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Access to Community Colleges in US
I'm a teacher in a Vocational Education school in Spain. In our Vocational Education system, we have two different levels:

Vocational High School (post compulsory secondary school)
Community College (this is considered Higher Education)

It's hard for me to establish equivalence with the US System, but I guess you might have similar levels.
In Spain, students with a Vocational High School diploma can't enroll directly in Community College, they need to sit a test first (a sort of SAT test, but not so hard as SAT).
I would like to know how it goes in the US. Is there also some kind of test for entering a Community College if you come from Vocational High School? In that case, could you tell me how this test is called, please?

what degree is earned at a spain community college?  is it associate degree, bachelor, or either?

Difficult to answer. I would say something similar to an associate degree, but there's no exact match. In Spain it is called "Técnico Superior", which could be translated as "Certificate of Higher Education". It's considered a lower level than a Bachelor's Degree

In the US there is first a federal (country-wide) rule: there are high-school diplomas, roughly equivalent almost-like-a-high-school-diplomas called a GED or a variety of other names, and then there are accredited higher education institutions providing certificates, 2-year degrees (called an associate's degree), 4-year degrees (called a bachelor's degree), 5-7 yearish degrees (master's degree), and of course the PhD...in addition to a slew of other special professional degrees for high ed.
Where it gets particularly hard to generalize is we have 50 states that determine all the details of the rest, especially the high-schools. I'll try to provide a broad overview. While this is true across states for the most part, the exact mix, nature of funding, and multi-track availability varies tremendously across the country.
Traditional high schools are the most common, which simply teach a variety of subjects and offer some sports, music, and arts programs (where possible), and don't especially differentiate between students who are planning to go to college from students who don't. Some special programming exists tailored to certain professions or college prep, but this is usually minimal. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.
Magnet schools exist at the elementary through high school level, and are focused on a specific area of excellence that permeates their whole school design; some schools specialize in science and technology, math, media/broadcasting, dance and/or fine arts, etc. This isn't necessarily about college or professional prep, but there is often a particular bent to some schools and they generally encourage higher education. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.
Vocational schools are high schools that are much like magnet schools, only their focus is on certain professional preparation. There are schools that offer  programs in all sorts of vocations from culinary arts, electrician, building/construction jobs, auto repair, and many others. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.
College preparatory schools (prep schools for short) are, at least in theory, designed with college seeking students in mind. Everything is geared towards being ready for college and getting into a good college. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.
There are also some "alternative" institutions that seek to provide a high school education to people who didn't fit in well with other institutions for various reasons (ranging from disability, family situation, pregnancy, legal problems, different learning style, etc), as well as religious institutions. All offer plain high school diplomas, generally.
Now, anyone with a high school diploma and usually even a GED (basically a special program or test that allows one to get a diploma - or something like it - without having to go back to high school or through high school at all) can apply to any higher education institution they like.
Most higher ed sets it's own standards for admittance, though, which is usually based upon grades while in high school (GPA), ACT/SAT test scores, essay, etc. Some places have preferences or relationships with certain high schools (the high schools often being referred to as "feeder schools"), but that's about it.
Now, higher ed is yet another ball of wax, and varies tremendously by state - even more than high schools!
Most states have community, technical, or junior colleges, which generally offer the 2 and 4 year degrees. As these places are often smaller in size, they offer limited and differing selections of degree programs (some may have no fine arts programs, others might have no engineering...etc). Florida calls these smaller places junior colleges, Wisconsin has state technical colleges, Arizona has community colleges...etc. They are similar, but funding and "prestige" varies heavily.
The terms differ, but the general rule is the same: smaller, less degree programs, often focused on certificates and 2-year degrees and very limited 4-year offerings (if any at all). It is not uncommon for the smaller schools to focus on providing a lower-cost, student-centered program with the expectation of transferring to another institution to complete their bachelor's degree.
Then there are the bigger universities, which are sometimes called "4-year institutions", and focus on a larger campus, more degree programs, and are centered on the bachelor's degree. Some offer limited master's programs, and even fewer have select PhD options in specific areas.
We also have "polytechnic" colleges, which vary in size but are often focused on certain aspects of the sciences such as engineering. It is not uncommon for other institutions to omit engineering and related programs entirely, and thus specialized colleges fill in the gaps.
Then there are just big "universities", which offer a wide selection of everything, really. Most states have at least one, and sometimes 2 or more, of these. They often cost more, have more options, are located in big cities, and are just massive.
However, no matter what institution, the same rule generally applies: some are "selective", which means you take tests, and some have open access and anyone who can pay the fee can enroll. The tests are most commonly the ACT/SAT if you are coming from high school, but some schools - especially junior/technical/community colleges - will instead offer their own "placement test" mainly in math and reading to determine if you need to take any remedial classes first.
Selective schools limit enrollment, and usually use a multiple factor process: personal essay, maybe reference letters from educators, transcript of grades from wherever you went to high school, ACT/SAT scores, etc. Each school sets their own rules, and this ranges from your MIT schools who are proud of their tiny admittance rates, to most schools who just don't want to admit students they think will not thrive in their programs.
Students who can't get into selective schools but want to are often encouraged to attend the junior/technical/community colleges for a year or two, and then re-apply. When applying then the high school grades and tests are at times ignored completely or at least heavily discounted, and strong preference is given to those with good grades at whatever college they have been attending. This process is very common with mid-to-large state-funded schools.
So, in summary: high school diploma is just a diploma in the US, higher education institutions set their own individual admittance standards (ranging from strict to none, varying by place and state), most selective institutions require ACT/SAT scores and high school transcripts at a minimum regardless of where you went to high school or what you did there.
I hope this provides you with more than you actually wanted to know!

And then there are the private colleges and universities that sit beside the whole system that you described. Though I agree with the whole message that the American system is large and contains a large amount of diversity.


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How to improve my learning ability to learn from not so simple sources?
I am the person who asked How do I improve my ability to learn? this question. I forgot my last password and username, so I could not respond there so I am responding to comments here how these comments didn't really work and my problem is still unsolved.

Take notes, reread and annonate just after lecture. The sad thing about this is that most of my lecturers are bad.(I read in low tier university, didn't know this would be this bad).

Ask questions in class. I will try my best to pre read and ask questions in class itself. Most of the times I am in class, I am totally blind. I don't even know what is happening.

Review-: Review isn't my problem. What I understand it sticks in my brain for long time. My issue is understanding from text content and hard to follow video content. I will give example of video content that I find hard to follow-: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts3xbfXm2nI&t=1676s . But if same subject is being taught by another good teacher, I understand it very easily.

Teach to someone else-: This helps me to know what I don't know already including active recall. But issue is with understanding itself. I have tried this as well. I even bought myself a whiteboard just so that I could teach myself.

AppliedAcademic really understood my situation well. I did what he/she said exactly. I used to first watch videos(if there were, the reason why I am asking this question is that slowly as my level of education is increasing, number of videos are decreasing exponentially. In 1st 2nd year, I could depend everything on videos. But on 3rd and 4th year, video content is decreasing exponentially, that is why I got to this point of asking this question. I am having to read from books, articles. And if I want to continue my education I am going to have to learn to learn from research papers and maybe even books as well)

I would read the slides then read the book and everything would be 100% clear to me. But my issue is exactly this. Why can't this happent to me without reading slides? There are lots of things to study where there are no slides available, how will I learn those topics? That worries me. And my future working field is programming where 99% of learning comes through documentation and stackoverflow, so it is really worrying situation for me.
I am willing to work my ass off, but I need to know what works and what doesn't so that atleast I can hustle in right direction.

Spaced repitition-: This is biggest mantra for learning imho. but sad thing about this is that this works but only works when I have already understood the material. My issue as I said is with understanding itself.

Pomodoro-: Actually pomodoro worked for me. Pomodoro+switching between topics every hour did wonders to my learning. So I want to add this here. But still not enough to be able to be like a sponge who can take any information into their brain.

Some video lectures no matter how many times I watch, no matter how many notes I make and no matter how many annonations I make I don't understand at all. Now you might say, come to stackexchange or such forums to ask. The issue is nb in the world owes to help me. And most questions in stackexchange are from people who have understood what is written in book already and are trying to learn more that is not within scope of book. So that is cancelled out.

Practice-: Again, this is wonderful advice. But what do I practice when I don't understand anything at all?

Solve problems-: This is a good advice. I actually read books with a goal in mind. I will first go through 10-20 number of questions for 1 chapter asked in previous year questions and I read books scanning through them to find the answer. But still my issue is that I don't understand what I read that easily. It takes me a lot of time. And many times I don't even get it by just reading the book itself.

I really want to know what is wrong with me? I tried to go to doctor if I had learning disability, docotor didn't examine but denied that it was learning disability/ADHD.
How do I improve my learning overall? Because at this point I have realized that learning to learn is the best investment. I have watched countless videos on "learning how to learn", but none of the people seem to address the problem that I am having.
Few things I learnt from online lectures about learning how to learn-:

Get prior knowledge.

Read same thing first 1 hr, then in 30 min, then in 10 min, then recall actively in 2 min.

Always read big textbooks and then only follow solution manuals.

Study things in chunks.

Encode information to remember it.

etc

I asked if the moderators can connect this account to your earlier one. This question is likely a duplicate.

I had to check the "moderator handbook," but it looks like the way to proceed is for you (OP) to click on "contact us" at the bottom of the screen and request that StackExchange merge your accounts. Due to potential PII issues, they won't accept requests from mods, only from the user themself.

But if you want to engage in the comments on the other post, that's the way to proceed...we do not allow new "questions" that are really just discussion on an old question; things would get too confusing that way.

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How can I match my interests with a degree/career path?
I'm considering a change in careers and have a general interest in pursuing research in a humanities field (probably history or philosophy) as a future career.  As a result I've been researching degree programs, as well as possible future academic careers.  However, I'm struggling with figuring out exactly which degree path and career path would match up with my specific interests.
College websites don't give very thorough descriptions of what is involved in their respective degree programs and so I'm not sure where to go to figure out what degree and career path lines up with my research interests.
I'm also still trying to define exactly what I want to research which doesn't make this any easier, but I was wondering if there is a resource I'm not aware of (other than college degree descriptions) that could help me clarify which field of study and possible future career would line up with my current research interests?

Are you currently a student (if so, at what level)? Are you in the workforce? I'd guess the latter from the phrase "change in careers", but I think the answer depends a bit on where you are and what academic resources you have easily available to you.

@Andrew Answering for my non-logged-in self above: I am currently in the workforce in a different industry (non-humanities).   I have thought about talking to an academic advisor but I'm not sure if they would be able to help with this question or if I would be able to utilize their services without being enrolled in a university.

Makes sense -- indeed I think your best bet is to talk to someone in person. It's a bit easier to do that if you have an affiliation with an academic institution. I am not sure the best strategy in your situation, but maybe one option is to go to college open house days for some local colleges and try to connect with some of the faculty, or at least see if you can get information or contact information for faculty in your field from the college admissions staff.

In my opinion, you are asking two questions here: how can I become more certain of what research topic I wish to pursue, and are there any general tips for choosing an institution where I can pursue my interests?
Right off the bat, it must be mentioned that in Western universities, the number of attending students is generally in decline, and so we are seeing an over-concentration of students in higher-ranked institutions. This means that most lower-ranked institutions are having a hard time attracting students, and are shrinking their departments. Even some higher-ranked institutions are shrinking/closing departments that are lacking in student enrolment numbers. As for a career, it's already hard enough to get a stable career in STEM fields, and it's even worse in history/philosophy/humanities. Even if you get a career, only 20-30% of your weekly job tasks will be related to pursuing the research you love: most of the time you will be grading papers and tests, preparing classes, doing boring administrative and service work, and attending boring meetings. Still, many would say that those 20% of research time make all the other chores worthwhile, or at least bearable (so long as you can find a positive work environment with welcoming/supporting colleagues, but that's a whole other issue).
We have to get these negative aspects clear first, because no matter how good you are at research, you will certainly find yourself in many periods of trouble, where your research hits a roadblock, or you will be struggling to find faculty positions, or dealing with rejection letters. In fact, many humanities graduates end up not getting academic positions and continue pursuing their passion as independent scholars. This is not intended to discourage you in any way; but you need to be fully aware that it's going to be a bumpy ride, and therefore you must seek to become as emotionally resilient as possible. The only thing that can help you pull through during these periods of turmoil is your deep passion for your research topic, your determination to find a solution in the face of adversity, and your ability to believe in your capabilities, regardless of what others say about you. Where there is a will, there is often a way.
Now let's address the questions. Here is a list of aspects which can help you to filter out unsuitable universities/topics of research.

What is your financial situation? Choose a list of 5-10 universities
where you are able to afford tuition fees and living fees without
getting into crippling debt.
Have these universities downsized their Humanities departments
recently? Conversely, are these departments hiring new faculty
during this year? It is well-reported, for example, that SOAS
University of London is experiencing financial difficulties. Check
newspapers, or websites such as Inside HigherED or the Chronicle of Higher
Education to investigate whether any department in your list is having
difficulties, and check job ads for the same departments to see if
they are expanding.
For each department, check the list of faculty professors, and check
Google Scholar and other websites such as ResearchGate to try to
read their most recent paper. Alternatively, search Google/Youtube, to see
if they have done any academic presentation of their work. Is there
anything about their work that grips you, excites you, fascinates
you? If so, note it down immediately in your list. It is crucial
that you read different papers to get a sense of what topic appeals
to you or not, and to know what kind of research is taking place
right now.
The four main trends of growth in Humanities at the moment right
now are: (A) Digital Humanities, namely using digital/computational
tools to solve humanities issues in ways that were not previously
possible or feasible; (B) Global History/Transnational History, that
is, comparing historical/philosophical perspectives between
different parts of the globe; (C) Looking at history/philosophy
through the lens of identity categories such as gender, race,
sexuality, etc.; (D) Analyzing historical/philosophical issues through an environmental lens, or with consideration to Earth's natural processes and their effect on humans (Environmental History, Environmental Anthropology, etc.); You might want to investigate your list of
departments to see what kind of work they are doing in these areas,
and whether they appeal to you in any way (NOTE: if you think there
are other important trends, let me know in the comments and I will
update my answer accordingly).
The next layer for your triage is that of availability of primary
research materials: for your research topic, is it relatively easy
to access libraries and digital archives that contain manuscripts
for you to analyze? Most people end up choosing historical topics
from the 18th century onwards, because there are much more digitized
materials available, and the barrier to entry is lower. However,
this early modern/modern period is also the most crammed with
competitors, and it can be hard for you to stand out among the
crowd. The further back you go in history/philosophy, the more
challenging (or rewarding, depending on your perspective!) it
becomes: there are less materials, they have lower rates of
digitization/online access, you will often need to master other
languages, or depend on archaeological reports which are hard to
find.
Finally, does the university provide a learning environment
conducive to facilitating the free exchange of ideas between
students/faculty? In recent years, in some institutions there have
been significant tensions between students and faculty regarding
delicate/thorny political topics. It is no joke to conduct research
in the midst of a toxic environment. If you are in the US, you might
want to check if the academic institution supports the Chicago
Principles, or if it is well-ranked in FIRE's rankings.

Make a list of 5 potential universities/research advisors, and 3 potential research topics. See if you can contact the professors in your list to inquire about your preferred topic of research (in which they are specialists, of course!). Make sure that you can find a topic or a research problem that captivates you, because you will have to work on it for years on end, facing many difficulties. There is a real risk of burnout, and only your passion for the topic can make you devote more of your free time in order to push through the obstacles. Otherwise, your situation will quickly escalate into procrastination and potential depression. Also, if you already know someone who is in academia (either student or faculty), it might help to gauge their opinions to help you find the research topic most suitable for you.

Unless you intend to study the history of philosophy (or perhaps the philosophy of "History"), then your first task is to make a decision between those fields as their research process is quite different as is, perhaps, the likelihood of employment in the two fields.
To make the decision, you need to read a fair amount in both fields to see what sorts of questions get asked and how they get answered. And the readings can't be in the popular literature, but in the scholarly output of people in those fields.
You are making a life changing decision when you enter a doctoral program, and while it is possible to back out of a choice it is usually very painful.
If you are near a good university that has a lecture series, you might look for lectures in those fields and see if you "get the bug" to follow one or the other. Attending a conference in each, though a bit expensive, might give you a good sense of what those folks actually do and whether you want to do something like that also.
Maybe mathematicians are different, but we don't really get a choice. Math compels us to follow. If you don't have that same sense about a field then it will be hard to be both happy and successful if you follow it. First things First.
Along the way, you will likely learn more about the universities that do the sorts of things you want to follow.

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Should I mention in CS PhD apps that I was accepted into Math PhDs?
I am applying to CS graduate programs, coming from a background in mathematics.
As an undergraduate I developed research experience and a strong background in mathematics and was accepted into math PhD programs upon graduation. However, I decided for financial reasons to turn down the offers and instead work as a software engineer, which I have done for 2 years. I am still academically motivated, and as my interests are now focused on very specific areas of active CS research, and as I am now in a better financial situation to be a graduate student, I am applying to CS graduate programs.
However, I do not know if I should mention my acceptance into math PhDs in my applications. On one hand,

Getting accepted into math PhDs doesn't really mean that much for a CS PhD. Therefore, I may unintentionally appear as arrogant for even bringing it up.
For all they know, I could very well be lying (which would obviously be ridiculous).

On the other hand,

It feels like I am omitting a somewhat important event in my academic journey.
Perhaps the individuals reading my application might (very fairly) wonder: Why didn't he apply to math PhD programs? This is fair because that is typically what an undergraduate with my kind of background in math would do.
It could provide evidence that I really am academically motivated to do research. At least, I was able to demonstrate possible success in math research to graduate committees.

Overall, it is difficult to ascertain whether or not mentioning this fact is a good idea.

I would suggest that it is best to focus your cv on completed outputs. In your case, your maths research portfolio and your software engineering work experience are both desirable attributes.
A prospective supervisor wants to find a capable candidate, who is enthusiastic and ideally pleasant to work with. They are very unlikely to decide not to interview you on the basis of you not having declined previous PhD offers.  Seeing that you have previously declined other offers doesn't say much for capability, but it may be interpreted (without the context) as being indecisive about or uncommitted to your applications. They could reasonably decide not to interview on the basis that they think you wouldn't accept an offer, and that you would be therefore wasting their interview slot.
They may ask you in the interview, in which case you have a valid reason fir previously applying, being accepted and declining other programs. However, I would take advantage of mentioning your work experience, which gives you greater practical experience and perspective which you can now apply in the CS subject, which you have decided you are most enthusiastic about

That makes sense, especially your point regarding the fact that declining adds evidence of possible indecisiveness, which is something that did not occur to me. Thank you!


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Can a published well-received research paper contain misprints?
I have been reading a research paper for my university course. The paper is the PhD thesis of a student of Berkeley mentored by a reputed engineer. I strongly feel that an expression mentioned in the thesis is wrong, although it has been mentioned only once in paper and his analytical and simulation results agree everywhere, I doubt my speculation
My doubt is whether there is a chance that the equation may contain a typing error and what I think is correct and my expression has been used in calculations or since this is a highly cited paper , there cannot be any typing error and my doubt is futile. I mean have such typos ever crept earlier in such reputed publications ?

Related if not possible duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/48224/20058

You might be interested in the example in this answer: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/143031/is-one-spelling-mistake-in-the-academic-cv-a-big-deal/143032#143032

I did an undergrad project implementing a system like the one described in this paper, where near the end of the first column of the last page it makes a mistake about what $\Delta n$ is: it should be between air and ITO, not glass and ITO. Point being: it happens, even in fairly well-cited papers. https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-22-18-1373

It is quite possible that to someone with more experience than you have the typo is so obviously a typo that they would not even see much value in correcting it.

It's also possible the the reviewers were so familiar with the subject that they elided the error without realizing it, much like many native English speakers failed to notice the incorrect extra "the" above.

I would go so far as to say that any given research paper is more likely than not to contain at least one typo.

Yes, and there are a lot of reasons for errors. There is also a large machinery for keeping errors out, but they fail regularly enough. Sometimes the error is a misunderstanding by a copy editor. In printed work, even by the printer's employees.
But the biggest issue is probably how hard it is for people to proof read their own material. I struggle with this constantly in my own writing. Once you put a mistake into a paper, you are likely to read over it when proof reading. You tend to "see" what you think should be there, not what actually is there. One of the purposes of intelligent reviewers is to catch such things. But we are all human and the mistakes we make we often repeat.
If the "error" isn't thought of as serious to understanding by a reader, they may just ignore it. Or even, might "see" what they expect to see in such things as formulae. Especially if they are commonly used.
There was once a version of the Bible printed in which, among the other commandments it was stated: Thou shalt commit adultery. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible

I didn't know about this misprint in Bible. Interesting example :)

It was actually "Thou shalt commit adultery." (Unless you put that in as an intentional typo to illustrate your point.)

@RobertFurber, no, just used a modern spelling.

@Kutsit, if the Bible can "contain misprints", then anything can. :) That's your answer. :D

@Buffy I don't want to seem adversarial to you (I already upvoted your answer before commenting the first time), but "shalt" is not a different spelling of "shall". It's a different word, the second person singular form of shall, and at the time it was commonly in use, "shall" was used with I, he, she, it, ye and they. If you consider "shalt" to be a different spelling of "shall", you really ought to consider "is" to be a different spelling of "be".

@RobertFurber: Perhaps more to the point, "thou shall" is grammatically inconsistent, just as "I are" or "we am" would be. In 17th century Early Modern English, the correct form would be either "thou shalt" or "you shall". In modern English, only the latter remains in common use outside deliberately archaizing style and quotations from old sources.

@Coder My favourite typo is from a 1927 edition: "A man may not marry his grandmother's wife". No offence to the LGBT community intended.

The Wikipedia article on Bible errata is a fun read.  My favorite is one about women and "their owl husbands".  There's also the highly apropos "Printers have persecuted me without a cause" (instead of "princes").

"But the biggest issue is probably how hard it is for people to proof read their own material." Yeah. The only way I know is to read each word and formula aloud and slowly, not sooner than 1 month after the paper is finished, not more than 3 pages per day, and to have at least 3 rounds, but even that is not foolproof (however, it gives much better results than the usual style, though after you assume this approach, it makes you prefer not to publish at all :-) ).

No work is perfect; mistakes are everywhere: There's a reasonable chance the equation contains a typo, especially since a different, presumably correct equation is used elsewhere.
You can confirm in various ways. I suggest you start by looking at publications that followed the thesis. You may find the author has already corrected errors. Next, you could email the author: Open by summarising your interest in the equation, explain that the equation is used differently and you suspect a typo, and ask whether that's the case.

Things like that easily happen as the other answers already say. I would like to add one example: The only error I encountered so far in my own diploma thesis is like that: I started with an idea and first implemented the calculations numerically in a way that the underlying equation was hidden quite well. When I wrote up the thesis, I tried to extract the equation and swapped one variable with another. The calculations were still correct, of course. I only found that out recently because I needed the equation again. Nobody of the people involved at the time noticed, probably also because the equation was embedded into a text describing the general idea correctly.

since this is a highly cited paper , there cannot be any typing error and my doubt is futile

While generally true, bear in mind that in the end, the scientific papers are still written by humans, and humans make mistakes all the time, even when burdened by responsibility and reputation. Happen people were perfect, there would have been no vulnerabilities with things we create.
I'm not entirely familiar with the world of PHD academia, yet I'm highly invested into cyber-security. And in cyber-security, there is a common misconception that if something has been secure for a long time (like Windows XP) and/or something is obscured to be attacked (like speaking in French for the means of privacy), then it is secure. Neither is true. And from my own perception, there are both of these misconceptions present in the world of academia (overly trusting the seemingly time-proven sources; overly trusting the academia papers, where it is obscure to get a permission to write one). I hope some of my insight helps you change your perspective  if you deem necessary


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Starting a PhD Program This Fall but Missing a Single Course from My B.S. Degree
Earlier this year, I was accepted into a PhD program that commences this fall. Regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to complete my final undergraduate course because I had already reached the maximum course overload cap. Consequently, I will be unable to provide an official transcript encompassing my entire undergraduate degree and will have to complete my last course for my B.S. this fall. This situation is quite unfortunate as submission of an official final transcript is a prerequisite before enrolling for fall courses.
My initial thought is to communicate with my program advisor, under whose supervision I have worked for the past year, and apprise him of my situation.
I am seeking advice on whether I should attempt to defer my admission to the program, or whether I should explore the possibility of enrolling and concurrently undertaking the outstanding undergraduate course alongside my graduate course. Though every institution is different, I am interested in hearing what you recommend as the next steps.
This matter pertains to a U.S.-based institution, and the degree program is in the field of Biology. I appreciate your help!

Is it common in the US to start a PhD with just a B.S.? I think this might unheard of in Germany, just curious

In the US, starting a PhD program immediately after attaining a Bachelor's degree is a common practice, particularly in fields like the physical sciences or engineering. This approach, however, varies depending upon the discipline. Often, initial years of the doctoral program encompass coursework analogous to a Master's degree, and in some cases, students might obtain a Master's degree "en passant" while working toward the doctorate.

Is the missing course relevant to your PhD field? Or is it to satisfy some unrelated requirement (e.g., 'x' history course, 'y' english courses, etc. required for any BS degree from your university regardless of major)?

Are these two different universities, or the same one?

Did you just realize this now? I think you should have started dealing with the issue in January (semester) or April (quarter) when your final term courses were set. Potential solutions would have been petitioning for an exemption from the cap, auditing and challenging the class, or arranging a summer independent study.

Are you glossing over a different problem? The BS and PhD programs seem to be from different schools. Can you commute between the two? Would the undergraduate school accept an undergraduate course taken at the graduate school to finish the BS?

Contact the university department that accepted you and ask for advice. It might be possible as long as you are otherwise in good standing, which seems likely.
But only they can answer whether you need to defer or can begin as scheduled. Your advisor might be helpful, but can't give a definitive answer. If you can't begin on schedule, then your advisor is probably the right person to plan with. Good luck.

Don't give up, but, unfortunately, this seems to be trouble. Technically, the situation is clear: you will not finish your BSc until end of fall, and you are required to finish your BSc before enrolling into PhD. These are facts (based on your text), and, as is, they seem incompatible with you starting a PhD program at fall. Correspondingly, if there is any possible solution, it will be heavily personalized, and it will depend on your current and the receiving institutes, as well as on your contact people at both of these. So it's hard to give a definitive answer.
You should talk with the head of your department, and/or an ally high enough in the hierarchy. Consult the student office at both universities (if they're not the same), and ask if there's a solution. Make a soft but confident attempt convincing them to bend the rules in your favor somehow. Be ready to present examples of your previous excellence and research perspective, it may help in convincing them. Once you see some light, contact your to-be PhD advisor, inform them about the situation and the possible resolutions, and ask for their aid in the process.
Finally, if no doors open, and it seems to be certain that there is no solution, ask your to-be PhD advisor if it's possible to delay the formal beginnig of your PhD by half a year. Offer that you would still work on the topic like a PhD student until then. Maybe they can come up with a solution.

In addition to the other suggestions, I would also ask your undergraduate department about the possibility of doing a short special topics reading course and whether it could be completed before the end of the fall semester. If you are only missing one or two credits you might be able to complete your requirements with such a course.
I had a similar situation between my undergraduate degree and the start of my PhD, albeit the difficulty for me was that I ended up one credit shy of the honors designation for my major, not the degree as a whole. Nonetheless, a one-credit reading course was the solution my department came up with. I was already going to be working with my undergraduate thesis advisor to finish up some work before I went to grad school, and he offered to supervise the reading course. (I didn't double-count the research I was doing, the reading course was separate). If you had an undergraduate research advisor, it may be worth asking them about the possibility.
It may be a bit late to get someone to agree to a reading course, but if somehow your undergraduate department could swing it, this could be preferable to taking a full course.
You would still need to coordinate with your PhD department of this solution if it worked out, as this would likely delay the time by which you could receive your final transcript. In lieu of an official transcript, you might ask if a signed letter from your undergraduate department confirming completion of all degree requirements, or something like that, would be temporarily acceptable for the purposes of enrolling in fall classes.


text:
PhD supervisor not happy with main project but pushy on side-projects
I'm one year into my PhD, but doing mainly side-projects so far, that brought me a couple of publications in high impact journals. Happy so far.
I have my annual review in a couple of days and my supervisor put my presentation down in front of the whole lab, it was quite harsh, being really critical of me. It was kind of humiliating and demolished my confidence right before I gave my annual presentation. The PPT was previously approved by my other supervisor but I think he wasn't upfront with me on how crap it was.
I'm aware my background reading is not as advanced as I would like but my supervisor is really pushy with some side-projects he wants me to do (I can code quite well which is rare in my field) although I'm struggling to keep up with my actual project.
We have weekly lab meeting, and everytime he mocks that some of the side projects are on the waiting list but all I'm trying to do is catching up with my own project.
I don't know how to communicate with him, I do care about my PhD a lot but unfortunately it becomes increasingly more difficult to dig myself out. My mental state is getting worse as well.
I hope I was able to paint the whole picture here. I felt really unmotivated to work for the past two weeks. Not sure what I'm doing and this kind of scares me. I never thought I'll be a weak PhD, I always got good feedback on my presentations and ability to sell my project however I'm regressing at the moment. Do you have any advice? :)
P.S  Doing my PhD in the UK, have two more years left.

After the side projects brought you publications in high-impact journals, could you re-define your main project to be about them?

How is your supervisor's manner the rest of the time? Some can be really rather cutting in feedback on presentations and the like, while believing they're acting in your best interests, and I wonder if that could be the case here (especially as you've got published work already)

Generally it is better to get strong feedback within your group rather than at a conference presentation. Learn from it and correct going forward. Presentations and public speaking are hard and take work to improve.

Thank you all, my supervisor explicitly said to take off the published data from my annual progress presentation and talk more about my topic. The thing is I didn't spend that much time on my topic so far.

But more than this there is friction between him and my other supervisor. One of them is telling me that's good that I already have so many collaborations and the other one's telling me the lab is taking advantage of me, making me do small computational jobs instead of learning to conduct my own research. It is difficult being in the middle. They are both connected in university so I can't really start ranting around. They also disagree on the questions of my research, if I take one's advise, the other one would call what I'm doing non-sense. My plan B is to become a Python developer.

What is the nature of "being really critical of me"? Did he really criticize you? Or just your presentation? Most grad students have a lot to learn about writing suitable presentations and manuscripts, so getting a large volume of feedback at the beginning (even seemingly harsh feedback) does not necessarily indicate a problem. Also: what exactly is the nature of "mocking" your lack of progress on side projects? Is there some disagreement over how you should be allocating your time?

Well I do feel more confident and resilient after the harsh feedback on my presentation so that's a good point, I'll drop that. But the "mocking" bit stuck with me. They criticise my project, whilst telling me I should move side-projects from the waiting list but I think Lodinn (down) captured the essence of my problem quite well. A post-doc tried to convince me to prioritise side-projects collaborations over my project. These people... my old supervisor was a really nice guy so I started so naively.

It is all too common to be buried under side projects. And it is an important part of being an independent researcher - or, indeed, a functioning adult - to learn to say no. Time management is incredibly hard. Some advisors like to make a point about that, and I have a feeling you have exactly this type of advisor.

"But when do I do my own research if I have four side projects to take care of and you say they all are urgent?!"
"Not my problem."

Learn to set your own priorities and push back on assignments as needed.
There is not much you could do right now except for learning your lesson. Getting harsh critique for your presentation may be a good thing to have. It is supposed to build up resilience and starting to look after yourself first and foremost. These people did not like what you have accomplished, so what? What is in it for you? What do you need them to do for you to have a successful career? How do you go about that?
If you do not put your own research interest first, no one would. Framing it as "taking advantage of you" is another way of saying the same, but it is not about shifting blame, really. This is about you and your research.

Thank you! I'll take that on board. If I change attitude now, I only lost one year. Hopefully two years will be enough for me to save it.

@Sammy Don't stress it, those things take time. Some of those realizations commonly only start to come by the end of the PhD, if not later. Independence carries a huge burden of responsibility, many, if not most, people vastly prefer the "I'll do as I'm told and my life will be good" approach. For PhDs, especially more ambitious ones, it is not the case. And it involves a lot of soul searching. Good luck!

Build confidence
First of all, build confidence in yourself. After all, you have been working so hard and you have publications also. Unmotivating things happen in life, but life must go on. Don't be dishearted. You can gain only if you get up with  more confidence.
Give improved presentation
Once I gave a presentation and professor disliked it. I noted the points he disliked and what he expected. So I requested him that I wanted to improve my presentation. He gave me one week. I studied and made a new presentation improving the points he disliked and adding more he was expecting. He was happy.
Side project as main project
You have some publications in a side project and your supervisor is pushing you to do that. Can you ask your professor to make it as the main project?

Thank you, that is good advise, I don't shy away from critical feedback usually, yes, giving public talks is not easy and it takes practice and experience. In this case, though, I got messy, angry feedback right before having the actual presentation and they left it like that which made me go "what was that?". I was trying to take notes as he was speaking but he started attacking me towards the end of it. That's gonna be two long years ahead.

I'm aware my background reading is not as advanced as I would like but my supervisor is really pushy with some side-projects he wants me to do (I can code quite well which is rare in my field) although I'm struggling to keep up with my actual project.

Be aware that your supervisor is exploiting you for your coding skills, and probably you're happy to help since you feel more in your comfort zone doing it, possibly giving  yourself an excuse to procrastinate  on your main work.
Doing various things in the first year is not unreasonable, but you should be clear with yourself and with your supervisor about where your priorities stand. It's possible that the supervisor will try to keep exploiting you this way. In this case, depending on the relationship, try to make them give you a clear plan, so that they see themselves the problem. If they're unable or if this turn to clear abuse, you may have to go to the ombudsman (or any person with this kind of role).
Btw it's possible to hire programmers, maybe the supervisor should budget that in his projects instead of counting on you. Of course it's not the same cost...


text:
My teammate submitted plagiarized code in a group project
In our class, we have a team project for 3 people. One of my teammates submitted plagiarized code and got caught, which result in my team receiving no credit for the whole project. Then the student who submitted the plagiarized code dropped that class. That group project makes up 15% of the final grade. Our project report states clearly that the plagiarized part is written by that student, and our professor knew it. What should I do? Is it possible that the professor will let us resubmit another version of code and get credit for it?

Why ask some strangers what your professor will do, instead of asking your prof?

@NickS Thanks for replying. I'm planning to do so, just want some suggestions on how to communicate with my professor.

Suppose that another student found themselves in a similar situation at a different university a year from now.   Do you think that any answer that took into consideration the specific rules at your institution would be applicable to that student's situation?  I've voted to close on the grounds that question depends too much on your particular circumstances.

Been there before - I lost credits (not that much, it just canceled a good grade for my task) due to a teammate plagiarizing. The point is that teamwork is not "I do task 1, You do task 2 and we throw this together in the last moment and just get it working".
I didn't understand back then that I should have helped my teammate who was clearly overwhelmed (which I understood before) with her tasks to solve her problems or clearly dissociated myself from her before trying to hand the results of both our tasks together.
Whether your university rules/professor etc. will allow you to re-submit the solution after you believably explain them that you had no knowledge of this (i hope that is true, and that the guidelines don't require you to do plagiarism checking on the submitted work!) is something which can not be answered here and depends on the type of project, the importance and relative amount of the plagiarized code, how clear it was that it wasn't his/her work (e.g. like in my case: nothing is there in the afternoon before handing in the solution and on the next morning, a 20 page report is ready - should have been a warning sign for me), the way in which the teams were assigned (e.g. somebody whom you clearly had not contact with, despite your efforts to meet, and who kept you updating via email continuously on how great everything is going may be a different case than a partner with whom you were doing homework for several years) and last but not least on the written rules of your university/faculty/chair/lab course etc.
The best strategy would be to communicate to the supervisor(s) and clearly apologize for your failure to review the results in detail as a team, make clear that while you should/could have been aware of the issue, you actually were not, and politely ask if it is possible to deduct this in someway from the grade instead of rejecting the submission completely - do not threaten the prof with a lawyer, i am pretty sure that just rejecting the solution is within the range of acceptable options.


text:
Required reviews completed vs ready for decision elsevier
In elsevier journal publication process, what is the difference between "required reviews completed" and "ready for decision"?

From the outside, it's difficult to tell. Two possibilities that spring to mind are:

The journal requires two reviews, but regularly invites four (this makes sense because reviewers decline to review, never respond to the invitation, agree but don't submit a review by the deadline, etc). Two of the reviewers have completed their reviews, but as long as there's a reviewer who did not explicitly decline still invited, the status remains as "required reviews complete". However if all the reviewers have either submitted a review or have declined to review, then the status updates to "ready for decision".
The journal is set up so that the handling editor makes a recommendation which is then forwarded to the associate editor/editor-in-chief to make a decision. "Required reviews complete" would indicate that the handling editor hasn't made a recommendation, while "ready for decision" means (s)he has.

Either way there's nothing to do except wait.


text:
How to complete PhD when your advisor knows very little about your subject area
My advisor is very young full professor who has been an advisor for only less than 10 years. She has many diverse projects. The project which I've started is 1 year old and this field is quite New to her and she is not so good at it.
However, the main problem is that she does not have enough time to help me. She is chair of academic courses and has lot of industry projects. So currently she is more like manager managing money and resources for projects.
So my problem is:

Whom should i approach when I'm stuck ?
I have many ideas, but i find very little utility in discussing with her as she understands nothing. What should i do ?

Thanks in advance

Ten years sounds like plenty of time for your supervisor to become an experienced researcher. If they are young, don't discredit their abilities as a supervisor. If they are busy — well, all professors are busy. It's unlikely a replacement supervisor would help, there.
Most PhD projects stray sooner or later from the comfort zone of their supervisor — the very nature of a PhD research project implies that there will be novel work completed. It's also not the role of the supervisor to solve technical problems on behalf of the student (in my institution I receive less than 2 hours per week ‘workload allocation’ for my PhD students).
Trust that your PhD supervisor can guide you through the process of completing and writing up the project, and bring additional people into the project that can assist from a technical perspective. One of the best ways to do this is to contact active researchers in your field and invite them to be co-authors on your papers in exchange for technical input. They might not be able to put in any more time than your actual supervisor, but their different perspective might be enough to see you through.

Whom should i approach when I'm stuck ?

How would we know? We have no idea who the candidates are.
I would suggest identifying someone locally to help you navigate this.

Ideally, the professor herself, if she is reasonable. Obviously you'll need to raise this very carefully, to avoid antagonizing her or suggesting that you cannot meet her expectations without "extra" supervision
Her past or more senior students may be wiling to give advice if they have had similar problems with her
The graduate advisor, or another trusted professor

Some possible solutions to explore:

Is there a post-doc, senior student, or collaborator in industry who could be formally assigned as your day-to-day supervisor or mentor?
Could a co-advisor be named?
Could she promise you a weekly or bi-weekly appointment? (though this may not help you, if she is not helpful)
Could you change your thesis topic? (not sure if you are willing to do this)

Failing that, it may be a matter of looking for a better advisor.


text:
What is the standard scientific conference poster size and quality?
What is an ideal poster size for scientific conference?
Should it be printed on paper or flex or photo paper?

Another material option is cloth.

Conferences should tell you what poster size you should use - the ideal poster size is 'one that will fit on the poster area assigned to you by the conference, without being too small'.
Normal paper is a bit lightweight for travel, most of my conference posters have been printed on thicker paper (which may have been photo paper; generally, I've just gone to the campus printing facility and asked them to print the poster, with no input from me as to what material the poster should be printed on). I've seen a few posters printed on flex, and while it's something of an unusual choice in my field, I can see the benefits in storage and transportation.


text:
Would an internship at a private company in India make me competitive for post-docs in the US?
I am on the verge (4-5 months) of completing my PhD in micro-scale heat transfer engineering in India. My long-term goal is to get a post-doc in the US or Europe and remain in academia long term.
I have two offers for my next step:

A 1-year post-doc at an Indian university
A 3-month internship at the heat transfer research division of an multi-national corporation

My question is: to what extent would the internship help me become competitive for US/European post-docs? Is this sort of industry experience valuable, compared to a more traditional post-doc?

I don't know what your problem is. Three month vs. one year. Ask yourself, what can you accomplish in 3 months? It'll take one week for you to get used to the environment. You can do almost nothing in the last week because you need to wrap up. So, only 10 weeks left if you choose to do the 3 month thing, regardless it's postdoc or an internship at a company. You do not have a dilemma.

The only advantage (to you) is that you can list experience working for MNC for 3 months. Frankly, no one cares. What everybody cares in Academia is what research you have accomplished. 3 month at an MNC is useful only if you want to work in industry because you'll have 3 month experience. Experience really counts in industry.

@Nobody Your comments have been very helpful. I now have a much clearer picture. In a way, you have answered the question. So if you post an answer, I am ready to accept it if this question is opened.


text:
How to help PhD students when they get blocked (for months) trying to figure out an extremely complicated technical procedure?
My Ph.D. student is stuck on some technicality of their project. It's taken months already, and there is no good progress. The problem lies beyond their project focus and skill set. Thus, even after repeatedly helping the student, the progress remains so slow that we might be unable to finish the remaining project.
I assess that the problem lies in the complexity of the procedure. Lots of small details need to be carefully arranged for it to work. I can do it myself, but it's very hard to explain.
The choice I see is

Continue with regular meetings, try to explain as much as possible, and accept that we won't finish the project.
Redefine the problem by, e.g., changing assumptions so it becomes more tractable for the student.
I solve this part of the problem and then use that knowledge to better nudge the student in the right direction.
I solve this part of the problem and hand it to the student so that we can go to the next project phase.

My view on those options are

Risky because in my position, I'm too dependent on a project to have good results
It Would be the best way in theory, but not feasible in this case.
It seems pedagogically ok but possibly still time-consuming.
It seems pedagogically problematic as I overwrite months of work.

When I talk with senior colleagues, the conversation is not helpful because they would never touch any practical work themselves anyway. So, they only consider 1. or 2.
What would be your advice in this situation?

My Ph.D. student is stuck on some technicality of their project → are these technicalities part of his project? Are they expected to be able to do them? My PhD was in particle physics and a technicality was that the accelerator needed to be on for me to word on data - but I would have a hard time finding the 'on/off' button (and I was not interested where it is or how it works because it was a technical part (an important one, though) that was outside of my work). Just in case: I am half-jocking with the on/off button :)

Is it possible to hire a tech person to do the tricky procedure?

@DanielR.Collins : In my case, it's ok for me to do the tricky procedure. I know how to do it quickly. The question was more on the supervision and pedagogical side.

How long did it take you to successfully complete the procedure the first time? Is it necessary for the student to go through all that?

You talk about what is "pedagogically ok" vs. "pedagogically problematic."

If this were an undergraduate teaching situation, I would agree that students need to solve their homework on their own with only nudges from you.
As I argued here, the same goes for PhD students learning foundational skills (e.g., debugging code).
But it sounds like this isn't that -- this is an esoteric procedure that is so complicated that even you can barely explain it.

So, I would suggest that you (temporarily) stop thinking of yourself as a teacher and start thinking of yourself as a more senior collaborator. What is the best way for the two of you, as collaborators, to make progress? In other words: if the roles were reversed and your collaborator knew how to do a tricky procedure that you didn't know how to do, what would you prefer?
My guess is that it's mostly #4. Either tell the PhD student exactly how to do it, and why (not just nudges), or do it yourself and then explain it. Either way, the student will know how to do it next time. And you'll be able to move past this difficult, esoteric procedure and onto something more interesting, which is good for both of you.

It seems...problematic as I overwrite months of work.

I would look at this from a different perspective:

Maybe you misjudged in telling your student to solve this problem on their own. In that case, the sunk cost fallacy applies, and you should cut your losses (and explain this honestly to the student).
Or maybe you didn't really do anything wrong, and this problem turned out to be more difficult than you expected. That happens all the time in research, and is a good learning opportunity in itself. If you hadn't known how to do this procedure yourself, you might have added a collaborator who does know rather than waste months with both of you stubbornly trying to figure it out.

I would also throw out there - if it is hard to explain, then explaining it well might actually be a contribution. In econ, a lot of people have to learn to code BLP models, so Nevo wrote up a guide for RAs. It was so widely used that it got turned into a paper in the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy.

Great answer, especially the "sunk cost fallacy" note which is where so many of us make mistakes.  Never be afraid to admit it's time to restart.

Similar problems often arise in mathematics and in other fields that need programming. For a mathematician or computer scientist, I would expect the student to works for months on solving technical issues (finding a formal proof, debugging software) but if a physicist or engineer uses mathematics, programming, or any machine to get results for their actual research question, then they should not spend more then a month on the peripheral technical issues. Instead, they should work on their actual question.
So I would start with #3 and switch to #4 when time passes. If possible, #2 might be good, even better if the student proposes the adjusted research question by himself. Often this is not possible due to project scope. #1 offloads the problem to the student, he might not finish his thesis for reasons he is not responsible.

Yes, the distinction on whether the issue is central or peripheral beneficial. In this case, the issues became peripheral, and there is not so much benefit for the student to solve this.

The problem, in my eyes, is a misunderstanding of what a PhD. thesis is meant to teach and demonstrate.
The successful dissertation, and associated research, cannot always discover or build something innovative and profound. There simply aren't enough successes available at any given time to give every competent PhD. student one to write up.
Rather, the purpose of a PhD. thesis is to demonstrate that, if one had discovered something innovative or profound, one is capable of writing it up. Failures will outnumber successes. Can the student write up the failure in such a manner as to be a meaningful resource for future researchers, in steering them away from dead ends. A student who can do that, has properly earned the right to a doctorate degree in their specialty.
The key elements of doing so include, at least:

Describing the state of the field when the thesis is being written.
Outlining the research taken, and hypotheses investigated, in a precise and accurate manner while still being sensibly concise and detailed.
Detailing any perceived reasons for failure; and how subsequent researchers could avoid those hazards.
Listing possible future directions in which research could be pursued.

In truth, 90% or more of research is comprised of dead ends. Successes are rare. Building a strong brick, in the foundation upon which future researchers will stand, is sufficient to earn the degree.
Nearly any fool can write up a success; the true essence of science is learning both how to write up your failures, and how to not be embarrassed doing so.
Banting and Best didn't win the Nobel Prize for being the first researchers to isolate insulin; their colleague down the hall was. They won the Nobel Prize because they had taken meticulous notes of their failures; and were the first team to both do it a second time and describe to others how it was done.

Wasting the time of a PhD student by letting them fail with technical details will not earn them a PhD thesis. Often enough, the result is just "with our setup/implementation, we were not able to achieve something". It could be a wrong setup or a bug.

I am a PhD student myself, but I have some experience supervising master and bachelor theses. To decide the next steps, I would recommend you to split the knowledge required to complete the project into "basic" knowledge and "domain" knowledge.
Basic knowledge are the skills and information anyone would be required to have or know to start the project and show good rate of progress. Because this is your project, you should have all the baseline knowledge, but not all PhD student would have all baseline knowledge.
The domain knowledge is something required to complete the specific task. This knowledge someone learns mostly during the work on the task. Even you may not have all the domain knowledge.
Ideally, you would accept a student who has all or most of the basic knowledge. Then you need to intensively teach only the few missing parts and the student can focus on solving interesting problems in the project.
Important difference between basic and domain knowledge is that teaching basic knowledge saves the students much more time than it costs you to teach. Whereas, with domain knowledge you reach point of diminishing returns in terms of time investment into the project.
Your student seems to be stuck on a "technicality", which you know how to do "quickly". If you classify the missing knowledge as "basic", then you need to bootstrap the student as quickly as possible, so that he or she actually can work in the interesting part of the problem. The reason is that being stuck on a basic problem kills your motivation, and you should try to avoid it.
On the other hand, you stress that the procedure is tricky and seem to struggle with formalizing the process. That is rather characteristic of the domain knowledge. Then you need to decide if you can write some protocol, to make the procedure more reproducible to demote this knowledge to basic knowledge.
If this is domain knowledge that cannot be demoted to basic knowledge by some manual, protocol or a script, then you are in a pickle. The project probably over-promised or you picked a wrong student for the task. If you do heavy-weight teaching, you will waste too much time. If you do the implementation yourself, you will lose time and the student will not learn. If you continue without change, the project and student will probably fail. At this moment you probably need to ask for help, if it is not too late, or reduce the scope of the project to make it manageable. In both cases you probably want to inform somebody who depends on the project results about upcoming delays.
Do not worry about "overwriting months of work", that is sunken cost fallacy. Your goal is to have the project completed on time with good results. The students can learn may more by solving "interesting" problems.


text:
How can one apply to graduate school if their undergraduate university is uncooperative in providing the required information?
Asking on behalf of a relative:
I graduated in the early 1990s from a relatively well-known university in the Middle East, and since then have been working at various companies in North America. I have not studied at any institution since then, and have progressed to senior management level in my field. Now, I want to apply to graduate school and obtain a Master's degree. I found out that my undergraduate university, over the decades, has lost a considerable amount of funding and is no longer at all reputable. I have a physical copy of my transcript and my diploma from when I graduated, but despite a month of making attempts to contact representatives from my undergraduate university, I have not heard anything from them as to how I can retrieve an official transcript for post-graduate applications. The website for the university is very run-down and has not been updated in years, with broken links everywhere. There is no student portal to request academic information or anything of the like. Even if I go in person, I am having doubts that they even still have my records on file.
I am not willing to repeat my undergraduate. Is there anything I can do to go to grad school?

Is it possible to make a visit to the school(s) you want to attend?

Have you tried multiple ways of contacting the university, including telephone and postal mail?

In what field are you looking to study for a masters?

What masters? Likely a department will be more interested in the 30 years of experience for a master of business, administration, public policy, etc. - talk to the department.

Thirty years out of school is a long time and some places will consider you unready to continue. Not all, and it depends on what you want to study and how your experience is relevant to that. There are "executive masters" program at some places that won't mind the gap.
I suggest that you make a visit if possible to some place(s) you'd like to attend and talk to people in an appropriate department about your readiness.
With regard to the transcripts, I suggest you contact, preferably in person, but somehow, the "registrar's office" at a candidate school and explain the situation, pointing them to the old institution and showing them what you have for records. I suspect you will get mixed reactions from different places, but it is worth a try.


text:
Is it OK to have a preliminary study as its own chapter in a PhD thesis?
My PhD thesis has the following structure.

Introduction [5 pages]
Lit Review [50 pages]
Project 1: Preliminary study [25 pages]
Project 1: Extended study [30 pages]
Project 2: Preliminary study [25 pages]
Project 2: Extended study [30 pages]
Conclusion + outlook [10 pages]

Is it OK to have a preliminary study as its own chapter?

why do you already know the number of pages?

While this is really a question for your advisor, I'd suggest, contrary to the answer of tschwarz, that this is fine. If the preliminary study for the second project gave you important insights that led to the extended study then, yes, present it that way.
It might be important, even necessary, to do so if the parameters needed to be changed for the extended study.
But, run this by your advisor who hopefully has better knowledge of the work as a whole.

You definitely should not call it "Preliminary Study". An introductary chapter could make a lot of sense. Having topics in a two chapter sequence looks a bit odd. Since you do not tell us how you understand the difference between preliminary and extended study, it is hard to come up with better names. However, having a thesis with five chapters is just as OK as having one with seven. You just need to structure your material in a way that makes sense.


text:
Submitting material to PhilPapers without a university affiliation
I am not currently affiliated with a university.
Can I submit a paper to PhilPapers?
When I started to create an account with a personal email address, I got this message:

The email address that you entered is not from a recognized university or college domain. If you continue, your submissions to Phil* services will be subject to review and limitations. For this reason, we strongly recommend using an academic email when possible.

What does it mean that submissions "will be subject to review and limitations"?

https://philpapers.org/help/faq.html#sources have at look at the FAQs, you will find info there, see: "Why do you want to know my affiliations and background?"

@Sursula-they- Would you please clarify? I had read that before posting my question. It explains certain limitations on visibility of submissions and posting to forums. However, it does not explain limitations on the submission process or what is meant by "review", so it does not seem to answer my question.

"it helps to determine posting privileges in the forums (posting is unlimited forphilosophy faculty/PhDs and graduate students and restricted for others)" so this clearly refers to the limitations - if you are not affiliated with a university, you will have limitations in forum postings

@Sursula-they- I understand but that is not my question. I am asking about submitting a paper, not posting in a forum.

What are you trying to submit? A bibliographic reference to a paper already published? A paper? What?

@Buffy I guess preprint is the best word for it.

This is mostly a guess, but it accords with a few other sites. The requirement is most likely a "sanity" check to try to weed out cranks before they get into the system. I'd guess that philosophy, being a broad field, draws more than the normal share of cranks.
Try to find someone, such as an editor, that you can ask about the limitations. They may want some assurance that you aren't a crank, such as a recommendation from an academic.
But the limitation could also be on how often or how much you submit. And a review is natural for most publishers, though less so for preprint publishers.
Most journals are happy to post things from non-academics, so I assume the you won't be closed out entirely. But you may have to work your way in to the community slowly.
It is important that they do allow you to continue and don't immediately slam the door.
It does, however, seem that PhilPapers is primarily an index and bibliography of material published elsewhere, rather than directly submitted work. They describe themselves as a service to academics.  While it also does preprints, you might think about submitting to one of the journals they index.

Can you try reaching out to them over email, and then social media like Facebook/Linkedin (if they don't reply within reasonable time).
The thing is, they would know more about their policies and how to explain it to users.

You email them if you want the bounty.

Hi. Thanks. I just gave some input based on what I have heard about a similar platform, Arxiv. I marked question as community wiki so that people can freely add/edit (believe this will hamper the "bounty", as was prompted on the screen before I submitted)

Thanks, my comment was tongue-in-cheek.


text:
PhD personal statement include controversial past
I grew up in an abusive family wherein some family members continuously manipulated and exploited me. And around 10+ years ago I engaged with some violent resistance.
Later I reflected on this experience, engaged with the issue academically, and wrote on some non-academic (but intellectual) magazine to discuss deeper issues of family relationships in modern society and knowledge production.
I would like to mention this experience and the writing about it, to show my capability to engage with personal issues academically, disseminate the reflected knowledge to wider public and to grow up from it.
Will this draw bad impression among the admission committee?
(Background information: I am applying to a social sciences programme)

Your topline asks about a "personal statement", but you have it tagged statement-of-purpose. These are very (very) different. Please clarify where you might want to include such statements.

Will you be continuing to work on abuse in your social sciences program?

Is there any risk you might be taking by not mentioning the past events you’re describing? For example, do you have a criminal record that you are required to declare as part of your application, and which therefore it might make sense to explain as a preemptive measure?

You mention yourself that your past is controversial. The answer to your question is in the definition of that word:

controversial: giving rise or likely to give rise to controversy or public disagreement.

This means that different people (including prospective employers) will have different opinions about it: some may see your past as an experience beneficial to your research, but others could be afraid that it might have negative effects on your work.
The answer is therefore: It depends on the employer. So what should you do? I have some advice, but not everybody may share this opinion:
Although your past may serve you as an inspiration to your research, I do not believe that your personal experience is, or should be, relevant to your ability to produce sound scientific results.
You can demonstrate your (writing) experience by referring to the articles, but I see no benefit in mentioning your "controversial past" anywhere in the application: it is not relevant to the application but it is relevant to the articles you have written in the past, so keep it there. During a job interview you can discuss your articles or your past in more detail if it becomes relevant.

I would not.
The reason is that the personal involvement will not make you a better researcher - if there is any impact at all it may cloud your vision and the perception on the scientific merit of your efforts. Such a statement is IMHO going to increase the fear of bias in your work.
The second point is that being subjected to abuse as a child may be perceived to be more unstable and more prone to having psychological problems, associated with all the prejudices which society may have.

@DanielHatton: Wow, there is a significant Difference between using participant observation willingly as a tool and being motivated by an personal bad experience,

I will warn you that it could, not every admissions committee is as open-minded as they should be.
For example, I disclosed my health issues and that was fairly questioned by the admissions committee but luckily my advisor was supporting my application was there and shut them down.
So if this is an important part of you, that you feel you need to be open about then go for it, but just know it could hurt your chances of getting in.
(Making people aware of my health issues before going somewhere was important to me which is why I took the risk of putting it in, I did not want to get stuck somewhere where people would look down on me for them).


text:
Prospective supervisor not responding email before an important deadline
I have applied to a PhD place in Canada and I have a prospective supervisor already. He has been showing interests in supervising me and my project.
There is a major funding deadline next Monday and I intend to apply of that scholarship.
Two weeks ago, the prospective supervisor had a chat with me about my PhD application - it's informal, but it's a also a procedural thing.
I know I didn't perform very well in the chat (but many other PhD candidates told me, "that's why you need the PhD training, in order to perform well").
There are also some other issues with my application (not something that I have control over), which had to be sorted out.
Anyways, so after that chat, my prospective supervisor has no longer responded to any of my emails. I don't know what to do - whether I should proceed to submitting that funding application, as he has not given me any advice as to how I could revise my proposal (which I sent to him before the chat). I don't even know whether he still supports this funding application.
Then I wrote to him and say that he could be honest and tell me what's happening, and if my application to the programme was eventually unsuccessful (for no matter what reasons) and so I could decide what to do up next. But he is still silent.
I think what bothers me is that, as a full professor, if he doesn't want to supervisor a student anymore, or if the admission process really has some hiccups, why couldn't he just be honest and be open? I have been working for this submissions day and night. But if I know that the professor no longer supports the application, I would not waste my time on this anymore and move on with other important things. I have thought that maybe he had some personal issues - but perhaps he could have also written a sentence to let me know so?
I recognise similar things happen all the time. Numerous threads on stack exchange tell stories about how potential supervisor not replying to emails that invite PhD supervision. Professors promised reading proposal for students but turned out not responding any of the students' emails - which also happened to myself, too. These just happen all the time.
I have worked in several other sectors before and really academics is the worst in such culture - not replying emails if they don't want to do something (e.g. having no interests in a PhD project). Of course I have come across very nice professors before, who, even though having no interests in my topic, still bothered to reply and reject. And of course I completely understand academics are very busy so cannot reply everything, but so are other workers in other sectors, who also work after normal work hours. I start to think this ignoring culture is some sort of arrogance. And as I said, it's really not so serious in other industries.
It's not my intention to offend any academics - so please enlighten me (or the rest who have the same question) the real reasonS why professors don't bother to explain to students they have no interests in them?

I cannot speak for all professors in the world. Professors are humans, and humans differ from one another.
My observation is that often professors are interested in working with new students, but they also have other things to do. The problem is often that compared to a potential student virtually every other person in academia has more leverage over the professor's time. Professors aren't all powerful; they are a small part of a big bureaucracy. It is not just that their current students, other professors, administrators, postdocs, secretaries, etc. can "force" the professor to spent more time on their problems than on the potential student, it is also that they know how the bureaucracy works, how to ask, what to expect, when and how to put the right kind of pressure. This is subtle knowledge that potential students (understandably) don't have. So the potential students end up at the bottom of the priorities pile. Not because the professor considers them unimportant, but because others have the power and knowledge to "skip the line". It is not that these "others" are evil. They probably don't even know they are skipping a line. They just work within a bureaucracy by the rules of that bureaucracy. And often it is legitimate that they skip the line. Many professors feel more responsible for their current students than to potential new students. So if they have to choose between spending time to get funding for a current student so that (s)he can finish or spending time so a new student can start, they will chose for the current student.
Also consider that all of this is new and exciting/frightening for you, but the professor has seen this a hundred or more times before. So many things that look urgent and important to you, don't look that urgent to the professor.
I am not saying that all that is a good thing. All I am trying to do is give you some perspective on what is going on from the point of view of the professor. From your question you seem to imply that there is some form of bad faith from "the professors". I would argue that you don't need bad intentions for bad things to happen.

Thx for your thorough reply. Honestly, I appreciate a lot as I learn more about the everyday life of an academics. Yet, it still hasn't solved my core question. Academics have priorities and face challenges (agree!), but so do workers in other sectors. Assuming ppl form other sectors lead as tough a work life as academics (as I said I worked in many different sectors before), why is such email ignoring culture more prevalent in the academia? Is writing a line to reject a PhD supervisory invitation really that difficult (not including those who really miss out the email or sick, etc.)?

And - intentional ignoring does happen (what about those students who write twice or three times to invite?). Why do academics have to assume the invitee need to learn the 'culture'/'manner', that, if they don't get a response it will most likely be a 'Sorry I am not interested in your topic.'? Look at how ppl respond to similar questions on these non-reply on stack exchange, they exactly tell question askers to assume the professors are not interested, if not, call them up.

From my perspective, that's exactly the arrogance. The supervisory inviter does not even worth for a line (maybe 10-20 seconds). I understand, yes, they read and read and read and write for long hours and many other priorities are on their lists, but again, why is this culture worse in the academia? So, I am arguing there is some bad HABIT and mentality (not necessarily, but may involve, intention) that constitutes the bad culture.

If you think you already know the answer, then why waste your and our time by asking a question when you are only interested in an answer that confirms your prior believes?

No, I don't know the answer. My question is, why is academia different from many other sectors out there, in terms of email communication with less (or not) important  people?

And, I also want to point out, a question and a complaint, sometimes are just two sides of one coin. Particularly, I am not speaking just on my behalf, but also on many ppl's out there with the same "??" in their minds (again look at the appearance of similar Qs and responses in stack change). Why must we/they assume (in most cases) these non-replies as 'no I am not interested?'. Is there an injustice/inequality in here? If yes, why?


text:
Is EF-SET English Certificate accepted?
Is EF-SET English Certificate accepted for higher education or jobs across the world? Did anyone try using that? I have not yet seen any place where they accept this.

In my experience, no.

The EF-SET English certificate is a test you take online without any supervision. From the EF-SET FAQ:

If the test is available to the public online, how is it secured from cheating?
Because it is intended as a learning tool, using the EF SET to its fullest advantage is the learner’s own responsibility. [...]. As an adaptive English test that covers multiple CEFR levels from beginner to advanced, the EF SET is designed to be useful to an individual as a measure of growth in proficiency over time and as a proxy to other expensive, high-stakes English tests like TOEFL, TOEIC or IELTS. To take advantage of this design, we advise that the test taker follow the timing guidelines and not try to cheat the test.

The homepage of EF-SET has three "buttons":

Check your students
Evaluate your employees
Check your English

So the EF-SET test is intended either as a self-assessment tool, or as a tool that can be used by universities or companies to evaluate their students/employees, in which case the company or university will take care of the supervision.
If you come with an EF-SET certificate that you got by yourself, the institution has no way of knowing that it was really you who took the test. Therefore, it does not make much sense to accept this as proof of English knowledge. I have never seen this accepted at a university.

I Was told to get the EFSET test from a company abroad and send the certificate to evaluate my English level. So I would say that it has some power. In fact, its a good test and very reliable if you are serious IMO.

I use EF SET to enroll in Japanese University (Monbu Scholarship) and has been accepted by the University for further step. Now I still waiting the announcement for the scholarship in June.

FYI, I’ve been accepted by MEXT and got the scholarship last year (2021)...now I studying at Japan university and next year will be graduate in March. Good luck to everyone!


text:
Quoting Keynes in a lecture
I am teaching mathematical statistics and part of this is large sample theory. I would like to discuss some methods that do not focus on asymptotics and refer to J. M. Keynes quote

In the long run, we are all dead.

I am a bit afraid some students might find this quote a bit too strong.
 Could this quote be considered a bit too strong to be presented to 3rd year undergraduate students in the UK?

If you use the quote, in the long run you should be okay...

I realize that Keynes is a more famous and accomplished person than I am, but I would like to rework the quote.  "In the long run, no Earth based enterprise is sustainable."; "In the long run, Hawaii will sink into the Pacific and this will effect the electoral college."; "in the long run, the Sun will expire and solar based energy will no longer be viable."

@emory Yeah... Keynes's version was better.

Could you elaborate a bit more for those of us who don't understand why this saying this might be a problem at all?

As long as there's a purpose, if you just come across like you are trying to shock them they will just ignore it as they don't care, but if there is a reason for working it in, it will be fine.

A bit of cultural difference perhaps, but why is this even a question? They are adults.

3rd year undergraduate!? When will they be ready for it, when they are post-docs? Are you ready for it, yet, OP? :)

In the UK, out of all places, you should be fine.

@Szabolcs I have the same misunderstanding as you. However, the fact that OP asks the question suggests that there exist people for which this quote could be "puzzling".

Snowflake Generation detected (including the OP, of course).

What do you mean by "too strong"?

"In the long run, we are all dead with probabiity 1"?

Opinion, of course, but I think it is fine. It is often quoted in fact. While your students probably still think of themselves as immortal, they almost certainly aren't. No one should really take offense at basic biological certainties.
It is, in fact, a corrective on much illogical thinking, which is why it has lasted.

"While your students probably still think of themselves as immortal, they almost certainly aren't."
I confess, I laughed out loud at this statement.

Every time I hear Keynes' "In the long run we're all dead" it seems to be justifying some short-sighted thinking. In the long-run, there's future you, and you may well have a family, and you certainly have a community, and you will one day leave a legacy - that statement reveals a lack of regard for those things.

@AaronHall while that is true, there is no point in only focusing on the far future and forgetting the here and now, which is the point of the quote. I think that it should not be seen as advocating unbounded hedonism, hence the curt and dry wording. But, yes, it tends to be misused a bit.

I always hear jokes about young adults thinking they're immortal, but when I was a young adult, I didn't know anone who actually thought this... do adults not remember being young? Of course young people know they're going to die, they just don't think about it often. Healthy adults don't either... It wouldn't be "shocking" to anyone to mention death.

@only_pro Nobody thinks that young adults sit around declaring to one another "We are immortal!" When people say that young adults believe themselves to be immortal, they mean that young adults often behave rather recklessly, without really considering the consequences of their actions, as if they were immortal and those consequences don't exist.

@DavidRicherby I understand that, I've just always thought it was condescending to say to kids, "you're not immortal" or some variant of that. Thought so when I was a kid, still think so now. And it's all I heard as a kid. How about "Think about the consequences of your actions!" or something like that?

@only_pro OK but that's not what's being proposed. The quote is a reflection on "the long term", not on the students.

@AaronHall Your long run isn't long enough. By the lights of the universe, that's the incredibly short run. In the long run it's not just you that's gone, it's you, everyone you've ever met, all memory and record of you, and everything you've ever touched or left a mark on.

As a British person, I don't understand why you'd even consider that this quote might be inappropriate.  If you feel that it's a good way to get your message across, there's no reason not to use it. However, if you're uncomfortable with it, for whatever reason, don't use it.

Writers often talk about the need to "kill your darlings". This refers to the fact that it's often easy to become enamored with one's own clever ideas and turns of phrase, whether or not they actually accomplish what is needed in the larger context.
Following this advice, I would suggest preparing the lecture without the phrase, simply to see how useful it really is.  Come back to it a couple of days later, when you've had time enough to detach a bit, and see how well the lecture works. If the phrase is actually helpful and meaningful (as opposed to merely attention-grabbing), you can always add it back in then.

I would add that doses of "merely attention grabbing" stunts can be an important ingredient in lectures even if the attention grabbing isn't directly related to the material. (In this case the joke directly relates to the tools of the trade though.)

The advice to kill one’s darling is a bit strong, don’t you think?

Your students are not children. They are about twenty years old. If they have not yet accepted the idea of death, it's their problem, not yours. You are being paternalistic from trying to shield them from something so mundane.

Not in the UK, but I was in my 3rd year of college when I took an economics course that used that quote and that was the least of my concerns about that particular course.  Of course, I feel like you'd be doing your students a bit of disservice if you don't provide a least a little of the context (which since you mention statistic / asymptotics I'm assuming you're aware of).  What I remember is that the context was someone pointing out that following Keynesian economics, in the long run, you'll just have inflation and that was Keynes' reply to that critique. (To which I can envision another professor pointing out "and that's why Keynes was so often invited to all the parties")

No, the context is even simpler. A larger quote helps: "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again.". He was merely arguing for interventionist policies, against the classical economic position that interventions do more harm than good (and that waiting for the ocean to calm down is better than trying to force it to calm down; curious Keynes would use an example where we don't try to fight :)).

To Keynes, inflation wasn't even a consequence - it was a tool of his interventionist policies. For example, as a way to reduce the real earnings of people who aren't worth their real wages, without lowering the nominal wages or having them fired. He also stipulated that spending should be encouraged, while investment should be discouraged - if money loses value over time (monetary inflation), people are more likely to spend their income on consumption goods than, say, saving up for their retirement.

I have previously taught a similar course in the UK and would use a quote like this without concern.  In my experience UG students are totally unconcerned about their eventual demise.
However, the point of including such aphorisms is that they allow you, the lecturer, to convey something with a bit more interest/ passion / excitement, your students probably won’t get much out of them directly. Thus, if you are uncomfortable about this quote then it isn’t going to serve its purpose and you should drop it.


text:
Could the conference presentation be a part of my abstract？
I wrote the abstract according to my thesis but realized that it's too much for a conference presentation. Could I use a part of the abstract to present？

I mean, emmm, I wrote an abstract according to my whole thesis. However, when I was preparing my presentation, I realized it was too much for a 15 minitues' presentation. I am wondering if I could use part of the data to present, in other words, some information in abstract will be neglected while some will be stressed. Does it work?

I am not quite sure I understand your question ... of course you can present your PhD(?) thesis at a conference and you are also allowed to shorten the abstract in order to fit the conference requirements.
But in general I would rather recommend to re-write the abstract completely because shortened texts tend to be sub-optimal and you might also run into the issue of self-plagiarism if you take (parts of) your abstract with copy&paste.
If by "Could I use a part of the abstract to present" you mean if you could use a part of your ideas/results etc to present then the answer is also yes. There is no rule that you have to present your whole work at once - often it is even better to present one (shorter) clear message at a conference than trying to get the whole thesis into a presentation.
---- EDIT ----
After clarification of the question ("Does it matter if the content of my conference presentation does not (fully) match the abstract that I have submitted?"):
No, it does not matter. Most people will not even realise it. If you like you can say a sentence or two in the beginning that you will focus on a specific sub-part of your abstract (and you are happy to discuss the other aspects during the coffee break etc). But it is up to you!

Thank you for your answer. I have already submitted my abstract and it has been accepted. I don't think I can make any changes to my abstract at the moment. However, I'm wondering whether my presentation will be questioned if I don't present all information in the abstract. It seems that the presentation does not correspond with the abstract.

In my experience, no one cares if your abstract and presentation do not match entirely.