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PhD program turned into Bait-and-switch
I accepted a PhD offer from a major public research university in the US this year. However, turns out that the university makes students compete for funding and try to join a group in the first month of the first year. So my POI's chose different students and were not able to take me in. So I decided not to continue and withdraw (After 1 month of enrollment) before wasting my time and theirs. Now the university is asking me to pay back the tuition waiver guaranteed by the sham RA position. I cannot request a transcript to show to schools I am applying to this year unless I pay 20k dollars. Any suggestions on what to do in this bait-and-switch situation? The transcript only shows a 1-hour seminar with a grade of W and does not show GPA. should I just hide the fact that I went to this scam of a place or just show them proof that I withdrew in the place of the transcript.

I do not think this question can be answered without precise details of what was promised to you in writing before enrolment and what actually happened after. The use of emotionally loaded language ("make students fight for funding") does not help either. Sometimes competition for limited funds in natural and is expected; sometimes it is not. From your description, we can't tell.

The statement on the admission letter states that I was admitted with a tuition waiver and stipend contingent upon the availability of funds and is renewable every year. Turns out the two professors I wanted to work with had no funding. So I was left with the option of paying out of pocket for the next years (TA was not guaranteed) or just cut my losses and leave.  Now the university says that I must pay for this term since I withdrew and the RA ship waiver was removed even though I had no assigned advisor the whole time.

I always hear "contingent upon the availability of funds" from many admitted which I assume universities use to deny responsibility if they had to drop a student but I did not know they could use it to hold a student hostage.

Regarding the stipend, if the terms you describe are right, they can leave you hanging. You knew funding would be contingent, as scummy as that is. However, upon your determination to withdraw, I don't know whether they can demand you pay that semester's tuition. Students who withdraw may still have to pay tuition - that depends on university policy. That said, there may be a legal argument available, and I'd advise talking with a legal counsel who can make themselves familiar with your exact situation.

First of all, it takes enormous courage to assess the situation, cut your losses, and be ready to move on in just a month - congratulations. That being said, I'd urge you to retrospect whether you are being impulsive. Unfortunately, uncertainty in status/roadmaps is quite common in academia and you'll have to learn to accept and navigate those situations anywhere you continue your career. Note that I'm not implying you made a mistake, just suggesting to honestly and objectively assess the situation, while weeding out false promises and skewed truths as much as possible.

Now the university is asking me to pay back the tuition waiver guaranteed by the sham RA position.

Don't do that.  US universities should not ask students to repay tuition wavers.  Maybe if the student committed fraud, but not because of withdrawal.

I cannot request a transcript to show to schools I am applying to this year

In your application, say "I want to study X.  Previously I enrolled at the University of Y with the expectation that I would study X.  I found out after one month that it was not possible for me to study X there, so I withdrew as early as possible."
Next time know which group you will be working in before you enroll.  If the university will not let you join a group at the time of enrollment, find a different university.

US universities should not ask students to repay tuition wavers. --- is it a legal requirement, or simply your wishful thinking?

@DmitrySavostyanov As you said, "this question can be answered without precise details of what was promised to you in writing" if you want a legal answer.  I think an ethical answer is sufficient.

I hope the ethical answer will satisfy the university too. Otherwise if the OP follows your advice, and the university pursues the money they think OP owes, OP may be in legal trouble over it.

If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. Do not lie to another school, just tell them the truth, without the words "sham" and "bait-and-switch" etc.
Tell them you attended for one month and withdrew, and can prove that, but there is now a dispute over tuition, which you thought was waived. They want you to pay 20K, which you are contesting, so they will not send you a transcript for the one course you signed up for and dropped after a month. Also tell them there will be no grade for that course, you formally withdrew, and that is all the transcript would say.
Lying to a new school will get you into trouble THERE too. Be honest, with just the facts, so they can't say you kept this a secret from them.

Agreed on the honesty front. My Uni awarded research funding to a student who purposefully omitted that they had dropped out of another PhD programme previously. When that came out the funding and the admission offer were retracted. If the application asks and you omit, it's a lie and unis treat it as such.


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How to do a literature review on practical research (thesis)?
Some background, for my bachelor of science degree I have to do a practical research (thesis) for a company that develops software.
At the end of my Introduction chapter I arived at the following central question:

Which testing strategy should company X implement to decrease the
  time and cost that goes into testing software Y?

After finishing my introduction chapter, I'm stuck with the literature review/theorthical framework. In my mind I already have the practical solution to the problem and find it easy to write the steps it would take to solve this problem but I'm not sure in what direction to approach this theortically and what type of literature I would need to use.
-update-
Perhaps I'm focussing to much on the testing strategy part of the central question? Should I rather focus on decreasing time and cost that goes into testing? And write down the possible solutions to accomplish this?
So for example a theoritical perspective could be:

Test automation?

This is a good question for a mentor or advisor. Generally, even if you know what approach you'd take, I'd think of it argumentatively - for skeptics who might wonder why you didn't employ strategy Y or strategy Z, how can you point out some limitations in those approaches and some benefits to your own approach? Finding the place to start researching those strategies in your field may require some content knowledge - and that's where your advisor/mentor/supervisor comes in.

In general, the literature review means discussing the ways that other people have tried to solve similar problems in the past, and then giving some comparison/contrast between what has been done previously and what you are about to. i.e. put your work in context of existing work.  You might see it worded something like this:
"Historically, two main strategies have been used by companies to reduce testing time and cost.  Strategy 1 was first described in Article #1 and consists of using trained monkeys to do the testing.  Strategy 2 is discussed in several articles including article #2 and article #3 and involves just assuming everything works fine and going out to lunch early without doing any actual testing.  Strategy 1 works well, but does not scale to large projects due to a shortage of properly trained monkeys, as described in book #4.  Strategy 2 scales very well, but can often miss subtle errors, as mentioned by author #5.  In this thesis, we will present a new strategy, which is more scalable than strategy 1, but does not suffer from the quality problems of strategy 2."
Depending on the length of your thesis, you might go into a lot of detail here.  E.g. for a Ph. D. disseration you might have a couple of pages on strategy #1, a couple of pages on strategy #2, etc.  But for a short article a sentence or two is usually enough.

Just go look for some textbooks or general review papers on software testing and/or efficiency of software testing.  The idea of the Intro is to give a little bit of the big picture.  Of course your problem will be it's own tiny brick in the wall.  But it's helpful to have some general idea of the field.  '
Since this is a bachelor's thesis, you don't need to go crazy.  But do a basic Google, Google Scholar, and library search.  (And when you find something skim it and check its references.  Hopefully this leads to a handful of relevant review articles and/or textbooks.
By the way, I am far from a computer person, but if I were reading about your particular situation, some general "lay of the land" would help me to get into it.  Presumably, there are schools of thought on software testing methods.  And there are a few conflicting paramaters to optimize (at a minimum time/money/efficacy).  Perhaps also different types of software (or even business needs) drive the use of particular testing strategies.

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What should I do if my university accepted too many first year grad students and now not everyone can find a pi/permanent lab?
The university accepted way too many students and now about 25% of the cohort is having to do additional rotations because it seems like the school does not have enough PIs or mentors to take on everyone. How can I warn new and incoming/applying students about the dangers/mismanagement of the program?

Well, it seems unlikely they will accept many students next time around. It also seems unlikely that they planned to do this. The yield (percent accepting an offer of admissions) can vary year-to-year, sometimes dramatically, through no fault of the students or the department. So they will deal with it and they seem to be doing so. This is not "mismanagement". Would you prefer that they turned away admitted students once the program was "full" back in the spring?

in what position are you? A professor? A PhD student? What you CAN do heavily depends on the channels and means you have access to

im a 1st year graduate student - All the TA positions are filled and there is a waitlist. I would like to show the administration how other universities have handled this - such as UCSD releasing more funds to support the students who cannot join labs due to financial constraints, but that type of information is usually in house and hard to find.

Strange question. Why should you do anything?
Your department likely went on historical return rates on positions offered vs accepted and ended up with WAY more than anticipated. Sometimes these things happen. The other end of it is unprecedentedly low acceptance of offers which greatly understaffs the department for TA and research needs. Also not good.
Why would it matter for next application cycle? One would assume the department will look at the number of positions available, taking into account the large cohort from the prior cycle, adjust for their past acceptance rate and act accordingly.

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Alternatives for thesis if companies don't respond for interview requests? How to still make it academically relevant?
The thesis I intend to do is trying to understand how different public transport companies perceive the concept of sharing economy in the EU: Do these public transport companies treat companies moving towards a sharing economy as a threat or would they like to collaborate with them?
However, I can only proceed with this idea if the companies respond to the questions/agree for an interview. In the thesis proposal, my subject reader want's to know how this thesis can be done scientifically/academically if none of the companies will respond. I am stuck with how to respond or proceed with this. Any ideas that could be suggested?

What is the 'sharing economy' and why do public transport companies care?

Can you pursue something else? This seems like a hard one to convince people about.

Kind of sounds like a single item in a survey (that's unlikely to be returned; companies don't have opinions they make business decisions), not a thesis.

I don't know your subject, but it may be that if they don't respond, you do not have a project. This is a significant risk that you should develop a contingency plan for - and that is what the question is meant to make you do.

I think your reader is right to question your methodology.
If the companies don't respond (as is likely) you will have to deduce their perceptions from their visible actions.
You will have to look at those actions in any case.
If that data is not available you need a different topic.


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Job talks: A few detailed topics, or loosely discussing many projects?
I have a job talk for a tenure-track assistant professorship coming up, and I am having trouble deciding on the format. I have a few ideas/options, and I'd like to hear the perspective of some folks who've seen more job talks than me (or been on a hiring committee).

I want to demonstrate to the department that I have researched a lot of different topics, so it is tempting to try and discuss all of my recent projects (roughly under the same general field). However, for each of my projects they require so much background that I don't think I will have enough time to really demonstrate the impact and relevance of each project. This might be too "rapid-fire".

I could go the "Just pick a few papers and talk about them" route. I am not a big fan of job-talk format, as it gets repetitive and boring to me. However, this is what I've seen the most, and it looks like the "safe" option. This also comes with the downside of not being able to mention all of the research topics I have expertise in.

Since I can categorize my papers under 2-3 "subcategories" of my field, I could organize the talk to have different sections on each subcategory. Then, in each subcategory, I could say "I have all of these papers on this particular subcategory. Now, I'll tell you about one or two cool things I've done in this subcategory." However, I have not seen a talk like this, and I'm wondering if it would be viewed as too pedagogical or risky.

What kind of position is this for?

@Sursula an assistant professorship, thanks for asking I added it to the question. I need to demonstrate that I have interesting topics to work with students as well.

I would take a different approach.
The best job talks I have seen tell a broad story about your overall research questions and try to link together your PhD and postdoc. Let's stay you study underwater basketweaving.
Your talk outline might look like this:

Overview:

Why do people care about underwater basketweaving? (ub)
Your broad questions, the thermodynamics of ub

Question 1 (your PhD work perhaps)

Thermodynamics of ub near deepwater sea vents
Overview of methods, results, key findings

Question 2 (your postdoc perhaps)

Thermodynamics of ub in freshwater lakes
Overview of methods, results, key findings

[Optional] Question 3 (your postdoc side project perhaps)

Effects of climate change on thermodynamics of ub
Overview of methods, results, key findings

Future work

Questions you want to ask
Tools you have to answer questions
Resources you would use (perhaps uni's research lake or field site)
Collaborators at this institution (especially important for schools that want faculty to work together)
How you would include undergrads/grad students (based upon department's focus and your field
Possibly also mention the types of courses you would teach.

Edit based upon comment:
Individuals papers (or conference proceedings and the like) may be
building blocks, but the questions/objectives are more important and hopefully shows trends that go across projects and papers.
These talks are a chance to include screenshots of papers' titles and author lists.
For example, you if your PhD had multiple papers you might have a slide stating:

Slide 1: How does thermodynamics of underwater basketweaving vary near deepwater sea vents in the Pacific?
Slide 2 or transition: Screen shot of paper and figures from paper
Slide 3: How does thermodynamics of underwater basketweaving vary with worms at the site?
Slide 4 or transition: Screen shot of paper and figures from paper

To make what I believe is one of Richard's points more explicit: "paper" is probably not a very important unit of research for the purposes of a job talk, so probably you should not think in terms of "categorizing your papers".

@AdamPřenosil great point. I added an example of how to include papers.

My wife recently obtained a tenure-track assistant professor position and the recipe you describe is exactly what was successful for her.

"Job talk" can mean almost anything -- from a presentation to the search committee to a routing speaking slot in the department's weekly seminar series.  In "normal" job searches these days, both can happen at different times during the same visit.
If you're talking about the latter (the general seminar slot), I would pick the project that's nearest to the research you would like to continue doing, or the project where most of your time is going right now, depending on which you feel would make the strongest talk.
If the former, those are usually less formal, but in that case I recommend a walk through your projects in the order you'd like to approach them if you get hired.  Each project should be presented very briefly, just so everyone in the room knows what it is and why it's important, and your plans for getting those projects funded.  Your first project should be something you can do with limited resources.


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Reviewer's Concerns about Excessive Simulation Results
I am currently in the process of addressing the feedback received from a reviewer regarding a manuscript I've submitted. The primary concern raised is that there are "Too many simulation results presented in the manuscript. Almost five full pages of the manuscript are dedicated to sim-results, which is too much."
Have you encountered similar situations or have experience dealing with such feedback? The manuscript in question is a simulation-based work, totaling 17 pages. Given the nature of the research, a significant portion is dedicated to presenting simulation results.
I am unsure about the best approach to respond to the reviewer's comment. Should I consider condensing the results section, or is there a way to better justify the extensive presentation of simulation results in a simulation-focused manuscript?

Is it common in your field/target journal to have such long papers?

Can you propose moving it to a supplemental data section?

This is impossible to answer without seeing the paper.  If I were reviewing a "simulation-based work" I would fully expect many pages of simulation results (it goes without saying).  The question I have is how are these results presented (is it coherent or disjointed) and are they all germane to the article?  I see no way of recommended you condense the results section without seeing the paper.  In short, you are asking for specific advice without providing the requisite details.  You are better off having a colleague read the paper and get actionable (and informed) feedback.

Did the editor say they agree with the reviewer? Did the editor mention this issue at all? In principle you can disagree with a reviewer and not make a change they ask for, giving hopefully good reasons. It's the editor who decides in the end so it is important what they think. I have in such situations sometimes defended how I did things and written in the response that for the moment I think it's good as it is, but I would be willing to change this if the editor asks me to do so.

Perhaps the overall length is the primary problem for the reviewer, not the amount of simulation results in isolation. Reading a 17 page paper is quite a hassle in a way ~10 page paper isn't. IMO effort goes roughly quadratically with number of pages. Also, does the paper introduce a new method or present results using existing one? These two papers need to be written differently. ((note that your own method you presented in another paper is existing one))

Think of the reviewer as a reader who will more carefully read your article than the average reader. (Notice that I haven't said that the reviewer reads your article carefully, but only that they are more careful than the average reader, which is a pretty low bar.) So, if a reviewer does not understand something about your paper, then you can be pretty sure any future reader will not get it either. So the reviewer is not necessarily right, but all her/his/their comments are valuable feedback on how a serious reader would perceive your article.
So you claim that this is a simulation-focused article, but apparently the reviewer did not understand your article that way. That could be the problem. In that case, the solution is to keep the results part unchanged, but to improve the introduction, or the structure of the article to make the nature of the article clearer.
Alternatively, the reviewer could have understood the nature of your article, but thought that many of the results are superfluous and could maybe be relegated to an appendix.
So in short, you need to figure out what the problem is, and then solve it. This can be complicated, because the problem may not be what the reviewer says.

My first impression is that the reviewer thinks you've presented a lot of results, but not all of them are interesting. So either explain why it's important to run the simulation for all the different input parameters you used, or remove the results that are uninteresting.

Of course, I do not know the concrete paper you talk about, and might be completely off.
But there is a phenomenon that I sometimes call an "experimental desert" (or, in your case, a "simulation desert"). Endless experiments with variations of this or that without the reader getting a clear idea or direction where things are going.
You may, as author, want to retain the results as archivary information somewhere, and the supplementary material is a good place to act as the archive of your results.
The main paper, however, should give a compelling argument what you set out to study and what you found out. If a sequence of experiments and their results are mentioned, make a stringent case for how the question from one study follows from the previous or adds to it substantially.
I see another possible interpretation of this reviewer comment, however. Namely, that you are in a field where they may expect more real-world experiments or else theoretical computations, rather than simulations which are neither one nor the other.
Which of these might be plausible depends on your field.
TL;DR: I see two possible cases: Either you string together too many results with no compelling line of argument. Or else, the reviewer expects real-world experiments or else analytical approaches as opposed to simulations. You need to reflect which of these it might be.

Regarding the part about a sequence of experiments and justifying the steps, it can also be a trap to present the work as a historical account of how it was done, rather than the best way to understand it in retrospect. Avoid a listing an exhaustive series of sequential actions with all the twists and turns along the way. It's often better to present the work as a whole keeping the conclusion in mind, rather than comprehensively describing everything you did - it is possible to say too much and distract from the important bits.

@NuclearHoagie I agree. I did not mean to indicate actual history, but logical stringency of argument.

You do not say say anything about the nature of your "results". My guess is that the problem is neither that there are too many experiments (simulations), nor that the results somewhat duplicate one another". Rather, I would guess that there is too little abstraction and that you have presented too much raw data that might better belong in either an appendix or, more likely, in a collection of supplementary material.
With that hypothesis (guess!) in mind, consider whether the results of the simulations can be abstracted in some way or presented in a way that makes the important issues clearer to the reader. Can you present any of the results in the form of graphics that highlight similarities and differences between the results of the simulations? Are there any descriptive statistics that are relevant to the results and which would summarize the results without overwhelming the reader?


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My supervisor said they are working on my offer
My proposed PhD supervisor told me the department is currently working on my offer.
Does that mean my admission is guaranteed? And what can they be doing?

They are working on your offer... Nothing is guaranteed until both parties sign and even then there are clauses...

Hey Michael, I proposed an edit to take out the Greetings, please and thanks. This is a Q&A, so it's mainly about the question, not the personal interaction.

It means they don't want you to run of and commit to somewhere else, but that they can't give you that guarantee until a bunch of paperwork and approvals are done that are out of the supervisor's hands.

I have seen some of your other questions. Is this a Chinese institution you're dealing with? In such case there might be cultural factors at play.

Nothing is guaranteed until you have a written and signed piece of paper.
(this advice applies to all parts of life!)
Your chances are possibly really good to get it now but there can always be something unexpected (clauses one of the parties does not agree to, financial implications, something wrong in the paperwork, change of mood, etc).

It should generally mean that they have decided to offer you something. If you applied for a PhD, don't be surprised (but I guess you will be) if they offered you an MS admission because they thought your credentials or prerequisites were not at par with their requirements. Other thing that can happen is that they just offer you what you are hoping for. But unless everything is written on the paper in an official capacity, nothing is certain.
I was once offered an admission at a US university for a PhD which was funded by a National Science Foundation fellowship. After several email exchanges, and a phone interview, my potential supervisor thought I would be a good fit for his lab and that project. So he sent me an email on Friday congratulating me on my success and all that pleasantries. Over the weekend, I went out with my friends, we partied and I paid for all the beers and food. To my surprise, I got one line email on Monday asking if I was the citizen of the United States. To which I replied, no, I am not. And couple of days later, I got an apology email saying that only a US citizen can take part in the project. Hence, shattered my dream and expectation of an offer.
So, what I am trying to say is, nothing is certain until it is officially done. You can relieve a bit that it might be a good news but save the partying for later date. Good luck!


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Does a college have a legal obligation to offer advertised courses?
If a US college/university advertises itself as having a certain major, with supporting courses, are they legally obliged to offer the courses or similar ones? I am thinking of a new program where the school planned to hire tenure-track or adjunct faculty but did not do so. Instead, they tell students to cross-register at other institutions (which costs additional money) or take online classes to meet the requirements. Would this be illegal?

With or without a global pandemic?

I doubt this can be answered here.  Most colleges & universities have full-time legal staffs who (among other things) write policies with lots of wiggle room for contingencies like this. Someone on https://law.stackexchange.com might be able to give you an informed opinion about false advertising claims (it probably varies considerably from state to state ...)  (this is the only hit for "false advertising university" ...)

It's due to financial weakness, which existed before but was exacerbated by the pandemic.

This kind of issue might be of concern to the body that accredits the college.

Universities do not advertise particular courses (American meaning) for this exact reason.  Usually it is not guaranteed that a particular course will be offered at a particular time.  Check your catalog for a disclaimer.

@BrianBorchers Those bodies allow change to deal with issues like this current pandemic and many of the people at that body also work at institutes who ate also making changes...

Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer.
If the college/university doesn't offer advertised causes, the obvious law it could be breaking are those related to false advertising. US false advertising laws say that for a successful case, one needs to prove five things:

The advertiser made false statements of fact about its product;
The false advertisements actually deceived or had the capacity to deceive a substantial segment of the target population ;
The deception was material;
The falsely advertised product was sold in interstate commerce;
The party bringing the lawsuit (plaintiff) was injured as a result of the deception. Injury is construed as a likelihood of injury, rather than actual injury.

#1 seems trivial given the assumptions in the question. #2 should also be trivial. #3 reads rather vague to me, but if it means (as another source says) "the company lied about something important", then the plaintiff must show that they went to the university because of the advertised courses (or perhaps they can show that the courses available are a big part of the reason they went to the university, as opposed to say convenience). IANAL, but this seems pretty trivial as well since it's hard to argue that a university's courses aren't important in the university experience.
#4 deals with "interstate commerce", which means "any commercial transactions or traffic that cross state boundaries or that involve more than one state". If the college/university only took students from its own state, it should be fine. For every other case this should be trivially satisfied. Finally, #5 says the plaintiff must show that they were hurt by the deception. If one were e.g. hoping to become a particle physicist and it turns out the particle physics course was not offered, then this should be clear.
So yes, if the college/university advertises a course they have a legal obligation to offer it.
The scenario you described is different. Does "offering" a course mean they have to physically offer a course as opposed to arrange for students to take it from another university? One can certainly argue it doesn't - after all instruction is still being offered. Some advanced courses will even say they are only offered subject to student interest. Further, unless the university actually advertised the courses as being taught on campus, their advertisement wouldn't even be wrong. There are laws against misleading advertisements too, but it is not clear that courses have to be taught physically. Certainly during COVID many classes are taught online, and if false advertising claims have arose from this I'm not aware of it. It is possible one could still argue hurt because one has to pay cross-registration fees, however.
tl; dr: IANAL, but I suspect if the college makes arrangements for its students to take the advertised courses either online or at another university, they will be in the legal clear.

The "interstate commerce" clause sounds odd. I guess that the law you are discussing is a federal law, and there are laws about false advertisement in each state.

@Taladris Yes, I think that's pretty common for US federal law. The US Constitution gives the power to regulate interstate commerce, and this has been interpreted to justify practically every federal law there is.


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Can professors generally keep books paid for with university funds?
I'll soon be leaving the faculty position I've held for over 20 years at a private college in the United States. Do departing faculty typically keep books that might have been purchased with university funds? After all of this time, it's hard to know which books I paid for, which were given to me, and which were paid for by grants or departmental funds. My department (which I head) is being shut down, so nobody will remain to whom the books would be useful.

@BobBrown I've edited the question to show that I am the department chair. I could ask the dean but would like to know what is conventional first.

And how about ebooks or even papers downloaded "free of charge" because the university library pays for them? What should be done with them?

Short answer: yes. I never heard of anyone returning books, or asking about whether they should, and never heard of a department petty enough to expect that. Here’s a relevant university policy I found.

Whatever you do, eschew a solution that will result in still relevant (i.e. not outdated) books being thrown away. Very few things are sadder than perfectly good books going to the trash.

Here’s another policy that actually does ask for books to be returned to the university, apparently to avoid taxation issues. Whether or not this is honored in practice is anybody’s guess.

If you don't know which books are which, what makes you think anyone else does?

A few years ago I went to (in person) math seminar. One of the attendees was a retiring math professor (from another school) brought in a few boxes of books that he thought he no longer needed. All got "adopted" by various people by the end of the talk.

Not an answer for the situation now, but where I am, books paid by the university get a library sticker and are entered into the library system with location "Embarrassed tenured professor's shelf" (and books I buy with my own money get my name)

There's the "legal ownership" element, but given the situation you've described, I'd attach even more importance to the moral/ethical element:

Who is most likely to use these books?

I suspect if your department is being shut down, no one will care about the legal ownership specifics unless you provoke them to. So you could consider triaging:

College library, for books which in your professional judgment students or faculty in other remaining departments could use.

Keep yourself, for specialized material or your favorite books that you expect to use in the next years or decades.

Gifted to colleagues elsewhere for other useful material in your field.

"Free" box outside your door, for the stuff you'd otherwise throw out.

I have fortunately not been in quite this situation in academia proper, but I did leave a private sector research institute that got effectively disbanded with my (and others') departure. This is the approach I followed.

+1. Sadly, I have witnessed "unused" books from the department library being thrown in the trash, just to be able to use a library room for a different purpose. The right thing to do is to make sure that the books will end up with people who will actually use them.

That really depends on where you are. It seems that (albeit implicitly assumed) US, or Anglosaxon in general, consensus of the other asnwers is that a professors keeps their books.
However here, if university pays for a book through a grant or through department funds, the book gets registered into the library register and is marked appropriately with the numbers. These books are then sometimes marked as being borrowed from the library, sometimes just silently transferred, but either way remain a property of the library (and can even be requested for borrowing by other persons).
That does not include books that were sent to you from someone, only those bought through university money.

That does make things clearer. I think it goes without saying that library books should be returned.

@JW: I think Vladimir is saying that where they are, no such confusion exists in the first place because university paid = library book. (same where I am)

As I mentioned in the question, I'm the US. None of these books have been registered anywhere.

First, figure out which books you want to keep at all. Then ask the responsible person what you should do with the books you don't want to keep. That answer may reveal the answer to your actual question in your particular case.
I think the convention is that books bought by the university remain unless given to you, which a dean or VP might do.  Those you bought are, of course, yours. Examination copies given to you by publishers are yours, even if they were trying to influence the university.  Books bought with grants depend upon the provisions of the grant, but probably in general belong to the university, not the principal investigator.
Do not concern yourself with with ownership of downloaded material.  Libraries expect scholars to download, use, and ultimately keep such material.  That's why they have subscriptions.
Finally, if there are books you will not use, regardless of ownership, but that might be useful to a scholar in another department, see whether the library will take them.

For books you don't want to keep, some folks just leave a box of books outside their office with a "Free" sign.

@Buffy Yes, I'm planning to do that, although I guess I should technically ask permission first.

I've done that.  I also have an African colleague who collects such books and sends them to his home university.

Thank you. Could you clarify what you mean by "responsible person"?

@Embarrassedtenuredprofessor  Start with your immediate superior and work your way up until you get a definitive answer.  My guess?  They'll tell you to keep everything.

Yep.  When I did this I put them on a community bookshelf in the department lobby and let the students have first crack.  Of everything left I kept what I wanted and threw out the rest.  The department chair actually lamented that I wasn't moving them along fast enough!

I have been in similar situations three times when moving between  universities and when retiring, in Norway. The tradition was, and is, that the books are kept by the professor.
My advice is that you honestly ask the dean what would be best to do with the books for the college. Chances are that the college is at most interested in very few of your books for special retain reasons.

Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.
Go along with the assumption that you can keep them all. Keep the ones you want, and decide what to do with those you do not.
If you ask first, you may trigger the cupidity of a petty official who wants them for himself (for no reason but for the ownership) and it will then be far harder to retain control yourself of the ones you are particularly fond of. But if you have already taken your pick, and put them on your shelves at home, then it is far harder for an officious busybody in the university administration to claim them for the university.
It is also a fair bet that nobody will either know or care what books you have in the first place. Mind, it's a good idea to know exactly where they all are, in case someone with a list on a clipboard comes sailing into your office to mark off the ones they are particularly keen on reclaiming.

At our department, this can go two ways: If I request a book for a class that I teach, the department will get me an "instructor's" copy, but will keep the book (although I can generally keep using it unless someone else decides to use it for their class as well). We also have a pool of money that can be spent on miscellaneous expenses, such as inviting visitors, attending conferences, books, or minor equipment. I can buy a book and request to cover the expense; if the department head/business office approves it, I will be reimbursed and can keep the book. There's no guarantee, however, that such a request will be approved and overall the money is more likely to be given to junior faculty with no external funding...


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How to communicate realistic expectations for science faculty research to administration
I teach at a small US liberal arts college with no graduate students. There is no support for research, and the teaching load is 4-6 courses per year.
A colleague was recently denied promotion to full professor because he was not "a leader in his field". This requirement is new (and does not appear anywhere in our handbook). I understand that it might be possible for a professor in the arts or humanities to be a leader in their field, and maybe even a social scientist (if the field is sufficiently small).
Are there any references we can point to showing that, in order for a scientist to be a leader in their field, they need graduate students, post-docs, institutional support, lower teaching loads, etc.?
If you disagree with my premise and think we should be able to become leaders in scientific fields given the above constraints, please answer instead how to do that.
UPDATES: Science faculty are expected to provide undergraduate research opportunities, even though those generally take more time than they save. This limits the ability to collaborate with groups at research universities.
The problem is especially severe for faculty in the life sciences.

writing and being granted funding proposals is something you both try? It's the first I would start at the end of PhD/beginning of post-doc. Probably tough and very competitive in humanities, but is there a better chance...?

Well, having some familiarity with physics professors at small liberal arts colleges, they generally have figured out how to be part of some collaboration. Perhaps easier for particle physics types (and similar fields) where large collaborations with various bits that are suitable for undergraduate-level projects. And, the profs often spend their summers with the collaboration, often off-site. Your mileage may vary...

@JonCuster Thank you. I've added that faculty are expected to include undergrads in their research, which can be challenging if they're collaborating off-campus.

Still thinking about a complete answer, but I'll note that "promotion to full professor" is a different sort of thing than gaining tenure. I would expect high standards, even from small liberal arts focused colleges.

Is this the US?  Are there annual faculty evaluations with specific criteria?  Do you know if similar instances happened in other departments?

@Kimball Yes, this is in the US. Sorry for not putting that in the initial question. I have not yet heard of its happening outside of the science division.

@MichaelSchmidt We sometimes apply for grants, but there is no sponsored research office to help; nor are there any graduate students to hire. FYI, I'm talking about the sciences, not humanities.

Just out of curiosity, did your colleague relate this to you, or did you see the decision letter.  If your colleague was reviewed to a different standard than is the usual practice, this is probably a matter to be handled by whatever grievance procedure is in place -- but you would want to make sure you know the facts, and not just the facts as your colleague sees or understands them.

@ScottSeidman I believe what my colleague told me. It is something that should be addressed by the appropriate committees, one of which I'm on. I am trying to find information that would help the administration see this is not a reasonable goal for science faculty, although most of the responders here seem to agree with the administration that we just need to work harder than the 7 days/week we're already working.

I'm assuming that, among other things, you want to help the college develop a realistic plan that can be fairly applied in the future.
First, a bit of background. The type of college that you describe, normally has primarily a teaching mission. But expectations of faculty are almost universally threefold: Teaching, Research, and Service. While other colleges provide different weights, small liberal arts colleges mostly reward faculty for teaching, and normally say so explicitly. But the other two can't be ignored. With one exception, everywhere I spent my career had some research component in the expectations, even if it was poorly supported. But "Scholarly Activity" might be closer to the expectation than edge of the known universe research.
Moreover, at different times in a career, an individual might want to put more or less focus on one or the other of these and that should be supported, within reason, by the institution. For example, older faculty might want to focus more on service than the others, taking on administrative duties or duties outside the college proper, such as taking on tasks in professional organizations.
In my view, a "reasonable" faculty evaluation system will leave it to individuals to (a) present a short term (yearly) plan of activities in each area and (b) report on how they fulfilled the previous year's plan. The administration should then have a chance to reflect on this and to make suggestions and adjustments for the coming year's plan, with some consensus required in how it is finalized. Thus, if the institution wants more research, it can insist, each year, that a bit more be done than the individual had suggested in their proposed plan. Thus, the pressure is constant, but not intense on an individual. No one is told in year 15 that they can't be promoted (surprise) because they didn't do any research, though no one previously suggested that they should.
But, another aspect of the above that may not be particularly obvious, is that you can be "a leader in your field" if you get to define (self-define) your field. That means narrowing it, not dumbing it down, though. There are a lot of possibilities.
I think that expecting that a chemistry professor (a lab based science) will suddenly have a major article in Science when working with no inputs from the institution, would be unrealistic. I think lab sciences may be the hardest here as there are hard costs to cover and grants may not be open to small places. But in most other sorts of fields, one can find a niche in which to become well known. Mathematicians, of course, focus on very narrow fields, and there are a lot of these small sub fields. CS, also, has many opportunities, both in theoretical matters, in applications, and in human factors and management aspects. One field that is especially open to people who are primarily teachers is pedagogy. How can we best teach, say, Chemistry in the first year. The existing ways of doing it may be outmoded. But for this to work, the individual has to be able to decide for her/himself what field they will choose to become experts in. It is unlikely to be the overall field: not Chemistry, per se, but Teaching Chemistry in the first year. I've known people who have become, for example, leaders in computing ethics, computing pedagogy, even research opportunities for educators. Small fields, but valuable.
And if your "field" is the teaching of your larger field, then you can become a leader by book publishing or even "pamphlet" publishing if those pamphlets give good teaching support and become well known. Pick some small topic that is difficult to teach and find ways to do it better. Write it up. Publish it, even if on a web-site. Learn to teach in ways that are more effective than the ways that were handed down to you. Find a way to spread the word. You are suddenly "leading" not following.
Some funding is required, of course. Travel to conferences is a prime example. If you want to be known, you need to meet people and have a way to collaborate with them. That collaboration can lead to both research ideas for the professor and for smaller scale research ideas for students. For the sciences, in particular, this need to foster collaboration within the larger field is essential. The web makes a lot possible, but people have to make the contacts first so that they can become part of larger projects. New faculty, in particular, should be encouraged to keep their old contacts active and to develop new ones. If student research is a desirable goal, then you may need ways to let students develop those contacts also, either by funding student travel or by bringing in visitors frequently.
A college can't suddenly expect teaching faculty to acquire grant funding. That normally takes a lot of support from the institution, but it can pay off. Both governmental and private grants can be found, but it may take cultivating. Many small institutions have a few people dedicated to finding grant opportunities, to developing contacts, and to assisting in grant preparation.
The essence, I think is (a) let the faculty member define the niche field, (b) let the individual present a plan, (c) let the administration suggest and even impose small adjustments to the plan and (d) let the faculty member state how they have or haven't fulfilled the plan and why.
If the administration wants to apply pressure, make it incremental but continuous at point (c).
And, of course, faculty are strongly advised to retain all of their plans and reports, including any administration responses.
It is possible to build a system that guarantees failure. This benefits exactly no-one. Secret expectations or suddenly imposed major obligations are often features of such failure inducing systems.

I don't think doing research into education is an option, since they are supposed to provide students with lab research opportunities.

Well, @Embarrassedtenuredprofessor, you can do both disciplinary research and education research.  This is increasingly expected.

@AnonymousPhysicist I guess none of us deserve to make full professor then, since we find it impossible to do that on top of the quantity and quality of teaching, advising, mentoring, and service that is expected of us. Maybe it would be possible for someone with a support spouse and no children, but some of my colleagues and I made poor personal choices.


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Applying as a full professor to assistant professorships at other institutions
I have been on the faculty of a liberal arts college for over 20 years and have the rank of full professor. I have started to look for other academic jobs because of my college's financial problems, which are well known locally. I'm fortunate to be in a field closely related to computer science, so the academic (and industry) job market is good in my metropolitan area, which is where I'm limiting my search to.
The only positions I've seen advertised in my field are at the assistant professor level. I would be willing to work at that rank, if the conditions (pay, course load, environment, etc.) are otherwise attractive. (I've been underpaid and over-stressed in my current job.) Of course, I would rather be hired at a higher rank and closer to tenure evaluation.
Should I mention my hope of being hired at a higher level in my cover letter or wait until I am asked about it or given an offer? I have also reached out to faculty at local institutions. While some of encouraged me to apply for advertised positions, none has offered to create a position for me.
EDIT
My question is not:

Am I likely to succeed at being hired at a higher rank?
What other positions should I apply for?
What should I do besides applying directly for positions?

I am asking, given my goals, what should I say, if anything, in my cover letter about being willing to consider an assistant professor position 6 years from tenure, as advertised, but preferring to be hired at a higher rank?

Advertised positions come in many flavors, some being strictly at the assistant level and some more flexible. Some may become more flexible is the right candidate applies. Keep talking, apply, see what happens.

@JonCuster Thanks! Do you recommend saying anything in the cover letter?

I do think this is an important issue "in these times". So, for sure, let's not "close" this question! :)

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/171352/if-a-tenure-track-position-has-been-advertised-at-the-assistant-professor-level may provide some additional info.

Would you considered only US? Because there is hiring at all levels in EU, do you need link?

@looktook Thanks for asking, but I am only considering positions in my metropolitan area. I will edit my post to make it clearer.

Only metropolitan area???? In that case highly unlikely @embarrassed tenured professor

@JonCuster: Some may become more flexible is the right candidate applies. One of the most important tenets when searching a job but easily forgotten.

Based on my experience going through many, many rounds of recruiting and hiring Computer Science faculty at liberal arts colleges, I do have some thoughts to share.

As I'm sure you are aware, there are some job postings that are listing a desire for candidates at "all levels", but if it doesn't list that, it doesn't mean that there is no possibility of them being interested in your application. We occasionally had such language in job postings, but since experienced applicants are generally few and most people on the (CS) faculty market are relatively junior, it was easier to get the standard wording approved for posting.
When applying, be sure to explain why you are thinking of leaving a tenured position at a possible peer institution. I have unfortunately seen people downgrade an application because they thought that the candidate wasn't serious about the application -- probably was assuming that they were looking for an outside offer to push for a raise in their current institution.
Every hire requires negotiation with the administration, especially around salary and tenure clock. In your case, it might be a bigger ask for salary and include a title change. But what is flexible or not is different at each institution and during each hiring cycle. You can't really know what the limits are in advance.

Now in terms of your specific question "Should I mention my hope of being hired at a higher level in my cover letter or wait until I am asked about it or given an offer?" Based on your comments, I would say that you should not. I think that you should do so only if you are unwilling to accept any position other than what you specify. I.e., they should not consider you unless they get approval to hire at the level/salary you are requesting. Otherwise, that will be something that can be discussed during the phone interview, etc. and likely would be one of the first questions asked.
I have seen many different models where senior candidates start at a new institution. Some come in with tenure, some with a couple years before going up for tenure, etc. I have even seen one senior hire where they came in at full Professor level and were immediately put up for tenure.
I'm more optimistic about your prospects than the answer from Buffy, but I do agree with many of their suggestions in their answer in terms of being open to alternate opportunities.
Best of luck to you in your search.

Regarding the first bullet point: couldn't it be a big administrative hassle to hire someone for a job description that differs from the one from the formal advertisment? In my corner of the world it might, but maybe it's different in other places

I assume OP is in the US (since they’re at a SLAC).  The US doesn’t typically have rules requiring positions to be posted (or hiring to be “fair” more generally, other than certain specific kinds of discrimination being banned).  The exception to this is that there are more requirements if you need to get a work visa for the hire.  But if you’re a citizen or permanent resident there’s no administrative hassle.  (You do have to convince the Dean, but that’s a separate issue.)

@NoahSnyder Yes, I tagged the question [united-states] but didn't state it in the post.

I think your plan as written is (nearly) infeasible. I doubt that you will find such an accommodation. And you won't find a suitable salary even if someone wanted to take you on. The market is insane at the moment.
Instead, I would try to seek a position, with a short tenure clock (2 years, say). I'd suggest that you "offer" to drop in rank to Associate, but no further, and only if necessary.
I would, instead of applying through the normal system initially, write directly to department heads, explaining the fact that your current place is likely to fail. Write as a colleague, one professor to another. Ask what might be possible. They will have to make some exceptions to hire you in any case.
But to make even this possible, you would need to look fairly broadly and be willing and able to move. Don't limit it to just liberal arts colleges, though research universities might be out of reach unless you have an exceptional research record.
If you have kept up your connections through, say, conferences, collaborations, and such, try to exploit those connections to find some allies who can work on your behalf. If your own department head is an ally, ask them for help in introducing you to other heads.
Don't sell yourself short. Sell yourself as a potentially valuable member of the faculty.
If your current institution is primarily a teaching college, note that some very top institution (Duke, Stanford, ...) have a special faculty category, sometimes called Professor of the Practice" that focuses on undergraduate teaching. They do a lot of that and want to free up the research faculty. The positions I know of aren't tenured but, rather, long term contracts that can be very stable. They expect a very high standard as you would expect.

Edited to add.
The main problem I see is that a regular application for assistant professor is so "odd" or "off the wall" that nothing you could say in the cover letter is likely to overcome the strangeness of it. Offers for junior faculty are usually governed by rules that would make this idea preposterous. They are looking for "fresh" faces just out of grad school, not experienced people - either teachers or scholars. A few adverts are more open that the rank is negotiable, but if it specifies Assistant Professor level, they almost certainly want someone at the beginning of their career.
You on the other hand, can fill in a different sort of need for some as a mid-career experienced person, likely focused more on teaching than research.
In any case, I hope you find success, however you arrange it.

Thinking again, overnight:
You may have considered this also, of course, but you are at the perfect time in your career to move in to administration at some level. Many large universities, even (or especially) R1 universities might have a position like "Associate Chair for Undergraduate Instruction". Math and CS departments tend to be rather large and have lots of courses taught by TAs, for example. Someone with 20 years experience at a Liberal Arts college knows a lot about the curriculum requirements and, I suspect, quality teaching. There might even be some opportunities at the level of Assistant Dean for an experienced academic. A couple of the "Professor of Practice" people that I know have actually wound up with oversight of the undergraduate program.
Some people at the "chair" level even get to (or are required to) teach a course or two, if that is especially appealing to you.
Furthermore, accepting such a position would probably leave your academic rank unchanged, though tenure rules for administrators might be different. Often, though, administrators retain tenure "as faculty", even if not "as administrators".

Please don't assume I don't know about teaching professorships, networking, etc. I do and am pursuing those. My question was about what to say about rank in cover letters for one of the types of positions I am applying for.

Sorry. All I have to go on is what you say. Please don't assume I'm not trying to be helpful.

“Professor of Practice” are, in essence, adjunct professors (with a, claimed or real, twist), at least at my alma mater (which is on your very short list). So it’s industry leaders, or at least people experienced in industry. That wouldn’t be a good fit in this case based on the information provided.

@gnometorule, I know several of them personally and have collaborated with some. They hold full time positions (not adjunct) and none of them come from industry. They are academic "all the way down". Most, not all, have doctorates from good schools. It is the nature of what they do that is the distinguishing thing. Add CMU to the list, also. A couple of state universities might also do this, but I'm not certain of the actual arrangements.

They hold academic rank and have multi-year (seven  year in one specific university) contracts.

@Buffy It is clear you are always trying to be helpful. I was just clarifying what would be helpful in this case.

Your plan seems to me to be related to the general debate around hiring employees who are overqualified. There is a strong belief among employers that being overqualified for a position is an undesirable trait in a job candidate, and that hiring such employees is generally not a good idea.
The good news for you is that from a legal point of view, there appears to be no justification for rejecting a job candidate on the grounds of their being overqualified. Thus, in an ideal world, a law-abiding institution will want to treat your assistant professor application just like any other and evaluate you based on merit.
The bad news is that in academia very few people know or care about this legal issue. The general stigma against overqualified employees translates in the academic context to a strong resistance to “hiring down”, and to many rationalizations that people bring up to support why they think hiring an already tenured professor for an untenured position is a terrible idea. And, in all honesty, I think that while some of the arguments supporting this are invalid, there is some legitimate room to argue that a less experienced candidate for an assistant professor position may be more qualified than one with a higher level of experience to satisfy the department’s long term needs. The point is that academic faculty jobs are filled for a much longer time than other sorts of jobs; thus the definition of who counts as “overqualified” is much more tricky to pin down, and the legal situation I mentioned may not be obviously applicable.
The bottom line is, I think your plan is very unlikely to work. You will almost certainly not be offered an assistant professor position. In the unlikely event that you are offered one, it will be for a much lower salary than your current one (which given what you said about wanting the pay to be attractive, sounds like a non-starter). And you will not be offered a position for a rank that is different than what the department advertised, since nowadays that is considered in most places to be a legally fraught practice, and since departments generally mean what they say when they advertise that they are looking to fill a specific type of position.
Sorry for this somewhat pessimistic answer. Good luck in any case.

In my experience, this "resistance" isn't about not wanting to hire "overqualified" people, but just a common assumption that, without a compelling reason, a person in a better position is unlike to accept a worse position.


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My research PI has terminated my post-doc after coming back from sick leave. No prior notice given. Is it right behaviour?
I am coming from another country for a post-doc. It's been 2 months and immediately project plan and work pressure started.
Meanwhile, I fell sick and was on leave for one week. When I returned back, they gave me a termination letter.
Is it the right behaviour?

I'm not sure what we can do for you. Some pressure for productivity at work is normal in any job; we have no information to judge whether what you experienced was appropriate. Termination due to an illness is quite unfair, but it's not clear this was the reason. Whether you'd have any legal recourse depends entirely on where you are located, as this determines the laws that govern your employment, and any terms of your employment, but if you want to pursue legal remedies you need a lawyer, not internet Q&A.

And in addition to what @BryanKrause says - regardless of the legal status, your relationship with your advisor is likely irreparably damaged.

What exactly is the question: how to get reinstated? How to find another job? We'll probably need more details to tell you anything useful...but as Bryan says, I'm not sure how productive this would be.

This country you come into, is it US?

You ask whether the way you have been treated is "right". There are several ways this could be interpreted. Is it right morally? Is it right legally? And what would you like to be an outcome?
If you were fired soley because you took sick leave, then yes, this is morally wrong, and i think few would disagree. Personally,  I'd still consider it wrong it there were other factors at play,  such as an underlying ongoing physical or mental health problem,  or an on-going performance issue, but no performance management processes. This might not as widely shared.
Whether it is wrong legally will depend on the local laws where you are. In the US it might even depend on the state. You need to take local legal advice. Talk to your local union,  postdoc association or public employment law help line.  In the UK this would be the ACAS helpline. In the UK law says you can be dismissed for any reason in the first 2 years of employment without recourse unless it can be shown to be because of one of the "protected characteristics", which possibly of relevance here would be race and disability. After 2 years employment the reasons you can be dismissed are limited, and the process for firing someone long and complicated. However, most universities will have policies that go above and beyond the law.
The final question is to ask yourself what you would like to happen now. It is highly unlikely that you will get your job back. Many people just want an acknowledgement that they have been mistreated. If that's what you need,  then please take the first part of this post as that. Legal remedy is generally limited to cash. As employment is a contract, this is generally limited to the losses you have suffered as a result of the employer breaching their side of the contract. In the UK for example this is what you would have been paid in this time before you got your next job, or one year's pay at maximum. Wrongful dismissal proceedings often take years.

immediately project plan and work pressure started. Meanwhile, I fell sick and was on leave for one week. When I returned back they gave a termination letter.

If I were to put on my labour law hat, in which I have some exposure, should I read in-between the line here, on probative base, seemly, there's an underlying unsatisfactory performance concern.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying of certain, this is the case. However, it's indicative from the undertones.
Kindly reflect objectively.
If you're to take this to school authorities, you might get clarity: however, you'll need all the material facts not emotions. They would not most likely reverse the termination letter though. Well, you might just be lucky!
If you then feel like it, take it up with legally. Possibly, get a lawyer: if you're fortunate, one of those no win, no fees. They are not a guarantee though.
There're lots of intricacies. We're not privy to 'em. Quick ones:

was there a performance discussion between you and your host professor before
-- getting sick
-- when you returned before the letter
who is they that gave the letter
-- host professor
-- dept/school
-- HR/students affairs
what's the termination notice in the letter: one month, 3 mths

Is it the right behaviour

If this is out of the blues, definitely it's not the right behaviour, neither is it the appropriate process. It gives you strong ground for redress: depending on the nuances which cannot be determined through a 'faceless' online Q&A.
If you're wondering if the postdoc can be terminated at will, well, in research parlance, yes it can. Same way non-tenured are at the mercy.
For postdocs, a factor is research advancement of the lab/institute/centre. If funding dries up, tough luck. If you're not contributing, ? is why would/should you 'occupy' space. It's a competitive world out there in research: fundings, grants ...
Nonetheless, your host professor could have assisted with soft landing when you commenced. Even at that, you ought to have been proactive

engage, engage, engage
enquire, research, enquire

[Postdoc Termination]
Kindly check on your institution's policies. There might just be a 'glimmer of hope'

for Harvard, see postdoc termination process
Yale's got similar

This is not a legal opinion/advice as contemplated in law

Worry biting that employment law varies greatly depending on the country in question.  I'm presuming the advice here is intended to apply to the US. Even in the US I believe the law varies from state to state


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From PhD to Assistant/Associate Professor
I am in a bit of a pickle as soon I will finish my PhD and I will need to think about the next step in the academic career. One thing I realized is that is very unclear how the scientific production (papers And funding) should be considered when thinking about moving to a higher position such as Associate/Assistant Prof. To clarify, I will be taking about bioscience field and Europe as context :)
I have 2 papers in IF 10-14 first name and several co-authorship of different importance, two of which on >10 IF third name. I have been acquiring grant form the country I was graduating in for an amount of 100.000 € over the span of my PhD. I have been told by people that just met me and knew my CV to try to move directly to Assistant/associate professor position, which to me sounds a bit crazy (?).
How do people navigates these situations? I feel like around me there is not much discussing the backstage part of academic life, so I am utterly confused at the moment. Would it be weird just apply for grants on projects and also to uni for assistant/associate? Are they going to laugh to my face? I am really not sure how we are supposed to evaluate our carrer for the next step. Sorry for the naivety.

You can certainly apply, but don't expect success. I think associate professor is impossible unless you have solved a long standing important problem in field. But it is impossible to predict as it depends on too many factors. Lots of qualified people in the market.

In many countries you can apply for positions at Assistant Professor level directly after your PhD. For example Junior Professor in Germany. Your PhD needs to be strong, probably also publication record, but what is "strong" will strongly depend on your subject area. Chances are going via fellowship/grant happens more often, but for sure you can try. And being worried about what's "weird" or whether "people laugh in your face" is hardly ever productive. It doesn't hurt (other than costing a bit of time) to apply and now win.

A junior Professor (W1) in Germany is typically a fixed term position (typically 3 years) not a permanent position. A junior professor (W2) is really a mixed bag: could be permanent, could be fixed term. I have seen many that primarily focuss on teaching, but that is not exclusively true. Especially at the W2 level there are lots of differences between federal states. It often feels like a "rest" category to me.

Hello, thanks for the infos! I understand what you mean.. my problem is exactly understanding what “strong” means. I was surprised myself when PIs told me themselves to give it a shot because of the publications and the amount of grants I secured. I guess I will just give it a shot and see! I was wondering if someone else has done it and their experiences!

@MaartenBuis: Hmm, I have a few doubts whether your comment reflects the situation in Germany correctly. W1 positions typically last 6 years rather than 3 (but there is usually a mid term evaluation after 3 or 4 years, so formally the position lasts for 3 or 4 years first and is then prolonged by another 3 or 2 years). Regarding W2 positions, I'm under the impression that your perspective is specific for Baden-Württemberg (as I saw you're located in Konstanz): [...]

[...] Baden-Württemberg typically doesn't give W2 positions to university professors with permanent positions, but this is really a speciality of this state. In most other federal states it's totally common to find both W2 and W3 university professors with permanent positions. (Another relevant point is that some - but not all - W1 positions come with tenure track to a permanent W2 or W3 position, subject to a positive evaluation after 6 years.)

In the U.K. at least In biosciences, virtually nobody goes from PhD to  some kind of associated/assistant professor role, unless you are some kind of genius. Almost everyone who makes it to that position will go the post-doc -> fellowship -> associate professor route. This is what you should aim for.
This may vary across different fields, howeverz

When I was in the UK (until 2018) I saw quite a number of people who came pretty much straight from a PhD winning lecturerships, which is now Assistant Professor.

@ChristianHennig could be field dependent - I will clarify my field.


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Are general elective grades important when applying to a U.S. pure math PhD program?
I know this question may have no definitive anwser at all, please bear with me. I just finished my 3rd year of university, and I have one year and a semester left until (hopefully) getting into a math PhD program in the US. The thing is, I got a C0 and a C+ in general elective courses a few semesters ago, and I need to choose between either retaking these courses in the following semesters, or taking more math courses and doing some more research but letting those C's nibble off my overall GPA. I was not a math major until the start of my 3rd year, so I have many math courses that I have not taken yet, especially graduate level (say commutative algebra, differential geometry etc), and I am very eager in learning more math. I am attending a worldwide ~50 ranked institute outside of the U.S., so it would help a lot if I get answers in the international applicant's perspective. Thanks a lot!

A few low/average grades in lower division, non-major courses isn't much of an issue. You would be far better off taking advanced math courses and doing well there. Overall GPA is not the most important consideration in graduate applications. GPA in the major carries more weight. Grades in advanced courses carry more weight. Letters from people who attest to your ability in math carry much more weight. Move on.

This is true but only up to a point: In my university, an application will be rejected if GPA is below 3.0. I suspect that the same is the case in many other places.

Thank you so much for the advice.


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Can self-funded international students be denied admission based on absence of scholarship/fellowship?
Is having a scholarship/fellowship mandatory for graduate studies (MSc) for an international student?
I told my potential supervisor that I can fund my studies on my own through an education loan, but she didn't reply. Can I be denied admission, and what steps (if any) can I take to avoid this?

I told my potential supervisor that I can fund my studies on my own through an education loan, but she didn't reply. There are many reasons why she might not reply. Do you have any reason to believe that self funding is the reason?

Can self-funded international students be denied admission based on absence of scholarship/fellowship?

Of course they can (and often are). Admission to graduate school also includes an evaluation whether the candidate is likely to graduate, and having funding outside of a scholarship does not change that evaluation. An added problem is that being admitted to the graduate school is only one side of the coin - you also need an advisor willing to work with you. If your application is considered too weak for regular acceptance with a scholarship, it is somewhat likely that you will also have troubles finding an advisor - and admitted students without advisor are often a bit of an administrative headache that admission committees would like to avoid.

The OP is looking at a master's degree, not a PhD program. Maybe you'd could modify the answer suitably?

@user153812 Maybe I'm stupid, but where does it say that? I am also not sure if this will change my answer much, at least not for a master-by-research.

@xLeitix Pre-edit, the question mentioned a MSc degree and had the tag [tag:masters]. I don't know why either/both mentions were removed.

Sorry, have got those tags back. I believed 'graduate studies' meant master's by default, seems like that was a wrong assumption.


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Can I publish a paper with a group that is different than the one I start with?
I am an undergraduate who did research at my university a little while back. It was funded by a non-profit research organization, and I was paid with this money, through the university. I worked alone, but received some advice from people I worked with along the way. At the end of my time with the group, I had a poster with my findings on it, and I was preparing to begin writing a paper on the material. Unfortunately, the head of the group was let go from the university for some some immoral behavior (I'm aware that this is vague, and it intentionally so), and the group was disbanded. The university said that they would try to help me find someone else that I could publish with, but that never happened.
So here I am, sitting on some work that I'm very proud of. I don't want for it to go to waste, but I don't know if publishing my findings with a different group, outside of my university, will be considered plagiarizing. Any advice?
Edit: removed a separate question, asking how to bring the research up in applications

Welcome to Academia.SE. I'd suggest asking your last question as a standalone question, since it asks an entirely different (and valuable) question that will be hard for future visitors to find otherwise! (As for the nature of the "immoral" act, the only question that would matter is if it's academic fraud or not. I'm assuming it's not, but if it's the case, it would be helpful to say so explicitly, and leave the rest unmentioned.)

There would be no reason why it would be considered plagiarism—you've done nothing wrong. Getting another group somewhere else to help you get this work published would also not be considered unethical, so long as they actually make meaningful contributions to the paper.
However, if you've done the work all by yourself, why not consider publishing the paper by yourself? Many disciplines have undergraduate journals that would allow you to publish papers without being "sponsored" by a research group.


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In a master's thesis, should relevant theory be part of the literature survey?
Does literature survey/review include relevant theory (from textbooks/old references) or should it only include recent publications? Should I place the theory as a separate chapter?

The age of theory really does not matter.  If there is a relevant contribution from the 17th century that still matters today, then it is includable.  It doesn't mean you should include it, but there is no reason at all to exclude it.  Because of the pressure of "publish or perish," many current articles are of poor quality.  Indeed, I just wrote to authors of an article because I felt they missed a very obvious explanation.
Conversely, there were fewer scholars the further you go back in time and they were often the pinnacle of the profession.  While there was less knowledge to work with, there tended to be greater rigor.  There are two important reasons to quote older works.  The first is when the older work implies a broader range of options than the profession has taken or unintentionally foreclosed a path of research.  The second is when an important element of prior theory is wrong.  A quotation from a prior author can illustrate how incorrect thinking developed.  For prior theory to be wrong, it has to make perfect sense as to how it is correct.  The error has to be subtle.
Your literature review should include prior theory.  The scope of that review should be deep enough and broad enough to cover the discussion of your research project.  You should be aware of controversies that could impact you, the timing of that discussion is irrelevant.  There is no virtue to an article written in 2017 and no reason to not quote older works, even including the ancient Greek mathematical writings.  There are good reasons to quote Euclid's Elements.
If it is in print, ever, it can be used.  Relevance is up to you and your advisor.  As to whether it should be in a separate chapter, we can't really help you.  You are writing a book.  It needs to make sense.  How can you best make sense.

In many disciplines there's a strong tendency to prefer quoting more recent work. This has some legitimate reasons:

New findings/developments even in the fundamental theoretical underpinnings of the field
Modern restatements of fundamental theory which do not dwell on issues which are no longer relevant today (e.g. disputing the existence of the Ether and Phlogiston if you're a physicist)

but there are also motivations/reasons which I believe are inappropriate:

"I quote the book/papers I was taught from" - people who don't bother to read original statements of theories to which they only read mentions elsewhere.
Fashion: In Sociology I know that at some point, neo-Marxism was more popular and lots of people cited that, then post-Colonialism became all the rage etc. So you would see people quoting a bunch of articles and books from 10 years back or so, almost exclusively, as though that was the alpha and the omega of social theory. If I'm mixing up my examples then never mind, it's the principle that matters.
Timidity in quoting non-academic / primary sources: Some people seem to have been inculcated with the notion that they're only supposed to quote from respectable academic work. Not so. Often better to quote a 19th-century rabble-rousing speech than the sedate and sometimes mis-representative article who mentioned it in passing a century later.

So don't shy from quoting any source which is materially relevant.

PS - Always provide detailed references of course, especially to sources which are potentially obscure. If the description of your source doesn't fit typical fields, don't hesitate to add a comment to your bibliography explaining what that source is and how to locate it.

There is a difference between previous empirical findings and theory. In my experience papers that pit these in separate sections tend to be a lot clearer.
However, conventions differ a lot between disciplines. I suspect that at some point in your study program the appropriate structure of a paper was discussed. Look at that again and stick to that format.

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How to get past being tagged as overly curious and unfocussed?
I am in a reputed PhD Programme in Computer Science. In the prior part of my PhD I was focussed on applicative research but during the course of time I developed a keen interest in the theoretical reasoning behind algorithms and methods. I would have liked to prove the correctness of my work theoretically along with the experimental results. Since I didn't have a very strong fundamental background in mathematics, I developed a habit of asking "why" behind every assumption made in any topic. For example: I had a 15 minute long discussion with my lab mate on why the sample event space for calculating probability consists of a null set and what does it mean.
Our lab has weekly presentations by various students of my lab about their research topics or something else, focussed towards people who don't know anything. My obsession to understand the fundamentals have probably led me to be able to ask questions even upon topics not remotely concerned with my field of study. And I do ask questions (I don't know about the quality of questions since I am mostly not very well versed with the topics being presented). I somehow also have a habit of being able to relate things from various fields of study, so after or during the presentations I am usually able to find the connection between my and the other person's field.
Due to this, my advisor (occasionally and in a positive manner) and other people have started tagging me as overly curious. A few students make fun of me behind me, saying why the hell I can dive into discussions with people working in String theory when I don't have to work upon it.
Though I am producing results (coding, studying and teaching the same to my co-authors) and mostly the one who brings new ideas to the table, I am mostly taunted as being unfocussed by my lab mates when I just try to discuss about some random idea during coffee or lunch break or try to know about a new project initiated in other labs. Earlier I chose to address their concerns and accepted that maybe I have a problem, but with time people even question my focus when I just express my wish to attend an advanced Algebra lecture (an hour a week). This hasn't killed my curiosity but has led me to question my abilities and is affecting my self-confidence. I am an excellent team player, but due to continuous taunting I prefer working and hanging out alone (against my nature) since I think I am negatively impacting others' work.
My questions are:

Does it make sense to attend these weekly presentations whose main aim in my view was to develop a habit of asking questions?
Is wanting to know about other people's work, even from other domains, considered as lack of focus?
Is there something called "overly curious" ?

"I am producing results(coding, studying and teaching the same to my co-authors)". Have you actually written any papers that were published in reputed journals or conferences? These are true results. Anything else is simply "beating around the bush". If your curiosity and your questions did not help you publish any papers they only derail you from getting your PHD on time (if at all).

Answers to your questions are dependent on the culture you are in, and how you, personally, want to cope with the norms and values of that culture.
For example, in some cultures, it is possible to be labeled "overly ambitious" if one voices the ambition to be the "best X in the world", or even "the top X in our country".  This doesn't apply to the US, where open ambition is rarely stigmatized.
Also, be aware that your class mates and lab mates may be taunting you and make fun of you as a way to cope with their own discomforts and insecurities. Such reactions are hardly useful or informative to you as you develop your skills and capabilities in a way that suits your disposition and inclinations.
Here are my answers to your questions:

Does it make sense to attend these weekly presentations whose main aim in my view was to develop a habit of asking questions.

Yes, this is perfectly fine if it doesn't take away time or energy from your other work and doesn't delay progress in your PhD program. As my (well-regarded) adviser says: "Intellectual curiosity is very valuable in academic life. It is not widely distributed and it is hard to develop if you don't already have it".

Does wanting to know about other people's work; even from other domains considered as lack of focus.

No, not in and of itself.  This is the way of the "polymath".  You might just start telling people: "I'm a polymath, or aspiring polymath.  This is what I do."  Also, you might read some biographies of polymaths.  They will give you inspiration and insights.

Is there something called "overly curious"

Curiosity is only excessive if it distracts from the focus necessary to develop depth in your specialty, or gets in the way of getting meaningful work done (courses passed, papers published, etc.).  PhD is about depth, so if your curiosity keeps you hopping from question to question where you develop only a superficial understanding, then, yes, it is excessive.

I think this is a great answer.  If what you're doing makes you "overly curious" then I was too, and while I don't remember anyone commenting on it when I was a student it's come in rather useful as a teacher.  Looking back on my career I can't see how it's hurt me one little bit.  Just as has been mentioned twice here, don't let it get in the way of what's expected of you!

One quibble on point 2. I wouldn't go around telling people I was a polymath.  Like "genius", it is difficult to describe oneself as a "polymath" without seeming excessively arrogant.

@Corvus I know this is a matter of personal taste and cultural norms.  "Aspiring polymath" would be acceptable and not arrogant in the US.  That said, I find the obsession with avoiding arrogance to be off-putting.  I find it refreshing when someone says straight out: "I aim to do great things", if that is their true ambition.

I disagree with the notion that "aspiring polymath" is acceptable in the US academic culture.  The problem is that many people call themselves, and genuinely think they are, polymaths, when all they are is incompetent in many fields.
It's great to be a polymath.  It's best to show that you are one, rather than claiming to be one.  However, most people who think they are polymaths, are not; the original poster should be very careful that they are not deluding themselves.

Since I didn't have a very strong fundamental background in mathematics, I developed a habit of asking "why" behind every assumption made in any topic. For example: I had a 15 minute long discussion with my lab mate on why the sample event space for calculating probability consists of a null set and what does it mean.

The weak background in mathematics is the thing to do something about.  It can be a lot of fun, and productive, to ask questions.  But you do need to get enough of a foundation to be able to tell, most of the time, whether a question you have asked, or are thinking about asking, is a good one.
It will take some time to build up your mathematical foundation.  In the meantime, do me a favor.  Carry around a notebook in which you jot down all your questions.  Choose carefully the people you feel you trust enough to pose the more naïve questions to.  And don't overload those people.  I have a young friend who likes to interrupt whatever we are doing, to say, "A., may I ask you a question?"  I have learned the hard way that there is no point in saying, "Not right now, my friend, let's just finish such-and-so up first" -- because this makes zero difference.  He just asks me anyway, then and there.  But he's ten years old.  You can display a bit more self control than he can, I hope.
Here is a practical technique for keeping your number of questions down to a more manageable level: put three small, smooth stones in one pocket in the morning.  Each time you ask one of those iffy questions, the type that you're not sure whether it's going to get on someone's nerves, like the sample event space question, transfer one stone to the other pocket.  When you've transferred all three -- your quota is used up for the day.

Most people are probably (much) more driven by prestige and other social drives than you are. Engaging with them with your never ending flow of curiosity (which seems to be one of your strongest drives to work hard) will probably be quite tiresome or even annoying to them at least in the long run.
Just try and learn that you will need to curb your enthusiasm and curiosity around this category of people and try and identify the ones you can speak more openly about such things with. Sometimes these people who are more happy to discus curiosities can be outside of work or formal studies.
Maybe it can be good to follow the advice by @aparente001 to write down your questions for yourself to indulge in later or to save for talking with someone more compatible with your curious personality later.
Oh I forgot at least one obvious great forum for your curiosity: the other stack exchange sites! Maybe especially math.stackexchange if it is usually mathematical questions which raise your curiosity. You will need to learn to formulate your curiosity into well defined questions or maybe if you are OK just surfing around lots of other peoples questions and answers.

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Can publishing good peer reviewed scientific articles be seen as a part of good academic record?
I have this doubt inside my mind after graduating from my master's program. Can publishing high IF scientific articles be seen as a good academic record during masters. And will it be considered by the top world-class educational institutes to be a good academic record apart from having good marks in masters? I am asking this question as I wish to apply for technical masters and the scholarships for the same at world-class institutes.

Why are you asking? Are you looking to apply to a doctoral program or for some other reason?

Yes, only if you are the main author.  Such articles suggest you have the necessary skills to carry out high quality work.

Can it? Good publications are the main currency of academic achievement.

If you apply for a PhD position, and you already have articles that are published (or accepted for publication) in "high impact" journals or conferences, that is certainly a plus.
If you apply for a job, in many cases, the people who evaluate you have no appreciation of what academic research and publishing involves and what it means to have published. (Of course, there are many exceptions to this; such as highly technical engineering and science-related jobs.) However, they still might be impressed, so I would include it in my CV.


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What should I say about a publication that I have not contributed to?
I am currently an undergraduate student and I am applying for research Masters/PhD in the US. I joined a research group before to help out on a part of a project. My coworker in this group, a PhD student has published a paper afterwards, which is irrelevant to the work that I have done, but since I have worked in his group, I was added to the co-author in his paper. I did not ask for it, but anyway, I have the publication, and I have to mention it in my application.
My fear is that, if, during the interview, I was asked about the publication, should I just say that I did not contribute to it? I do not want to lie anyway, but would that hurt my previous research group since they have added irrelevant people to the paper?
I do not think it is uncommon to have a coauthor that is not relevant to a project in my country. However, I am a bit afraid if they would take it seriously in the US.

You say that you are applying to a Master/PhD program, but you also mention your research group advisor as your "[My] PhD advisor".  Is the person who runs the group you are helping out on the same person as who you hope will be your advisor?  If so, they probably believe they have done something that helps you.  If that's a bit of a typo, it's a very different, and possibly complicated, answer.  It may help for you to clarify those points, as well as to add your country and discipline so that people with more direct experience can write more direct advice.

Is it really irrelevant? Early in my career I was working in a lab where I was the ‘side project’. I wrote some low level data acquisition code that enabled the lab to get data off a scope faster. A side effect is the main project could get twice as much data, so I became a co-author on an early paper. Did I really contribute? Kind of?

If you did not contribute to the paper, I would just be up-front about that.  Firstly, telling the truth is the right thing to do, and will preserve your own integrity.  Secondly, it is unlikely to negatively affect your application, since any loss of value in your application from disclosure of not having contributed to that paper is likely to be cancelled out (or possibly even outweighed) by showing that you are a straight shooter.  Undergraduates are not generally expected to have contributed to publishable material upon entry into a postgraduate program.  For a prospective graduate student, it is much more important to have someone who is honest and candid, with appropriate undergraduate education and a hunger for learning.
Now, bear in mind that you probably shouldn't have been a co-author on that paper if you did not contribute, but I certainly don't think a selection panel would ever look negatively at an undergraduate for getting into that situation.  There are many researchers far more senior that yourself who have probably got themselves into a situation like that, and have never said anything.

Cut shortly, use it to your advantage, but be honest. If you're in the project, that means you should know the aims, tasks and problems of it. Even if you did not contribute to the article directly, experimental or literature research is still relevant and could be used by your colleagues. Try to figure out to see it clearly and be able to explain.
And of course if you include this publication to your CV, you should know as much as possible about the topic. That could be educational for you as an undergraduate.
Good luck!

If asked, OP can just mention that is convention in his group to put all group members as coauthors on all papers from the group. AFAIK this is reasonably common in some lab sciences. OP can then add that OP had little direct involvement with this paper but as you wrote should still have an idea what the paper is about.