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Difficult exam and no correlation with lectures and assignments
So there's a Statistics exam in my Uni (in Germany). It's more of an application to Surveying. The Prof. who teaches this class gives really easy assignments which made me believe the exam would be in a similar pattern. We were even given a mock exam and it's a pre-requisite to sit for the main exam. But even this doesn't correspond what's asked in the exam. I gave two attempts already. And this is a nightmare, because in Germany you'll out of the program if you don't pass 3rd attempt too, and you can be kicked out and can never study the same program anywhere in Germany. The last semester, everyone who passed got just a pass grade. So it's like luck and it's terrifying. I passed all the courses except this, which again is a pre-requisite to start thesis. I feel like I have two options, transfer to another Uni, or just toil and give this semester whatever the outcome might be. How do I approach this? Should I talk to the Prof about the assignments and exam has just 0.4 correlation. :(. Super stressed and not able to sleep properly.

Do the other students also struggle with this class (does it have a very low pass rate)? Since you already took the exam twice, did you try to write down the questions after the exam so you can use them for studying this time? Sometimes the student council has old exams available for studying.

Yeah as I already mentioned, the exam has been like a luck, like I'm at a Casino. We have old exam papers but they don't seem to help much. Probably I should contact the student council and see how to take this. We asked for an oral exam and sent a mail for an early exam. I hope they do that atleast.

There's definitely a tradition in some places in Europe that exams should only be passed by people who not only study hard but are also geniuses.  I can see both the pros and cons of this attitude.

Yeah Masters coursework is super intensive. You practically will not have a lot of time to go out unless you make a proper schedule, which you'll have to fit in your already tight schedule.

What is the typical value of the correlation between assignments and exam scores? Does anyone here have an idea? Just to put that figure in perspective.

@FedericoPoloni From my own experience, the subjects that had a high corrolation between assignments/course material compared to the final exam had on average passing rates of 40% and higher. When there was very little, passing rates were between 0 and 15%.

@Squary94 Thanks. What are typical values for "high correlation"?

@FedericoPoloni I am not sure what you are asking here. If it's the distribution of grades, the exams that had very little corrolation to the course material and the exercises provided all had poor grades and really low passing rates. Those that had decent and higher corrolation had a more evenly distributed grade structure with some students scoring really well. However, a high corrolation didn't guarentee high grades but ensured that passing rates at the very least were higher than 40%.

@Squary94 In my understanding, OP is claiming that the correlation coefficient between the assignment scores and the exam scores was 0.4. I am asking if there is a baseline that we can use to tell if this value is unusually low or if it is just normal and unremarkable. It seems that you interpret "correlation" in a different non-quantitative way, though.

@FedericoPoloni I mentioned the correlation as 0.4 so as to express the relativity of lectures to exams. Of course, I didn't make a quantitative study of all the lecture slides and exam papers.

@ThefutureProf I don't understand you, sorry. Where does the number 0.4 come from, exactly? What do you mean with "the relativity of lecture to exams"?

@FedericoPoloni It's out of no where. I wanted to mention about how low the correlation was, 0.4 being close to 0 which means correlation coefficient indicates low correlation, isn't it? That's all.

I have been in your exact situation twice (Hochschule) so maybe I can provide some insight into what your options are. In my situation, the average grade in math basics for computer science was about 4.8 with once the entire class failing to pass. Due to corona regulations, third attempts were forgiven and I was essentially allowed to try it 5 times and each semester I saw dropping people out left, right and center.
Based on the experiences I had, I can suggest trying to contact the professor responsible for the exam though I doubt that it would lead to anything useful. When arguing grades, many professors become immediately defensive and argumentative. It may not be the case for the professor in question hence it's worth a shot. It didn't lead to anything for my colleagues and I.
What worked for us was to group together and try to build a strong case by gathering whatever information we could get and present it to the dean together. By showing the poor passing grades, the dwindling number of students even attempting the exam held by the prof, our current amount of credit points (Many of us had 140 or 145 out of 150 with the last 5 points being held hostage by the professor) and many more data points, we managed to convice the dean to help us find a solution.
If this leads to no good results either, your only other options remain to either change majors, change university or possibly change your "Prüfungsordnung". A change in "PO" or majors may help you to avoid the Prof. in question while not losing to many Credit Points in the process. For example, changing from economic computer science to applied computer science was not a costly switch for many who didn't want to put up with the situation at hand.
A change of university is unfortunately a questionable solution since you can not know whether or not you change one problematic professor for another but if you do consider it, try to contact other universities early. The process of evaluating how many credit points you can carry over usually takes many weeks.
I assume you would have already done so but if you do consider reattempting the exam, try to sit down with the professor and get a hold of the exam questions somehow. Either memorize and bring them to paper or sneakily record them if the session is held online. Trying to ask the Prof for solving the exercises in front of you during the consultation hour may prove invaluable as well.

Thank you so much for answering. The Geography department has a nice programme. I believe that maybe I can ask them if I can study there. Yeah maybe PO change could help. But as you said, because of Corona, there were more attempts, it was the same situation, and I wish I used more attempts. Let's see there are other students as well. We are thinking of making a study group to start studying. It's frustrating you know, I just want to start my Master Thesis, but I cannot because of one stupid exam.

-1 "Either memorize and bring them to paper or sneakily record them if the session is held online." Some of this advice sound like cheating, even possibly against the law in some jurisdictions.

"the average grade ... was about 4.8" -- for those of us not in Germany, can you give us a denominator for context? Is this 4.8 out of 5, 4.8 out of 10, 4.8 out of 100, or something else?

@DanielR.Collins I wouldn't argue about the recording bit, we all know what that is about. But about memorizing the exam questions and writing them down moments after having having a talk with the prof is not condemable in my opinion.

@shoover my apologies. Grades in german universities range from 1.0 being the best down to 4.0 being the worst grade you can obtain while still passing. If you score lower than 4.0 then it automatically gets set to 5.0 which means failing the test. In my particular class, 5 out of 48 managed to pass the exam. The 5 that passed barely did so as well scoring a very low grade.

We can actually take an A4 sheet, with all the formulas and maybe examples too. I took that the last time. But the tricky bit is you'll be blank and not understand anything while the exam is going on because of the way the exam is formulated. I'm sure going to put more hours this time. This has to be done. @Squary94 I'm glad you answered actually, because I thought something's wrong with me even when I saw other people also barely passed. Well, I'll make a meeting with my Prof as soon as possible and discuss with him. Let's hope for the best I'll let you know after the discussion.

@DanielR.Collins (I realize that "sneakily" is in the answer) - in my German experience, it would be highly unusual if taking down the questions after you've left the exam hall and even collecting them over the years was prohibited (back when I was studying, we were actively encouraged to do so and also to use those collections for studying). However, smartphones are usually not allowed, and recording an online session without permission of all participants violates privacy laws.

My students told me the same thing and I noticed that their view (maybe mine too when I was a student) was distorted.
What is the purpose of the assignments?
The weekly assignments have to cover the same topics as the exam. However, they are not necessarily similar to the exam tasks or have the same difficulty level. It is not to trick the students but the goals are different:

The assignments need to cover as much as possible of a specific topic. The difficulty level does not matter in my opinion because the student has to understand the topic to the best extent. The time needed to solve the assignment is important (according to the ECTS points).
The exam assesses the student and has to be made such that an average student can pass (not the average of that particular class but in general, i.e. the level of the entire class can be higher or lower than this average). Excellent students can pass with very good grades. Consequently, time is also important.

Do all subjects have the same level of difficulty?
No, for some topics, the assignments are very similar to the exam because the topic itself is easy and there are no other questions that can be asked. on the side, subjects like Statistics, Probability theories, Math, Data Science, etc are very broad and are actually more challenging. Therefore, the assessment is different and you cannot pass just because you can resolve the same task but with different values. It is important to understand how it works.
Is the professor trying to intentionally give bad grades by making difficult exams?
The majority of them do not because they care about the performance of their students as much as the students themselves. Remember that the professor is putting a lot of effort and wants to see the fruits of his work (the students succeeding in their careers). However, there is no (or very little) room for social work in academia and the professor's task is that you learn before you pass.
What is the answer to my question?
In my institution (Uni in Germany), a student can ask for an oral exam if there is a good reason for not being able to pass a written exam. One of the common reasons: "I perfectly grasp the subject but am not able to perform well in written exams due to anxiety or a lot of calculations, etc. The professor is not an enemy and can understand this very well and I think it applies in all (or at least most) German academic institutions.
Is there anything else?
Yes, do not prepare for the exam by just resolving the assignments but by understanding the concepts because even if you pass the exam, you won't have a copy of the assignment in the business world. Also, if you want to master any subject, teach it! You can explain it to a friend or ask higher-level questions to the professor, etc.

Should I talk to the Prof about the assignments and exam has just 0.4 correlation?

Why not? the professor is a human being and is supposed to improve the lectures, assignments and exams regularly given (1) the performance of the students, (2) the feedback of the students (Note that they are not necessarily helpful and can be considered), (3) the feedback of the peers and (4) the development of the subject.

I don't think you are wrong in your overall assessment. The sentiment of the professors wanting you to succeed is true for a majority. However, professors that prefer the inverse approach of weeding out students exist too and a simple talk to the professor wouldn't help in that case. Asking for a oral exam sounds like a perfect idea though.

@Squary94 It should be noted, though, that it is much easier to check for understanding, rather than memorizing, in oral exams. Thus, if the issue is a lack of in-depth understanding, an oral exam won't help.

@user151413 If the issue is a lack of in-depth understanding, the student does not deserve to pass. The student needs either to put more effort to understand or to change the program/discipline.

@Younes I agree. I just want to point out if that's the reason for failing, asking for an oral exam will hurt, not help.

@user151413 I may be projecting here since what OP described is what I experienced twice, however I can tell you the following. The subjects I experienced couldn't be passed by a mere intricate understanding of it. Questions intentionally obfuscated by using weird, never before used abbreviations, instructions that are written to confuse and waste time or trick questions. All designed to waste your 60 minutes of exam time. There wasn't a check for in depth understanding. Passing percentages of less than 10% (bachelors) wouldn't have been the norm in those subjects if they had.

@Younes Thank you for the detailed answer. It was not about me not being able to understand the concept. I revised the lectures and practice problems, referred two text books which had similar content, discussed the previous years exams with my classmates too. You see, like how Squary94 explained, all the students in our exam hall, when I asked them after finishing the exam, mentioned how confusing the exam was and took the first 60 minutes or more just to get to a start. We are waiting for the reply from PO for an oral exam. So let's see what will happen

It is an art to formulate good exam questions. I've often met questions where I thought, well, I know what you want to hear by "exam psychology" plus a good understanding of the material, but one couldn't guess from the question alone. In such situations, oral exams are much better because the student can quickly ask back whether the prof is driving at topic x? Or say they don't understand the question itself. Plus, in oral exams we were allowed to bring a friend (rarely done) and there was someone else to write the protocol, who may help if the difficulty is language.

Also misunderstandings will be cleared up - in my PhD defense I misunderstood a question about the required time for the method I developed as referring to further development time until it is ready for real-world application when the professor wanted to know what time I think a single measurement would take then... so my answer was so far off (years instead of sub-second) plus I added a sentence how I estimate this that the misunderstanding was immediately obvious and could be cleared up.


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Publishing a Theoretical Article in Urban Planning
Is publishing a paper only with theoretical knowledge deemed okay? I was invited by an editor (through a lecture series) to publish a paper in an Urban Planning journal. I wrote two articles and they're published recently. However, I don't feel proud instead I'm self criticising and feeling that my work is not up to the standard ( I mean more research and analysis). A theoretical analysis was done but I'm somehow not convinced that I did a good job. Is this normal? Am I just feeling the imposter syndrome? I'm a Masters Student in the final year and I want to do a PhD and get into academia.

Actually, if the journals that published your work are reputable, then you are definitely "up to the standard". So, yes, it feels like a bit of imposter syndrome. And maybe the shock of early success (which is far preferable to the opposite).
Talk to an advisor about how "theoretical" work is accepted in your field. The journals who welcome it might be different from those with a more practical focus.
If you don't already know about the quality of the journals you've published in then a local professor can give you advice on that as well. But from a distance, all seems good.

From my experience, it is difficult for a master's student to evaluate the quality of academic journals and of the articles published in them (including their own). I echo Buffy's recommendation that you should talk to a professor to get their assessment.
However, I would add the strong emphasis that it is usually (though not only) researchers who actively publish themselves who are able to give you a reputable assessment of the quality of the journals in which you have published. So, I would recommend that you search a researcher's research record first on Google Scholar to make sure that they are themselves actively publishing researchers in the field of Urban Planning. When you have verified that this is the case, then you can ask such a researcher their honest assessment of the quality of the journals in which you have published. (And even better, if they have the time to give you, they could even take a look at your articles to assess their specific quality.)
My implication is that if you ask a professor who is an inactive researcher about the journals, they might say that it is great just because they themselves do not actively publish that much.

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Missing citations - master thesis
I have submitted my Master thesis and noticed that I missed a citation for a figure, and 2 citations were printed as ?, (latex keyword errors) instead of the original citation. and at the end of thesis, we need to write our theses into a paper format and I missed two tables, (my results tables) in the paper.
I didn't notice them when printing and greatly regret this and wasn't intentional. Everything else was fine. They liked my results and everything was good.
Will I fail because of this? Or can I ask my supervisor to give me a chance to revise these. Because the revisions wouldn't take a lot of time and can be done quickly.
(fyi I am in Germany)

I doubt very much you will fail. More likely, one of your examiners will point out the errors and ask that you correct them before whatever final thing (like binding the thesis permanently and submitting a copy to your university library) happens. Examiners are (mostly) not completely stupid and are aware that mistakes happen.
That said, I see little to be lost by telling our supervisor about the mistake, and asking their advice.

Thank you. I am planning on contacting them on Tuesday when they will be back at their office. The thing is I have submitted a binding copy which is the reason I am panicking.

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Addressing lack of transcript due to early withdrawal in a graduate school application
I enrolled in a degree program at a university in my home country (~2nd world) immediately after finishing high school. However, I became dissatisfied with many aspects of the course and the university itself (corruption, plagiarism being largely ignored by assessors, lack of standardization in assessment metrics, etc) very quickly and decided to withdraw before completing the first academic year.
Later, I enrolled in a different program at a university in Western Europe and successfully completed my undergraduate studies. At the moment, I am in the process of drafting applications for graduate studies. However, it looks increasingly likely that the university in my home country will not be able to issue a transcript, as I withdrew prior to completion of a single year of study. Even if the university will be able to issue a transcript, the transcript will show 0 marks for all subjects I was meant to take that year. Naturally, I have no intention of trying to hide that I was enrolled in that program for several months. However, I am not certain how to address the issue in my applications whether or not the university will be able to issue a transcript. So,

Assuming that the university will not be able to issue a transcript, how and where should I explain this? In my CV? Should I contact the graduate admission offices explicitly?
Assuming that the university will be able to issue a transcript with 0 marks, how and where in my application should I explain this "failure"? :)

Note that most of my applications do not require a personal statement (only a statement of purpose or a research statement, along with a CV and the transcripts).

Failing all your classes is different than withdrawing, at least in the US system. What actually happened?

How long a gap was there? And this depends a lot on whether that university will issue any transcript and what it might say.

@AzorAhai-him- As I explained, there is no clarity at the moment about what exactly they can/will issue. I am in the process of negotiation. Either way, for the second question, you can assume that the transcript will have "W"s instead of "0"s. I would still need to provide an explanation somewhere, somehow.

Well, sure, but explaining why you "failed" is different than just saying "it didn't work out."

@AzorAhai-him- Yes, this makes sense. Perhaps, if you decide to answer, it may be best to assume the worst, i.e., the transcript will contain 0s (however, of course, technically, I withdrew from the course long before the end of the first academic year).

@Buffy Couldn't an answer to the question cover both cases? I am not yet certain what is and what isn't possible.

My first consideration is whether you need to mention it at all in the written materials. Knowing more about the transcript (and the gap) might help provide an answer.

@Buffy For the gap you can assume ~10 years since withdrawal. I can't say more about the transcript though.


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Should I let the committee know that they accidentally mentioned two deadlines for a job application?
I applied for a tenure track job recently. There were two deadlines mentioned in their advertisement (on mathjobs), one was Oct 1 and the other was Oct 15. I did not notice the Oct 1st one and applied on Oct 15. I never received a call from them, so out of curiosity, I looked at their job ad and found out about the two deadlines. Can I email the hiring committee chair and let them know about this situation and ask whether or not my application is being considered? If so, what would be the appropriate language? I do not want to come across as someone who wants to take advantage of it. I genuinely overlooked the earlier deadline.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Yes, you can just ask, saying that you noticed two deadlines listed but only after you applied by the second one. Ask if there is any problem with your application because of this.
A short email is really all that you need.

You can send an email but I suggest to put effort for searching other positions that are currently open and accept applications, instead of trying to recover the one that probably would lead to dead end. I don't wanna be so pessimistic but you should become used to not hearing back from whatever job that you applied regardless of if your application is strong or weak, or if it is submitted within deadline or not, or it has all the required documentation or not, etc. Unfortunately it's the way it works for pretty much everyone these days inside/outside of academia.

It is likely the search chair has already received 30 emails about their typo.    Reminding them of their mistake is unlikely to benefit you.  Do not email.

This is certainly correct... though, it's not clear to any of us whether the questioner's situation will be altered because of it.

@paulgarrett, actually it is terrible advice. The reason for writing isn't to inform them, but to seek their assurance that you are under consideration. If they get 30 emails it is their own fault and they can easily stop the flood by simply informing everyone applying during the interim period of their status. They should have done so after the first email. The only way this advice could be "correct" here is if other people don't do this. If everyone takes it, then no one informs the institution.

@Buffy, yes, if everyone were to take this advice, it wouldn't be good. That's not quite an argument for no one taking the advice. Hard to know, I think.

@Buffy I see no value in "assurances."


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Paper Copyright When Going From Conference to Journal
Early this year we submitted and presented a paper on an IEEE conference. However, due to the page limit we had leave out quite a few of our experiments and results. As most the work has been carried out already, I would like to submit an extended version of that paper to a journal. Unfortunately the best fit is a special issue at another publisher.
Now comes the tricky part: What exactly does IEEE's copyright on our previous work cover? It is no problem for me to rewrite the text, redraw the included figures, and add a reference to the conference paper in the introduction. But as the added content comes from additional experiments and measurements, the sections on related work and methodology will still repeat the same ideas and formulas as before.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Perhaps you can get permission from IEEE for this, though I doubt it. You likely have a specific license for the work that covers some but not all uses. I doubt that including the bulk of the earlier work within the latter is allowed, but you have to check. If it isn't specifically allowed, then getting explicit permission from IEEE is probably essential.
You are probably better off writing up the new work treating the older one much as you would the work of another: quoting judiciously and citing as needed. People extend the work of others in this way quite regularly, so it isn't impossible.
Citation will save you from charges of self plagiarism, but you are in danger of copyright infringement.
Paraphrasing extensively and redrawing figures isn't going to save you as the rights for that are held by the copyright holder.
The problem is that if IEEE considers that it has a financial interest in the original, then a new paper "incorporating" the old in some way will reduce that value. It is what copyright is actually designed for.
And, keeping IEEE happy is probably in your best long-term interest as you are likely to want to deal with them in the future.
Laws vary, of course, but you have only limited license to act. Consult a lawyer for specific details, of course.
I suspect, also, that another publisher would be wary of publishing something that incorporated large parts of a work copyrighted by another publisher.
And, the advantage to you of a "new" paper is that you get a "new" paper.

Thank you for your considerations. Since the additional evaluations make only limited sense without the context of the methodology and direct comparison to the other results I'll go for an IEEE journal then. There are a few that explicitly encourage submission of extended conference papers... Was mainly hoping to avoid the page limit / overlength fee.


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Difference between mathematical physicist/Theoretical Physicist
What's the actual difference between what a Mathematical Physicist and a Theoretical Physicist do?
When I look at the curriculum from some Applied Mathematicians from the maths department at my university, the areas on which those work in look quite similar to the one some Physicists from our Physics department work in.
Allow me to make an concret example: There's one professor of mine, mathematician, whose research is centered in General Relativity, more specifically, QFTCS (Quantum Field Theory on Curved Spacetime), and some others. That's exactly the line of research some physicists have.
So how to properly differ what they do? That may be a very trivial or naive question, but, nevertheless, it's something that I really do need to understand. If anyone could help, I'll be grateful. Happy holidays for everyone!

I do not hear the term "mathematical physicist" very often, but my guess is that the difference is little to nothing.

Don't expect hard walls between fields, where a person does only X and another only Y with no overlap.

Essentially the same question is on the physics site.
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/56293/difference-between-theoretical-physics-and-mathematical-physics

Buffy’s comment is spot-on. At some point, whether as a formal student or otherwise, you get a quick, maybe nasty, glimpse of what’s actually happening. You’re there, things are less clear than you’d like, yet here you are. I wish you nothing but the best in your endeavors!

For me a mathematical physicist is a researcher doing mathematically rigorous work on questions originating from physics. The lines are (for me) quite blurry. Mathematical physicists can be found in both math and physics departement.

There’s quite a bit of theoretical physics contained in “others”.
There is a lot of fascinating theory work in condensed matter theory, including statistical mechanics - beautiful results on spin chains, Ising model etc, antiferromagnets.  Robert Laughlin or Leo Kadanoff stand out a names with international recognition, as is Jun Kondo.
These days there is also a lot of work in quantum information theory, with Alexei Kitaev a shining example of a theorist working in this area.
So theoretical physics is much broader in scope than the mathematical physics done in math departments. The topics you list get a lot of public attention because they capture the imagination of many, but there is lots of good stuff in theoretical physics at large.


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How much would being at a top university at my country help in hypothetically getting into a good US/Europe uni?
The question is pretty vague, of course. But what I'm trying to get is if that has some influence at all.
To put it into perspective: I'm a Physics undergrad student at University of Campinas, which is, undoubtely, alongside University of São Paulo, the top university at Brazil, likewise South America.
I personally don't really care about rankings, but those are obviously not high-ranked unis worldwide, which is not difficult to understand, and a good example of how rankings don't tell you much of the story. It's not even designed to serve such purpose, so, yeah.
What I want to understand is how the academy at US/Europe, or other generally good unis alongside the world look at these ones I've quoted, in the sense of, how much that would influentiate a student's curriculum, if he was trying to get into a undergraduate, graduate, masters, PhD (and so on) education. Does it count for much?
Using me as a general example, I would guess that the fact that I'm a South American who probably wouldn't even have the money to go live in another continent at the time I was getting out of HS should be taken to consideration. And, of course, it's not particularly easy to get and stay in those unis that I've cited.
Naturally, the student's grades, projects, or anything intelectually, and maybe academically valuable is probably what matters the most. But this question is focused on the university itself.
That's pretty much it, any honest (and substantiated) response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

In general, it helps a lot (Edit: at least in the US, and I suspect for at least parts of Europe too).  Why?  What do we try to assess in admissions: your preparation and your likelihood of success.  For this, your university record and letters of recommendation are key.
If you are getting great grades in advanced-sounding classes, but from a university nobody has heard of, we won't know how to evaluate the rigour of the program and your preparation.  But if it's one of the top universities in your country, then your transcript will mean a lot more.
Similarly, if you are getting recommendations from strong researchers, especially those who are familiar with research universities in North American and Europe (and this is much more likely to be true of professors at top schools), the letters will have much more weight.
The main problems I have in evaluating many foreign applications are no one on the committee knowing how to interpret transcripts (in my department, there are people can interpret transcripts from top universities in South America) and reading letters that are not very helpful (many faculty at non-research-intensive schools in many countries do not know how to write letters for US grad schools).

Thank you for the response! I do not quite understand what you actually mean by "interpreting transcripts", though.

@Roland Done!  Though I find it hard to imagine it doesn't make any difference.

@JohannWagner As I allude to in the 2nd paragraph, we don't know what the standards are for classes listed, e.g. as "Quantum Mechanics" or "Linear Algebra", both in terms of grades assigned and what might have been covered in what level of rigour.  I don't know about within Brazil, but certainly in some countries (including the US) there is wide variation in what is covered at different schools and how  rigorous the grading is.

Sorry, but this is too optimistic. What you do is much more important than where you do it. If you are a C student at, say, Yale, then you are behind an A- student from almost every other accredited university in the US. And, I think US academics are more sophisticated in evaluation than this suggests. Moreover, the academic community is pretty global these days.

@Buffy But where you are affects what you do, what we know about what you've done.  I have  done grad admissions many times, and we often find that applicants from smaller, lesser known schools (including accredited schools in the US) have shocking low standards for, say, their Abstract Algebra classes.  Even teaching Calc II, I see this with undergrad transferring in Calc I credit from other schools.

If you do well at a top school and your professors will put their reputations on the line to affirm it then it is a plus. But if you are a mediocre student at a top school you won't get any benefit at all.
What you do dominates where you do it. Just make sure that your accomplishments are known to the faculty and that they are willing to write good letters on your behalf (probably more important in US than elsewhere).
For two students with equal records, one from a "top" place and the other from a more modest institution, there will be a small benefit, but other things could easily dominate that bit of a boost.
This was long ago, but I went to a small, not especially highly ranked, place for undergraduate studies. There was a small faculty in math who didn't do a lot of research. But I was invited to doctoral study at an R1 university due to a conversation between department heads. I doubt that happens any more, but I worked hard and had a good, but not perfect, record. Had I gone to, say, Yale as an undergrad it wouldn't have made much of any different, I think.
However, I seriously (seriously) doubt that having studied in South America will be any disadvantage. Academia is global in these times. Do good work. Get local recognition for it.


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Can one "turn" his college record around?
Vague question, I know. But allow me to explain it.
I'm a second-year undergrad student in Physics. I entered in the pandemics, and, due to laziness and some personal issues, up to this point, I don't have a stellar record. Not any actual failures or anything of the kind (although I might have one this semester), but, overall, it's a mediocre record. Didn't do homeworks, for example, and that was what gave a hit on my grades.
I still have a lot of more advanced courses to take, obviously, but, realizing my situation, I'm not that excited. My question is: Given that, can I turn my school record around? Obviously, I don't mean excluding anything (it wouldn't be called a record then), but, really, turning it around. Meaning, when I try to enter grad school, and they see not so great results in those opening stages, but, in the deeper levels, overall good records, how would that possibly be taken?
I just turned 20, so it does feel ridiculous to ask if it's too late for anything, but academia is a whole different world.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Find yourself the deep reason why you found the homework not interesting. Too hard? too abstract? too much analytical calculations? too much programming? who cares about parity of eigenvectors?
Laziness is a consequence (and blaming laziness is a lazy explanation :D ), not a cause of that.

Too speculative for an answer, but I suspect many admission committees will give more weight to your later grades than to the earlier ones.  Many students have trouble "getting started" in college.

Anecdotally, I hovered dangerously around a 3.0 for the first two years of undergrad and yanked it back up to a 3.3 by graduation. It wasn't easy though, especially since I took many more credit hours during the first two years.

It may help to better define what you mean by "turn it around." I assume you mean "if I improve my grades starting now, can I still get into grad school," in which case you should see our canonical question about grad school admissions for weak and borderline students

@EarlGrey I can't tell you with pure certainty. What I can say is, I didn't like how the things were structured, in the basic levels, that being, Calc.(I-III), some of the introductory courses in physics. It is so mechanical, I never felt like learning anything with doing exercises besides the ability to do more exercises. I did well enough on those, I never failed a test, but I was very discouraged to do the assignments, or study even.

@EarlGrey worth mentioning though, I do still think the way those introductory courses are carried is not enlightening, but I do understand that is necessary. 100%.

@JohannWagner - things like the math curriculum have not changed in the 4+ decades since I was in college, and get more and more out of touch with the reality of how science and engineering are done these days.

Internships, summer placements at a research laboratory and involvement with applied research are the things that can counterweight your "low" grades.
These activities will be helpful in two ways:

they provide you a contact network (simply getting in touch with more people, active groups in the research world are always on the look-out for fresh forces)
they show your motivation to work in a certain field (yes, it is an important consideration).

The grades show what you achieved, your potential may be higher,
who knows, and who cares: please note that contrary to the general feeling in
the Physics world, the world is not divided between uneducated
barbarians and potential Nobel prizes, there are a lot of top-notch
head of research groups who would not get a Nobel prize in a thousand
years.
If you try hard in the next semesters to look for internships&similar things and you do not manage any, well, it may be an independent assessment that you are not cut for the abstraction required in physics. This leaves the door open for you to get your feet wet in the thousands of applied fields that require a good understanding of physics (irrespective of your definition of "Physics I enjoy" you mean Newton's second law, Partial differential equation, thermodynamics, rational mechanics, etc ... don't worry, there is a niche waiting for you if you survived the bachelor exams without much commitment).

Without knowing just how mediocre you mean, it is not possible to answer very well. But I do know people with 2.7-8/4 GPA (and 4-5 publications as undergrad) who managed to secure a graduate position at a top 10 US University. So, in theory an absolutely gargantuan yes!
But most likely, waiting for that one day to come when you will get your life together and work hard is still being tied to the chains of youthful idealism. Shift your work habits, I think it's possible.


text:
I have been rightfully caught with plagiarism in my Math finals online, will I be able to continue my academic path?
I am a first-year Physics student and I decide to challenge myself by taking a Math course that's well above my level. I was doing pretty well during the first half of the semester with offline lectures and was averaging an A. Until another wave of Covid hit and I have to spend the rest of the semester online.
My mental health was failing toward the end of the semester, I could clearly feel it as my insomnia and trichotillomania got worst day by day. I refuse to study and just listen to podcasts every day, and since it is my first year I barely have the chance to actually make any study group or have any friends that study with me. The day of my finals is the day I decide to make such poor a decision of using an online help website to aid with my exams, which I am clearly not proud of. After the exam, I deemed it as failed because I gain very little knowledge and also because of my dishonest action.
As expected, I received an email regarding my academic misconduct 2 days later, as such, I wrote an email back to them admitting my mistake, apologies, and accepting repercussions. In a few days, I receive an email that states that my grade will be deducted (Which result in a failure), and this decision will be recorded in the Register of Academic Misconduct.
At present, all I could feel is resentment and disappointment toward myself. I'm nowhere near as gifted as my peers in the field but I'm trying to stay firm on this path. I'm aware that academic dishonesty is a serious thing and my future career could be damaged by this incident. What should I do during the next few years of my study? Because I know this is just going to get worst and I know that I can't continue if I don't change. Furthermore, how much damage will a record of academic misconduct have to my academic career? And will I be able to continue in the future?  Thank you for reading and sharing.

You should talk with your personal tutor/academic guidance person/whatever local equivalent you have, as they will know the situation at your university better than we do. But in general, it's your first year: work hard and don't cheat again. You have learned a valuable lesson.

It is hard to predict long term effects, but it is fairly common, in the US at least, for such behavior to be punished locally but no long term record communicated outside, even if it is kept.
Some places (most?) keep records for repeat offenders to be caught, but it may be that only the university will ever know unless you broadcast it. There may be no indication of this on transcripts, for example, other than the grade. But policies differ.
It would be good to know whether that is the case or not. Whoever dishes out the punishment can probably tell you about that.
For the mental health aspects, find a way to talk to a counsellor/professional. You don't want to kick yourself longer or harder than necessary.

I understand you to have aspired to something, to have made a forgivable mistake in the way you pursue your aspiration, to have been found out, to have apologized, to understand the morals of it, and to have accepted the consequences.
Do not think you are unusual: we all "have skeletons in our cupboards". Therefore do not take on a burden of guilt that you then carry with you and unnecessarily admit to people who are more interested in your future than your past. This is important for your own image.
It is human to err. Learn the lesson, don't do it again, and look optimistically to the future with whatever qualifications you honestly gain.


text:
My undergraduate research is in a different area from what I want to study in graduate school (PhD). Is this bad?
I am looking for CS PhD programs in the US. I am currently an undergraduate and have conducted summer research in Theoretical Computer Science/Coding Theory. However, this is not something I wanna specialize in grad school. I want to study something more like AI/Data Science. Is it going to hurt me that I do not have research experience in AI? What is the case for the top 10-20 CS PhD programs? I am worried because I feel like it is going to be problematic when writing my SOP -- I want to work/study something I do not have research experience in.

I'd expect some parts of theoretical computer science and coding theory to be (or soon become) quite useful in data science and AI.

This isn't a problem for US doctoral study. The doctoral education process is long, and it normally involves coursework that you can use to refocus. Relatively few US doctoral applicants have much if any serious research background as the US undergraduate education system doesn't provide enough specialization or time to do it. And, switching fields is fairly common here.
Get good letters from people who can attest to your potential for success.
You will have plenty of time in a six (more or less) year program to get the experience.
See the answer for the US to this question for more: How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in Country X?

In addition, it's often encouraged to diversify your research interests between undergrad and grad school.


text:
Computer Science PhD Application Process Confusion
I am looking for PhD programs in CS in the US. I am currently a junior at a liberal arts college in the US. I have started looking at programs that I am interested in by reading some of the research papers written by the professors. I can get through the abstract and some basic introduction but I find myself really lost as I progress through the paper. I find it really hard to understand what the professors are talking about.
In my SOP, I need to mention who I want to potentially work with and    the work they do. I am supposed to mention about the papers I read,    why I found them interesting and all, but I am literally not able to    understand most of what the papers say. How important is it to    understand them for my SOP? I don't understand much apart from the    first few paragraphs. I am really tensed about it.

What is your question?

I can get through the abstract and some basic introduction but I find myself really lost as I progress through the paper.

To read a research paper you need to have (1) the relevant background and (2) you need time and patience. If you are totally lost, then I suspect your background for reading those papers might be insufficient. This is very different from "I have no idea how he/she went from line 2 to line 3 of the proof." If you do have the background knowledge, then maybe you have not spent enough time on the paper. One page of a paper is not equivalent to one page of a textbook or a slide from your class notes. Besides self-study on these papers, I suggest you approach the CS professors (or other CS students) in your college for help and discussion. Don't be surprised if you need several weeks or even months to get through one research paper.

In my SOP, I need to mention who I want to potentially work with and the work they do. I am supposed to mention about the papers I read, why I found them interesting and all, but I am literally not able to understand most of what the papers say. How important is it to understand them for my SOP?

It's common for a program to ask you to state your interests and area(s) you would like to work in. But not all will ask you to list papers you have read in that area. In fact most do not. If you broaden your search for CS PhD programs, you will see that is the case.
But if they ask for it, then it is important. However don't let that stop you from applying to such schools -- your chance will be lower compared to other stronger candidates who have indeed studied research papers, but perhaps your chance is not zero. However it is always advisable to apply broadly.
You might want to talk to some of your CS profs to see if they can help guide you to the right PhD program. Based on the knowledge of where their graduates go for PhD studies and their knowledge of your background, they might have a good idea of what schools you should apply to.


text:
Can I switch disciplines in PhD programs?
I am an undergraduate student, looking to apply to PhD programs in Computer Science next year.
I am interested in quite a lot of things in CS, especially Theoretical Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning.
I am more leaning towards Theory and I think I will write that down in my SOP.
In case my interests change in grad school, will it be possible to change my area of focus to AI? Will that possible, considering that I am going to PhD programs straight after a BA?

Welcome to Academia.SE. "How do I switch fields?" is one of our most common questions -- please take a look in our archives and see what has already been answered; then you can create a new question to specify anything that remains unclear. If you do create a new one, please specify your location; this kind of thing will work differently in the US vs. Europe vs. elsewhere.

See also: Switching PhD Topic for a CS-specific example.


text:
Is it necessary to justify every single choice in a proposed method with concrete data?
I'm writing a  master's thesis about a novel method. It is a multilayered algorithm with very large number of configurable parts and parameters. Furthermore, it involves machine learning and big data, which means each testing run is quite a substantial resource and time-consuming process. That's why researching the effect of every single parameter of this method (or worse, the combinations of possible parameters) would have been an enormous task for a single person with a regular, unrelated job.
Is it acceptable then to omit providing data/results for some less significant parts of the algorithm, and just justify these choices with a more or less vague description of why they seemed promising or "good enough"? Should I mention limited time as a reason for omitting that data?

What does your advisor think?

Omitting anything is rarely a good idea; consciously not doing some of the experiments and giving some reasoning for that is perfectly fine and happens all the time in research.
Citing limited time as a (personal) reason is likewise a terrible idea, IMHO.
Good:

With 37 hyperparameters, the search space is enormous. Parameters
$\alpha$, $\kappa_1$ and $\kappa_2$ are of special interest, as
indicated by prior research (Claus, 2019). In addition, $\lambda$ is
pertinent to the problem because of the Moon phase constantly changing. Other
parameters were left at their default values as they were deemed less significant (see
Table 42 for details).

Bad:

I am working a full-time job and don't have the time to tune all 37
parameters so I toyed with just 4 hoping it's good enough.

The difference here, of course, is that in the first case you refer to some objective truth: experiment would take a long while for anyone and at the current state of research, it is more fruitful to focus on a handful of important parameters and only concern yourself with other, less significant ones, later.

When citing time as a factor, cite the (estimated) times required to perform each part of the analysis to a certain confidence standard, then state how you used those estimated times as objective metrics to decide what to study and what not to study.

There are a couple of interesting ways of dealing with this, but mainly consider that you need to enclose or delimit your experiment's reach and expectations.
Since most of the hyperparameters are tuned by hand, stating that your p1=0.5 for empirical reasons is perfectly fine.
As @Lodinn mentioned, focusing on those parameters deemed as important is also a good idea. Since some of them are not that impactful, their analysis is not in the scope of this work. You could also consider them as future work :)
Edit:
Clarifying: Yes, it is OK to left experimentation settings unexplored, but you need to provide a reasonable explanation on why you decided to do that.

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.


text:
Should I say "I" in a paper, as the sole author?
I am the sole author of a paper which I would like to publish in a journal.
Is it better to use "I" for example "In this paper, I present xyz"
Or is better to avoid "I" like "In this paper, xyz is presented"

Answer: even with a single authored papers, you should normally use "we", not "I".

"In this paper we present a very interesting theory of everything. We
do this by invoking the idea of...".


text:
How to ensure multiple papers accepted and published simultaneously (in traditional journals)?
I've made a new discovery.
It has prompted me to make new hypotheses in multiple areas - not particularly related to each other.
I have already conducted experiments to demonstrate these. I am now organizing all the data for publishing.
My concern is, once I publish the initial discovery, I think readers will immediately ask the same questions which I've already addressed with my other experiments.
I think typically I should NOT include several different types of experiments covering multiple topics, all in a single paper, right?
But I think it would be cool if I can be first to publish on them.
So I dont want to invite competition by excluding them from the initial paper.
If I submit multiple papers (one for each area/experiment) how can I ensure they all get published together?
I'm afraid if some gets rejected and some not, then someone might read my published paper, get the same idea as me, and then beat me to publishing on those other areas.

In my area, I've seen many papers that have in their title 'Blah Blah ... : Part x', where 'x' is I, II, ...   They are submitted and published together.  Of course, rejected together as well.

There are many ways to organize the submission. From your question it seems that the papers can't even go to the same journal. Go with some of them out simultaneously. Unless all is trivial you have at least a couple of rounds (submissions / revision) of advantage Congratulations.

If I submit multiple papers (one for each area/experiment) how can I ensure they all get published together?

You cannot "ensure" it.  You can ask the editor in your cover letter to publish the papers together.  The editor will decide if it is appropriate.
The premise

I should NOT include several different types of experiments covering multiple topics, all in a single paper

would depend on the topic and journal.

And if the implications are obvious, then they may not be novel enough to get published at all.

It might be a thing to ask the editor first. They would know their field and the implications better than we do in a generic case.

As Prof. Santa Claus writes in a comment, you can write a series of papers with titles "Blah blah blah: Part I", "Blah blah blah: Part II", and so on. It's then obvious to the editors of the journal that they should be published together. Note you'll have to send them all to the same journal, for obvious reasons, and be sure to say they should be published together as well in the cover letter. Most journals these days have policies to upload papers as soon as they're ready and not hold them to compile into an issue, but when the papers are clearly part of the same parcel, they can make an exception.

I'm afraid if some gets rejected and some not, then someone might read my published paper, get the same idea as me, and then beat me to publishing on those other areas.

I don't know the details, of course, but this strikes me as improbable - they would have to read your paper, do the experiment, and then get through the peer review process faster than you. Given that your paper is already written and submitted, it's unlikely anyone will beat you to publishing it.


text:
Understanding reviewers comments on research paper
I sent my Review Paper to a journal and it took almost 4 months to respond to me.
In the first decision, the reviewers suggested some revisions. Their comments on the first decision were:

Reviewer: 1
Comments to the Author
The present manuscript refers to the review on TVC studies using many
previous existing results. If the authors want to publish the present
manuscript in a journal, the reviewer like to recommend some
professional review journals. In case, the authors are advised to
consider more aspects on the TVC effectivess and performance, based on
the input energy or power for the control.
Reviewer: 2
Comments to the Author
The manuscript addresses a timely and important topic relating to the
Fluidic thrust vectoring techniques. Various fluidic thrust vectoring
techniques with its characteristics, design, classification, and
different operational criteria were introduced and compared. The
summary is completed and detailed. It is recommended for publication
in PPR after a minor revision.
Reviewer: 3
Comments to the Author
The manuscript reviewed various fluidic thrust vectoring control
techniques for application in jet engine nozzles. It includes the
research summary which are being performed in past couple of decades.
The effects of many parameter (flows and geometric) on thrust
vectoring are described. The content of the manuscript is worthy for
aerospace community dealing with thrust control and aircraft
maneuverability. However, the following issues need to be addresses to
make it more attractive to the readers: The authors are recommended to
enrich their review article by incorporating the above issues.
Reviewer: 4
Comments to the Author
Review of “Analysis of Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Techniques in Jet
Engine Nozzles” This manuscript performs a detailed review for the
Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Controls (FTVC). In addition, authors discuss
the effects, advantages, and disadvantages of each technique. For each
technique, the reviews are very profound. Many tables are designed to
summary the research of each technique. In particular, a table
(labeled 12) is used to compare all the FTVC systems. Therefore, I
would like to recommend this paper for publication in PPR. In
addition, I have two suggestions.

After submitting the revised manuscript, they responded back with some futher suggestions

Reviewer: 1
Comments to the Author For the first round of review, the reviewer has
pointed out some important issue to be resolved in the present
manuscript. If the authors want to publish the present manuscript as a
form of review journal, then they should not simply enumerate the
results obtained from many previous papers, but give meaningful data
of TVC based on accurate comparative analyses. As we know, the control
performance of TVC would be proportional to the power or the energy
amount applied. Thus, it does not make sense for the authors to show
the results of many different control methods only. The authors should
not argue that there are no data for the input power or energy and
they can get the control effectiveness, the total pressure loss, or
energy loss, etc. Otherwise. the present manuscript may be subject to
a duplication issue or a plagiarism to the published papers.
Reviewer: 2
Comments to the Author According to my comments on the last
manuscript, the four modifications are all OK. I recommend the revised
manuscript for publication in PPR. I have two other suggestions, but
it is not mandatory.

What should I do if I don't understand the suggestion of Reviewer 1. This is a review paper and I have added every data based on previous research papers. It doesn't make sense to me when the reviewer said "Thus, it does not make sense for the authors to show the results of many different control methods only."
What should I do now? should I contact the editor and ask for further clarification about reviewer 1 comments. Does the reviewer want me to apply each technique and compare my results with the data available in the literature?

What does your advisor think? This site can't help you with the content of your research.

1 is asking for not merely listing reported data, but doing a meaningful comparison. I don't know of course if ref is right. But more or less this is what 1 is asking for.

Almost 4 months is a decent time, I would even dare to say on the quick side of the first review time.

I think the problem is that you haven't 'digested' the literature.  You simply regurgitated prior results and concepts without analysis.  The reviewer is asking you to provide a unique (novel) perspective on the state-of-the-art.

If you don't know what a reviewer is saying, contact the editor. They can either tell you what the comments is supposed to mean, or they can write to the reviewer for clarification.
As an editor for the last 15 years, I've been contacted by authors with this kind of question numerous times and I've always thought that that is entirely appropriate.

@Roland Yes. And as an editor for the past 15 years, I've been contacted numerous times by authors who wanted to know what to do.

The reviews you received are borderline nonsensical, and might have been written by an unqualified person or even a robot. It looks like you submitted to a scam journal.
You should withdraw your submission as soon as possible and look for a reasonable venue for publishing it.

You may be right, or it may be we are talking about a local journal with local flavour of english and the copy&paste is not complete...

I wrote another comment saying what I think ref 1 asks for. However, my first impression reading the reports was "I hope this is not a good journal". Indeed astonishingly poor reports.

Well, the reviewer 1 is asking you not to present only the data from different study, but to compare them in a quantitative manner ("accurate comparative analyses").
However, you can always refute the reviewers' comments, they are comments, you can argue if they are reasonable or doable. In this case, I would reply that the additional analyses required by the reviewer 1 are beyond the scope of the review you performed. In my field I have seen (and found useful) both review papers providing kind of a large catalogs of data (like yours seems to be) and review papers providing an in-depth and complex comparative analysis of already published data (like reviewer 1 seems to request).
Contact the editor, then decide what to do, but keep in mind it is called peer review because you are a peer discussing among peers.


text:
Being asked to start teaching before being employed as a new faculty
I'm going to join a US university as a teaching-focused faculty. My official starting is set to be January 4th and, at that university, classes start in the same week, and I will be teaching 2 courses in my first term.
Things were going smoothly until I received an email from HR informing me that I will need to apply for an SSN upon my arrival in the US, and I will only be able to start working once I receive my SSN by mail, which may take 3-4 weeks. I brought this up with the head of department who then assured me that, yes this is normal, all foreign hires go through the same process, and I can certainly start teaching the courses right away, even if I'm not officially working yet.
I never worked in the US before, but I'm now very confused about this:
As mentioned, I'm expected to start teaching at the university right away even though I'm not actually employed during those first few weeks.

Is this indeed the normal process/expectation? Also, is it even legal for the university to ask new hires to start working without putting them on the payroll?
Do I risk violating the terms of my H1B visa by "working" without being employed/paid? (I'm probably being paranoid but I heard enough horror stories about the US immigration system...)

(Entering the US before the term starts to apply for the SSN number earlier isn't really an option, as I can only legally enter at most 10 days before the starting date of my visa...)

Can you ask them for back pay for the work you've done, once you're officially employed?

Hmm, I'm not sure they have any mechanisms for doing that (and it wasn't mentioned to me as an option).

Another thing to worry about is injury coverage. What happens legally if you slip and fall in the classroom and break a leg? (Especially this being in the US with the sad state of their healthcare.) You should definitely be on the books somehow, even if just as an external teacher.

you need insurance during that time without SSN

Did the university (or you) not apply for the SSN at the same time as the employment authorization? It looks like that's one way this could be avoided.

@PeterK.: No, apparently they can only do that if I'm already residing in the US.

Your employer can legally employ and pay you even before you have an SSN by reporting your earnings using a temporary taxpayer identification number, see here. It sounds to me like either their HR people are incompetent or they are trying to get you to work for free for a few weeks.

You will almost certainly need to fill out an I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification form as part of your employment. I suggest you add the instructions and necessary documents to the list of what you should be prepared for. This is, of course, not the complete requirements of what you'll need, but it's yet another thing which will need to be filled out and may provide you with additional points which you can research.

I would encourage you to ask this question at https://law.stackexchange.com

I'm not a lawyer, but suggest the following is accurate.
I don't think you have anything to worry about as long as you have a contract, signed and in hand. Tenured and tenure track faculty in US are paid an annual salary, not by the week or month. The SSN is a government requirement that assure your taxes are properly paid and accounted for.
Salaries are normally paid monthly (sometimes twice a month), so your first check might get delayed for a bit since taxes are withheld from it.
But it is really an administrative problem and shouldn't really matter other than a delayed check. Your visa is based on your contract, which you should have.
The Human Resources (HR) office at the university can get you a temporary identification number that will make it all work out for the bureaucracy.
I think any risk is extremely small. The only problem would arise if you couldn't get a SSN for any reason.

I’m not a lawyer, therefore I don’t give legal advice, and downvote answers by non-lawyers who do.

@DanRomik, If I'm wrong, then no assistant professor could ever be hired from a different country. Catch 22. You have to start work "immediately" with your visa, but you aren't allowed to start immediately because you don't have and can't get an SSN.

https://www.zumapay.com/single-post/2017/04/21/can-hire-employee-without-social-security-number/

@DanRomik, yes, see the TIN section. It will work out.

@Buffy The TIN section contradicts your answer. OP should not start working without having paperwork finalized and hope it works out. OP should get a temporary TIN, finalize the paperwork, start working, and replace the TIN with an SSN when the SSN is available. More info from an official source: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10107.pdf

While this answer is not "wrong" per se, it doesn't really tackles OP's problem: this answer states that OP can start working without an SSN (which is true), but OP was told that the hiring process can only be completed AFTER getting the SSN (which is NOT true), and that it's expected to start teaching BEFORE being officialy hired (which is BAD and potentially a red flag IMO)

This seems like a "feel good" answer. While things will, probably, work out with diligent investment of time and effort by the question OP, this answer would be far better if it provided a list of the documents needed for employment in the US (at least for generic employment in the US; obviously the specific university may have additional requirements) and detailed the exact steps which should be taken to get those documents and any forms which will be necessary to fill out.

@Makyen, perhaps, but the OP didn't ask for that. They asked for some assurance that the US system isn't so completely screwed up that they would lose their position. I responded to that.

@Buffy From what I understand, they won't be giving me any temporary number, as they said I should only contact their HR to start the employment process after receiving the SSN. While I think you're right that I'm unlikely to lose my job or get deported, it seems to be true that I would be teaching for free for the first month...

No, salaries are annual, not monthly. If they say you get X per year then you get X. They would have legal troubles otherwise.

Sorry @Buffy, your answer and the comments you’re posting are hopelessly naive and plain bad advice. Trusting that the department knows what it’s doing and that they will pay OP what OP is due because “they will have legal troubles otherwise” is just a terrible idea. OP should refer the department to the web pages posted showing clearly that the lack of an SSN is no obstacle to getting paid, and insist that the department put them on the payroll from the very first day when they are working. If the department has a problem with that, that’s a massive red flag.

@DanRomik, you seem to think that the relationship is adversarial, not cooperative. It is in the university's best interest to make it work out. Not every situation calls for the lawyers and strident demands.

Op, as a new employee, it is not ‘their’ HR, but your HR as well. It would make sense to contact them.

@Buffy: Even though faculty are paid an annual salary, what matters is the actual starting date. Obviously the OP is not going to be paid the full annual salary given that the OP has a starting date of January, but rather a salary that is adjusted to the actual starting date. I also started mid-year, and my offer letter stated that the salary will be adjusted to the starting date. And if the SSN arrives late that means the OP is going to be earning less. Simple as that.


text:
Postdoc delegates work to PhD: who gets to be PI for a small proposal?
A postdoc delegated a (newly joined) PhD student to write a small proposal for computing time. She wrote a reasonable first draft, but it needs heavy editing that the postdoc will now do, and submit it where it needs to go. In one section where one has to fill "personnel", she wrote herself as the PI. The postdoc will edit that to take the PI roll and put the PhD as a contributor.
My question: Does the postdoc need to inform the PhD student that the document was corrected to reflect the actual PI or can it go ahead without informing her (potentially leaving her believing she was the PI)?
If you support informing: what justification can the PostDoc give other than "I need to be PI for some projects for my career growth"?

...are you that postdoc? Does the organization providing computing time have eligibility requirements for who can be a PI?

leonos: The group leader has allowed the PostDoc to apply as PI for career reasons. PhD was not involved in that discussion. Anyon: There are no formal requirements but I am confident that a proposal from a PhD will not be taken seriously.

Grants are contracts with an institution, not a PI.  Students are not eligible to PI grants at some institutions.  Others may not even allow postdoc to PI.

Can you clarify if this application is only for allocating computing resources, which the project will be charged after? Or does this involves a grant, for example applying for 10.000$ to be used in computing time?

Only for computing time, I am responsible for paying any charges if involved.

Then I wouldn't call this a PI role, but HPC resources administrator.

@leonos PI means principal investigator in relation to a specific grant. Even a Master studend can be a PI.

Research administrator in the US here.  PI rights are very confusing for researchers, especially new ones.  Many think that "PI" = the person who had the original idea, which is not the case.  The PI is the one who will be overseeing the research, whether it was their research or not.  There are many cases where PIs will be "in name only" to facilitate others to carry on the bulk of the work.  Some junior faculty use this approach with a senior PI to help get them their first grants.
In any case, the institutions grant PI rights according to their own policies.  In US Universities, this is usually restricted to ladder/tenure-track faculty.  As such, postdocs usually are granted PI rights on an exceptional basis, e.g., they have a senior faculty member backstopping them.  In 13 years of this work, and several hundreds of proposals, I have never seen a graduate student as a PI unless they are a submitting a fellowship. Graduate students are trainees, and by definition unqualified to supervise research.  Postdocs are given rights in an exceptional case as they are quasi-trainees and somewhat independent.
Check your institution's PI Rights policies to see who needs to be the PI -- it is likely limited to tenure-track/tenured faculty without additional paperwork required.  Personally, I would never advise a postdoc to take on a PI role without a very good mentor behind them.  The amount of administrative burden is more than they anticipate.  Institutions throw a lot of resources at faculty to help them through this; this is not necessarily the case for postdocs.
As for the other part of your question; you should inform the student of this information as well.  If you want to be part of the research community, it is best to be forthright about who has what responsibilities and not make decisions in secret with the hopes of acquiring some sort of prestige.  You will soon find out that many senior faculty are all too happy to give away the job title of "PI" to someone else who is willing to do the paperwork associated with grants and contracts--which is usually what this title conveys, not that they are the sole person with the ideas and intellectual property.

How often do computing time allocations come across your desk as a research admin? My experience is that even the large allocations, which require yearly progress reports, are a lot less formal and administratively involved than grants that involve the transfer of money.

@Anyon -- this depends on how the billing works.  If it's an internal billing procedure, it will hit my accounts, and then I am responsible for asking about allocability.  If it all hits a startup, I don't care.  If we are billing sponsored funding, I would be doing this work at least quarterly, as I would with any service center.  Usually once PIs figure out that I will hold them to consistent allocations, they work with me to figure out how to do this process less often.  Mainly you can't work 100% on NSF and be charging costs for an unrelated project.  Are you actually not 100% on NSF?

@Anyon, you can find different policies/guidance on cost allocation methodologies online.  Some folks may need to reassess monthly; sometimes we use one month's use to determine total % for the allocation and revisit annually, etc.  UCSF has an example that mentions compute time here:  https://controller.ucsf.edu/quick-reference/contracts-grants-accounting/cost-allocation-methodology-best-practices

Thanks, that's informative.

It would be improper to make a change without consultation. I don't know why she listed herself. Usually the PI has a supervisory role over a lab or group. Ultimately it is the person responsible for carrying out the requirements of a grant and being able to testify that all is correct.
Perhaps you don't qualify either. But it needs to be discussed, perhaps including whoever is the overall supervisor.
It is possible that if the grant is for her and her only and she will carry out the work that the PI role is appropriate, but it isn't obvious. Similar for the postdoc who may have a supervisory role or not.

People are assuming that he's applying for a grant, but computing resources applications in general are only for getting computing time allocated in some HPC infrastructure. After getting the resources allocated they will be charged according to used computing hours. The OP mentions PI role in this application, but usually this is an administrator role. Of course, this is country and HPC infrastructure dependent. I'm based in Europe. In Norway it's common that postdocs are admins in this context.


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What was your main selling point to start your own research group after the PostDoc phase?
I am in the PostDoc phase in an European institution where I am given quite some autonomy by the group leader. She is very generous indeed. Recently, she advised me to apply for a 4-5 year grant to start my own (small) research group within the same group. The field is computer science.
I want to ask those of you who have been successful in doing something similar in the past: What were those 2-3 main points in your proposal that made the cut for you?
Was it a current hot topic? Was it your overwhelming expertise? Was it the support environment? Was it the newness of your idea?
I know such an application necessarily needs a very good publication record, support from the institution, and so on, but I want to know the selling point from the proposal writing perspective.
What was the tone of your proposal writing?
What made your proposal irresistible to accept?

This is too broad to be answerable. It's also probably impossible for most people to know what aspects of an application made it successful.


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What to do when the supervisor is not timely suggesting corrections to research articles?
I have written a research article and everyone else has timely submitted their part of corrections after reading the paper. My supervisor is really busy, all the time. I can understand that.
However, I also have my interests at stake. A timely publishing means more citations and ensuring the idea is still new. Me and another student submitted the articles to him to read and the other student has already published that article. It has been almost 5 months where I remind him at least once a month to read my paper and suggest whatever minor suggestions there are, but he always says he will look into it and doesn't.
What it the most diplomatic way to handle this situation of getting the paper read and maintaining good relations?

Do you believe your article is in a good enough state to submit? Is your supervisor an author on the paper?

Is it possible to have a sit-down with the prof and plan out a way forward. Possibly the paper is ready to go.

@mmeent Yes, I think so. Yes. Buffy: It is possible but would look like an escalation.

I asked two questions

I answered both.

"Yes. Buffy: It is possible but would look like an escalation." As a supervisor I'd be fine with that. I wouldn't worry much as long as you're polite. It's an absolutely legitimate request and the supervisor should understand it.

As a busy professor, who has held up publication of papers in my lab, I would recommend scheduling a sit-down meeting with them and just asking the professor to read the paper while you sit there.
It seems like time-management might be an issue for the professor, but by agreeing to the 1 hour meeting (or maybe you can ask for 2 hours), they are committing that time. Maybe it's enough to get them to sign off.
At worst, you will get some feedback about what needs to be done before submissions. Then ask if you can do the same thing the following week.

Perhaps you have resolved this already, but if not, I'd suggest a sit-down with them. I don't see it as an escalation. Say that you realize how busy they are and ask permission to move ahead with the paper without their further input. If they trust you and the others, then they may say fine, implicitly approving the current version.
If you think there are some portions that truly require their input, you could come prepared with a few questions and even a marked up copy of the paper, highlighting the areas you are unsure of. It need not be a long meeting, nor a confrontational one.

I note the suggestion by jerlich to set a meeting with your professor and use it to sit there and watch him review the paper.  This is a reasonable idea, but it might be off-putting to the professor for you to sit there while he works; it might also cause him to rush his review.
A slight variant on this that is sometimes used in busy consulting firms is to "book time in the calendar" by sending a meeting request for a 2 hour block in the professor's calendar (with a reminder ping on the invitation), but setting it just as review time without the expectation that the student will be there --- e.g., title the calendar invitation "Review quantum's paper" with no location specified. If the professor accepts the calendar invitation then you can be confident that they have locked in time for the task and it is in their calendar to avoid conflicting appointments.  This is a method used in some busy offices, particularly in large consulting firms.

Unless your supervisor is intentionally evil and/or ignoring you, they should be more than happy to accept an invitation to sit down and discuss it. They should also understand that this is important for you.
Asking for an appointment where you meet in person may be what is needed to move this to the urgent pile. Most over-stretched professors mean no harm, even if they unintentionally cause it...


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What is expected in a collaboration from a host supervisor?
Say a student X is a visiting research student under Prof Y, where Y is not the full-time supervisor of X. Student X will be working with Y for 3-months under an international research exchange program. X. Student X facilitates the funding, bringing expertise in a field unknown to Y, and Y has the expertise that is entirely new to X. The idea is to use them both in an application. X proposed the original idea to Y.
My questions are:
(1) What is expected of X in everyday research? Is X supposed to learn what is known to Y and then bring together the ideas him/herself alone with occasional "I can't understand this part" questions?
(2) What can X expect out of a collaboration? What is reasonable to ask Y? e.g. is it reasonable for X to ask Y that s/he will not learn the field of Y?
(3) Can X expect some PostDocs in the Y's group to join the ranks and get along with the project? There is a paper possible if everything goes well.

Sorry, but I'm afraid you can't "expect" anything at all. What can you expect when you bring two random people, unknown to each other, together for a "project"?
It is a matter of negotiation and judgement. You have to figure out before you agree to any such arrangement what the roles and responsibilities of each party will be. And everyone needs to buy in to the arrangement - with enthusiasm. That last bit is where judgement comes in to play. Lukewarm acceptance isn't likely to last. Pairing up with someone already too busy isn't likely to be successful.
Some arrangements such as you describe can be successful, but it requires enthusiastic buy-in from all parties. In particular, don't expect buy-in from third parties, such as post-docs who have their own projects and careers to think about.
If you have certain "needs" from others, then you need to make them explicit and listen carefully to the response.
If you don't get true buy-in from everyone essential, then you can "expect" to be disappointed. Alternatively, expect that it is all on you to make progress. That can actually work in some cases.


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How to ask for letter of recommendation without giving the impression you want to leave the group?
I am a final year PhD student and given the competition and burden of finding a PostDoc position, I want to try to apply to some positions early on. At this stage I am satisfied with the group and would like to continue working here, unless, I get accepted at Harvard or MIT.
The constraints:
(1) I want to continue in Academia and it is clear to me that research experience abroad (I am not in USA) is a must.
(2) I did not have any conversation about the possibility of having a PostDoc position with my supervisor. I think it is too early for her to know if she will have the money in one year. So I did not ask, I focus on my performance.
(3) The application for MIT is open and ends in about a month. It would be a dream come true if I can go there.
(4) I would like to be a citizen of the country I am living in (in Europe) and by doing my PostDoc here I could achieve that. This conflicts with (3) and (1).
Given the above points, I would like to at least try to apply to MIT and see if they accept or reject, you never know until you try. But I prefer to not have my current supervisor think that my application at MIT (I need her L.O.R) means I am not interested in working here as PostDoc anymore and therefore not look for funds for me (which is significant work).

Do you have a good enough relationship with your advisor to simply tell them all your considerations above? Advisors can be a huge help in finding postdocs (whether at your current institution or elsewhere)

Unless you are at a rare institution where it is common and expected for recent graduates to stay on under a post-doc with their supervisor, I don't see any reason not to just ask. Surely your supervisor knows that you need to arrange your next career steps and will hopefully support you.

I have an opportunity to apply for a post-doc at MIT, but need your help in the application.

That is completely normal and doesn't actually telegraph anything other than that you need to move forward.
Perhaps, if the supervisor really (really) wants you to continue with them, it would result in an offer. Only then do you have any dilemma. And even in that case, unless you are at a rare institution ranked higher than MIT and Harvard, such a move would be a step up, which should be supported as it will reflect well on everyone.
But asking for a letter only means you are being diligent about managing your next steps.


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Will article-style citations in a presentation be indexed by Google Scholar?
If a presentation is made public and can be found by Google Scholar, will it read through it and add to the citations if a paper was under a nicely written "References" section?

There is a list on the Google Scholar website regarding the requirements for when a paper is indexed:

a. the full text of your paper is in a PDF file that ends with ".pdf",
b. the title of the paper appears in a large font on top of the first page,
c. the authors of the paper are listed right below the title on a separate line,
d. and there's a bibliography section titled, e.g., "References" or "Bibliography" at the end.

So from this we can infer that the crawler looks for a section titled 'references' or 'bibliography' in a document. Assuming that the rest of the requirements are fulfilled, it might work.
However, it is hard to say for certain whether the crawler will actually pick this up since the exact workings of Google Scholar are fairly opaque.


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How to negotiate a single author paper during a PostDoc position?
In a meeting for a potential PostDoc place, I want to talk to the professor about potential collaborations and working together. I've learnt that independent papers are a must for my career. I also know that I am able to do this but perhaps not entirely independently. For example, I may produce a paper entirely on my own but say I use supercomputing time for which the grant was written by the professor. Therefore, I would say this is not entirely my own effort. Although it is debatable.
In the meeting, what is the best way to put my demands on the table. My options are:

Do not talk about it. Maybe after 2 years when I am almost about to leave I can think of something completely on my own with the 2 years of experience behind me.

Talk about it directly. I say it on the face that I want and need a single author paper and I can help with other things while I get the single authorship.

Drop indirect hints that this is important for my career and reduce the chances that the message is delivered.

Kindly suggest a suitable approach. You may create your own option.

An important aspect is that you should have an informed picture even before you talk to your advisor: How "phony" is your advisor, in the sense that they demand to be a co-author of each paper from their lab, regardless of the advisee's career perspectives? This you can learn by talking to other people in the lab and former advisees. Depending on the outcome, you can tailor your strategy.

Are you sure that "independent papers are a must for my career"?

@Louic "must" might be a strong word. But, at least in my field, a solo-authored paper will definitely give you a competitive advantage, which, in an over-competitive job market, can be worth pure gold.

Single author papers being a "must" are very much a field-specific thing. For the projects my group works on and published on, none could be sole author - there is just too much collaboration across different specialties needed to get a result.

@lighthousekeeper yes, pure gold is a better word. What is the strategy for a phony advisor?

Normally, providing resources, such as computer time, isn't sufficient for authorship. Thanks in an acknowledgement of course, but not authorship. Authors contribute to the ideas of the paper and the research behind it.

@quantum Some will strongly disagree with this answer, but it worked out well for me: I secretly developed a paper and only told the advisor about it after submitting it (downplaying it as a minor additional work I did, even though I was really proud of it). In my case, I believe that it worked out well because I was also fairly productive in our common projects.

As comments are [pointing out, this varies by field. It would be difficult in my field to publish a solo paper, and doing so would be pretty meaningless. Can you add a field?

Physics (that's why the name quantum)

@DanielHatton In my case, I had the idea for the paper and knew that I could develop it front-to-end all by myself.

@quantum What area of physics? Some areas of physics it is certainly not possible to publish as a single author (besides reviews), because the projects require substantial collaboration to conduct.

If your advisor wants to be on any paper your write, find a different advisor.

Another approach is to ask rather than tell. This has the advantage of appearing collegial (not making demands) but also getting direct info on policies/preferences (to the extent the person is honest).
Ask: how do you handle authorship? Under what circumstances do your post-docs publish solo authored work vs co-authored work? How do you assist post-docs with communicating their readiness for running their own lab on the job market? Is solo authorship an important part of this, in your opinion?

I think this is good advice. Also: work out what you're asking for. Agreement that you can work on your own projects for some of the time? Agreement that you can work on the professor's projects quasi-independently so that you can publish as a single author? Agreement that the professor helps you to do the research but doesn't put their name on it?

Also: if possible, discuss this question with someone you trust who understands how things work in your field, and who is in a position to assess your capabilities (e.g. your advisor). This is something where it would be very easy to shoot yourself in the foot by seeming to make demands that are unreasonable or unrealistic.

From the entire history of papers of my supervisor in the group, I do not see even one single author paper...

Clarification of policies can be both good and bad: If the professor says "sorry, we don't do solo authorship here", the threshold for still preparing a solo submission is higher than if the policy is unclear. Appearing collegial is good, but one could argue that a professor who doesn't allow solo papers is not acting collegial in the first place, so one might worry less about being collegial to them.

As a post-doc, I think you should be able to work on several projects at the same time. Working on only one paper with your supervisor (collaborator who pays for the visit?) might not fill all your time, and you can work on a separate project.
Also, if you apply for some grant that you get the funding for as a post-doc, gives you much more freedom, even though you have supervisor. I did a 2-year post-doc with this format, and I think wrote about 6 papers during this time, only one with the actual supervisor (2 papers with a very talented undergraduate student, one paper with another researcher at the department and 2 papers on my own). One of the papers I wrote myself was a problem my supervisor suggested, and it was highly influenced by his previous work - it was kind of a gap that needed to be filled.

Ask for forgiveness, not permission
(This answer assumes a field where solo-authored papers for a post-doc are feasible, but practices differ from place to place.)
You're navigating a certain tension here: An ideal PI will be an unselfish mentor and advocate for your career. Unfortunately, real-life PIs often see their post-docs as ripe oranges to be squeezed out. If you ask a professor for permission for solo-authoring a paper, it's not unlikely that the answer will be no, which would leave you without the option to solo-author papers.
My advice is to first seek evidence on what the PI's possible stance is. Three tactics here are: First, check the track record of the PI's current and former post-docs. Second, talk to current and former lab members in private. Third, have a more open-ended conversation with the PI, framed as "I seek advice on publication strategies - how do you think I should publish to get a faculty job?" without addressing solo-authorship and related policies explicitly.
If you have the feeling that their stance is negative, don't ask about it. Instead, seek to be a productive member of their lab, who shows an excellent potential to successfully apply for faculty jobs. Then you're in a position where you might be likely to be forgiven if you at some point casually mention a minor solo-authored paper you submitted.


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Can I add future/incomplete projects and accomplishments onto my resume?
I'm an 4th year undergraduate student who transferred to my current institution from community college during the pandemic. I'm applying to PhD programs this fall. Obviously, I missed out on a lot of opportunities I was hoping to take advantage of last year; this is not a unique experience. Yet, as a transfer student my first year on campus will also be my last.
I'm doing a lot this year, but none of the projects/accomplishments will be "complete" until after the application deadlines. For example, I've written a project proposal + lit review and have been trying to get a faculty member to help advise, but most of them are saying they're at full capacity with undergrads. Also, in my current lab, my PI said I've contributed enough this past year to become a co-author this coming spring when he publishes which is cool, but, again, that'll be in spring.
Can I mention these things on my resume specifically? If so, how? I have a lot of other things to discuss in my SOP so if I can put it in my resume, I would to. (Also, in case I'm not admitted this year, I'm applying to jobs and would like to start applying with the same "incomplete" content on my resume).

It is fairly common in a CV to have a section called "Work in Progress". It is fairly common in other application materials to have a discussion of "Future Work" or "Future Directions", though that is a bit less common in a CV. The SoP is an appropriate place for such things.
It is actually an advantage to list these sorts of things as it indicates activity in the field.
So, the current work is "in Progress" for the CV.


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Where/how can I find out if I can use this paper commercially vs for research purposes only?
I wanted to implement this paper for commercial purposes, but the licence for use is not mentioned at all.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.09104.pdf
Dynamic Feature Fusion for Semantic Edge Detection
Where/how can I find out if I can use this paper commercially vs for research purposes only?

It depends on what you mean. If you're asking about using the ideas or methods in the paper, see this question and maybe also this question.
In case you're asking about using the actual paper itself (i.e. text, figures etc.), the first step would be to check the abstract page for the preprint rather than the pdf. In this case, it would be https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.09104 The license mentioned there grants some rights to arXiv, but does not provide third parties such as yourself any particular rights. Next, by googling the title I find that the paper is published in a conference which reserves all rights, so any commercial use of the copyrighted work would have to be with permission in writing from the publisher. Finally, I also found the GitHub for the code used in the paper. The code is licensed under a MIT license, which allows commercial use.