text:
mistake in graduate application
I have submitted an phd application, and I made a made a mistake by instead of setting the degree conferral date to 2023, I did to 2022, can I send them an email they will give me a second chance to correct it?

It is probably going to be fine if you correct it. It may be obvious already that you made an error, given the date. And, for Fall 2023 admission, it isn't a material error.

Yes, absolutely. As a general rule, apologize and send out corrections as soon as the issue is discovered; do not waste anyone's time. If the issue is more complex and requires substantial work on your part, you may issue a notice first, but it is clearly not applicable here.


text:
applying to graduate school during the final year
I am applying to a graduate school in the USA, and they accept receiving an application during my final year in bachelor's. If I am given admission based only on the previous years of study, will the transcript of the final year, affect in any way after I finish the bachelors?

Your offer of a place may be conditional on maintaining a certain GPA, so your final year grades will affect this.

@astronat You re right!

Make sure you work hard to keep your GPA up then! Good luck with the applications.

Once you are accepted it is very unlikely that it would later be rescinded, except for serious breaches. But you won't do yourself any good if you give up your efforts. Your acceptance is probably contingent on successfully completing the bachelors, however. Don't jeopardize that.
On the other hand, don't start grad school in a state of burn out. You are only part way through the race.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Asking professor to provide feedback on academic articles?
I sent an email to a potential supervisor whether I fit for him, he said yes, then I replied whether he ll be able to provide feedback on a paper I am writing on a topic of his interest, he didn't reply, was that a good move from my side?

A paper like one you would write as an assignment for a class? Or a paper you intend to publish in a scientific journal?

a paper I intend to both publish in a journal and submit with the application as a writing sample. Remember, I am still a prospective student in the supervisor's eye!

"Remember, I am still a prospective student in the supervisor's eye!" Right, so I'm trying to understand why you are asking them to edit the writing you are working on and do work on your behalf. Don't you want to present polished material to someone who is evaluating your suitability?

I usually do not reply to such a request.  I do not commit to a student until they are enrolled.  No free labor!

@Prof.SantaClaus I really like that.

@BryanKrause Well, it's goes like this: I am a prospective student, I am interested in applying to your program, meanwhile, I am writing a paper to submit, if it is possible to do a favor for your potential student so he presents a good application. Prof. Santa argued against this, and I like that.

BUT, what I am asking is whether I left a bad impression by saying that?

On top of the previous, very relevant comments, I would add that just asking for feedback is a lazy way of initiating an interaction. A more engaging way would be one or two questions tailored to their expertise and interests.

Reviewing a scientific article for publication is time consuming. By asking a prospective supervisor to review your scientific article, you were asking him to take hours out of his or her busy day. The journal you are submitting to will have reviewers who are volunteers and will review your article.

Few people respond well to blind requests unless there is a previous relationship between the people.

@Buffy Right, that s true, but I what I am asking is whether I left a bad impression by saying that?

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


text:
How can French University (Master Coordinator) approve full-time internship that overlaps with classes for M1 student
I'm Currently a non-EU holding a Master degree in Physics and accumulating almost 2ys. of work experience. Getting closer to the EU market is hard; I was "brought" to France via a scholarship to study C.S. in a Master M1.
After receiving several internship offers, many of them to start asap, I noticed that all this great projects require the signature from the Master Coordinators.
Naturally, I've heard that the two coordinators appear to be reluctant to sign a contract that asks the student to participate in full-time projects, as formally he/she should supposedly be attending to class. The nature of this classes is 2hs per day, 4 days a week, and assistance is no taken into account so the courses can be passed by only attending to the final examination.
Relationship with Master coordinators appears to be good or at least normal. One of them was an active promoter of this scholarship, which somehow made them won my attention over other top EU Univs. The other is a sincere Jr. Researcher that does not answer any of the students emails, but in person is very polite and has attention to detail, and has more paperwork-experience than his colleague. I understand that in the capital of France the Universities are being 're-organized' and being Master Coordinators may be a valuable asset in their career.
They probably don't know it, but the economical situation in my country/family does not permit me to pursue what in France is called "M2", the second part of the program. Waiting one year more to be able to take full-time internships is to me unacceptable. I should produce money and send it back asap. Of course they might not need this information, so I haven't actively booked an appointment to tell them. In order to reach a stable regime of being employed full-time as soon as possible, I can see two paths.
(1) keep the smooth sailing until one of my applications to a full-time job requiring work-visa sponsorship succeeds, which has a probability unknown. Once that happens, proceed to (2) and tell the coordinators.
(2) sitting down with the Master Coordinators to have an honest talk.
The purpose of this question is to analyze the latter, and potentially save us all an awkward and unproductive moment. French Academy's bureaucracy seems at times very disorganized, but I shouldn't want to make a mistake when I conclude from that that it's probably also very flexible.
As I mentioned earlier, French internships require University Agreements, and I already have several offers that overlap to different extents with future courses. Regarding the honest talk, I should sit down with at least one of them (which? perhaps both), and explain (without any mention to personal issues, e.g. home-country, family situation) that I would like to participate in a full-time internship starting right now. I should explicitly mention that I will be able to pass the program while only going to the exams, thus they have my full commitment to pass the program and thus not affect their rating as Master Coordinators. They even may have thought until that moment that I'm a potential PhD candidate. Of course it would be to me an honour stop collecting the scholarship and live under the internship stipend, or even 'donating it to their department' if required.
I do have an asset to gift them. The Jr. Researcher + paperwork expert seems to be a low-frequency lonely publisher, but his colleague is very motivated and obviously could use more students working for him. His line is quite theoretical. As I have part-time experience in participating in research lines that lead to publications in peer-reviewed-journals, and even have plans for that during 2022, I have not yet informed him my intention to devote myself part-time to tackling one of his many ideas. This is in parallel with the program, 'for free', out of sole gratitude for having connected me with the scholarship. PhD candidates should be very lucky to have him as director. This is information he does not have and maybe could be put on the table, unconditionally, during the same discussion.
I do not understand the nature of their mandate as Master Coordinators, thus I don't understand to what extent my different verbal probes could insult them and/or the institution, but without further information I should default to (1) and do not produce them further inconvenience. A point of view from someone in an equivalent position, preferably in France, could be very useful. Thanks.

What you are proposing is in essence (even though it might not be legally speaking) a form of immigration fraud, a way to be allowed to work in France under false pretenses.  Many people would consider it unethical.  Personally I would consider it, but I think most immigration laws are themselves unethical.

I feel you are thinking way too much about all this, just ask them if it is possible? To me it seems like a simple question and there might be already regulations on this which the master coordinators should be able to answer.


text:
I am not getting response from any professors or industry. Is it end of the road for me?
I did in a PhD in mechanical engineering from a Canadian university on simulation of shot peening process. I collaborated with experimental groups from my department.
After graduating in January 2020, I joined my PhD lab as a postdoc for few months while I applied for positions. I published 4 papers (first authored), 2 co-authored.
It has been 12+ months and I am still working with my PhD advisor and on a related topic. I have submitted 2 papers (2 first authored).
Now, after renewing my contract for another year, I am about to work on a different topic and in collaboration with experimental groups from other university and industry but same advisor.
As I am open for a life in both academia and industry, I have been applying for other postdoc positions and industrial positions. I apply to positions like 3D printing and simulations of selective laser melting process which is different than my research experience so far but I work with same numerical method (Finite element method).
Also, I apply for industry jobs as finite element researcher, engineer.
Till now, I have contacted 30 professors and  20 industrial positions. I received just 1 response from professor saying he will contact me if gets a grant approved. And I got 2 response from industry, one rejected after first interview and second position with an invitation for C++ coding assessment test. I am not proficient with C++ as I work with Matlab and a bit with python. I would fail the test.
Apart from these, I don't have any other leads. I have to continuie with my current postdoc, but am afraid that I won't get any other positions in the future due to lack of openings.
Where do I go from here? I like my research field, but I don't think I am cut out for it as proved by the lack of job offers. Is this the end of the road?
Please advise.

One possibility (amongst many others) is that your background and skills are fine, but your application materials are not up to scratch. Can you get some informed feedback on your CV, cover letters, etc? Note that these should probably look different between industry and academia - so you may need multiple sources of feedback. If you don't have appropriate contacts, there may be a university careers counselling service. Failing that, there are plenty of commercial careers coaching services (with doubtless a wide spectrum of quality).

It's hard to imagine an actual end of "all" roads for a mechanical engineer with a PhD. This may or may not be the end of some specific roads (I really don't know enough about your field to be able to tell), but I cannot possibly imagine that all reasonable career paths are closed for you. Maybe what this mostly means is that you need to look more broadly (topic-wise or geography-wise)?

With regard to the nonacademic position a different angle is that your skills are top notch but not in demand. Companies making use of of finite element computations typically rely on off the shelf software these days. Not all, government labs would be exceptions, but I imagine there are not nearly as many opportunities as when your advisor was in grad school. So maybe look there or at the large and small software vendors? Inexperience in coding is a gap for you at the moment. Best of luck!

Are you mainly sending applications into the void of automated systems? Or are you contacting people and asking advocates to contact them on your behalf?

What does your advisor think about your prospects of finding a job elsewhere? Did they suggest a particular course of action as suitable for you?

In short: not knowing you or your life's goals, it is hard to make an assessment, and it is surely impossible to give an objective assessment. So the answers will be opinion-based, even from people claiming to be absoulutely objective.
It looks you are still comfortable with your time in the academia, you are open to both worlds ("life in both academia and industry"), which is not a good thing, in terms of employment in the private world, it is often perceived from the other side as "the candidate does not know what he/she wants, he is just waiting for an opening in the academia" and therefore your application ends quickly in the "let's get back to this later, i.e. never" folder.
This even if you do not express it explicitly, the fact that you are still employed by the uni usually raises red flag for many recruiting.
Formally, it looks like you have a strong academic CV, but it is time to be independent, which means to gather your own funds (for example this Canadian fellowship https://banting.fellowships-bourses.gc.ca/ ) and to perform some research without the influence/guidance/support/involvement of your advisor.
Please note that the +-4 years contract (and associated safety of your position) you had during your PhD is the most stable position you could have had in Academia, apart from being a full professor, which may happen at the earliest some 15 years from now.
So the insecure feeling you have about academic positions, fundings etcetc in the Academia is quite common (not that I approve, but it is beyond the individual possibilities to change this). Either you:

embrace it, looking for academic/research opportunities all over the world, both in terms of open positions and grants applications;
you escape it by working independently as a consultant, or finding an industry position you like.

Final note regarding academic applications: professors are not answering to you. Why? you are very expensive, with the funding of a postdoc they can have 2 PhDs, so PostDocs positions are rare, and if they are available there is not much time to be spent thinking on it, there will be an (official) opening and it will be filled as fast as possible and with as less efforts as possible. But professor will welcome the opportunity to have more fundings, so if you ask support in writing applications for grants and external fundings you will see a better response ratio.

"with the funding of a postdoc they can have 2 PhDs" I would question whether this is universally true. E.g., in my German university, the pay gap between PhDs and PostDocs is rather negligible; definitely not a factor of two.

@jhin I agree with your point. In biomedical PhD programs in the United States, it is common that the PI foots the bill for both the student stipend and tuition. This can be equal to or even exceed the cost of a PostDoc salary. In terms of papers published per dollar spent, PostDocs are often the better investment, especially considering that PhD students often have other obligations, e.g. classes and teaching.

@jhin they finally stopped offering same TVöD to a phd and to a postdoc position, but the former having a 50% position and the latter a 100% position? Thanks God/Allah/Buddah/mighty lobster/... !

This is a long comment rather than an answer. TL DR: you should not be pessimistic about your ability. Probably your job-search strategy need some improvements.
I am not so familiar with your field but your publication record sounds promising. So it is definitely not an end of road for you. People don't hire you for many reasons unrelated with your ability, for example, the funding are cut during COVID.
Many students and posdoc find a good job because of the connection of their advisor or their department. So if I am you, I will ask my advisor or current supervisor to introduce me to other groups.
In many cases, joining a group is not a jump, but a smooth transition. First you might want to discuss some general research ideas with the PIs or senior posdocs in another group. Then, if mutual interests are there, you could start some mild, informal collaboration, and then do a presentation in their group. If the is interested in your idea, you might be joining their regular group meeting, and a job offer might soon follow.
Same ideas hold for an industrial job. You advisor introduces you to a company for an internship. And if the company likes you, you will have a job offer later.

Frankly, but with due respect, it seems to me your impression of the prescience and influence of an advisor outside of academia is ... a bit of wishful thinking.

@Aruralreader Of course, I have no complete information on this. I can only interpolate form the limited data points I have. Most if not all of my close friends find industrial jobs thanks to their advisors or department. Furthermore, many professors have industrial funding so it is easy for them to prove that you are useful for a specific company. If you have a larger sample size, you are more than welcome to share it.

Ah @HighGPA, very sporting of you.


text:
Should I leave this PhD and start another one? Would I be in trouble?
I am currently doing a fully funded PhD in a European country. I just finished my first year. The topic is ok but i dont feel very passionate about it. I dont feel i connect with the topic even though my supervisor is a nice person. the uni is depressing and i feel lonely. Both me and my partner do not really like the country we are living in.
I have another PhD offer from a better uni, in another country( i have close friends there) and in a field that i care much more about. The immigration status after graduating is also very important for me and in this country, i would have easier and faster ways of becoming a permenant resident.
I am very tempted to leave my current PhD and go for the second option. However, i have just finished my first year here, have been getting paid and my supervisor has been putting time and energy into helping me. I feel awkward talking to him about leaving and dont know how he would react.
What should i do? it is a very difficult decision for me. I am also worried my current supervisor would get angry and try to destroy my academic reputation. I know the funding i currently have is very generous and my supervisor worked hard to secure it for me. Im just simply not happy with what I am doing and where I am living...

"I am also worried my current supervisor would get angry and try to destroy my academic reputation." Do you have this fear based on previous vindictive behaviour of his? Have others suffered at his hand in this way? If not, I would not worry about this happening. Most academics behave professionally and would be pleased to see you moving somewhere you will be happier.

It seems that the offer provides several advantages over your current position. Thus, it is a good idea to move. Just make sure to explain clearly to your supervisor why you are leaving so that s/he could understand your decision. Try to stay in good terms. Also, if you can tell your supervisor a little bit in advance that you will leave and if you can finish the work that you are doing (e.g. writing a paper or doing an experiment) before leaving (if not too long), your supervisor may appreciate that. It is possible that your supervisor may be mad a you for leaving but it should not stop you from doing it because in this end, you want to do a PhD for yourself.

Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would just be upfront about it with my advisor. It seems very clear from the text that moving to the other country would benefit you immensely and I believe that your advisor would both see and appreciate that.
I have a question for you however - how come you got another PhD offer while you were on the verge of finishing up your first year? Was the whole thing postponed or were you actively searching for PhDs in the mean time? If the latter is true, then once again - you should definitely move.

The comment of astronat is good. Most people would support you.
But there is more. If you are happier, then you will probably do better work. Being in something that you aren't happy with is not good place to be.
If there is any sort of retaliation it would be, I think, short lived and can be overcome. Other than lying, the person has no real way to say you are not suitable for academia.
Everything seems positive about the switch, both personally and professionally.
But, it would be worth the effort, unless you have contrary evidence, to have a conversation with your advisor giving two messages. First that you are happy with their guidance, but have both personal and professional reasons for a move. They may be disappointed, but that seldom results in harmful action. Clean up joint work before you go, of course.


text:
How long do the Marie Curie IF grant results take to come out?
I submitted a Marie Curie postdoc fellowship at the beginning of September and as of now (Jan) I have not heard back —I have checked the ECAS portal. The website does not give a single Gantt chart or time frame ironically. So I would like to know how long have people waited?
I am also wonder if a long wait is a possible hint of rejection, like with jobs. Has anyone got a feeling that this is case?
I know there is a accepted, reserve, rejected list, which would suggest that this isn't the case.

The Guide for applicants says that information on the outcome of the evaluation will be available in February 2016. For reference: I applied in the previous round (the timeline was the same give or take a few days) and received a notice that the proposal was approved in the beginning of February. There was no communication before that, so I wouldn't read anything into that.

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


text:
Is it appropriate to 'build up' your findings in a paper?
I'm working on a Mathematics paper at the moment, and my first finding was fairly specific. The next finding generalised the first finding, and my third finding generalised my second finding.
My first and second findings are therefore just special cases of my third finding, but they are still significant.
Is it appropriate for me to write all 3 findings in the paper and build upwards from the first, including the proofs for the the 1st and 2nd finding and generalising as we go, or should I just include the 3rd finding only, and point out afterwards that there are a couple of significant special cases that follow from it (namely finding 1 and finding 2)?
(Although including all 3 findings would lengthen the paper, I also feel that it would provide more of an insight into how I found result 3, rather than just mysteriously producing it from scratch.)

Ask your adviser. The details you’re giving are much too vague, it is unrealistic to expect that anyone could give you good advice based on just that. Basically the best way to present your findings could vary greatly based on the specific context, proof details, what’s already known etc, so there isn’t going to be a generic answer that fits all situations of this type.

@DanRomik I am still in high school, so I have no advisor :-( Sorry for being vague, I didn't realize, what further information  would you like me to include?

I don’t think more detail would help, unless it’s a level of detail that isn’t suitable for this site. My advice is to find a professional mathematician you can show your work to, and ask for their advice.

@DanRomik isn't there a risk of plagiarism in that?

I can’t say. But even if so, working in isolation carries its own risks, which are likely greater. Talking to active researchers could save you many months of working on things that are trivial/already known/nominally new but not interesting/etc.

@DanRomik I see, thank you very much for your help.

Either way could be made to work, but consider:
If the proof methods of the three are essentially the same, then the first way would be boring (possibly).
But if the second builds on the first (etc) by using different insights and methodologies, then the first way might well be superior.
Don't just consider the progression of results but of the progression of proofs and, especially, insights, that get you to the final result.
And if the latter is the case, make sure you emphasize those insights. They might (and often do) lead to developing other ideas.

Thank you for your advice; my paper fits into the first category, so the proofs are almost identical, just progressively more complex (by a small amount) each time.


text:
How to structure a proof by induction in a maths research paper?
I am 16 years old at the time of writing (so I have no supervisors to seek advice from) and I have written a mathematics research paper, which I plan on submitting to a journal for publication.
For a couple of the assertions that I make, I use proofs by induction. Now, in school we're encouraged to write proofs by induction in the following (rigid) format:
Base case:...
Assumption(s):...
Inductive step:...
Conclusion:...
I have noticed that no research articles that I have seen have written proofs by induction using this sort of format. The authors usually make it flow much more smoothly, eg 'For the base case, the result is trivial. Now assume the result holds for some $n=k$, so that... Now consider the expression for $n=k+1$...and by the inductive hypothesis this equals...hence the result is true by mathematical induction.'
So, is it good practice to write proofs by induction in the pretty rigid structure I first outlined or is it ok/better to write the proofs more naturally so that it flows better?
Thank you for your help.

Who is your audience? Others like yourself or professionals?

@Buffy I hope on the audience being professionals, but if a professional journal won't publish it then I'll probably put it on the arXiv.

You should get a mentor who can help you learn mathematical customs.

Let me urge restraint on the close votes. The age of the OP is not material to the question.

This question is more suitable for math.stackexchange or mathoverflow.

Note also that papers often have length limits, and the community has naturally evolved into writing proofs in the most compact way that is still clear and unambiguous.

@AnonymousPhysicist how do I get a mentor?

I closed this question because it's about the content of a discipline and not about the workings of the academic world. Moreover, you have now asked the same question on MathOverflow. In general, asking duplicate questions across the network is not forbidden, but discouraged. and duplicate questions are typically accepted only if the question are sufficiently targeted at the individual characteristics of the sites, which is not the case here.

@MassimoOrtolano I completely understand. I asked the question on MO as I was advised to by members if this community, but I didn't delete the one here as answers had already been written.

@A-LevelStudent They gave you the right advice, and no need to delete this one.

As you probably have observed by now, by reading articles, people generally do not write steps down explicitly when those steps are considered "obvious." This trend is not special to proofs by induction.
In fact, this is true at any level, but what is considered "obvious" to an audience of people holding a PhD or with significant progress towards a PhD is different from what is "obvious" to someone taking first year calculus.
Think about it this way: people reading research articles know math quite well already. What they are interested in is what is new in your paper; demonstrating "obvious" facts is just a distraction. And, if you are at the stage where you will read several papers in a week, you generally want those papers to get to the point.
For people who are learning math, it's entirely different: you're probably only reading 1 textbook at a time, and the whole thing is new to you. So, you want everything explained in lots of detail because you've never seen it before. But again, if you're reading a calculus book, you probably don't need an explanation on solving a quadratic; you already know that. If you're learning induction, you want it spelled out; if you've seen proofs by induction ten thousand times, you don't need it spelled out for you.
Since you are a bit new to this, I would like to give some more examples about how proofs by induction are typically structured in upper undergraduate/graduate/research levels. Now, when it comes to proofs by induction, there are generally two categories: proofs where the induction step is "obvious" and proofs where the base-case is "obvious." Sometimes both are easy, but it's very rare in my experience to find a proof by induction where both the base case and the induction step require a lot of work to prove.
I suppose on the rare instance where both the base case and the induction step are non-obvious, I might split the proof into two lemmas or possibly I would call these "claims." In every other case, I write statements such as "the base case is trivial" or "the general case (the induction step) follows by induction."
I would also point out that there are even times where a proof will "prove" something by induction without the author ever writing that induction is being used. For instance:

Let f(n + 1) = 2f(n) and f(0) = 1. Then f(n) = 21 f(n - 1) = 22 f(n - 2) = . . . = 2k f(n - k) = . . . = 2n.

Induction is being used implicitly within the ellipses, but it hasn't been written explicitly so. I, personally, like to write "by induction" at the end of such a statement, but not everyone does.
I think your intuition of generally following how other people write mathematics is appropriate. You can deviate slightly, sure, but it's also good to understand why things are written the way they are and so it is great that you are asking this question.

Thank you very much for your detailed and clear answer, I really appreciate it!

If you are writing for professionals, then the paper, itself, should probably conform to what you have seen in print. That is, a more natural written style.
But, for your own work, an outline form may be best in the early stages so that you have more confidence that you don't miss something and that each piece of the puzzle is complete and correct.
I think the reasons for your teacher's suggestions is just that. Make sure you get it all and make sure you get it right. Then, the expository form for a paper can be extracted from your outline.

A note you might consider for the future. Once you write something technical it can be very difficult to proof read it. This is because you mind seems to read what you think you wrote, rather than what you did write. In other words, you "see" what you "expect to see". Thus, a formal, outline version can help you keep everything straight so that you can examine it more carefully, not "reading ahead" and thus missing something important.

Thank you very much for your sound advice. I think you have answered every single one of my questions here on Academia.SE! Truly amazing. As a side point, I've been advised on Academia.SE more than once to get myself a mentor to help me; do you have any idea how I'd go about doing that? My Maths teachers have no useful contacts for me.

I don't have many ideas unless you are in a place close to a university. Much more complicated with the pandemic, but making a visit used to be possible for people trying to learn beyond their age level.


text:
What format do scientific research papers use?
I was wondering what kind of association format scientific researchers use to publish their work/papers. Is it MLA or APA? Which is more commonly used? If I wanted to write a research paper, on, say, quantum physics, what format should I utilize? Thanks.

Use a citation manager tool to write your papers. Using a tool like this, you just store meta data (author list, title, year, journal name, etc) about the sources you are citing and the software puts placeholders in your document that link to this meta data. There are options for both LaTeX (which I'd suggest especially if you're writing in a math/equation-heavy area) and "Microsoft Word"-style applications.
When you're ready to submit for publishing, you'll choose the style of the journal you plan to submit to and it will format the in-text citations for you and add a references list at the end of your document automatically.
Often journals aren't using one of the "standard" guides like MLA or APA (I have never encountered any "standard" format in any journal I've ever submitted to), but rather their own pet format (which might be similar but not identical to one of those). Hopefully they'll provide authors with a file that citation managers understand that describes their format, but some journals don't and you'll have to do your own; even then, it's still a lot easier than manually formatting everything. When your paper gets rejected and you have to resubmit it somewhere else, you'll reformat everything to the new journal.

"I have never encountered any "standard" format in any journal I've ever submitted to" I expect that journals run by the APA or MLA use the APA or MLA reference style, just like journals run by the IEEE use the IEEE reference style. Of course, if you're not publishing in one of their areas of interest (psychology, English language education, and electrical engineering, respectively), you might not publish in their journals.


text:
Europe Etiquette : Should I reply to a reply?
When asking a question to a professor, I wonder if I should reply to his answer if I have no other questions with "Thank you for your kind answer professor". I guess this is the polite thing to do but with covid-19, I know professors are overwhelmed with mails from student and I am wondering if I am expected to systematically thank them for their replies to my questions or does it just bother them with extra-mails in their mailbox ?
Also, I am in a master student in an European university where there is a high hierarchical gap between students and professors.

You're overthinking this.

a good rule of thumb is that professors are people

It is very unlikely that they will bear a grudge against you for sending them an email, but very likely that they will appreciate a "thank you" message which acknowledges their response.

Thank you for all your answers.

I'm here in the US, so I can't speak to how things work in Europe.  But here, I get lots of emails that require answers, which often take time.  When a student says, thank you but doesn't require any further response, I appreciate it.  YMMV.

Thank  you for your answers !


text:
Quick publication in a good journal VS long fight to publish in a very prestigious journal. What's more impactful at the beginning of a career?
I'm the first author of an article which, according to my advisor, has some chance of being published in the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. This however would probably entail a long peer review process and possibly waiting for months just to get rejected. A different option would be to send the article to a weaker, but still good journal and probably publish it there quickly.
Normally I'd go first for the harder option and only then try the easier one. I am however still doing my MSc and this would only be my second article, where in the first one I'm the fourth author. Therefore having a publication in a good journal would be a big improvement to my current CV and it would boost my chances of receiving a profitable scholarship next year, i.e. it could mean high short-term benefits. On the other hand, a publication in the prestigious journal could make my CV stronger in the long run and serve as a large benefit in future stages of my career that I may not be fully aware of just now.
Now, I know that put this way my question is too subjective. Let me therefore rephrase it: what is more impactful on one's scientific career, especially at the beginning (even before starting a PhD): having more publications in decent journals, or one or two but in really reputable ones?

Does your supervisor have a good track record in IEEE Trans. on Info Theory?  If not, then you may be wasting your time.  To answer your question, of course a publication in top journals would open more doors. However, your assumption that your article would definitely be accepted by a reputable journal is flawed.

Of course, as I wrote, there's a big chance that we'd just end up waiting for months and then get rejected. Regarding track record - surely it should be possible to publish there without one, based only on the quality of the work?

You can publish there without one.  However, your chances will be higher if your supervisor knows the quality level.  Every community has its culture, and you need to be aware of that.

Given that you aren't yet in a doctoral program and so have some time left in your student career, a long review process doesn't seem like a huge issue. Normally I'd give the old advice "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
Even being under a long review by a top journal is a plus and you can point to it for most purposes.
No one can predict however and you take some chances either way. Nobody guarantees quick review or eventual success. Nobody serious or honest, anyway.
If your advisor thinks it is a top quality article, then that is probably good advice.


text:
Modern replacement for slides in presentations?
In academia we do a lot of presentations, it is the way we show our work to colleages. (I am a PhD in physics.) This is usually done with the help of slides (PDF, PowerPoint, etc). A slides presentation is basically a collection of images. Sometimes there are fancy animations (like the case of Prezi or its open source version Sozi, or even with PowerPoint) but in the end the concept of a slide is tied to an image. After the animation has passed, you end up in a static image to show to the audience and explain your stuff. And this, in fact, goes against a continuum and natural presentation, you are obliged to split your talk in slides which are discrete. (Maybe this is why slides have not replaced the even more old-school blackboard.)
I feel that this is an archaic way of presenting our work based on what our ancestors did on the past century using projectors, for example, because technology allowed to do that. Nowadays our slides are made and projected 99.99999 % of the times in a computer and, instead of exploiting all they can do, we are replicating an old fashioned way of presenting stuff using slides.
So, consider for example this plot which is interactive, you can zoom in, pan, see the values on hover the mouse, show/hide traces, etc. You cannot embed this plot in a typical slides presentation in PDF format. If you go to PowerPoint or something like this, you may have a chance (I doubt) but the result is barely portable between different platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, etc). Even if you make it, all these solutions still have the concept of a slide as a building block which, as I said, breaks the continuity and introduces a complication.
Furthermore, try to see slides on a cell phone, it is a pain!
So my question is: What is out there to replace the old-school slides?
I think that something with the format of a website that is self contained in a single HTML file would be the perfect next step, because it is super cross platform and as far as I know you can embed almost whatever you want (text, equations, images, videos, audios, interactive stuff, etc), you can open it with any browser in any device, you can put it online, etc. The plot in this link is an example of what I say, it is a single HTML file that you can open with any (modern) browser, and can be easily embedded in websites. And the size adapts to the screen so you can see it nicely on your cellphone too.
My inspiration for this question came after seeing this presentation by a guy which made a website instead of slides. As you can see, the plots are all interactive, for example. The pros: It can do all I want, the cons: It is not a single HTML file that you can download and save/share, you need hosting, etc. Is there an easy way to build something like this and end up with a single and self-contained HTML file?

You can convert a jupyter notebook into html, and it looks to me that the example you link to was created that way. See here: https://medium.com/@mjspeck/presenting-code-using-jupyter-notebook-slides-a8a3c3b59d67

The whole premise here is wrong.  Presentations do not consist of images because that's what archaic presentation software does.  Presentations consist of non-interactive images and speech because that is what presentation audiences want/expect.  If the audience wanted a web page, they would have gone to a web page instead of a presentation.  And in fact, that's how most scientific communication is done now - web pages and PDFs.

Just to add to what @astronat said, a Juptyer notebook complied into slides should be able that animated and interactive vizulations embedded in them, which should allow you to explore the data in real-time with the audience.  However, consider carefully what Anonymous Physicist said - In general an audience wants to be guided to the conclusion, rather than be told they have to find it for themselves. So a visualization should be tailored to make a specific point, rather than just show data.

The point of a presentation aide is to help you tell a story. You can/should use all the tools you want necessary to tell a story. But there doesn't seem to be a technological issue with the currently used tools you are describing. For example, if you want to zoom into a plot you can record the animation/video and play it back at the correct position of your presentation. This needs to be premeditated, but any good story telling needs to be planned carefully ahead of time...

The gold standard for use of visual aids in a presentation, to my mind, is Hans Rosling's use of Gapminder. If you're presenting statistical information, this may work for you.

The best replacement for "old-school slides," I've found, is the more old-school approach of writing things by hand, either with markers on paper captured with a document camera, or writing with a stylus on a screen. (I prefer the former.) Even in formal seminars, I've taken to writing more in "real time," which many people have commented positively on. We're not machines; we react with remarkable sympathy to the cadence of human-delivered speech and spontaneous writing that appears at the speed of human processing.

This approach is as good as presenter's handwriting. But Dr's and MD's are notoriously known for their illegible scribbles.

@DmitrySavostyanov Any technique can be done badly...

Sure, but clear handwriting appears to be something a vast number of academics are particularly not good at.

Many times I have felt the same, that maybe writing on a blackboard for example makes it better than slides. However, this may be better for theorists than experimentalists. When you want to show a plot from a measurement you need "quantitative plots" and doing this by hand may take some time. Maybe a combination of handwritten and something like a website is a good approach.

@user171780 . I use slides for graphs and photos (whose details I don't want people to worry about), switching between the slides and a document camera.

I'm curious what you think a class taught by "an experimentalist" (like me) is like. I would hope that  classes taught by anyone show graphs of real data, and certainly my biophysics classes are packed with theory -- it's not like we stare at microscopy movies for 90 minutes.

For "markers on paper captured with a document camera" substitute the far simpler option of writing on blank acetates, if you can find anywhere that still has an old-school acetate projector.

It seems to me you want to overload your presentation with information, and distract the attendees rather than use your presentation time to convey a simple message.
There’s a reason why “old school slides” are still in use: they work (at least the good ones do).
There are ways of making presentations more interactive: like writing on the slides in real time, or asking questions on the slides.
Of course, some of the better speakers actually do not use slides at all: check out this wonderful video of Patrick Winston on how to speak to a large audience.  Admittedly public speaking is a gift that not everybody has, but it is amazing what this guys does without much technology.

Replacement taken not so literally might just mean altering the way you use preexisting tools rather than using completely different ones.
This TED talk was pretty influential on me.
The premise is most presentations fall flat because the slides people write split the attention of the audience. People will put slide counts. (This guy is boring, but at least we are on slide 15/20...) And add too many words and plots per slide.  All of this takes away from the effectiveness of the presentation.

For another TED example, see Hans Rosling's speeches. He's used both physical props and a stats package to present.

Grant Sanderson, the man behind the popular 3blue1brown math videos, wrote his own open source Python library to produce mathematical animations. You may be interested in that.

Consider asking yourself a question: why do you need sides?
Instead of trying to find a technical solution (what to replace them with), ask a more conceptual questions first.

Can your message be communicated without any slides, as a simple story?
Can you read a lecture by simply talking about your subject for an hour, and complete it with lecture notes or handouts provided for the audience?
And when you are using the slides, what role do they play?

Do they hold information, essential for your audience to see during your talk?
Do they summarise the main points you made to keep the structure?
Or perhaps they provide emotional dimension for your narrative, by showing pictures and illustrations related to your main message?

Depending on the answers, you will then find a specific solution for your needs. Many of them are already listed in other answers.


text:
Assignment due dates
Last term I taught a large undergraduate course. I had assignments (online) due a week after we finish a chapter. There were two minor problems with this. The first was that I had to deal with students who enrolled one, two or even three weeks into the term and gave them extensions of the first several assignments, which involved logging into the website, finding the student, setting his/her new deadline and answering the student email. Secondly for some of the chapters that take more time than others, some students would bombard me with requests for extensions. So I am thinking of adopting a different method next time. Specifically, I plan to divide the 12 chapters into 4 modules with 3 chapters in each. Each module has a deadline for all 3 chapter assignments. I am hoping this would give students more flexibility on their time management, and have a little more time working on those long assignments. It also saves me from handling those extension requests because of late registration or others. The potential peril I can think of is that some students may not start on the assignments until the last minutes and it would be very difficult to crash 3 assignments within a short time. I would appreciate other thoughts on the pros and cons of this method.

I took a class this semester where the prof had 'slip days' where every student had the same number of 'slip days' that they could use on any of the assignments but there was the same number for the whole course. So if you have three slip days you could spend one on the first assignment and hand it in one day late with no penalty and still have 2 more to spend on future assignments. This helped take a lot of the pressure off of a hard deadline while letting you know that it still needs to get submitted as soon as possible.

@GenericJam: I tried "late says" for a year and found it impossible to manage, even for classes of 35-40.  Except for the first assignment, you have to set due dates individually, depending upon how many late days have been used, or allow everyone to submit assignments late, but some won't get credit because their late days are gone.  They'll whine.  Now I say, "Due means due."  The online system will not accept assignments after the due date, and I do not accept work by email or on paper.

Don't slip on deadlines.  Tell up front that due dates are unchangeable, and stick to it.  In the rare case of death and other calamities, use the schools normal system for getting dispensations.

It's been a while since I attended a university, but none of my professors were so liberal with extensions. One tactic that might reduce the number of extension requests you get would be to stop granting extensions except in the most extreme cases. Students will learn that there's no point in asking for an extension unless they really need one.

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen: I tell students I won't hold them to the deadlines if they're dead.

@BobBrown Was thinking more of death in the family.  You may want to add a note on becoming a zombie.

I would recommend not batching up assignments to a common deadline, because that makes it even more challenging for students to manage their time properly. If someone waited to the last minute on an assignment in the prior regime, now they'll be waiting until the last minute on 3 assignments and be in even worse shape -- compounded by the mental effort in prioritizing which one they should work on first. Under the original regime, they have more opportunities to engage in this cycle and get feedback on how their study skills work for them.
My response to these types of problems is to have a blanket policy of dropping a certain number of grades from consideration; for example, in my classes, there are 12 weekly online quizzes, and the lowest 3 are dropped for each student at the end of the course. There are absolutely no makeups or past-due work allowed for any reason, which massively clears out my own time (absolutely no chasing students or managing late work after my grading process is completed). Plus, the "drop N grades" is automatically supported by the Blackboard management system.
In my classes, I don't give any special allowances to students who first show up later in the semester (but this may vary for your institution). I had a student join my class in the 2nd meeting last week, and he had already missed the first quiz submission; he asked "Can I make that up?", and the answer was simply, "No", and being pointed to the syllabus for the drop allowance, which in the years I've been using it has always been accepted quite gracefully. In my opinion, it's the most efficient use of your time as an academic.

Thanks. Your comments are very helpful. I like your approach of writing the no-make-up policy into the syllabus combined with dropping some lowest scores. Believe it or not, I actually did think that it is my obligation (and to be fair) to give extension to students who join the class late because the university keeps registration open for the first several weeks and some students in the waiting list do not have chance to get in until someone withdraws.

"students who join the class 1-3 weeks into the semester (frankly, that's just crazy for a student to think that's feasible)" - the OP does not specify whether this is the case here, but especially in first semesters of admission-restricted majors, it is quite common for people to join only after the first few weeks because of the waiting list issue @sismin mentioned in their comment. I agree it is crazy, but it is rarely the student's fault in this situation, and rather that of uni administration.

The enrollment 1-3 weeks into the semester happens in at least one of my classes (a semester) as well - particularly when I moved to graduate work. This is also due mostly to wait-lists and lab cancellations or other issues forcing class changes

@O.R.Mapper When my classes are full, I require students who cannot register but want to take the class to submit homework, just as if they were already registered. Even for students that add late, their first few homeworks count, they were still due on their original deadline, and I do not give extensions, ever. (But like Daniel, I drop each student's N lowest homework scores, for some small value of N.)

I lightly edited the 3rd paragraph to account for different institutional policies on late registrations. At our institution, there's only a 1-day period for possible added and dropped classes when the semester starts. It was good for me to see these comments about wait lists possibly being used as 3 weeks in (which itself seems crazy to me), as I was unfamiliar with policies like that.

@JeffE: I see some practical obstacles as students who aren't registered yet might not have access to the online systems for homework submission. These can be worked around with some extra work by the lecturer, though. The more important issue, however, is that students are possibly on several waiting lists and probably have already started attending classes for another major/at another university until they get admitted to their first-choice major at their first-choice university. They probably cannot do homework for all classes from all majors they are on waiting lists for at a time.

@O.R.Mapper students are possibly on several waiting lists --- I've never seen that happen to the extreme you're describing, but even if it does happen, I don't see how it's the instructor's problem. (If you're admitted to the major in the middle of the term, start taking those classes next term.)

@JeffE: If every instructor went that route, wouldn't that mean the student cannot take any classes during their first semester? Also, some classes have restrictions such as "must be passed before the end of the third semester" and are offered only once a year, so not taking the class in the first semester means not studying. As that is probably not the intended result by uni administration when admitting the student, this seems like a disagreement exclusively between the instructor and uni administration. If a student who fulfils the admission requirements cannot be admitted but has to ...

... be put on a waiting list because university resources are not sufficient to admit everyone who fulfils the requirements, I find it hard to blame the student for that. If the student is admitted with a delay due to their own failure, e.g. because they submitted their documents late, it is of course a very different case, and I would find your policy quite reasonable.

wouldn't that mean the student cannot take any classes during their first semester? — Only if the university is stupid enough to require completely different classes for every major (as opposed to all STEM majors taking calculus, physics, and chemistry, for example) and restrict enrollment in those required classes to current majors.

@O.R.Mapper And I'm not blaming the student.  I'm setting limits—with both the student and the university—on how flexible I'm willing to be as an instructor.

@JeffE: Mathematics classes are indeed sometimes individually adapted to each single STEM major (and physics and chemistry are not part of the curriculum for most STEM majors in my place), but that may be location-specific and indeed not problematic if these classes are not admission-restricted. However, most importantly "restrict enrollment in those required classes" tells me you are referring to enrollment per class. In all of my comments here, I am referring to enrollment into a major as a whole. Of course, different options exist for issues about enrollment into a class, which does ...

... does not even have to involve university administration at all. Under that changed premise, your initial suggestion seems viable.

In your case, I'd try a larger number of smaller assignments, spreading the work out rather than bunching it up.  Your grading load doesn't change, but the students can manage their time more easily.  Put "due means due" in the syllabus and set a hard cut-off in the learning management system.
No matter what you do, the poor students will wait until the last minute, turn in rushed work, and earn poor grades.  Like you, I have a desire to help such students, but I haven't found anything that works.  By having more assignments, each one is worth less, and perhaps some students will learn after the first couple of rushed assignments earn bad grades.
For students registered late, which is really a different problem, set a time from registration date by which they must be caught up, put it in the syllabus, and set the LMS to enforce it, which you can probably do easily on an individual basis.
Be sure to see my comment on "late days."  It's a comment to the original question.

Anecdote: Last semester I tried encouraging students not to procrastinate by allowing extra credit for assignments turned in six or more hours before the due date and time.  Didn't work.  The people who were going to earn grades of A anyway got the extra credit and a few others turned in hastily-completed work for which the extra credit was little help.

As a current engineering student, third year, I would be rather wary of the idea of grouping all the assignments together under a common due date. Especially if, the course in which this takes place is a first or second year course. This is because younger students often manage their time rather poorly.
As Daniel R. Collins noted, attempting 3 assignments the night before their due date can be a discouraging experience and yield dismal results. I would also add that, as a Prof, you should set the timetable and not the students. It is very annoying to see a lenient teacher extend a deadline because a student is not on time. Especially so, if said student is behind because they are not working on the assignment and is using their time for other activities. After all, part of the skills one is to develop through a bachelor degree is time management.
Lastly, you should check either with your faculty or department if they have a late work policy, if so you should reference it in the syllabus, if not get them to establish one.

I've tried both methods for our introductory classes.  To be honest, I haven't seen very much difference.  The students who will wait until the end to do all three sections are going to be the ones that will wait until the end to do each individual section.  In all cases, you're getting rushed work that they're likely to hand in late, except that they're spreading their work out (better learning, mayhaps) but sending you more e-mails, or they're cramming their work but sending you less e-mails.
To help them with time management, you could give them estimated completion times.  Even if they're much faster or slower than the estimate, they can figure the others out relatively speaking after doing one or two ("Professor said section 2 takes two hours and section 3 takes four hours.  I did section 2 in only an hour so I can probably do section 3 in two hours").
To avoid the e-mail bombardment, I'd consider instead just instituting a general late policy.  It could be one that slowly penalizes more (so that one day late = 10/20% off, two days = 20/40%), or a one-off decrease (50% off), but they key is to balance it: too punitive, and they'll still e-mail you, too easy, and they'll take too much advantage of it.  Or you could say "I will permit one module to be handed in up to X days late".

As others have already given good answers for the 1-3 week late admissions problem (dropping lowest grades and/or a blanket reduction of points for late work). I will offer another option for dealing with the problem of too many extension requests for homework assignments when dealing with online courses.
A policy which has seemed to work well during my studies was one where professors in common undergraduate requirement courses agreed on alternate due dates that mimicked the due dates of on campus courses or simply set their due dates to match on campus meetings of the same or a similar class. It seemed to help new students budget their time more effectively - keeping all the assignments from each class being due on the same day (Sunday) - and did not seem like a lenient policy as it was essentially the same amount of time to work on assignments as it would be for on campus students (may get an extra day or so depending on when one posts the assignments online).

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


text:
How much teaching is expected on a CV for a graduating PhD student (mathematics)?
In previous comments/discussion (which I cannot find at this moment) a few people from this site noted that PhD students (in math/CS) should make sure they acquire a good amount of teaching experience before they graduate, and that this is something people look for in postdoc applications. In your experience, how much teaching experience is necessary, and what's a good amount?
I ask because after obtaining fellowships I have not been able to obtain TA positions because there are a limited number and they are given first to students in need of support (perfectly reasonable). Thus I have TA'd a total of 3 quarters: three upper division courses where I had to put together quizzes, grade homeworks, and lecture twice a week. It is likely that I may graduate before receiving another teaching positions. Is this okay, or should I really be looking more teaching assignments?
Note I am trying to supplement this lack of teaching by teaching workshops on things like programming in Julia, big data analysis, and machine learning which are run as part of an on-campus interdisciplinary center.

Showing any interest in teaching is often enough to tick that box. You seem to have the right attitude and a reasonable level of experience. Keep doing what you're doing. I wouldn't go out of your way to increase it more.

I think it also depends where (i.e. which country) one is applying to do a postdoc. For instance, many EPSRC funded postdocs in maths don't require one to do any teaching, and depending on the institution where the post is held, might not allow one to do any teaching.

It is what it is.  Some schools give you less opportunity for teaching than others (e.g., schools in the UK).
If you are looking for a research postdoc, then having a lot of teaching experience is not too important.  For instance, at my institution, we want to make sure you're competent and not going to cause problems, but you don't need to have won five teaching awards.  This is evidenced primarily by your teaching letter.  If you think you can get a decent teaching letter now, then I wouldn't worry about it.  (Note: if you're TAing now and probably won't be again before you apply, consider having someone who will write you a letter observe your class.)
If you're looking for a "teaching postdoc," e.g. a temporary position at a liberal arts school, they typically want more evidence that you're a good teacher, so you might try to actively look for more teaching opportunities.
Note: presumably many other students at your institution have the same issue.  Try finding out how much TAing recent graduates did and what kind of jobs they got after graduating.

+1 for "if you're TAing now and probably won't be again before you apply, consider having someone who will write you a letter observe your class"


text:
How to Estimate Times for Projects in a Programming Workshop?
I am going to be teaching a workshop on Julia for data science and scientific computing soon. I came up with a plan that has a lot more than we will be able to do (just in case), but was wondering about how to come up with a good estimate for how far along we will get. I find this hard to estimate since for most of the assignments I could do them really quickly, but that's because I am experience in the language and the biggest hurdle will be learning the documentation, syntax, and all the special issues of a new language.
That said, do you have any good heuristics for how long projects will take in a workshop? It's hard to know the exact number of students right now, but I think it will be anywhere from 10~30, and I'd assume more students would make it go slower. I thought of doing something like "this takes me 5 minutes, so plan 20 minutes", but the number 20 has no basis in reality because I have never done this.

Test drive
Grab a couple of local students of comparable level and have them do the assignments.
Your own speed is not indicative - something that takes you five minutes may take ten minutes or may be incomplete after an hour; only practical experience can show how it will turn out.
In addition, usually setting up a working development environment can be a major time sink - if people use their own hardware and various operating systems, then some of them can waste a lot of time until they are able to run a 'hello world' program; you should have a clear plan on how you will handle it.

I am not very good at judging how long things take. To work around this, I prepare a number of different versions of each exercise. From hardest to easiest, I provide

A statement of objectives (i.e., write a function that does X, Y, and Z)
A detailed description of the objectives, input and output arguments, and some helpful functions
Some framework code with comments describing what needs to be done and where
Nearly complete code which only needs a few lines of additional code
Complete code with instructions on how to run it and an explanation of what it does

Depending on the specifics, I often start with a simple exercise to gauge the level of experience that the students have. If the experience is fairly uniform, I then try and provide the appropriate level exercise. I make the first real exercise too hard, I provide a hint to speed things up. If it is too easy, I choose a more difficult level for the next activity. If there is a lot of diversity in the students, I let them know that they can choose the difficulty.
I do this both for ungraded workshops and graded programming/practical classes. In my graded classes the students just get a statement of objectives for the final project. During the course of the class I let them build up to that however they want.


text:
Having a Promising Assistant Professor vs Well- Known Full Professor as a PI
If one's ultimate goal is to obtain tenure (as a professor of chemistry or some other STEM field, for example), is it honestly better to have a more well-known professor as a PI versus an assistant professor (assuming both have equally good research and are in top-tier institutions)?

It depends far more on the individual in question than on their career situation. That said, there are tradeoffs to look out for. Other questions address these.

One problem with assistant professors is that their first priority is in getting tenure. You are not their first priority. Be aware.

@Buffy Agree it's important to be aware of tenure clocks, but it does vary by field a bit in terms of how much "things that get PI tenure" overlap or don't with "things that are good for a PhD student". Also depends on where they are in their clock.


text:
What types of questions should I be expecting for my final year project viva for my undergrad?
Currently doing a final year project in artificial intelligence and was curious to know how this presentation(viva) works ? and how I should prepare for it ? are there common questions I should prepare for ? Do I have to explain my code?

Ask your supervisor: Vivas vary between institutes.

Is there something general they ask ?

@Jack Institutes may each have some generic questions, but they'll vary between institutes.


text:
Finishing undergraduate degree later than mentioned on graduate school applications
I submitted all my applications for graduate school (in math) this month. I listed the date I'm expected to get my degree as May of this year. However, it has come to my attention that one of the general education requirements I'm taking this semester requires another prerequisite class. Luckily, the class I need is offered during the summer, so I can take the prerequisite class this semester and still receive my degree in August.
Would most programs be okay with me finishing up my degree in the summer, or would I have to contact them individually (either before or after acceptances come out) to make sure there won't be any issues?

This could depend on the country, I suppose. Where are you applying?

Some places will let you skip a prerequisite and some will let you take it as a co-requisite. You might ask about those..

If you are in the US, this question is a duplicate of: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/76929/75368, which offers good advice in any case.


text:
Firstly manuscipt 'rejected' and then status changed to 'revise'
I submitted a paper and in the cover letter, I mentioned that the work is related to our previous publication (published in the same journal). After 25 days (for that time status was 'with editor') I received an email from Editor that I need to mention in "manuscript (and letter)" about the difference between the published manuscript and submitted manuscript. I wrote few lines in the manuscript and added some text in the cover letter (I did not prepare response letter as there was no option to upload it) explaining the difference. I submitted the manuscript again after one day of receiving the email from the editor.
On the very next day, I received rejection email from Editor saying it was not made clear up to which extend this work was different from published one. I wrote a reply email to Editor saying that the submitted manuscript is much different from the earlier one (I wrote 6-7 lines email) and allow this manuscript to be judged by the reviewer.
Here is the twist. The editor replied (within 2-3 hours). He said that the manuscript was reviewed by the reviewer and it was not found to be suitable to publish in present form.  However, he invited me to revise it if I could respond to the reviewer's comments. And the decision was changed from 'Reject' to 'Revise' and a new deadline was given to me.
Now what should I understand out of this ? Is it a good sign or editor is just passing time ? Can anybody guess the chances that the editor will see this without prejudice, becuase he earlier rejected this. Moreover, I am confused whether it will go to the new reviewers now. (I believe it was not gone to reviewer otherwise it would take at least a week to get the response)
And is it usual in peer review process ?
Thanks in advance for sharing your opinions and advice.
Regards.

If it's a revise, treat it as a revise. We cannot guess what the editor is actually thinking, but I'd wager money you're worried over nothing.

It is not really clear what happened. It sounds like the 25 days it was "with editor" it was actually out for review (possibly the editor does the review). It then sounds like the editor looked at the review(s) and decided the manuscript was not "new work". Instead of coming to a decision then, he ask you if the work was new. Your initial response did not convince him, so he rejected the work for not being new. He did not send the reviews, because the issue was the work was not new. You then convinced him the work was new, so he changed the status and gave you the review(s).

Is it a good sign or editor is just passing time ?

I can assure you that the editor is not just passing time. I think you have an uphill battle still to convince the editor and reviewer that the work is new. It also seems like you may not be as clear as you could be.
As for whether it goes out for review again, that depends on the editor.


text:
PhD or research job?
I have a Master's degree, two years of research experience followed by an industry job for a few years. I had always intended to do a PhD eventually but the jobs were interesting, and later COVID messed up things. I now have a research heavy industry offer where I'll get a rare opportunity to help build up a lab from scratch, but I'm nervous about giving up on applying to PhD positions.
Will lack of a PhD harm my career later on in spite of research experience? If I were to apply for a PhD position later on around the age of say 35, will my age work against me?

Whether to take the industry offer or do your PhD depends on what you want to do for a career. Someone with their MS could still be just as effective in industrial research. There are also managerial vs. technical career tracks that should be considered. It also depends on what the research is. The only thing I feel comfortable answering is that being 35 will not work against you in PhD applications.

Thank you, I'm not really interested in managerial career tracks. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I just love science and solving problems. Honestly, mine is a bit of a niche field in physics, not very commercial, so the lines between purely industrial and research work are sort of blurred. Industry jobs are quite far and few in between. My preference is doing research but I don't mind industry jobs if they're not monotonous.

I agree with kjacks that it's not a problem to start a PhD after years of industry experience, many people do it and they often manage the difficulties better than inexperienced PhD students. Imho the main obstacle to this could be your own motivation: after a rich experience in industry, a nice salary and possibly the comfort of a good position, will you be happy to start a PhD? It might feel like a step down in some aspects (financially in particular).

That's true. I guess I'm more worried about the lack of a PhD being an obstacle to getting a job several years down the line. I have known a couple of instances where that happened even to people with decades of research experience, and wanted to know if that really is a widespread thing.

This highly depends on the industry / niche and region. Your best bet is to look around your network and see whether people currently in those roles are mostly PhDs or not. I know anecdotally of domains where companies would rather pick candidates with relevant work experience and avoid PhDs.


text:
How to prepare for CS phd as with a bio MS and non-academic CS experience
I really want to pursue a phd in CS to delve into machine learning and AI, specifically natural language processing. The catch is I don't have a single accredited CS course and little math on my transcript. Based on my relevant background below, how much, if any, CS or math course work should I take before I apply to ensure I am competitive?
My relevant background:

I have a MS in plant biology with 3 publications in this field.
Currently, I am a machine learning engineer focusing mostly on natural language processing and signal processing. Most of the math and programming is self taught (youtube!), but I did attend a competitive 3 month machine learning bootcamp. I will have been in the field for 2 years this fall.
I will probably be able to get 3 strong recommendation letters from reputable CS/Math sources from my workplace, which is very research heavy.
I should have be on an ML patent.
3.4 GPA, BS and MS in plant bio
GRE: Verbal 167 (98 percentile), Quant 154 (51% percentile), Writing 4.5 (80 percentile)

If you want to do AI research, the problem is likely not your lack of CS coursework but your lack of mathematical maturity. If get admitted to grad school this will come back to bite you even if your PhD is on the applied side. Unfortunately there is no fast track to becoming a competent mathematician other than struggling through textbooks on linear algebra, real analysis, probability and statistics, optimization etc.

I think this is feasible in the US, though it will take you a while to achieve it. For someone with a BS/BA, changing fields to enter a doctoral program is pretty common here, but the expected time to completion is, perhaps, 6 years. You are missing some of the basics, I'd guess and your MS doesn't really help with those pieces. Look at the online course requirements for a BS in CS at a couple of good universities and figure out which major courses you are missing. You will probably need to find a way to cover that knowledge base, though not necessarily with courses and not necessarily before you start a doctoral program.
Courses during the doctoral study will be available to get much of what you need. Comprehensive/qualifying exams may be an issue and will cover much of that base knowledge at an advanced level. Be prepared for that.
There is an outside chance that some of your current contacts can get you an audience with some professor who will go to bat for you and try to shorten the process, but that isn't terribly likely. And some universities are more willing than others to use experience in lieu of formal education.
But look at what you are missing, based on the requirements of good programs be prepared to get that knowledge.
You can, of course, apply to a few programs, hoping that you reach a point where people are willing to talk to you about a path to success. Good letters will help, though these would seem to be from outside academia in your case. You need to make your case. It isn't a typical one, so it needs to be strong in some important areas.
And, in parallel, you could work on some of those missing pieces.


text:
What is the difference between AP A and AP B?
I am a British person, currently studying a book designed for the American market.
It is for students studying the AP B course.
I know that AP stands for Advanced Placement, which is similar to the UK A-Level courses we study at 17-18 years of age.
However, I do not know what the difference is between the A and B part. For example, AP Physics A in comparison to AP Physics B?

It's roughly the difference between "Mathematics" and "Further Mathematics".

AP courses are designed for US high school students to gain some transfer credits when they begin university study by passing a standardized exam with a sufficient score, effectively giving a jump on their first year.
There's no such thing as "AP A" and "AP B" except in the context of particular courses. Some subjects may have multiple parts, but they aren't named in any cohesive fashion across subjects.
I suggest going directly to the College Board for info on what the AP courses cover, but from Wikipedia it seems that both AP Physics A and B are defunct, with AP Physics A never fully existing.
You can see a full course list here: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/course-index-page
Looks like AP Physics 1 is Newtonian mechanics, AP Physics 2 is electricity and magnetism.  They have a separate track AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism which use calculus. Of course different universities are different, but probably 1&2 are roughly equivalent to 2 semesters of a US university "not for majors" physics track, and the two AP Physics C branches are roughly equivalent to 2 semesters of a US university "for majors" track (including majors in engineering, physics, possibly biology and other science/quantitative areas). Whether a university actually would accept even high scores on these AP tests as equivalents to their own courses is up to the individual schools.

And yes, this varies widely by discipline. Some universities give credit for high scores on the associated standardized exams, but I doubt that many give credit for the courses themselves absent those high scores.

@Buffy Thanks, I clarified to make clear that it's the test scores rather than completion of the courses that gives credit.

I heard US students are told not to take an AP class unless they are certain they will get an A in it, otherwise it is extra work for nothing.

@questioner, the trend for a few years now in many schools has been to encourage students to take AP courses, even if they reasonably anticipate not receiving an A.  The Challenge Index rates high schools based on number of AP courses taken, not passed.  This is viewed in some circles as one way to decrease achievement gaps, and to introduce students to the rigors of college coursework.

@lamplamp Makes sense when the rest of the world does the UK equivalent of A-Levels at 17 and 18 years old, which are basically AP courses.


text:
Inderscience peer-Review Process
I submitted my paper two months ago to an Inderscience journal. Well, this is my first experience with Inderscience publisher, so while checking my paper updates, I can not understand the meaning of “Peer-Review Process” information in the track section.
Image of the track section
Is there anyone familiar with Inderscience who can explain to me this information :
-Are those 4 reviewers already begin reviewing? Or they did not yet accept to review the paper?
-Why there is no Reviewer 1 or 3?
-What is the meaning of the three columns in front of each reviewer?
-What is the significance of (Under review) in green colour?

Not sure how reliable this information is, but at ResearchGate someone writes the following: Green means that the review request was accepted already. The black ones (#2, #4 and #5) have not yet accepted the review request. I would infer from that that #1 and #3 have declined the request to review.


text:
What does TVL-E13/2 mean?
I know that the TVL system exists but I am not sure if TVL-E13/2 would mean it is 50% of TVL-E13 or what does the "/2" mean, could someone explain please? I've seen it in multiple PhD positions offers.

Yes, it means that you would be paid 50% of a salary of a full position. I will vote to close as off-topic.

@Snijderfrey Many other TVL questions have been deemed on topic.  Union contracts are an important part of academia, even if they apply to nonacademics too.

Which field is that? (Could matter as to whether this means 50% or level 2.)

Translational research / Biochemistry

A good source of information regarding TV-L is the TV-L calculator at https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-202, which is supported by current TV-L employees (but not actually official).
The calculator has the following main options (from top to bottom):

TV-L level, e.g. E13
TV-L stage (with increasing work experience, you get more money)
Percentage of a full position

The other options are useful to compute salary after taxes (taking pensions and healthcare costs into account), but are set to reasonable defaults.
After choosing options, click the gray "berechnen" button. The number marked in bold in the left column will be the exact salary before taxes, the bold number in the right row the salary estimation after taxes.
EDIT [Updated answer]: Regarding your specific question: /2 appears to most often refer to the percentage by which the position is funded, as you proposed. However there appears to be some ambiguity around this. Does the main body of these  adverts you're looking at contain more specific information?

In the given context, it is quite more likely that /2 refers to a fraction of 50% rather than level 2.

oeffentlicher-dienst.info is in no way "the official TV-L calculator". As their impressum states: "Öffentlicher-Dienst.info ist eine unabhängige Informations-Plattform für Mitarbeiter und Interessenten des öffentlichen Dienstes. Dieser Website ist weder 'amtlich' noch 'offiziell'!"

Thanks, I've removed the statement that this is an official source.

Regarding /2 as 50% - I have only ever seen the percentage written as a percentage, never as a fraction - so I would always assume /n refers to a pay grade stage [NRW]. Maybe this is state specific?

I haven't found any unambiguous information regarding the "/2" part of the question on the website you're referring to. But from googling some job ads that offer a "13/2 positon", it seems that the comments above are correct in that the "/2" denotes a fraction, i.e. this would be a part-time position. See e.g. https://www.uni-muenster.de/Rektorat/Stellen/ausschreibungen/st_20190410_sk12.html Moreover, it doesn't make much sense to include the Stufe in the job ad, since the Stufeneinordnung depends on the experience of the applicant and not on the job description.

Thanks for looking into this. I'll leave the answer up for now, but it is apparently more ambiguous than I thought. The /n notation is also used here https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/tv-l/allg/hoehergruppierung.html to denote the stage. Regarding the purpose, maybe someone can confirm this, but from my understanding the university has some leeway whether to allow a higher Stufeneinordnung at all, so that is why I assumed they want to mention that they actually allow a higher stage.

@mirrormere I didn't catch that table. It seems this is hard to answer and the add is rather unclear.

@mirrormere The stage is indeed denoted as "/n", just that job ads typically don't state the stage (since, as it is stated by others, it depends on experience, in either direction).


text:
How to get approach in teaching a subject you are fluent in but not included in your degree
I am a Mathematics graduate and have done a post-graduate degree too, with a research component involving a mathematical application in cryptography.
I'm currently working as a temporary lecturer in Mathematics but this is an interdisciplinary faculty and hence the number of lecture hours related to maths lectures is considerably low. Some others do visiting lectures too, but for me still couldn't find such lectures either. So I'm now getting compared with lecturers doing other subjects because they have a higher workload when thinking about the number of lecture hours. There's another Maths lecturer, she is keeping a bit of a higher load than me, and refuses to give me any of it to share further.
Even though my main subject is Mathematics, I have done an IT diploma (only a diploma though) and because I did cryptography for post-grad, I studied some computer programming too. And I anyway have some fluency in programming side, even though I don't have a complete degree like Bachelors in IT.
There's a module called "Fundamentals of computer programming" done by an IT graduate. If I'll be allowed to teach this module, my problem is getting solved. I know how to teach this well, as I have been doing programming related things all along, even though it's not mentioned in my degree transcript specifically..
He has many other lectures too, so his workload is anyway not getting affected by giving this lecture to me. Perhaps, I can even stay as a trainee under him for a couple of months and then take over, there are such things happening for other modules too when a new lecturer comes.
But how can I explain that I'm indeed fluent in teaching to my department head to get permission? Can a lecturer request to teach a subject by mentioning that it'll help career growth?
I mean the only valid explanations I can see are, to tell that,

I have done computer programming in my diploma as well as the post-graduate research and so I'm well aware
It will help my career if I'm allowed to do it, because it's a part of my post-grad specialization

Any other things I can tell them? And any other solutions?
The comparisons have come to a point that they might not be willing to keep me continuously. Still I have to settle my problem smoothly too, so that no misunderstanding occur. That's why I thought like this.
Please kindly advise me. Thanks a lot in advance.

Related: Can a professor teach mathematics and computer science?

Thanks a lot @DaveLRenfro I'm at a kind of disadvantage because the seniors currently have the attitude that IT person is the expert at it. And I'm only having a Maths degree. I feel that I'll have to strongly convenience them that have expertise in that area as I did for postgrad too. Would be grateful if you'll can put in your ideas to present a strong conviction

Maybe there are things you can do to assist the teaching of courses in this area. Perhaps volunteer to hold recitation sections for one or more of the classes, assist with grading, etc. The possibilities for such activities will depend, of course, on your specific local circumstances.

Thank you @DaveLRenfro I'm willing to do even that if they allow me to. Currently they are keeping strong attitudes and kind of ego like, so I'm pretty nervous and thinking how to express this strongly


text:
Does a Statement of Purpose really matter for Graduate Admissions in 2021?
I'm International Student applying for technical courses to universities in the UK and the USA, this might seem like a frequently asked question but I'm genuinely curious in knowing whether a Statement of Purpose (SOP) does carry any weightage when you meet the minimum requirements for Graduate Admissions (Msc).
I've seen peers with great GPA's but poorly crafted SOPs make it to top schools. Would it be possible for someone to walk their way in with just words using a flashy SOP?
Top universities get a myriad of applications, especially high demand courses. Does the admissions committee get ample time to review each applicant's SOP? or Do they have an Application Screening Process after which they review only the most salient applications?

Anecdotally, my PhD cohort originally consisted of 18 people (seven years ago; I went to a University of California, for what it is worth).  The 2019 cohort was over 20, and the 2020 cohort was around 20 as well (COVID related austerity measures had not come into play by the time offer letters were being sent out).  The 2021 cohort is 8.  Funding is *incredibly tight right now.  Anything you can do to distinguish yourself is important.

@XanderHenderson Well I'm pretty sure an SOP plays a integral part in the application process for PhD but the question is aimed at MSc

The salient point is that funding is incredibly tight right now.  Most institutions don't have the ability to offer as many spots (in any graduate program) as they have in the past.  However (anecdotally, again) the number of applications has not really gone down (in fact, many programs are seeing very large surges in applications, e.g. medicine and law).  There are a small number of slots, and a large number of applicants.  Anything you do which distinguishes yourself from the pack is going to be important, because the competition is fierce.

The question is unclear because admissions standards are very different for funded MSc programs vs. tuition-charging MSc programs.  Further, each department can set its own policies.

@AnonymousPhysicist the question is aimed at tuition-charging MSc programs

Well, the answer is that it varies, but even at elite universities, the tuition-charging MS programs often exist primarily to bring in money.  They might admit every student that they think will be able to finish the degree.  In that case the SOP is not so important.

The Statement of Purpose possibly carries weight toward admission to a graduate program.
Meeting the minimum requirements for acceptance may get you past an initial screening, but many departments have more applicants than they have space in their program. (I hesitate to say "most" or cite percentages since that could change from year to year, but you can often find this information on a program's website.) In these and other programs, the whole application packet - including the Statement of Purpose - may be considered by individual reviewers and/or a committee of reviewers before initial offers of admission are decided. Given two similarly-qualified candidates, it is conceivable that they would admit the one with a more compelling Statement of Purpose.
It's not easy from the outside to guess at an institution's internal processes, the number of applicants that year, or what they'll weight more heavily in your packet. While you may know anecdotally of people who are admitted with terrible Statements of Purpose, you don't know others who were rejected. You also don't know whether this year will be different. Given that, while you could gamble on a subpar Statement of Purpose and meeting the minimum requirements, prudence suggests putting some effort in so that you might stand out compared to your peers.

I like the second paragraph especially. If you make the initial cut so that individual professors look at your application, the SoP is, for me at least, one of the most important documents. In particular it is your one chance to discuss your goals and your future. Nearly everything else in an application is more about the past.

On the contrary, universities do release information on the number of applicants to a program and the number of offers given out for the past years. However, like you've mentioned it's difficult to perceive what their internal process might be.

This will differ between countries, universities, and individual departments. I believe that it is hopeless in pretty much all places to "walk your way in with just words using a flashy SOP" if their results are not good, but if there is a limited number of places and it is between otherwise about equally qualified candidates, it may well play a role.
When I was MSc admissions tutor in the UK, by the way, I got the impression that many SoPs were written with lots of help from other persons, sometimes in stark contrast to other information in the CV and transcripts, and I didn't find them very informative in general, as it seemed everyone can come up with a sparkling SoP. So I differentiated using other criteria as much as possible, and I think that ultimately (because there was never a precise limit on the number of offers I could send out) an SoP never made a difference for students I had to decide on. But I'm not saying that everybody handles things in this way.


text:
How do I get rid of google scholar recommendations
I find google scholar recommendations for me to read to be of very poor quality. They are also distracting and are seldom refreshed. How can I disable this function or have the recommendations hidden?

Two possibilities:
1.) Open Google Scholar, open the left-hand menu and click on Alerts. You will then see a list of all alerts you receive. Click on "CANCEL" in each row.
2.) If you wish to cancel a specific alert: At the bottom of each alert e-mail, there is a link called "CANCEL ALERT". Click on it and confirm that you wish to cancel it.

This is about alerts, but the question was about recommendations. Recommendation are shown on Google Scholar's title page.

Thank you, @lighthousekeeper, for clarifying. I thought it was about the e-mail alerts that recommend the related research of selected scholars.


text:
Does it count as academic dishonesty if I use the references of someone's assignment?
I'm currently working on an essay topic that a mate of mine happened to have done before on another course. He gave me his reference list on some ideas that coincide with my topic and stance, but I'm afraid that if I use them it might count as academic dishonesty. Am I in the clear?

For purposes of homework it would be good to acknowledge the source to clear up any claim of misrepresentation.
I hope you actually read the referenced articles, however. Otherwise, I'd worry about the honesty of it. If you just copied the references without further exploration you are on very shaky ground. And if you didn't go beyond those references in a search then you haven't learned anything from the assignment. The professor would be justified in marking you down, of course.
Assignments aren't about producing results. They are about learning. If you bypass the learning step you are defeating yourself in the long run.
Moreover, if you are using the other person's work, generally, without citation, you are engaged in plagiarism.

Oh yes I did read all of the references. I intend to add more but I'm just scared that it may be seen as academic dishonesty since a highly similar reference list might raise suspicion.

@Felix: The bibliography is not a part of an academic paper for which there is a premise of originality: if the references you cite are authoritative and standard, if anything it could only be worse to cite other references.  You seem to perhaps be worried that a similar bibliography will alert your instructor to other similarities with your friend's paper.  But an expert reading the paper will see whatever similarities exist in the paper itself.  That's where you should worry about the originality and independence of your work.