about your issues with the teachers; that is a separate issue.

I am curious if this is a normal thing? Am I worrying too much?

I can say that it is entirely abnormal for well-ranked, 4-year colleges in the US. However, community colleges are a different beast. While I can't say anything for sure, I can speculate:

They may have wanted to boost their graduation rates, and looked for "almost-done" students that they could convert to "done"
Perhaps your VA rep is just an awesome guy who helped you out.
Maybe there were legal issues with the harassment case.
Or, it's possible that something improper was done, and it will eventually cause problems for you.

Short answer: I suspect all is OK, but I would still try to document what happened and get the college to state in writing that your degree was not awarded in error.
Edit: I do agree with the other answers that you should proceed with your application to 4-year schools; don't let this slow you down. I just think it's worth protecting yourself...for example, the diploma-generation system could be different than the degree-verification system, and they might disagree about whether you finished...best to have the whole thing documented in case something comes up.

Granting academic credit for military experience is a very common thing these days.  Many institutions are also trying to improve their graduation rates by identifying students who have unknowingly completed requirements for some degree (perhaps not the degree they wanted) and then offering them the chance to graduate.

To combine this with the concerns from the “don’t kick a sleeping tiger” answer: you can phrase your request in a way that doesn’t mention any doubts about the propriety or validity of the degree, but instead just as a request for detailed documentation in writing.  “I’d be grateful if you can supply a full formal transcript showing how all credits were transferred/awarded, in case I’m required to provide such details in my further degree applications or at some other point down the line.”

I think it is generally a mistake to kick a sleeping tiger. What will you gain if you are told it was a mistake?
I'd ask for a formal transcript and see what it shows. If all looks well, then use it to apply to a four year program and see what happens. My best guess is that you will have no particular issues about this, other than a poor gpa. If you then learn there is a problem you can seek ways to overcome it.
If you get in, all is well and it won't come back to haunt you in the future. Just apply yourself more diligently in the future.
If you dodge a bullet, don't ask for a re-shoot. For less violent imagery, maybe you just won the lottery. Spend it wisely.

I figure it's just better to find out sooner instead of getting snuck up on later, but your reply is re-assuring.

I'm pretty sure that the admission to a 4 year program would be a one way door. If this were a master's degree in question, I'd think differently about it. Partly my answer is based on your wanting to move on soon. Just do it. It doesn't really matter to you whether it is a normal thing or not.

This. Take the associates and use it for what you can.  4 year schools can be fussy about transfer credits anyways, but that is more based on courses than associates (they don't care).  And maybe it helps you on the job market instead.  Nothing wrong with just moving ahead.  You did a lot of work and glad that something came of it instead of you just flaming out.

I don't know if this is a common term in the US - but it's a common phrase in the UK:  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let_sleeping_dogs_lie

@UKMonkey it is well understood in the US, but as a new parent I prefer "let sleeping babies lie"

If all you were missing is stuff like PE, I don't find it weird to have military count and seeing you finish. Many friends didn't have to take university PE because they were climbing, doing martial arts etc. Additionally, once we were changing system from the old one to Bologna, some were asked to just submit whatever minor thing relevant for the minor courses to get the lowest passing grade, or even had irrelevant stuff like PE and humanities ignored, so they could finish before the deadline. All as a courtesy of the students' office and nice people working there (Students graduating or not wouldn't change a thing for them, university or anyone else.)
If the new guy is nice and wants to help students, he will sort out such minor things and let you finish, considering you were nearly done. Even if there is nothing he or college would gain from that. The only really weird part is that they just sent you diploma - in all cases I know, the final interaction had to come from the student, even if it was (paraphrased) just to sign the paper. But well, you got diploma, consider everything done and be happy you have that paper.

It's a great story in that it happened without you having to do anything.  It's not that unusual to get some field credits for military service.  During outprocessing, they counsel people coming out to try to get some credit for A-schools, etc.  Varies what you can get but not surprised that it helped you at the juco, getting the associates.
The one thing I have seen more often is the service member needing to be on top of things to get the credits.  Little bit of a learning here--what if you had not had someone looking out for you--how many people are not getting all they can get.
Good luck, going forward.

What is an A-school?

I'd like to point out that you don't need an Associates Degree (AA) to get into a 4-year college.  A high school diploma is sufficient.  The fact that you have an AA shows that you can start and finish courses like an adult, and that counts well in your favor.  But the 4-year college won't care so much about the degree itself, but only the individual credits they transfer in.  If there is a PE course they don't like, you just won't get credit for it.  (This is unlikely, since in the current climate, colleges want to push through as many students as they can as quickly as they can.  They'll give you any credit they can get away with.)
If something wonky happened and somehow your AA is revoked, you won't get kicked out of 4-year college.  Because it wasn't a requirement for admission.

This is not universally true. Some community colleges have transfer agreements with some 4-year schools that grant automatic coverage for a particular (large) packet of general-education courses. Where I am, there's a very large incentive for students to finish the degree for this reason.

@DanielR.Collins  Yeah, we have "core curriculum" in Texas.  But still, it's not the degree, but the packet of courses.  I'm pretty sure P.E. is not part of the core.


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What should I do when teaching maths for unmotivated undergraduate students?
After completing my Phd in an area in pure Maths and going back to my country, I got a job as a math lecturer at a university, where maths is not the main subject for students there. Maths is like school swimming subject that every student at my university has to learn before moving on to other subjects.
I usually teach 35 hours/week. That sounds a bit crazy for many people, but it is normal here when you are living in a small country with a big population. I love doing reaseach. Spending time quitely, reading papers of other mathematicians, taking note, enjoying the findings, these were what I used to have during my Phd in support from a scholarship.
The problem is that, I am now teaching students who are really unmotivated. It is understandable because maths is not their main concern.  Even though Maths here is quite basic, for example calculus or linear algebra, it seems that it is a big deal for them. The students always feel like they are forced to learn unnecessary, difficult stuff. So their reaction is to almost ignore the subject. They go to class, sleep or talk, and let whatever happens to their exams for the future. It is quite stressful to teach these students. I admit that many maths stuff like, surface integrals or Green formula, are really hard to teach  for this kind of students. Because they don't like to hear or know how should a theorem be true. On the other hand, if you just tell them that well! this is a theorem, let's imagine it was true and use it. Then the situation isn't better either. Of course, I am not in a position to determine what I have to teach, what not. All the given content in a subject should be taught for students during the course.
These things are bothering me and take me a lot of time. The students may complain if they don't like me. So I should focus on my teaching duty. However, it is killing me since I cannot have time for my reserach. At the end of the day, I am exhausted and feel guity because I have done nothing.
My question: do we have any way or tricks to teach unmotivated students to make them feel easy, feel smart, so they don't complain, but in the same time we don't spend total energy for the teaching? If I run my work properly, I still have time and mental energy for my reaseach.
Any suggestions, even small, would extremely be appreciated.

What do the unmotivated students need from your class? A specific grade to continue to future courses? Just an attendance mark?

I definitely have sympathy for your situation, but I couldn't help but notice a couple of things: (A) maths is not the main subject for students there --- Is there ANY university where this is not true? In the U.S. from several thousands of colleges and universities, think 10% to 15% is about the highest percentage of math. (B) is quite basic, for example calculus or linear algebra --- I never taught anything above the level of precalculus (and that course only 2 or 3 times) the first 3 years after my Ph.D. (at a university of over 12,000 students) because so few students (continued)

took anything as advanced as beginning calculus. That said, you might want to ask this in the Mathematics Educators stack exchange (or maybe have this migrated there), as this seems like a good question for that site, although I suspect versions of this question have already been asked there many times in the past.

Let's say there are two groups of students in class. Group 1, 40% of the total, who centainly focus on the subject for their grades, so they will get passed the exams. Group 2, the rest 60%, who don't care whether they fail the final exams, because of some reasons: for example, they may fail a certain number of subjects and still be able to move on to the next semester, but they have to pass the failed subject before graduating.

@ Dave L Renfro Thanks so much, I've never known this website before.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/

Start each session with a quiz.  Have students exchange papers to grade.  Have full hour tests every 1-2 weeks.  Do lots of in class exercises that students work on.  (Put the animals to work.)
Emphasize calculations and problem solving.  Not theorems.
Emphasize efficiency in terms of grading exams.
Follow the text closely and spend minimal time on your lecture prep.

Possible problem: If the quizzes and tests do not count towards the grade, the unmotivated students will not pay any attention to them. If they do count, the OP will have to grade them, further reducing time and energy for research.

Get the quizzes going online (I use moodle, ‘cos that’s what they chose for us), but they can have practise quizzes, marking is automatic, they can have 1 attempt at the graded quiz or you can take the highest mark of two or more attempts... ok you have to build the questions, but bulk import via text is possible and excel can be used to create questions...

This might be a way to "get by" but I don't see that it will increase motivation. This seems like a lazy teacher (non) solution.

If you read his whole question, part of the issue was also the time demands.  Patricia's crit actually concerns me more than yours, Buffy.  But I remain thinking that putting people to work versus trying to be Mr. Kotter is a way to change the classroom dynamic of inattention.  I even do the same in long meetings with senior execs.  I give them activities, templates to fill out, etc.  Put the animals to work...so the lions can't eat you.  And get back to research.

I also had a point on problem solving versus theorems.  Because I know how these math researchers think.  And how students think.  The mathies are in love with Rudin real analysis.  But the rest of the free world (every applied subject) wants to gain problem solving, calculational skills.  "Nineteenth century calculus is alive and well in physics departments."

@ guest Thank you for your answer. I think the idea to bring more practical and physical activities to classroom is quite fit in this situation.

If you're having the students grade each others' work, then I certainly hope that grade is purely for self-evaluation, and not factored into any kind of final letter grade.

to be honest, students will be more engaged if they are able to understand the lessons on a steady-pace not the type of trying to teach all the topics from the syllabus that feels like you are trying to meet a certain deadline and squeezing everything
unmotivated students will continue to be unmotivated if they are not able to understand it in a way that they could fully grasp, they just do not have the energy to listen and think about it
it is fun to hear a teacher teach to make it understandable than rather hearing a teacher teaching for the sake of teaching
students will be eager to learn more, read more and be interested with the next topics if they feel like they understand something about it
trying to complete the topics to teach is just so miserable as there's really none that they are able to learn compared to a steady-pace which they could learn even just one thing :)
Maths will always be present in our lives, they just need to understand that it is comprehensible and does not mean that it does not have any significance


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Tenure Track Positions
What is the difficulty of landing a tenure track professorship at a top 25 program nowadays? I am considering pursuing a PhD in mathematics (thinking applied or computational) and curious on what the market is like. For example, If I attended a top math program (just say Columbia), what are the chances of landing a professorship at a program like UCLA or UT Austin?

Attending a top math program is definitely far from sufficient to get a strong faculty position.

You should go to the Columbia page (or similar) and see if they list recent placements.

Do you mean a tenure track position or an appointment as a full professor? In the first instance, an outstanding thesis coupled, perhaps, with a postdoc should get you consideration. In the second instance, you better have established an outstanding career.

Following up on Dawn's comment, indeed they do, see http://www.math.columbia.edu/alumni/recent-phd-placement-data/ , though this doesn't directly answer the question because it only lists the immediate post-Ph.D. job, which is usually a postdoc.  But you can then google a random sample of the people who graduated a few years ago to see where they ended up long term.  You'll find a few great successes, but I expect that overall the outcome will be consistent with Stella Biderman's answer.

The Mathematics Genealogy project can be helpful in finding a cohort of students who graduated from a particular math department in some year.  You can then search for them in databases like the Combined Membership List to see what percentage of them ended up in tenured faculty positions at various kinds of institutions.  This can be a very eye opening experience.

It is very hard.
A few years ago, a professor I had had told me that he advises students to aim to get a job at a school a tier or two below where they went to grad school, as a general rule. The reasoning is simply that there are far too few jobs. How many graduate students are in a cohort at Columbia? Now compare that to the number of new faculty they hire each year.
The math is straight forward: If every university hires one new faculty a year, that means that you need to be (on average) the best at your university to get a job at an equivalent institution. Most universities have more than 10 incoming graduate students. I don’t know how many new faculty top math universities hire on average, but I would be shocked if the answer was greater than 2.

Thank you, my advisor had mentioned that you typically teach at a tier below where you went to school, just didn't know if that was generally true.

@K.Seel Unfortunately it is. Honestly, that’s a major reason I work in industry. The job prospects are infinitely better, especially as someone who does combinatorics since that’s always in demand.


text:
Graduate student I was working with left
I am currently an undergraduate, wanting to apply to PhD programs this upcoming fall. So I started talked to a CS professor doing research in deep learning and he set me up to work with one of his graduate students, so I started to work with the grad student and only communicated with him, not the professor. I recently came up with a new idea for a model to be published that the grad student thinks is a good idea, but he told me he has left working with the professor and no longer is working on this research.
So I am at a crossroads on what to do. I have an idea that was told could be good, but I have no idea what the process looks like for self-publishing and expected that the grad student would be there to help me. I thought about reaching out the professor, but I am not sure what to say, since the grad student left, the project is essentially dead I think so it is more of just me having a new idea and not sure how the professor could help with it.
Any advice on whether I should reach out to the professor or just try to work on it on my own would be greatly appreciated.

Speak to the professor again. There're a lot of reasons for this:

He set you up with the graduate student, so he can set you up with another graduate student if necessary.
If he set you up with his graduate student, then in some way he's also responsible for you. He won't leave you to your own devices now.
He's still working in the field, so he will know what to do with your idea. He'll probably know what to do with your idea better than the graduate student.
It sounds like you only have an idea. Ideas aren't usually publishable; you need results. Because you're an undergraduate, chances are you won't be able to get those results easily without guidance. The professor can provide that guidance.

I think the professor is the best place to get advice on this. You might even be able to find a way to continue the work under their direction. Possibly the project can be continued.
As to the question of publishing, the prof may also have some ideas, as well as some caveats. Since some of the work was joint work, the grad student might need to be co-author, depending on various things, including the field.
But, in general, there is no reason an undergraduate can't publish research papers. The prof may be able to help with that if it seems to be the best course of action.

I've assumed, from what you say, that the grad student is no longer interested. Otherwise it would be good to include them.


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PhD in Mathematical Physics
I am currently an undergraduate math major and have hopes of attending graduate school in applied math. I also have a love for physics and thinking of minoring in physics. After some research, I found that many departments have professors in the research area of mathematical physics. Is having a minor in physics a good background to pursue research at the graduate level in mathematical physics?

Many natural science profs will think it's an early Christmas if a mathematician turns up, speaks their "language" and wants to work with them. Just as an alternative, if you're also OK with math that is applied very badly. ;-)

I don't think a lot prof in physics department doing mathematical physics though. Probably among 0 ~ 5mathematical physicists for each school

It depends on what courses you end up taking as part of your physics minor. Mathematical physics leans heavily on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and electrodynamics.
I don't know how many credits you have available for your minor and what the requirements are in your university to take those courses. At the very least, make sure that you have taken both classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Your math background in real and complex analysis will put you in great shape to learn the formalisms of the other theories.
Good luck!

Degree names don't matter: coursework matters
It really depends on what subjects you've taken courses in and what subjects you've learned in your free time. Grad schools don't particularly care if your degree label lines up with what they're offering, they care if your coursework and professional experience does. In the US, many graduate programs explicitly list the courses they want you to have as a minimum background. Contact their admissions office or look through their websites for the required background coursework.


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How do professors get positions in multiple departments?
I will be applying to PhD programs in statistics this upcoming fall and I have noticed that at many institutions, the professors in the statistics department also hold positions in other departments such as CS or EE. I know that professors do interdisciplinary research, so they get experience in other fields, but how does a professor get this appointment? Do they apply or does the university award them after conducting research in the other field.
I am interested in doing research in statistical machine learning in graduate school and have extensive CS background on top on a math background. So I would love one day to be able to be a professor in say stats/CS department.

Usual method:  After getting a position in Department A, he applies to Department B for a "zero salary, zero teaching, zero research" appointment.  Often, Department B is happy to grant it.  Less common:  Departments A & B recognize an interdisciplinary area that they are lacking, and advertise jointly for someone to fill it; they decide what percentage of the salary each will pay, how much teaching will be done in each department, etc.

Zero teaching? So is it purely by courtesy and no responsibilities? I have seen multiple professors teaching classes in both department.

When you say a class is “in” both departments, is it one cross-listed class (usually has a slash in the title)? Or is it two classes, with one only in A and one only in B?

@KS6 It varies, but mostly affiliated faculty don't get pay and have no formal responsibilities in the other department. Of course this does not prevent them from offering courses or advising students in the other department - this is one of the main reasons why they are affiliated in the first place.

@GEdgar this can vary by institution and country. For example, in my institution it is more like: Department B says first start teaching for us and contribute to our department, and then we might consider it.

From my experience, it is often some formal/bureaucratic reason like "you are supposed to teach N hours a week, but we don't need you for that many hours, so go teach at the neighboring department", or "we really need someone like you to teach here, but we can't let a stranger do it, so let's list you as an affilated person", etc. It can be even due to allocation of office spaces, I believe.

So I would love one day to be able to be a professor in say stats/CS department.

I don’t think you can really plan for this, other than by acquiring the skills and reputation that would make you an attractive hire for people in both disciplines. If the time comes and you see a position of this sort listed, go ahead and apply of course, but this is quite a rare event. Alternatively, once you secure a position in one department (already a hard enough thing to do in most people’s estimation), you can bring up the possibility of a joint appointment, either when you are offered the position or at any future time after you are hired, and see if the people involved are open to that idea. If you are very sought after and have multiple job offers on the table, that will give you useful negotiating leverage and increase your chances, but still be prepared for the answer to be “no”, or “not right now” - university politics is such that joint hires are not easy to arrange, and not always favored by all parties who need to sign off on them.
Finally, keep in mind that even if you can make it happen, it’s not necessarily the dream job you are thinking it is. As a joint member of two departments you will be paying a rather large (in my observation) “tax” of doing lots of things twice - getting to know and be on friendly terms with two large sets of colleagues; going to faculty meeting of two departments; being evaluated for promotion by two groups of people, each of which speaks a unique scientific dialect you’ll need to speak to convince them the work you are doing is good (and who will often look down on, or misunderstand, anything that you’re working on having to do with the other discipline); having two offices in two buildings that are halfway across campus from each other and needing to keep track of which one of them you left that textbook in that you really need right now; etc. - generally speaking there are a good number of inefficiencies of this sort. I’m not saying it has to be bad, and I’m sure there can be nice things about it, just be aware of these and other complications that you may not be taking into account. Good luck!

These professors have knowledge / skills that are applicable to both departments so are "employed" by both.
The benefit is really to the institution in terms of HR as they have one name, but two posts satisfied, as well as the "cross-fertilisation" across courses & departments.
The maths courses in our engineering degree were taught by maths professors from the maths department and they were very good. Not only did they give the mathematical background or proof to concepts, they could work with the "real" engineering examples we were doing...
So, if you have the things another department is looking for then apply as it may be easier for them to use existing faculty instead of trying to find a part-timer...