text:
Does it look better on graduate school applications if I'm getting a M.S.?
I am going to be a rising junior (undergrad), and I plan on applying to graduate school in mathematics. Our school offers the opportunity to get a B.S./M.S. in math, or simply a math B.S. To get a B.S./M.S., I'd have to sacrifice some courses outside of math (like english, history, etc.) in order to take more graduate math classes (need 8 total). I'd still plan on taking graduate courses even with the B.S., but it would probably be around 5-7 instead of the 8 needed.
In terms of graduate school admissions, would this matter at all? It seems to me that there's probably not too much of a difference given that they would see the coursework anyways. But who knows, maybe given the fact that there's so little time spent on each application, that having a M.S. would be just enough to stand out and have a name remembered.
EDIT: United States - sorry about that!

even a single course (and/or your performance on thereof) can change the outcome of your application

You did not include a country!!

This seems like a US question. Please verify. It matters.

Does getting the MS cost you money?

Don't listen to answers that say courses outside mathematics have no value.  They are wrong.

Yes, it is in the US, sorry about that.

@AnonymousPhysicist I guess I personally think so too. I'm not taking History / English for the sake of learning a skill like writing; it's that I find the subject material genuinely interesting. There's some great professors at my school and I'd probably never get the opportunity again. But I guess there probably is some tradeoff with the strength of the grad admission.

And no, the MS does not cost any money.

If it doesn't cost any money, then the BS/MS is definitely financially the more logical move here.  As mentioned in my answer, it really comes down to what you prefer more, or if you can make both happen.

I'd have to sacrifice some courses outside of math (like english, history, etc.) in order to take more graduate math classes (need 8 total).

In general more math or related courses instead of non-related courses would support your application better. For some context, these mandated non-degree courses are not globally agreed to be necessary. For example a 4-year math degree in US can have less content in math then a 3-year math degree in Germany. Essentially some degree programs can have "bloat" approximating around or above of 1 year work (8 to 12 courses). It is not at all obvious that these courses in necessary (as they are not mandated in a lot of places) and I have never ever seen any admission body / personal being even remotely interested in the existence or non-existence of a -very basic introductory to a discipline of humanities-.

Why would sacrificing courses like history be considered a negative? The biggest advantage of the BS/MS here, from what it seems, is that it allows you to take more courses relevant to what you want to study/specialize in, which would definitely be a positive in this case.
EDIT: Maybe I was wrong in saying classes like history/english are irrelevant in this case.  Writing/reading is very important if you were to pursue a PhD.  But in the end it does come down to what you prefer.  Do you want the extra outside courses for reading/writing prep or do you want to specialize in a specific area sooner?  Is there a way to do both?
Also, my original answer didn't necessarily answer the original question mentioned.  It is definitely not unheard of for a applicant to go straight from undergrad to a PhD program, but this depends on a variety of factors, including how much research experience/potential this person possesses.  If you feel your writing is up to par and you really want to find an area in your field to specialize in, you might be better off with the extra graduate courses, although again, this really comes down to personal taste and preferences.


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Include in-progress paper in CV - UG to Grad school
I know this question has been asked before, but I didn't find it asked by a UG student.
I'm a senior undergrad student, and I want to start communicating with professors in Canada and the US in order to get a funded MSc position for fall 2021.
Being an undergrad, I haven't published any papers. However, this summer I've been working as a research assistant intern, and our project has reached an state where I've started to write the actual paper as the first author. Unfortunately, the paper is not likely to be ready for when I'll be trying to find an advisor, but I think since it is my one and only research experience, and it has reached the state of being publishable, it should be included in my CV!
So, what do you think I should do?

Add my time as an intern as a "research experience" with some explanation about the paper?

Add the paper in a separate section in my CV?

Something else?

Thanks in advance!

Is it common in your target field/universities/location to get positions by directly contacting a professor? If you first have to make a formal application, you could perhaps also request your internship advisor to write a recommendation letter that mentions this upcoming work and explains your contributions.

If a paper is sufficiently far along in the draft stage, it's common to include the paper in your CV, mentioning that it is "in prep." i.e. in preparation. However, I would caution against doing this if the draft is not very far advanced -- the "in prep" signals that the paper will be finished and submitted to a journal soon, and it will look a bit dodgy if it isn't. Similarly, although this doesn't exactly apply to your situation, one published paper on a CV is worth much more than even two or three "in prep". The supervisor of your current project will be best placed to advise you if it's ready to mention on a CV, and hopefully they will be writing you a reference letter which highlights your contributions too.

Make sure you really understand how admissions works at the places you intend to apply to. Most undergraduates are admitted via an admissions committee in the US, not by a professor - except perhaps in some lab sciences. There is normally coursework before serious dissertation research begins, and almost certainly there are qualifying exams to be passed. There are exceptions, but make sure you know the rules.
That said, you can always have a section on the CV for "current projects", or "work is process" with a name for the project, rather than a title for a possible future publication. A sentence or two of description is fine. How much it "counts" will be up to the reader, of course.

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How to deal with plagarism from a colleague at another institution?
I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas for how I can approach an ongoing situation.
4 years ago, when I was in the second year of my PhD I attended a conference and, in the normal course of things, I talked about my future dissertation plans with the panel's chair over drinks after the conference was over. Fast forward to today, and that panel chair, who was writing a dissertation on another subject in another century when we met, has just published a dissertation on that exact same topic, despite the fact that they had never heard of it prior to our meeting (sorry to be so vague but I am, I think understandably, paranoid). My master's thesis, which is on the same topic, is cited in the dissertation, but there's otherwise no mention of the fact that they never would have come to the subject without our meeting.
I had caught wind of what was going on a couple of years ago before this person's disseration was published and approached my advisor about it, but while they were shocked, they recommended just keeping my head down and going about my business. After all, at that point I wasn't 100 percent sure they would be covering the exact same ground as I was, and seeing as I came to the topic first, the idea was that my work would be superior even if there was some overlap.
Having seen their dissertation (although I can hardly bear to read it, I'm so infuriated) I do think that my work is of far better quality, but this person has hit on several topics, authors, texts, works, etc. that were/are to be central to my own dissertation and I'm wondering  if it's too late for me to try and cry foul somehow.
In order to put my stamp on the topic I have worked to publish parts of my dissertation and recently had an article accepted into one of the top journals in my field. Unfortunately, it will be years before it actually comes out and in the meantime my nemesis is out there on the job market and publishing similar work in lesser, but more time-efficient journals.
I'm aware that this is all sour grapes kind of stuff, but my frustration has gotten to the point where I'm sickly fantasizing about inevitably not getting a job in academia just so that I might have the freedom to call this person out without having to worry about looking unprofessional. In the meantime, though I'm curious to know if there's a way I could let this situation be known before this person ends up getting that rare prize that is a job on the back of my idea.
Thank you.

I'm not quite clear on the timeline.  Are you alleging that this person saw your dissertation before publishing his own and copied from it? Or that they merely chose to write their own dissertation on the same topic, covering some of the same areas that you told them you planned to cover, but doing their own research and writing their own words?  The former is plagiarism, the latter is not.

@NateEldredge, I agree. This doesn't sound like plagiarism. Talking "over drinks" about ideas doesn't put a stamp of ownership on them. And the OP was cited for things that had appeared.

Hi Nate, thank you for your comment. I must admit that it would be the latter. Perhaps I should remove the "plagarism" tag. I was doing course work at the time I met this person but, from my master's thesis, which they were able to read online, I already had a clear direction of where I was heading and unfortunately spilled the beans. So no, this isn't plagarism so much as a breach in etiquette and, I would say, ethics. The best proof I can really offer is our names on the same conference panel proposal and the abrubt shift in this person's topic towards something mirroring my own research.

So, they worked on a topic, knowing that it would overlap your work in progress.  I agree it's not very nice, and ethically questionable, but I don't think most people would see it as crossing the line into "misconduct".  What would you hope to accomplish by "calling them out"?  If you're expecting that it will result in some sort of punishment or reduced career prospects for this person, I think that's very unlikely.

I might add that, 2 years ago, before this person published their dissertation. I gave a conference presentation that was attended by a member of their dissertation committee. Work similar to mine (on an author whose relation to the broader topic of my/our topic was previously unkwown) then appeared in this person's dissertation. I don't think the committee member purposefully told this person to write on this new author (I'm not that paranoid or self-obsessed), but I would not be surprised if they talked about it, leading this person to then glom off more of my research.

I suppose I understand that there's not much that can really be done, but I would hope that if, for example, I approached there advisor with this information, they might take it into consideration when writing recommendation letters and the like. Perhaps that's too optimistic.

Yeah, I don't think that's likely.  Keep in mind there is a general sense in academia that ideas and plans are not themselves of great value; the value is in actually doing the research to bring the idea to fruition.  As such, "stealing ideas" is not viewed as a serious wrong, and people would say that this person is entitled to be judged on the value of the research he did, regardless of where the idea came from.

It's also assumed that if you want to be the only one working on an idea, you will keep it to yourself until you're ready to publish; and conversely, that if you share an idea with someone, then unless there is an explicit understanding to the contrary, it's with the goal of encouraging them to take an interest in it and possibly do their own work on it.

Instead of "plagiarism", I think the usual term for this situation would be that you were scooped.  This site has a lot of other questions on the subject which you might like to browse.

Thank you for the advice. I suppose I should've been protective of my ideas. I just wish I'd never gone to that conference.

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Can I move to another department for a PhD within the same university?
I'm starting a PhD in Development Studies at a well known university in the UK. I'm considering requesting to be moved to the department for political science. My topic is much better suited to political science than it is for development studies and I believe the former is better suited for the research I intend to do. Both departments are in the same school and my supervisor is a professor in both departments. Do universities consider such requests at all?

What does your supervisor say?

I haven't spoken to her yet. I'm not from the UK and I don't know what the norm is. I wanted to know if such requests are entertained at all.

Sorry, but this is a local question to be answered locally. Rules vary.

"my supervisor is a professor in both departments" ... Ask your professor!

If this were my country, people wouldn't take too kindly to this question, which is why I wanted to make sure. Seems like it is okay to ask, then. Thanks!

I suggest approaching this as "I was wondering if it would be better for me to be based in the Political Science department" rather than "I want to move" - but it is fine to have a conversation with your supervisor. Perhaps think first about why you think a move would be beneficial - it may be possible to achieve the same things without a formal change in department.

@Avid, thank you for your suggestion, it is most helpful.


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Convention regarding inclusion of both an abstract and introduction in a mathematical paper
Good afternoon,
I am a high school junior in the process of preparing a real analysis paper for submission to a mathematics journal. I have written my proof and conducted an exhaustive literature review and now I would like to take the next step towards finishing my paper but I am unclear as to the convention with regards to including in my paper both an abstract and introduction or just an introduction.
I have read published papers such as this one by Erdos which include both an abstract and introduction but I have read many others such as this short proof of the prime number theorem which includes just an introduction. Then there are some like this one that have what appears to be an abstract without an explicit heading.
I have also read guides regarding how to write mathematical papers. There is this one which includes an introduction but no abstract. Then there are other guides like this one which make mention of both an abstract and an introduction.
My question is, is there a convention regarding the inclusion of an abstract in a math paper? If so, what is it? I understand that scientific papers traditionally employ both but I do not see a trend when it comes to math papers.
Thank you in advance.

It depends on the journal. Some journals encourage informal writing and abstracts are not required. In most journals, abstracts are required.

Yes, mathematics papers generally have an abstract.
The question of whether it has the word "Abstract" as a heading is a stylistic question, usually determined by the journal where the paper is published.  They might feel that the page layout makes it clear that this is an abstract, without needing a heading.
The Zagier paper you cite was published (in 1997) in the American Mathematical Monthly, which is a special case.  They used to not print abstracts for very short articles.  However, looking at some recent issues, even the Monthly does routinely print abstracts now.
So you should certainly write an abstract for your paper.  Write it after the paper is completely finished, so that it accurately reflects what the final version of the paper contains.  Format it in any reasonable way you like (e.g. the abstract environment in your preferred LaTeX document class.)
Include the abstract when you distribute the paper or submit it for publication.  It will ultimately be up to the journal whether the abstract is included when the paper is published, and how to format it, but most likely it will be.

The purpose of an abstract and an introduction are very different, so it may be useful to include either or both. An abstract is a summary of the whole paper, focusing on the main result. It might exist separately from the paper itself as, say, an online "teaser" to get people to read the paper. But an introduction is intended to give background on the problem to be addressed in the paper and to situate it within the literature. You would almost always include an introduction. You might also write the abstract, but not actually include it within the paper itself.

The purpose of an abstract is to summarize the entire paper.  It should have all the major findings, actual numbers (if applicable), etc.  An introduction gives the history of the problem, including earlier attempts or related problems as well as the motivation for the research.  They are different animals.
Perhaps you are confused because introductory paragraphs on high school essays often have an outline summary of what the essay will be.  But that's really not the main objective of a journal article introduction section.  (It could have that sort of outline explanation but probably more commonly doesn't.)
Also, you should just look at what journal you want to go to (pick something decent but not too high ranking).  Then just ape their format.

All that said, I am skeptical of a high school junior contributing an analysis paper.  Anything is possible of course.  But I suspect you don't know what you don't know about the topic, previous literature, etc.  For one thing, your question here shows some naivete about the structure of journal articles, so perhaps you haven't done a good lit search in your area.  But...don't let me hold you back.  Nothing like learning by experience (as I told my friend before he opened a restaurant),

Sorry, but your skepticism is misplaced here. Or the expression of it in any case. It reads as very discouraging. I wrote a decent paper when still in HS, and much more is taught there nowadays.  If you have seen the paper, of course, you might want to comment on the ranking of the journal. But I doubt that you are doing anything but expressing a prejudice of the young.

@Buffy is High School now on topic here?

@SolarMike, not really, but the question seems a bit more sophisticated than what might normally happen. It is also a question that might occur at university for a new researcher/writer. I decided that the age was immaterial and wasn't essential. It stands without that information.


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World-famous Eastern European (and non-Western) academics not educated in the West who published one or more well-read text in English after year 2000
For a study, I want to analyse the writing style of (contemporary) world-famous academics who were not educated in the West, yet I can find few examples. My focus is on Eastern Europe, but I will be happy to consider any non-Western academic (regardless of the discipline). Due to the nature of my study, I am only considering scholars who published at least one well-read text in English after the year 2000.
Upon some research, I found that most famous scholars of non-Western origin were in fact educated in the West. Few were not (e.g. Slavoj Zizek). Do you know any world-famous (or really famous) academic who was not educated in the West?
Edit: to be more precise, with "educated" I meant receiving their pre-doctoral education (including PhD) at a non-Western institution. With "world-famous" I meant that such a scholar is known also outside specialist academic circles (e.g. was interviewed in popular media, received prices, their work is read trans-disciplinary, their work is translated in other languages etc.). Slavoj Zizek is perhaps a good example, but one of few I know.
Second edit: thank you, everyone, for your answers. I have spent the day reading the work of some scholars you proposed above, which was an interesting endeavour. What I realised is that none of the papers I read would be comprehensible or received trans-disciplinary (or at least this is my guess). This was a very useful insight which told me that perhaps I should ask not for a world-famous scholars, but rather a world-famous text that was written by a non-western-educated scholar.
Moreover, no one has suggested anyone from social sciences or humanities. In both fields, this is my feeling, we can find more texts that are at the same time scholarly text and read widely across disciplines or by lay audience. But are there any such well-known works written by scholars educated at a non-Western insitution?

What is a "scholar"? "Academic" seems to include scientist? What means "educated" (predoc only or postdoc as well?) There are gazillions of leading scientists that received their education in the "not West" (Eastern Europe, Israel, Russia, Japan, China, ...)

Thanks for your reply Jakob. "Educated" is undefined, agreed. Mostly I aim for those who acquired all of their predoctoral education at a non-Western insitution. And yes, I thought there are gazillions such scholars as well, but can you name some? I would love to read their work.

There are plenty. You might want to refine your question if you are indeed mostly concerned with public intellectuals/social sciences writings and their public interviews rather than natural sciences ("I want to analyse the writing style" and your definition of "well-read" hint at that). If it is indeed the case then yes, Eastern Bloc and China mostly would have these visible figures in form of dissidents. Israel would have plenty but then again you might consider it "western" in terms of social reality.

Your definition of “world famous” is rather random. Being translated is a pretty law bar or a pretty high bar, depending how we see it (most Academic communication is in English), same for having a prize or two. On the other hand most scientist outside certain social sciences are not widely known even after getting a Nobel prize, with few exceptions.

Not contemporary, but Ramanujan has to be up there.

I guess Grigori Perelman might be somehow famous for the resolution of the Poincaré conjecture and his nonacceptance of various prices.

You want to analyse the writing style but you do not care about the discipline? This makes little sense to me.

Of course Carsten, I am interested in studying the style of academic writing regardless of the discipline. The stress is on their writing style (so the content, what they say, is not really important to me).

Since you're asking for post 2000 papers, your division into "West" and "East Europe" sounds a bit anachronistic, if not dodgy. I'm pretty sure post 2000 PL, CZ, SL, HU & the Baltics consider themselves part of the cultural West (with EU & NATO membership) or geographically "Central Europe". This "East Europe" paints them into a historical corner they didn't go willingly into. Also, I can't fathom how how all these disparate "non-Western academics" from all sorts of cultures would have some common "writing style" (besides possibly weaker English skills if you go further in time)

I can't tell whether this question falls under the definition of shopping question.

There is a selection bias here: most, who can and willing to publish “world renowned” text in English is most probably familiar with the basic principles of Anglo-Saxon academic writing and intentionally tries to imitate it (even if their formal education may not happened in “Western” countries). It is especially true to scholars who graduated in the last 30 years, considering that most “Eastern European” universities deliberately teaches these principles and style.

There are plenty. The Soviet Union was a scientific powerhouse, after all.
Some quick names are Andre Geim, Andrei Linde, and Alexei Starobinsky.

Zamolodchikov, Fadeev, the list is indeed very long…

Not many academics are really well known outside academia, but of Nobel laureates who are Japanese citizens, it looks like the most recent eight were all educated in Japan up to doctoral level. It might be more than eight but I stopped checking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_Nobel_laureates

Yuri Oganessian appears to be educated solely in Moscow. He has been among the lead physicists in superheavy elements for half a century. The discoveries of six heaviest elements is credited to him. He is also one of only two people after whom a chemical element has been named during their lifetime and the only one still living.
Unfourtunately, he might not be great for your cause as he is in the field where a bunch of co-authors is a common practice. It's hard to know who did the writing.
Grigori Perelman appears to be educated solely in Leningrad. He is widely credited for proving the Poincare conjecture, the only of the Millenium Prize Problems that has been solved as of today. Although this would make him a math celebrity aleady, he is most widely known for declining the millenium prize money. He was also awarded a Fields medal for this work which he also declined (the only person to have done so).
You can inspect Perelman's most famous articles on arxiv: https://arxiv.org/search/math?query=Perelman%2C+Grisha&searchtype=author&abstracts=show&order=-announced_date_first&size=50

Aleksander Wolszczan
Polish astronomer, co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets.

I am only considering scholars who published at least one well-read text in English after the year 2000

His key publication in Nature was in 1994 but he published afterwards as well (notably in 2007). Not sure how this fits your constraints.

Please note that if you ask for scientific "well-read text in English" you are likely to get zero answers from laymen, and obscure references from specialists. "Well-read" is really difficult to qualify (is something published in Nature or Science well-read? If so, it is "well-read" by 0.0001% of the population (a made-up number). I think that any article from a mainstream celebrities magazine is way more "well-read")

I have a feeling OP is asking for the latter - not many academics appear in mainstream media, even fewer accomplished academics do, then fewer still are known in that manner for their writing as opposed for other educational work such as public speeches and on top of that it also highly depends on the area...

@Lodinn: when I was typing my answer I tried to think of a contemporary scientist that is mainstream in France. The only one I could think of is an MD that got famous for his position on COVID. He was completely unknown before that.  This does not meet OP's requirement to have a well-known text, though. If you ask a random person about a scientist, they will say Einstein (without probably knowing what he did, maybe $E=mc^2$), or Newton (because of the apple).

Pretty much. One can argue people like Jordan Peterson fit the description of being contemporary, well-known and academics, but that would narrow the field to being prominent in the western media. OTOH, Zizek given as an example is not someone who a layman would list among the academics they know (or even heard about!) so the bar is lower than that I suppose. Anyroad, I believe we can agree that the requirements are quite confusing here and the problem is ill-defined as it stands.

@Lodinn: Thanks for your comments. Absolutely, the problem is not (yet) well defined, so thanks to everyone for your suggestions. As for Zizek, he is very well known outside his discipline (philosophy), regularly contributes to newspapers, is a guest at various political talk shows, etc. So he is undoubtedly well known outside his field and outside academia. This is why he is a good example and someone whose writing I would include in my study.

Thanks @WoJ. That was a very useful answer. I think that a paper published in Nature and Science would perhaps qualify, especially if it would be a famous paper. So thanks for the hint. The question here is not so much about the lay audience though. I am simply looking for texts that made an impact on academia more generally (not just specific discipline) so that we can consider them an example of a good and important academic text.

A list for the winners of the Abel Prize (A), the Clay Research Award (C) and the Fields Medal (F).
Received PhD (or equivalent) in Hungary: Lovász (A).
Received PhD (or equivalent) in India: Agrawal (C).
Received PhD (or equivalent) in Israel: Lindenstrauss (F).
Received PhD (or equivalent) in Japan: Kodaira (F), Mori (F).
Received PhD (or equivalent) in what nowadays is Russia: Novikov (F), Margulis (F), Drinfeld (F), Zelmanov (F), Okounkov (F), Szemerédi (A), Sinai (A), Malinnikova (C), Logunov (C).
Received PhD (or equivalent) in what nowadays is Serbia: Marković (C).
P.S. The definition of a Western country is somewhat ambiguous. Apparently the criteria can include being a democracy, having a GDP per capita over 20,000 USD and having Christianity as the predominant religion.
Apologies if the above selection of countries offended anyone.

Now I see that the title of the question changed while I was typing. This is an answer to the revision 4 of the question.

Academics from the 30s/40s, ranging from philosophers to physicists and chemists were educated in a Central/Eastern European world.
On top of them, there were notable scientist, like the man that brought the first human to the Moon, after giving birth to the first drone strikes, called V-2s bombing of London.
If you require then to be famous in the sense of "known to the larger public", that is reserved to the few that are innocuous to the western establishment, such as the above mentioned Zizek.

Your first sentence says academics but they are specifically philosophers. It could be more useful to state that explicitly instead of generalizing and obscuring the narrowness of the fact.

@RichardHardy My answer explicitly mentions other knowledge branches now. It is a fact as narrow as the gap between the slits of Young's interference experiment, thank you for pointing out that even such a small fact can be integrated in the Lebesgue meaning and have a large impact.

Thanks @EarlGrey. Agreed, a lot of scholars in the past were educated in Central Europe. Even more, before WW2 a lot of academics got their education at various institutions all over the world. Some came to the West (primarily to the US, because they fled the war). But what about today?

@mihalu "primarily to the US, because they fled the war". Not true, many of them lost the war.
I missed your requirment about "having published a well-read text after 2000", sorry. In general, this is a fallacious argument, but you may have a look at the fields interfacing ethics and informatics and politics, like Eugeny Morozov (I am not sure if his Belarus education reached the Master or the PhD).

@EarlGrey: Thank you, this is an excellent suggestion. Even though he obtained his PhD at Harvard, he was writing influential books before he had a PhD - and is hence a perfect example of what I am looking for.


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Is it reasonable to stop working on my master's project during the time I'm not being paid?
TL;DR:  I finished my bachelor of mathematics this year and I will not be able to enroll in the master program I wanted to get into until January 2024, so I will be a NEET (not in education, employment or training) for 6 months.
My advisor for my masters will be the same I had for my bachelor, and my master will be a continuation of the work we previously did.
I was intending to use this "free time" to learn practical stuff, but my advisor seems to take for granted that I will keep working on my dissertation topic during the next six months.
I would like to ask him to give me this time for myself, since I'm still not being paid, but I don't know if it's reasonable of me to do so, since doing it will delay the publication of a joint paper.

My original plan was to enroll in the master program offered by my local college this August and to keep working with my advisor, but he delayed the writing of my dissertation because he kept wanting to explore more topics and writing down the new results (he did so even when knowing I wanted to keep working with him and was willing to do the job while being enrolled in the master program). This made my dissertation to be twice its original
size, and made me miss the dates to enroll in the master program.
I haven't even defended my dissertation, and I will be a NEET (not in education, employment or training) for the next 6 months.
The fact that I still need to make my defense and complete some paperwork stoped me from finding a regular job (as a secretary, waitress etc) to start making some money.
I intended to use this 6 months to learn some useful stuff (like honing my Java/C++ skills and familiarize myself with some
data science techniques with R databases) because, after finishing my master, I'll probably will not enroll in a PhD program and instead will look
for a job out there. I don't know if I will have my family's support since I know they want me to do a PhD, that's why I want to start saving money (currently I don't even have a bank account).
My advisor went to a trip during this summer, and recently wrote back to me. The way he was talking
makes me think he is taking for granted I will keep fully working with him during the next 6 months. He even asked me to start preparing a poster and a talk
for a congress this fall. We have enough material to start writing a paper,
and I believe he wants to start writing, polishing it and filling some holes on the theory. I know this will take a lot of my time.
I appreciate his guidance and being his student, and I know he appreciates me as a student and the work we've done so far,
but I'm a 23 years old person with no income and would like to keep working with him when we both are being paid for doing so.
And this will not happen until I enroll in the master program and get a grant.
Is it reasonable to ask him to let me free during the next 6 months?
I would not like to harm the work relationship we have,  but I
neither want to keep working for free. So I fear to be perceived as being greedy for asking those 6 months for myself (but I also feel he is being greedy
for wanting me to work when I'm not being paid).
Of course I can try to both keep working with my advisor while also learning what I want, but from experience I know
he likes to schedule up to 2 meetings per week (that can last up to 5 hours) to discuss, and that doing the work I need for each
meeting (reading a paper, finishing a proof or writing down the final results) is very time-consuming.

what is a NEET?

Are you defending/finishing during this term, or in the fall? If you're enrolled for the fall term (even if you're not taking any classes), could you ask if he has any funds to pay you?

By "dissertation" are you referring to a requirement of your bachelor's program?

@ZeroTheHero : NEET stands for not in education, employment or training.

@mkennedy : I will (hopefully) defend during this fall, but I'm not enrolled in any course, so I'm not a student anymore. I still don't have a date since I need to wait until the members of the jury say when they are all available to attend the defense.

@AzorAhai-him- yes. Maybe in other countries a dissertation is a requirement just for a PhD, but in my case I needed to write a dissertation to get my bachelor's degree.

Were you being paid to work in the lab before this (during you bachelor's)?

@sErISaNo sadly no, but it wasn't a big deal because I was working on my dissertation while taking courses, so I was thinking about it like taking an extra course. It's not lab work though, but applied mathematics.

which country is your university/advisor based?

January is 5 months away, less holidays.  As a bachelor candidate / accepted master's student, you might look for an internship in your field for those 4 months, but should not even consider "secretary or waitress etc".  Many companies are used to taking an intern for either a summer or single semester, and your timeframe exactly overlaps with the fall semester.  Most positions will be filled, but you may still find one.

@EarlGrey both in Mexico.

@BenVoigt I already had the chance to work in an enterprise as an intern for 5 months this year, and even if the pay was awful (a fifth part of the minimal wage) this helped me to gain experience and to extend my CV. I don't think looking for one now is right for me though, since it will require me to work 8 hours per day. When I wrote secretary/waitress I was thinking about part-time jobs. Thank you anyway for your suggestion.

For people not familiar with Mexican conventions, you should clarify whether being a student is considered a job, whether you are paid to write your thesis, whether a company is financing your thesis ... working has different meanings in different context in different languages, not all working must be paid, but every workers must be paid (being an idealist I would like to add "fairly").

Maybe. I think you're thinking about things wrong though. Grad school is not necessarily a job. You may get paid to do lab work - and some of what you do might fall under the "job" category. But your project is your project.
So there are two ways of looking at this. On one hand, you are doing work "for free" for your professor. You don't want to do this and you have other plans. That's fine - I'm not a fan of unpaid labor either.
On the other hand, this work is really for you. Coming into a graduate program with a mature project (one that might even have a paper submitted) is a good head start. It would almost certainly put you ahead of others in the program and I think would lead to more opportunities down the line. I would guess that this work benefits you more than your advisor. Plus 6 months is a long time to just drop a project. You're planning on continuing this with the same advisor and so putting it aside for that long (without a decent reason) doesn't sit well with me personally.
I think before you make any decisions, you should talk to your advisor. Just tell him how you feel. Maybe he can hire you as a research assistant for the 6 months. If that is impossible then maybe consider working less intensely. Establish a boundary - say 10 hours a week - and make sure you are clear about not going over that. Or maybe take a month or two off then start up working again, I think that's a more reasonable break.
Whatever you do, I'm not sure you can drop off the grid completely without ruffling some feathers. Obviously this is a work-in-progress and it sounds like your project. Leaving it for 6 months (or expecting your advisor to do the work in your absence) is a bit unreasonable. I'm sure there is a middle ground that you can find. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
A couple of side points - working on this would be learning "practical stuff". Research and writing are literally practical skills.

The fact that I still need to make my defense and complete some paperwork stoped[sic] me from finding a regular job...

If you don't want to work prior to starting school again (or while you have to deal with your defense) that's okay - but lets not pretend that you couldn't just find a regular job.

Thank you very much for your insight. I guess the best thing to do will be to keep working on it, even if the pace is slower than usual.

In the US, for a variety of reasons, the amount of access you will be allowed may well be determined by if you're legally considered a student or not.
Flip the question the other way -- should the school entertain your work if you're not a student?  If you're not a matriculated student, then you are not paying for all sorts of things, including the time faculty spend supervising your work and progress.
You may not have access to any of the school's library resources, you may not have legal access to any of the school's site licenses.  There may be liability issues around whether you're allowed to work in a lab.
All this said, if the school allows it, and if you consider this the most valuable use of your time (nobody but you can make that determination), there is no reason why you shouldn't get a jump on your Master's work.


text:
Why do textbooks often include the solutions to odd or even numbered problems but not both?
I've just gotten a textbook (physics) for next year and I noticed that, like many other textbooks I've had, it contains solutions to only odd-numbered questions.
From my experience, this is typical, at least for texts at the undergraduate level.
If anyone is wondering, the text is "Fundamentals of Physics" by Halliday & Resnick 10th edition.
My question is, why do textbooks often include the solutions to odd or even numbered problems but not both? In my case, I don't think space is the answer because the answers section only takes up 7 pages.

For what it's worth, as someone who for several decades has looked through many hundreds of 1800s algebra, conics, trigonometry, calculus, etc. texts (I own hard copies of at least 20, I have digital copies of several hundred, I have looked at over 100 hard copies in a nearby university library, etc.), this was very common  back then too, and the reasons are often given in the prefaces (and in published book reviews) as providing the instructor problems that can be used on tests and such.

It's rather odd isn't it?

@DaveLRenfro: That’s fascinating!  What (roughly) is the earliest text you’re seen this in?

@PPL: I don't know, but if anyone is interested in looking into this, a simple way to begin is to try searches such as this google-books search for "algebra + treatise" for 1700 to 1800. Maybe change "algebra" to "mathematics" or other things, and try including "problems" or "exercises" or some other word that you see these referred to in the older books (just look at a few of them to see what terms are used for the exercises).

@DaveLRenfro I agree it was rather common also in other field of knowledge (physics and engineering undergraduate textbooks). There were (are?) also textbooks where no answer is given whatsoever. I always sincerely hated books that gave exercises with no solutions (I mean the final results, not the step-by-step procedure). My study method involved solving tons of exercises just to exert my "automatic" skills and acquire self confidence in the topic, but I had to have at least the numerical solutions as a feedback for effective self study. ...

@DaveLRenfro ... The access to instructor time was scarce, well below what I would have needed to get the solutions for all the exercises I solved, so I often skipped exercises with no solution since I had no effective way to check if I solved it correctly. Yes, they might allow to think about a problem, but if you can't check your solution you might get away thinking you had a correct solution and indeed you did it wrong. Very bad for self study.

@Lorenzo Donati (and others interested): Answers and worked solutions to old textbook exercises were often published with "Key" in their titles. For example, see this search for algebra keys (or this search), and this search for trigonometry keys (or this search). Not what the OP asked about, but might still be of interest.

This allowance is a custom to allow instructors to give homework where the solutions to some questions were not provided directly to the student (at least not in the book - this was from a time where searching for solutions to homework was not so easy outside of personal social connections).
If an instructor just wants students to work on problems where the students can easily refer to sample solutions at the back of the book, the instructor can just assign "problems 1-7, odds only". If they want to assign only no-solution problems, they can assign "evens only". If they want to give a mixture to try to encourage students to mix up their solving strategies, they can assign both. To go farther, putting them at the back of the book was another way to try to make it take a little more effort to look for the solution, to encourage the students to try to solve it themselves rather than immediately looking at the solution.
Finally, it is a custom that the problems tend to go from easier to harder, with some texts making the highest numbered questions of a chapter require more knowledge or skills than is actually provided in the accompanying chapter.
As you can imagine, this isn't the only system of designing a textbook that would support these uses, but it just became a very popular and simple way to do it - so you can generally expect to see it in many of the textbooks you'll encounter.

This.  I only know it from the US but it was in every textbook in my 10th grade, and the teachers used it exactly like you described here.
For an actual assignment they gave us the odds, for an "hey, you might wanna exercise optionally" they recommended Exercise 5 evens.

For common textbooks detailed solutions to the other questions were often printed in a seperate "teacher's guide".  It wasn't unknown for students to get their hands on copies of these guides

@ChrisH Yes -- it's just a book and people can buy books, even in the days when this required going into a bricks-and-mortar store and asking them to order a copy from the publisher.

@DavidRicherby in my undergrad days there were photocopies of photocopies of photocopies... kicking around.  In some of them you could even read the subscripts.  The on-campus bookshop claimed not to know anything about the teacher's guides

If I were to produce such a book, my reasoning would be a bit different from that of BrianH. In using any such book for a course, I would probably assign only questions that did not have answers in the answer key.
But I would encourage the students to use a tried and true learning technique: reinforcement and feedback. The extra problems, while not assigned, give those students who want the practice (all of them do need it, actually) the opportunity to work on some additional problems and then check their work. If they got the correct answer they have additional confidence in their learning. If they did not, then they want to come and see me to find out where they went wrong - additional reinforcement and feedback.
I would, of course, stress that there is a good way and a bad way to use the answers. Working toward a known answer is far less valuable than working out an unknown answer. Not every student would 'get it' but the opportunity is there for them.
And, of course, they get reinforcement and feedback for the questions that I do assign and for those, I get to follow their thinking somewhat to search for misconceptions.

How does this answer differ from BrianH's which says the purpose is so that questions can be assigned that don't have answers in the key (which you say would be your approach), and that having both questions with and without answers gives flexibility to the instructor (which includes your approach)?

@BryanKrause It's different as I interpret it because it also suggests that they could use the questions with answers as a way to try and work it out and then check their answer so as to learn. Since after all people don't always have the best confidence when learning something new and different people learn differently. It might not say why the books have it the way they often are but it still adds to a possible use to it - whether or not that's actually the reason (and I imagine that it could be for some books). I didn't get this impression from the other answer though.

@Pryftan Yes, the other answer already says "If an instructor just wants students to work on problems where the students can easily refer to sample solutions at the back of the book, the instructor can just assign "problems 1-7, odds only"...If they want to give a mixture to try to encourage students to mix up their solving strategies, they can assign both" which covers what you just described.

@Pryftan BrianH says: "This allowance is a custom to allow instructors to give homework where the solutions to some questions were not provided directly to the student" Buffy says "I would probably assign only questions that did not have answers in the answer key" I am simply pointing out that these are the same reason, stated with different words.

@BryanKrause Funnily enough I figured that much out but the fact you went to try and explain that fact demonstrates my point. As I noted there's a miscommunication: not of what you were trying to do but of my point. The best analogy I can think of is - well I don't know if you know German but let's say I were to start a sentence as 'Die' but then I fell asleep and accidentally hit enter. Would you think I was telling you to 'die'? It's a contrived example but it's the best I can think of in my tired head. It's possible I was commenting originally on more than that quote too. Don't know now.

The other answers cover what I think is the main reason, but I want to bring up something else: Putting solutions into a textbook is a lot of work; the editors have to find the solutions, write them up, typeset them, and someone has to proofread them. On the other hand, the additional benefit of another solution becomes pretty small once half the problems have solutions, especially in those textbooks that feature a lot of rather repetitive problems.

I find it weird that no one else said this. It seems everyone else thinks there's some deep philosophical pedagogical meaning, when it might really be (mainly) a matter of time and money.

If it were mainly about money, I would expect even fewer answers, or no answers at all. Teachers could always provide their own answer keys.


text:
Filler submission to the American Mathematical Monthly
I have found an interesting (and novel) result that I would like to submit to the American Mathematical Monthly. I am aware of the journal's prestige and I understand that my result likely would not warrant regular publication. I am looking to submit my finding and brief proof as "filler", however, their website does not elucidate much information other than a LaTex template for such submissions.
My question to anyone who is familiar with the filler submission process of the American Mathematical Monthly, what are the technical requirements of such a submission? I understand that they are shorter than typical papers but the tables of contents I see online do not seem to include any for length reference.
Thank you.

I'm not a mathematician and I'm not familiar with AMM, so I don't post this as answer, but you can try to start a dummy submission process to see if there is a field allowing to select the type of submission. Some journals have this, allowing to select between, e.g., regular paper, short communication, comment, special issue paper etc.

I would think that it is the editor who decides how to incorporate such short papers, not the author. Make a submission and wait for the response.

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19164/what-happens-if-your-manuscript-is-accepted-as-a-filler

The Monthly's journal page has a section on submissions:
https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/american-mathematical-monthly#Submission
There are no listed requirements for fillers, which probably means that there are no strict requirements, just an item the editors deem appropriate.  My first suggestion is to browse through recent issues and look at other fillers to see if yours will fit in.
Second, the above link says:

Questions concerning submission of papers can be addressed to the editor [name + email]

So if you have specific, focused questions you can try asking.  Alternatively, you could just submit and wait for the review/editorial process for feedback.

A filler is put in when a regular article leaves some blank space at the bottom of its last page.  So by definition they are less than one page.


text:
Why would recommender not submit letter to some schools?
My recommender received the list of schools I would be applying to months in advance. She submitted 7 out of 10 letters and then just disappeared: ignores emails and notifications from schools. Why would anyone agree to write a letter and then do that? I have months of research experience under her indirect supervision and took her class too. She does know I have more than 3 referees though...

As you say you have 3 others - use them...

yes, that's what I did. Just wondering why

You're right that there isn't any particular reason for a professor to intentionally and voluntarily refuse to send letters to certain institutions, especially not without telling you.
So I would consider unintentional and involuntary explanations.

The notification emails may not be reaching her (IT failures, spam filters, etc).  Try to contact her personally (email, phone, in person) and let her know that the letters are due.
Oversight is a possibility.  She might have forgotten about the letters and then gone on vacation where she doesn't see the emails.
She may be unable to work because of some sort of emergency (personal, family, medical, etc). Recommenders are people too, and sometimes things happen in their lives that take priority over your letter.  If you cannot contact her yourself, contact her institution or department and explain the situation.  It is possible that they will have access to a letter she's already written and can send it out, or that someone else there can write a letter.

+1 for the first point: just this year, I found several LOR requests from schools in my spam folder.  It's a good think I check it periodically.

Is there any pattern to the ones she didn't submit? For example, are they the most competitive schools? If so, she could be cowardly refusing to recommend you for those programs.
Otherwise, I would agree with the other answers and comments; it is probably an oversight or some other factor that has nothing to do with you.

that's a fair point, but the outstanding schools are likely the ones I have the highest chance of acceptance


text:
I applied to tenure track positions in the US when should I hear about interviews?
I have a PhD in Chemical Engineering and have applied to a handful of tenure track positions in December/January. When can I expect to hear about possible interviews? At what point should I just move on...

when was the stated closing date for applications? After then but 1 or 2 months possibly - definitely not by return post...

This will vary widely depending on the institutions. Since most new positions will only start around August there is plenty of time to have committees do some initial sifting of candidates. It might take a few weeks to a few months, actually. It is somewhat dependent on how needy they are to fill a position. If they feel at risk of not filling the position in the initial search they will want to save a bit of time for a follow up.
Some institutions will be willing to give you some guidance if you ask and there is probably no real down-side to asking. Some will even list their deadline for decision in the application materials and will need several weeks prior to that to schedule any interviews.
However, if you are a serious candidate, then you will likely hear sooner rather than later after the initial selection is done.
Sorry not to be very definite, but every institution in the US is different in this regard and operates under its own rules and schedules.


text:
Disagreement with advisor regarding journal choice
I have currently a disagreement with my advisor regarding the journal we should send our paper.
My advisor wants to send it to a very specialized journal with low impact factor, and to add a lot of details in the main text.
On the other hand I believe the topic is of interest for several communities and want to push the jargon to the appendix, have a polished main text, and try high impact factor journals.
Also I want to change fields after my PhD, so a good paper that my prospective boss could understand would be a plus.
He says he doesn't want to put in the effort for a high impact journal, and probably doesn't know also, and that he would prefer to spend his time reading a book or doing new stuff. (He is close to retirement)
I am willing to put in the effort to polish the paper alone, but still he is not satisfied.
For background, our previous paper was sent to a low IF journal, and was accepted immediately with minor revisions. For that paper also we had disagreements how much details to add in the main text and where to send it (and I stepped back).
The result is that the gist of the paper got obscured, some big shots read the paper, cited it, but presented the result better, and now they get all the citations.
Similar things have happened to him more than once in the past.
How should I navigate this without offending him?
For the previous paper I stepped back, but now I cringe every time I read it.
I feel that although he is smart, he doesn't really know how to communicate effectively, and he is also not interested to try. But this is something that I feel that I have, or at least I am willing to spend time to improve.

UPDATE from ~1.5 years later:
The outcome of this disagreement was initially very ugly, but down the road really helped me to become independent from a close-minded advisor.
From June 2021 until Dec 2021 I was trying to convince my advisor to submit to a non-predatory journal. He called me narcissist, arrogant, incompetent, threatened to remove his name from the paper, and tried to remove the guts of the theoretical part to make it seem unimportant and thus non-publishable to a serious journal (at the end he didn't manage to tie all ends with the simplified version and we returned back to the original). He was telling me that he prefers to spend his time reading a book in a cafe under the sun than working on my paper. I was only asking him to let me polish the paper alone and just TRY to send it to a reasonable journal.
In Aug. 2021 he tried to make throw away the nearly finished draft I had, and instead work on a new draft he sent me that he's spent max. 30 mins writing, while he was away for holidays. In Sep he didn't want to allow me to submit an extended abstract to a conference*, but I did (conference was online -so no costs etc. - only more visibility of our work). Similar for another conference that required only plain 1 paragraph abstract.
From Sep 2021 to Dec 2021, he was continuously delaying the submission by triggering me at the end of our weekly meetings by saying that we should send it to the predatory journal.
Until my mother figured out that he was trying intentionally to trigger angry reactions from me and advised me to not react. I stopped reacting, cancelled our last meeting, went off contract, and tried to figure out what to do.
Due to these disagreements I had developed high-histamine issues (allergy like symptoms without an obvious trigger with sneezing, running nose and eyes, hives, migraines etc.) and was taking daily histamines to be able to function and work, which literally crippled me. I was able to only move to my desk, and had to try really hard to find strength to leave my apartment for the supermarket and for similar chores. By the end of the year I was literally burnt out.
After an extensive allergy test, my allergist suggested that my symptoms are due to sth that is causing tension in my life (e.g. my advisor), and that's where I figured out, that I had to finish my PhD thesis alone, apart from this toxic person, for the sake of my health.
After he thought I quit my PhD, we met online, and he had a sly smile, and agreed to submit to the journal I wanted. And it got accepted with only very small revisions. During the revisions he tried to make me write scientifically wrong statements in the paper (prob. to get that rejected). Same when I sent him drafts of my thesis. I finished everything alone, ignored his faulty corrections and submitted the thesis.
After the thesis submission he asked me to not go officially against him and rudely closed the call after trying again to trigger an angry reaction out of me without success.
He delayed the defense as much as he could. Fortunately the defense went smoothly due to the support from the other members of the committee.
*In the past he has multiple times refused to let me submit work in conferences, claiming that he doesn't have time to work on this etc.

Is there some reason your advisor is on this paper?

Is it possible to speak openly with him, and bring the other paper example without him being offended?

@Aruralreader Well we work on something that was his idea. That is another issue because that was not really sth I wanted to work on, but came out from what we were doing and he insisted we publish that

@Alchimista He doesn't consider the journal bad, and actually proposes to send the paper there because they had fast review process. Although I have told him more than once that I don't want to interact with that journal again....
Half of the community finds the journal predatory, half thinks is ok...

It is very important who is right. Maybe it's you, and maybe it is your supervisor. Impossible to judge without reading the paper.

As discussed here, I have shortened the update. The shortening is a moderation action; please do not roll this back or edit it such that it becomes longer. However, within this length limit, you are welcome to make further edits if you like.

" The result is that the gist of the paper got obscured, some big shots read the paper, cited it, but presented the result better, and now they get all the citations."
I read this as "Einstein just put together some previous work in a polished way, and got all the credits for special relativity". Is it what you mean? It is good to have confidence of one own's capabilities, but do not underestimate the amount of work needed to present better some results ... plus, are really big shots that relevant? you see them cited, but how are their postdocs&the likes faring? are they all disruptors?

@EarlGrey We are talking about non-comparable quantities here. See big shots are in Google brain, while my advisor has currently a job in a 3rd trier Uni in UK.
Their PhDs and postdocs have already secure careers whatever happens to them even if only they will rely on the prestige of being affiliated with google brain. We don't have this kind of prestige, so we have to try to communicate our work as effectively as we can.

Are you and your adviser the only two authors for this manuscript? If not, ask for the opinion of the other co-authors. Otherwise, it might be worth asking for the opinion of someone else in your research department: it could help you develop a better manuscript and convince your adviser without having to confront him.
Only caveat: choose your external opinion wisely, someone that your adviser trusts but that will have an honest evaluation of your work.


text:
Falsely Accused of Cheating on a College Final
On Saturday I had a Computer Science final exam. When I finished it and turned it in my teacher told me that she saw online that I had accessed some file from our course (We have notes and our syllabus/grades posted online on a website) during the beginning of the final. I told her no, and that I was in class the entire time and didn’t touch my phone. What could’ve happened was that my phones browser refreshed the page after a change in connectivity or something and it appeared as if I had accessed that random file(since I had a lot of our notes open on my phone beforehand for studying). She wasn’t  hearing any of it and filed a case to my college dean.
After meeting with the dean, he said that unless I have evidence to refute the online access log they have, there is nothing I can do.
My question is, what do I do in this situation? I’ve never felt this helpless since I have no clue how to go about proving against the log, which they count as “hard evidence”. Because of this incident, I’ve failed this class and it was a pre-req for all my classes next quarter.
Does anyone have an idea on what I could possibly do?
EDIT FROM A COMMENT:
OP reports "Unfortunately I failed that class but nothing besides that happened." Happy ending, sort of.

If you really did not cheat, then it is really bad luck... because it seems you can not do much unless you have plenty of money and good lawyers but even with this way (which I don't recommend), it is unlikely that it will be fixed before next quarter.

Not having the phone in the exam would have been a good starting point...

@SolarMike Almost everyone has their phone in the exam room, had I known this could happen I would've shut it off. It was just in my pocket on silent.

@YYY I truly didn't, but what can I even say that hasn't already been said? It just really sucks that I'm blamed for something completely out of my control. I had no reason to access that random file as it had almost nothing of importance

It may be worth asking the IT people at your school to check their logs to see if they can determine whether there was some event likely to trigger an automatic refresh.

Did the access really come from your phone? Do you have any more information regarding the logs? Having an (automated) tool accessing/downloading/updating/indexing files from your home system is not forbidden...

I ask all students to leave their phones at the front of the room - pages can update as often as ... no harm that way...  But it seems like the addiction to a smartphone is worse that alcohol or cigarettes... S we have AA - what will the smartphone equivalent be... any suggestions?

You could set up a demonstration showing how your phone’s browser loads pages even when the phone is in sleep mode. That ought to be pretty convincing.

@DanRomik I offered exactly that, but then they said “How can we know if that’s what happened?” What do I even say to that?

You can say that if they don’t know if that’s what happened then they don’t know you are guilty of cheating and therefore cannot punish you. Just knowing that you may have cheated is meaningless, the same is true for any other student.

@DanRomik I guess the college academic judicial process works differently because they’re treating me as “guilty” before innocent and I have to give enough evidence to completely overrule the log, but that is of course impossible. This is equivalent to Google logging your searches and then pinpointing the fact that you searched for something at a certain time. It is possible that your previous search was completed again because the page refreshed, but there is no concrete proof of that happening. The only proof is the log and that’s against me at the moment.

I don’t know what college you’re at, but that’s not how things work at any place I’m familiar with. The burden is on them to establish that you‘re guilty with a certain level of confidence - not “beyond reasonable doubt” but at least with more than 50% likelihood. I’ve never heard of a place where it’s assumed you‘re guilty until you prove you’re innocent, and doubt that such a place exists. I advise you to inform yourself on how the judicial process works, then you’ll be in a better position to defend yourself. Don’t just accept that because the dean says something it must be so. Good luck!

@DanRomik The dean I mentioned is directly responsible as to whether there was a violation of the code of conduct and if I more likely cheated than not. I can appeal this to a board as well but he said I wouldn’t have much luck. He also mentioned the 50% thing and he said that I have to establish a “preponderance of evidence” against the log. So basically I’m guilty at this point and have to go out of my way to explain this occurrence which is pretty much impossible. To them, the log is there and I’m instantly been “caught cheating”. Unless my teacher/ head of course trusts me I’m out of luck.

The demonstration I suggested is exactly what you need to establish preponderance of evidence of your lack of guilt, so we’re back to my original advice. Anyway, I said what I had to say and don’t have anything to add. Good luck getting this sorted out.

Most universities will have some sort of quasi-judicial appeal process.  You can try to navigate it yourself, but I would strongly suggest that you find an expert to help you.  Some universities may have an ombudsman or some sort of "public defender" service that provides trained students you can work with.  You could also talk to students or faculty who have experience with the process, or even consider hiring a lawyer.
Part of what you'll want to know is who will judge such a case, what sort of evidence  you can present, and what "standard of proof" is expected.
Some evidence that you could consider trying to present, if possible:

Expert testimony from an impartial person familiar with the online system, to explain that a logged access does not necessarily prove that you actually looked at the information, and to explain how it could happen without your knowledge.  For instance, you might be able to get someone from the university's IT office to testify, or a computer science professor.  (People who work in technical fields are often pretty sensitive to cases where a poor understanding of technology by those in authority results in an injustice, so I think you might not have too hard a time recruiting someone.)
Testimony from other students that they did not see you look at your phone or any other device during the exam
Testimony from the professor as to whether she saw you look at your phone, etc

As for your classes for next quarter, it would be worth it to talk to the instructors of those classes.  You can tell them that you were charged with dishonesty and you are appealing, but that in any case you have learned the course material.  They will typically have the authority to waive the prerequisite requirement, so that you can take their course despite not having passed the previous course, and they might be willing to agree that it serves no purpose to delay your progress through the program by making you retake a course whose material you already learned.  This way you can continue to move through your courses even if your appeal is not resolved before the next term starts.

I am mystified (but not all that mystified) that these academics are computer scientists who cannot decipher or understand what should by rights be a fairly common occurrence in network operations. You apparently consulted something exam-sensitive just prior to the exam, which I guess a lot of students do, and the subsequent glitch apparently affected only yourself, which seems odd. Can someone from your IT shed any light?
In the days when I invigilated exams, phones went into bags and bags had to be left at the front of the room, and I continually made sure there were no devices on the desks and no students were fiddling with something in their laps. Your institution's apparent failure to instate such bread and butter measures is appalling and something you might want to bring up.

In all fairness, browsers don't just randomly reload pages. There's an extra layer of silliness in this whole situation: what's there to prevent the student from downloading the file and access it during the exam without it showing in the server logs? I find it hard to believe that the OP idea of how it happened is how it actually happened without them ever touching the phone or anything (even a home PC waking from sleep would be more feasible). The policy itself, however, sounds dumb anyway.

Oh wow I didn’t expect a comment on this again haha, this happened more than 2 years ago and I already graduated. Unfortunately I failed that class but nothing besides that happened. @Lodinn exactly, I could’ve just as easily just downloaded everything in advance and access that. But the whole thing was bizarre, no one saw me looking at my phone, and the only thing they had was that log showing I accessed the file(which had nothing of value for the exam, fyi) I’m pretty sure it was because of my jailbroken iPhone and Safari+ tweak that caused this but I remember being able to reproduce it

All's well what ends well I suppose :)

@Lodinn: I discovered my cell phone browser has the behavior OP described.


text:
Is it OK to ask the professor I am applying to for a recommendation letter?
I am in the final year of my master's and the professor who supervised my bachelor's thesis is offering a PhD position that I would like to apply to (the professor even encouraged me to do so).
They ask for two letters of recommendation, but this professor is basically the only person that could write an LOR for me (since I haven't really had contact with other professors apart from going to their lectures, so they probably don't even know my name).
Ignoring the problem that I don't know a second person I could ask for a LOR for now, is it weird to ask the professor I am applying to for a recommendation? It feels kind of weird, but he is offering the position together with another professor who doesn't know me, so maybe it's okay?

to the random reader of the future: this question has been posed after 2 years of (mostly draconian) measures against Covid. Master students had the toughest possible time to build potential relations with unknown persons from a different age and demographic groups, as well as being on the weak side of a power relation (professors are still professors, even in 2022 in the federal democratic country of Germany).

@EarlGrey: I upvoted your comment since I think you*re making an important point. For the record, I would like to add, though, that I think your comment would have been even better without the - very subjective - qualification "mostly draconian".

Who supervised your Master's thesis?

Just an example to show you are not the only person in this situation. This professor thought it was amusing enough to tweet about, but did not seem to think it a problem: https://twitter.com/BarakShoshany/status/1620108712487825409

Ignoring the problem that I don't know a second person I could ask for a LOR for now, is it weird to ask the professor I am applying to for a recommendation? It feels kind of weird, but he is offering the position together with another professor who doesn't know me, so maybe it's okay?
Two major caveats to my answer:

I am not familiar with the German academic system.
Graduate admissions cany vary greatly by program, even within the same university.

In the US for most natural resource programs (my own background), I would view this as okay because the application process is more of a formality at many programs if a professor wants a student and the student meets the minimum program requirements.
I understand this situation seems weird to you, and it is. But, I would personally take the easy wins in life when you get them. The professor seems to know you and you know the professor. Hence, you are both known to each other.

Thank you for your answer. From yours and the other answers I conclude that the best thing would be just to ask the professor about this and that‘s what I wanted to do anyway but I thought it can’t hurt to ask a few experienced people about their view. So thanks again to you and the other people that answered!

At least sometimes, afaik often, applying to German phd positions is more like applying for a job.

@nanananille Not all Professors in Germany like the System. If you know the Professor just try to speak with him/her and indicate that you would be very interested to apply. See the reaction. If it's positive you can mention that you saw the requirement for the Recommendation letter and ask about it. In German,y the formalities, and requirements might differ per university, even per department. Some times the job is already planned for someone particular, other times its really open. If they know your work from before and if it was good you might have a good chance.

Ask the professor for advice rather than a rec letter.
They're going to be more familiar with the hiring/admissions process than any of us here are. The situation is rather simple to explain, as you've done here: one of the best-positioned people to write you a letter of recommendation is the very person you are applying to work with.
In cases where it would be appropriate for them to write the letter, they can offer to write it. That may make the most sense when the applications are judged by some other committee. In case the primary decision making is really up to the professor (and perhaps their colleague) and the letters are more of a formality, they can say this and you can collect some other less-than-stellar letters without worrying too much, or maybe they'd still write the letter just so it's on file and can be referred to if there is ever a question about hiring practices at the institution. Or, it may be that they ask that you have outside letters and then write their own additional letter as sort of a "friend of the committee" notice offering to fund/admit you to their supervision.
For what it's worth, when I applied to PhD programs (in the US) I also applied to my undergraduate institution (though I ended up going elsewhere). My letter writers included the chair of admissions for that graduate program, and another professor there - I can't see who else I would have asked, and this didn't raise any concerns, but also this is the sort of program where students are admitted to an overall program rather than directly to a lab. Occasionally in my field, students are sometimes admitted directly to a lab when a professor has funding for that student. In that case, I'd still expect them to write a letter, but it wouldn't necessarily be a recommendation letter per se, instead it would be  addressed to the admissions committee basically saying "if you admit this student, I'll pay for them."

I've been in the academic systems of the United States, Canada, and France, and in these systems, I would say: YES, definitely ask for this professor's recommendation.
In these systems, recommendation letters from known professors are very, very important for PhD admission. A recommendation letter from a professor who wants to supervise the student is considered extremely strong. It means that:

someone whom the admissions committee knows personally (and hopefully respects!) vouches for the student; and
the student is guaranteed to have a suitable supervisor in the program.

And to add to that, instead of the members of the admissions committee having to look for a good reason to justify admitting you (which is the typical case with random applicants), they would rather have to come up with very good reasons to be able to justify themselves to their colleague for rejecting you despite his recommendation.
This is the ideal situation for everyone involved: the professor, the admissions committee, and of course, you.