text:
Is a graduate pathway program likely to help for admission to a masters in another field? Is it better than MOOCs or an internship for this purpose?
I am a 4th year Electronics engineering student studying in India. I applied to Master's of Science in computer science programs (I wish to change fields) offered by 11 universities in the US, but my application was rejected by all 11 of them.
One of the important factors (correct me if I am wrong) that I consider is weak in my application is my background. I have no formal background (even though I have lots of informal background) in Computer Science (my university did not encourage Minoring in a second subject).
To address the above stated problem, I am considering enrolling into the "academic graduate pathway program"(by academic I mean that it is not intended to fulfil english language requirements, but to fulfil background requirements for the graduate studies in some field) which is basically an additional year before the Master's program where I will study all the required prerequisites for a Master's program in Computer Science.
The problem is that the cost is an issue. I will have to spend an year's worth of extra money before the Master's.
So, my question :

Is enrolling into the pathway program necessary (and if yes, how much) for improving my chances of getting into a Master's in Computer science program, or would taking online courses on coursera, edx, udacity ... be equivalent (by equivalent I mean would it benefit equally in the admission procedure)?
Hypothetically, if I get an offer for a 6 month research internship in a subject of my interest (Machine Learning - which is what I wish to concentrate on during my graduate studies), will the internship, or studying at the pathway program benefit my application more ?
Are there any other ways, specific to my case, in which I can complete the background requirement, without formally enrolling in such a program ?

This question is likely to be closed, because we don't give recommendations about the suitability of individual programmes to individual people. However, if you edit it to be about pre-master's programmes in general, it might be more suitable for the site.

@DavidRicherby what about now. I edited the question so that it is more general that it was before. If it is, how do I put the question "off hold" ?

It looks better, to me.  Now that you've edited the question, people will vote on whether to re-open it or not.

There are pathway programs in the US for international students who lack the English language skills to be admitted normally. Then there are other "pathway" programs not specifically targeted to international students, that focus on preparing students for graduate-level coursework and research. (Sometimes these target minority students.) Which kind are you referring to?

@ff524 I am referring to academic pathway program, not the english language pathway program.

MOOCs don't mean much for admissions; see How do the completion of online courses impact a Master's application?

Have you considered a "computer science conversion masters"?

My experience with interviewing/selecting candidates to enter a masters program (in social science, it may be different in computer science) is that the process can be highly variable, and candidates may be rejected for a range of reasons ranging from test scores, to a lack of experience, to not filling out admission paperwork properly, and, unfortunately, discrimination due to ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, etc.
Different programs have different mentalities toward admitting students, some programs might want you to apply two years in a row, because they decided that this is an indication that you are "more serious".
So... It might be safe to assume that your lack of background is the problem (particularly since you were rejected 11 times), however, the only way to know for sure is to ask the admission committees.
In my experience, graduate programs in the U.S. will NEVER tell you why you were rejected, because doing so places them at legal risk. However, they will respond if you ask them "What can I do to strengthen my application between now and the next admission cycle?".
With regard to how you can get experience - many faculty members I talk with don't consider MOOCs legitimate at this time. This may be different, depending on where you are applying. Personally, I would advise you to seek education at a brick and mortar institution, if you can afford to do so.
You mention prerequisites - in my experience this term generally refers to a course that is required to take another course. Thus, prerequisites are typically taken at the same university as a graduate program in which you are enrolled, as credits won't always transfer. What you are describing seems to be taking general coursework.
Unfortunantly, there is a hierarchy in higher education. In my experience it goes:

Research 1 Universities (ranked by the Carnage foundation)
Other universities
Community colleges
Online programs

With option one being the most prestigious and most expensive and option four being seen as the least prestigious, and also the least expensive.
In summary:
1. Ask the graduate programs what you can do to strengthen your application.
2. Engage in the behaviors that the programs tell you to.

It might be a year, but are there that many pre-reqs in total?  Isn't it just 3 to 4 courses?  Regarding admission, if you want to continue for a master's at that school offering the pathway program, and if that program is really competitive, then the pathway program is crucial for you.  The good programs trust their own professors and quality and content of their own courses.  They'll be more convinced of your preparation, if you do well.  However, if you're not aiming very high for a master's, maybe consider cheaper options to fill in your pre-req background.

Just to clear it up, No I do not intend to enrol in the same university which is currently offerring the pathway program (and according to my best knowledge, it is not a very competitive program either). My intention is to apply to other universities, while I complete the prerequisites in a pathway program.

And also, could you please clarify what do you mean by "cheaper options ?"

cheaper meaning doing the pre-reqs at a college near you -- just so long as the classes are not from a two-year community college (these types of classes are not considered competitive by master's programs, I think.)  You should also really try to reach out to your target schools, let them know of your situation, e.g., being recently rejected, and find out what's the best plan for you to apply / reapply.

the extra costs of a pathway program, in the long run, may be a good investment -- unless you were going for a humanities degree.

The more important question is that can taking "online courses" be considered as a replacement for a premaster's program ? Because it isn't only about the money, but a lot of other things that drive me against the pathway program. So, I am really trying to avoid enrolling in one. Hence, looking for all the possible alternatives until I am sure there aren't any.

Also about "taking pre requisites at a college near me", I don't know why but there is no such system in India. I did consider this before but there is no way I can do it here. Hence, looking at some other way to achieve the same.

Good question - that's not something I can answer for you.  You'll have to ask the schools directly to get the best answer.  Anything else I say would just be pure speculation.  But my gut feeling is that at some of the top schools they are still guided by tradition and will want to see that you've done pre-req coursework at a traditional school - as good a school as possible, so that they can assess your competitiveness.


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How to get confidence in myself after making several errors?
I am a PhD student in mathematics. I was always brilliant in my studies. Now, I have a problem consisting in doing wrong things without paying attention.
For example, I was asked to do some computations, and I did and checked but after sending an e-mail to my supervisor, I discovered that it missed other details.
Also, I submitted a paper to two journals and it was rejected, but one of them I selected without asking my supervisor and after hearing this he was so angry. I know, he is right but I tried to be responsible for my work and
each time I tried to work better and give a good result.
I commit many errors in small details and that is why I lost confidence in myself. My supervisor is always blaming me, but he doesn't know that I did all my best. I don't know how to solve this problem and to make me confident in myself? Maybe my problem is essentially the way that I should learn to complete my thesis successfully.

I see three different issues in what you have described:

You make some mistakes in computations.  That happens to all of us, but whether you should be concerned about it depends on what type of mistakes you are making.  You need to look at what mistakes you are making and how, and see whether they are "sloppy" mistakes (in which case you can develop a checklist for yourself to avoid making them) or whether they are just coming form the fact that research is hard.
You submitted to a paper without consulting with your advisor (and maybe dual-submitted as well).  This is a serious problem, especially if you did a simultaneous submission to two journals, which is almost always forbidden and unethical.  If your advisor is a co-author, then you are definitely in the wrong to submit without approval: you are not taking responsibility for yourself, you are denying responsibility to your co-author.  Even if you did not commit either ethical sin, most advisors want to help advise their students, and submitting without consulting is a good way to make mistakes that will reflect badly on both yourself and your advisor.
Your advisor has been angry at you, and you are losing self-confidence.  Maybe you need to lose some of the undergraduate-style self-confidence, and to develop a more mature self-confidence.  What you describe as "being responsible" and "working your hardest" does not actually sound like responsibility to me: it sounds like you are not yet reflecting on how to manage your own behavior and its impact on others.

For all of this, I think self-reflection and learning from your mistakes is the solution.  If you can understand how you have been making mistakes, then you can act to make them less likely in the future, and all three of these issues are likely to improve.

Thanks @jakebeal to your advices and I certainly appreciate and consider  it!

Look at the kinds of problems you're having, figure out what general category each belongs to, alter your procedures to prevent that kind of error happening again. Repeat as necessary until you have reliable results. Publish. (And consider including a "lessons learned" section so others can benefit from your failures as well as your successes.)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Applying to Ph.D. programs: Should I include my master's degree transcript?
I am trying to get into a Ph.D. pure mathematics program in the U.S. I have a Master’s degree in mathematics. It took me a decade to figure out I do not see myself being happy without doing mathematics and teaching in a full-time job. I don’t care about getting into an Ivy League or solving famous problems. I would be perfectly fine teaching anywhere and exploring a problem no one really cares about. Given that I have already made up my mind about applying to Ph. D. programs, I have a problem I would like advice for.
My problem: I have a Master’s degree in pure mathematics, but my grad school GPA is a 3.03. It was a painful period of my life as I was diagnosed with a personality disorder and endured strong medication regiments.
Would it be detrimental to me to include my graduate school transcript in my Ph.D. applications? In this case, I would essentially be applying only showing my Bachelor’s degree (where my GPA was a 3.32).
If I do not include my graduate transcript in my applications (apply as if I only have a Bachelor’s degree), the fact I have a Master’s degree will likely be revealed in my resume/vitae, letters of recommendation, the fact it is required to teach at the level I currently teach, or somewhere else. Thus, the schools may ask me for my transcript. Or perhaps not, I do not know.
Can someone please offer me advice on what I could do?

Most grad schools require you to list transcipts from each school previously attended. If they do require it, not listing it will likely be seen as academic dishonesty and a disqualification for your application.

You do need to include your Master's transcripts when applying for a PhD.
Aside from the academic dishonesty issue of not including your transcripts, having taken many of the core courses at the graduate level will make you a more attractive candidate, as they will know that you do not need to take remedial coursework before beginning doctoral-level studies.  Having the Masters will also make it a lot easier to get teaching assistantships, since those often go first to those who already have Master's degrees.  Your letters of recommendation, too, need to come from academic references for your PhD (not supervisors or coworkers or general character references), so you will need to get letters from your Master's degree professors that can speak to your potential/experience as both a researcher and as a graduate student.  So I would say a definitive yes to including the transcripts.
The second question you need to consider is about whether to address extenuating circumstances in your application.  I think it is helpful to address, but only insofar as it presents you in a more positive light; that your disability helps you to better understand the situations that your students face, that your health issues have helped to build your resilience so that you'll be capable of long term study and research, etc...  This might be especially important to include if you have obvious "red flags" on your transcript like withdraws or incompletes - so that they both know there's extenuating circumstances but also know that those same circumstances are not going to wash you out of the doctorate.  (Which is why you'd always want to portray those circumstances as an asset rather than a liability). So this one is a little more complicated and will require a lot of thought to deal with in your application statements.

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


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Is it advisable to start graduate school with a dependent family?
I am an Electrical Engineering undergrad at one of the better engineering schools in the US. Now I have some background I want to explain, and I'll try to keep it brief. Back during high school I was taking classes at a community college, and easily completed all of the requisite courses for transferring into a STEM program. The problem at the time was that I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I left academia and went on my own route for a good couple of years. I never thought I would look back.
Fast forward to the future. I am married and have three children. My wife and I decided that I should look into all those credits from community college. Fortunately, there is no 'expiration date' on lower division math courses, physics, etc. So I was able to transfer, and ended up where I am now.
When I got here, I was already (at least) 30. Having been in the work force and bringing up a family, I was used to pushing myself and getting things done. So it seemed natural that being in college was difficult. It was not the courses, however, that caused problems. For example, my first math course in 10 years was vector calculus, and I completely aced that course, receiving near perfect scores on the exams. Rather, the university is optimized for the student who is just barely in his 20's, the "traditional" student.
I am a "non-traditional" student, and have come up against institutional barriers. This makes sense, since there are tens of thousands of undergrads around here, but only a handful of them have dependents. But still, not fair. Without mincing words, some professors have said that when you have kids, your life is over. Obviously some of these professors never had kids. How to make people understand that when you start a family, life does not end!!! Also, the looks on the faces of those 20-year-olds when I tell them my age, and my situation. (Most people think I'm in my early 20's - I look young.)
My focus in Electrical Engineering for grad school would be in communications. I love math. I am a big fan of our pure math department, and although I am up against a unit limit, I have taken some first year graduate level courses in pure (not applied) math. I am also interested in RF/microwave circuits, in particular MEMS devices. I have research experience, letters of rec, and an okay GPA (3.5). I'm in a summer research program right now, doing MMIC work. I know how to code, I can use version control systems on group projects, and do everything in latex.
I would like some candid advice on whether or not I should apply to grad school. On the one hand, I believe that being a parent necessitates organization, focus, and communication (the latter, with the wife :-) ). These qualities, it seems, are a good fit for grad school. Having a partner can also be advantageous in that I won't have to go through it all alone, and I know that some grad students struggle with this. On the other hand, well, some might say that I should just go find a job and have my family.
My children are young now, and we have lived at housing for students with family. It has been a great environment for all of us. But I also feel like if after graduation I found a job, then they might not want to come back, after having lived in "the real world". I would also like to hear what other grad students have to say, whether or not you have children or a spouse/partner.
tl;dr I am in my mid thirties, finishing up an engineering degree, have wife and kids, want some advice on grad school yea or nay.

I think there are two questions here - one about easing the transition to graduate school for your family, and one about representing yourself in graduate admissions. The StackExchange way is one question per post. I've therefore edited this post to remove the second question, about graduate admissions - please ask it in a separate, independent post (though you can link to this one for context!)

I think I've identified a question that covers this post pretty thoroughly, so I've marked it as a duplicate. If you disagree, please [edit] or comment to clarify how your question is different from the linked post, and the question may be reopened.

You're right, I have two questions here. That other post did clarify things. I'll keep reading and ask the other part later... Did I mention I really appreciate this site? ;-)


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How should I cite an archived webpage?
While researching for an article, I came across an interesting post forum post which I wanted to use as a reference.
Before I could finish my article, the forum site I wanted to reference was officially shut down, making the aforementioned forum post inaccessible.
Thankfully I was able to find an archived version of the post on The Wayback Machine, but I'm not exactly sure how to reference it.
How should I cite an archived version of a webpage if the original webpage is no longer available? Should I add a "Date Accessed" note to my original citation, or should I cite the archived version instead?

I would consider doing both - the original (usually with a date accessed anyway these days - although I don't do much website citing), and a note that it is still available (as of your article) on the Wayback machine at the given address.
Now, it is always (sadly) possible that Steam would consider requesting the Wayback folks to delete their listing in the future, but it provides a hint.
Further, I'm surprised that Steam did not migrate the old site over to their new site, but that might have been a lot of work.

Can you provide an example of what this type of dual-citation might look like?

The first part of the citation is what your style would do for a web page in general, with your date of access. Then, after a period of semicolon (again, based on that style) indicate that it is still available at the Wayback URL as of date XYZ. This is not so different from the more complex citations for, say, Russian journals translated in to English, where it is best form (usually) to give the Russian citation, and then the translated citation.


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Computer Science Papers - English Language Quality
Do you have any suggestions on how it is possible for a non-English speaker to publish a paper in a top-level journal without asking a native speaker to professionally edit the paper and fix the mistakes?
CONTEXT:
I wrote a couple of papers and each time the reviewers asked for professional English editing. On the other hand, I have read many published papers written by non-English speakers whose English level is similar or worse than it is in my papers, which makes me wonder. I'm getting the feeling that it is not fair for non-English speakers to be forced to pay for professional English editing (not to say that it is not always effective, as I've already had my paper pass through a professional translator).
Edit: To be more clear, my point is that in certain journals reviewers/editors use the English language as a reason to reject some papers, while certain papers with similar English level seem to get accepted. I do not want to get into details about what are the motives for that and what kind of publishing politics is behind that, I want to point out that it is a bad thing for science because native and non-native English speakers are not in the same position. English skills should not be used as a reason to reject any paper.
I understand that situation in academic publishing is not ideal, but all good people should do something to make it better and not pretend as nothing is happening. In my opinion, there are many bad things in academic publishing but the English language quality is one of the worst. Maybe we can not change the publishing politics, but we can eliminate the English language quality as a reason for paper rejection.

Nobody forces you to pay for professional editing. Writing English on a sufficient level to participate in the scientific discourse is a learned skill. Just like with many other skills you need for research (for example, programming or lab-work skills), you can either learn the skill or outsource them to some payed agency.

Was your paper rejected for english reasons ?. Having couple of papers rejected from top journals is not unusual.

@mystupid_acct The paper which was accepted at the end after professional English editing, had only that one problem after the review. Other papers are still not accepted because i have to do revision, but reviewers constantly ask for better English. I hope it is a "normal" thing for new authors to be rejected because of such reasons, but i can't be sure about that.

This is a strange post!  At first, you seem critical of authors who publish papers written with poor English.  Then you suddenly veer off into frustration with editors who have asked you to clean up your English. Regarding that last part, imagine that someone is trying to publish in your native language, but doesn't seem to have checked his text with a native speaker, with the result that some of the sentences make no sense, some require a lot of work to understand, and some have mistakes that make you laugh.  Yuck! //  Communicating effectively with others is hard work and takes real effort.

@aparente001 , s/he didn't write anything critical of authors who publish with poor English. You simply jumped into conclusions and took the chance to sound aggressive, imho. (Communicating effectively also involves effort for understanding.)

@Helen - Well, I am definitely having trouble understanding OP's point of view on this.  On the one hand, s/he describes having read many published papers with a poor level of English.  On the other hand, s/he is not happy about being required to obtain editing services for journal submissions.  I do find this confusing.

@aparente001 I think s/he means that there are random standards applied to the language level.

@Helen - Okay, there's no doubt that there's inconstency in journals' expectations and standards -- but I think OP would get a better reception to the question if s/he edited the question to have a less confusing point of view, and a more clearly defined question.  Right now it sounds like a bit of a dual rant.

I just edited the question making it more clear, in an effort to have it off-hold. Imho what the OP was asking was clear since the beginning, therefore I ask for the question to get off-hold. (I am afraid that s/he fell victim of his subjective phrasing, which shouldn't be a reason to hold an otherwise excellent academia-related question.)

I can't tell from this question whether OP is saying that the reviewers ask for prof. editing and reject based on that requirement (implied) or whether they accept a paper, but still ask for better editing (possible).  As I mentioned in a comment on my answer, I've often asked for a paper to be better edited by someone strong in English, but I've only rarely found it so unreadable that I rejected it solely on that basis.  It does happen.  // But whether it's rejected or simply advised to do better, I think it is fair for English language publications to try to publish readable papers.

A few points.

As a reviewer,  I have often been frustrated by the quality of the English and requested that it be edited better.  It is hard to review papers with extremely poor grammar and it will be even harder as a published paper.
That being said,  I totally sympathize with the problem of authors who aren't native English speakers!  I couldn't possibly write a paper in another language.

So I think it is both fair and unfortunate to require English papers in English conferences to meet a minimal standard.  A fact of life.
What can be done?

As someone commented,  it's a learned skill,  and your English skills improve over time.
You may have colleagues with better language skills who can help.
You can pay someone.
Here's possibly a new idea,  or perhaps this is already done:  perhaps English speakers who have sympathy for non-English speakers without the financial resources can copy edit pro bono.  Someone would have to set up a site to play matchmaker.
[EDITED to add an excellent comment and summarize it in the answer].  Some universities and institutions offer proofreading services to their faculties: check if there is one in your home university. – Massimo Ortolano

I could see myself volunteering for such a task once in a while,  like a paper every month or two.  But I'm not prepared to support a site to automate the matches,  which would be necessary.  Maybe i can talk my teenager into doing it....

This is a really excellent idea. Although I'm not a native speaker I've helped with acquaintances' papers several times and I could see myself contributing ~1 per month through such a site - and I guess there are several other volunteers. Of course if someone sets it up it'll be even easier :) but in any case I'll catch up and see if this can go somewhere.

One resource is English Language Learners SE: https://ell.stackexchange.com/

Btw I found this: http://www.sciencedit-dw.org/ They require a donation to non-profits and seem to deal with more than just language, so the focus is a little different.

@aparente001 lol, swype strikes again.

Some universities and institutions offer proofreading services to their faculties: check if there is one in your home university.

@Massimo Ortolano No, there is not such a service at my university, but anyway, it would not be helpful. After writing my papers i always send it to professional English translator who is not a native English speaker, but their English level should be better than mine. Each time the reviewers wrote that i should improve English language. Once i sent the paper three times to English translator and again they found problems with English quality. I feel like an idiot and i believe many non-English speakers feel like that. Nobody respects our time.

@Backward No it's a bit different: in my university the author works side-by-side with the proofreader to improve the manuscript.

Backward,  you need a better proofreader ..

@Massimo Ortolano Simply, we don't have a native English speaker to proofread. We are forced to pay for that or to find someone who is willing to do it for free. I thought an advanced English level would be enough for journals, but obviously i was wrong.

@Fred Douglis It seems i need a native English speaker to proofread, not just someone whose English is on advanced level. That is the problem.

@Backward what I meant by better is, one good enough not to get these complaints. Most native speakers may qualify though I've known Americans who can't write at all. Some non-native speakers learn it so well they write like a native.

Can you provide a couple of sentences? This sounds very weird. Or, you had the bad luck to come across some scammer.

@Helen, I assume you're asking Backward to provide text that the editor thought was acceptable but the reviewer thought was bad English?  I don't think it's weird at all, nor a scammer, necessarily.  It can just be someone who thinks more of their English ability than they should, but that being said, they may still be sufficiently better than the author that they can turn something that is unreadable into something merely objectionable.  I've reviewed things with numerous errors that I said need better editing, but I've also (rarely) reviewed things that were so unreadable that I gave up.

@FredDouglis , yes, it's true that they might not be a scammer. But what strikes me as weird is that the OP's English is already rather good, to a level that even better English (by a pro) wouldn't get rejected by a journal. So I wonder if there's some actual text. But maybe this is getting too long...


text:
Slides for conference talk with no affiliation
It is (of course) a rule that the speaker's affiliation appears alongside their name in their presentation at a conference.
What's the best practice in the case of no current affiliation? Did you have personal instances, either as speaker or audience?
(Please note: The question is not about publications, which has already been discussed e.g. here.)
EDIT:
Saying that one can simply write their name and nothing else should be obvious and straightforward to everyone. What the question is about is suggestions that either look better than this "trivial solution", or address the fact that it is unusual.

It is (of course) a rule — Nope.  It is, of course, a custom.

@JeffE is it sure that this comment contains information? :) Of course everything is a custom unless it is written in a law or you have signed something about it.

What I mean is: It's not a rule in the sense that violating it has serious consequences.  (As opposed to faking your data, plagiarism, claiming credit for other people's work, gift authorship, double publication, and similar breaches of professional ethics, none of which violate the law or any prior written agreement.)  Having only your name on the title slide is fine.

@JeffE Imho this longer comment offers more (maybe work it into an answer?). However, the issue of this option being protrudingly unusual should ideally be addressed.

@DSVA let me repeat that this is not about a publication: In publications one should mention the affiliation at the time of research. In a conference though, mentioning an affiliation which is not current would be a quite serious mistake.

@Helen not really. If the presentation relates to something you did on a sabbatical, for instance, you list it, mentioning both your affiliations. If you don't have another, you list the former one. As long as you don't claim  that the affiliation is current, it isn't a "serious mistake"...

On the edit: The cover up is often worse than the crime. By trying to "spin" the situation differently you might end up leading to misinterpretations. There is nothing wrong with having no affiliations...

@FábioDias : I'm afraid I don't get the point - which cover up? As I wrote in the comment to which you replied, pretending to have an affiliation when you don't is undesirable.

@Helen it is just an expression. Again, if you were working at an institution during the development of the work, you are affiliated to the place for that work.

I will base my answer upon a statement from the OP's comments:

In a conference though, mentioning an affiliation which is not current would be a quite serious mistake.

As I have expressed before in another answer, I do not see any reason why an "affiliation" needs to be something explicitly formalized, or why affiliations need to be mutually exclusive.
As such, I disagree with the above statement.
At least in fields where the conference paper is an actual publication, and the presentation is simply a part of paper publication via the conference, basically, the author details (including affiliation) in the conference presentation on a paper should be the same as those indicated on the paper.
Some information can be added, though:

The author who presents the paper in the conference may be highlighted.
If someone other than one of the authors presents the paper, their name may be listed on the presentation (in such a way that it is clear they are the presenter and none of the authors).
And, to address this question, if someone would like to update their contact or other details, they can indicate the changes during the presentation.

Lastly, for what it's worth, when you present a paper on a conference and that paper was created as a part of your work in your previous job, you are affiliated with that previous employer by the very act of presenting on behalf of your former position.
Therefore, I suggest the following course of action:
List your affiliation as it is stated on the paper.
Next to that, add something like "(now independent researcher)".

Thanks, this is definitely an alternative, although it leads me to rephrase the question: Has someone had personal experience, either as presenter or audience, of such a case? How out-of-place/commonplace did it look?

@Helen: I have seen quite some presentations where the presenter would say something like "While the slides here say I'm at University A, which is where I worked on the work I talked about, you can actually find me at University B since last week." I cannot name any specific examples because it did not strike me as unusual in the least.

Yes, but changing affiliation is different.

@Helen: How so? I fail to see the difficulties you seem to perceive.

The most effective solution I have seen is use geographic locations instead of institutions. This also solves the issue of listing every affiliation a particular speaker has if they have more than a couple appointments or titles (or even if they have recently moved to a new institution, perhaps).

I think that what you mention applies a lot more to publications (see also link in the question). I wonder if this has been sighted at a conference.

Geographic locations might (subconsciously) be mistaken for universities or institutes "commonly connected" with that location.

If you developed the work during your work at a specific institution, by not specifically mentioning it you are effectively "robbing" that institution of deserved credit. IMHO, there are no shortcuts, the best way is to actually be truthful and say "work developed at XXX". As long as you don't lie (even by omission), it should work. And institution<-> location isn't a bijection, that would just open the way for misinterpretations...

@FábioDias I think that of all the answers+comments up to now this is the most substantial. However, again, I am afraid that the focus of the original question was not made clear to you. The focus is not "how do I omit the previous institute"; the focus is "what is a good-looking [for lack of another word] way for no current institute".

Yes, I provided this answer as a solution to the problem of not having a current affiliation. Individual parts of work should be identified in the context of where they were produced to give full credit.

For the record, I eventually only wrote my name on the slides.
In my intro I mentioned verbally my field (which was still physics, but a different field than that of the conference), and I have the feeling that this made the matter even more trivial to the audience's eyes. In any case the issue didn't arise in any of the subsequent discussions.

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text:
I am preparing for my PhD applications, and my referee passed away unexpectedly. What should I do?
I am now preparing for my PhD applications to be submitted soon later this year. I recently was informed that one of my academic referees passed away quite unexpectedly.
The late professor was a great teacher and a wonderful person all round, in addition to being very well respected in my field. After recovering from my initial response to the news, I now have to decide who could write for me instead. I consider myself having done quite well and participated actively in the professor's class, hence the letter would have been quite positive.
I have considered asking my other tutors who have taught me in university, but I had not done as well and we were not as close, so I don't expect there would be credible or indeed useful details to be included in their recommendations. I have also considered asking my current supervisor (at another university) to write for me, though I have only been working for them since this summer.
Therefore my questions are:

What should I do and expect now?
How should I bring this up in my applications? Or should I? I certainly would consider it crass to include him anywhere on my CV or personal statement.

I have read discussions on situations where advisors passed away (e.g.1, e.g.2), but think my situation here is a little different, since I am still in the process of preparing for my applications and this was the first time he would write recommendation letters for me (he did not leave a letter, obviously). Hope this is ok.
I hope this question does not come off as insensitive, as I am at a loss thinking what to do next.

To add to the actual answers: your question is not insensitive at all.  It’s respectful to the late professor, and is an important practical question you need to deal with.

Similar question, which links to some more similar questions: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42208/i-graduated-last-year-and-my-advisor-passed-away-unexpectedly-soon-after-what-s

Thanks. To incorporate @Roboticist 's suggestion, would it be appropriate to state on my CV (Supervised by the late Professor X). [project details] ?


text:
I am unable to submit online quizzes on time due to technical difficulties, and it is negatively affecting my mental health. Can I get extra time?
I am an undergrad student taking a chemistry class. We have a 50 minutes quiz every week during the discussion section. The TA usually emails this quiz to us, and while my class is at 1:00 pm, the TA usually emails it to us at 1:01 pm. So, once I get the quiz on the email, I need to print it out (it takes some time to print out) then I start working on it. Usually, I try to finish the quiz by 1:48 pm so I can camscanner it, then email it or airdrop it to my computer, and then send it before 1:50 pm, because after 1:50 pm it considered to be a late submission which results in a zero for the quiz.
This is challenging:

One time, I finished it at 1:48 pm, and at 1:49 pm I emailed it back to my TA. However, for some reason, the email was received late, and the quiz appeared to have been submitted at 1:51 pm. The TA gave me a zero for late submission, and I had to go to the professor to receive a full grade.

For the next quiz, I thought writing an exam on an iPad would be much faster instead of printing, scanning, and emailing it. But, the file was too big for Gmail, so it took some time to upload. So I airdropped it to my computer and emailed it to the TA. My exam was 1 minute late again. I sent him an email right away with the screenshot that the file is big so it took a long time to upload.

Today was the third time that this put me into hysterics. I went back to printing, camscanning, airdropping, and emailing. But, airdropping didn't work, so I emailed it to myself and sent it to the TA from the school email. Once again I wrote him a huge email with explanation and as well with proofs with time. My hands were shaking so as my head, I started crying because this was my third time when the devices are glitching, and I was going to get a zero again.

How can I get more time for the quizzes?

Who the hell is making students take tests this way??

This does not answer your precise question, therefore only as comment: I strongly recommend asking to run a series of practice runs with the setup you will use in an assessment to test the options. It should be precisely in the same form as you will use the computer/paper/scanner. Familiarize yourself with the setup. Do not use unfamiliar computers in an exam. Practice with them first. You have enough to worry about answering the questions, handling the infrastructure should be routine.

Hi Darina, (1) I edited your question down because it was very long (and likely attracting close-votes). (2) In the end, we don't really need the details of each of your attempts to answer. (3) We generally anonymize posts, so I removed the name of your school and classes - although I'm astonished a major US university is delivering tests this way a year into the pandemic. (4) As Dan's answer discusses, getting more time on exams is a different question than what to do about a dumb/unfair way of delivering quizzes. Since you only discuss weekly quizzes and their specific format, ...

... I removed the part about "exams" since you didn't mention how they're delivered, so it's not clear whether the same answer would apply. Good luck, and I sincerely hope you get this resolved.

How long does it take your classmates to answer the quiz?

@AzorAhai-him- I do although I usually give them 90 minutes.  How would you propose setting up an online test where students have to show their work in a technical subject like math?

The "zero credit for one minute late" part is the ridiculous part. Having students create electronic copies by the method of their choice, and email it in, is completely reasonable, if part of the help the students get in a course is about coping with "the tech". And, yes, there will inevitably be people who try to game the system by claiming "tech problems", but that shouldn't cause us to be heavy-handed in rule-making.

@G.Allen Pretty much any other way than this.

@AzorAhai-him- Well that was insightful.  Actually teaching an online math or science class would help to clarify your understanding of appropriate assessment methods.

@G. Allen Sounds like you'd benefit from reflecting on whether your assessment method is a good one.

About your actual question, yes, there is a way to get extended time based on having anxiety during exams or related things (although I cannot make any guesses as to whether you would qualify given your specific situation). Here is what I think is the relevant office at your university to consult about that.
About the broader context to your question, this situation is very sad and unfortunate. I think your instructors are probably unaware of how badly their tech cluelessness is affecting their students. If they are aware, then treating you and your fellow students this way intentionally seems unconscionable to me.
Given this, I think you should consider going not only to your professor but to someone in your program with the story of how this situation is creating an impossible learning environment for you. I’m sure there are sympathetic, well-intentioned people at your program (e.g., an adviser, undergraduate program chair or vice chair, etc) who have authority and would be able to advocate for you, and would genuinely want to know about and address these types of problems, not just for your sake but for all the students’ sake. I can tell you that just as you are struggling with studying in an online environment, many professors are equally struggling with teaching in such a setting as well, and do not always have everything figured out about addressing the many practical and logistical challenges that come up. Hearing from students about what is working and what isn’t provides vital feedback that would enable them to correct course where appropriate.
Good luck!

This is not "anxiety" as in an anxiety disorder. Going the route you imply in the first paragraph (extending time for OP on personal grounds) is not the way to approach this. But, the rest of the answer is good.

@AzorAhai thanks. I agree with you it’s not a disorder or a disability, the way I see it it’s just a normal person’s way of reacting to the kind of abuse being inflicted on OP. It’s actually unfortunate that US universities stigmatize such normal human traits by calling them disorders, and making that the only route a student can use to ask for extended time on exams. Nonetheless, that is the state of affairs regardless of whether we are happy about it or not, so I stand by the advice I gave. Anyway, if you have another suggestion on how to get extended time, I’m sure OP would want to hear it.

I don't, beyond your second and third paragraphs (which I +1'd for). I'm just saying the disability office is not the right way to approach this. This is a frustrating and dumb way to do assignments (for everyone involved). Seeing a therapist to get a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder (which is not a given) in order to get more time to submit scanned copies of a test is like wearing lifters in your shoes in order to reach the pedals instead of sliding your seat forward.

@AzorAhai-him- ok, once again, I agree, but I was simply answering the literal question being asked. The question was not “should I seek to get diagnosed as suffering from anxiety in order to get extended time on exams” but “is there a way I can legally get extended time”. Yes, there is (in theory) a way, and I described what it is. Thanks for the +1 in any case.

Sure, but we often answer the implied question, not the literal one. I would just hate to see an already flustered student spend time with disability services -- instead of addressing the actual issue -- when that's not the right approach for the scenario as described. Telling the dept a prof isn't teaching well is intimidating, and trying disability services could seem easier, but ultimately is most likely not fruitful for this situation.

@AzorAhai-him- good point.

I'm an undergrad student as well and this type of quizzes have become very familiar over the past year. Giving yourself 2 mins time for the scanning is not enough. I (and my friends in uni) start scanning about 5 mins earlier.
Of course, the problem here is that your professor gives you a 50-minute quiz but sends the question paper late, expects you to print it and then scan it all within the time that is allotted to you for actually answering the quiz.
If the professor has accounted for all this extra work in the 50 mins time limit itself, then there are two possibilities:

If everyone in class is struggling to submit the quiz on time, I think you should all collectively let him know that the time is not enough, and you should ask him for an extra 5-10 minutes for the scan-upload process.
If other students are able to submit it on time, but you are unable to do so, you should follow Dan Romik's answer and get extended time based on exam anxiety issues. However, I believe this is country dependent. My own country does not have any such accommodations but I hope you get them.

If your professor has not accounted for all the extra work in the 50 minutes time slot i.e. it takes 50 minutes to just answer the questions and not all the other printing and scanning stuff, then it would be very surprising if your classmates are able to manage the time well. In such a situation, you all will be struggling. Make sure to collectively, as a class, request for an extra 5-10 minutes for the print-scan-upload aspect of the quiz. My uni does this (and I suspect many others as well).
Overall, in the unfortunate situation that your professor does not show leeway and provide extra time, make sure to start scanning 5 minutes before the quiz is due. Missing one or two questions is better than getting a zero on the quiz.

The last paragraph is really the key to minimize the damage when all else fails.

While this is an unusual way to conduct quizzes in an academic environment, it is letting you practice some new skills in time management and risk management, so I do not share the strong opposition of others to the practice.  I also think that academics should have wide latitude to set the rules of their assessments, and while it's not how I would do things, I think this probably falls within the scope of reasonable discretion.  (Whilst there may be some "tech cluelessness" at play here, as Dan notes in his answer, I disagree with his strong negative view of the practice.)  I also note that the constraints seem to be the same for all students, so presumably other students are also having to manage the time required to download the quiz and upload their answers.  This effectively just means that the total time available for the substance of the quiz is reduced for all students.
In any case, in view of the difficulties you are experiencing, I would encourage you to form a realistic view of the constraints you are under, and formulate sensible risk-management processes as a response to these constraints.  Here you have a situation where there is a variable time cost for obtaining the quiz and for submission, neither of which you can perfectly predict in advance.  There is also an extremely heavy penalty for late submission.  That set of constraints means that a good risk-management process would be to give yourself a substantial "buffer" (e.g., five minutes) by submitting your quiz early, even if the quality of your submission is poorer than it would have been if you worked a few more minutes on it.  Giving yourself a time buffer will give you some additional time for uploading if things go wrong, which reduces the probability of failure to submit within the allocated time.  From a risk-management perspective, the "buffer" method reduces the quality of your submitted work slightly, in order to substantially reduce the risk of getting zero on the assessment.  If the buffer is set to a reasonable level, this should give you a higher aggregate mark.
While it is unfortunate that you have already lost some marks on this, it tells you something useful: your time management and risk management skills are presently not good.  Risk management and time management skills are important to develop during your education, so I think you have an opportunity here to identify a deficiency in your skills and work to plug it.  For your next quiz, set yourself a buffer of five minutes, and aim to successfully submit your work no later than 1:45pm.  If you can accomplish this, then set a goal to submit all future quizzes successfully within the time constraint, using whatever buffer you judge to be prudent.  If you can look back at the end of semester and see that you managed to improve your time management and risk management on this process substantially then you will have formed a useful skill for your later career, which is something that will be useful, and of which you can be very proud.
Now, to deal with your main question, you can certainly seek additional time if you like, and there are usually formal university procedures for doing so.  You will need a justification for your request, and the mere fact that you are under a difficult time constraint that also applies to other students would not suffice.  Also, negative consequences to your "mental health" (by which you mean, essentially, that you are experiencing stress) caused by the existence of a tight deadline and your poor time management of that deadline, is highly unlikely to give you a valid disability claim.  Based on your question, I see no valid grounds that would justify offering you a time increase.  In any case, I would encourage you to try to adopt better practices here rather than seeking extra time --- give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Your TA wants you should give the exam before 1:50 pm on time. I think he wants that because of discipline , sincerity and maybe you don’t cheat after 1:50 pm.
I understand your problem and I also do have the same thing going on. I have to submit my maths test daily which is from 9:30 to 10:00 pm .It’s all because of online studies.I think the best approach is to :

Talk to your classmates as to how they are dealing with this.

Talk to your teacher and ask for help , guidance. Tell him the problems. Ask for better solutions. Tell him your ideas. He may help you or even maybe give some extra time to everyone or change the pattern. If you’re afraid to talk to your teacher , then remember no matter what , you can’t lose marks right. If you ask , it will also help in building up a bond and they’ll also give you attention.

Always check before if the email is working or not properly. Also , if you’re going to try iPad notes or whatever. Just send one file maybe to your friend or family to be on safe side that everything do works.

If you fear any problems may occur , then give the exam maybe even at 1:45 or 46 pm. It is better to get Sth than 0.

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text:
Conference gave me a talk instead of a poster, but my results don't feel ready
PhD student in Astronomy here, roughly 2 years or so from graduation. I'm going to a significant conference in my subfield this week, and my abstract was accepted for a talk! I initially expected to get a poster slot, so I was excited as this will be my first time giving a talk at a conference (I've done a couple lunch seminars before).
However, now that it's only a few days out, I am extremely nervous. I didn't make nearly as much progress as I thought I would have made when I initially submitted the abstract, and I'm not particularly confident about my results.
I'm terrified that I'll go up there and folks will think "not only is that result wrong, very little substantial work has been done!" I worry that giving a talk about a potentially flawed work-in-progress will do more harm to my reputation than the visibility will do me good. And, with postdoc apps on the horizon, this makes me worried. Do I have reason to be concerned?

What does your advisor say?

@NateEldredge We haven't been able to meet much for the past few weeks due to both of us doing quite a bit of travel. However we did chat today -- she says my plots and slides look fine, but says I don't have much of a result. I tend to agree with her in that I didn't get as far as I wanted. I am also just not sure how much I trust what I do have.

But you should ask her the explicit question you've asked us - does she think this is this enough of a result to be worth presenting, or does she think you should withdraw?

Relax, give the talk, enjoy the experience.

To be honest with you, I can't remember a specific "bad talk" than the one I saw like last week. Really, the trick is in how you present your results. If you talk up "very little substantial work" then that's one thing. If you have some clarity about the meaningfulness of your work, that will reflect well on you. We all know research doesn't go as planned.

Even if someone regards your talk as "bad" and remembers that  when evaluating postdoc applications (unlikely, as you're still 2 years from graduation), they'll take into account that you'll  have corrected whatever made your talk "bad". You'll have done substantial work; you'll have good results; and your adviser and a committee will have determined that your work deserves a Ph.G.

Is it a typical practice in astronomy to submit an abstract about work one hasn’t yet completed and isn’t fairly confident in? Perhaps this uneasiness provides an opportunity to learn from?

@PaulTanenbaum Does your field not have a general division of talks: more complete results and posters: more in-progress work?

Yes, @AzorAhai-him-, but if I were submitting a proposal to describe work that was ongoing, I’d word it clearly enough that the organizers would be sure to understand its relative incompleteness. If they found the effort so interesting that they nonetheless cared to invite a break-out (or, gasp, plenary) talk, then although I might wonder about their judgment, I’d have no concern about presenting “potentially flawed work in progress.”

@Paul Sorry for the negative question, but do you mean your field does or does not have a distinction like I mentioned. || You seem to be taking a strong attitude that the OP did something wrong here ("I'd word it clearly enough"), and I'm not sure why. If you want to leave an answer that says "It sounds like the organizers found your work valuable," that would be appropriate. But, haven't we all had projects that don't go as well as we planned?

@AzorAhai-him-, my yes above meant, “Yes, my field does have such a division.” Of course we have all “had projects that don’t go as well as we planned,” and there isn’t the least shame in that. My only concern here is whether the OP may have oversold in their submission. If not, if they provided a candid assessment of the state of their project, then no problem.

My first suggestion is that you find a way to talk to your advisor, both about whether you should withdraw, and if not, what to say in the talk.
My next, and best, however, is that you be honest in any talk about the state of affairs. If you haven't reached conclusive results, then say so, and indicate that it is still a work is progress. Give the state of the study and what your current expectations are, assuming that is possible.
Even if it looks like the results will be negative, say so. Negative results can be as valuable as positive ones, if they redirect people away from failed approaches. What we learn is important, even if it isn't what we expected to learn.
Give some estimate about when more might be known, even if it is a bit uncertain. Plan on speaking with interested people after the talk, which can lead to future projects and collaborations. Have fun.
Note that with only a few days to go, it might not be possible to withdraw as it would leave a hole in the program. You might, however, inform the conference committee of your misgivings. Depending on the field, and the conference, this situation might be common enough to not be an issue.

Ultimately you have three options:

Give the talk. You can explain that your results are partial and/or preliminary. If you are feeling brave you can welcome feedback.
Write to the conference organisers explaining that you would really rather have a poster, and asking if they can accomodate you
Withdraw completely

The fact that the conference is only a few days away may limit option (2), as the conference organisers are less likely to be receptive to something that affects their programme at the last minute.
The only person who can give you really good advice on these options is your supervisor, because they know both your work and the norms for the conference. For example, at the conferences I go to it is fairly common to have talks about planned work, or work in progress, without results - but I don't know if this is the case at your venue.
Having said that:
If you give the talk, the best case is that it goes over better than you expect, and might yield long-term benefits. The likely worst case is that the audience is bored. Unless conferences in your field are much more vicious than mine, it is unlikely that anybody would hold it against you long term. So you probably have more to gain than to lose.