text:
BA in the humanities - doing MA in Computer Science?
I have a BA degree in sociology, but during my studies I got interested in programming and development. I would like to continue and do my MA thesis in a Computer Science University, and maybe, try to incorporate sociology and CS in my final thesis.
If I do it the other way around, going to sociology MA but try to get some computer science subjects along the way, I don't think will teach me much.
I would like to know if it's possible to continue and do a Masters thesis in CS, having already finished a BA in social sciences / humanities?

You'll need to check different schools' requirements or get in touch with them. Many CS programs will want some combination of math beyond calculus and CS courses above the introductory level.

I think that depends on your local laws. Here in Germany, it is possible. But not in all Universities.

Another path to consider would be to find out if there are sociology programs that have an emphasis on (or option to emphasize) quantitative/statistical methods. A program like that might give you access to exactly the types of coursework you need to accomplish what you want.

You may also want to look into the digital humanities. You'd most likely still do an MA in sociology, but you could probably have a significant portion of your coursework —and especially your thesis— strongly rooted in CS.

I can say from personal experience, I did my CS MSc (pretty much equivalent to MA in most places) without first completing a CS undergrad (BA equivalent).  Therefore, @M.P.R is right about the fact that a CS grad course will more likely give you an MSc, not an MA.
Moreover, @JoeCorneli is also right that applying computing capabilities to real world problems is very different from becoming a programmer.  Not all programmers are capable of plying things to the real world and not all computer scientists are actually very good programmers.  Yet, I do not fully agree that a CS MSc will not teach you the application of programming to real world problems (in theory that should be the focus of a CS MSc).
That said, a CS MSc will not teach you how to program.  You either need to be a decent programmer beforehand (my case, I had some 3-4 years of professional software house experience when attempting my MSc) or be very well self-educated in programming.
A good university will test you whether you are at an acceptable level of programming.  They need to.  During a CS MSc you will learn where computing meets the real world, and what are the fields where research is happening today.  That will require you to be fluent in pretty much any programming language.
A hint of what (I believe) is a good measure of whether you are capable of attending a CS MSc without a formal education would be: (1) given a program in any programming language, that is not horribly obfuscated, you can tell more-or-less what it is doing; and (2) you can imagine how most applications are built on your desktop, or a server (you do not need to be capable of writing it yourself but you need to know, for example, why databases are built the way they are).

There are plenty of subfields of CS which have extremely little to do with the application of programming to real-world problems. In theory it should be possible to do a masters in CS without any programming or without any applicability to real-world problems.

Everything @grochmal said plus many CS MSc programs have some kind of "bootcamp" to make sure students enter with a baseline of technical skills.  Will also add that there are many ways towards a "middle road," becoming proficient at Python with Numpy or SSPS if you want to apply programming towards things like the kinds of statistical research that are done in the humanities...etc.

@PeterTaylor - Very true.  The only practical problem is that you only have enough knowledge on how to go through a CS MSc without programming and without practical applications after you're half through it :) .  Modal logic and proof of all computation cases of a program is what comes to my mind, but even so there is one or two InfoSec apps that use knowledge from that subfield.

Yes, it is. The process of enrolling in grad-school is two-fold. First, the grad-school department (as an academic and administrative unit) verifies whether or not you're eligible to enroll as a graduate student (e.g., sufficient GRE scores, TOEFL scores - in case of international students, etc.). Second, the academic unit (CS in your case) verifies that the candidate grad-student is eligible to enroll in their program. Either you have a sufficiently robust CS background (e.g., you were a double major or at least you have a minor in CS) or you are willing to take fundamental CS undergrad classes (e.g., Data-Structures & Algorithms, Operating Systems, Theory of Computation, etc.). These options minimize the risk of floundering with relatively complex class-contents when you enroll in higher-level CS grad courses independent of your bachelor-degree background.
P.S.: According to my experience, usually you're awarded a M.S. (M.Sc.) degree when you finish a C.S. masters program. Are you planning on taking humanities-based courses as part of graduate courses (this is the only way I know you would be awarded an M.A. instead of an M.S. for C.S.)?

That sounds like a US-specific answer. Could you please add the location?

Oh, sorry! I should have said so in my previous answer. Yes, my grad-school experience is 100% USA-based.

If you want to do an "MA thesis in computer science" then, surely, you can find some university that will allow you to do that.  But if you want to actually apply computer science knowledge to address interesting and important real world problems, then you may have a somewhat different set of issues to deal with.
E.g., you may need to become a very good programmer, for example.  This is done by practicing programming, not by writing theses.  I would suggest you think about a skills-based programme or apprenticeship to start with and don't rush into an MA.  You could do that later when you have skills equivalent to a Bachelors in computer science (...if you still want to).


text:
Adding square brackets when quoting
I come upon a lot of quotes in academic papers where the following is written:

Thus “[l]andscape is always being used as a medium for architectural ideas“ (Gilles 1986)

Why is l in square brackets? Does that mean that the author that cited this line, modified it to suit their point in the process?

This is really more of a question about written English than about academia.

I'm in agreement that this belongs in English Language & Usage, and is hardly exclusive to academic writing.

Square brackets in quotes are usually used to indicate that a minor alteration has been made in order to make it more readable (e.g. to fit into the context that the quote is placed in) but that does not alter the intended meaning of the quote.
In your example, it probably means that the original quote had a capital letter, but has been re-written to fit its place in the middle of a sentence.
Another example would be if I wanted to quote your question. I could write

"[BirdMars] come[s] upon a lot of quotes in academic papers [...]"

to maintain the spirit of your quote while clarifying who the pronoun "I" refers to. The ellipsis in square brackets indicates that this is not the full quote.

…and in particular the presence of the brackets around the ellipsis indicate that the original text did not contain a literal ellipsis.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Variation in length of MSc studies
I have acquired a 4 year BA degree in one of the social sciences. At the moment, I'm considering applying for MSc outside of my country (I'm Non-EU citizen and I will apply for MSc studies in EU country).
The University where I want to apply has 3-year BA programmes and 2-year MA/MSc programmes. However, in my country I finished a 4 year BA programme with a total of 240 credits and MA studies are usually with a duration of 1 year. I really don't want to study 2 full years for something that I believe I could finish in a considerably shorter time (one year). Also, I already have the necessery credits for the first year of the MSc programme.
I would like to know how is this handled? Does the number of the acquired credits I have matters, or is the official length of the MSc programme that counts?

Specific answers to the question of "what work is required" will vary by university and they are the only ones who can answer that question, especially if you have questions about transferring credits into the program, and especially if you're transferring credits internationally. Two years is pretty standard for an MS degree in the US.

This is not a universal truth, but my experience in researching Master's Programs is that the main difference between a 1year and 2 year Master's program is the research component.
1 year programs tend to be primarily course based, with a shorter project, if any. Very seldom will there be a 2 year program consisting entirely of classes. Instead, there is usually a thesis, project, essay, etc. that can last around a year.
No matter how skilled you are, research takes time. So a 1 year Master's program will necessary mean a more shallow project, whereas a two year program alloes for more depth, and is more likely to result in publishable research.
So when choosing a program, ask yourself what you're trying to get out of it. If your main interest is classes, 1 year is fine. If you want to be a researcher or tackle an ambitious project, 2 year will probably be better.

This sounds like it is probably an institution by institution policy. I know that here in the UK a masters programme lasts one year but that in Germany, they last two- furthermore, I've been told that a 2 year Masters programme garners greater respect than the single year option. This may be because there is a stronger taught element or because you're in the lab for longer gaining more skills.
E-mail the institution you are interested in and ask but I've been at it for 8.5 years so 4 seems like a dream.

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


text:
I don't know if i was caught cheating or not
So i take my test in a separate room by myself in the testing center and when i was taking my test one of the instructors nocked on my door. Know they do not check to make sure if you have your phone on you or not, so i brought my phone in the room with me. Well the teacher walks in and i hide my phone with my jacket on my lap and the teacher proceeds to say that i am not allowed to have a jacket in the room with me so i hide my phone between my legs and give her my jacket. Not thinking anything of it because i thought if she did see my phone than she would have taken my test away right then and there.
So i finish the test and i go to hand it to the people and they are all talking when i get there but i don't know what they are talking about so i just pay no attention to it. As i am grabbing my jacket i hear one of the ladys say she is probably just gonna get a 0 on the test because when i walked in there she had her phone on her. Now they never said who they where talking about but i am scared because i did have my phone on me. When i was leaving they didn't seem to be mad at me or anything but i still can't help but think they where talking about me.
So i guess what i am asking is if i did get caught with my phone would they have taken the test away or would they have let me finish and then emailed my teacher about it?

If they did, you will soon know.

So you are not allowed a phone in the exam but took it with you because “they don’t check”...

I think you know you were caught, the only question now is will you be formally accused and/or punished.

First of all, I hope you will learn your lesson and not cheat again. It is unfair to your fellow students and to your future employers. I strongly recommend to read the answers to this question.
Now to your actual question: different universities in different countries have different policies on how to handle cheating. In some universities, students must always be allowed to finish the exam even if they are caught cheating, so that the grade is still valid if the accusation of cheating is appealed and does not stand.
You cannot know who the instructors were talking about: you will have to wait to see if they have caught you. I would say the odds are strongly against you: what are the chances that another student cheated in the same way as you did and was caught?

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Doing a research paper / poster without much available data?
I know, why would somebody choose a topic for a research paper or a poster that doesn't really have much data or literature available? But here it goes...
Without much consideration, I chose a topic for a presentation at a Geographu scientific conference that doesn't have a lot of digitised data available. When I think of it, there are no existing databases on which a digital / computer approaches and methodologies could be applied.
My question is, how do you manage this kind of situation? Do you just write a theoretical paper that just gives similar case studies from other geographic regions where this methods were applied, or?
Also, I think it is now a bit late to change topics.

If no data is available, then you collect your own data.

The fact that there isn't much data available sounds like a fantastic opportunity to collect lots of data in that field, setting yourself apart from other folk and carving out a nice niche for yourself.
The fact that there isn't much data available in the field shouldn't hold you back from just doing it yourself. Science is the pursuit of knowledge, after all.


text:
What are the chances for a scholarship winner to be denied admission at Uni?
If a student wins a scholarship (like the german DAAD scholarship, for example), does his chance for admission at an University to pursue a Masters degree increase?
Let's say he fulfilled all of the requirements for admission. On top of that, he won a scholarship that fully funds his studies. Would he be given advantage over other candidates that applied for the same MSc program?

Not sure why you deleted your other DAAD question. // Please don't pay any mind to what that participant said about how it was elementary to realize you should prepare for such a question. I find certain news topics too depressing to follow or think about.  Also, sometimes you need to focus 100% on your studies.  Additionally, sometimes family matters are wholly absorbing.  Etc. // If the DAAD folks are such jerks as to take political opinions into account in these decisions, they don't deserve to get any students. But I think that question was ...

... icing on the cake.  They can't have been stupid enough to use that answer as the basis for a decision (unless your field were political science). // I wish you would undelete the question.  I would really like to know if what they did is allowed in the German system.

@aparente001 Thanks for the positive feedback; I agree completely. It is allowed I guess, since it shows that you are well rounded individual with opinions about different topics. And no, my chosen studies are not in political science; but in natural sciences. Question undeleted, greetings.

Thanks for restoring the other question.

It very much depends on the admissions system. If the system is based (almost) strictly on grades (the way the German system largely is determined), then having a scholarship doesn't help with admissions. This is also the case if there are minimal tuition and registration fees associated with admission.
In the US, though, funding is a much more important issue in admissions. Students with their own funding source definitely have an advantage over other students of comparable quality, since they cost less money, and thereby can be admitted when other students can't. However, a student who has a scholarship but might not be a good fit for the department might not be admitted.


text:
'Outstanding publication commitments' meaning?
I'm applying for research funds and, while filling in the application and all the expenses, I came upon a field called 'Outstanding publication commitments (Please list, continuing on a separate sheet if necessary)'.
Does this mean that I should write my engagement in publishing academic papers? And before you answer, just a little info: I'm asking because I just finished my Bachelor degree and I don't have much experience in publishing (I only published one paper that is in print). However, I have experience with organizing conferences (as part of the organizing team) and I also gave two presentations on scientific conferences. Should I list this?

It might be easier to figure this out if we could see the context.  How about providing a link to the form?

You mention expenses - might this be a question about anticipated publishing costs? It's pretty common for a year or more to elapse between submission of a paper & actually paying the fees, and this sort of committed-but-unpaid cost can be a headache to manage. Agree it would be easier with the form for context.

I believe "outstanding" here means "not yet completed".  However, I'm not sure whose commitment it's talking about, yours or the publisher's.  One interpretation is that it's asking whether you have committed to publishing anything that you haven't published yet (such as results from previous grants); another is that it's asking you to list papers that have been accepted for publication but are not yet in print.  I'd guess that it's the former, because it seems like a somewhat obscure way to ask for the latter, but I doubt anyone could say with any certainty without knowing more details.
Either way, this is probably not the right place to list your publications or related achievements such as conference organization or presentations.

Thank you for the info. The field is located just under the field for my personal information (Name, address etc.). I would also guess that it is about mine commitment.


text:
Erasmus exchange / internship after graduation?
I am a European student (from a Non-EU country) and I got my BA degree last year. I am planning to go to study for masters degree in my profession, but that will be during 2018 (next year).
My question is, is it possible during this 'gap' period for me to apply for an Erasmus internship/grant/mobility somewhere? I am not currently enrolled in a University, so I wonder if there are cases like mine?


text:
Should the postdoc interview focus on my research findings or transferrable skills that could be value of the research team that I am applying?
I will have a postdoc interview soon. I previously ask our community about whether I should prepare a PowerPoint. I got some great advice about preparing a deck of slides that would help me to clarify my thinking about what to say.
I would like to ask your opinion about the content. Should I talk about my research findings at all and instead focus on what research skills I could bring to the lab? Of course, scholars are excited about hearing cool research findings but I have a sense that, pragmatically speaking, they would want to hear more about my skills. Given time restrictions, what would be the best strategy to optimize my interview time to promote myself?
I appreciate your advice and insights.

Actually it doesn't need to be either-or. Make it both. But don't do it in two parts. Weave it together if at all possible.
But another reason this is happening is that they want to know something about you as a person and as a potential colleague. How do you present yourself. Are you formal? Pedantic? Friendly? Lots of things. Along with that, they want some idea about how you go about handling such public talks. How do you present ideas whatever they are. If you seem natural it will probably help. Unfortunately that normally comes with a lot of practice over time. But they probably understand that.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Short rejection after two years
I've submitted a short paper to a well-known cs journal. It got rejected after two years with the below one para explanation. While I admit that the submission was not strong, I feel cheated because of waiting for two years for this explanation (no full report was made).
In the paper, the author shows that NP-completeness for [...].
The proofs are very basic and standard. The results are reasonable, so it may be acceptable if this paper was written in 1990s. However, as far as I
know, such a kind of paper is obsolete nowadays. Since 2000s, among
such papers, few papers are acceptable for [...] only when there are
some extra value to be published. For example, they solve big open
question, or the NP-completeness has very important influence to the
other research. From this viewpoint, this paper is not strong enough
for the recent [...]. So my recommendation is reject.

What shall I do? I think this situation is unacceptable, let me know if you disagree.

I've already complained of course to the editor upon receipt of the report, but I got no answer.
ps. Btw, imo the given journal still publishes NP-completeness proofs regularly, that's why I've chosen it for my result.

Hard to judge from a distance. Hard to fight. Even you agree it wasn't "strong". The delay may be explainable or not. Maybe just submit it elsewhere. Better to strengthen it if possible. In future, don't wait so long before asking the editor about a paper's status.

I didn't wait that long, I've inquired about the paper before, and they've replied that it's under review.

Weak papers have a hard time finding reviewers, even if the journal tries hard.  Maybe a desk rejection would have been in place, with that remark that no reviewers were found. But it may be a sign of a weakness in the paper that it took so long. Such a paper should anyway not form the core part of one's portfolio and not a critical path in terms of publication.

Would you have preferred a quick desk rejection?

You seem to mix two different aspects: Your (understandable) disappointment about the response and the long time it took to get the response.
You cannot really complain about the response itself because it generally seems to be rational and the reason for the rejection is not the long time it took. Right now you can only try to use the helpful aspects in the response to improve your manuscript.
On the other hand, you should complain about the time it took. Two years is indeed inacceptable. If you will get no reply, there is very little you can do, I'm afraid. It is probably best to look for an alternative journal.
My advice for the future: Do not submit to the journal again, but count it as an important experience: next time, you could ask in regular intervals (not too short or long, let's say every three months), and also give the process a maximum timeframe.

And tell others in your field about the shitty journal!

I did ask at regular intervals.

Morgan Rodgers, giving feedback might contribute to improvement in response time in the future, and others might benefit from it. Therefore I think it is important. It will most likely not help in the OP's case, though.

My guess is the manuscript spent two years going from one potential reviewer to the next, as each sat on it a while then finally turned the review request down. There may not be much you can learn from this except that perhaps you can try harder to make the paper clearer to read so reviewers won't be as reluctant to take a look. Perhaps break things up and put the really dense stuff in appendices. Come up with a way to make a figure to describe the idea if possible.
As for the review, it looks like the dreaded "significance" criticism. I.e. they find the results to be correct, novel, and relevant, but not (in their personal opinion) sufficiently important for publication. Of course every researcher likes to think this about most every other researcher. E.g. my research direction will change the world, while others' are just an over-hyped rehashing of old ideas. It is only a single data point so hard to be sure how commen the reviewers opinion would be regarding your result. But what you can do is try harder to "market" the result in the abstract and intro, ideally with citations supporting your claims of significance. Then the next reviewer has to basically argue directly against your citations, rather than just handing this stock criticism out.
At this point though, I'd say just make a quick pass to address the issue of significance a bit more, then move on to a new journal to get a second opinion.


text:
Required to withdraw due to student "not benefitting from further study" - is that ever used?
At an institution in my country, the undergraduate calendar has the following language:
"Any student may be required to withdraw at any time if, in the
opinion of the Faculty Council he is unlikely to profit from further study. " (this quote is from a very old version of the calendar, hence the gender-specific language, but the modern version has nearly identical language)
This is in addition to the other withdrawal rules (like failing to maintain a given average).  It appears that this rule is basically at the discretion of the faculty.  I'm certain there are huge documentation requirements to make it enforceable without appeal, but I was wondering:

Is this a common clause at other institutions?
What does it mean to be "...unlikely to profit from further study"?  What are some examples?
Has anyone ever heard of it happening anywhere?

I wonder if it is an attempt to push out the "forever student" who is just too comfortable. There may also be an issue of needing to balance the individual's desires to stay with society's need to spread the value of education more widely - especially if funding is public.

@Buffy I'm not sure.  I asked around and everyone came up with a different answer, but no one seemed to know that the rule existed...

Sounds like it's about making adequate progress toward a degree, whatever the reason. The phrasing gives a lot of leeway. Here's an example: http://www.ucalendar.uwaterloo.ca/9596/MATH/mathpol.html


text:
What are the effective strategies to increase GPA?
I am doing Undergraduate in Software Engineering and am going to finish my third semester (total of 8 semesters) now and as with my calculation, I am going to end it with a GPA of mere 1.89. I know this is a very low GPA, and this is because I failed my calculus II and Data Structure class. It might be very difficult to raise this GPA but I believe I still have time to make up and reach at least 2.5. Now since I don't want to set my goals too high or I might end up miserably disappointed, I want to know if this is even possible? Will a GPA of 2.5 be too bad for life career? And what are the strategies I can take to get my goals or even higher if possible anyhow?
Reasons of previous failures
To point out causes of failing previous semesters, I am studying in a foreign land and hence the language difference is the biggest problem in communication and even understanding lectures. Recently, I have also been suffering from a lot of anxiety and have been having symptoms of depression (as I have read on Internet, I don't know till what extent they are true). I have been losing my social life and feeling just nothing at all. I have a part time job as well to support my personal finance.
So what can I do to tackle with my personal anxiety and make up for the bad scores I had earlier? Do I still have enough time for that? And how high can I reach?

Study hard. Really understand the material, working through it. Check sources other than the textbook, the lecturer and the teaching assistants. There is no royal road, sorry. Yes, your "social" life will suffer. Even so, when you later get a job, you'll fondly remember your "wild years" at college ;-)

Will a GPA of 2.5 be too bad for life career? — Ahem.  NO.  (My undergraduate GPA was below 2.5.)

I strongly disagree with the close votes.  Graduate students also have GPAs, also have part-time jobs, also have to deal with language/culture issues in foreign countries, and also have to deal with depression.

@JeffE So you mean with a GPA of 2.5, i can still be accepted in a comparatively nice, or lets say reputed companies? And if I would like to apply for masters, is it going to be tough because of that GPA. Well first, I need to get that at least.

In my personal experience with companies, especially in computer science, some will ask about your GPA, and if it's under 3 they will decline. But some will not ask at all, because they don't really care, and some will be fine with a low GPA especially if you have other positive factors going for you (like work experience especially, or if you just interview well). With about 1 year of experience I don't know that you'll ever be asked about your GPA again in your life, and within a few years you'll need to mention you have a degree but almost no one will ask you details about it.

And for graduate schools, low GPA isn't great, but as JeffE points out it isn't an automatic disqualification for that either. And with less than half of your degree completed, 0.6 measly GPA points is certainly not an impossible aspiration by any stretch of the imagination. Institutions vary, but many allow retakes to replace a failing grade, and even if not then becoming a B+ student would get above your target GPA. Having problems in the first half of your degree program after moving to a new country does not, in and of itself, disqualify you from hardly anything at all in life.


text:
How to balance studies and part time job
I am an undergraduate student of software engineering, second year now, in a foreign country. My family's economic background isn't very strong; so I need to work in a restaurant for part time job in order to balance my personal finance. Recently, I got so much involved in my job that I stopped paying much attention to my classes. And since the language problem in this foreign country is a black spot for me, the classes are too difficult for me to be handled. Now, I am about to fail two main courses in this semester. Should I just cut off my job load and take these subjects next semester again or just give up with this place and look for some other place, where the communicating problems don't exist?

"Working part time in a restaurant" and "got so much involved in my job" do not make sense. How a 4-hour job (that probably is on weekends or nights) interferes with your morning studies?

it's not just a 4 hour job, i work as a host so i need to stay for a longer amount of time. And about classes, I actually don't understand anything because of the language problem. Thus I need to do my own research for everything. So me being too much involved in my part time job, i couldn't make time to do those research so I am in a verge of failing the course. I think I really need counseling.

I agree with Matinking's answer.
Regardless of whether you can get an academic-driven job on campus, consider teaming up with another student taking the same courses.
Your ideal foil would be fully fluent in the language of instruction, but weaker than you on independent research. The idea would be to work together on understanding the material, and also work as a team for group projects. Interacting with your study-partner might help improve your fluency in the language of instruction.


text:
Can I study Fine Arts at the age of 26/27
I am Indian and I don't know , is there any possibilities to join Fine arts colleges at the age of 26/27. My background is Bachelor of Science and working in a small IT company.But I am not happy with my current situation.I would like to change the scope , Can I start over again in Fine arts? Because , I am still a good painter.And I want to be a good artist.From my childhood everyone use to say ,I paint awesome.
Apart from that, I love paining still now , and I want to study more in this field.
Is it possible ? please help.I have none in my life to guide me.

Welcome to Academia.SE! Unfortunately, this question isn't really on topic here... this forum focuses on graduate-level life, not undergraduate.

There are plenty of resources online to learn Fine Arts, I don't think going into college specifically is necessary. What you should do is try to make your way slowly into Fine Arts while staying at your position, and afterwards take slowly steps toward being an artist rather than an IT worker.

I decided to respond below because Art has a different slant when looked at via academia filter as compared to most other topics.

@eykanal ,Pardon me , if i did something wrong, In India ,after school is called under graduation , means If I am seeking for graduation degree , I shall be called undergraduate. Is that you taking about ? graduate-level life.

Short answer: yes you can. The question should be: Should you?
Art is very difficult to live from. That's why many successful artists not only exhibit a significant dose of obsession, but ideally also some marketing skills, patience, strategic thinking, charisma. Yes, and luck, and not in small doses.
Note that one thing I didn't mention as requirement was talent - that, of course, goes without saying.
So, the prudent way is to keep your day job as a computer developer and develop your arts skills as a hobby and, when you have broken enough ground you will have some opportunities to participate at minor, later bigger exhibitions before deciding about taking the plunge.
Alternatively, you could consider taking advantage of your computer skills to combine your artistic ambition with computer-based art creation and/or marketing. There are quite a few artists who used the internet very successfully to become known and appreciated.
Doing a proper art degree, I suspect, would be more of interest for people going into art theory, art critic, museum curation, gallery management, and, especially if you start so late, I am not sure it is the right route for someone like you who seems to be interested in producing art rather than analysing/managing/marketing it - but of course, there may be very good arts schools in your potential target areas which would raise your levels of skills, we cannot judge that.
An alternative would be to find some arts master in your area and take lessons.
On the whole, leaving a paying day job for studying art is a very risky route. It's, of course, not impossible, but you need to be aware of the risks. Many artists end up not doing what they intended to do in the first place, even if they are very talented and have several of the skills above. By the time you finish your studies and decide that art does not work for you, your computer skills will be outdated, so this is what you have to take into account.
Good luck!

Thank you for your kind advise. Yes basically its risky though. I shall prefer to make an earning option beside it to survive and I would like to stay with some people , like you, give such a wonderful advice ,forever .


text:
How should I format my essay?
I'm writing a 5,000 word essay, or dissertation, and I'm not very experienced.
I've been given no format to write in.
Originally, I was using Arial, with a size of 11-point and 1-inch line-spacing with justified alignment.
I’ve changed my font to Times New Roman, size 11, and 1.15 spacing. Should I left-align my text? Would doing so improve marks / readability?
I find the justified text looks much better...
Should I italicise my quotes? I find it to be much easier to tell an in-line quote from text, when it is italicised.
What’s your standard formatting for an essay.

Whatever format you choose, the most important thing is: be consistent.

For legal submissions, Times 12 point, 1 inch margins all around, double-spaced, are required.  If your instructor cares, there should be instructions.  If your instructor doesn't care, then you get to create your own style, as long as it's not too far-out.


text:
R - citing a package within a package
I am writing my own R package which relies heavily on several others (namely 'biomaRt', 'grasp2db').  I feel as those who use my package should also cite these packages because the code I wrote would not be possible without them.  Do I add this to the citations function for my package or because 'biomaRt' and 'grasp2db' are listed as an 'Import' is this somehow already covered?  Thanks very much for any guidance.
Kate

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about academia.

@Compass: while I agree that it is not the best fit here, neither do I see on which sx it would fit better (cross validated is about statistics, not about how to cite or how to help people cite correctly; nor is this an R programming or code review question). All in all, I think that "how to make people cite correctly" is OK on academia.sx.

Some questions are a poor fit for any site. In this case, it appears that the R documentation provides insight, http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/RHOME/library/utils/html/citation.html

As far as I can tell, the R documentation is about how to record in the package the citation info of the package. But the question here is about "nested" citing, that is, whether or not to cite a package that has been heavily relied upon in the creation of a new package. (Apologies if wrong.) Perhaps the R mechanism for doing this is the "Depends" of the package: http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/description.html#dependencies

@Compass: OP is well aware of citation. She's asking for recommendations of what the citation function of her package should output. This is more related (but from the totally different perspective of a developer) to http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27921/should-i-cite-all-r-packages-i-used. That is, if I understand the question correctly, she asks how to provide citation information so people don't need to ask questions like the linked ones (and tell people who wouldn't think of even asking what they should do).

@JohnK.Kruschke: yes and no. You can lapply (loadedNamespaces(), citation) and then work on with that list of bibEntry objects to produce the kind of bibliography you need. However, I'd count already this first step as rather advanced and as a developer of an "end user package" I'd not rely on that level of R proficiency with typical users. And a 2nd yes: OP can automate the treatment of Dependencies in their CITATION file e.g. by lapply (package_dependencies("myPackage"), citation).

@JohnK.Kruschke:  (Advanced) users can lapply (loadedNamespaces(), citation), and OP could maybe lapply (packageDependencies ("myPackage"), citation instead of a manually curated list of the "important" dependencies. Maybe because such constructions that ask information from the installed version of the package can be a PITAdifficult in development.

Thanks very much for all of the replies!  JohnK.Kurschke and @cbeleites understood the question perfectly - it is about 'nested' citing.  I have indeed used the "Depends" mechanism and made these packages imports.  I think I will follow the suggested answer below by cbeleites and add a reminder message.  Thanks again for the guidance!

I like the idea of reminding people calling your package's citation to cite also (at least the important) packages you package relies on. (I even remind people of the citation function in my package's startup message).
However, for the actual implementation I see two viable ways. The less obtrusive and very easy to implement one would be to print a message
Please do not forget citing "biomaRt" and "grasp2db" as well as they really do the work for myPackage..
The second possibility would be to call citation ("biomaRt") and citation ("grasp2db") as part of your citation function. However, this may be less trivial than it seems as citation() is not only about printing the relevant information but it also generates citation objects. Thus, you'd probably want to assemble and return a list of bibEntrys.
The non-trivial point is that IIRC some bibliography functions ignore all but the first bibEntry for a package - while others don't and in addition, you'd want to avoid duplicate entries which users would get who automatically collect citation ()s of all loaded or attached packages.
Also, depending on how many packages your package depends on, the output of your citation () may be long and cluttered.
=> I'd probably go with printing a simple reminder.


text:
Will my exchange study grade influence my graduate school application?
I have a plan to apply for a computer science master's degree in the US. In my home institution my GPA is about 3.7/4.0; I have some research experience with a paper published. I was heading for a Top 30 or even a Top 10 university in the US.
However, during my exchange study (one semester) in the one of the Top 15 universities in the US, I didn't get very good grades, it was only around 3.3/4.0. (In one of the courses there was not even a single A in the class, just bad luck and some of my own reasons). Will it be really bad for my graduate school application? It kind of indicates that I can do well in my home university but not good in the US. Is there any way I can avoid the bad influence or can I not submit the transcript of the exchange university?

I didn't get very good grades, it was only around 3.3/4.0 - A 3.3 semester GPA for one semester is really not bad.


text:
Will following a famous professor as a research internship be bad?
I am an undergraduate student majoring in computer science.
I just get an internship offer to work for a famous professor's (or say leading person in his field) lab in a top university. It is a good opportunely for me, I can have great exposure, good guidance(though as they said mostly I will follow his phd students) and might have chance to get some publications with them.
The thing I am concerning is as he is a leading person in top universities, he must be surrounded by lots of smart persons. Even though I push myself to the limit I might still be an average or even a lower average person to him. The reference letter I get (for my graduate application) might not be that good or even an negative factor (in someway called "proved failure", proved I am not that smart). It is kind of like in my own university I can get an A level grade, but when I am in the top university, due to the competition and other factors I might only get a B or C level grade. And unlike grade, I can never know what he wrote in the reference. If I don't have that reference, the admission office might never my limit but with that my limit is obvious to them. Maybe after working for one year I will not get a "plus" but a "minus" for my graduate application.
If I go I will defiantly try my best, but I am currently have another offer from a "less famous" professor and following whom I might have less risk to be affected by the factor I mentioned.
If just considering the factor I mentioned above alone, will it be bad to follow a famous professor?

Do not listen to the Impostor Syndrome.

This is indeed a tough choice.
In principle, if you manage to establish a strong positive connection with the "famous professor" and will collaborate or simply keep in touch with him, this could be beneficial for the rest of your academic carrier: he may not only write a strong recommendation letter for grad school, but also introduce you to his professional network (traditionally conservative academic circles will accept you more easily), help to find a postdoc and a tenure-track position, and, finally he could write a letter for tenure promotion for you. On top of this, if you will continue to collaborate with him, your co-authored papers will be more easily accepted by good journals, etc.
On the other hand, "as they said mostly I will follow his phd students." This is a very strong indicator that he will not have time for you (this is typical for famous professors with large groups) and you will be supervised by his PhD students. In this case, interaction with the professor will be minimal, and, if he agrees to write a letter, he will ask students who supervised you to assist. There is a chance that you would remain a sort of unknown to him.
The "less-famous" professor, however, is likely to have more time for your. And you could learn (and benefit in other ways) much more from him than from PhD students of the famous professor. Remember also that a very strong and enthusiastic letter from a less-famous professor is better than a modest letter from the top one.
So, as I said, it is a tough choice.
I would recommend:

Try to find out what happened with other undergrads who where interns in both  groups (famous and less-famous). Where are they? If possible, contact them and ask about their experience.
Focus on how comfortable it is for you to communicate with both professors on a personal level. You could also ask them how often you should expect to interact with them.
Don't reflect too much on "The thing I am concerning is as he is a leading person in top universities, he must be surrounded by lots of smart persons." You got the internship. They would not offer it to a stupid person, since they are "surrounded by lots of smart persons". You are smart.

I think point 3 is very important (aka Impostor Syndrome).


text:
Does it matter where you go to undergraduate if you want to get into a good grad school?
I graduated high school with a good GPA that could have gotten me into some better schools. However, my parents did not have the money to pay the college tuition as well as the room and board costs. I had to stay and commute to the nearest college which is Kent State University for a BA in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) with a minor in Japanese. I'm currently in my sophomore year and doing very well. I'm holding a 3.5 GPA average right now. My question is: does going to a less prestigious school such as Kent State affect me for getting into top graduate programs such as Ivy Leagues or other colleges that are at the top of the lists when it comes to my graduate program that I want to attend?

FYI: Dataset of grad admission acceptance rate based on undergrad school


text:
What does it mean to be "former PhD student"?
I saw the term "former Ph.D. student" in some article -- does it suggests someone accepted in a PhD program but did not get his/her PhD degree eventually?

More specifically, someone who started a program but did not finish

Without context there is no way to know. "Former PhD student" only says that the person was once a PhD student but isn´t anymore, no mather if he/she got his/her degree or not.

That would be a valid interpretation provided the statement is about oneself. More likely they attended for some period of time and left before finishing. There are many reasons for leaving, some personal and some academic. You can't draw conclusions about why they left from a simple statement. But, most likely, they have no intent or no possibility at this time of returning.
However, as user JeffE notes, if it is made about another it is more likely to mean that the other person was once the writers student. In this case it is most likely that the person did finish the degree successfully, though it is possible not.
A third possibility is that a person starts their study at University A, but completes it at B. Even in discussing themselves in a conversation about A, they might use such phrasing.

I think this depends on contest.  I use the phrase "X's former PhD student" to refer to anyone for whom X was a PhD advisor, whether they successfully completed their PhD or not.

@JeffE, ah yes. I was assuming it was a self description, not a description another. Let me edit.


text:
Zoom cloud meeting for education
I have a paid (education) plan of Zoom cloud meeting. I use it for my university classes. I would like to get meeting participants’ names. How can I get that?

Click on the participants list while the meeting is in progress. You've tagged this cheating -- why?

@astronat
-I need away to get a report of students names who are attend class all time of it.
-because some students were registering on behalf of others.


text:
Resources for academics who want to write an op-ed?
Sometimes professors write op-eds. This is appropriate, for example, if the professor's research expertise and published work(s) are relevant to some timely topic in the news, and can reasonably be communicated to the general public. I find myself in such a situation, but have no experience whatsoever writing op-eds. Are there resources for professors seeking to develop in this direction? Or a discussion somewhere of the pros and cons of this kind of outreach?
For context, I am a tenured math professor based in the USA. The op-ed would be based on a paper I recently published in Crime Science. The point would be to explain what the data says regarding actions of police and the resulting impact on the dynamics of protests and the violence of protests. This is obviously a politically sensitive topic, hence my desire to "get it right" if I move in this direction. There have been a couple of previous questions about outreach as part of the career of a professor:
How important is outreach for applying to tenure track professor position?
Invitation for science outreach - any downsides?
Mathematicians don't really have training on this kind of thing.

A good starting point would be to use acquaintances and family members as guinea pigs on drafts. See how they react, whether they get the message, or whether you need to keep working on getting the message right and across.

I vaguely recall reading an article a few years ago with advice for mathematicians writing op-eds.  Possibly in AMS Notices or something like that.  Unfortunately I can't find it now.

@NateEldredge Do you think it was this one? http://www.ams.org/publicoutreach/media-info/communicate-math

As this question is closed, I cannot add what I learned over the past 13 days about writing op-eds. But, I can share that, I was able to successfully write one and get it published: https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/05/16/cooperation-can-end-violent-protests/

Congratulations and it is an excellent article! Could you give us just a few short sentences about what you learned ?

It's essential to get the piece in front of the right editor. Networking is critical. Newspapers are more likely to accept op-eds from authors who have published one previously. Timing is key. Link to recent news stories and local events in the place where your target newspaper is located. Advocate to be considered quickly while remaining polite. Have lots of friends read it. They can suggest more connections. Explain the research in the simplest possible terms. Show it to non-experts. Rewrite it over and over again to hone the message. Strong opening; kicker to end it, call back to opening.

This might be useful. It is not for academics in particular, but for non-journalists.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/op-ed-writing-guide-washington-post-examples/

Thanks! That was very helpful

Scholars Strategy Network runs trainings on this sort of thing:
https://scholars.org/
Your university may as well.

Thanks! I looked at it.


text:
What are the most important get-aways from a PhD
I have almost finished a master degree and want to continue to do my PhD in discrete Mathematics (Optimization/Operation Research) in Germany, but i don't want to stay in academica after that.
I would like to know, what are the main things you take with yourself, after doing a PhD except the title?
What does someone who spend 3 years after his master degree doing a PhD differentiate to someone who already started working in industry 3 years earlier in the same field ?
The reason i am asking is, because i want to know, what are the skills/qualities i should be focusing on developing, while i am doing my PhD.

You might want to also read What are the potential pitfalls of having a PhD?


text:
Responding to reviewer comments that doesn't include facts
During the second revision of a journal paper we received the following comment:

However; many studies have discussed {topic of the paper}

The reviewer did not list any studies. To the best of our knowledge, there have not been "many studies" addressing the paper's topic. The ones that in our opinion are relevant are discussed in the section on related work.
In this case: Who has the burden of proof? It is difficult to respond to such a generic comment that does not include information. It would have been very helpful if the reviewer had listed the studies that are being referred to in the comment.

Peer review is not a court trial, it should be a helpful conversation, so burden of proof is not really the right concept here. Why not simply politely ask the reviewer (via the editor) for some specific references, remarking of course that you looked for them but have been unable to find more than those you already cited?

Thanks @Roland, that's great!

@mlk Thanks for your comment! In the interest of timely publication, I've received advice not to do that as it "risks" another round of reviews :(

I have written that sort of comment myself.  Usually, the authors do not know the topic exists under a different name; I usually point them in a specific direction.  Also, the topic could be too broad.  For example, 'We propose a machine learning algorithm to do X', but this statement may not be new in itself.  So the authors need to spell out exactly what they claim is new.  Think about a reviewer that Googles topic X and finds thousands of references.  He/she will then conclude that many studies have done X.


text:
Attributing Second-order Citations
Imagine that a paper by [Author A] has pulled together some literature on the misuse of a technology in context X. I now want to talk about misuse of the same technology but in context Y. When creating a different narrative and putting together different arguments, much of what I say uses the references of [Author A] with a similar or the same opinion.
Take the following made-up quote from (Author A):

Technologies have values embedded in their design (Author B).

I think it would be wrong to only directly cite [Author B] and make a similar statement without acknowledging [Author A] since the idea really comes from the way that the latter uses the former. Also, it would just feel wrong since someone else has done a lot of the work in finding the references.
This occurs many times and so it would also be obvious how I found the sources (of course, I will state in the background section that I did a backward search to find sources). At the same time, my analysis is different and hence I cannot just say "read [Author A] for a literature review]" - I need to connect it all to my topic (and also other areas not covered by [Author A].
What is the correct and, if allowed, most elegant way to handle second-order citations? Particularly when I need to do it many times. Is there an alternative to using second-order citations?
N.b., this isn't a meta-survey like you would find in medical science or similar.

There are two simple ways to deal with this, and you can choose the one you prefer.

Describe in the introduction how you found the two papers and cite them both. Choose the one you prefer and mention that you will be citing this paper only. Which one you prefer is up to you: maybe you choose one because of its better writing style, because it is the first one, or because it is the second one and it refers to the first one, allowing readers to find both. Then cite the single paper.
Describe in the introduction how you found the two papers and cite them both. Cite both papers every time (why not?). For example: "Technologies have values embedded in their design [1, 2]."

There are no rules about what is the best way, but you should always consider the point of view of the reader of your paper: what would you like to see when you read the paper? Personally, I have a slight preference for (2) because  it will allow me to quickly find both papers, even if I decide to read, say, only the results section of your paper.
Finally, you can avoid citing the paper "many times" by re-structuring the text in your article: it should normally not be necessary to cite the same paper more than once in the same section, so you will have to cite them only 3-4 times (introduction, methods, discussion).


text:
Effect of late penalties on cheating and late submissions
Is there any research on the effect of late penalties on both late submissions and academic honesty?  I imagine that having some late penalties will certainly encourage students to get their stuff in on time, but I wonder if the effect is stronger (as in, fewer students submitting late, and more students submitting with plenty of time to spare) with stronger penalties.  But I have no evidence for that.  I also wonder if the strength of the late penalty has anything to do with cheating. Again, I envision a stronger late penalty would encourage more cheating, since there is more to lose by not getting it done, but I have no evidence.

It seems unlikely that any reliable research exists. First, it is very specialized and second the conditions might well be too variable to draw any general conclusions. Perhaps you can find pedagogy that makes such a question entirely moot.


text:
Course planning: How to assign homework to highlight important sections
I'm planning a course on advanced calculus.  Some of my topics align quite well with entire chapters of the textbook, so it makes sense for me to teach the entire topic, link it to a textbook chapter and additional resources, and assign homework from the end of the chapter.  However, some of my topics take material from several chapters of the textbook and other resources, either because it's a very quick review or because the textbook presents things in a way I don't like.
What is happening is that some topics are getting a disproportionate amount of suggested practice, given how much time we spend on them in lecture.  For example, I'm dedicating only one 50-minute lecture to the four topics of vectors, lines, planes, and distance, since they've already seen this stuff 3 times.  However, that's 5 textbook chapters, and it's looking to be about 40 suggested practice problems.  On the other hand, I'm dedicating the exact same amount of time to a single topic, parametric equations in space, and they will only get about 20 suggested practice problems.  For the course itself, parametric equations are a more important topic and should be practiced a lot more.  However, I don't want to assign just one question per topic for the review stuff, since practice and review is important.
Is there a nice way to communicate to students that a particular topic is more important for their understanding of the course, but that another topic should be reviewed until they are comfortable so that the important topics are simpler?

A few options are open to you here.

Simply highlight a proportion of the questions.  So out of the 40 you have for vectors, lines, planes and distance just highlight or set half of them for homework.  Pick and choose problems that give a good overview of the entire section so that they get a taste of different types of problems.  Of course if students feel the need then there are plenty more questions in these sections that they may attempt in the text book which is no harm.
Make up new parametric equation questions.  Have a look at the questions that are there.  Are there any styles of questions that are left out?  If so create some based on that style.  If there are not simply modify the questions that are there already.  Try to come up with corner cases to test their understanding (or at least show them there is a bit more to the topic). Cases that display certain tricks or potentially weird (from your students point of view) answers.  You will have to make the judgement call as to what is missing to the current set of questions yourself.
A combination of the above.  Highlight a selection of the vector questions while adding in a few parametric equation questions.

Finally in addition to the above you can explicitly mention that these topics are more important for the course.  While a bit of a blunt force object if they are expecting trickier/more parametric equations they will spend more time studying it.  You can also explicitly state that studying the other topics will help them with the parametric stuff.

If you feel all 40 exercises are necessary, then just spread them out, sprinkling a few into each of the next few assignments.
Another approach would be to give the students a self-evaluation at the beginning, with a subset of the 40 exercises.  For any students having difficulty with these, assign the rest of the 40 (but perhaps spread out over a week so they're not all in a lump).
There is really no reason education has to be one-size-fits-all.  You can build some differentiation into your course.
If this material is review, then it is important to detect any deficiencies early on, and then help the individual students with deficiencies remedy them, so they will do well in the rest of the course.


text:
How to set high class expectations and still maintain a good class relationship
I usually have a good instructor-class relationship, but I am also an admittedly easy instructor - in previous classes my assessments have been on the easy side of fair.  This term I have set very high expectations for my class and the class is doing exceedingly well.  I am very impressed by their progress and their learning and professionalism is showing very clearly.  Unfortunately, the students aren't as happy as I'd like them to be.  I am getting the feeling that I've encouraged excellence through fear, and I'm cultivating frustration.  Students who were expecting an easy class are instead being challenged more than in previous years, and the workload is considerable.
I would like to continue setting these expectations for my students, since I think the learning and progress is worth it.  However, I also feel very strongly that the students should like and trust the instructor.  What are some strategies I can use to increase student satisfaction while also maintaining very high standards?
I should note a few things:

I'm asking this in general, but the current class I'm talking about is a required course that students in this major have historically not seen as being relevant.  I am working to increase the relevance to their discipline.
I have communicated to the students that I'm very happy with their progress and very impressed by it.

Did you give warning of the change before the add/drop deadline? Students may have planned what courses to take when taking into account the workload for your class in previous years.

Let me second the post of Massimo Ortolano and especially point 2. there. But you can do more.
One way to keep students happy, both the really hard workers and the strugglers, is to give them a second chance when they fail to live up to standards. One way to do that is to permit students to resubmit work with corrections after grading. My experience is that you can be as demanding as you want to be as long as students don't feel trapped or disadvantaged by what they see as small errors.
I've permitted students to resubmit work even after I've discussed the correct solutions in class. Just going through the motions of typing out the correct answers is an educational experience - reinforcement. I've usually permitted more than one resubmission of the same work. You need to set a limit, though, if students neglect new assignments to re-do old ones. A bit of balance is needed.
To be fair to those who get it right, it is also useful to extract a bit of tax on the re-work. Say, only 90% of the difference between the first marks and the full marks can be achieved through rework. This also keeps people from being lazy about deadlines.
Note, of course, that regrading requires that the number of students not be excessive and that you develop efficient ways to see what has been changed when re-work is submitted. I just had students submitting new work also submit the old (with my comments) as well as highlighting changes.

But with respect to the point of students needing a while to learn to live up to new and higher standards, I also experienced this when I brought new and higher standards to a new job. Students in a Masters program had gotten the idea that good grades were pretty automatic. They were a bit shocked when I told them that it was possible for all to fail and that I would read and comment on all of their work. It required backup from the Dean, actually. But it didn't take too long in my case. Word spread quickly.

Consider two aspects:

Students work hard without (too many) complaints and respecting the professor if they perceive that the professor is working hard too and that non only does they set expectations but also give a lot to the class, in terms of content (e.g. do you teach things they cannot easily find in textbooks or other similar classes?) and time.
If your class has been known by the students to be an easy class, it will take them two-three years to adapt to the new situation.

Or, as once a student told me some years ago after an exam:"I feel ashamed for having studied so poorly after all the effort you put in the course".
That said, you will always find unhappy students who would have liked to study less.


text:
Is it necessary to prepare a Power Point presentation for a 30-minute postdoc interview?
I will have a postdoc interview soon. They asked me to introduce myself, what I am passionate about and interested in for a 30-minute. They did not specify if I should prepare a PowerPoint slideshow. Given pandemic circumstances, it is going to be a video interview. On one hand, if I prepare and go through the slides, they are not going to see my face anyway. On the other hand, if I don't prepare, it may seem like "unprepared." I am confused.
I appreciate your thoughts. Stay healthy and safe, all!

I guess the motto is: if in doubt, yes. What's the worst that can happen? You lose some time.. but imagine if they wanted to see some of your work and then things get messy. I'd definitely prepare something.

Don't worry about not being perfect at this style of lecture. This is a new situation for most of us, and we are all learning. You should obviously do your best, but no expects perfection in this situation.

Related, possibly a duplicate: Is a postdoc-interview presentation a norm?

If you are thinking of doing anything really important to your career using Power Point, I urge you first to read Edward Tufte's article "The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint".
The issue with slides is that your audience look at them and do not listen to you. That is a big problem if the whole point of the presentation is supposed to be about how YOU will contribute to their work.
A picture is (or can be) worth a thousand words, so a slide can be really helpful. But as @Buffy has so perceptively said "... I find powerpoint to be mostly very badly used. "
My practical suggestion is: plan what you want to say without thinking about slides at all. "What would I say to these people to convince them that I am the person they really want to hire?". Then, and only then, ask yourself is there some image or (possibly, but take care) some notation or equation, that would save me reciting lots of stuff that would distract them from my main message? If the answer to that is yes, then by all means construct a slide, but do so ONLY if the answer is yes.
I base this answer on my own experience as having successfully applied for several high level appointments as well as some more definitively academic processes, but also as someone who has sat on numerous recruitment panels. Frankly, one's heart sinks when the PP presentation seems to be all that the candidate wants to say. Do not make your selectors' hearts sink.

This could depend a bit on the field, of course. But I find powerpoint to be mostly very badly used. Someone once described the typical PP deck as the speaker's notes that shouldn't be shown to the audience. If that is what you tend to do - show a slide and then just repeat a longer form of that orally, then I wouldn't bother.
There are some people who are truly gifted in the use of PP, but not everyone is. You don't want to be boring.
But prepare the deck and, at least use it for your own notes while speaking. Depending on the field there may be other, more important, visuals you can use. Even a whiteboard.
And, given that it will be remote, you could prepare a deck and send it to them for possible distribution and then do something else rather than just show it during the presentation.
If there is a two way communication system (audio - video) where you can ask and answer questions it would certainly be better than just a lecture-like presentation. I suspect very few people will take notes on your actual content and will be interested in other things. Some students might, but not future colleagues.
And try to present it to a friend or colleague before you 'go live' to get some feedback and to be sure of the timing. I'd suggest a bit too short is better than one that is too long. Leave them wanting more, not exhausted.
But in an orthogonal vein, make sure you understand who the audience is. Researchers? Students? Graduate or undergraduate.

The audience is going to be the other researchers and the directors of the lab. So, to clarify, are you suggesting that I could prepare the deck, send them in advance, and address the issues in orally during my presentation without necessarily showing the slides?

It would depend on your PP skills. But it works as an organizing tool in any case.

Yes, you should create some slides.
You have 4 situations which you can order along two dimensions: You are either expected to show slides or you are not, and you can either make slides or you can not. If you are expected to show slides and you do make them, happy days. If you are expected to show slides and do not make them, you fall short of their expectations, risk a bad impression, and risk not getting the job for stupid reasons. If you are not expected to show slides and you do make them, you are doing more than they expect, which might leave a positive impression. You may be asked not to show the slides, but in that case you can still use them for yourself to guide your presentation. If you are not expected to show slides and you do not make them, no harm done.
So there is no real downside to making a presentation. At the same time, there is no real upside to not making a presentation. You will need to think about how to walk through your academic life in 30 minutes anyway; adding slides shouldn't be too taxing.

An interview is your chance to demonstrate your skills and convince your prospective PI (as well as the rest of the panel) that you are the best candidate for the role. Your knowledge of the subject is very important, of course. But so are your technical skills required to prepare publications and presentations for various audiences. Your prospective PI may prefer a candidate who is already familiar with necessary software to do the research, but equally with tools required to present them. And a well-prepared presentation can serve as an excellent evidence of your technical skills and (by extension) hint that you have an extensive experience presenting your research.
The selection panel will see many candidates during the day, and many of them will talk about their experience, skills and potential. If you have a chance to show something instead of talking about it, I would suggest to do so.

My advice is to do most of the interview as a live video (camera, mike on you).  But do go ahead and make a slide or two that shows some effort to think about the specific posting (or at least the lab group/PI) and your initial work plan related to the postdoc job.
I would position this as "initial thinking" and move the discussion naturally into a collaborative session.  "Well what do you think we should do?"  "What are some key hurdles WE (not I) should watch out for?"  "What are the juiciest opportunities to get near term wins?  Big papers?"
If you can get the interview moved into a discussion of actually DOING the job, you're three quarters of the way to landing the job.
And of course, if the PI wants to ask some specific questions, definitely let him.  But realize most managers (and professors aren't even good managers) are not full time HR interviewers.  They mostly think about doing their job and hiring/interviewing is an infrequent task and not a strength.
I have ALWAYS found some pre-work product for an interview (company capsule, speculative work plan, etc.) was very strongly appreciated by the interviewer.  And I never had an issue of it coming across as controlling the interview too much.  ("This is some preliminary thinking I had.")  Also, in cases where a position was a transfer of field for me, I found that the effort to think about what/how I would do it (and to write it down in a PPT) made me more prepared for the interview and gave me more comfort that I could make the change...because I had actually started to do some work in that direction.  (Thoughts running around in your head are not the same as a PPT.  The writing process drives more thinking.)
Note, you can also send it a day ahead of the interview as some people prefer to print slides vice looking at the screen.  And it makes it less a surprise and allows them to spend more/less time in the interview on discussing it or just asking you if you get along with people and work hard and all that other happy horsesh...

That's great advice! Thank you! In terms of the outline, I planned it to be for 8-10 slides maximum and sending it in advance for their reference, as you suggested. Perhaps, a couple of slides about my research, what skillset I obtained during my PhD, and how I can transfer those skills for the Center, and finally what future directions I see working at their research center.  What do you think?

That's perfect.  10 maximum.


text:
GPA for PhD application
I am applying for PhD programs in mathematics and statistics for the next fall semester, and I am really concerned about my GPA for this fall semester.
My GPA is solid before this semester, and I have done quite well in all upper-division undergrad classes and 1 graduate class (complex analysis).
As everything was going really well, I decided to take two graduate classes (algebra and real analysis) this fall semester, along with 4 other classes. It didn't go well for me. I got B's for both of the graduate classes (A for everything else).
There were not really any special circumstances. It was me getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks from classes and grad-school application and a bit of complacency from doing well in the beginning of the semester.
At this point, I don't believe there is much I can do, but I still would like to know how much damage these two B's will do to my application(math programs and statistics programs separately). (Maybe rate it from a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being "no effect" and 10 being "this will ruin my application and deny my entrance to anywhere".)

Two Bs in significantly harder, graduate level classes will not harm your chances of admission much if at all. Your GPA will only take a very slight dip from them (assuming your other marks are high) and, really, you did fine for your level. Remember that you are a whole package, not a just GPA. Write a good statement of purpose, work on doing well on the GREs if you are talking about the US, and do some volunteer research assistance to pad your CV. You're fine!

+1 for "whole package". You are more than your GPA.


text:
Does this statement seem arrogant? How do I put this humbly?
This is somewhere in my conclusion. I do not want to expand further; just state it without sounding boastful.

My undergraduate result shows that I am diligent, intelligent and
  focused.

Does something like the following make me seem unsure?

I like to believe I am diligent, intelligent and
  focused.

You may be asking the wrong question. No matter how you put it, you are telling, not showing, that you have these qualities. 'Why Your Job Cover Letter Sucks (and what you can do to fix it)' covers this nicely in §2. Although the article is about cover letters for academic jobs, not PhD admissions (I assume that's what you're asking about), I think it still applies (mutatis mutandis).

@BenedictEastaugh Fully agreed. It is a non-statement and all I glean from an application letter with that type of statement is that the applicant is not experienced enough to realise that.

@BenedictEastaugh - Excellent point. Post that comment as an answer!

@eykanal I think Elmer Villanueva's answer covers this point very well.

Your references get to sing your praises.
You get to present the facts.

In my opinion, the first one sounds a bit arrogant especially if not backed up by any evidence.
As all the HRs suggest, when describing your self and your qualities, try to exemplify them with previous achievements.
Instead of saying that you are focused or diligent, try to describe the situations which led you to think so.
If this is somehow described previously then, i believe, there is no point in mark it so explicitly when concluding.
Hope it helps!

It's not so much arrogant as uninformative.


text:
Value of a online masters degree in computer science to aid a slight career detour
I'm a software professional with 9+ years of experience. I've been working most of my career (6.5 years) on the server side, and middleware with only about 5% exposure to programming (Java). The specific domain I work in doesn't require excellent programmers; only basic knowledge is preferred and it's even optional.
Even with this 5% exposure, I was among the best programmers among people in my domain. This is not because I was any good, but it's because most of them barely know programming because our domain, since it doesn't require it.
In my last 2.5 years I've been working full time as a Java programmer, because I was interested in programming, and, luckily there was a (rare) programming requirement so I easily got the tasks.
My job is still a good job, and it has decent pay comparable to programming jobs, but I'm looking for programming jobs.
It'll be hard to find a good programming job with a person with 9-10 years of experience since 1) our domain doesn't require it much and 2) I won't be as good as other programmers with 9-10 years of coding experience.
To make my resume more suitable for programming jobs and to improve my skills, I'm considering doing an online masters degree in Georgia Tech, keeping my current job. I'm also looking at other courses, not just in GT.
https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/
I hear good things about the GT OMSCS course and that it's as difficult as a full time, onsite course, so I'm okay there.
Q1: Are online MS degrees from top universities valued by companies? I'm not asking how it should be valued but how it actually is valued.
Q2: Assuming I look for a job in about 1 year, will companies consider offering jobs to people with 10 years experience with about 4 years and no masters degree.
Q3: Assuming I finish my online MS in 3-4 years, will companies consider jobs to people with 12-13 years of experience with about 6-7 years of coding experience and an online MS?
Q4: Is it worth it for a professional with 9-10 years of experience to start a masters degree?
9-13 years of experience is somewhat senior so I'm wondering if I won't be considered at all for programming positions.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about implications of a degree for a particular (non-research) industry. Expert answers would come from people with experience hiring in that industry, not from a bunch of academics. (See the [help/on-topic], "Preparation for a non-academic career.")


text:
Do editors look down upon paper submissions without reviewer suggestions?
When submitting papers as a student, I was asked to provide referee suggestions to the editor. The problem was that I didn't know anyone at the time in the field (I still don't, but I'm also not a practicing researcher anymore, so it's less relevant). I would either just write the names of authors I had just read papers from or leave that field blank. Was that a bad practice? Does it affect the editor's perception of the paper?

Do you usually hava a choice? I would think that at least in 9 out of 10 cases of papers I submitted, recommending something between 2 and 6 reviewers was mandatory.

@Snijderfrey Interesting, I don't think I've done a submission where suggesting reviewers was mandatory

@Snijderfrey you could always submit Prof. XXX and xxx@yyy.com email (i.e. non-existent reviewers).

Didn't you have a supervisor / advisor who could have pointed out someone in the field?

@Allure Don't do this. If the field is marked mandatory, then it is mandatory.
Clever hacks like this are a likely way to get desk rejected.

@Sabine Not...really, although at the time I didn't spend much time asking him about such things. In retrospect that would have made more sense :)

You might be interested: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/123216/do-editors-really-follow-suggested-reviewers

As an editor, the answer is no.  Many authors fill in that part of the submission form with 'random' names; some times they fill in key/big names, who are unlikely to accept my review request unless they know me or the authors.
At the end of the day, there is only one critical criterion: paper quality.
The authors, their affiliations, and who they suggest as reviewers, do not come into play.

Every editor is different of course, but I doubt that such is a common factor. The purpose of asking is to ease their job in finding reviewers, not to make a judgement about the author.
The editor's job is to publish good work. Thus, their most important consideration should be, and usually is, the quality of the work itself. Associated with that is the need to improve works that have underlying value but have some flaws.
The only issue I see is that if it is difficult to find appropriate reviewers, the process might take longer or even, in unusual cases, fail altogether. But this is rare as the editor has a stable of reviewers that they depend on.

As you say, a good list of suggested reviewers might get your paper in the "deal with this now" pile instead of the "deal with this later" pile.

The various publishers now have lists of referees by topics, and these automatically come up as suggested referees when the handling editor is at that point in the process.  So: it doesn’t make much practical difference.
I should say that I always contact some referees outside the list suggested by the authors.  In fact looking at the list of suggested referees will not always reflect positively on the authors.
On balance, it may or may not make a difference in individual cases, but I’m betting on average it makes no difference.

An Editor should not look down on a manuscript submitted without suggested reviewer.
With that said, there are many nuances at play.

Some journal makes suggested reviewers mandatory. Failing to comply results in the manuscript not getting submitted successfully.
For some journals, suggested reviewer is optional. While in others, it is not required.

Suggested reviewers list comes in handy for different purposes

Some Editors use it to gauge an author's knowledge of the topic/field. Some might be fuzzy about it and do a desk reject. Often, it does not have a critical role in decision-making.
Some Editors use it to ease their 'finding' of suitable reviewers. Editors are, however, not obliged to limit to the submitted suggested reviewers list or even utilise/engage any of the suggested ones.
Some Editors, on the other hand, use the suggested reviewers list to extend the pool of their potential reviewers in the future.
Editors are aware that some authors 'pack' the *suggested reviewers' list with their allies (or even intimate colleagues. Obviously, this is unethical. Although, in some disciplines, few though, the pool of reviewers is narrow due to the nature of the domain/discipline/sub-discipline.

By and large, the role/purpose of suggested reviewers list varies from journal to journal, from publisher to publisher.
[Was that a bad practice?]
I would either just write the names of authors I had just read papers from - This is fine. If done constructively, you'll get to understand the trend in the domain or sub-discipline better.
leave that field blank - I personally did not think this is a constructive approach: limited engagement with the topic or discipline. If there is an option, put down at least two: You need not put all 5 or 8 as may be requested. While at it, do not put colleagues or collaborators (especially on the same topic).
In-btw, leaving it blank, if required, might suggest a lack of supervisor/advisor! (if the author is a student).
Does it affect the editor's perception of the paper? - As indicated, it depends on the Editor. It depends on the goal of the journal. It depends on the sub-discipline.


text:
I would like to know if a Research paper is possible for making a change in Open Source software tool
I have been using this open-source network flow generator and after doing some research i was able to add a network classification engine based on ML into it, put it in other words i added a new feature into it.
So i would like to know if a research paper is possible for such work?

I think in general, the answer would be no. However, if you can, somehow, show the usefulness of the tool by applying it to some difficult problem, then that falls more into the realm of research and so warrants publication. But it isn't the tool, per se, that classifies it as research.
Note that in CS, many doctoral dissertations start out with the student building something. This can take a lot of time and effort. But then, they show that the tool is better in some way that the state of the art. It is that demonstration that gives it value and leads to the degree. Advances in operating systems and databases are often like this.
Build a tool. Show that it extends the state of the art (faster, smaller, more secure,...). Now publish.

Ultimately, the primary determinate of whether this could be a viable research paper is what level of work that you are willing to commit to transform your current accomplishment into appropriately formatted research (for a particular journal, and for review by whichever professor is supervising your work). To accomplish this transformation, you must answer the question of how your work accomplishes a certain objective differently than others, and how it might be better. If you can answer this question successfully, and convincingly, you could make this paper work. Make sure that you talk to your supervising professor so that he or she could make suggestions as to where you go next with this, however. Research requires guidance, initially, and is rarely done completely unaided.


text:
Is a Research paper possible for proposing of a Methodology?
So I have been carrying out this research project related to Machine Learning and computer networks and have been writing research paper along side my work.
Now that I have reached Results and conclusion part of the paper, I come to realize that my results are not really based on numbers and values but rather it is an emphasis on a Methodology.
The Methodology is, "how data generated from any tool can be used to add functionality  in the tool given if a person is able to drive an outcome from that data".
So is a journal publication possible for a proposing of a methodology?

To demonstrate it I have my own work in which it fits in perfectly. Its basically a network traffic classification engine based on ML.

is a journal publication possible for...a methodology?

Yes, assuming the ability to add functionality to a tool - from data generated by the tool - is useful to others, and assuming outcomes can be (relatively easily) manually derived from the aforementioned data. Added functionality is presumably useful, so the former assumption can be dropped. (Some justification should be added to the paper.) As to whether outcomes can be relatively easily derived, that isn't obvious and requires justification. If you can justify, then the latter assumption can be dropped too, giving-way to my answer to the above question: Yes.


text:
Is re-using parts of one's own SoP (or research statement) considered self-plagiarism?
Are the following considered instances of self-plagiarism?

Re-using parts of one's own statement of purpose (submitted as part of a graduate admission application) in SoPs submitted with other graduate admission applications, during same/different admission cycles
Re-using parts of one's own research statement in SoP(s) or vice-versa

I can understand that the ambient craziness can have led you to ask this question... but, seriously, you should try to ground yourself in "sense", not believing that there are random, incomprehensible rules about proper behavior. (Despite contrary evidence... which will not help anyone understand anything.)

@paulgarrett I just wanted to be very sure and know the opinions/viewpoints of others in this regard. Thank you for commenting on my question.

When the supposed need of rules for everything reach the apex. No you can't really self plagiarise your CV, for instance.

It is very unlikely that anyone would consider either of these problematic. An SoP isn't published formally, for example.
People reuse their own words in other contexts all the time. But self plagiarism arises when you publish something that is based on or contains elements of something that you published previously without citing the original.
The reason that this is a problem is that a person reading the new work wants to know the complete context in which it was developed. This is why you cite other works. But it is also why you cite yourself, rather than just reusing your words.
The original publication, itself has a context, not only what it says, but the references it cites. If your new publication doesn't point to that, the reader will find it hard to know the complete context. Scholarship builds on earlier scholarship. Lack of citation cuts the chain of context that is essential for the complete picture.
But the two cases you point to don't require the same chain of evidence to be maintained, so there is no issue.