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Never took a second stats class in my Ph.D. How will this look to employers?
I posted here yesterday for a totally different reason, so I'll be brief on the introductory piece. I'm a 4th year Ph.D student in Experimental Psychology who is slated to graduate this academic year. My experience and guidance at all levels up until recently has been different to say the least. This particular post is one that comes from a gap I've only recently seen in my training as an Experimental Psychology (soon to be doctorate). Thankfully, I don't see this affecting my admission to candidacy at all since I am already a candidate. I'm moreso concerned about how this may be seen when my relevant coursework will be reviewed come job application time.
I was recently asked by my current advisor (who took me after my first Ph.D advisor dumped me over a misunderstanding) if I took Multivariate Statistics. Upon reviewing my transcripts, it turns out that I never took a "higher level" stats course beyond the first ones at either the MA or Ph.D levels. I did not have much of a say as to whether I could take a second one given that my MA advisor was totally hands off and my first Ph.D advisor wanted me to just jump into my quals project (they do that instead of an exam in my program) after I voluntarily opted to retake graduate level statistics at my current Ph.D program in case my advisor wanted me to take more stats classes with my current program. The reason I'm inferring that this may be a potential problem is because, when I reviewed other Experimental programs, I saw that two stats courses were required of even the MA students (note this doesn't include Research Methods/Research Design courses) and upwards of three to four for Ph.D students.
Which brings me to my main question. How will employers review my transcripts? Will they note these potential shortcomings? I could try to argue for getting the department or graduate school to pay for another statistics course but I'm not sure if that will do more harm than good given their financial situation was not good at all.

Well, I never took a stats class in my PhD and nobody ever asked about any of my classes, period.

@JonCuster I'm going to assume you're not trolling. What did you study?

Experimentalist in Materials Science. But, really, I never had anyone ask about what classes I took or what grades I got. They hired me for my ability to do research.

No one cares about your classes in PhD.

"No one cares about your classes in PhD."  Except possibly you later in your career, when knowledge from those courses would be useful.  (For example, some day when you want to write a paper in experimental psychology, but it requires sophisticated statistical analysis.)

Two comments:
First, once you have your PhD noone will ever look at your transcript. The courses were necessary steps to create the real output: your thesis and your publications.
Think of it this way: What skills you could have gotten from that additional stats course would be valuable to an employer? Probably something you could pick up in half a day reading (or watching youtube). Even if you had taken the course, you would probably still forgot it when you needed it, and you would still have to spent that half a day reading. If an employer hires a PhD, then they want someone who can pick up what they need quickly, not someone who already knows everything (because that person does not exist).
Second, you are still worrying about stuff that you cannot change. Do yourself a huge favor and stop! You are only hurting yourself by doing so. There is nothing you can do to change your past decisions. Look forward, not back.

-1. I am a statistician that regularly struggles with lack of statistical understanding by psychology Ph.D. students, and no, you don't just pick statistical knowledge up by "half a day reading (or watching youtube)". To be more precise, that is exactly where a lot of statistical misinformation comes from that we at CrossValidated set straight day in, day out. Knowing you from CV, I am more than a bit surprised at this answer.

@maarten_buis Belated reply but I'm definitely going to take a step back from Stack Exchange after this page is either closed or is not taking replies at all.

@zzmondo1 I am not suggesting you are not welcome here, you are very welcome. I am just worried about you. You seem to spent a lot of time on things you cannot change. I am suggesting you change your focus to "what can I do?" rather than "what did I do wrong?"

@MaartenBuis I understand now. I think a lot of it has to do with getting this far out and coming to the realization of "what have I done?" if that makes sense. I just want a different perspective on those things so I'm not stuck with those sorts of leftover questions in the back of my head.

@StephanKolassa What this answer says about "learning things in half a day" applies for people with a background in math or hard sciences who need to learn things adjacent to their own area of expertise.  For example, it really does not matter whether someone with a PhD in physics or engineering ever took a particular differential equations class or not, and even if they did, they probably would have forgotten the details long ago.  But for someone in social sciences without an otherwise strong math background, learning statistics is not a half a day thing, so you do make a good point.

@Aqualone: I beg to differ. I am in exactly the situation you describe, having done a math Ph.D. and then pivoted to statistics without having had any stats during my studies. Statistics requires a very different mindset than math or natural sciences. I will agree that those subjects are a much better preparation for statistics than social sciences, but the "half day" idea is where all the statistical misinformation comes from that highly qualified software engineers and similar put onto the internet after having spent exactly this much time in learning.

@StephanKolassa read my comment carefully, I did not specifically claim that all of statistics can be learned in half a day (by anyone). of course what exactly one can learn in half a day depends on one's particular background and what topic within statistics one needs to learn.  as I said, for the most part I agree with your points

All hail stats!  Joblessness and death to the non-stats-knowers!
Ahem, excuse me.  In all seriousness, in the field of experimental psychology you are likely to do experiments that generate data and you will need to perform some statistical analysis.  Most research psychologists find that they need a significant amount of training in statistics (so much so that some end up becoming quasi-statisticians).  I would hope that both your undergraduate and PhD program have given you the requisite skill to get started on this, but you are correct that you might need to study some higher level statistics courses to get comfortable with all the material you will need.  You should consider taking some additional courses if you have the time, or even just auditing courses if it is difficult to formally enrol.
As to whether your lack of higher level statistics will inhibit job applications, that depends very much on the needs and expectations of the particular panel looking at applications and their diligence in uncovering your present level of training.  Some selection panels will look into the details of your academic transcript to see what courses you have done but many will look only at the overall degrees earned and the other aspects of your response to the selection criteria for the position.  Many potential employers will not bother reading your transcripts (and might not even ask for them) and will instead assume baseline research competence from your PhD.

I don't have the time to do so nor can I afford it at the moment sadly given that I get paid monthly at this full time SLAC position. It is definitely the case that I've gone hands on with generating data and have performed analyses. However, they've been correlations and/or regressions in SPSS or Excel. I will admit that I don't have much of a breadth in the way of other statistical skills, but I know how to get those done.

(Slightly edited after seeing Stephan Kolassa's comment)
If you apply for a job that requires multivariate stats, or whatever the topic of the second class was, then it might make a difference.
But even then, if you can show that you know the topic by picking it up during your research, the lack of this class won't make too much difference.
For jobs that do not require multivariate stats, it will probably not make much difference.

Gotcha. Job lisitings I'm seeing never mention the exact stats background they are looking for in this case, which is why I was a bit concerned.

OK. If they require some stats background, then I suppose the more the better. So the multivariate course might have been valuable. But you can still compensate.

That's good to know. The topic of the class was (indeed) multivariate stats. I've yet to come across jobs that explicitly require it. I might just see "courses in statistics" or something vague like that at best. It just worries me a bit since I saw it was a required course (or a vaguely administered "Stats II" course) at every other Experimental Psychology program.

Direct answer to the question that's asked: when you apply for a job, the employer will ask for your CV. They are unlikely to ask for a transcript. This means that they'll only learn that you have statistics expertise if you say you have statistics expertise on your CV (which you should, because people unfamiliar with experimental psychology might not see a relation between psychology and statistics).
Once the employer knows you have statistics expertise, they might ask you to demonstrate that expertise. This can take two main forms: either they send you a technical test, or they ask you about it during an interview. The missing statistics class can become relevant here, if they ask about something which you didn't learn.
In the unlikely event they ask for a transcript, it's improbable that they will hold the missing class against you, because the syllabus varies between universities. Besides, unless the reader also has psychology expertise, they probably won't know what's taught in a class (given only the name of the class and the course code).
So, the missing class matters insofar as you know less statistics than you would if you had taken that class - but that applies to every class that you didn't take.


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Regaining trust in the graduate school system? R2 Ph.D student with a history of getting burned by my Master's and PhD programs
I know I've posted a fair amount on this site but to briefly introduce myself, I'm a 4th year doctoral candidate in Experimental Psychology with an accepted Master's from a regional college in Experimental Psychology as well. I'm making this post to "come clean" about why I spend so much time worrying about things. As far as justifying why this post would be useful to others goes (something I know I have to consider when making these posts now), I imagine it would be useful for my peers who are also at R2s downsizing graduate programs and/or are/were in departments filled to the brim with drama inside the department and their administration like mine.
Coming into this question, I'm approaching it from the perspective of someone who has been burned quite often or was misinformed about graduate school roles. I'm also a first generation college student so these "unwritten rules" were/are foreign to me until someone spells them out to me (I'm also autistic so I miss cues often). Notable examples:
1.) My Master's program only graduated 9/13 folks (well below the 85% graduation rate for most universities) and didn't try to convince them to stick around to finish. One left after a year and the other was 2.5 years into the program and quit due to advisor drama and insisting the advisee collect data on elderly individuals after COVID hit. She didn't do herself any favors imo with missing class often to work (since my Master's was partially funded not fully funded). It was wild news overall though since she was a valedictorian in her undergrad!
2.) I had extremely suboptimal performance in my Master's program (3.48 GPA, B and B+ in Spring sessions of 1 credit hour seminar courses because I got Cs both times on presentations). My LORs were also fine but they weren't great either since I was the only one in my cohort who didn't take another 10 hours of an assistantship for the opportunity to get supervised by someone who could write me one. I didn't do other research projects either. The whole reason was because I thought advisors told someone when to get involved and not get involved with other things beyond the bare minimum. Based on what my peers were doing, I can say I was wrong there.
3.) Despite this, I got into an Experimental Psychology program at an R2 that happened to be a sister school of my undergrad and Master's programs respectively. I got all As and A-s in a year's worth of elective coursework I had to take before I was officially cut loose into not having to take classes. Unfortunately, my first advisor dumped me over a misunderstanding. Even though she was slated to leave the university anyway, she planned on advising me from afar prior to this incident. It also involved "how I was born" (i.e., being autistic) as she put it and that leading to disorganization she saw. Even though I went to three different offices and places, I had no choice but to keep working with my advisor until my August 15th deadline to have my qualifier project totally signed off.
4.) A Ph.D advisor infamously dumped a different advisee in my program last academic year and, unlike me, no one stepped up to take her as an advisee. My current advisor is someone who has taken "orphaned advisees" in the past so I got lucky.
5.) Tuition waiver was kept my 3rd year of my PhD program before my funding was set to run out (since my program was paid off at that point), albeit my stipend was cut in half compared to my first two years! My program also suspended admissions to their Clinical Psychology program for this reason (no funding for first year students).
Despite my recent luck and all of my experiences, I've been told on here and other places that my programs all have a vested interest in their students graduating and that I should continue to trust the process (and produce in turn) for that reason. Based on my experiences and seeing what happened to others though... I'm just not seeing that at all. I'm doing what I can to graduate but it's ultimately going to be the bare minimum (e.g., no publications) simply because I've seen how often others got diminishing returns on their Master's and PhDs respectively. It took me a long time to become self aware that all of this was the reason underpinning my behavior but here we are now. "Concentrating on what I need to do to make it happen" (as one comment put it) is helpful but it reinforces that I need to protect myself constantly.
As much as I'd like to press forward and do the additional stuff that are soft expectations (e.g., publications) with the extra time afforded by being done with classes, I really think I'm better off just continuing to focus on applying for internships, post graduation jobs, my full time visiting SLAC position, and trying to restore myself to an optimal level of functioning. That said, I've had the process of getting published drilled in my head constantly and going beyond the bare minimum. How can I regain trust in the process at this point given what's happened to me?
As usual, if this breaks any rules or needs modification, I won't take any offense if I know or am told about it.

What kind of answer are you looking for? We can be pretty sure that your school is not out to get you. Not because schools are inherently good, but because you are not important enough for the school to care. Can you trust such uncaring institutions? Yes, in the very limited sense that they are predictable.

None of that helps you. Your first step is for you to figure out what you want. You sound like you feel trapped in this career path.

@MaartenBuis I feel trapped to an extent but that's only because I don't know what I can reasonably do given my current differences. That's why I'm hoping these job matching programs can find something for me because it's not about what I want anymore. It's all about what I can do.

This is way too specific to be a good fit here. You should look at how I edited this question and do the same thing to your own questions.

@cag51 Dang it. Wish I saw this before I made my post just now. Might just edit it on my own if I have the chance to before I got to bed now.

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Career impact of bad performance at visiting instructor position?
This is probably the last question I'm going to ask for a while. This can also be considered a follow up to this post I made two months ago: Could my visiting instructor position be terminated due to low course reviews? Full time instructor position is not going well at all
Unfortunately, my turnaround time for grading got way worse for reasons both in and out of my control. Starting with the out of control one: I totaled my car the second week of the semester after I spun out on the icy roads. My parents were going to gift me and my brothers cars about a month or so from now (and I got the car sooner than expected for that reason). I sadly had to drive back to my hometown to get it and I lost an extended weekend thanks to that. For the in control one: I was extremely depressed and spiraling still. I ended up in partial hospitalization for a week and a half as a result. Fortunately, I was able to get online asynchronous classes for the time I was in the program up and running officially.
I'm writing this while taking a break from grading as we speak. I plan on getting caught up tonight as this SLAC wants mid term grades before winter break starts.
Faculty have also started to notice, I think (or at least one has). I remember this faculty asking me last semester if I was "going to make it through the term." Later today, when we met, he asked me, "Surviving?" I replied, "yeah." He said that I've been going through a lot. To be clear, he knows about my car getting totaled, but doesn't know about the hospitalization (I told a white lie that I was taken off a program for cognitive rehabilitation to the department chair).
I'm posting here because I'm not confident that I can get a strong and positive letter of recommendation from anyone here. I haven't had anyone watch me in the classroom since I've been afraid of getting low observation scores (again, similar to when I got low scores as an adjunct). Does that pose any problems for future career prospects?
I've recently applied to federal jobs, am going through vocational rehabilitation so they can help me find a job and allow them to apply to jobs for me (I'm neurodivergent), and voluntarily applying for other positions where I'm confident I could work to support myself.

Why do you think the car situation was something that was out of your control yet your mental health crisis was something in your control? It seems to me the opposite (particularly with regards to whether you could do work during the absence). Also, the conversation with faculty seems like typical small talk to me.

You seem to have struggled and not enjoyed this opportunity. Is this really what you want to do?

@JonCuster I definitely know it's not what I want to do as far as a career goes that's for sure. This experience definitely taught me that. I'm glad I did it anyway though.

@zzmondo1 - often knowing what you don’t want to do is more important than knowing things you like doing. But finish it strong and then find something else. Good luck - you’ve overcome a lot.

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Why do most US regional colleges/universities/institutions have poor reputations in academic circles?
I'm at the tail end of my Ph.D. at an R2 institution that's considered a regional institution in the United States. I attended a regional university for my undergrad at an R2. I did my Master's at a well-known regional college. I really wanted to do a Ph.D. At the time, I didn't know about the stigma regional institutions carry in the United States.
Why is this the case? Why is it that regional institutions are frowned upon in academic circles? I also find it confusing since many of those regional institutions have professors who graduated from big R1s themselves for their Ph.D. or even post-doc. If they're the ones training regional college students, why are the expected outcomes different compared to the bigger institutions?
To me, a key benefit of regional institutions is more individualized attention due to smaller class sizes. This was the major reason I attended my regional college since I graduated from high school with a class of 8 people and it would've been too much of a culture shock to go to a school with 50k undergrad. Small liberal arts colleges (SLACs) were out of the question since they were unaffordable even with scholarships.
I've heard reasons for regional colleges' bad reputation all across the board from high acceptance rates to suboptimal graduation rates, or to not being known to most graduate schools in the United States. Are all of those reasons true? Or, is there more to the story?

What do you mean by a "regional college"?

@Buffy I'm not sure if this link will show up but regional colleges are defined by this website: https://www.regionalcolleges.org/ ETA: I've also heard the nickname "no name state colleges" for those institutions as well. Adds to the stigma pretty much.

The link works, but, oddly, they didn't give a membership list. Can you give some examples?

@Buffy Appalachian State University (they're the quintessential regional university for better or worse), Central Michigan University, Northern Michigan University. Another factor they almost all have in common is that they were almost all of them were teacher's colleges at one point before turning into research universities.

I have submitted edits to your question to make clear you are talking about the US context. Much of what you have written does not apply to the rest of the world AFAIK.

What do you mean "frowned upon"?

As a PhD student you should care about funding and productivity. No program that is well funded and productive will have an issue with reputation. You are 100% concerned about something that is ultimately inconsequential. Thoughts like that will only limit your success.

My perspective is that of a mathematician who went to an elite small liberal arts college (SLAC) as an undergraduate and taught as a graduate student and in temporary positions at an R1 and an elite SLAC before my current tenure track and then tenured position at an R2.  I was a top 10% but not top 2% student in mathematics as an undergraduate at my college.
Regional universities have poor reputations because they have lower standards for passing classes and graduating, particularly on expectations for creativity and originality (as opposed to memorization of facts and procedures).
As a poor attempt at wit, I sometimes say that regional universities end up providing their students with their third middle school education, not a university education (because that's what their students expect and are capable of).
I sometimes teach a course on Abstract Algebra - a required course for the theoretical mathematics track of our mathematics major as well as for our mathematics education majors.  Here it is mostly taken by seniors.  I took it as a junior with classmates who were mostly sophomores and juniors.  The material we covered in one semester here was covered in half a semester where I was an undergraduate so we ended up covering the second half of the course I took as an undergraduate as an additional elective here.
While the passing students here have learned the same facts and procedures as the students in the course I took, I was expected as an undergraduate to be able to use these facts to answer questions different from questions I had been explicitly taught to answer.  Here that is expected of the best students but not all students, and at many regional universities (for which I only have indirect experience as someone who occasionally teaches and advises graduate students coming from such universities) that seems to be not expected of students at all.
While they have memorized more facts, the average graduating math major here is about as capable of solving a problem they were not explicitly taught to as I was at age 14 (and nowadays 14-year-old me could look up those facts on Wikipedia as necessary).  The average graduating Ph.D. here is about as capable as I was in my junior year of college (and my senior thesis was more original, though a smaller body of work, than their Ph.D. dissertations).
It is definitely true that the professors at a regional university are capable of teaching classes at the same pace and expectations as classes at top universities.  However, they don't.  If I taught at the same pace at which I was taught as an undergraduate, almost none of my students would learn anything - it would just be too much material too fast for them.  If I had the same expectations as I was held to as an undergraduate (and I did not think those expectations were particularly high at the time - after all over 90% of my classmates graduated!), only about half my seniors would pass - and keep in mind these are students who have passed several years of classes and chosen a comparatively difficult major.  Given the selection effect, probably only 15-20% of the entering undergraduate students would have been able to graduate given the standards expected of me as an undergraduate.  In the US system, no university with a 20% graduation rate could survive.
We occasionally get graduate students whose recommendation letters say they were the best student this decade at their regional university, and we find out when they get here that they would not have passed the junior and senior level courses at my undergraduate (and cannot keep up with even our relatively easy graduate program).  Their undergraduate courses had such low expectations (because they had no students who could exceed those expectations) that their professors never found out if they had the originality and creativity necessary to succeed in graduate study.

Ah, well, yes, sadly, this is accurate... But/and the idea that as time goes on our kids will always be able to do more-and-more... is obviously false. Then we find ourselves back into this sort of confusion about definitions of "success", and so on.

This is extremely insightful. I appreciate it. I'm curious now. What about the tracks where the profession is built into the degree (e.g., nursing, accounting)? Since those degree tracks all teach similar (if not the same) skills, it's difficult for me to see a difference between those folks who graduated from those programs even if different institutions are involved. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.

@zzmondo1: Have you ever met the accountant who can't keep up with their accounting job and gets fired in 6 months?  The accountant who can handle the textbook situations but gets horribly confused at anything out of the ordinary?  The (more competent) accountant who can do an entry-level job competently but clearly can never manage a larger more complex situation and hence will never become a partner?  At a higher-level school, the accounting student learns the kernel of the skills that, combined with experience, allows them to advance in their careers; at a lower-level school they don't.

I've only ever been affiliated and now am on faculty at R1s. This post is so dishearteningly pessimistic it boarders on cliché. Is this how all faculty at these types of institutions feel?

@AlexanderWoo I think I'm getting the big picture now. Sounds like the more selective institutions teach folks how to be leaders in their respective disciplines. At the expense of selling myself short, I definitely don't think I could've handled that given the poor high school prep I had and my other issues listed in my original post before the edits kicked in and removed those. Folks have called me a "behind the scenes" guy and I don't think I could've handled that for sure.

@Ian - most faculty at such institutions are also quite proud of what they are able to accomplish (as little as it may seem to you) with the students that they have.

@AlexanderWoo: Your answer is clearly based on your experience, and I appreciate that. If I may ask a more objective question -- roughly how many undergraduate students in your program, say per year over the last several years, go on to do a PhD at an R1 institution?

While I don't disagree, I think your personal comparisons, esp. the one with age 14 you, may be somewhat misleading - you were a top student.  For this it would be better to compare average students at R1 schools with average students at regional schools.

@zzmondo1 Also, regarding these profession-type degrees, keep in mind that you asked about reputation in terms of academics. These programs aim at creating future practitioners, not future academicians. E.g. if you wanted to go into research, you would likely study finance, not accounting, or biology instead of nursing. Both are important and there is often a lot of cross-over, but it is a case of different categories.

This is a helpful answer. But it would be better if it was gentler and did not repeat essentially the same point so many times - regional universities have lower academic standards. Imagine if you were a student at a regional university, not much aware of other universities, unsure what you were going to do next, and finding your applications rejected. This answer might be rather devastating to your self-confidence. I just think it could be phrased more gently.

The main point of this answer is really spot on. The fact is that rigor of teaching varies, and it almost certainly has a positive correlation with institution ranking/prestige. It is also true that the capability and research productivity of the faculty almost certainly correlates on the same way. It's important to realize there is a lot of variability here too and complex economic factors and many other factors.

Doesn't the US have national accreditation? How can there be such a disparity between the standards of education? A BS can't really be worth half what it is at a top uni, surely?

@curiousdannii: That should be a separate question.

@bbq - less than one a year.

I am a UK-educated mathematician who happens to be acquainted with someone who is studying in a regional university in the US, and I feel that this answer is spot on. I had a chance to help this friend, who is supposed to be a 3rd year computer science major, with some of his math homework, but holy cow, the difficulty of the problem (symbolic logic) is something I'd expect that a high schooler or a somewhat bright middle schooler to be able to do. However, it seems to be considered a difficult subject by most of his peers there. I was totally shocked.

@curiousdannii The disparity at the college level is probably part and result of a more heterogeneous educational landscape overall (starting with preschool) and even a more heterogeneous society overall. Indicators like child mortality show that the U.S. internally has pockets where living conditions resemble third world countries. Given that public schools are locally funded, this directly translates into more unequal education than known in other industrialized countries.

As someone who completed an undergrad degree split between a regional school and a top uni, I have to agree with this answer 100%. As a hiring manager in my field, I would completely ignore any degree from the regional school. It simply has no value in identifying capable workers.

I'm sure my experience was an anomaly, but in undergrad I transferred from a regional school to an R1. The teaching and competition among students was significantly higher in the regional school in my experience. To be clear I'm sure this was because it seemed like everyone in my program at the regional school had their sights set on getting a PhD from the local R1, while the undergrads at the R1 school was more focussed on graduating/partying.

At my undergrad alma mater, there was a PhD student who graduated from a small regional state university. Basically, according to him, the average graduate of the CS program at that university had the aptitude of an average freshman in the CS program at my university...

First, it could be good to look in to the definition of R1 and R2 universities.
See Carnegie Classification Methodology PDF for 2022 and the website. They basically do PCA on the cumulative doctorates awarded and per capita research expenditures at each institution with >20 PhDs/year and >$5 million in external funding.
Their data sources are available and the summary statistics can be found here. They do consider and weigh science and engineering vs non-science and engineering separately, but are combined via the PCA for analysis. For the sake of comparison, let's look at the science and engineering analysis. The two factors with the highest loading are:

Median full-time research staff per faculty (explains 71% of the variance of the per-capita differences)

R1: 0.3
R2: 0.0

Median total STEM PhDs per institution per year (explains 70% of the variance of the to total institutional differences)

R1: 158
R2: 17

So the major difference between R1 and R2 is the environment (what resources are available at the institution beyond your PhD advisor) and the number of PhDs produced. This is just segmenting in to two groups, not putting value on the quality, just describing differences between the groups. From their own description of the analysis:

While this approach is suitable for classification purposes, we do not believe the institution-level results should be used for institution-by-institution comparison and ranking.

Another interesting comparison (second highest coefficient for the per-capita productivity score):

Median research expenditures per faculty

R1: $252k
R2: $53k

Now with that context, I think we get some insight to the answer to the questions.

... I didn't know about the stigma [PhDs from] regional institutions carry in the United States.
Why is this the case? Why is it that regional institutions are frowned upon in academic circles?

I wouldn't call it a stigma as much as PhDs from R2s were in a far less resourced environment, and their productivity quantity and quality could be lower than one from an R1. There are far fewer PhDs from R2s, and the groups they came from had 5x less funding and significantly less institutional support than their R1 counterparts. I'd go even further and say that there's a similar drop off from the "top 10" R1 institutions where most faculty are hired from and the rest of the R1s.
So there isn't so much a "stigma" against R2s as there is a "bias" towards "top 10" institutions. On one hand, the top graduates from there were the top-of-the-top and succeeded at the highest level in the best resource environment, so it's not unlikely that they would continue that trajectory. However, this leads to a situation where 80% of US faculty come from only 20% of the institutions, and 1/8 faculty came from one of 5 institutions. (EDIT: the original paper appeared in Nature, at this link.)

To me, a key benefit of regional institutions is more individualized attention due to smaller class sizes. This was the major reason I attended my regional college since I graduated from high school with a class of 8 people and it would've been too much of a culture shock to go to a school with 50k undergrad

These are two different issues.

Class size (and classes) are irrelevant to a PhD. Classes themselves are largely irrelevant except in how they prepare you to produce scholarly work.
Class size (and classes) are extremely relevant for an undergrad degree and is an advantage you gain at a regional school at the expense of the lack of opportunities (due to lack of funding and institutional support) for the "R1 research experience." But you can still get the "R1 experience" doing a summer REU. R2 undergrads can go on to be successful in an R1 PhD program.

I've heard reasons for regional colleges' bad reputation all across the board from high acceptance rates to suboptimal graduation rates, or to not being known to most graduate schools in the United States. Are all of those reasons true? Or, is there more to the story?

I think this is also conflating grad vs. undergrad. For undergrad, the top regional college graduates are usually pretty good in R1 PhD programs (especially if they did some summer program at an R1 school). The median student, however, can be unprepared for an R1 PhD for the reasons you cite. I have been on R1 PhD admissions committees and have had an outstanding student from a regional school in my R1 research group. An additional significant advantage regional students have are that they are often US citizens, which matters for some funding and fellowships.
For grad school, it's not that the schools have a bad reputation, but when you compare two graduating PhDs on paper (and hide the school name), there is very often a significant difference in quantity and quality of publications between an R1 and R2 graduate. There's an argument that they should be evaluated based on what they could achieve based upon the resources available to them, but institutions are typically risk-adverse. An open line is very important (and expensive, on the order of several million dollars), it's hard for departments to justify hiring a PhD from an R2 institution that did well with limited resources when another candidate from an R1 institution is ready to go now.
However, post-docs can help a lot. Doing a post-doc at an R1 after an R2 will give you that institutional experience.

A quick fair warning: The Carnegie Foundation is due to update their methodology for the next round of classifications in 2025. https://www.acenet.edu/News-Room/Pages/Carnegie-Classifications-to-Make-Major-Changes.aspx

@user176372 Thanks, the new way is much clearer: R1 will be $50 million in expenditures and 70 doctorates/year. In the end, both methods are kind of arbitrary - but simple and arbitrary is at least more transparent! It will help give institutions some kind of clear benchmark to use on whether they are achieving their stated goals.

Note that the examples of "regional colleges" given by the OP are NOT R1 or R2 universities, but, rather, masters granting, primarily.

@Buffy I think that's part of the confusion. The question asks why PhDs from those institutions have a stigma, but then goes on to talk about undergrad experience at what sounds like a masters granting institution. The examples they gave are both R2 (CMU) and masters (Appalachian State, NMU), but were still asking about a PhD.

There is no "bad reputation."  The number of universities in the United States that have a "bad reputation" is very small.
Causes of bad reputation are:

Bankruptcy, which is increasingly common
For-profit business model, which is getting rarer
Very low graduation rates
Extreme political views

99% universities are not the top 1%, so they do not have the elitist reputation of the top 1%.

@DanielHatton That'd be a very short-lived reputation then. Extremely hard to keep, not only because you'd have a very high turnover of professors, which would flee the place after the second missing paycheck.

@DanielHatton I'm sure that's not uncommon in US. German universities are either state-owned (usually including the real estate), or operating at the verge of bankruptcy from year  to year (to a good part because they don't own their real estate).

@DanielHatton The main costs of running a college are largely fixed. A professor is paid the same whether they teach 3 or 300 students, between the cases, your labor cost has gone down by 99%. (Research projects always break even due to cost-plus and rules about not giving the government free stuff.) If a college can provide a good education that people want, demand will increase, and it will not go bankrupt. If a school goes bankrupt, it's almost certainly because nobody wants what they're selling.

@DanielHatton I never heard of university leadership that didn't think their university should last for ever.  The bankruptcies are always mistakes, not altruism.

@user71659 "nobody wants what they're selling"  It should be "nobody with enough money wants what they're selling."

I'm not sure which field you are in I'm sure that could factor in to perceived reputation as well. I am a PhD graduate in chemistry from an R1, but I did my undergrad in a regional college. I think your concerns with the perceived reputation is more so with graduate degrees than undergrad. In my undergrad most of my professors did their PhD at an R1, and being in a smaller regional college, I get to do research very early and I definitely felt a lot more prepared for grad school compared to some of my peers who might have gone to an R1 but didn't have as much research experience as I did.
However, for graduate degrees, the level of expectations and the competitiveness of your research become more apparent going from an R1 to an R2, the faculties are not subjected to the same level of competitions between them. For example, an assistant professor at an R1 institution, when they go up for tenure, they are being compared with people that are in the top of their field, and percentage of tenure awarded is relatively low, some professors don't survive their first 5 years. As you go to lower tiers, it is easier and easier to get tenure, and many professors are not expected to do high impact research like those at an R1, so the graduate students in their group would also likely not have been expected to produce high impact research. Therefore the perceived prestige of your graduate degree would not be as good as those in R1.
That being said, combining the two points, most of my peers in graduate school at an R1 did their undergrad at a regional college where they had years of undergraduate research experience with multiple publications, but the reason we get in to R1 is because we are already ahead when it comes to research. Most professors at R1s that take lots of graduate students are in their early to mid career where their tenure or reputation is dependent on their high impact work in the field, so the PhD students in their group will graduate with publications and accomplishments that are also at the top of the field.

I'm acutely skeptical that tenure denial rates are particularly high at R1's. It's challenging to come up with good data on this, but here's a cohesive enough blog post from 2014 that does some probing: https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/dont-worry-too-much-about-whether-youll-get-tenure-because-you-probably-will/. In math, for example, a handful of "top" schools have a reputation of denying most of their assistants tenure (assistant professorships there are understood to be cushy postdocs). Everywhere else? Tenure rates seem quite high.

I'm only saying it's relatively low, the number my school throws around was 50-60% which is pretty low in my opinion, that being said, it also accounts those who leave and never apply, which for my department 2 out of 6 stayed in the past 5 years, so sure the percentage for those who ultimately stay and submit their tenure package is probably high

"To me, a key benefit of regional institutions is more individualized
attention due to smaller class sizes."

That's the key here. R1 faculty expects their Ph.D students to be able to do research right away. The last thing they want is a needy Ph.D student.

What you say isn't actually true of R1 universities in many (most?) fields in the US. Certainly false in math. A doctoral student starts with coursework leading to the preliminary/qualifying exams, not with dissertation research. It is more likely true in, say Germany, where students normally start after earning a masters.


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Whistleblown info on department cuts. Some students investigated and traced back my answers to my real identity. What are the potential consequences?
I'm a 5th year PhD student who is at a university with major budget issues. Long story short, I posted on Reddit that my particular department planned on cutting one of their oldest programs (which is now official news). I walked past a meeting and heard a faculty member loudly say, "So, the plan is... to cut [program name]." This wasn't eavesdropping like most accused me of doing in this case. I put that information out there since I felt it was important for students to know early so they could seek their own funding. I also did it because I thought faculty were under some sort of NDA or agreement to not say any speculative plans. So, I thought I did them a favor.
Instead, many faculty, graduate students, and staff are upset at me. Fortunately, I haven't had any threats or messages in real life berating me quite yet. If so, I'm making sure I'm ready and prepared for those moments.
Many argued that the information didn't need to be whistle blown or anything, but I disagree since the intent was to protect the students and they can pivot accordingly. This also won't be an entirely big deal since I now know I want to probably be a research technician (see my other recent post) anyway and won't be using my PhD at all. However, what else could this potentially affect that I haven't considered at all? I've heard some say that it will affect letters of recommendation and whatnot so I can try and secure alternatives ASAP if that's the case.

I’ve been in plenty of meetings where the plan was to cut something IF the situation required it. Until that situation occurs, there would not be a cut. In the end you were right. But that was not a foregone conclusion when you overheard stuff.

@JonCuster I hear where you're coming from there. At the same time, I don't see an issue with students having a "plan B." I almost always have contingency plans if something happened to me academically, professionally, or even interpersonally. Some say I'm expressing my anxiety there, but I don't see anything wrong with applying my anxious tendencies to protect myself and others. My department couldn't protect me when my first PhD advisor dropped me and kept moving the goalpost in a capricious manner, so why should I have expected them to help the students out?

‘I put that information out there since I felt it was important for students to know early.’ As the apt expression goes That ain’t your story to tell. There was also the possibility you heard consensus on a proposal from one committee, maybe simply making a recommendation, at least at the time. Good luck!

Your title only mentions that ”students […] traced back your answers”. Does actual faculty know, and did that matter do those students actually know or just suspect?

@MisterMiyagi Hopefully, this answers your question. I don't know if the faculty know. There's also no "smoking gun" that explicitly traces everything back to me either. Folks just put two and two together since I made a vague description of my outside job and folks deduced from there it was me since I was the only one who worked a full time job like that. I'm guessing it mattered to those students since many were concerned about whether some info might be misleading about another program expected to be affected down the road and were likely upset at that info.

This does not in any way constitute "whistleblowing", unless you had reason that the plan was to intentionally keep the students who would be negatively impacted by this in the dark about it. Which you presumably didn't. On the contrary, it's absolutely improper not to give the department a chance to communicate this to the students themselves. (And I am not even touching on the fact that you were treating an overheard fragment of a sentence as fact.)

@AdamPřenosil - Indeed. OP isn't a whistleblower, they're a gossip.

"I thought faculty were under some sort of NDA or agreement to not say any speculative plans. So, I thought I did them a favor."  This is nonsense.  You did it because you wanted to, not to help anyone else, which you did not do because you created suspicion and a bad atmosphere.

@AdamPřenosil Especially considering that many places will have a policy of "privately inform the impacted employees/students first, and not announce things more widely until several weeks later".  This being precisely to allow them to (as OP says in another comment) "have a Plan B" in place before everything goes public.  Announcing it on Reddit might mean that other universities change their own programmes in response, which will disadvantage those students, and possibly prevent them from being able to "have a Plan B".

@Aruralreader Or, even, that the context of the conversation might merely have been referring to something like "which programs are we going to prominently list in the limited space on the first page of our prospectus?"  Something getting "cut" doesn't always refer to budgets.

@StephenG-HelpUkraine Their actions, while ill-advised could well have been well-intentioned. You don't have any special insight into their internal thought process.

@barbecue If experience has taught me anything it's that we all tend to rationalize our mistakes later on.  I really doubt the OP was thinking at the time that other people were prevented from spreading this info by an NDA, but if they did, the next thought should have been that the NDA was there to prevent rumors being spread that would cause other knock on problems.

@StephenG-HelpUkraine: You seem quick to assume the worst motivations from OP, while giving a very charitable benefit of the doubt to the intentions of a possible NDA.  While I agree OP was probably misguided here and at best jumping the gun, a naïve feeling “they shouldn’t be hiding this information from us!” seems a very plausible motivation; and conversely, NDA’s/secrecy are sometimes used for good purposes, but very often less benignly, e.g. to forestall opposition to unpopular cuts, without regard for whether the late notice leaves affected people in a worse situation.

I understand your perspective, but also understand the perspective of those who would prefer that you didn't leak the overheard information. When cuts are planned, managers like to think carefully about how and when to release the information so that they don't have people feeling worried and unhappy more than necessary before all the details have been decided and so that affected people can be told directly (which is more respectful) rather than having to hear about it through the grapevine.
I've worked in a place where everyone knew cuts were coming, but nobody knew yet exactly who would be affected, how that would be decided, or how those who weren't directly affected would be impacted by the restructure. It was not a happy time. Morale plummeted and nobody could concentrate on their work. In your case, you might have had a good idea that a program might be cut, but you didn't know the details such as whether they would be able to offer transfer to another program for students affected or whether there would be job losses among staff associated with the program.
To answer the question: you have probably already experienced the consequences: people are upset with you. This might affect your relationships within the program and, as you say, could potentially affect your references. Your options are to keep doubling down on saying that you did the right thing or to acknowledge that you might have shown poor judgement, apologise, and say that you have learned from the experience.
If you stick to your guns, you might win the admiration of those who agree with your actions, but those who don't agree will judge you even more harshly.
If you acknowledge an error of judgement and apologise, it is more likely that you will be forgiven.
Just to add: as you are a student, that is probably the full extent of the consequences. If you were an employee, the consequences for leaking confidential information could be more severe, including being fired for misconduct and worse.

Gotcha. I'll consider an apology then. I am a PhD student as well.

I think you should emphasize more the option of doing nothing. I saw the reddit post, this happened weeks to months ago. I think most people surrounding this situation simply prefer to forget about it. The most benefit will be gained by doing nothing further.

@AMcKelvy you could also write your own answer, as it sounds at least somewhat distinct from this one.

Positioning is important.
I don't believe you caused any harm by putting out this information, but as others have pointed out, there are some issues with your approach.
Interpretation of the information is not necessary.
You could not be certain that the plan would be carried out. Because of this, it would have been better to report only what you heard. And it would have kept the situation in perspective to include a statement like "keep in mind that I cannot confirm the veracity of this information, I do not wish to speculate, and I am passing it along only for your consideration." It is for others to interpret independently. That you overheard those words spoken is a fact, but anything beyond that is speculation. By including such a disclaimer you would be passing along the information in tact, unaltered, untainted by opinion, and with the reminder that there may be more context that ought to be considered when interpreting it.
The responsibility is not yours.
It's their leak, not yours. You were passing by, in a space you were permitted to be in. You didn't break into an office and start ruffling through documents to obtain this information. Someone with a big mouth inadvertently tipped you off. Passing the information along is not immoral, especially since it involves an organization, not an individual. Which brings us to the next point:
There appear to be no privacy or safety concerns.
This information does not concern an individual's personal information. If it had been a matter of personal privacy, then it would most likely be more appropriate to keep quiet - as long as it's not a matter involving an individual's intent to commit a criminal or harmful act against others. Also, you are not endangering anyone, since the nature of the information is not such that it would compromise anyone's safety.
You're better off anon.
It would have been to your benefit to take steps to protect your anonymity. Luckily, being identified as the leaker probably won't cause you any serious problems in your life. You haven't committed any crimes, you are not subject to any NDAs, and you haven't committed a transgression against anyone personally. It will probably pose an inconvenience for some people - but it also may help others. And you may never fully know the impact. You could have avoided backlash if you had planned more carefully when disseminating the information.
It's always case-by-case.
These kinds of situations vary from one case to another, in terms of who stands to gain or lose, what is ethical or unethical, and how much risk might be involved. It seems you were coming from a position of intent to help the underdogs, which is commendable. But not everyone will see it this way. Sometimes you can come forward with information that helps people, but still suffer for it.
Good luck managing whatever fallout comes from this. It's a life experience. Hopefully the spreading of the information will be more beneficial than harmful.


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Why are so many people telling me not to drop my PhD despite my lack of achievement, moving goalposts, and running out of funding? I don't understand
I'm a 5th year PhD in Experimental Psychology with an accepted MA from a different program. After I've consulted a ton of others recently on my decision to drop, many folks (including here) are telling me not to drop at all. I should note that I have a May 2025 graduation date on paper. However, given my advisor gave me answer that said the process isn't straightforward when it came to editing the Results section (we haven't touched the Discussion section yet), I doubt that May 2025 is viable. My advisor also said he doesn't mind the May 2025 date, albeit his only concern was that folks who extend that far out wait until the last second and he doesn't want that to happen. I also underachieved quite a bit throughout my PhD, which can be seen on the question related to not feeling like I learned enough skills. The jobs I want also don't require a PhD either.
It's worth noting that my university plans on cutting all four of its Psychology PhD programs in the future and the 5 year clock for current students to finish their programs has started for all but one program. This all came to a head when my stipend was cut in half my 3rd year and I ran out of funding my 4th year, which forced me to take a visiting position at a nearby college (which I bombed with many students telling me I was the worst instructor/professor at the college level they ever had).
So, why are many folks insisting that I finish despite my advisor moving the goalpost constantly, underachievement, and that I ran out of funding (I got a fellowship my 4th year too)? I've got more than enough reasons to quit yet many don't think I should've at all and that doesn't make sense to me. I know folks here can't read others minds or intentions, but I can't read others at all (even online) so I'd like to learn.

The answers you received to previous questions did state their reasons. You may think those reasons aren't very good, but that is something else than stating that they did not give reasons. Are you sure that you really don't understand their reasons, or that you just disagree with them?

Your relationship with online forums is unhealthy. You should be seeking advice on this exclusively from your family, advisor, and/or therapist. You must spend tens of hours per week writing these questions, arguing with the commenters, and ruminating. If you just spent this time working on your dissertation instead, you would probably be finished! For what it's worth, the 5-6 months between now and May 2025 seems sufficient to turn a fifth year ABD to a PhD holder.


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First week of research internship. Imposter's syndrome and difficulty with adjustment. What are the differences between RA work and research jobs?
I'm a 4th (soon to be 4.5) year Ph.D student in Experimental Psychology who recently started an internship this week. This internship only admitted 10% of applicants. I am also one of the half in my cohort who did not have a pre existing connection and just applied blind in this case. I am also the only one who did their undergrad at a "no name state college," while everyone else did theirs at a public Ivy, hidden Ivy, or new Ivy. I also have a slew of clinical conditions (ASD, ADHD-I, dysgraphia, and 3rd percentile processing speed) as well that already made my work as a Ph.D student that much more stressful and led me to cutting back on research to the point that I've done the bare minimum research work at all stages of my education by only doing the major research projects for my degree and no other projects. First week of internship and I feel like the dumbest one in my cohort and am worried about letting my boss down. Even in undergrad, I had outside help that was paid for all four years (e.g., life coach) since my parents wanted me to get through it after my bad first year. I think it resulted in me not becoming totally independent as an adult and constantly waiting on outside feedback before I direct myself to something. I was able to reconnect with folks and barely get what I needed letter of recommendation wise thanks to a different coach my parents hired for graduate applications specifically. Notable example of not directing myself was when I was the only one in my Master's program who didn't take an additional 10 hour assistantship. I had no idea this was unusual until a colleague asked if I had an RAship through my advisor. I said that I did and she replied, "Well, at least you have that."
For a different example, I only did classes, pilot study my first year of my program, and was going to do my Master's thesis as my research project my second year before COVID happened and paused data collection.
Everyone is just seemingly going through content and everything else so fast and understanding it. Meetings also go through every single point lightning quick, even to the point my boss admitted himself that the morning meeting (for example) is extremely cognitively demanding. Me, on the other hand, I try to allocate my resources accordingly and only pay attention when the information pertains to me in some way. I volunteer where I can, but I am also hesitant a lot of the time because I am consistently afraid of messing up the hard stuff. In fact, I don't feel like I've done any hard stuff at all.
Not sure how normal this all is, but here we are now. Hoping I can make it. What is expected of an RA at the graduate level and internship as a scientist? What are the differences between an RA at the graduate level and internship as a scientist?

"I think it resulted in me not becoming totally independent as an adult and constantly waiting on outside feedback before I direct myself to something." I applaud your self-reflection, but just to be sure: you do see that your incessant questions on this site are part of the same unhealthy pattern, right?

There are some notable differences between an RA and internee no matter at which level you are. Firstly, graduate RAs often focus on long-term academic research projects, whereas internships may have, depending on the duration of the contract, a more immediate, application-oriented focus. Secondly, when it comes to be being organized and structured, an academic research is usually less structured compared to internships, which often have clear timelines and deliverables. Depending on the situation and the environment you are working in, the internships might provide more structured mentorship and feedback, whereas graduate research can sometimes be more independent, depending on your advisor. And last but not the least, the academic environment is more exploratory and theory-driven where you are expected to come with a conference/journal publication, while the internship environment can be more hands-on, fast-paced and results-oriented.


text:
I'm certain that I want to quit prestigious internship. How can I tell my current boss (a PI technically) and (more importantly) tell my Ph.D advisor?
I'm a 4th (soon to be 4.5) year Ph.D student in Experimental Psychology who recently started an internship this week. This internship only admitted 10% of applicants. I am also one of the half in my cohort who did not have a pre existing connection and just applied blind in this case. I am also the only one who did their undergrad at a "no name state college," while everyone else did theirs at a public Ivy, hidden Ivy, or new Ivy.
My PI told me I stood out because of my previous experience teaching Research Methods and that I also landed a visiting full time instructor position while I was still in the midst of my Ph.D (not like I had much choice because my funding ran out and because I had service requirements for my fellowship, which this position fulfilled in addition to solid pay for a Ph.D candidate). I used previous materials from my Ph.D institution at this small liberal arts college with permission from my advisor. I readapted some materials, but I don't think my experience is as in depth as he would like in this case.
I also have a slew of clinical conditions (ASD, ADHD-I, dysgraphia, and 3rd percentile processing speed) as well that already made my work as a Ph.D student that much more stressful and led me to cutting back on research to the point that I've done the bare minimum at all stages of my education.
Everyone is just seemingly going through content and everything else so fast and understanding it. Meetings also go through every single point lightning quick, even to the point my boss admitted himself that the morning meeting (for example) is extremely cognitively demanding. Me, on the other hand, I try to allocate my resources accordingly and only pay attention when the information pertains to me in some way. I volunteer where I can, but I am also hesitant a lot of the time because I am consistently afraid of messing up the hard stuff. In fact, I don't feel like I've done any hard stuff at all with the exception of an exam he repurposed and assigned to groups in this case. I legitimately have no idea what the instructions were from the meeting or what we're supposed to do by the time we need to turn it in on Thursday at 11:59 PM.
I've felt on edge every single day of my internship, afraid, and scared to death. Every day, we have to put our fingers up on a scale of 1-5 (sometimes 1-10) about how we truly feel. I put up a 4 (on the 5 scale) or 8 (on the 10 scale), but in reality I'm a 1-2 out of 5 or a 3-4 out of 10. I also need to rate how busy I was out of 10 and I always feel like a 5-6 because the tasks I'm required to do I have a tendency to do much faster than my PI (for this internship) expects of me in this case.
My current boss has no indication that I am doing this at all. I realize this news will "drop the hammer," but I don't feel like I have another choice at all. My current Ph.D advisor though... that conversation will be rough. How can I mitigate the inevitable damage from either of these conversations?

You have a lot of self-doubt. Enjoy the internship. Learn some new things. Recharge in preparation for finishing your PhD.

@JonCuster It's true I do have a lot of self-doubt. However, given how bad this academic year has gone for me after my visiting instructor position (and course evals consistently telling me I'm the worst person in a teaching position they've ever had) went and I am going to have to teach to people and eventually present... I think leaving this internship will give me that chance to recharge. As I'm typing this I'm legitimately on the verge of tears.

Well, frankly, you do what you have to do then. I’m sorry for your situation.

@JonCuster I couldn't edit this in but I'm legitimately becoming scared of the work too. The level of coordination, information being thrown at me... it's overstimulating honesty. I've NEVER been expected to do as far as much work as I've done for this internship. This level of responsibility is one I was not prepared for at all.

Also consider that, given you are in psychology, their staff could very well be quite interested in what you bring to bear based on your neurodivergence, and perhaps very willing to help you help them understand and benefit from you.

@JonCuster Perhaps. For what it's worth, my accommodations request is still getting processed by HR right now so there's that. My real name is also under a disability employment success story category when I was a visiting instructor this past academic year. I bring that all up because they prioritized diverse individuals and disability is now starting to be lumped into that. I'm currently waiting for HR to do its thing before I broach the subject further. At this point though, kind of a ticking time bomb to do something since I have already felt at capacity for some time.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

It would not greatly surprise me if the others saying they're 8/10 also, in realty, are 4/10. Talk to your mentor. They've been there before, with themselves and with their students.

I doubt they're any lower, honestly. The folks who are interested in clinical in particular are constantly asking questions, nodding along, and are "always on" throughout the day. I get comparisons aren't exactly healthy, but if that's the base standard expected of me then committing to it is going to be far too much for me.

@zzmondo1 Then let's focus on the second sentence of my answer above :-)

I might have that chance tomorrow in a meeting with my PI but I'm not sure yet.

Maybe you could show them some materials that explain your clinical conditions. Some of those are not very well known. In fact there are probably quite a lot of people who are completely ignorant of all of them. See if you can find something concise on the internet.
You could also look for some material that gives general information about neurodivergence (if that is the right word) and why workplaces should be understanding of these conditions and make accommodations for them, so that the people can work and contribute successfully.


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Appendix: Secondary data
Using secondary data for my research. I will be using the responses of an external survey to run an analysis. Should I be adding the survey as an Appendix?

Is this for a thesis or a paper? Because if it is the latter, copyright issues may arise.

Where did you get the secondary data? Did you need to sign a contract to access them?

What do you mean when you say "secondary data"?

This is a question for your advisor, but you should probably include it, provided you can get permission from its author(s). Failing that, you can, of course, refer to it and cite it so that public information is available for those who need to follow up.
Depending on where you find it, there can be copyright issues to settle with the publisher.
If the survey was created by yourself, there are fewer issues unless it has been published and you don't hold copyright.
Generally include things that are necessary to evaluate your work, or, when necessary, references to them. And cite others always.


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Question About Resigning Mid-Semester
I just accepted a non-academic job 10 days before the start of spring semester. It's too good to pass up - nearly double pay, remote, in my field, etc. - and they would like a start date in mid-February. I am currently a NTT teaching professor on a three-year rolling contract scheduled to teach three courses this semester (two different upper-division special topics courses and one freshman-level intro course).
The requested start date for the new position, which seems pretty set in stone, would mean I would need to leave my faculty position about five weeks into the semester. I would love to put in notice now and have some down time until February, but a) I can't afford to go without salary and my unused sick leave wouldn't make up for more than a month of salary and b) that's very little notice for my department to find replacement instructors for my courses. My current thinking is to put in notice next week for a termination date that coincides with or slightly overlaps with my start date with my new employer, which would give them more time to find replacement instructors. But the idea of teaching five weeks and then bailing seems less than desirable.
What other options might I consider? I do not want to burn bridges with my university (though I am more than happy to leave after years of being undervalued and poorly paid) but also need to make a sound financial decision. Thanks for any advice!

Be prepared for your contract to be terminated immediately, with others taking over the teaching role (changing instructors mid-stream is not a good thing often).

Are you in the US? If they relieve you of your courses will you have access to unemployment insurance?

Please do not post duplicate questions.

Talk to your department head immediately, as was the advice in your earlier question. Give them the maximum opportunity to do right by the students. Of course, consider also any contractual obligations you  might have.
The head might agree to have you start the course. They might have others who could either start it or take it up, such as an adjunct or an overload by another professor. Perhaps a discussion could find some other mutually acceptable solution.
But delaying that conversation would be unethical. In what might be the worst case you might need to depend on loans to cover a break. With nearly double pay in the new job that shouldn't be a big issue, as it is temporary.
If you haven't discussed a delayed start with the new employer, do so. Until you have a discussion there might be options you don't know of. This would be especially the case if you are highly desirable to the new place.
But, don't mislead the chair about things. It is unfair to both the institution and, more importantly, the students who might be affected. Do. The. Right. Thing.

I think you submit the letter to the chair ASAP with the effective date as the day before your start date. That is only fair, it gives them time do make a plan. Since you are full time and you are really only talking about a few weeks of pay, it will probably be better for them to just spend the money than to get lawyers involved. When I was a Dean I sometimes had to come up with special projects for people who were in weird situations to do for a few weeks.  That's what I would suggest, volunteer to tutor or to fully document your courses so others can use them or offer to mentor the new instructors.

You are about to cause your chair the biggest headache imaginable. Consider every bridge burnt.
However, congrats on the new job. Do what's right for you AND accept the consequences. As an educator this really is an awful thing to do (especially for the students)... but again, if it's the right thing for you, do it and accept the fall out.

I am thinking why your start date for new job is set stone? If so, can they allow you to work before your set stone date so you can quit before semester starts and your department doesn’t need to adjust in the middle of semester? You know your future job better than me but will they be flexible enough in the future if they are not flexible enough now (or that’s not under consideration for you)?


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Leaving Academia Between Semesters - Question About Notice
I was recently offered a research position outside of academia that includes an 85% pay bump and is remote. It’s in my field and basically a dream position. I’m currently a NTT faculty member (instructional faculty) and have been at my institution for 4.5 years. I’ve been very successful as both a teacher (multiple awards) and research (funding, book pub, etc even though my job description doesn’t include research). My pay is not great and prospects for advancement are very low (currently at a state flagship that will soon be an R1). I’m excited to leave.
That said, the requested start date for this position is Jan. 22, one week after the semester is to begin. My paperwork for the offer to be finalized won’t be done until the first week of January because of the holidays.
This means I won’t be able to give much notice to my dean to find replacement instructors, and he won’t be able to for one of my classes because I’m the only one here who can teach it. I’ve thought about proposing to teach at least one class as an adjunct to the ease the burden; on the other hand, I’ve been languishing here for years, leaving is an easy decision, and I want to start my new position without my attention elsewhere.
My question: what should I do? Would I be terrible for just leaving on short notice and never looking back? What have other recovering academics done before?

What does your contract say about the notice period?

My contract says nothing; the employee handbook encourages a 20 day notice from faculty. But the language is not strong, and there aren’t apparent penalties for failing to adhere.

You do what is best for you. End of discussion.

Can the new position's start date be delayed? @JonCuster Are you saying that as general advice for all situations, or just this situation? Why shouldn't there be discussion?

Make an immediate appointment to speak to the dean and department head. Apologize for the late notice, explaining that this opportunity only became available and that you need to take it for both financial and career reasons. They will find a way to work things out, almost certainly. Few people really want to hold others back in their careers (always the optimist). Up to now they haven't made long term commitments to you.
But think about what you would respond if they make a counter offer, such as a TT position.

And be very very careful taking any counter offer.

I agree with the approach, but not the timing. The appointment should be made once you have signed an offer letter at the new opportunity.

@Ian, I'll stick with my recommendation. Earliest notice is both courteous and safer. It gives the institution the longest time to find a replacement or make other necessary accommodations.


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Should search committees interact with job candidates on social media during active searches?
I recently interviewed on campus for a position and am in waiting period limbo. Two members of the search committee, including the chair, follow me on Twitter and have been liking/retweeting me since my campus visit. Obviously I’m trying to read tea leaves, as any nervous candidate would, but also - what are broader thoughts about this? Seems like a no-no; could it sink a search? Does it count as contact outside of process?

Seems like a no-no - Why?  It's a bit strange, but from your post, it sounds like they followed you on Twitter before your interview.  Are there some institutional rules about not interacting with candidates during the search?

You are completely overinterpreting this. They follow you on social media because they know you (now). They retweet or like your stuff because they found the material you posted interesting. Neither of this has any significance for whether they will make an offer to you or not, nor will it threaten the integrity of the search procedure.

@xLeitix Seems like that belongs as an answer.

I'd encourage OP and answerers to mention a country or at least a region; I suspect this is something that varies quite a bit from place to place.

If they are liking and retweeting, presumably they like what you wrote and this by itself will not sink your candidacy.
As a former member of many search committees, I find it very unprofessional of them. You don't mess with people's hopes, especially something as important as a faculty job. They could at least have waited until they offered you the job, or the search was over.
This is not a popular view, but in social media I only see downsides and no upside. Having a public archive of every stupid opinion I've had has no appeal to me. If I were looking for a job, I'd take down all social media.

That's indeed not a popular opinion. My recommendation to students on the job market is the opposite - you need to be present where scientific debate happens, and nowadays that is to a degree social media.

@xLeitix I'm pretty sure you don't also advise students to post moronic flavor-of-the-day or political opinions there as well, right? Those will bury whatever interesting scientific or academic posts you have. So, either refrain from those things entirely, or operate two social media accounts - one for professional development and another for your stupid opinions. If you look/sound like a crusader, even those who agree with you are likely to avoid you. Opinions are like butt holes, everyone's got one and they all stink.

Y'all act like social media puts a gun to your head and forces you to post your worst takes and participate in the witch hunt of the day. It does not. One can, in fact, have a Twitter account and use it to follow other people in the community, comment (nicely) on their papers, advertise your own new research, and in between have light-hearted quips with other research acquaintances from around the world.

@xLeitix Take a look at some of your student's social media accounts, and you'll quickly learn why mixing professional development with personal opinions can become an issue. One immature flame war can doom your candidate chances - why risk it? Keep your nonsense private, and your knowledge public. It's not hard...

No, I wouldn't consider these interactions as meaning anything or in some way invalidating the process.
Sometimes people do not even care who the person who writes the tweet is, but only retweet for the content.
But I understand your position, and that you are trying to read between the lines and predict the outcome.

Two members of the search committee, including the chair, follow me on Twitter and have been liking/retweeting me since my campus visit

If they followed you before the interview, they need not stop following you. As someone that has been in Recruitment & Selection committees (search committee as referred to here), I'll pause activities on your SM posts till after the process. At best, I'll be hesitant to 'engage'
If not following (you) before (before the interview), definitely I'll only start following and engaging after the process wraps up. Even at that, I'll keep engagement on your posts professionally on academic contents only.
This is from a ethics, integrity, morality standpoint. Sadly, this is not universal.
They should give thought to

how you'll feel and also position they would put you in
what other candidates might feel should they know or find out about your candidacy
In some countries, all shortlisted candidates are made known to all shortlisted candidates or are made known on request
possibility of opening themselves up to 'complaint' or 'dispute' or even 'litigation' from unsuccessful candidates (which might even be yourself)
(risk of) jeopardising the hiring (recruitment) process

With those said,

Does it count as contact outside of process?

Mere liking and retweeting wouldn't in the true sense.
However, they should tread on the path of caution.

I don't know anything about filling academic positions, but if this happened when you were applying for a regular job then it would be highly inappropriate behaviour by the search committee members. This would be an employment tribunal claim just waiting to happen!

Can you expand on this? A retweet is by no means a direct personal interaction. Is that still considered as violating the rules of the hiring process?

Any kind of interaction outside of the hiring process, particularly one conducted over social media has the potential to be viewed as discriminatory by some interested party after the event. If I had overall responsibility for running the hiring process I would become liable to defend that.  So either I say - "don't do it" to the search committee, or I say - "go ahead I trust your judgement". Now given that I am the one liable and have to deal with the hassle and pay for the downside if there is a problem what would you do?


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Requesting Letter of Recommendation From Search Committee Member From Past Job Search?
This may sound like a strange question, BUT - last January I was personally invited/recruited by a department chair to apply for a position in a newly formed unit at an Ivy. During the search, I was actively recruited, e.g. the chair kept in contact weekly, worked to sell me on the position and institution, etc. I advanced to the finalist round and was invited to a campus visit, but ultimately was not offered the position (I lost during the faculty vote by one vote). When the chair reached out to tell me, he expressed disappointment because I was the person he wanted to hire. He has since made an effort to keep in touch via email about research topics, etc. Yesterday, I received a handwritten letter thanking me again for my campus visit (which took place months ago, in April) and insisting he'd be happy to support my work in any way he can.
My question is - can/should I ask this person for a letter of recommendation? I know it seems weird since he was on a search committee that ultimately didn't select me for a job, but also I am a junior scholar deeply unhappy at my institution and on the job market this year, and his institutional affiliation and clout the field could be helpful for my prospects.

This is a tough one. Someone reading your application materials does not really make them a good reference, no matter how much they like you. If you are indeed a top candidate, as it seems you are, your application materials already seem to be drawing the necessary attention and interesting search committees. On the other hand, institutional affiliation does carry a lot of weight, and just saying that Prof. Important from Prestigious U. thinks you are great, by itself, might impress people who are not in your field.
It's a judgement call, but in my judgement, I don't think this will look good on a job application. Maybe you could name-drop Prestigious U. during an interview or something, but to outright request a reference from the chair just to drop names, seems to me a step too far.


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Severely underperforming during my internship. How do I tell my PI that I want to do more to get a first authored poster at least? Or, am I unfit?
I'm a soon to be a 4.5 year Ph.D candidate (ABD) in Experimental Psychology. A few weeks ago, I started an internship at a nationally recognized hospital in central Ohio (for the summer) that took 9/90 folks. I strongly considered quitting at first due to the culture shock at transitioning to office life, but I've been repeatedly told the importance of seeing my commitments all the way through. So, here I am now trying to survive this internship.
My PI (aka my boss) is also nationally recognized and has had an h-index of 90 within the past few years alone in Clinical Psychology. He formatted the internship similar to an advanced undergraduate class he taught where he was previously a full tenured professor. His expectation by the end of this internship is that we have at least one first authored poster by the end of it. He's extremely confident because his last class not only pulled that off, but this internship is literally research for 40 hours a week. My application in particular was considered the "dark horse" because my hometown is near the hospital. I was taken because I got a visiting full time instructor position at a SLAC this past academic year (those who've followed me know I bombed this horribly) and I mentioned I've taught statistics concepts in past Research Methods classes I've taught.
So far, I've spent half of every workday only meeting expectations and not going above and beyond that. I'm also working on upwards of three projects at a time, which is coordination I've never ever done before at all because I've worked on one project at a time all throughout graduate school up until this point. I'm also a bit afraid of the upcoming poster presentation as well as speaking in person given the universally negative course evaluations I received last time (I even rejected an offer for a full time lecturer position I recently got partially for that reason. However, the bigger reason is staying with my parents so I have a support system to recover from my major health issues, including my most recent diagnosis of moderate sleep apnea).
Fast forward to now and my boss has a points system to determine authorship for potential publications and manuscripts that he said he'll flesh out sometime this coming week. The problem right now is that I've been on 3 projects where I don't do much of anything unless duties have been delegated to me. What makes things worse is that everyone in this internship already had transferable skills to the position other than me. For example, I'm on the Data Science team and one of the students has extensive experience in R. Anything he accomplishes, he credits as a team accomplishment. The Clinical Psychology students are also working on other projects and are close to, if not already, lined up to be second authors at the very least. It's been three full weeks out 14 and folks are already doing circles like this.
What can I do at this point to try and remedy the situation? Or, is this potentially something where I may not be a fit and express concern to my PI/boss?

You don’t know if there is a situation to remedy yet.

What you say sounds more like culture shock (as you note) and a learning curve than it does like incompetence. You can't expect to master a new environment in a few weeks.
You could have a talk with the boss to get his opinion and pointers about what to do to succeed.
But, again, a few weeks is too soon to give up. Keep pushing.


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Manuscript is in same 'With Editor' status for 3 months. Is it normal?
I am a researcher (doing my PhD) in Computational Biology. I have submitted a manuscript to an Elsevier journal 3 months before. One day after my submission editorial status changed to 'With Editor'. But after that no further change (change to 'Under Review') has been noticed. I already has one publication with Springer Verlag. In that case within a week of being 'With Editor' the status changed to 'Under Review'. This time this is opposite. Is it likely of being 'With Editor' status for long 3 months?

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


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Is it okay to copy paste some part of my Bachelor's thesis literature review for my own Master's thesis?
So my bachelor's thesis and master's topics bear some similarity. Now I am doing literature review for my master's thesis under same supervisor. Can I copy some relevant parts (about 10 pages long) from my old bachelor's? It's just the literature review, not the findings.

I suggest that your understanding of the material and your writing should both have evolved during a master's, and at the very least, some rework will be needed.  Where such a tidying up exercise falls on the spectrum between copying (which may be regarded as self-plagiarism) and new work, depends both on the work and the rules - see the answer from Ian_Fin

Obviously you should check the regulations at the institution that you are attending to see exactly what they say about this matter.
With that said...
Submission of a thesis often includes signing a declaration that the material contained within the thesis has not previously been submitted for consideration for another degree (or words to that effect).
By doing what you suggest, copying and pasting a sizeable chunk of a previous thesis, you would be violating this declaration.

Good answer and I think that at most universities the declaration includes the point you made. Apart form that legal issue I am not sure if 10 pages on literature review should be part of a master's thesis if it has been already done in a bachelor's thesis. Maybe a reference to the thesis and a short summary will do far better, even if it would be legal (depending on what your declarations state).

@M.J.Steil In general, it's perfectly reasonable to refer back to existing discussions of a literature if the intricacies of the discussion, and the details of each paper, aren't relevant to the current paper. With that said, 10 pages is a sizeable chunk of any thesis literature review and if the topics overlap sufficiently that duplicating material is being contemplated then I'd suspect it wouldn't make sense in this case to just reference the previous discussion, and the OP probably needs to write a new version of the 10 pages from the previous thesis.

Firstly: it is not plagiarism as long as you clearly state which parts are repeated from your earlier bachelor thesis.  Of course, you would clearly state this, wouldn't you?
I did my PhD in Sweden, which includes a licentiate thesis, which is somewhat of a mid-PhD thesis.  Large parts were verbatim identical.  I included a preface in the PhD thesis to explain this, and there was no issue.  I specified this down to the chapter level but no further.
However, your school may still have non-plagiarism reasons to prohibit repeating parts, such as indicated by Ian_Fins answer.  Personally I would understand material contained within the thesis to be new research, not the literature review or other purely textual parts.  Therefore, I believe that you will be able to reuse the material, provided you clearly indicate which parts are reused and which parts are new.
But: the only definite answer can be given by your advisor and others within your institution.

"as you clearly state that some parts are repeated" I guess you mean "clearly state WHICH parts are repeated"

@FooBar Right, one should specify which parts of repeated.  If you just vaguely specify some parts are repeated I'd argue it's still not plagiarism, though.  Someone reading both documents will recognise which parts those are.

If you found a way to write something once, why can't you find a new way to do it again?  Lots of authors and academics recycle their ideas.  They just don't recycle their words.

" it's still not plagiarism, though." Yes it is. You cannot expect a reader to read all references papers to find the duplicates himself.

@FooBar I don't agree.  Plagiarism is to claim as new what has been previously published.  With such a preface, there is no claim that it is new.  It's still bad form to not be specific, but I don't agree that it is specifically plagiarism.

But where do you want to draw a line? With such a preface, could I reuse 30% of the paper? Or just copy it completely? What do you think about just merging three papers and only adding your disclaimer? It is not the readers job to find out which part was copied.

@FooBar I totally agree that it's not the readers job to find out which part was copied.  Of course one must specify which parts.  It is certainly bad form to omit it.  My point is only that I don't believe it falls under the specific, severe charge of plagiarism, which is a form of deceit.  If I merge three papers, adding a disclaimer some of this work was published elsewhere before [citations here], then that is highly misleading but not plagiarism.

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


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Need some pointers for starting an application essay
I am looking to write a letter of application for a Information Systems Security program but I'm not certain how to begin.
The requirements are seemingly simple, describing relevant work and volunteer experiences, which I have none to speak of.  Transferable skills, knowledge of the field and commitment to professional growth is the other part of the application letter.  I feel more comfortable writing about the second part but my problem is how to being the letter.
I did find a few sample letters from the University but the trouble is this letter of application has a 250 word maximum.  So I'm stuck with what parts to leave in and what parts to omit.
Any pointers would be extremely appreciated!

In general you should start writing "in any way that works". There is no connection between how you start writing and what is at the beginning of a completed written piece. As an example, many writers have written entire books, been dissatisfied with the beginning, and simply removed the first chapter entirely. Start with the part you feel comfortable talking about, the conclusion, whatever.
"Throat clearing" is a common term for the need to start with rather uninspiring junk. But if you try not to write it in the first place, you're likely to feel blocked and have trouble writing anything at all. Go ahead and start with trite, non-suggested phrases like "It's been my dream to..." or "I've always wanted to...". The process of writing is not just about putting words in print, but a process of developing and clarifying ideas. What you want to say, and how you say it, should change naturally through stages of revision - you don't have to figure out the best way to say something before you write anything at all! Get something out, and then review and revise as needed.
There is also a huge problem with word limits, in that the natural impulse for nearly everyone is to try to figure out how to express themselves in so few words before they've written anything at all. Some people are just naturally pithy, but for the rest of us this is just does not work. Do not write to a word limit - in fact, you should naturally expect to write 2X-10X+ as much as is the strict limit for something short like this.
Nailing the word limit is then process of revision: drop parts that don't really add to your application, remove parts that are just bad and you shouldn't mention (too much self-disclosure, complaints, etc). Then, if the word limit is really small, you begin squeezing out little bits of space: trim, remove unnecessary words, find more compact and expressive way to word things. If you still have too many words, start looking for weaker statements to yank out, and pair down to the best points you make out of everything you say - even if you end up only being able to make 2-3 good points, that's better than 10 items in unsupported list format.
I am told that the more you go through this process, the more automatic it becomes, but I am skeptical that this is true. In 10+ years of writing I still can't say things in the a succinct, concise, pithy way on the first (or second or third) try. Even in this answer I've gone back and erased more than I've written out here!
Once you get out what you want to say, even if it isn't very good and is way too long, there are lots of resources you can use to refine your work, including examples, tips and tricks, asking for people to read your work and give feedback, reading your writing out loud to someone, etc. But none of that works if you don't have raw written material to start with - so start where it's the easiest for you to start writing, and everything else will flow from there.

Thank you, this has been helpful.  I just needed a little reassurance in the "just start any way that works" so for anyone making a mountain out of a mole hill, just start writing and be done so you can enjoy free time!