text:
My class got fewer days than the other class to study for a test. Is there anything I can do?
I am in a class that has 2 sections. My class is now 2 days behind in material compared to the other section due to class cancellations. We have a test coming up and there is a stark difference in the amount of time that each section has had to study. The other section completed the most recent chapter and got the entire weekend to review that entire chapter before the test. My section is finishing that chapter the day before the test, so we only get one day to review the entire chapter before the test. The tests will be the exact same between sections despite differences in the amount of time to study, and I do not believe this is fair.
Is this just a situation where I need to tough it out even though the other section got 4 days with the full material and my section got 1?

What do you want to happen differently?

Talk to the professor(s), talk to the department chair if you don't get help from the prof. Is there one professor or two involved here? Different profs for different sections?

How is the "time to study" different? The number of in class meetings doesn't affect elapsed time.

You can always read the textbook (assuming the class follows one) and work on problems from the textbook.

@Buffy: Probably (as it happend in my study time): There is no "textbook" and you don't know what the prof will be teaching beforehand. Then, students with no contact to the other group can only study after the lecture and this changes study time.

I can think of three general purposes for assigning grades; it's not necessary that there be any one overall purpose, rather each person who assigns or receives grades likely sees some combination of these purposes:

To assess/demonstrate mastery of material.

To assess/demonstrate intrinsic ability to learn material.

To provide a proximate reward/incentive structure to encourage learning, since the "real" benefits of that learning are distant and difficult to quantify in the moment.

At the same time, I can think of two ways that the current situation is unfair:
A. You've missed out on teaching opportunities that you paid for or that have been paid by some sponsor.
B. Assessment of your class section versus the other class section is occurring in a different surrounding context.

Depending on how you view grades/assessment and what aspect of unfairness you focus on, the possible solutions are very different. If you are more concerned with (A) than (B), then the existence of another section doesn't matter at all, but you could argue that the instruction time should be made up somehow. This may or may not be feasible. However, it seems you're most concerned with (B): the measurement against this other class.
If the purpose of grades is mostly (1), there is no unfairness. The exam will measure whether students in either section have mastered the material. If missing course sessions prevented mastery of material, that might affect grades but this effect is perfectly fair with respect to the measurement. If a student's goal is to minimize this difference in mastery, the solutions are things like spending more time outside of class than is typical, or seeking out alternative sources of instruction (textbooks, presentation of similar material in online lectures, attending office hours, etc). If, as a student, you choose not to do these added things, yet expect to have the same mastery, it's hard to see the validity of your complaint. Especially if you can't show you've made an independent effort to master the material through the avenues made available to you and you instead wait until the final class session to start studying on your own.
If the purpose of grades is (2), then there is unfairness: someone with the same "skill" or intrinsic ability in the subject is likely to test better in one section than another. However, this purpose of grades is more generally flawed. Everyone in each section has a different overall sum environment that impacts how their grades appear in comparison to their classmates. A student who suffers a health hardship (for themselves or someone close to them) during some interval is likely to score worse than someone else with no relationship to their learning ability. A student who has other responsibilities such as a job, other demanding courses, childcare, etc is likely to score worse than someone else with no relationship to their learning ability. These disadvantages are rarely (if ever) corrected for in assigning grades. The cancelled classes are just one example of a potential hardship, and it just happens to be one that affects an entire class section roughly equally. Even so, you could lobby for the instructor to make some adjustment, that is, to "curve" the grades on the exam to make the average in each section more similar, but you should be prepared that this will affect the ability of the grade to reflect purpose (1) - if the instructor finds purpose (1) to be important, they may not see any unfairness.
I don't see a difference between the groups for purpose (3).

I think it would be very appropriate when courses are mixed to ask the instructors for substitute material. That might include suggestions for certain textbook sections or chapters to read (even if these are already on the syllabus, the instructor may be able to help point to the things they will and will not reach during class). I'd also recommend that a student consider utilizing office hours or other opportunities for individual support outside scheduled classes, if these are provided. If instructors refuse to provide this sort of support, I would agree that this is unfair.
I think you could ask your instructor to consider applying a 'curve' or similar grade adjustment, but I would not necessarily take a refusal to do this as "unfair", at least not more unfair than all of life generally is. If you ask for this, I think you should recognize you're asking for a bit of a favor/special treatment, and should also make sure you've done everything you can on your own. If you're looking for a free lunch, then you're the one approaching things unfairly.

It might also be worth considering that if your goal is reason 1, then there may be a time at which testing mastery of the material is most useful. It may be that if the exam is coming at a different point with respect to the teaching it is sub-optimally placed. However, this is less about fairness, and more about whether the exam is achieving its aim.


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PI asked me (undergraduate research assistant) to be involved in hiring other undergraduate/graduate student workers
I am an undergraduate student research assistant in the US and have been working with my PI for less than a year. Recently my PI asked me to help her in hiring other student research assistants. Not only did I think it was strange that I was being asked to hire fellow undergraduates, but she also asked for my help in hiring graduate students. To make matters more confusing, she had a meeting with myself and other coworkers where they danced around outright telling me I had to do it, but also gave me no other tasks to do- quid pro quo if you will. They also spent plenty of time telling me that they had talked to others in the office- other higher ups- that it was ok for undergraduates to do hiring.
However they then proceeded to tell me that in order for me to help we have to use non .edu emails, non work emails. They eventually gave me the resumes using a usb drive. I coalesced in agreeing to do this because although it was sketchy how they were going about this, I didn't see the harm. Just silly university regulations that were hampering progress. I realize I should've told them no from the beginning, but we were reaching deadlines in other areas and we are short staffed, and although its not my fault that my PI has had numerous people join and quit before and after I joined, I gave in to their pressure to help as deadlines approached. The deadlines passed and I helped with the initial screening, but now they again asked for more help in vetting the candidates further. I politely told them no.
I suppose there is an ethical question here of, is this ok? Should an undergraduate be hiring other undergraduate or graduate students to do work on research grants? Will I be in trouble for going along with this? Why did my PI make this seem wrong to do, and actively encourage dodgy behavior? And if its wrong, is it wrong at the university, state, or federal level?
Thanks

I don't think it's wrong in principle. It may depend on what you were asked to do. I don't see anything wrong with for example checking whether certain formal criteria are fulfilled in an application/CV.

I agree in principle. But that does not explain the dodgy behavior and advocacy of it.

Methinks the … well, you know the rest. On the other hand you’re quite eloquent on your grievance, cheers!

What exactly are you being asked to do? Interview then? Screen resumes? Make the final decision? Not sure what “vet them further” means…

@cag51 more or less everything except the interview and final yes. I have background in an area they don't and are hiring for. Nonetheless, if its all ok then why the insistence on leaving no trail?

still not sure what "more or less everything" means. Sounds like just resume and phone screen? I agree that the "no work e-mails" thing seems sketchy, and could be a problem in itself. But that comes down to your university's rules.

There is a different perspective one can have: Your PI has a high opinion of your ability to judge, and of your perspective of the project. So they thought it was useful to get your perspective on candidates. They may also have thought that it would be a nice idea to give you the possibility to grow leadership and managerial skills by seeing how the hiring process works from the inside.
Good leaders do both: They lift others up whenever they see the opportunity to let them grow in their roles.

How come I think of this? When I was an undergraduate and then graduate student, as well as later in my career, I have been very fortunate to have had mentors who roped me into things that were clearly above my pay grade, but that allowed me to see how "science is done in practice". I helped write and edit proposals, and I helped prepare for external reviews of multi-million-dollars-a-year institutes.
None of that was necessary. Nor was I probably of great help. These people saw something in me that made them want to support me in my career, and I have been extremely grateful ever since. I have made sure I pay that back by doing the same for students and younger colleagues under my tutelage since then. Asking a promising student to help with something like hiring is something that I might be thinking of as well.

All true, but the non-official email thing is strange.

Yes Wolfgang I am grateful they think I would be able to be at least of some help, but Azor has hit on the key point.

@Judge That may be unusual, but personal information such as application documents can generally not be sent by email for privacy reasons, but must be stored on secure servers or memory sticks. So I understand the need to not use university email; I might have chosen a different way of dealing with regulations than to use personal email addresses, but I understand the underlying reason.

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Should I include the write-ups I have published in newspapers in my CV?
I am a student of English literature.
Since 2018, I have regularly published short stories and literary articles in national and international newspapers. The number is around 20.
Should I mention these published write-ups in my academic CV? If yes, then what is the right method of mentioning it in the CV?

You should absolutely mention successful work in your CV if it's relevant to the position/program that you are applying to.
With so many, it is best to mention the number of submissions and the nature of the work and periodicals and individually cite only a couple of the most recent or relevant ones.

Yes. To build upon dubious's answer, list them under a section such as Public outreach, Media outreach, or Popular press.
I would look at the CV's for the faculty (usually listed on their website) to see if/how they list these articles.
As a caveat, the articles are not peer-reviewed so do not try to present them as such.
Some people will value them on your CV, others will not.
As long as you do not lie, this should not hurt you.
Only help you or be netural on your CV.

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What is the difference between paper presentation and poster presentation (in terms of prestige)?
I am talking in terms of values. Is there any difference between these two when it comes to the weight they add to a CV? Is a paper presentation better than a poster presentation?

Based on your other question, I've tagged your question as [tag:liberal-arts] (we don't seem to have a "literature-as-a-field" tag. Ac.SE is mostly STEM-y people and you'll probably want the tag to get your question answered appropriately.

I'm distant from your area... but, in math, in the U.S., a "poster presentation" is sort of a nice thing for undergrads or beginning grad students to do, but rarely is of any consequence.
Presentations, either of papers or free-standing, are much more substantive, to begin with... and are much higher status, CV-padding-wise, as well. You'll have an actual audience, to begin with!!!

Or "how to go to a conference on a grant" ...

This probably depends on the field, but in CS, at least, a paper presentation is much more valued than a poster. Moreover, conferences are thought of as more valuable than journal publications due to the sorter time scale between submission and the conference vs submission and final publication.
A paper presentation almost certainly gets more review than a poster, even with short time scales. Posters may be most valuable to students looking to get a start on making their, not quite ready, work visible and getting some feedback from conference attendees.
Moreover, it may be (or not) that the papers are published in the proceedings or an associated journal that doesn't include posters.
For some purposes one can do both, actually, even at the same conferences. The paper is expected to be more refined and complete, however.

You asked another question concerning literature. That field might be quite different. If you are a student then a professor in your field can probably give a tailored answer.

Thank you so much for your valuable comment. It certainly clarified my confusion. If the conference is on English literature, I guess the paper presentation still is more valuable than poster presentation right?

And, the more experience giving talks, the better your public speaking gets.

For completeness, in the context of CS, a poster presentation as described in the answer should not confused with a poster presentation of an accepted paper at a conference: for many large conferences, most accepted papers are presented via poster sessions instead of talks.

I think that a lot of the effect of poster and paper presentations, in terms of their later (general) reputational value, depends on two main things.

The number of people of importance and influence who would come to your paper presentation versus a poster viewing.
The way in which posters versus papers are reported in any subsequent summary of proceedings.

Some post-conference publications include author-edited versions of the papers that were presented; when that happens, the posters are often not mentioned at all. The consequence is that when you cite your paper, people can read what it was about; but when it comes to citing your poster, the best that you can rely on is a line in the pre-conference agenda!
However, if there is no post-conference publication of papers, then it seems to me that there is little potential difference between a paper and a poster. You are really relying a lot on the conference attendees themselves to be the diseminators of your ideas (see point 1).
The Computer Science field is very good at publishing conference papers. I have no idea about the English Literature area.
In terms of CV weighting, my experience in the area of experimental psychology is that posters and conference papers tend to be treated much the same ... low!


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How to find most cited researchers in a specific field?
I need to send these items to a high-impact journal. However, I don't exactly know where I can find these pieces of information.

The names, affiliations, h-index from either Web of Science or Google
Scholar Citations, and full contact information including email
addresses of six to ten leading researchers as determined by
publication of important journal articles in the subject area of the
paper outside of your circle/region as a Word file. They should not be
your advisor, advisee, research sponsor, research collaborator, or
someone with a conflict of interest. They can include senior
researchers cited in your paper. Please disclose potential conflicts
of interest if any.
Who are the top 10 researchers in the world in the subject of the
paper as determined by publication of impactful journal articles in
the subject area of the paper? Please provide their name, affiliation,
email address, and h-index from either Web of Science or Google
Scholar Citations as a Word file. This will indicate whether the
authors are familiar with the latest development in the field and
their paper extends the state-of-the-art.

You can do this (sort of) with Web of Science. Put in your search term, then check the Authors tab on the left. It gives you the names of the people with most publications matching that search term. To translate that to most cited, you'll have to check them one-by-one.

Apparently "Web of Science" link is no longer available: "Why can't I access Web of Science?" https://massey.libanswers.com/faq/272745#:~:text=The%20Library%20has%20not%20been,2023%2C%20including%20Web%20of%20Science.

@TheMatrixEquation-balance only at Massey University and a few others? It should work fine elsewhere (I just used it today).

If you want the most highly cited researcher in the field of "optimization", then you can search label: optimization in Google Scholar and you'll get the following results:

For a different field, just change optimization to the field of your interest.


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Chances of ever being admitted to a new university with a straight F semester?
I know that a straight F semester sounds despicable, but hear me out please. I got hit by a car and that alone caused me hospitalizations that led me to a straight F semester.
I'm a physics/ astrophysics major, econ minor. I love physics so much. I don't know what year as I've transferred programs a few times. I'm probably year 3-ish :) Anyway, I got into a major fight with a biology prof last semester. He basically set me aside for bullying because I am a student with disabilities, having been hit by a car and all. I've since had to escalate the matter in ascending order, from profs I confided in to the department head to the assoc. dean. However, no one holds any remorse, even though the individuals with a conscience all feel really bad about what happened. Since then, I've been going to dark places. My trust in others has been shattered. I really want to change universities, but I'm afraid that the chances may be slim to none based on that one straight F semester.
I'll add that I'm a more mature student who's run businesses and held lots of real-world musical experience too. I'm again just so distraught that, no matter how kind the physics and especially math profs are at my school, I just want to get out of here. I obviously need to get a master's degree, at least, to become employable in physics too. (It's a rare person who can get a physics-related job with a BSc alone, but congrats to those individuals, nonetheless).
Has anyone heard of such a situation? I've had strong academic semesters too. I'm thinking that I'd have to speak with a dean to explain the fact that I'd been hit by a car and that had caused me straight F's.
EDIT: Thank you everyone for any valuable feedback and advice. I've read your comments and I'm taking them into serious consideration. A few things I would like to add please:

I will change the name after 30 days because I cannot change it before then. Additionally, I would never write a professor's name online but I accept responsibility for a lack of anonymity at this time, being new to this website and such. (I've lurked in the past).

I go to a Canadian university, so grades matter, but only by so much. This is a top 10 institution in the country, but we don't really have rankings or prestigious classes of universities such as Ivey Leagues up here. Still, I feel it might be wishful thinking to apply elsewhere with F's.

Lastly, for now, this is a bio prof who knows how I've complained about him as I forwarded him all documentation in fairness to the process. I don't have to see this prof again, but I do acknowledge that it can be shaky grounds to burn bridges with a professor around my institution. I just feel that the alternative of suffering in silence would have been quite unbearable.

Thanks again for responses or feedback.

It sounds like you likely need the assistance of a medical professional, if you've had a physical injury that's caused disruption in your mental health - that's not something we can really provide specifics to help with except to urge consulting with someone who can help.

Most schools have something called a "medical leave of absence," where a severe health problem is sufficient cause to remove/eliminate all grades for a semester.  I would encourage you to investigate that option. Given you shifted from non-F to entirely F in the semester of the accident, the case should be fairly clear cut.

This is a bit too personal if your ID here is your real name. I've flagged it for moderator intervention.

Another reason we might not be able to help with this question is that you seem to be asking about undergraduate admissions (as a transfer applicant to another undergraduate program). This is normally handled by admissions officers, not by the academic staff, and so is really outside our bailiwick.

I don't quite understand. You want to go to a new unversity, so why don't you just apply to where you want to study?

I am in Europe - where I am you can just enroll somewhere else, nobody will look at your grades. You don't state a country - so I guess, you are in the US and it is more complicated there? Are you geographically flexible?

@user111388, in the US, admissions requires submission of transcripts of prior education. You don't just enroll in a degree program. You need to be admitted.

@Buffy: Okay, thank you - but the user could just try, right? Can they lose something?

Tangential to the question, but... I looked up "despicable" in a dictionary just to be sure, and I think you really need to let go of the idea that failing some courses is indicative of some kind of character flaw.  Sometimes (as in your case), it's the result of heavy-duty extenuating circumstances, and even when there are no extenuating circumstances, sometimes it just happens without anyone necessarily doing anything blameworthy.

I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and Daniel's kind words too. After careful consideration, I don't think it's likely that my academic Dean would replace my F's at this point because everyone knows I've got one foot out their door, so they have no incentive to help me out further. (I mean, I certainly could try). That said, by a fluke of luck, I realize that my nearest alternative university has a low GPA admissions threshold for physics alone. I happen to meet that minimum despite the F's! So, I'm heading down on Monday to speak in-person with their admissions team. Fingers crossed.

Well, it would not cost them anything to help you. You don’t get your money for that semester back… I would consider that you will still need this transcript for applying to grad schools and not skip steps!

If you have a straight F semester as the result of a car crash, I would investigate the possibly of applying for a “retroactive administrative withdrawal” for that semester. This is something that the Dean of Students office would handle (or be able to refer you to the correct person to handle). This would replace the F grades for that semester with W grades on your transcript. Such a transcript adjustment would likely make it easier to apply elsewhere. Good luck!

Honestly I think your chances are slim unless you can resolve the issues with your current university. The medical issues leading to failures should be one that can be fixed in any reasonable place.
A fight with a professor might be more serious and might make it difficult to get good letters of recommendation unless resolved. One possible resolution is to sidestep an unreasonable faculty member through the department, though they may be due an apology, depending on how the "fight" played out. You don't (and shouldn't) describe that. Your comment that no one shows remorse is troubling, however, and something you need to resolve.
You might even need to sit down with a dean along with a lawyer and discuss what options there are. I'm not suggesting a law suit, but advice from a lawyer might be needed.
Some places will also have an office that advocates for students. Perhaps they can help. The best case is to get the failing grades erased and to reach a state of peace with the faculty member. That will put you in a very different place.

Thank you so much for your comment. I'll only add that he's a bio prof and I'm in physics/ astrophysics so fortunately I'll never have to see this one again. I only fought with him because had had been picking on me for bullying. To be honest, I find it just a bit harsh that you flagged my post for removal due to my name being here. I'm obviously new to the website and thus didn't mean to break any rules or anything. Sorry if I offended anyone. At any rate, I appreciate any sincere feedback very much. I've read through all recommended feedback.

It wasn't intended to be harsh or negative. But some things said here can cause blowback in the larger world so we value anonymity for saying things that might be sensitive. You broke no rules, but I worried that you might be putting yourself at risk.

For sure, thank you for the clarification Buffy. I did just attempt to change my online name but it said that there's a 30-day policy for wait times so I accept any responsibility for having my name on here. I guess I didn't notice it and hopefully others wouldn't notice it too, but again, I'm happy to change the name and to take that into account. I just don't want to delete the question at this time when others have written valuable advice.


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Naming a Lemma In Math Thesis
In my pure math thesis I have an important lemma and I want to name it. The statement is quite technical so I will omit quite a lot of details.
I want to call this lemma “the adding lemma”. My supervisor thinks it should be “the addition lemma”.
I feel like it should be “adding” because there are other results like the pumping lemma (formal languages) or the lifting lemma (polynomial algebra). Both pumping and lifting have -ing suffix and they somehow describe the “action” the lemma performs (pumping lemma: a string can be pumped—that is, have a middle section of the string repeated an arbitrary number of times) (lifting lemma: ...root can be lifted to a unique root modulo...).
The lemma in my thesis basically allows us to add objects to a structure. I will disregard plenty of details. If I have a formula which satisfies something, the lemma asserts there is exactly one witness which satisfies something. Thus we can add the object expressed by the formula to our structure.
I feel like “the adding lemma” follows the same logic as the names of the pumping and the lifting lemma.
Should it be the adding lemma, or the addition lemma? This is more about the English language and less about math.

Personal opinion: the "extension lemma" or the "existence lemma" sound to me like a better fit than either of these options. Both the "adding lemma" and the "addition lemma" sound a bit strange to me, although it's hard to pinpoint exactly why.

Lemma 3 very pretty, and the converse pretty too. But the proof of the poor lemma is impossible to do.

Generally, when a theorem is about a particular action or operation, it's named with the noun form of that operation.
The verbs "pump" and "lift" don't have special noun forms, at least not that I can think of, and so English defaults to using the verbal noun (aka gerundial noun) to describe the corresponding actions.  These are usually formed with "-ing" like the present participle, so we have pumping lemma and lifting lemma.
The verb "add" does have such a form, namely "addition".  (Apparently this is called a deverbal noun).  So when talking about this action as a noun, we would normally prefer that form.
As other examples, we would say existence lemma instead of existing lemma, extension theorem instead of extending theorem, and so on.
I would agree with your advisor and prefer to use addition lemma in this case.
(As another example, if you rewrite this answer replacing "action" by "acting", and "operation" by "operating", it sounds very strange.)

Addition would seem to imply a numerical action. Adding can mean that or other things; adding carrots to the soup. But there are other possibilities with other words.
How about "insertion lemma" since that seems more descriptive, though there is already something with that name: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.13543
But you might think a bit more about the "best" name, not the one that came to mind first.
And, fighting with your supervisor is seldom the best career move. It really only matters if this lemma is significant enough that the idea can be generally applied and is likely to be adopted by others.


text:
PhD Admissions Decline/ Accept
I have been admitted to three PhD programs but I am leaning to program A. Program B is attractive and simply only with the admission letter and fellowship letter I'm not sure if it's the right school for me. (I am pretty sure I will be declining program C.)
So, should I still talk to my program B's advisor professor and program director professor before making the decision or should I just save their time by saying that I will decline the offer immediately?
I pretty sure its easy to meet any of these professors in the near future, so I want to be polite and leave a good impression for program B. (Is is better to appear to ponder about this program or to save their time and give them the chance to move onto their next waitlist student?)

You should decline offers only once you've accepted another written offer, ideally not until you've received some confirmation of your acceptance.
Until you've made a decision, there is nothing wrong with gathering any information that would help you make that decision. I would not recommend soliciting information that will not influence your decision in order to play any "game" with the system (e.g., to make yourself look good, make other people feel good because you considered them carefully, etc).
It's not clear to me you've made a decision yet, as you only describe yourself as "leaning".
Once you've made a decision and accepted an official, written offer, it would be most polite to decline all other offers to let those programs make decisions about offers to students they may have on a waitlist, etc.

Thank you! Your response is really helpful! Yes, I guess I'm still wanting to learn more about Program B but feel a bit guilty to ask questions because I'm currently leaning closer to Program A. I'd also like to ask if it's a good idea to bargain for additional funding from Program A mentioning that another school is offering more if I do make the decision to go there?

@HEEHEE https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/194047 might apply. I wouldn't feel guilty about asking questions while your mind isn't made up, though.


text:
How a tenure-track candidate should/may answer the question "How do you view your role in the faculty development process?"
Faculty members (often!) gradually develop from inexperienced rookies to experienced scholars. In my view, the impact of a faculty member on the development of other faculty members is practically possible if those colleagues are less experienced than that faculty member. But, it seems the question "How do you view your role in the faculty development process?" is often asked from tenure-track candidates in search committee interviews. In such scenarios, what can a meaningful answer to this question be?

Well, have you thought about it? What do you think your role is/should be? I don't think these sorts of things are easy to lie about - if you haven't thought about it, you're likely to sound foolish when asked follow up questions.

I think I would respond by asking them to clarify the question.  Do they mean how you would help other faculty develop, or how you would develop yourself?

@NateEldredge: The answer to the latter interpretation is fairly straightforward. But, what if the former interpretation is the one they intend?

@BryanKrause: Your comment makes me wonder whether or not you have read the body of the question!

I'm trying to be constructive here: you are asking how you should answer a question that asks you for your opinion about your role. If you have an opinion, why wouldn't you start there? By asking how you should answer the question, it seems like you view this as a game to play rather than an earnest question about your fit for this position. Do you have experience with mentorship? What do you think about that experience and how it will shape your future mentorship? That's what the question is asking. Why should you answer with someone else's thoughts rather than your own?


text:
How do you deal with grade deflation and with looking at grades?
I'm in upper years of physics and economics, as I've changed majors a few times and ultimately wound up coming back to physics, the subject that I love.
That said, back in my business school days (I was a finance major), it was quite feasible to work as hard as possible and to get A's or B's as a result. In fact, I could put in the work required for A's, and I only got B's when I didn't complete an assignment or I missed some participation marks or whatever. Basically, then, strong enough GPAs were perfectly attainable. And the less-strong GPAs were ones I could deal with because I figured, ah well, I don't need that course again.
Econ is a little harder than business school, in my humble opinion, but I can still put in efforts and expect a pass in the class type of thing. I get anywhere from A's to C's, depending on how hard I work, but when I need A's I can usually get them.
It is a 100% different minefield in physics and in STEM in general. Sometimes, class averages are really low, and sometimes those grades just aren't curved. I'll never forget the first time that I got 15% (literally 15/100) on an exam. Although I had seen that F coming from a mile away, it still scared the daylights out of me. Fortunately, that remains my worst grade to date, but because that fear is forever drilled into my mind, I literally cannot look at my grades. I usually try, once or twice a semester, to open up my grades when the timing is right and when I feel that I can handle seeing them. But that day virtually never comes. So, I have my ways of evading looking at grades entirely. On the website where we submit all the assignments, I just cover up the second half of the page, where grades are shown. When profs hand back tests or exams, I never look. I ONLY look at the final-final grades on my transcript.
Obviously, I should be taking feedback into more serious consideration. I should also be checking grades in case I'm failing any courses going into finals. What usually happens is that final exams are worth the majority of my grade, or I have to pass the final to pass the course. So, I figure, f*ck it, maybe I'm going in with an A or maybe I'm going in with an F. I always assume that I'm going in with an F so that I push myself to study properly for the final and not let my ego get the better of me. Still, I feel that there may come a day and time when I need to begin to face my scores head-on. How bad is seeing an F? A D? How do you guys cope with it? I know that it's far from unheard of for students to get F's on assignments, tests, exams, courses, you name it. But I've never been able to develop the thick skin for this due to my business school days. Any help or tips? Thanks.

Unless your physics professors are vastly different from myself, getting an F (or another low mark) on an assignment or a midterm is a signal that remedial actions are necessary.  By ignoring such signals, you are not helping yourself.  Whatever your performance, you should always look for feedbacks.
If the marking scheme is as you suggest, getting one bad grade during the term is not lethal, provided this is a one-off.  There are multiple ways of getting a failing grade: from not grasping the concept to anxiety during the exam to simply sleeping badly the night before, so it is essential to meet with your instructor and rule out the first, or if there is a conceptual problem find a way to resolve it.
Not everyone is born to be good at manipulating lasers or have a knack for solving oscillator chains.  Getting some bad grades is not the end of the world, provided you show strengths and/or improvements somewhere.


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Contempt on the part of students
At my university there is a program called "voluntary monitoring", where a student who has passed a certain subject can become the "monitor/tutor" of that discipline.
Among the functions of the monitor are:

Offer pedagogical support to the students assisted in the curricular components;

Provide regularly enrolled Undergraduate students with the opportunity to engage in a work plan of teaching activities that enable the improvement of knowledge and the development of attitudes, skills and competencies favorable to their academic training and professional;

Create conditions for theoretical-practical deepening and development of skills and competences related to the teaching activity;

Establish pedagogical practices and experiences that allow the interaction of the monitors with the faculty, students and technical-administrative staff.

I ended up willingly becoming a tutor in a discipline called real analysis. It turns out that because I advanced some disciplines, I became a monitor for my own classmates. From there my problems started.
A good part of my colleagues showed disinterest in participating in the monitoring and that affected me, I don't know if it's because I'm not considered the best student in the class and in addition to not attending, they didn't answer questions with me, but with the "best student in the class" and demanded that I provide templates for the exercise lists that the teacher passes, since according to them, THIS IS MY FUNCTION. Apart from a few things I noticed, like some of my colleagues going to monitor just to talk to those who were also there.
The semester ended and only the "best student" in the class and two other colleagues passed. I'm again as real analysis monitor and the same problem is happening. Any suggestions on how to resolve this?
I feel that my teaching was horrible, and I'm doing this because being a monitor counts as a point in the master's admission test.

"Monitor" seems to me a strange word here, though maybe it's what your institution uses or a translation. Should it be "mentor" instead?

You can't force others to show interest in being tutored. if your teaching was in fact horrible, well, that makes it impossible, and if you are only doing this to get 'a point' for master's admission, well they probably have figured that out. Provide real value to them by helping them.

Is this essentially a teaching assistant role? Are you saying that students didn’t ask you questions but instead asked the best student among those currently enrolled?

@Dawn yes, sir...

A lot of what you wrote is unclear: a) I think by "colleagues" you mean "fellow monitors"? (not "fellow students"). But they're not colleagues in the sense of paid employees. b) "A good part of my colleagues showed disinterest in participating in the monitoring..." Do you mean the other students didn't want to be mentored by you in particular? or by any mentor? c) "only three students passed". Was that 3 out of 5? out of 10? need that missing context. What was the pass rate for other monitors? for previous semesters? d) "students [attending] just to talk..." So they just want exercise lists.

Unfortunately, you do not give us enough back-ground, especially not the country where you are studying and teaching as the reaction of your classmates to you is probably culturally embedded.
Skepticism of a peer being put in front of them as a mentor / monitor is a common reaction and the reaction of your classmates has a flavor of mobbing to it, where a negative reaction of one group member is reinforced and radicalized by that of another group member. In such an atmosphere, evidence of your being competent is disregarded and contrary evidence blown up. This means that you did not have much of a chance in your first experience and your second one is not going to go any better. Assigning you as monitor to your peers was just a bad idea for which you are not responsible. It is also a recipe to have you become and remain an ineffective teacher, because the environment is just not conducive to learning how to teach.
At this point, it seems to be unlikely that your fellow students are interested in being tutored by you at all. I do not see any way for you to change this.
I hope that you have a supervisor that you can talk to and who has influence about assignments. Since you would have to be truly exceptional to be successful with monitoring, I hope that your supervisor agrees that this was just a bad assignment and allows you to pull out of it.
If this is impossible, try to do something simple and useful as going over past (as in previous years') examination questions or homework problems.


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Can I mention a paper on my CV if it's accepted for a conference presentation but I don't present the paper?
My abstract was accepted for a paper presentation. However, I won't be able to attend the conference due to unavoidable circumstances.
Can I still mention this paper in my cv under conference presentation? If not, then how can I mention this in my CV?

Will it be printed in the proceedings or did you withdraw it?

No. It will not be printed and I didn't withdraw it. It's just that I won't be able to attend the conference on that date.

@AbdullahRayhan Do you have proceedings, to begin with?

To clarify, nobody at all will be presenting the paper?

The culture is very different in different fields. Without further information, I have no idea whether your conferences are competitive publication venues (as e.g. in CS) or not.
If you want to list it on your CV, why not just write "accepted at X but not presented due to personal circumstances."


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Paying taxes for a postdoc fellowship when there's no withholdings
For 11 months last year, I was a postdoc employee and received a W2 for that. For the 12th month, I was a postdoc at the same institution, but on a fellowship. I received no form (e.g., no 1099-MISC or other) for that month apart from my paystub. What do I do for taxes? My paystub breaks down my earnings from the fellowship into “Stipend for Health Allowance” and “Stipend for Living Expenses”. The former is very high on the fellowship, but I never see a penny since it goes to health insurance at around 8x the cost of the deductions before the fellowship. Part of the latter "stipend" also goes toward health insurance. I would hope I only pay taxes on the latter stipend, which is the exact same amount I was making before the fellowship when I was a regular employee. How do I indicate this situation to the IRS? Can somebody please give me some insight here?

My suggestion would be to consult your universities human resources office.

I already did. They say they can't / won't comment on tax matters. I'm totally in the dark about this.

There are quite a few questions on Personal Finance and Money SE about fellowships. You may want to read them.

In the US, fellowships are often considered taxable income. However, dealing with the taxes is on you. Plenty of materials around, including likely at your fellowship funding agency.

Find a CPA. It's their job to figure these sorts of things out.

What country? Even down to what state/province?  My only experience is in Canada. Here you very definitely have to pay income tax on things like post-docs. Scholarships also. The revenue folks will follow you across the country and empty your bank account without warning.


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Is reading systematically collected articles one-by-one enough for publication or I should have any further stategy?
I've searched the articles, abstracts, and keywords using Scopus.
I narrowed down the time for the exciting period/range.
I limited the subject area to the relevant ones.
Now I've 40 papers instead of 3000. I don't know what the next step is. I want to do a systematic review and publish my findings. I've collected the research questions. Still, I don't find any good description of how to process them. Should I read all of them? Or is it enough to walk through the abstracts?
I want my paper accepted, so one solution is not the best, I need an elegant solution. :-)

"I don't know what the next step is." Much like the Cheshire Cat, I must ask you where you want to go... Otherwise I can't tell you the next step to take. Can you please clarify your context? For example, are you a Master Degree student, or a (Under)Graduate student, or just a teenager? Why did you start a Systematic Literature Review? There is noone providing you guidance to you on your organisation? Or you are not enrolled in anything?

People who write review articles are experts in their respective fields for a large number of years.
The answer to your question is that this approach is not going to benefit you, especially if the only goal is to publish a paper.

I upvoted your answer, which is reminiscent of my downvoted answer here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/152333/109931. ;-)

"People who write review articles are experts in their respective fields for a large number of years." Not necessarily. I'm doing a Systematic Literature Review as an assignment to a Master Degree course's discipline. Noone in Academia know me so far, noone has told I'm an expert in my field for decades.

This is a flawed argument. Review papers support PhD students to narrow down their research questions. For example, if someone is doing a PhD, they have already spent many years in the field and now are narrowing down to one specific area of expertise.  And their review of the field could be as good as any expert. The reason this answer is getting upvoted is because the person who asked this question seems more interested in getting published than the research questions. Most of the academicians are like that including the so called 'experts'.

Well, maybe not. Reading a bunch of articles and then extracting some things from them isn't quite enough. You also need to understand the articles you read so that your paper is more than what a bot could do.
In fact, what you need to write a good paper is to achieve insight, if not enlightenment, from those papers into the topic(s) they discuss.
I'm currently reading a book that is important to my current project. It is very dense and full of "information", but it is terribly difficult to draw insight from it without spending a lot of time on each page and, in this case, drawing a lot of figures.
If you can express that insight in an understandable way, then you have made a contribution.


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As the submitting author, is it OK to submit work first as the corresponding author, and change later on to reduce communication time?
The question looks a little complicated, but I think most of you has gone through this hassle many times so I am asking if there is a convenient way to do this.
The journal I am about to submit a small work is using the old and classic Editorial Manager system.
This work has two authors, Me(1st, submitting author), and my senior, the corresponding author.
This designation has been clearly stated in the title page and the manuscript also.
However in editorial manager system, you have to send the compiled pdf to the corresponding author for approval at the last minute. After you send it to the corresponding author, the submitted work disappears from the submitting author's account, and the work can only be viewed in the corresponding author's account after that point.This situation is very frustrating for  the submitting author who does the main job to check the manuscript status. I have to ask my senior author to check up on the manuscript status every time.
So my idea is, are there any of first authors who submit the work as a corresponding author at the early stage, to keep the submission with the first author, and change it to the real corresponding author at the later stages. Clearly, this is not a breach of authorship because the author designation is stated in the manuscript itself.

I'd also consider not checking the manuscript status so often.


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How to prove that I have presented a paper?
I am a student of English literature.
Last week I presented my paper at a conference. It was arranged by a prestigious institution. However, they did not offer any certificate or any such documentation of participation. They don't have a website or archive. However, I do have the acceptance mail. Can I use it if the institution wants to see proof of my participation?
How do I prove my participation in the conference in my future interviews? Do all the conferences offer certificates to its presenters?
I actually don't know if institutions really ask for certificates or not. That's why I asked.

I never heard of certificates being offered at conferences. Also, I don't see a reason why someone would doubt your participation, provided that you do have a paper at your hands. Doesn't the conference have an official website? A registration site, sthg? Worst comes to worst you can tell interviewers (should they ask for confirmation) to call the institution?

Aside from the issue of certificates and such, if there is a web page associated with the conference that has your name on it (better would be online abstracts of the talks, if they exist), then you may want to save it at the internet archive in case (as is likely 10 or 15 years from now) the web page winds up disappearing. And don't forget to keep the ULR you get by following the "Save Page Now" process.

Check the grammar of the last sentence, please. You are a student of English literature.

If an institution asks you for such a certificate, you may seriously want to reconsider if you want to join it.

I have been asked to provide certificates of participation for the refunding of conferences, and most conferences where I have been give them out, some mentioning the presentation as well. However in cases in which I didn't get a certificate I could ultimately convince the uni administration  (occasionally with a bit of effort) that my name on the conference program and the receipt for the conference fee are enough.

The institution does not have any such archive or website where they put up such information. However, I do have the acceptance mail though. Can I use it if the institution wants to see proof of my participation?
I actually don't know if institutions really asks for certificates or not. That's why I asked.

Christian Hennig: this conference did not offer any receipt as well. However, I do have the acceptance mail.

@cconsta1 Many conferences provide a certificate of attendance to the participants, and some institutions want to see them before reimbursing the expenses.

I'm talking about applying for jobs and scholarship or higher studies btw where my paper presentation is highly significant

@MassimoOrtolano I see, yes that makes sense. I only participated at conferences in which I submitted an abstract in advance, so reimbursement was automatic.

@cconsta1 Having submitted an abstract doesn’t imply that one participates to a conference: for instance, without a certificate of attendance, you can submit an abstract, don’t go to the conference and get the reimbursement, thus committing fraud against the university.

Guys, what is the reimbursement you are talking about? I'm a bit confused. I was talking about applying to a university for higher studies where my paper presentation will be regarded with significant value.

@MassimoOrtolano, you are correct, I guess I put too much faith in people :)
@ Abdullah
Is it possible to email them back (responding to the acceptance email maybe), explain the situation, and ask for some official documentation of your participation?

@AbdullahRayhan Yes, I understand that your case is different, but I was giving a reason for conferences to give a certificate of attendance. The reimbursement is the money you get from your employing university to cover the travelling expenses to a conference.

Generally speaking, you don't need to "prove" anything. People will believe what you say unless some red-flag appears questioning your honesty.
Surely, someone knows of your participation, the person/people who invited/accepted you. If you ever need to provide some justification, then just ask the place questioning your participation to contact the conference organizers.
If the conference publishes a proceedings in any form then you may show up there, depending on the format and the nature of your participation. Talks normally do.
You can also keep any electronic records you have, emails and such.

I do have the acceptance mail. That will work?


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Preparing for a doctorate program in math before applying
I graduated with a BS in math from Cal Poly SLO in 2015. My grades in upper level math were about B-. I feel like my understanding of the motivations for them was a little weak because my study habits during lower division were not good, and I feel I missed a lot of details.
In the years since I've graduated I have spent a lot of time going back to my
calculus, analysis, and abstract algebra texts and I feel a lot more confident that I can do well in the higher level classes, so I am thinking of enrolling in my local university to take
classes in the upper level undergrad courses to have more recent coursework and to impress faculty with my
potential for success in a doctorate program. Maybe take some graduate courses.
I am wondering if this sounds like a good plan. If I am successful in doing well in carrying out this plan, would it increase my chances of getting into a well regarded program for my eventual choice of field of research? If anything, I figure I can carry out the plan for my
own interest, but it would be a significant investment in personal resources, so I would like to have some sort of idea of the chances of success.
My ultimate goal is to become an instructor or a professor in California where I live. I could be happy in a rural
area or an urban area or in between. Since my undergrad I have worked in software quality assurance followed by data analysis, but I think I would be happier as a teacher. I have experience in tutoring, and I have been told I make clear explanations and have a lot of patience with people.
I think I would be happy teaching at a community college or university, but I do not have research experience that would tell me whether or not a research career would be a better or worse fit.

My suggestion is to first get MA from a place like SFSU and then apply for a PhD program.

Are you primarily interested in getting a PhD so that you have enough research experience to work in a primarily teaching role at the college or university level, or do you want a research career?  Would you be happy teaching community college, which does not require a PhD?

@MoisheKohan, an idea I'll consider.

@AlexanderWoo, I am not sure yet about research career vs primarily teaching. I suspect my strength would be teaching, but I am not sure if I should close the door on a research career yet.

@AlexanderWoo to expand a little bit: I think I could be happy teaching at a university or a community college, but I do not have research experience to tell me whether which would be a better fit.

There are a lot of factors to consider when you are looking at being evaluated for suitability to a PhD program. Grades are looked at, absolutely. But something much better than grades is good research experience, contributing to a paper that is either in consideration by a journal or conference for publication, or at least being considered for submission to a venue for publication.
To address the possibility of publishing, you could ask to volunteer for someone’s research project, or apply for an RA (research assistship), or even attempt to apply to whatever the American equivalent of NSERC is, although if you were in Canada, they wouldn’t consider you with a B average but the Americans may have much more money—I don’t know.
In any case, yes taking some advanced courses and doing well in them will improve your chances. If one of the profs who have to look at graduate applications looks at your transcript, they will see that you improved your study habits and performance. With that in mind, they may choose to downplay your lower grades in their evaluation-especially if you contribute to a paper that could or has been submitted to a venue.
A big factor is also reference letters. It may be that some health conditions impacted your performance. Maybe you couldn’t be very consistent as a result, ect ect—but you were able to solve very difficult problems, contribute to research, clearly demonstrate genuine interest. In my case, I had serious depression, anxiety, and insomnia issues throughout undergrad, which did impact my performance. Regardless, I was able to do an RA, solve difficult problems, do guided studies in some advanced areas, deliver an outstanding talk in a 4th year undergraduate logic seminar. Some of my grades were very good, but I don’t believe they were the selling point in my applications.
In Canada, you are usually required to do a masters first. I applied and was able to get in a top tier school. I still had those health issues, and again they did objectively interfere with things. Regardless, I again solved a lot of very difficult problems, essentially tutored other grad students in many courses with them often just using my arguments, and so on. As a result, I was able to go to a PhD program
After clearing the courses, comps, and the thesis proposal, it was not that long until my health issues got pretty extreme. Long story short, I ended up withdrawing.
I tell you about the health stuff because your post reminded me about that experience. If you do have health issues like that, you have a very serious choice to make: delay while getting quality treatment or go and risk underperforming while you get treated. I did the later, and I do not think it went so well.
Another factor you must consider is the job situation. Every single academic posting in Canada is an international competition, or if the phrase “tenure track,” the word “professor,” and even “postdoc” now adays. If you don’t go that route, you will try to go the teaching one. Unfortunately, most of these jobs pay very, very low figures, come with no security of any kind, and likely require you to move across the country perhaps as often as ever 3-6 months. I’ve talked to people have been sessional instructors for a long time and they are absolutely miserable. Some teaching positions pay well, are permanent, and come with security; however, these are almost always international competitions as well. Be sure to keep this in mind now, and if you end up going—it is important, and if you go there is no doubt you will develop deep concerns over this.
With all that doom and gloom, attending graduate school in math allows you to experience many unique things not possible elsewhere. You will be in a community of people who all genuinely love the subject as much as you. You will spend 10 or more hours sometimes on problems a professor took out of a research paper of theirs without realizing the trick he had in mind is only known to people who have already worked for 10+ years in the subject, and you might come up with a valid proof not using the trick that connects many different areas of math but is also impossible to grade as it’s 10-20 or more pages long. All of that is wonderful even with the frustration you and all of your comrades will experience, and absolutely everyone does experience that.
If you are going to go, I suggest doing loads of independent reading in core areas while you wait to attend. Solve as many problems as you can. In any case, take care of your health, and, if you go, have a grand time.
Best of luck.

Thank you for sharing. Soon before I transferred from my community college (Cuesta College) to my bachelors program at Cal Poly, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after my first of three manic episodes. I believe this did impact my studies (and work) for quite a while while recalibrating to life with  medications. I am luckily in much better shape now which is related to my renewed interest in doctoral programs. I feel lucky that medicine worked pretty well in my case, but it took a long time to adjust and I blamed it for my lower energy levels for a long time, but I have adjusted better.

Hey, that is very good. You might consider sharing some of that information with your professors, or even including a generic “due to health issues, my performance suffered, but now those issues have improved” type statement in your application. People are more considerate than you think, although there is a tendency to think “yes this person has a health issue, but I can not know if it really did impact their performance, and so can’t do much with that information,” but it could have some impact.

It might work, and it might be worth doing in any case, but you can probably increase your chances by exploring your options directly with one of the candidate universities, probably in California.
Make an appointment with the department head for a meeting to explore your options. If you have a proposed field of study, mention that in the request for a meeting. There may be a professor in that field that you also want to speak with.
Take your transcripts along with a CV to the meeting.
You want to ask them what path you might follow to gain admission to their doctoral program. They can look specifically at where you have gaps in your undergrad education and can make suggestions about filling them.
You don't need to ask to study there in the short term, but try to make a plan, including when to apply.
Speak about your goals and whether they are realistic. They might suggest enrolling in a masters program, either course or research based.
The gap in study isn't helping you, as you have probably forgotten some things. But making assumptions about what you need to do is probably not optimal.
If your local university has a doctoral program, you can start there. If not, and you visit another, make sure you know precisely what courses the local place offers, say with a printed catalog of courses or a listing from the web.


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Compensating for a bad undergraduate record so as to get into a good graduate school
I am currently a final-year undergraduate student of economics. I am among the top ten of my class. I am in Europe so my degree program would usually take me 3 years; I am going to complete it in two. My plan for the last semester is to take some advanced/graduate level courses while working on my bachelor thesis, so academically things are going pretty solidly.
However, my academic track record from before is not that good. I graduated high school when I was 17, but didn't like what I was studying, so I first slacked off and then quit. I started studying something entirely different at a different university (but related to what I am studying now), enjoyed that greatly but failed in 99% of my classes for a variety of reasons (illness, lack of housing security, etc). I stopped attending university for a year, worked a bit and stayed at home. Obviously not a good look on my CV. I'm 21 years old now, and will graduate with my BSc at age 22 from a university that is ranked among the top 150 worldwide according to times higher education.
I am wondering if there's anything I can do to improve my chances of getting into a (really) good statistics masters/PhD program in the US. My grades, GRE score and letters of recommendation are all more than enough but I can't say the same about my academic track record. Would love to hear some insight before I spend hundreds of dollars on applications.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-are-ph-d-applications-evaluated-in-the-us-particularly-for-weak-or-borderl Does this answer your question? It has a section on GPAs.

Is there a reason you want to rush it to two years vs stay and build a stronger CV for grad school?

@Dawn : Yeah, multiple reasons actually the most important being that frankly it would be a significant financial strain

My track record is not unlike yours. At an admission interview for a graduate program, an interviewer, whom I knew well and from whom I expected no surprises, said: "I see CrimsonDark that we have some truly excellent referee reports about you. How do you explain that in the light of your appalling academic record?"
It sounds as if you fear you might face something similar! The question, as I have said, took me completely by surprise. Nonetheless, I commented that it was true that my early academic record was very poor; but it was also true that since a particular point in my undergraduate years, it was clear that I had settled into my studies and my record showed a rapid improvement from terrible to excellent. I also said that I saw no reason why that trend would not continue." Whatever discussions went on between the interviewers after I left, I don't know. But I was admitted to the program ... and my undergraduate record has never been mentioned since.

Here is a famous case of someone who didn't do well during undergraduate studies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Huh
What compensates for low undergraduate performance are stellar recommendation letters. The recommender has to be convinced that your research skills are truly extraordinary. After all, academia is about research. Presumably you'll already have done some research as an undergraduate student. Do another research project during your years as a Master's student.
In the case of Field medalist June Huh; he applied to 17 graduate schools and got into one, thanks to the recommendation letter of a famous mathematician he had done research with.


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Canada PhD : Can you give me some advice on co-supervision issues?
I am posting this on a throwaway account. I am 2.5 years into my PhD in Canada and to keep the long story short, my main supervisor proposed me a research discipline that he never worked on before.
( That much I understand, your supervisor might want to venture in a new adjacent domaine). I struggled a lot and I am not confident I am in good hands to finish. My main supervisor added a co-supervisor at the start. This co-supervisor was at the time of my phd 2 years out of her own and never had prior post-doc experience, so she is untenured..
My main supervisor is not really collaborative but is accessible for discussions. I would say he does 95 to 98% of the supervision. But I also go out and seek resources on my own (I secured funding on my own, I sought out other researchers (I am now on a visiting position), and bought textbooks. I know PhD is not meant to be hand-holding.
My co-supervisor does the bare minimum for the last 2.5 years. It was very obvious from email exchanges that my supervisor was doing most of the job. She attends meetings but thats about it. Her comments are like ' But you don't need to understand the whole article right', 'Its your thesis you should figure it out'. Scientific discussion and input from her was minimal. One time she talked down to me (sure everyone has bad days) but I never get a good vibe from her generally.
Another time I needed to know who to sign a form after doing my research on immigration stuff for visiting position. She kind of made me follow her advice on immigration procedures for my visiting position and refused to listen to what I have to say (I said kind of made me because they refuse to look at the form I showed them). My main supervisor took her side until it was proven I did my homework. From then on, I dont feel good about this because to me, such procedures are in black and what, not science, nothing to debate about. I honestly do not feel a benefit to this co-supervision.
I decided to let it rest since my main supervisor is head of department, and I figured someone untenured needs opportunity until my mental health suffered. I knew my progress was behind, its new research area and not resources to help me apart from charity email responses from other researchers and stack exchange.
I reached out to my graduate program director who at first told me 'Oh it could be done that she be your committee member and we shift roles around' and add the visiting supervisor as co-supervisor officially. So I was happy with that until he came back to me 2 hours later and say 'Well nothing stops you from adding visiting supervisor as a co-supervisor but the current co-supervisor's role will be important when you do Y.' Thing is she doesn't give much input on Y, and its likely I won't do Y. And it seems to me I have no right to remove her as a co-supervisor. I have a feeling the program director consulted my main supervisor and he for whatever reasons (could be she's included in a grant, he's looking out for her career , does not what to create a fuss)'.

Can I still apply to do a PhD elsewhere? People might see me as a red flag. Should I just suck it up and try to finish? What are my rights? I feel like I am forced to have her as a co-supervisor unless I quit...

On, suck it up and try to finish and in 'forced supervisor, perhaps you might want give this a read with open mind - https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/76643/162770


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Math PhD careers
I am an undergraduate pure mathematics major who would like to maybe go to graduate school and then do industry research, but I am first wondering what kind of industry research jobs are actually available and what to expect. I understand pure math research is unlikely in private industry, but what about applied? What can I expect, what focuses are there and how much do they pay? I am not even sure whether a PhD is necessary for the job positions that most math PhDs seem to go to. I personally have been thinking it may be cool to go into cryptography or algorithms or something, but I'm not sure if that's feasible or high paying or anything.

Also this question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/8939/4140


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I keep making excessive silly mistakes. I just caught another one right before graduation - how to tell my advisor?
I am a graduate engineering student at a highly competitive university. I am writing my thesis and I feel like I am making great number of silly mistakes. The worst thing is that I do not realize my mistakes unless someone else points out even though I spend hours trying to make sure I make no mistakes... For instance, I modeled a problem in my thesis. I made a mistake that is very obvious and I didn't even notice that simple mistake until someone pointed out. I am about to submit my thesis and I have no clue how to tell my supervisors about the mistake...
I feel really embarrassed before my supervisors. They have been acting nice as they know I am a very hardworking student. Around 4-5 months ago, they even told me that they would recommend me to any university in the world. But I am afraid that they may feel less enthusiastic when writing reference letters for me (coupled with observing some personal decisions of mine, I am the exact opposite of a person who has their feet on the ground, I always have very big goals and dreams) because of my consistent errors and because I disappointed them. I feel extremely dumb and have started to feel like I have dyslexia or a similar situation.
How should I tell my supervisors about this latest error?  How do I cope with this?

in short: Ignoring a mistake is (much) worse than pointing it out.

Not enough for an answer, but a remark: Finding a mistake is different from being totally lost: You have an idea what's wrong. Since your supervisors approved of your approach it's unlikely that the problem invalidates your entire work, and unlikely that you are delusional. Now go find a fix.

Apparently your supervisors (who are much more experienced than you) didn't catch the mistake either, so your mistake wasn't "obvious". Don't beat yourself up over it and move on.

Does this mistake invalidate your thesis? There's a big difference between "I need to make a minor correction" and "I don't know if I can graduate this year."

@Ben A prof told me a story once. During one of his student's PhD defense, she was asked why she multiplied two expressions together. Her answer: I couldn't add them so I multiplied them instead.

What kinds of mistakes are you talking about? Spelling/grammar, or technical errors related to the topic of your thesis?

Is this something that has always affected you, or has it started happening only during your current studies? This matters because (1) your supervisor's opinion of your capabilities may well be based on their knowledge that you can get things right, and (2) overworking and stress can cause you to make trivial mistakes, so the way for you to address it depends on if this is a temporary condition.

On making mistakes: Everybody is making mistakes, working excessive on something can cause more errors. What does help me personally to detect my own errors is: 1) Make a break: Sometimes you simply get an enlightenment how to do things correctly or at least better 2) Document what you have done: In many cases you will realize that something is not correct 3) Explain what you have done to someone else (similar to documenting it): Either you or the other person will notice when something is not correct. 4) Avoid distractions

If you feel this happens to you way to often, especially compared to what you would expect to be "sane", maybe consider diagnosing yourself for ADHD? The "AD" part stands for "Attention Deficit" and one of the key symptoms is uncontrolled "context switching" which often leads to making tons of "silly mistakes". I had problems as you described for years until I realized that adult ADHD is a thing. After I started a therapy things changed tremendously. It is also highly advantageous just to know what you are really dealing with. I also recommend "How to ADHD" on YouTube if you appear to have it.

@radrow I'd try to get more sleep first.

I think the most important thing to consider is how much your mistakes affect your research outcomes, those are the mistakes you don't want to make. Minor spelling/grammar mistakes or small errors in non-critical formulae can be found in many high quality peer-reviewed journal papers.

I don't know what you mean by "excessively", but yes, people make mistakes. I've written quite a lot, books, papers, and such. They always have mistakes. Even here, with a real time correction engine, I make mistakes. That is human nature.
One problem is that when we write we are thinking at two levels. The content level, which can be quite complex in academia, and the expression level. Our brain isn't the greatest at keeping these coordinated at all times, though we generally do a pretty good job of it.
But there is a further problem and that is that it is very difficult to proof and correct your own work. It is a brain problem again. When you read what you have written, your brain goes back into the content mode and you know that stuff. And so you know what you intended to write and so what your eyes tend to see is what you think you wrote, not what you actually wrote.
It is good to get fresh eyes on our writings. Editors do that pretty well, if they know even a bit about the content. We write things that don't make sense and when we read our own writings, our thought process tries to make sense of it and misses the errors.
If you can get a colleague to read and comment on your work it will help. If that is impossible, and you have to proof your own work, I suggest doing so in very small increments. A paragraph at a time, with lots of breaks. If you let your mind get into the flow then it will start to, again, "see" what you meant to write, not what you did write.
Yes, it is normal. I suspect that everyone (or nearly) does this. If it were uncommon then publishers wouldn't need to employ copy editors to assure the quality. Reviewers also catch a lot of missed things.
Don't obsess over it. Get help or work slow.

Edited to add: Since the topline question has changed a bit I suggest you just be open with your advisor. They make mistakes too. Do whatever is possible to make corrections.

After multiple revisions by the author(s), possibly consultations with other collaborators and friends, multiple rounds of peer review, journal staff proofing, I doubt any published paper is truly "error free". Hopefully by that point it's not sufficient to affect conclusions or the general interpretation of the paper.

The problem is that I am a very ambitious person, I wanted to go to top unis from here and I made so many sacrifices to be where I am. So both me and my advisors had really high expectations from me. I have been very obsessive about the thesis problem, thinking that I can solve it very efficiently. But put aside solving efficiently, I can't even accurately develop a simple model to solve it. My advisors really must think that I am incapable of doing even basic stuff and I am delusional or crazy to think that I'll be ever successful in academia at a competitive level...

@Bryan Krause: "After multiple revisions by ..." -- A (mathematics) paper I refereed introduced a variable symbol in a proof in which the variable symbol already had a fixed meaning in the paper. For example (the actual situation was a bit more subtle and harder to notice than this), suppose a theorem involves something about n-dimensional space ('n' appears in the theorem statement), and in the proof a sequence indexed by n is introduced. The author's reply was that they couldn't believe they missed this, because the paper had been proofed very carefully many times by several people . . .

"How do I cope up with this?"
We don't know the extent of your "mistakes". You say in your comment it's basic mistakes and your supervisors must think you're crazy, but the only feedback we've heard you receive is that they're positive and recognize your hard work. Have they actually complained to you about the mistakes or is it just an internal worry?
It is classic for the best performing people to be the most critical of themselves, as that is often what pushes people further in the first place, but as long as you're on track and moving towards your goal, describing yourself as delusional or crazy from the supervisors perspective seems unnecessarily harsh.
Try to remember there are people in your position that instead of panicking about improving their quality of work, would not only refuse to admit their mistakes, but do their best to deceive their supervisors and later on editors or peer reviewers, actually deluding themselves, not taking a step back to fix the mistakes the way you seem to. These would be the crazy and deluded people, not someone in your position frantically working on improving their work. Being able to admit the mistakes quickly, take care of them and continously improve is about the best anyone can hope for, it's how we learn!

Nice to point out how actual delusion looks like, as opposed to the OP's anxiety.

"You say in your comment it's basic mistakes and your supervisors must think you're crazy, but the only feedback we've heard you receive is that they're positive and recognize your hard work." This makes me suspect that OP has a case of impostor syndrome. If so, this other question might help.

I would recommend: "I've made this mistake which I consider to be silly and I didn't spot it until it was pointed out despite what I considered through checking. Could you help me with any experience or tactics you've developed in your career to help with spotting this sort of mistake?"
Your supervisor is there to help you with exactly this kind of professional development - just ask. And almost every student has been through this experience.
As to dyslexia and other issues, it's is very common to be diagnosed late. If healthcare or counselling is easy to access where you are (perhaps through your university), it is certainly worth booking an appointment to discuss your fears. Take along some notes on how you think your brain is not behaving as it should to get the discussion started. It's also worth considering that you're currently going through a stressful time and that will be having an effect on your mental performance. They may be able to provide help in addressing that, as well as either ruling out or diagnosing and treating an underlying problem.
Hope it turns out well for you.

Self-detect, self-ack are great attributes, along with self-initiated assistance/guidance. +1 ("I've made this mistake which I consider to be silly and I didn't spot it until it was pointed out despite what I considered through checking. Could you help me with any experience or tactics you've developed in your career to help with spotting this sort of mistake?")

There are three facts that are very important to keep in mind here.

Everyone makes mistakes. Lots of them. And, since mistakes are the way we learn and grow, the most impressive people are the ones who have made the most mistakes. Think of the person in your field you admire the most - I guarantee that they have made more mistakes than you ever have.
Almost every mistake seems silly in retrospect. What is a "silly mistake"? Well, it's one that I can easily avoid making. But if I've just seen an example of that mistake, it's always easy to avoid making it again. The only time that a mistake is really silly is if you genuinely weren't paying attention when you made it.
No one is good at spotting their own mistakes. This is why we have proofreaders, copyeditors, reviewers, and autocorrect!

But these things are points a lot of other great answers here have made. I want to focus more on something you mentioned at the end of your question. And please pay very close attention, because this is important!
There is nothing wrong with having dyslexia or any other learning disability. People with learning disabilities often require different tools in order to succeed, but they are not dumb or incapable, and once they have the tools they need, they can be amazing. In my inexpert opinion, I don't think anything you've told us so far indicates that you do have a learning disability (because, as I said, everyone makes mistakes that feel silly!) but if you're concerned about it, what you should do is get yourself tested. If you do have a learning disability, once it's identified you'll know where to look for the supports you need to succeed.

As a scientist I think that you should focus on your work, and if there are errors, correct them and admit them (if they're out in the open before you could correct them). Science is about learning about the world, including learning about errors and misconceptions and correcting them. So finding errors is normal, and learning from them, and correcting them is the right thing in science.
You seem to carry a lot of psychological load around worrying so much about perfection, ambitions, what others think of you etc. Now this is of course to some extent natural, many people have such issues, and I cannot discount it, however you should tell yourself clearly that this stands in the way of your getting on with your work.
I recommend to take on a proper scientific work ethic when dealing with mistakes, rather than letting your worry about other people's perceptions and failure get the better of you. If you need to deal with the psychological issues, try to find counselling or treatment, but don't let them stand in the way of doing the right thing. It'll make you a better scientist. Many people in fact have much respect for somebody who admits a  mistake. It's also a sign of competence.

In fact, pointing out your own mistakes before others notice them gains respect. In software there's a thing called "egoless programming". It's all about taking credit for finding and fixing mistakes and not taking or allocating any blame for making them.

Seems like from a third person point of view, what you describe is fairly normal. When I write just about anything - even some StackExchange answers - there are multiple revisions, and I sometimes goof with some panache. It just doesn't bother me all that much, although 2 decades ago it sure did much more than now!
I think you are holding yourself to an unrealistic standard. Any creative work will have mistakes and revisions, be it of academic or artistic character.
You may well be at a point where stress is in a positive feedback loop and is self-reinforcing. If you haven't had any real no-school-work breaks in a while, maybe take a day or two for yourself - go daydream, play music, stare at the sky, whatever, but don't think about academic work, and above all: don't blame yourself for "wasting time" taking a break. The best people can run out of steam when they work hard continuously for a long time.


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I am a Masters student and my supervisor has been ignoring my email
I have a group project due next month and I have had to deal with a difficult partner. This is for my dissertation and I have spent the academic year working on it mostly alone with some input from my partner here and there. I felt sorry for my partner so I continued working with them despite the lack of effort on their part.
I have recently been dealing with some health issues and so was unable to attend a presentation our supervisor had asked us to complete with some other PhD students for input on our dissertation. I asked my partner to complete it which I know was a mistake but I could not make it as I was in the hospital. I found out that my partner didn't attend the meeting and was outside the room and didn't see anyone go in. I can't verify this and my supervisor is incredibly angry with the two of us.
I emailed my supervisor to tell them what had happened on my end, why I couldn't make it and that I had asked my partner to mention it. I have emailed apologising and asking for another meeting to discuss the next steps but my supervisor has not replied to me. I know my supervisor likely has seen the message as they have been actively communicating with other groups but they have yet to reply to me.
I know that I made plenty of mistakes and I fully own up to them. However, my project is due soon and I need my supervisor to approve some things so that I can complete it. What do I do?

Meet them in person (sit outside their office till they show up) and talk to them. What to do after that is in their discretion.

If your e-mail is formatted like this question, I can see why it's being ignored. Professors are busy. Use proper formatting, keep it short and succinct, and avoid any drama or personal issues. This is no different from writing to your boss in a company.

related / possible duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/45616/how-to-get-people-to-reply-to-emails-and-what-to-make-of-a-no-response

Professor here, so I'll try to give you an idea of what's going inside of your advisor's mind, to help you modulate your response.
I supervise dozens of group projects a year, and almost without exception, the reason group projects fail is that both (or more) group members were relying on others to do the work, nobody did any work for weeks, then they all panic and start pointing fingers. When a responsible student gets a bad partner, I usually hear about it quickly (say, after the partner missed their first deadline for drafts) and the problem gets solved: either the partner realizes he/she can't just coast, or I split the group. This is not saying that you can't get sick, that your partner is not dumping the work on you, and it was not really a miscommunication issue. That might be all true. But it's that on my list of email to answer, ahead of you I have students who did their work, have interesting research results, and are not expecting me to solve a back-and-forth about who said what, who did what, and who was supposed to be there. I know you deserve an answer, and I'll eventually get to you, but there are others ahead of you.
Now, if you and your partner were a no-show to a scheduled presentation, what you are telling me is that you don't value my time. That does not mean that you don't want my time (you obviously do), but that you don't respect my time. So if your problem was 10th on my list of things to do, it just became 100th.
How you solve your problem: first, take responsibility for the problems in the group project. Tell your partner he/she either shapes up or you are going to request that the group be dissolved/changed/reassigned, whatever. Or do the project yourself and let him/her take undeserved credit. You need to move past this bad situation and learn from it. A big part of academic work is recognizing bad collaborators early in the process and cutting them off.  Second, you will have to slowly gain your professor's trust. Wait for his/her reply, as he/she will eventually get to you. Show up on time, and prepared. Don't tell him/her your excuses or reasons, but what you are doing to solve the problems. Keep your promises. Send emails with positive updates. Slowly the professor will start looking forward to your updates and start replying. And unless you were in a car accident and in a coma at the hospital, never ever be a no-show to a meeting.
As others have suggested, you could camp outside of the professor's office and try to force an in-person meeting. If you go that route, just be light on explaining your reasons/excuses and heavy on showing your work and results.

Hi, I was in the A&E the night before and I couldn't email in because I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. I did email my supervisor stating this and I have sent a couple emails and texts but I'm being ignored. We also have a regularly scheduled meeting that I was present for but my supervisor and partner were not. My supervisor knows about the issues with my partner and that I have completed everything according to the deadlines on my own. I can't do anything more since in order to progress, I need approval from my supervisor. I asked for his signature but he has ignored me.

I have sent in my work and everything I need. I just need my supervisor to sign off on it and then I can do everything on my own. The work is all my own so if my partner complains, I will have plenty of evidence to show that I have completed everything on my own and that I tried to resolve all the issues that came up.

I have taken responsibility for my lack of communication. However I was in the hospital and I was distracted by everything that was happening around me. I have apologised and done what I can but I am still being ignored. I don't want to tell him what happened exactly but I did mention being in the hospital. It's not that I didn't want to go, I was genuinely unable to make it. I'm not sure what else I can do. I have done what I can so far and all I need is for him to sign a couple forms. I don't need anything else and I am willing to do everything on my own.

The issue is not if you were justified in missing the appointment. Everybody has the right to be sick and cancel appointments. The issue is that you did not email to cancel the appointment beforehand, and both you and your partner were no-shows. You are obviously sorry and you want to fix things. The deed is done, and the only way to fix it is to earn the professor's trust, and this will take a long time. If someone is a no-show to a meeting, whatever the cause/excuse, they go to the bottom of my to-do list. You are there now and need to crawl your way back. It will take time.

I don't have time. It's due very soon. I was incredibly ill and I was unable to email him. If I could, I would have emailed him. This is the first time I've done anything wrong for an entire academic year. I've done everything I've been asked so far. It was just this instance and it was for what I think is a l valid reason. I had to rush to the hospital since it was an emergency

You could camp outside of the professor's office and try to force an in-person meeting. If you go that route, just be light on explaining your reasons/excuses and heavy on showing your work and results.

Your question is a bit difficult to parse, so excuse me if I do not get the details right.
I would advise you to take the emotions of your professor into account. Professors can be very busy, especially now when semesters are about to end. Your professor scheduled an important meeting and neither of you showed up. I in lieu of the professor would be quite angry / annoyed and I know that it is best not to answer important emails while angry or in a bad mood. I also know that meetings in person would be preferable, but since I do not like to confront people, I personally would need to give myself a push in order to arrange this meeting.
If this happened today, wait a couple of days and then try to see the professor in person.  You should take some of the blame, since you did not inform the professor in person of your inability to attend beforehand and you should apologize for unprofessional behavior. You should also realize that you are asking the professors to reorganize the professors's schedule and that you have imposed on him. I am not sure of the exact context, but you might have committed some imprudent acts before.
Now, if your supervisor is not willing to talk to you after a cool-down period, then you have a much bigger problem, because your supervisor would then also behave unprofessionally. In the education business, one has to deal with immature students that make stupid mistakes. A department head or head of program should be able and willing to step in, since under these circumstances, supervision would be impossible.

Sorry, I am stressed out and didn't properly proof read. It didn't happen today and I wasn't able to contact them since I did not have access to my phone. I waited a little and I apologised profusely trying to explain what happened. I did take some of the blame as I should have tried harder to get in contact but I was trying to work on other immediate issues that I was facing. My supervisor does not have a set timetable so arranging meetings can be difficult but I tried to set one at the usual time. I usually am present and have done everything that I have been asked and more, just not this.

@MEMGP I'd recommend giving yourself some time between when you write things and send/post them if you're feeling stressed at the time of writing. It's likely to be straining your communications with others.

You're right. I am very sorry for making you all read the mess I typed up earlier. I read through the email I sent my supervisor earlier and whilst it wasn't as bad as what I wrote above, it still wasn't the best bit of writing I've ever completed. Thank you and sorry again


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Which PhD position I should accept?
I am finishing my master's degree and got 2 PhD offers, one of them in ivy league school but in a lab doing applied science with no molecular biology and the second in a university ranked 120 in the US but the lab have a well established molecular techniques and bio informatics which I am interested to learn!
My preference is going to the lower rank university because of the kind of science, the techniques I will learn and also I will be more intensively included in paper and grant writing!
I am afraid that a PhD from such university will limit my chances in getting academia or industry jobs!
Which offer I should pick?

A decade on, is the duplicate definitive? Interestingly, it appears so. There are nuances in current dispensation and personal goals. My comments will simply be, which you've indicated yourself, how are these to your goals ...  the kind of science, the techniques I will learn and also I will be more intensively included in paper and grant writing!


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How to make a Diagram like these for research papers?
im writing a research paper and as part of it I am discussing methods of calibrating a 3D camera. I found this image from another paper i was reading and was wanting to replicate it for my own paper but im not sure how they did it. If anyone has any ideas for making something like this then id really appreciate if you could let me know.