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What to do if professor comments on candidate's age in an admissions interview?
I'm 34. I received a degree in computer in 2008 and have been running a business ever since. Recently, I decided to apply for a postgraduate program in healthcare in January.
To show that I was interested in health care, I completed a one year certificate course in a related field last year. A few days after I had submitted my application form and two strong recommendations, they arranged an interview for me.
The interviewers were friendly at first, and the questions were not very tough.
I was feeling confident until the senior interviewer (Prof. Joe) suddenly asked me if I wanted to become a nurse. I said yes. He smiled but then told me that all successful applicants last year were twenty something (at least 12 years younger than me.) I was taken aback by his comment. Was that a negative connotation?
Edited to add:

I had read the professional recognition information on their web. The programme is accreditated by the nursing council and graduates are eligible to apply for registration as nurse, so I could not understand why he asked if I wanted to become a nurse.
The certificate course tutor had told us about the average age of nurse population.

The average age for medical school is 28. I remember meeting people in their late 30s back when I was a prospect. That professor may have been biased, but my experience tells me that most people won't judge like that.

Perhaps he was seeing how you responded - when you started the course, and found that everyone was 12 years younger, were you going to be shocked and leave?

Flagged to close. Your question seems to be if the average age remark was a negative comment on your application. Given the lack of detail and the fact no one on the internet was part of the interview I doubt we can arrive at a useful answer here.

Age discrimination is almost everywhere.

How come a man in his mid thirties would have been considered very old? Did you ever think of his age?  I would definitely ask how old he was when he completed his PhD and got employed as professor in your prospective school. Some teachers are very nice but some are not. The man Joe might coy about his age.  You should feel confident, pride whatever, coz your boss of a business company. I believe that discrimination is almost everywhere, especially at workplace, but who will care when You've got to be more positive about your work.

If you get into that program, you will be faced day by day with the fact that you stick out. If you're taken aback by that before you've even started, by a totally neutral comment from a prof, I recommend you go for something else.

This is by no mean to be a controversial answer, just how I usually would deal with this situation if I found myself in a seemingly disadvantaged situation. Basically, I agree with one of the comments that perhaps the interviewer was trying to see how you'd respond.
If we know that we are different from the rest in any way, be it much older, younger, taller, shorter, of a particular race, ethnicity or upbringing, do try some soul searching and elaborate what it truly means and how it truly can benefit you, the peers, and the organization. Time to time I found people (myself included sometimes) set off the discrimination alarm a bit too prematurely and close up or just being stunned. Instead, We all would benefit from taking a serious look on what we might get discriminated at, and up-play that property if a chance comes by.
For example, in OP's situation, I'd suggest gearing the discussion to elaborate what packing extra 12 years of business experience can bring to the table. You may be more worldly, more sensitive to customer's (aka patient's) needs, more mature, etc. Then, proceed to talk about perhaps one general stereotype for being a more mature when entering a job... e.g. you'll lose 12 years of pay grade compared to your peers, how would you feel about that? Most of your future peer in the same rank with you will be a few generations younger, how successful have you been working with younger folks? Proceed to debunk them, and casually say that you wish this year there will be a successful candidate in his 30s.
These are all just suggestions; I feel it's important to show that a candidate has thought about the situation thoroughly, and be able to dissolve an apparent unfriendly remark with grace. And this is probably important for nurses as well: impatient, angry, and suffering patients (and their family members) can say something a lot worse.
Don't get too bogged down by those mean age statistics. If you truly feel you've found your calling, give it the best you can. Best of luck!

@DavidWashington, you're welcome! Wish you many successful interviews to come. :)

Are you sure you're not reading too much into this? It seems to me like all he was doing was quoting a stat. More often than not, it's industry and not an academic field, that tends to discriminate (sometimes without even realizing it!) based on age. I have to agree with one of the responders though that the professor was treading on thin ice, and in retrospect, he probably wishes he hadn't!

Yes, tone and context are very important here. It could have been "oh cool, everyone last year was young, it's nice to have that change", or it could have been "oh no, everyone last year was young, too bad for you". Without that crucial information it's difficult to say whether this means anything at all.

I think the faculty member who mentioned this is treading on very thin ice. Age should not play a role in US admissions processes (nor in the admissions processes in most other countries. The statement that only candidates in their twenties were being admitted could potentially get the school into trouble if that's done intentionally.

The key phrase is "US admission process". In France and India I have been asked my age and have been told explicitly that younger candidates would be favored. Now I am not sure if these people were just being prejudiced or if that is a rule, but it happened. Of course, my control group of experience is small (<3 institutions in each country) so this could perhaps happen in any country.


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Listing rank of prizes on CV
If I won 3rd place or an honorable mention for Award X. Is it reasonable to simply state the name of the award without stating what place I got?

The placement is usually part of the award. Nominations, for example. It'd be misleading to write Nobel Prize for Economics when you were a nominee but not the actual winner, as an example.

I do not think it is reasonable. If you are mentioning you won at a competition, you must also mention what was your place or in what capacity you won an award. There are good reasons for this in my opinion. First, it is possible the reader is aware of the competition and finds it misleading of you. Second, if you clearly mention the details of the award, it is possible you might rise in the eyes of reader for your integrity and honesty.

Mentioning an award without the rank implies that there was only once recipient. You need to mention the ranking if it's actually rank-based, especially if you didn't finish first.

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How can I cite a company's website using IEEE style?
I would like to use some information about the Math Script RT Module. This might not be standard, so I cannot find any example online. Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Software available online should be cited as a website, following the description given in the various IEEE style guides.  The easiest way to do this is typically with a citation management system like BibTeX.

Note that if either the author or "date updated" for a website are unavailable, the style guides allow you to exclude it.

Instead, you would just include the name of the company and the date you accessed the article. This style guide has some good examples.

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Are search committees biased in terms of a candidate's looks, such as long hair for men?
As a male Ph.D. student in engineering, I have not had a problem with long hair at any of the reviews I've attended with funding agencies, conferences, etc. However, I wonder if search committees will view long hair in a negative light.
I would particularly like to know if anyone has known of any instance in which a male candidate's long hair worked against their chances of obtaining an academic position, but I've edited this question title to be more general with respect to a candidate's outward appearance attributes which are under their control.

I think this should be generalized to "Are search committees biased in terms of candidate looks?".

And I hope the answer is "no", but I expect it will be "yes, to some extend".

@xLeitix Thanks for the suggestion. I've edited the question and title.

I don't really agree that the question should be generalised.  It's completely fine to ask a specific focussed question, as the body of the question still does.  To me, 'looks' sounds like it's referring to someone's general physical appearance including the things they have no control over.  And I think hair length is also quite a separate issue from what to wear/carry one's things in, etc., since cutting hair short isn't something you can just do for a day and then go back to normal.

@TaraB I agree - to some extend. I agree that it makes sense to distinguish between looks that the candidate has control over and others, but I still think that asking for long hair specifically makes the question much more narrow than necessary.

@xLeitix:  But long hair specifically is exactly what the OP wants to know about.  I feel like we already have questions covering most other things that the generalised question would include, so I don't particularly see the point in generalising this one beyond the OP's specific point of interest.  If I were to generalise it, I would only go as far as talking about hairstyles in general.

@Tara: It seems like a good idea to try to frame the questions in the "natural generality" to which good answers would apply.  This makes them more useful for others, and avoids a tedious repetition ("Yes, my remarks about long hair also apply to pierced ears...") Is there really an answer to this question that would apply only to long hair?

@TaraB Thanks for your feedback and I agree with you; however, I'm trying to find the right balance between obtaining answers specific to my situation while providing a question which has added utility for the community in general. I like your suggestion of focusing on hairstyles, though. So long as the question yields a few answers specific to my request, I'll be happy. If other responders choose to speak about a different outward-appearance topic, that'll be fine too.

Is this about academic or generic industry/tertiary jobs? The tag "job-search" creates some doubts.

@Federico: Academic.  It says so in the second paragraph.

I think it quite depends on the position, too. A teaching position has different requirements than a purely research one. I know some very strange people in academia, certainly more strange than "long hair guys", and people accept them well, the same people as those who sit in the comittees. But as I say, you can have different point of view and a different feeling if you imagine the person going before a class.

I would be remiss if I didn't point you to the Luxuriant Hair Club for Scientists: http://www.improb.com/projects/hair/hair-club-top.html

@Suresh: I think that amazing link might be worth an answer.  I may actually be serious...

I could literally sit on my hair when I submitted my tenure case. You'll be fine.

Most of the senior men in my department are bald so you might encounter jealousy at your youth!

First, let me place my answer in the context of American academia.  I'm sure that in some other parts of the world social conventions are different.
Contemporary American academia is one of the more formally progressive and tolerant subsets of western society.  There are American schools which recognize a student's right not to have any gender!  Although this is an extreme point, academic culture places a premium on toleration of personal differences, to the extent that most hiring committees are instructed not to take such "irrelevant things" as personal appearance into account.
But do they?  I think all human beings do, in some ways.  I do believe that people who are more physically attractive make more attractive job candidates, all other things being equal (and there are lots of studies to back this up).  Recently for health reasons I lost a substantial amount of weight, and I think that my relations with undergraduate students are noticeably better, e.g. resulting in higher evaluations.  Of course this probably has at least as much to do with the way I (nonverbally) communicate that I perceive myself: being more comfortable in your own skin shows.
As a result, if long hair feels natural and good to you, then I would recommend that you keep it.  Like Samson, it may somehow be a source of strength for you.  I was going to say that even the fact that you're asking about it seems slightly strange, but then I remembered that as a graduate student I would shave my goatee every fall (when I was teaching) and let it grow every spring (when I wasn't).  I have now had a goatee continuously since getting a PhD in 2003!  I also used to dress more nicely for class than I otherwise would.  While I still think that one should not wear clothing which is especially ratty in any professional context, I have long since learned that nobody cares whether I wear sneakers or a jacket or anything like that.
The other thing is that it is not 1964 anymore: the men who were long-haired youths in the 1970s are now some of the senior people around, and many are still proudly growing long what remains of their hair.  Both of the men who have been department heads in my time at my present job grow their hair longer than what conservative mores would recommend, and the current chair has hair halfway down his back.  It is really no big deal.
Let me say finally that the odd faculty member who mutters something sour about your hair probably had other reasons not to like you.  And if not, do you really want colleagues who are so superficial and intolerant?  Times are tough, but I think one needs to make feeling comfortable in one's own skin a high priority.

there's a big difference to claiming in your press releases to be tolerant and really being tolerant. Case in point, read yesterday that several universities are calling for an end to all research and discussion that doesn't match with their political ideology.

@jwenting: I agree with that and think that it is indicated already in my answer: the word "formally" was meant to convey that nuance.  However, for better or for worse, most American university professor I know place a much higher amount of scrutiny on political ideology than personal appearance.

which is just as sad, really. They should care about scientific credentials, not which politician you voted for in the last elections or whom you sent campaign donations to.

We all agree that they shouldn't, but the truth is that probably they are, at least some of them. It's difficult to control subconscious feelings.
You can try to play the game in your favour, though: wear an elegant, smart outfit and make sure your hair is well groomed (there is a difference between "long hair" and "hasn't seen a pair of scissors in years"). What people are usually biased against is not long hair per se, but the feeling of untidyness and negligence that they associate with it; you have to disprove this unconscious mental association.
(Disclaimer: I've had long hair for 1/3 of my life, and cut it a couple of years ago).

'Hasn't seen a pair of scissors in years' isn't necessarily a huge problem, but 'hasn't seen a hairbrush or comb in days' might be.

Gosh, has it come to this?  Yes, you should bathe/shower and groom yourself regularly in order to succeed in academia...and elsewhere. :)

@PeteL.Clark When writing this, I was thinking more to a formal situation such as an interview, where one should try and go an extra mile to compensate for the bias. But I agree.

I was also thinking about interview situations.  And I agree with your answer: long hair should be totally fine.  Looking like you just stepped out of the jungle is less universally fine.  Still, most academics I know don't care about "scruffy"; it has to get all the way to "slovenly" or "unhygienic" for it to be a problem.

By request:
The simple answer to your question is the Luxuriant Hair Club for Scientists.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Just cut your hair and grow it back when you get the funding, job or whatever. Just keep it neat. Dress up nicely and conduct yourself well. Unless your hair is like the guy below, you should be fine.

+1 but I have to say this guy in dreadlocks looks awesome. Will hire.

@BoratSagdiyev Just the kind of person I want my productivity compared to.

@Fomite - LOL ! You have make my day. I have not laugh here since I last come. Chenqui.

@BoratSagdiyev Is his research good? Can he teach? If so, why should I care what he eats for dinner?

A similar look, for comparison. The kind of person I wish my productivity could even remotely compare to. :)

@BoratSagdiyev. Academia is a place about freedom of thought. Advising people to cut their hair and belittling artists of music you probably know nothing about shows little respect to people different than you. Chris Barnes a hobo / idiot? And from a guy with the nickname Borat?


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What to do when graduate admissions haven't gone well?
OK, here is the deal:
I am a computer science student in Turkey graduating this June. I have applied to PhD programs in the US to work in computer architecture. I have a decent bachelor's degree, and my college is reasonably respected. Before admissions, I contacted some professors, and they seemed very interested in my background. During admissions, I was interviewed by some other professors. However, it turned out that there was only one offer with a scholarship, which I decided not to accept. (You may ask why I didn't opt for that one, the response may make the issue personal. But at least I can say that I didn't waste a resource that can be used by someone more enthusiastic about it.)
Now, I am in the middle of nowhere. The opportunity to work in computer architecture in my country is really small. During my bachelor's studies, I took all computer architecture related courses, even graduate ones. Plus, I almost missed all the graduate program admissions in Europe (with scholarships).
What do you think are my options? My idea is to get into a graduate program and be an academic.

I may start a master's degree in my country, but the area most professors teach that most relates to my studies is embedded systems. In fact, I doubt whether this may take me away from my intentions.
I can reapply during spring term admissions. (I have been told that these admissions are way more selective than during the fall term and this brings extra financial cost.)
I may work in the industry for a year, then reapply. (But how about my new profile for admissions? Plus, who wants someone, who is probably leaving soon, to hire?)

So I need some serious advice.
Here is some information about me: I have 3.6 overall and 3.85 major GPA. 6 different people have written references for me.

Do you want to go to industry or academia?
Turning down a scholarship to reserve the money for someone more "enthusiastic about it" sounds at odds with "my idea was to ... be academician [sic]".
If you want to work in industry, unless it's for some deep part of, for example, Google or AT&T, I would recommend getting a Master's wherever and begin getting real-world experience.
If you want to be an academic (and so almost absolutely need a PhD) then you should find people from Turkey who did something like what you are trying to do and get in contact with/ emulate them.
At the risk of being provocative and with the caveat that I doubt this is the main issue, your message gives the sense that money is an issue. It is for many of us- but consider if you conveyed that in an unproductive way as you tried to get admissions to graduate school. Some in academia are touchy about that.

I do want academia. I will turn down the scholarship mentioned, because I don't want to really take it. This is not about the money, but more about the school.

I understood his comment about the scholarship as the perfectly sane "Only one department admitted me with funding, but I didn't like that department." rather than something more mercenary.  Admission without funding means (1) they don't really want you and (2) you may not be able to eat.  And if a school gives you bad vibes when they accept you, it probably is better not to go.

It seems then that I misunderstood. I go to an American graduate school for neuroscience and so all positions are funded. I think I missed that you could be admitted but without funding.

@JeffE thanks. I got not really good wipes, then decided not to take and let someone else to use it. But now it has become more difficult to decide on what to do.

@mac389: You're right. A PhD offer without funding is very unusual, indeed—and should probably be avoided.

It depends a bit on the field just how unusual it is.  In math, it's a bit unusual, but I have heard of it happening.  Still, probably best to avoid it.

There is always the path of a one-year research assistant-ship at an European University of your choosing. This won't give you any degrees but at least you'll get paid (little) and you'll have the chance to build up some momentum in computer architecture. An added plus will be that you won't waste any time getting a MS education in a field you're not interested in.
The only tricky thing is finding a group that you mesh well with and that will have funding to take you for a year.


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How to get into position to teach college Arabic?
I am interested in teaching at the university-level in Arabic.  Would teaching arabic in a high-school first(as I have no university-level  teaching experience) help me? I currently teach science to 6th graders, and am considering quitting after 4 years there.
I have an MS in Arabic from UCLA, also an MS in Educ. Bachelors in Arabic also.
Thanks

Any experience is welcome, indeed. However, it is highly dependent on the open job positions you will face. Have you thought about any university (in your city/state/country) which you are intended to apply for a position?! If yes, do your experience meet their requirements?!

It is my opinion that unless you have a PhD in Arabic or something intimately related to it you won't get more than a part-time adjunct instructor position. If your goal is to teach some classes without working towards a full appointment, then you might not need the PhD.

I would note that in the US South, especially at junior/community colleges and the like, a Master's can be considered sufficient to be a full-time teacher of undergraduates. Whether or not such a place specifically teaches Arabic and would want hire a non-PhD, I cannot say.

@BenCrowell Go figure http://www.mesacc.edu/programs/arabic I didn't really expect that, either (if there's one there's probably more, of course). Some Universities in Florida that I know of, for instance, hire "Instructors" with only a Masters, especially in the Business field and sometimes in Psychology (example being University of West Florida, a 4-year U). But it's very hard to find faculty listing for who teaches Arabic, so I can't see if this includes this field.

@BenCrowell It also appears many military towns and their associated colleges and Universities offer Arabic, for somewhat obvious reasons, so if there is a sufficient lack of supply then it is possible they might actually be after instructors with a Master's. One would have to contact these schools directly to find out for sure. But mac is certainly correct that these rarely/never lead to full professorships.

Are you a native speaker? If you are not, don't bother.
If you are, try substituting. Teach adult education courses. Military courses. Speak to your own professors for suggestions. You may have to relocate.

I disagree. A native speaker is not automatically the best teacher of his language. That speaker must be able to articulate the principles of his language to non-natives. A non-native instructor with a validated level of fluency may even be better able to understand the non-native learner's mistakes.

You cannot teach languages like geometry or calculus. I did not say that all native speakers are capable of teaching. But only those teachers who are native speakers are truly in a position to teach others. A non-native speaker is too likely to pass on his own mistakes to students. There are exceptions, of course. A non-native speaker will also find real difficulty competing against a candidate who is a native speaker. A qualified Arabist who is not a native speaker will find many job opportunities but teaching non-Arab speakers is not one of them.

I'm not sure I understand your point. I never mentioned geometry or calculus. Native speakers often make mistakes, even if they are called colloquialisms. Can you explain rather than restate your argument?

Geometry and calculus are universal subjects which may be taught by anyone. Not so for language. As Borges said, different languages are not merely sets of word equivalencies but different ways of ordering reality. If you have not been brought up in the foreign language you are simply not in a position to teach that different reality which is an essential component of the language. Anyone can be guilty of a typo. A 'colloquialism' is not an error but part of that different reality. In (American) English, can you say your ABC's without the song? How can you teach if you don't know the song?


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Is there a recourse for a retired professor who was denied Emeritus title?
I know of a recently retired professor who has taught over 35 years, and has published over 100 papers, and has filed multiple patents as well.
His college dean does not agree that he should get the Emeritus title.
The main reason he wants to obtain this title is to retain his office, in which he has a large library of books and materials
Is there anything he can do here?  How would he challenge the decision of his college dean?  Do universities usually have a system to granting the Emeritus title?

This is a local question answered by local rules. But since it is normally an honorific, not a contractural matter, probably nothing could be done that is effective. You can embarrass people, of course, but it isn't effective in getting the title.

@Buffy - Thanks , I hear you on that.  I think the main benefit is that he would be able to retain his former office

Possibly he would be permitted the space without the title.

In the U.S., many emeritus professors do not retain their original office, but only have a shared office with other emeritus profs. Many places, space is the inflexible resource.

@paulgarrett - not just an inflexible resource, but a highly political hot potato fought over with homicidal fury...

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Best way to write an equation while explaining something in a paper
I have found it difficult sometimes to write properly an equation in the middle of some explanations on a research paper, for example:

This can be rewritten by a change in parametrization a = m as,
E = ac²
which, then simplifies to,
E = a c × c.

I have seen people writing it in different styles. In this one, I assume that the equations break the flow of the sentence. So, I usually put a full stop after explaining the entire sentence. So, the w in which in my example in lower case.
Is there a conventional way to write things like this that is considered more scientific?

This does not answer your question about the formatting, but your commas are misplaced. The correct placement is: ... $a = m$ as $$E = ac^2,$$ which then simplifies to $$E = a c \times c.$$ (Also note that you should not really use $$ to display math in Latex. But maybe you are only doing this for the sake of simplicity here.)

Is there supposed to be a "where" somewhere in your example? Regardless, to quote David Mermin in What's wrong with these equations?, Physics Today 42 (10), 9–11 (1989);, "Math Is Prose" so equations really shouldn't break the flow of sentences.

@AdamPřenosil yes, i use $$ only here because of the stack exchange environment. Surprisingly, it doesn't work on this particular forum. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

@Anyon Thanks for the nice suggestion and reference. I will look into this. :)

@AdamPřenosil Should the comma and period be within the "$$"s?

@Chris_abc Yes, certainly you don't want to start the line after the displayed equation with a comma.

@AdamPřenosil Fair point! Best may be to write the comma as normal text, but within the "$$"s, since the comma is not a part of the actual equation.

You treat mathematical equations like regular parts of prose.  As a rule of thumb, your surrounding prose and formatting should be just as it would be if you replace all your equations with [thing].  If we do this we will see that your commas are all over the place and make for an awkward pacing of your sentence:

This can be rewritten by a change in parametrization [thing] as, [thing] which, then simplifies to, [thing].

A much better form would be:

This can be rewritten by a change in parametrization [thing] as [thing], which then simplifies to [thing].

Another thing to bear in mind is that modern mathematics can lean heavily on the benefits of standard mathematical notation making use of the transitivity of equivalence relations to give clear sequences of steps in a succinct notational form.  While ancient mathematicians tended to present mathematical steps and implications using more prose, we can write them in a very succinct way like this:

Taking [thing] gives [thing].

For your particular case, you could write:

Taking $a=m$ gives
$$E = mc^2 = ac^2 = ac \times c.$$


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Can my university revoke my degree after it was granted due to (corporate) data having changed?
I did my thesis using corporate data (I used to work there, they don't give their information freely or sell it), data is from 2009 to 2018.
I collect the data, analyze it, everything normal. However, after my thesis was approved and submitted, I saw that the company has modified some of their data from 2009 to 2018, historical data from the past was changed (they have valid reasons) but I am worried that if someone tries to verify the source of my information, they will find different data and think that I commit fraud or data manipulation.
My supervisor and many people told me that nothing wrong will happen because my research was in a specified period of time when data was presented like that, they also told me that after a thesis approval, no one verifies data source. They also told me that the verification of data source is done before thesis approval.
However I am still worried, because it is not common for a company to modify data from the past.
My thesis wont be published because the used data is privated, so they are allowing me to not publish it.
Any ideas of what should I do?

Nothing. Adviser is correct. No one is going to check your data. It might be interesting to see if your results match up on the new data set, but no one is going to care. In the absolute worst case that someone does care you can simply point out that they revised the data.

I did the experiment again and my results match up (hypothesis, discussion and conclusions still the same).

Go find another project to worry about - that one is dead and sorted...

You can always attach a short note saying what you just wrote here, namely the analysis was done on a data set that latter was corrected by the company, but it has not implication on your conclusions. This kind of anomalies are only problem when a researcher changes the data  on purpose.

But the problem is that I can explain the company updated their data, but people may not believe that, they might believe that I manipulate data.

Dont trust random people on the internet over your adivsor... Especially in this case, when he is correct ;)

The fact that you are still concerned about this after your supervisor’s and our assurances makes me concerned for your anxiety levels. If you are having other symptoms of anxiety I would encourage you to seek out mental health resources.

@Dawn, I'm sorry, but that is the worst kind of armchair psychology, and almost certainly quite uninvited. You are really saying that Carlos is making you uncomfortable. As far as his case, I think it quite sensible in fact that he looks into this carefully, especially in this non-privacy, high focus era.

Carlos, the thought occurs to me to get your advisor/s to put their judgement into writing for you -- that will give you something credible to attach as a note to anyone you need to show the thesis to for credit. Best fortune, and I like that you care, for your results, as basis to caring about how they are believed.

@narration_sd no one will read the thesis because it wont be published. University and the Organization that regulates the degrees in my country are just keeping the thesis as a validation that I did a research, nothing more.

@carlos, fine enough and understood. I would think it comfortable to have that 'certificate' available, but it's up to you. Again, good fortune, and soon your vita should show experience which means any remaining importance much diminishes.

what do you mean by 'certificate'?

Unless your degree was in parapsychology or meteorology, nobody expects you to be able to predict the future.

@Lot — Where in the question does it say the advisor uses male pronouns?

@Lot I dont understand your question

Probably everyone has this nightmare at one time or another: "What if someone finds an error in my doctoral dissertation?  Can they revoke my doctorate?" The answer is no unless they can prove deliberate dishonesty.

Does it apply to an unpublished thesis?

@narration_sd I think you might consider reading the three questions OP has posted on this an all his comments. Then note that I say "If you are having other symptoms..." This question does not make me uncomfortable at all. I feel sympathetic to OP and want to kindly point out a concern I have based on substantial lived experience.

@dawn I understand you on this, then - thanks. I've made some further approaches on this as a response below. Take care.

Revoking a degree is rarely done and, then, only for the most extreme reasons such as explicit dishonesty and such. Any results in any thesis are subject to revision as new information becomes available that was not present in the past. It doesn't mean that the work was wrongly done, but only that what is known has advanced.
Since you re-did the experiment and came to the same conclusion, you may be able to publish something based on the new results and, when citing your unpublished theses, mention that the conclusions there were verified with new data.

Rest assured that few people read theses (PhD or otherwise), and as Buffy says, degrees never get revoked for outdated data sources so your degree is safe.
However, if you are concerned about people reading your thesis and not being able to reproduce your results - publish an updated version (say, on ArXiv if you're in a rush, or in a journal/conference if you want the paper to be peer-reviewed), explicitly referencing the thesis and emphasizing the fact that your results are on updated data. This is actually good practice that would help future researchers who may care about your work, and save them the trouble of trying to recover your result.

update: my thesis was only to get a engineer degree, it is not a PHD or master. My thesis wont be published. Any advice now?

CarlosVarasTello: BE/BSEE? You should mention that in your question. Personally I have never heard of someone trying to reproduce a BE/BSEE thesis. Anyway, don't worry.

It's an unpublished thesis for my engineer degree.

I  did my thesis using corporate data

Remember, though, that your research was not the data, but its analysis and conclusions you drew. And since you "did the experiments again and the results match up" - then the thesis is perfectly valid not just at its time of publication, but now as well.

but I am worried that if someone tries to verify the source of my information, they will find different data and think that I commit fraud or data manipulation.

This should not be an issue if your citations were accurate. You should have included the physical document, or the on-line resource, you obtained the data from, and indicated a date of publication (at least a month of publication anyway). If the company now presents different data - it published this data at a later date. edit: If the company does not indicate when publication happened, or if the data is not available from a single source, then you should have included a paragraph (or a small section) in your the thesis explaining how you obtained/collected your data - and when. Specifically, dates of downloading data from internet URLs.
Like others suggest, an addendum/errata to your thesis and/or any paper you've published based on the data, mentioning the change, is a good idea. If the changes had affected your conclusions, then it would have been very important (IMHO).

My supervisor and many people told me ... However I am still worried,

You'll have far worse things to worry about in life - so don't worry about this minor issue :-)

because it is not common for a company to modify data from the past.

How do you know that? I'm not sure that's true. Also, it's very common for companies to not archive past data, and in that case as well, a researcher's work may not be thoroughly-verified.

My thesis wont be published because the used data is privated, so they are allowing me to not publish it.

Definitely publish it! Academic work should, and I might venture to say must, be shared and made public. The least you could do is censor out the private data and keep all the other parts of your work.

Any ideas of what should I do?

Take a deep breath and relax!

I included a screenshot of how the data was presented during my research, I compared to the current data and it shows and obviously update. Is that valid?

I would say the most important thing is an explanation about when, how and why the data changed; and the claim that you have verified that the same analysis and conclusions apply; beyond that it's all a courtesy to the reader/viewer.

there wont be any reader/viewer. Thesis is not going to be published.

@CarlosVarasTello: Oh, you mean in your thesis... well, in that case, I'm not sure I would add something like a screenshot - that begs for "where is the data this shot is based on?" - sometimes less information is better. But whatever your advisor thinks would work, should work.

the screenshot was taken from the company system, I included it in order to show that my source is valid and I am not fabricating anything.

"If the company now presents different data - it published this data at a later date." This is possibly optimistic; outside of academia things often aren't "published" in the same way with a trail of breadcrumbs where you can see definitively what changed over time and when and why. Question suggests the company just modified existing material in a way that a new visitor would not necessarily understand as having been changed since it was originally made available. Otherwise good answer.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit : See edit

@einpoklum Perfect; spot on now :)

@LightnessRacesinOrbit can you be more specific in your answer please, I didn't understand you

@CarlosVarasTello I haven't written an answer.

In addition to @Buffy's answer:

Revoking a degree is such a serious matter that the revoking committee would have to prove positively that you did falsify data. I.e., in your case, they'd need to show that the data were not as you said it was at the time of your thesis writing.
Which, obviously, they can not.
Nevertheless, it is a good idea (take home message for future) to keep a copy of your raw data if at all feasible*. If you are not the owner of the data, you can

ask the owner for permission to keep a copy for the explicit purpose of being able to show original data for your thesis/paper should anything be questioned.
if they don't agree, ask them to keep a copy available in case such a request comes in.

IMHO, such points should ideally be part of the thesis contract between you, company and university. But from the science point of view, while of course public open data is nicer, granting access to the data only after an NDA is signed does satisfy requirements to be able to answer questions about your work and possible further questions about the original data.
Also, I think @Greg's comment about a note about the correction occuring afterwards is a good idea where practicable: you won't change already deposited copies at the library - but if you  have your thesis online, I'd note it there. If you write a publication now, I'd probably use the corrected data and say that thesis [citation] was done on an earlier version of the data set discussed in the paper.

* Not even all scientific institutes allow that when you leave them. I have a former employer (research institute) that insists that leaving employees do not take any data with them without written permission (which is not given feely). They do promise to take care of archiving the original data and paper lab books, though.

Another case where it might be difficult to keep a copy of the data is when there are privacy concerns.

@Anyon: good point. The paperwork that is necessary to the allow the student/researcher to work with the data at all would be a good point where also the decision who archives and how could be included. Approaching data management plans, are we? (I'm trying to generate/write down here advise for future me ...)

update: my thesis was only to get a engineer degree, it is not a PHD or master. My thesis wont be published. Any advice now?

@CarlosVarasTello: still all apply kind-of. However, I'd not make too much hassle: ask them politely (email leaves an almost-paper trail ;-) ) whether you should keep a copy in order to have your thesis archive complete, or whether they prefer to archive the original data. If they say no to both, and anyone ever asks, show the email exchange: that shows that you really did all you could legally do - if more records should have been kept, that's not your fault. As for (3), put a yellow sticker with the note into your copy (in case you hand it to someone at some point). Enjoy your degree!

@cbeleites I only have a screenshot of the dataset (it is included in the thesis) when it was used by me and another screenshot of the current dataset (which is not included in the thesis), if you compare, it reveals that the old dataset was updated. Would that be valid?
Anyways, I have this doubt: Is my case unique? or Could it be the situation of anyone who works with a corporation's data?

@CarlosVarasTello: If your thesis even includes the original data as it was, you're fine!. Yes, you can just put a loose sheet with the updated table. I don't think this is as rare as you think. More knowledge is gained, replacing old data. And in some fields, reality evolves (think epidemiology, frequencies and distributions of species, all kinds of data related to society etc.). On a side note: reminds me of a research stay shortly after my Diplom (master), PI asked me pretty much first thing "What mistakes have you already found in your thesis?" and went on to explain that this is natural.

@cbeleites, I know that the information is always updated, my worries are that is not common to have data from the past updated. Anyways, advisor and the engineer faculty secretary told me that no one verifies source info and that the company is free to modify data as they want, Any final opinions?

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Re: when an institution can or can't revoke a degree, yes it is a serious matter, but the rules of what an academic institution needs to do in order to revoke a degree are going to vary.

I think you're worrying too much.  Add a footnote under the data and/or somewhere else saying "Data as supplied at time of writing" (or as of XX/YY/ZZ) and leave it at that.

Thesis has been already submitted, no changes are allowed

Carlos, I am going to ask you a simple question, because it is very confusing that you continue asking for something, for 'advice now'.
At the same time, I've thought that an amount of misunderstanding here has been because of different native languages.  You are writing in English, but I think you are from Peru.
So, is the problem you ask about actually that your thesis 'won't be published', as you've said several times? In other words, are you looking for a way it can be published?
A native speaker would understand [won't] to mean absolutely not. If you said [can't], then the understanding would be that if a barrier were removed, it could be published.
If you wanted advice to remove a barrier, then you would say 'can't be published because of [the barrier], so please suggest how I could remove [the barrier]'.
If what I describe is not your question, then another possibility is that you are worried that someone will attack your thesis, if they don't like something you might say or do because of what you learned in writing it, the analysis. Thus you worry the attack could have some consequence on your accomplishment, your degree.
This is where the note I suggested could give you position of better confidence, where your professors write as you indicate they say, that your thesis is valid, on data you used that was valid at its time, and sign it.
I called the note a 'certificate', only because it verifies truth, not because it is any special printed kind of paper from any government. It's just truth anyone would understand.
I hope that answers your question about what I meant in my answer above.
As far as what would adequately protect you if there is a challenge, you must surely use your judgement there. In any culture, there are things which can be risky in some way to do. Then we decide, and certainly may decide not to do them, if the risk is too high.
In that case, we move on in our life, and take up another task which is more appropriate to do, no?
I wish you well, Carlos, and hope you come soon to a path that will relax you about this -- whether we answering here understand or not isn't the first importance.

yeah you're correct. In my country Peru nobody cares about thesis after they are submitted (except for plagiarism). Also, it is logic that the company can do whatever they want with their data, I must feel happy that God give me the degree. I think that I need to do more exercise, hang out, visit family, etc.

great, that soiunds very good. When we work very hard to accomplish something, then it's not unusual that our vision gets narrowed in. Going back out in the world of family, friends, nature, and all of spirit fixes that -- and we learn another thing ;)  You enjoy, Carlos, and others here smile also

If it'll help, imagine that you'd graduated 20 years ago doing a thesis on, say, IBM's sales data.  IBM sees there was a problem with their historical data in archives, and publishes a corrected set of sales data.  Do you think the university would revoke your degree from 20 years ago?
No.  Of course not.  Because when you wrote your thesis, you were using the information you had at the time, that by all appearances was correct.  And the degree was awarded because your thesis came to a justifiable conclusion with the dataset you worked with.  The data may have changed 20 years later, but that has no bearing on the work/skill/etc that was put into the thesis.

And how university verifies that the data has been corrected instead of not being manipulated by me?


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Is it mandatory to include the registered trademark symbol ® next to the name of a computer program?
Suppose you write a paper and you use Wolfram Mathematica to do calculations. In the article, should the program be mentioned with the registered-trademark symbol immediately following the name and in superscript style, i.e., as follows?

Wolfram Mathematica®

I don't recall ever having seen a trademark symbol in an academic paper. On the other hand, in my area of theoretical computer science/maths, trademarked terms don't get mentioned very often. Even when people do use Mathematica, they often just say "a computer algebra package".

Only if you're working for Lucas Arts.

As I side note, when you mention a program it is good to mention version (as versions differ; maybe one method changes its behavior). And when it is numerics, even more details are desirable.

There is never an obligation to use the ® symbol when mentioning a trademark. Its use is a (rather old-fashioned and out-of-style) means for trademark holders to assert their trademark and emphasize that the word is not a generic term.

Also be aware that not all program names are trademarks, and not all trademarks are registered trademarks. If you want to highlight a trademark that is not registered, you use superscript TM.

It's very common in the non-academic world to simply list all known trademarks (R), (TM), (SM), (P), etc. used in a work in a section in the Front Matter: "Mathematica(R) is a registered trademark of Wolfram Corporation" or whatever. That way you are acknowledging their ownership of a mark without having to scatter ® throughout the paper (actually, once is enough).

Formally, yes, registered names should have the appropriate symbol listed (usually a superscript "R" or "TM"). However, in common usage, such trademarks are often neglected. In most cases, it's easiest just to follow the journal's recommended guidelines for how to handle such cases. You may just need to indicate the trademark symbol, and the journal will do the work of supplying the correct formatting for you.

Thank you for your comment. Actually, I'm not following instructions from any particular journal, I'm just asking in general. But according to what you say, it seems it is better to include the symbol than not doing it.

@UserX: There's nothing to lose by using it.

@aeismail I've found nowhere that one is required to use them. But in some places it is unlawful to abuse "R" or "TM". It is clearly used to indicate that something is a (registered) trademark (so official websites related to a particular product use it). Except for such I rarely see it.

FWIW, if you use LaTeX you can just create a macro for such names and add/remove such symbols later.

Ideally you would only indicate a mark once (the first time it's used, usually in body text). There's never any need to give a trademark symbol more than once.

The trademark symbol indicates that you are, or are in business with the owner. So right, don't worry: The journal will make sure to delete it for you.

For Python, PSF Trademark Usage Policy states:

Use of the word "Python" in email and informally -- Allowed without the circle-R symbol.
Use of the word "Python" in academic papers, theses, and books -- Allowed without the circle-R symbol. Books should include the symbol.

I don't know how it is in general. Wikipedia pages on registered trademark symbols mentions that it indicates trademark status, but does not mention that it needs to be used.
In any case, I see software in papers being mentioned without "TM"/"R", though often in emphasis.

I could not find anything on any legal requirements to use trademark symbols if you are not the trademark holder (or are required to use them by a contract). Here, several attorneys state that you do not have to use them even in the “stronger” case that you are reselling the product. Briefly, it’s the trademark owner who is responsible for using it and there is nothing that requires you to use these symbols, unless you have signed a contract to do so:

It is the trademark registrant/manufacturer who is responsible for putting the indication on the product, not you.

Since you are merely resoling [sic] the product, you have no obligation to put any symbol (R or TM) anywhere.

This leaves the question of style, on which I share the opinion of But FUNKY!!!web!!!DUDES.com is their trademark! (written by a professional copy editor), which is mainly on capitalisation and punctuation, but can also be applied to trademark symbols to some extent:
One should rather adhere to general spelling and language rules and to what benefits the reader than to what a company wants its product to be called:

The companies and their trademark lawyers want you to duplicate their capitalization. They also want you to use the trademark symbol. They also want you to use the word "brand" and a generic identifier to guard against the loss of their trademarks (journalists eat Big Macs; McDonald's lawyers might want us to eat BIG MAC® brand sandwich products). Are you going to give in to all of those demands? Do you want your stories to look like press releases?

Following this, I would call Mathematica just “Mathematica”, maybe in italics or small-caps in accordance with the journal’s or your own style and accompanied by an appropriate citation.
I would not use a copyright symbol as it does not benefit the reader or anybody else¹ – it just diverts from the content of the text and slightly looks like you are paid by the software company to advertise their product. (I also would not use “Wolfram Mathematica“ unless I have to expect that some reader confuses it with something else which is also called “Mathematica”.)
There may be some situations specific to Mathematica, where one has to expect some readers to be confused, as, e.g., they do not directly identify it as a software due to its name being not obviously a name. However, in those cases you can refer to it as “the Mathematica computer algebra system” or provide a citation.

¹ except, perhaps, the marketing people of the software company – who are not going to read your publication

In most of the world (not the USA) the meaning of ™ or ® (or © for that matter) is nonexistent. When you refer to a trademark you certainly don't have to do anything. When you use a trademark (as a way to sell your things) what matters is the use, not some lettering, although the lettering could give a tiny nudge in case of doubt (that there shouldn't be in the first place).

Typically, use of a trademark symbol by the owner (in your example, Wolfram) is an assertion of their rights – “Hey, we own this name! It refers to our product and you cannot use it to mislead folks into thinking it is your product, or your use of our product, or that we endorse your product’s integration with our product...” and so on.  So, it is critical for the owner of the trademark to use it often and consistently.
You, on the other hand, do not need to use it to protect their rights, but need to use it in order to not to infringe on their rights. For example, use the mark it if you are talking about your product or service in relation to their trademarked product.
The more formal the mode of publication, the more you should consider using their mark, e.g., you should use it in a book, but probably not in an email. Like an abbreviation, use it once at the first occurrence only.  Nobody wants to read something littered with ®s. The first use signifies that you recognize their rights.

Do you have any source to back up your statement that you have to use a trademark symbol not to infringe anybody’s rights?

It's protecting you against being accused of misusing someone's mark. In an academic paper, it would be more of a courtesy than anything else, but in commercial use it could be worth real money if the owner feels that you're trading (making money) on their mark without acknowledging their ownership of the mark (a valuable trade name).

@PhilPerry: After all I found, this is not among the functions of trademark symbols. Rather the symbols’ purpose is to let others know that you consider a name to be your trademark or have registered it as such. Due to this, using a trademark symbol with a name without being the trademark holder, may even be contraproductive for the purpose you describe.


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How to see citation contexts of all the papers that cite a paper?
Given a paper, I'm looking for a quick way to see the citation contexts of papers that cite that paper, to gauge both the direction and intensity of sentiment towards the original paper and help me decide what to read first. The need this would address of mine is somewhat related to this question but specifically I want the citation contexts.
Since a few tools allow you to get the 'cited by' list after searching for a paper, eg. Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar, and the former actually lets you search within the citing articles, a natural next step seems to me to see the citation contexts in the summary of the search results. Is there any feature to toggle this? Or another tool that does it (whilst still being a critical platform where lots of papers will exist/have been indexed on it).
Ideas appreciated. Thanks!

For items that are cataloged by Google Books this is possible, but there's a lot of material that isn't cataloged by Google Books. I'm not sure if there exists an engine that does this for academic papers. One reason this might not exists is that there is likely some licensing issues involved with pay-walled articles.

In your own LaTeX document when citing a paper and with backref option, you'll see where the references are. But that's a very different use case than your desired one.

Might be possible with Scopus, if you have access to it.

From my experience, I think ResearchGate is the only platform currently offering exactly that. Wherever there is a paper fully available in its database being cited by another fully available paper, it shows an excerpt of the citation. Example below:
"... The number of cases where these approximations are used is vast. For instance, among many, 1[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] for the single- or few-mode approximation, or, e.g., [9][10][11][12][13] for the usage of 1+1D cavities. While simplifying the problem, some- times the rationale for these simplifications remains to be justified, above all in relativistic regimes. ..."
Reference: Interaction of a moving two-level atom with a single-mode quantized cavity field
Citing: [6] Relativity and quantum optics: accelerated atoms in optical cavities
The above was copied from the platform's citation display of a random reference.
I believe this is an interesting and powerful feature, however it would rely on everyone having a ResearchGate profile plus all references uploaded to the platform. And I do not see that happening any time soon.
Hope that helps? Good luck.

Some journal websites also offer this information.


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How should I state 'MS dropout' in my resume when applying for data scientist positions?
I've read a couple threads on how to state a PhD dropout in a CV, but wanted to query opinion on the case where the degree in question is a Master's instead. Additionally, my situation is a bit different from others in that I'm mostly done. I plan to complete 33 units by the end of this semester but need 36 to graduate with the degree. I'd rather not stay an extra semester for 3 units.
My M.S. program in Statistics (top 3 program) ended up being mostly theoretical, similar to the Ph.D program here, and the theoretical courses were largely uninteresting to me after my first year. I found that I'm more interested in the programming aspect of things, as well as machine learning. My program specializes in a specific branch of statistical thought, rather than machine learning.
I am now looking for a data scientist position in industry. The question is, How should I state a 'MS dropout' in my resume?

Strongly related question How much will dropping out of a Master's program hurt job prospects?

If you're missing 3 (out of 36) credits towards an M.Sc. in stats at a top 3 school, I'd strongly suggest you finish. If you drop out early in the program, just write "Worked towards an M.Sc. (...)" in your CV, and that's fine; if I'd see your CV with just 3 missing, I'd probably not believe whatever reason you give (and yes, I'm of course aware of how expensive a semester can be), and question your persistence. That's just me, of course.

FYI, everyone I know well strongly considered dropping out of our master's at about this same time. We stuck with it, and at this point our jobs are all dependent on having that degree.

First, some advice. I agree with @gnometorule, but I would state it stronger: IMHO and based on limited information you've shared, it would be a mistake to drop out so close to graduation. Even though the current culture within startup ecosystem and, overall, tech industry largely ignores education credentials in favor of "being a hustler", "being a doer", "being street smart", etc., the data science subset of the both areas actually seem to have more respect and pay more attention to people's education. This is quite understandable, considering the relative complexity of data science and, especially, its machine learning and artificial intelligence fields of study and practice.
I would strongly suggest you to consider things in perspective and do your best to successfully finish the program. Not only it will give you some advantages when competing in the job market, but also might be useful to you, should you decide in the future to go for a Ph.D., teach at some educational institution or pursue other opportunities (i.e., scientific research or consulting).
In regard to your specific question - should you decide to ignore my advice - I think that it would be better to formulate in your resume the phrase "MS dropout" not as such or, even, not as

"University XYZ, MS program, Statistics, Years Range, Incomplete",

but rather as a positive fact / achievement:

"University XYZ, MS program, Statistics, Years Range, Completed 90% of curriculum".

Having said that, again, I strongly suggest you to consider finishing your Master's program.

I think that you should finish because you are so close. I know that employers don't like quitters. If you don't finish, you can always say "The idea of a masters just floated away", or you can say "I am too busy so I will finish when there is a quiet time" or you can say "The salary increment is just too incremental". I actually don't have a masters degree. I have a bachelors degree and a research position. Even to this day, at the ripe old age of 54, people still sometimes ask me why I did not do a masters.


text:
Difference between public and private university education
Is there any noticeable difference between public and private university in US in terms of the education provided. Or, the only thing that matters is the way that universities are funded. For example private universities have huge amount of private donors where as public universities gets consistent funding from the federal government. Should the notion of public vs private is something that a student be concerned about.

Public universities in the US are run by states and as such get most of their funding from state governments, not the federal government.  The federal government does provide indirect support through loans and grants to students, research grants, etc. (And in this day and age, it would be a stretch to describe either state or federal funding as consistent...)

Actually, I seem to recall a stat that the average state funding of "public" universities is currently down to about 11% of operating budget...

Well, by definition, the difference is how much funding comes from the state government, but public universities do still get a good amount from donations.  But in my experience, there are qualitative differences in the educational environment at public versus private schools.  It's hard to explain these generally, as there's still a lot of variation among public schools or private schools, but here's my attempt at a few of these differences:

The student demographics are often markedly different.  For instance, private universities tend to be more expensive, thus public universities tend to be more attractive to students with less financial means.  There are some articles about how students in certain socio-economic classes are disadvantaged at going to places like Harvard.  Peer interactions generally play an important role in your education.
Private universities tend to be either small liberal arts colleges or elite research institutions.  Most state universities do not try to give a "liberal arts experierence," though of course some are more committed to teaching versus research than others.
The top state universities tend to be rather large, where as many top private schools are very small.  This makes a difference if you're looking for a small school with a more "personal touch."
There are also some private schools with religious affiliations, which may or may not be noticable in the education.  In general, private schools have more freedom in how they do things.


text:
How should a university non-academic employee's affiliation be like?
A friend is in a situation where they obtained a PhD in one field in a different country, but now is working at a university in an unrelated field in a non-faculty, non-research position. However, they have got invited to a conference to present on matters relating to their PhD field. How should they list their affiliation? They use their current university's library facilities, etc, for their own private after-hours research, so they want to list their current university employer, but I feel that this is unethical, and "Independent Researcher" or similar would be better.
I've seen a number of similar questions here relating to how students or researchers should handle this, but I think this situation is sufficiently different to merit a new question.

After hours research = research.

Related: What should someone who works at a tech company that isn't associated with the work list as affiliation?

I am voting this question to close, because it needs more clarification. ...to present on matters relating to their PhD field. How much this publication is related to his PhD work? If most of this research work is done during his PhD years, then he probably have to use the affiliation of the institute where he obtained his degree from.

I agree with @EnthusiasticStudent. Vote to close as "Unclear what you're asking".

I have faced this problem in a previous publication, and what I did was list my current employer as my affiliation, with an asterisk, stating that "Large part of this research work was carried out while I was with the ..."

Simple solution to non-problem.

When you publish, you normally are listing your institutional affiliation.
There's nothing at all unethical with ... listing your current institutional affiliation.
This does not imply that the current employer sanctioned the work or that they subsidised its completion.  That sort of information is listed elsewhere in the sort of disclosures section (or so I gather -- my field does not get much external funding of that sort, but I've submitted papers to a few places that require everyone to fill that out).

I'm not an academic, and I was thinking with a business mind; I presume universities like the free publicity and don't have worries about people being thought to be speaking on their behalf as might happen in industry.

They might like the free publicity, but it's not worth contorting your current affiliations to avoid giving it to them.

As I understand, your question here is whether their current employer is eligible to be credited for the research presented in the paper. I think that they should use their employer affiliation. They loses nothing, but shows their loyalty to the current employer, which is not bad even if they does not intend to stay for long.


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Should I use degree name as their system?
I am writing Statement of Purpose for PhD application to Canadian university and I am stumbling over a little issue that when I write like this

I have completed my masters degree ...  after completing bachelors
  degree..

So should I write undergraduate/graduate degree word as what they say at their place or I use words that what they say at my place as I written above? or either one is okey?

"Undergraduate" and "graduate" mean different things in different places. Just use the program names as they were at the schools you attended if you want to be unambiguous.

I agree with @aeismail - write what actually happened. It might be worth also adding what the equivalence is. PS. (stating the obvious) Unless your written English/French is rather better than in this question, it isn't going to matter anyway.

@aeismail sounds like an answer...

@JessicaB what I wrote above is indeed a hint to say i m going to write about this. I will write what they called it in my university and with adding academic elegance to the language. Thanks :)

@ff524 I agree that both comments making the answer.

I think it is better to use the exact phrases and words mentioned your documents and degrees. If the words bachelors and masters degrees are written in your certificates; simply use these words. It is much more sure and easier than thinking about rephrasing the words or finding synonyms for them. Also, in my opinion; bachelors and masters degrees are more explicit words than undergraduate and graduate degrees.


text:
In the UK is it acceptable for a lecturer/professor to join student societies?
Student societies are often fantastic fun. At the university I attend there are some members of societies who don't attend the university, they just come along because they happen to like an unusual hobby (Quidditch, table top rpg, fencing...). I have never seen any lecturers or professors however.
Is it considered odd for a lecturer or professor to be part of a society of their own university? Why? Would it still be possible? I would like to work in a university (in a research orientated position) and if there was no serious disadvantage or barrier I would defiantly want to be part of societies there.

Quidditch Is it seriously that popular there that you have intramural muggle quidditch?

Yes, there are a few teams. https://quidditchuk.org/teams/find

Heck I went to college in Texas and our team went to the World Cup my freshman year! :)

I had the impression that student societies membership was restricted to students.

In some universities membership of student societies by faculty is common and in principle required - in Cambridge University recognised societies had to have a "senior treasurer" who would often be a lecturer or college fellow. How this worked out depended a lot on the society, but the largest societies (eg the dancers' club) had lots of staff as members.

Your question is tagged UK. Do you mainly want answers for the UK? or else please untag that. Seems practices vary a lot by country.

Well my question title starts "In the UK" so...

In essence there is no problem, here in the UK, for the lecturers/professors to join societies. I experienced it first hand, both as a student and lecturer, and loved it. But you have the following ethical responsibilities:
Socializing and Not Dating: Most social clubs go out a lot. For example, they might go to some other part of the country to do hill walking, or pub crawling which involves loads of drinking. The bottom line is that you can socialize with students, but don't lose your mind and start dating a student while camping somewhere. Some social clubs are hubs for dating, so join them for the cause and socializing, and avoid dating altogether.
Close Friendships: Here in the UK, in my experience at least, some students are looking for an easy way out of studying. They are young, and therefore they just want to get by. Don't create a situation where they can take advantage of you and abuse your friendship.
Overall, know your limitations. Deal with students outside the university in a respectable manner, and don't get too comfortable. At the end of the day, you are the lecturer and they are the students.

All correct, but I guess one should distinguish between your students and students at your university. My university, for instance, would have no quarrels at all with me dating a business or psychology student. A computer science student would also be ok, but then some amount of caution would be needed that she does not actually do courses of my involvement.

@xLeitix In my opinion, it is not ethical to date a student, period. University is our work place and students' social ground. We need to have a life outside our work place.

We'll have to agree to disagree then.

@xLeitix - I think Dave's viewpoint may change with a very high quality student that he wanted to date.  Often it isn't those who seek to date students that get themselves in trouble.

@ChrisWhite it sounds like administration overshooting wanting to avoid trouble.

Dating an undergraduate in your own university is basically always a bad idea and even if a university has no formal rule against it, you will be known widely as the lecturer/professor who is dating an undergraduate. That will color everyone's opinion of you... including the promotion committee. Similarly if you go out socializing with the undergraduates to student bars regularly you will gain a bad reputation.

I think this must be very cultural. In a university as wide and diverse as Cambridge University, where I was an undergraduate, much of this would be impossible. Unless you were very very outstanding it would be unlikely for more than a minority of the student body to even know who you were, let alone for you to have a reputation. I'd be surprised if it were any different today. If the student is in a different college and department, there just can't be any ethical problems.

Dating a student in the UK can be illegal if the student is aged below 18 (in Scotland many students start university aged 17). An older person in a "position of trust" (e.g. lecturer or senior member of student society) could be found guilty under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The issue was mentioned with respect to senior members of martial arts societies, who were generally aged 20-35, it happened more than once...

@bain: take it as understood they wouldn't be dating underage. What do you mean "An older person in a position of trust... under the Sexual Offences Act 2003": as long as you don't date within your department (or that of your friends/associates), I don't see there is any "position of trust" in the first place. Has there ever been any such prosecution in the UK involving a lecturer? let alone conviction?

@smci "Underage" in the UK is <=15 but the SOA2003 brought in a new law that 16,17 is illegal if there is a "position of trust". There is no strict definition other than an unequal power situation eg. instructor at karate soc dating a 17yo 1st year undergrad from the society would be breaking the law. Yes, people have been convicted, for example lecturer found guilty of hugging and stroking two 17yo girls at college where he worked as a teacher

@bain: Re Isiah Young: there's a difference between nonconsensually groping multiple under-17 kids you're supposed to teach, vs having a relationship with one over-18 student that you don't teach. Also, 18 seems to be generally accepted as signalling ability to make decisions.

@smci The girls were 17 not under-17 but point taken it may have been non-consensual. But there have been other cases where the pupil was 17 and consented eg. 2007 Wilson "formed a relationship with a 17 year old pupil at a college where he was a student teacher. Some months into it the defendant realised it was illegal". Age of consent in the UK is 16; that is the legal age of ability to consent to sex.

@bain Yes I know the UK age of consent is 16, but for whatever reason 18+ get less presumption of being influenceable; anyway we're talking about a college lecturer dating someone. I really don't see 18 being the absolute lower limit as in any way an imposition; frankly I would have thought 21. I expect there are no such prosecutions when the students are 18+/21+yo and not in the lecturers' dept?

@smci fwiw, in teacher training it is advised that a relationship with 16,17yo would now only be legal if every point of contact is outside of college. The couple can not work/study at the same college, can not meet at the college, can not meet on a college trip or inter-college activity etc. Basically in any capacity where the older person has some authority it is deemed illegal.

@smci I was talking about <18, that's why my comment began "Dating a student in the UK can be illegal if the student is aged below 18."

You are very likely to be fired on the spot if you are discovered dating someone aged 17 at the same university as you are lecturing. After that the police may come knocking on your door. Did I mention it's a bad idea? For those 18+, most UK universities have a policy. For example https://www2.bathspa.ac.uk/services/hr/for-staff/core-hr-guidance/consensual-relationships.asp .

@xLeitix maybe it's different at huge universities or if the student is close to finishing and it's known exactly what courses they will need to take in future and who will be teaching them but I can see it creating a very awkward situation if a student needs to take a course and that course ends up being taught by someone they have previously been romantically involved with.

Student societies are about more than just shared interests: they are also a place for students to escape from the pressure of their studies, to blow of steam, and to relax.  Having an authority figure around (and a professor is most definitely an authority figure) generally has a strong chilling effect on these aspects of a student social life.  With a professor around, students are likely to feel uncomfortable complaining about classes, bad-mouthing other professors, just plain being profane, and other such things that they would otherwise do---and this goes for both undergraduates and graduate students.  Having other non-students there, like alumni or random community members, does not have the same effect, because they are not in authority over students.  Likewise, it doesn't matter if they're your students or not: you still belong to the same group, and they generally don't know how much or how little you actually interact with other faculty in other areas.
In short: it's a student space, and a professor in that space can disrupt it.  Except in rare cases, then, I would strongly advise not to join: don't harsh on their mellow.

Huh? Just avoid the societies with 1st and 2nd years, and anywhere there's anything compromising or controversial going on. Beyond that should be harmless.

At my university, there are some student organizations that are almost completely run by students, and some that openly and proudly have a mixture of students and professors. (One organization in the latter group takes care of feral cats that live on our campus.) So I would say it's important to understand the dynamics of a group you want to join as a professor before deciding whether or not it would be appropriate.

I don't know about the UK, but I can answer for the US. In short, it depends and you can usually find out for the particular society or club you're interested in.
There are some organizations that are deliberately welcoming of faculty. Many of them have websites, and it's common for them to specifically say that faculty and staff are welcome to attend. In this case I think these organizations can safely be taken at their word.
I would be reluctant to join any student society or club that was mostly social. But if the club is centered around some specific activity (e.g. fencing) my experience is that such clubs are more welcome of participation by faculty.
Finally, it's often easy to look up contact information for the (student) leadership of the club. Get in touch, and ask if you'd be welcome to join. If you decide to try it out, it is polite to keep your eyes and ears open for the possibility that you are intruding a little bit on a student space; if you feel at all uncomfortable, it is polite to thank everyone at the end of the meeting and not return. But you might instead be warmly welcomed, and have everyone express the hope that you'll come again.

This answer is built upon my personal experience in the Netherlands (A neighbor country of the UK). It basically supports the answer by @Dave Rose.

During my study I attended numerous activities, and though most were just attended by students, some where also attended by lecturers. Some key observations:

Only activities with a very open nature were attended (hosted in a public place & it was also common to bring flatmates for example)
Most activities were without lecturers, and if they were there then always just 1 or 2 at the same time
They did not act as lectures (typically they won't have 10+ beers or stimulate people to get drunk, but will also not criticize those who do)
They don't bring up the activities afterwards in public (especially nothing embarrassing)
They mostly let students come to them rather than approach them proactively (may also be because of their general personality)

Of course it was a bit surprising at first, but given the previous five points, my fellow students and I didn't mind and just considered it to be 'the more the merrier'.

In response to @Mozart: The students in my study typically viewed PHD students as students. So this answer is mostly about those above PHD level.

At my institution, all student societies must have a "senior member" who is a member of academic staff in order to be officially registered (which helps with funding/sponsorship).
In practice, there's plenty of postgraduate student involvement in societies, and the youngish academics (esp. postdocs and one year research fellows) don't really stick out if they get involved. Some of the more academic societies have very high faculty involvement, and this does make the socials relatively sedate affairs.


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Team work at Masters level
Ok so first off a bit of background. I've been working professionally three years in a software engineer position after my BSc. in Mathematics and Physics. At some point I realized I missed doing true research so I enrolled in Masters in Financial Mathematics, which seemed to me the ideal trade off between maths, programming and well finance which is quite interesting.
So now, here I am, first year, with full time lectures. My first reaction was to be disappointed by the amount of team work, since in my BSc days all homeworks were individually graded. For some mathematics courses it's fine, since there's a single good answer. However, there are some instances where it's definitely more research-like, almost like a lab report actually.
What however is unnerving is that I'm stuck with teammates with whom I don't exactly share the same work ethic. For instance, I had to insist on writing formal proofs. Anyway, I just feel that if it wasn't for me we'd keep to the bare minimum. AFAIK this is quite different from the industry where, if a team screws up, then either someone is going to get fired or at least the team is going to be split by the management. Here, the prof just won't care and will assign a global grade and go on to the next team.
So I'm not sure what's the right path. On one side, I really want to make sure our team performs well, this is quite a big move I made here, but on the other side, I just don't want be bossy with them, yet here I am writing emails where I detail clearly what I'm awaiting from each of us. Also, well, I haven't talked openly with them about this issue, I'm not certain how I can bring it.

"AFAIK this is quite different from the industry". AFAIK, this happens in industry everywhere and all the time. I personally had this situation countless times. My suggestion to you, have an open talk with your teammates.

As scaaahu commented: This happens ALL the time in industry (one could say it is the rule, not the exception). We do not always get to pick our teams and it is common for high-performers to be stuck with those who do not really care about the quality of their work. Will someone get fired in industry? Maybe...maybe not (complex issue).
The thing you must understand is the difference between management, where someone has formal authority based on their position in the organization, and leadership, where someone's authority basically comes from the followers.
If your team is fill with under-performers you need to figure out if you can use some leadership skills to motivate them to do better. This is the same when studying and when working. If you cannot motivate them then you must decide if someone else can (perhaps you need to encourage someone else to act as the leader). If it seems the team simply cannot be motivated, then you should do your best to find another team.
A team can only be successful if the team feels like a team and that means, in part, that everyone believes in the same goal and are willing to sacrifice to achieve that goal.
The solution is to develop some leadership skills and have a direct talk with the team about what they hope to achieve.

I've faced the same situation in the past. And that was during a semester-long project. At the time I was stuck in a team of 4, where I ended-up doing over 70% of the work.
The problem in such setup is that, no matter that you try to voice your concerns, the other party will only hear what is convenient to them and not more. So to say, they may nod their head as if they care about your concerns but it is hardly that something else will be done in practice. If you are lucky in your team might be another person who barely shares the same work ethic with you, and that person may show some effort to provide some help.
My situation was different from yours in the sense that the grades were assigned individually and there were supervisors who monitored the situation actively. They could tell who has done what by the style of writing and the activity during meetings.
I don't know if you have a supervisor, or if you have a flat hierarchy in the group. First talk to the other members of the team and make a separation of concerns by assigning tasks. In this stage do not tell explicitly that you expect each one of them to work hard, but say it implicitly that everyone is thrilled for this group-work and you are all looking for great results. Also it would be nice if you establish a hierarchy since the beginning. Assuming you are the "best" make yourself the head of the group.
During the separation of tasks, do not assign tasks to the others, let them choose themselves, so they don't blame later that the task was too hard for them.
Establish weekly meetings where everyone will tell about the progress he has done with his task.
At some point (lets say 3-4 weeks) you will see that things aren't going as expected (assuming from the description you provided). In that case make a new emergency meeting where you will voice your concerns explicitly. Also make sure to have a mild talk with your supervisor (if you have one) about this problem.
In 1-2 weeks if you see no improvement overall, have a serious talk with the supervisor, and consider if you should stay in such a group (for many reasons). Eventually, you will be investing much more time that you are supposed to on that group (both for organizational overhead and completing the tasks), on top of that you might be frustrated all the time and even worse have health-issues afterwards.
Bear in mind that I have made some hard assumptions in this answer, however I believe you are smart enough to modify the suggestions to fit your situation. Also, do not forget that studies are meant to teach you scientific stuff but also intangibles, such as learning when to say "I'm not going to do this anymore", raise your voice nicely etc.
If you wonder what happened with my case, well I got the top grade, but my supervisors blamed me for not raising the concerns much earlier. I learned the hard way...

I had the same thing happen to me during my MBA; it was heavy in group projects.
I was trying to keep a perfect GPA and my team mates just cared about passing.
There is no really way to complain or rant. I just couldn’t trust them to do anything. I would take over the project, assign them a BS part and do the lion work and writing and editing and all.
Yes it is not fair to do the work of 6 and letting others profit from your work but you do get something from it. Besides you can’t teach a donkey to fly.
You do learn a lot more than your classmates. You get more out of your degree. You learn to handle bigger multipart projects. You learn to manage a group effort by pretending that everyone is contributing. You learn to bypass sponges by pretending they don’t exist. You learn to bite the bullet. Etc.
Also, at the end of the day, they do know who did the real work and most likely the teacher does too.


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I have asked a professor if he were available for being my graduate thesis advisor, now my bachelor thesis advisor is angry with me
A couple days ago I was asked by my former bachelor degree advisor (let's call him X for short) if I were interested in doing a MD thesis with him. I have replied him that I wasn't sure yet about what I would like to do for my MD thesis and I told him I would have asked some other professor before deciding. He said he was perfectly okay with that.
I have therefore talked to several professor and, among them, to an ex collaborator of X, let's call him Y, who works in a different country.
In the mail I wrote to Y, I did not put X in cc nor I have mentioned him.
Y replied to me, putting X in cc, and suggesting that I should ask him if he were available to be my internal advisor first.
Finally, X sent a mail to Y, with me and a friend of mine (who wrote the mail to Y with me, as he were interested too) where he said I was trying to "outmaneuver" him by writing directly to Y. He also reported a mail written before I wrote to Y where, among other personal opinions on me, he suggested I was a mental instable person and that I push around my girlfriend (X was the bachelor thesis advisor to my girlfriend as well).
Now, of course the reaction of my professor is beyond any acceptable boundary, but what I really want to know is whether I am wrong at all. Should I have asked him before writing to Y?
Also, how should I reply to X?
Beg your pardon for the Xs and Ys...

a piece information: everyone who knows me and my girlfriend always said SHE was the one pushing around me ;)

I am sorry but this is confusing: "I told him [X] I would have asked some other professor before deciding. He said he was perfectly okay with that. [...] Should I have asked him [X] before writing to Y?". Maybe you didn't ask in all detail but you did notify him about the possibility. Do I understand it correctly? Also personally I would focus on straightening out the situation with Y in most possible professional manner.

I have said i would have asked "other professors", and he said [X] he was fine. I did not said I was going to write to Y.
It is worth noting that X wrote to Y BEFORE me, insulting me my girlfriend and so on.

@giuliobullsaver I'm confused, are you saying that before you wrote to Y about seeking external supervision, X got there first? How would X know that you were thinking of Y? Did you tell X that you were thinking of Y?

Can you clarify this question/perhaps by providing more details? It's really not clear what's happened other than X has behaved very inappropriately.

@awsoci Yes, before I wrote to Y, X wrote to him. I once (a couple of years ago) mentioned Y to X and my desire to work with him in the future. He must have recalled that when I told him I was going to write to some people before deciding.

Oooookay yep then this is an entirely different situation to what I had originally thought. X is behaving really poorly, to go out of their way to email Y before you even approached Y is crazy. Jakebeal's answer is one I would follow :)

It sounds like you've found out the reason that Y is no longer a collaborator of X.  Furthermore, you should thank your lucky stars that you found out now, before you committed to working with X.
Assuming there are no important missing pieces in what you report, the situation is pretty straight-forward: you were entirely reasonable in telling X that you wanted to talk to some other professors before deciding, and it is entirely reasonable for you to contact Y without reference to X (X has no claim over you and your interactions).
The email that you report X having sent is absolutely inappropriate, and also clearly disingenuous: if X thinks so badly of you, why would X have invited you to work for them?  It seems clear that X is wanting to control you, and so you should definitely NOT work for X.
At this point, I would recommend writing an email to X, stating that you found the email both highly inappropriate and also confusing, particularly given that X was also asking you to work for him.  State that because you find this inappropriate, you are no longer considering working for X.  It is very important that this interaction be in email, and that after this point you restrict interaction to email, since X has proven to be manipulative and untrustworthy and you need a written record with which to defend yourself if necessary.  I would also recommend continuing communication with Y, if this is possible despite the attempt of X to sabotage you.

One thing I would add to this: is there some other faculty member in your own department that you trust, and can talk to?  If so, it could be a good idea to do so.  If you end up without support from your own department, that is a bad situation; and that could happen if the faculty only hear X’s side of the story.

This is a good response  but the question is not clear as to whether he had sought consent for an external supervisor, as opposed to an internal, supervisor.

"It sounds like you've found out the reason that Y is no longer a collaborator of X." It still confuses me that Y cc'd the mail to X even if he might have known what to expect.

Good answer but to be a contrarian consider the saying, "make love by email, make war by phone' :)


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Chance of applying as a prospective PhD student in semesters
Is it usual that the chance for a PhD student that aims to apply for the second semester of the educational year (i.e. spring semester) and sends his/her application for professors may be  lesser than who want to apply via connection with professors for the first semester in an educational year (i.e. autumn semester)? In other words, does volumes of accepted PhD students in the autumn semester influence on reduction of acceptance rate and opportunity for a Prospective PhD student who aims to apply in the next spring semester or each semester has its own capacity for accepting PhD students?

Please specify the country. If it's US, you hit a duplicate PhD opportunities in Spring in US universities

What country are you asking about? Funding timings vary from country to country.

@GrotesqueSI , Specially for Australia and western Europe.

In the UK, most PhD studentships for home (UK/EU) will be advertised in the autumn, and also those few places that have PhD programms will have closing dates just after Christmas. In most cases this will be to recruit to programs that will start in the autumn of the following year.
This is not a hard and fast rule, and plenty of people will get positions later in the year, although many of them will still start at the start of the academic year in October.
This is not to say that no one starts inbetween, its just much less usual, and often suggests an unorthodox funding route, such as self-funding, foreign government fellowship or industrial sponsorship.

Also a good answer for the USA.

In Australia, usually PhD students start when they receive their visa.  This has no relation to the academic calendar or the student's wishes.
Domestic PhD students often start around February.
PhD students do not have cohorts in Australia.


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Is it possible to add a new citation after a paper is published?
Can I add a new recent citation to my published paper? It will be added to the discussion section, with no change to my original work.

No. Once a paper it's published, it's published.

Yes, but publishing such a slightly extended version in a reputable venue will get hard to impossible.

No.
You cannot change a paper in any way after it is published.
The only thing you can do, is publish an erratum.  But that is intended for serious errors that affect the main conclusions, not for a "I have another related paper".
Note that many people use not only references but also citations to look for related papers.  So if the new citation is your own, newer paper, and cites your old paper, people will find the new paper from the old paper anyway if they use standard scientific databases.