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Saying no to student requests for excessive appointments and help solving homework
I am relatively new to teaching University undergraduate classes in mathematics. One of the harder things I've had to do is to say 'no'. To somehow respectfully deny a student what they're asking for.
For example, very recently, a student has been demanding too many appointments outside of office hours and during these appointments, the student asks me to solve various questions for them and also almost entirely help them on their homework. As their instructor, I am certain that the student isn't actually understanding anything, but is rather making me do their homework.
My question is, how do I tell them that their homework is not meant for me? Another question I have is, I feel like making compromises on my research time and family life to spend doing a student's homework doesn't seem like the best use of my time. So am I required to meet them outside of office hours? Or is it frowned upon if an instructor says no to meet outside of office hours?

Since you were very generous with the time until now, you may want to consider scaling it down gradually. So, you say sometimes yes, sometimes now and increase the proportion of 'no's with those of the yes. This will avoid looking like you drastically moving the goalposts on which students rely.

The two questions are fairly different: how to help a student for his homework and managing your out of office hours could be entirely seperate posts.

@CaptainEmacs That is an answer, should go into the answer box.

Are there any tutoring resources at the school? You could suggest to the student that they hire a tutor to help them.

As a father I know that K-12 teachers routinely make themselves available to students for one-on-one instruction before school, after school, even during their lunch hours.  An incoming university student may be well accustomed to this setup (in fact, may be dependent on it) and not know that college isn't generally set up the same way.  You don't need to be harsh, but you may need to have a conversation about expectations at the undergraduate level.

Don't do their homework for them. If they don't understand a concept, walk them through a couple of examples or problems that illustrate it, but that are different from their homework.  If the student asks you to do the homework problems, state that (s)he has to do his/her own, but you can help via other problems that illustrate the concept.

As per suggestion, I added it as a (very short) answer, will remove the comment at a later time.

Is there a TA (with hours) they can go to?  Or other tutoring you can refer them on to?

during these appointments, the student asks me to solve various questions for them and also almost entirely help them on their homework. — (1) Advertise in class that you will not answer homework questions outside office hours, ever, period; that's what office hours are for.  And then stick to your guns. (2) Don't solve questions for students, ever, period. Teach them the process to solve problems on their own.

Giving more tests will weed out the ones who don't do their homework somewhat...

Related: Can we limit one student from using all of one's office hours? (Opinions differ strongly.)

@pipe My god, why are people so passive aggressive on this site??

@MCMastery There's nothing passive about clearly pointing out the site policies and suggesting an alternative. Answers in comments can not be vetted by the community, nor be accepted. It's just "my 2 cents noise". Stack exchange was designed specifically to avoid such answers.

I would limit the amount of time you dedicate to a single student to a maximum of 20 minutes a week. This is a reasonable amount of time to discuss the main problems a student has. This does not mean that you cannot make exceptions, but it is good to have a general rule.
As a side remark: You will not make everybody happy. If somebody wants an appointment and you say "no", and he insists, you can still say "no" and walk away.

I see. It's the right balance between making the student feel satisfied and not overdo my efforts that I'm failing to strike. Thanks. This helps. Would +1 if I had the reputation to do so.

It would be really cool to be upfront about it even. As a student I would have loved being able to talk a whole 20 minutes with a TA each minute with a clear conscience!

I don't think this would be a productive approach for the OP without a very serious reevaluation of their approach to mentoring.  If they are actually just doing student homework for them during office hours then just cutting them off at 20 minutes isn't going to do anything except make everyone unhappy.

@KennyPeanuts Of course, time is not the only important factor. But clearly communicating that you will not spend two hours a week with a single student is a good first step. Some students think your job is to be their private teacher, and the time limit alone already shows them that you are not.

To me 20 minutes per week sounds very arbitrary.  Moreover, meeting too briefly is not conducive to the OP's other goal of getting the student to do the work themselves.  For say, an advanced undergraduate course, I would typically be able to show a solution to a homework problem in less than 10 minutes but to help them solve it would typically take half an hour or more.

Do you mean 20 minutes/week outside of office hours?  If I have 2 hours of office hours and only 2 students show up, I'm not going to cut each of them off after 20 minutes.

@Kimball I mean during office hours. If only two students show up, I have saved time for other things. On the other hand: If 10 students show up, I maybe need to extend the office hours.

One of the harder things I've had to do is to say 'no'.
[...]
how do I tell them that their homework is not meant for me?

It seems that you are struggling with a far more general problem than the specific one you asked about (which other answers have given good responses to), so I will address the more general problem: by your own description, you are a person who finds it very difficult to say "no" to requests from others. This is not good, and is the heart of your problem; the issue with office hours is only a particular manifestation of it.
It's therefore important to emphasize that saying no is a very, very important life and career skill, and I strongly recommend that you take steps to master it as early as possible. If you do, you will be handsomely rewarded in increased quality of life and professional and personal success.
Here are some recommendations for things you can do to get better at saying no:

Spend some time reflecting on why you find it so difficult to say no. It may go back to something in your culture or upbringing, an insecurity you have that causes you to have an extreme reluctance to displease others, or something else. If you understand the causes, you may have better success fighting this tendency.

Spend some time thinking of all the times when this trait has caused you to do things you didn't want to do, or to not do things you did want to do, and to think how much better off you would be if you didn't have this problem. That should help with motivation to work on fixing the problem.

Practice saying no by doing role-playing thought experiments in your head (or in front of the mirror, or with a friend) in which you imagine situations where someone asks you to do something you don't want and you say no. Imagine their negative reaction, and practice doing it even knowing that the reaction will be negative.

Practice saying no in the real world. You can start with the office hours situation, but I'm sure plenty more opportunities will come along soon enough. Over time, it will become much easier.

These are my own ideas. This article has several more suggestions and an analysis of why some people find it hard to say "no". Good luck!

Cultural forces are irrelevant to the fact that being able to say no, in a way that will be understood and acted upon, is an important skill. When cultural expectations are to say yes, learning how to say no becomes even more important.

You mentioned that you feel like you are solving there homework for them. This is indeed something you should not encourage. In fact you should try to never answer questions about current exercises directly. Students will of course always try, but it is entirely fair to just tell them no, or to come back next week, after they handed them in and then you can discuss their solution.
If you do not want to cut things as short, for example during the actual office hours, what you can always do is try to deflect the question. When I am asked about some specific exercise problem, I usually try to explain the general underlying concept instead. I may even discuss an older different but related problem, but I will never give more than just a small hint.
In general, if you want to be helpful to your student, it is always good to remember that your job is not to get them good grades or to help them pass the exam, but to help them learn something instead.

I also believe this is a concern that should be taken care of, although it isn't the main question.

Also, refer the student to academic tutoring services office if your university has one. Or offer to connect them with students of your from past years who did well and may be available for private tutoring.

@everyone I disagree, I think this is the actual question the OP is asking even if they don't realize it.  The reason that they are having problems with mentoring, is not because they can't say no to student requests for help, but rather because they are not mentoring properly.  If the OP adopted this approach, the office hour scheduling problem would be solved.

Re: Last sentence. This may possibly depend on the institution, actually. For example, many colleges now subscribe to the "College Completion Agenda" where the top goal is to maximize the number of associate's degrees awarded, by any means possible. I agree that the responsible instructor should try to uphold collegiate standards. But be aware that this may run counter to explicit guidance given by some in charge of reappointment and promotions, for example.

This question is not tremendously dissimilar from one I asked in the past.  As I am now a first year faculty member (also in mathematics) at a small liberal arts college, I can certainly relate to your question.  While I have my limits, I am suspicious that I am more accommodating than the average instructor, so my answer can serve as an alternative.
Note: At my school, we are expected to be somewhat available and responsive to student requests for our time, and straight-up refusing to meet with students outside of my office hours could have minor  repercussions.  Expectations are highly dependent upon the culture of your institution, so I suggest you ask around to see what your administrators/department/students expect.
Regarding "too many appointments": If I have a student that I'm concerned is becoming too demanding of my time outside of office hours, I significantly limit the time I offer to meet with them.  In practice, this tends to look something like this:

Demanding student asks me for an appointment outside of office hours.  I tell them to email me their request and I'll send them a list of available times.
Once they've emailed me, I'll send them a response with just a few times that may or may not be convenient for them.  For example, I'll often include "7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.," which is the time before my first class starts.  The best part about that particular time: I know they can't have anything scheduled that early, so they can't tell me that none of my times fit their schedule.
If they say can't meet at any of those times, too bad.  That's my only availability right now.  I also remind them that they're always welcome to make an appointment at our school's STEM tutoring center.
In the event that they show up to my office without an appointment, I either tell them that "I'm currently dealing with other obligations and don't have time to meet right now" or "I can meet with you for five minutes, but that's it."  The latter allows me to give them something without flat-out shutting them down, and only five minutes of my time for them walking across campus and climbing up to the fourth floor of my building doesn't provide much incentive for them to do it again.
If they start emailing you questions, take a long enough time to reply so that it's not convenient for them, and give answers that only contain hints or pointers (see below).

Regarding "doing the student's homework":

Make them work for your answers.  Offer them hints, point them to other resources, do similar problems, but avoid working on the exact problem if at all possible.
Refuse to help them with problems that they haven't seriously attempted.  If they tell you that they're stuck and don't know how to start, go back to my first point.
If your problems are from a textbook that has answers provided to odd-numbered exercises (or something similar), refuse to look over any of their work until they've cross-checked their answer.  Even if they have, encourage them to think about it for a little while before asking you a question.
Give them concrete "threshold" that they must get past before they ask you another question.  This has the dual function of not giving them too much and also prevents them from overburdening your time. An example exchange:
Student: "I'm stuck on #5."
Professor: "Ok, here's a hint on #5.  I want you to go think about that for a little while.  Once you've spent at least X minutes/hours thinking about that, you may ask a follow-up question if you're still stuck."

Student: "I'm stuck on #5." Professor: "What have you tried?" Student: [blank stare] Professor: [pleasant smile] Student: [blank stare] Professor: "Are we done?  Okay, bye!  See in you in class tomorrow!"

Related to your points (1) and (4), there is a certain kind of 'threshold' that I have found from my own experience to be extremely effective at helping only the students who really need help. Namely, keep giving them simpler but unrelated problems as in (1), such that a complete grasp of the solution to the simpler problems would actually aid in finding a solution to the original problem. You can estimate how long they ought to need to solve the simpler problems, and tell the student to come back after at least that amount of time to continue. The good students will. The bad students won't.

I don't know why you can't just say

No, I am sorry but I am generally unavailable outside of OH, I would
  be more than happy to schedule an appointment with you but my time is
  limited.

And then you state the times you are available outside of OH in the week and ask that you meet only a number of times to your discretion.
As for homework, although it is your job to help, it is not your job to do for your students. The policy that my professors as an undergrad was that students at least have attempted to solve the problem before they approached the professor during office hours.

I'd be more than happy to help you with your homework, however part of
  learning is struggling. I would like for you to try a couple of times
  before coming to me for help. I won't give you the answer, but I will
  certainly try to direct you down a path where you can find the tools
  you need to solve the problem.

Thanks a lot for the answer, but you seem to miss my point. I am generally available outside of my office hours. And I have been meeting students outside of office hours a lot. So now the sudden change in my availability is not going to bode well with the class. Anyway, I appreciate your opinion.

Easy. Stop meeting after hours. Set a precedent. You don't owe your class anything other than your teaching hours, that's it. Give an inch and they'll take a mile.

@Hades you aren't "generally available outside of [you're] office hours," you're supposed to be doing your own research or spending time with your family. So: Stop meeting after hours (as suggested above).

I see the point. Will do so. Would upvote all answers and comments if I could.

So now the sudden change in my availability is not going to bode well with the class. It seems like you feel that you have locked yourself in with your earlier more generous behavior. That is simply not the case. It is never too late to correct a past mistake. Simply tell the student you have decided you cannot afford to keep spending that much time helping him. Whether it "bodes well with the class" is irrelevant; it is the right thing for you to do, and the students will have to accept it.

@Hades: I don't know who's going to notice the sudden change other than the one student.  If it helps you feel more honest, schedule appointments with the student half an hour before another meeting, then 20 minutes into the appointment say, "I have another meeting I need to go to."  If you don't mind a white lie, say it whether you have one or not.

@MatthewLeingang But don't mislead students by scheduling appointments for longer than that and unexpectedly cut them short - just schedule them for as long as you want them to be. Then ending them can be as simple as "Our time is up". "I have some other things to tend to" would be vague enough that I doubt it can ever be a lie.

@NotThatGuy I agree.  I don't usually schedule appointments with students that have an agreed-upon end time, but if I did, I wouldn't promise an hour and end it after 20 minutes.  When I want the appointment to end, I simply say, "Well, I have to go now."

Since you were very generous with the time until now, you may want to consider scaling it down gradually. So, you say sometimes yes, sometimes no and increase the proportion of 'no's with those of the yes. This will avoid looking like you drastically moving the goalposts on which students rely.

Change your mindset
Students are supposed to learn on their own (for sure, you see that 99% of the students need a little to no help at all). If someone is not able to do that, he/she most probably does not belong at this place.
What you can/should do: Answers for exercises are usually for the exercise class. If there is once in a while a group of students (see the group? usually, if students do not understand something, they ask each other. If they don't/don't get answer from their colleges, that should tell you a lot already), sure, take your time to explain it to them. But if someone comes regularly to fully use up the time you give him, things are wrong.
Rather give him a small hint and let him go again (after the 2-3 occurrence) and tell him to figure out things on his own.
Remember: Not providing the assistance means you help him to better find his way. "Helping" someone in this situation is like taking pain pills instead of visiting a doctor: It somehow feels good at the moment for both parties, but in the long term: a) he won't graduate most probably b) you will have used up a lot of your time.

Re: "for sure, you see that 99% of the students need a little to no help at all". Depends greatly on the institution. At our open-admissions community college, most students need tons and tons of help, and there is a veritable legion of administrative tutors and support programs to try to support the college completion agenda.

@DanielR.Collins, sure but the OP mentioned he is a teaching assistant for University undergraduate classes in mathematics. My answer is not a general statement about students but quite specific about this case.

The situation I refer to is a subset of university undergraduate classes in mathematics.

@DanielR.Collins, true, may depends on the school you are at. But from the OP's question it seems to be a normal university (probably not even in the states) without special help provided for the students. Otherwise, his question would be differently formulated

To make it easier to say no, say when you're next "available" instead, and also specify how long you're available for. Specify a time the next week instead of the next day.
If the student complains that they still need more help, refer them to the tutoring department or student learning center. That's what it's there for. You're in no way ethically obligated to do anything outside of office hours.
I used to tutor a lot, and sometimes had students who would try to get me to do the work for them. The solution is to use the crap out of the Socratic method. When they ask a question, ask them a leading question. Stick to your question mark guns. They may try to make you frustrated enough to just give them the answer at first. Don't let that happen. Use it to teach them how to find answers on their own.
them: "How do I multiply two four digit numbers?"
you: "How might you divide the task into smaller parts?"
them: "I don't know. Just tell me."
you: "What might you try doing if you had to guess?"
them: "But I don't have any guesses!"
you: "What does your book/handout say? What does google say? What did the TA in the learning center say?"
It's not at all rude to look at the clock and tell them that's all the time you have "for now" and that you have to work on other things. If they whine "but I still have questions" see number my point 1.
Meeting outside office hours is only potentially required if it's necessary for ADA compliance. Even then you can usually come up with reasonable alternatives.


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What will I spend to license historic images?
I want to license illustrations (drawings, paintings, maps) for a black and white scholarly book. The fair use approach looks impractical, so the rights holders will dictate the terms, as yet unknown to me. In another question I learned that I will only contact them once I have a publisher lined up. Presumably there will be no licensing budget in my book deal. I need to know what images I can afford to use.
Roughly how much do authors pay to republish archive materials? Do quoted licensing costs tend to vary depending on which publisher is involved?
Here are some of the institutions that hold and license images potentially useful to my project: Bancroft Library, California State Library, Getty Images, Huntington Library, Santa Barbara Mission Archive.

Have you tried contacting authors of similar books and asking them how much they pay?

Have you asked those institutions for their pricing structure and whether they do a scheme for educational books?

How historic is historic? Copyright expires after a while, you know.

@Wrzlprmft copyright might expire, but if you don't have a copy to begin with... For one of my last projects I paid something between €0.02 and €1 per page scanned, but to actually use an image of those pages in a publication could run from €20-€100. I wouldn't be violating copyright to use something I had gotten on the cheaper scale, just violating a contractual agreement. Even if it's not enforceable overseas or whatnot, I'd never be given access again which is a powerful incentive to follow the rules :-)

For one of my last projects I paid something between €0.02 and €1 per page scanned, but to actually use an image of those pages in a publication could run from €20-€100. – That sounds bizarre (not blaming you here), in particular if what you are using is in the public domain. IIRC, a German court recently ruled that such an artificial prolongation of copyright was unlawful (though in that case, the claim of copyright was based on declaring photographing a painting as a creative act).

The answer to this question is content, item, and archive specific I'm afraid. No one here can give you a ballpark figure without detailed information...and you assembling that detailed information will give you your answer. Some things that the figure may depend on:

If you are using an archive's scan of the image or if you are using an image that you, yourself created while visiting the archive
What country you are publishing in
How old the archival material is
If the rights holder has academic rates or waves fees for scholarly books (as they assume you aren't going to make a profit on it)
How many images you're going use (5? 50? 500?), though even with a number there's no way to estimate (see 1–4)

The way forward is to email all of the institutions, ask them for their publication policies and charges, and work out how many images you're willing to pay for based on that. So for example, for the SBML you're looking at giving them $45 per image and a copy of your book, see: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/224541_7ae89e7b824c4dc69d1739111fa71070.pdf

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How likely is it to get into grad school with many W's and an F on your transcript given you have medical documents that give reason for your grades?
I currently have a 3.47 GPA at Georgia Tech in Computer Science. I have already withdrew from 6 classes but 4 of those were from a semester I got hospitalized. I'm failing a class right now but I may be able to pull of a C or even an A because the final replaces the course grade.
I want to do a Master's in environmental science or environmental modeling. I want to be a data scientist for the NOAA or any organization working on the acidification of the ocean.
I may even do a PhD if I can. I have research experience.

"How likely" is one of those opinion questions; how should we know. "What can I do about...?" might be better, but it's also opinion.  Ask someone at GaTech what you have to do to get into the program you want.

OK, thanks. I'll go through our earth science department.

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


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Is it acceptable for professors to send letter of recommendation via a personal email?
I am applying to mathematics graduate programs in the United States. One of my professors does not like to use his official university email address that is listed on the departmental website. According to him, it is difficult to use and he never monitors it. He wants to use his personal (AT&T) email address to submit the letter. I am worried that if he uses his personal address, someone could think it is a ploy by me to submit a fake letter or something. That being said, a quick Google search immediately yields several links from his official university website that lists his personal email. Is this acceptable?

I would not worry about this
Professors using personal email is not uncommon.  I have encountered this multiple times in the past.  In academia, there are fewer standards of professionalism and is a lot more freedom for people to do what they want (compared to the business world, for example, where using personal email would typically be frowned upon).  A professor using personal email for work communication just isn't that unusual.
The sender's email address is not a good way to verify identity, anyway.  Nobody should be relying on this as a way to verify that something really came from a sender, because your professor's work email could easily be spoofed, with no completely reliable way to detect it.  Here is one discussion of that on Security Stack Exchange.  Of course, even if it is not reliable someone still might do it.  But these days, practically everyone has experience of spam that appeared to come from someone they know.  Hopefully people are not using the "from" field on the email to verify anything important.
If anyone did suspect fraud, the logical response would be to check.  In this case, that would mean getting in touch with the professor and discovering the letter really was from him.  It's exceedingly unlikely that they would discard your application based on the mere suspicion of fraud, without any real evidence (and doing so would be extreme incompetence on their part).


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Can my master thesis be a part of doctoral dissertation of the Ph.D student I worked with?
I had been working on a project for my masters thesis under a doctoral student, which is eligible for a paper publication. But after finishing more than half of the project, my supervisor suddenly ordered me to start over a new project and told me to stop working on the former work, stating that a masters thesis work cannot be used in a doctoral student's dissertation even if I am given authorship in that paper.
I would sincerely like to know if what my supervisor said is true or if I am being cheated out of my masters project and thus my masters degree. Either way, can the answer please be supported by proper evidence(s) to support it? It will help me talk to my supervisor, if necessary with solid proof and even escalate it up the hierarchy if required.
I come from a Central University in India.

"told me to stop working on the former work, stating that a masters thesis work cannot be used in a doctoral student's dissertation" - please clarify (if known): Does the PhD student who supervises you intend to use your Master thesis results in their dissertation (and now fear they cannot do that, because of a perceived restriction on using Master thesis work in dissertations), or does the PhD student want you to do something else so they can use that in their dissertation?

The PhD student intends to use the exact results in my masters thesis for his dissertation only his paper go further in. I will be included as an author when the work will be published. Also, the PhD student is not using me for his dissertation and it is only the other way around. The PhD student has no such fear. This very restriction has been imposed on me only by the supervising faculty in whose lab I'm doing my project. PhD student has no problem with including me as an author in the paper. Problem is only the prof as I am skeptic of this restriction. Hearing it the first time ever.

The above scenario of PhD student using my results applied only till the time my PI let me work on that publishable work for my masters..... and then he pulled the plug on it for the reasons given.

Regarding the question whether or not this would be against some rules depends on your local university. Check graduation guidelines for masters and PhD, and you will find out (alternatively, talk to someone who may know, but keep things anonymous as far as possible). Where I studied, this would not have been a problem, as long as the PhD student writes his/her own paper out of "your" project, which will probably go deeper/further/in a somewhat different direction.

The University rules do not restrict this at all actually. Many of my peers are now getting the work they did for their masters thesis published along with the PhD student they did with. Its not considered as collaboration in our Department as every masters student works under a PhD student for their masters thesis project. Some however get the work that they did in their thesis as well as the PhD students' papers.

For both a masters' thesis and a PhD dissertation, there needs to be a core piece of work that is primarily the student's work.  Collaboration can certainly be fine, but there needs to be a core idea that is "yours" in order to get a degree out of it.
It's at least conceivable that you and the PhD student were collaborating on something that had only one degree-worthy idea in it, and therefore a tough decision had to be made.
It's also possible that this is being used as an excuse for something unethical like cheating you out of your masters' project.
Whether this was legitimate, or not, we can't really tell from the information given.
It does sound that the situation was, at least, not handled very well.  The supervisor has oversight of both your projects and should have prevented your projects from overlapping too much, before you wasted lots of work on something. Also, if you contributed significantly to the eventual PhD project, at a minimum you should still get credit for this (e.g. with paper authorship).

Can you please provide me with some evidence to show the HOD and all that my PI is neither fair nor ethical about this matter? A masters thesis of some one whose core idea was also a part of a PhD student's thesis will be invaluable to me here.

It is true that this work has only one paper's worth of idea. This has occurred to many of my peers but they are all getting those works published with them getting credit along with the PhD student. In my case, my PI wants even more work on the publishable work despite preventing me from using as my masters thesis, just to get authorship. In short, he is intent on making me work on two projects and give me my degree for only one of those. I pretty much gathered from your answer and the other comments now that my PI is cheating me out of my degree and a paper authorship now. Thanks a million!!

@AadityaGovindarajan I didn't actually say that...I said it was not clear from the information given. If your PI is asking you to work on an additional project that may be an opportunity and good for your career, rather than cheating you... Assuming you get authorship for that second project and it isn't so much work that it interferes with getting your degree.

You are not working"under" this student, and he is not your supervisor. You have a common supervisor, and that is your professor. Explain him the situation and let him decide.
It sounds very much like one of these usual "get off my turf" things in the lab which happen when PhD students need to secure some results as their own. Having master students helping set up experiments and then doing the experiment yourself (if the setup works)  with as little as possible participation of the student is unethical at best, but not totally uncommon to be attempted by PhD students. In my experience most professors act appropriate when confronted with such a situation.


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Why don't many textbooks have electronic versions?
I'm trying to find a way to buy Doug West's Introduction to Graph Theory but with an electronic edition. I can't find one. What's the barrier for these books being electronic?

where did you look?

Why do you expect there to be an electronic version? Most books didn't have them until recently.

In this case the answer is simple: The author doesn't want his book to be available electronically. (I know Doug personally.)

It's also not a simple matter to produce a book on mathematics in e-book format. Sure you can do it, but it's quite a bit of work to produce an attractive product.

It’s just such a pain to lug around textbooks.

@dirtysocks45 I've got 4 large bookshelves full of textbooks, but I open them up as a last resort.  It's just so much easier to use an app to search for content than to try to manually find it across all sorts of books.  Plus I also keep my research notes in electronic format, so if I want a copy or reference to something from my library, it's a lot easier to copy/paste or screenshot it into my notes than transcribe it from a book.

@Nat So you learn without textbooks? Could you send a link for a way to do that?

@dirtysocks45 Once you get to the PhD level and beyond, there aren't any more textbooks, so pretty much all learning's without them.  Before that point, you can still do self-directed learning, but 'course you need a textbook if your class requires it (if for no other reason than to do the homework problems and know what the class is supposed to be covering).  Anyway, what kind of learning are you asking are you asking about?

I'm an undergrad with a lot of notebooks in my backpack as it stands. I'm going to replace them next semester with an iPad Pro, but it would be good for my back not having to carry a ton of heavy textbooks.

Hah yeah, I always used a laptop to take notes in class; seems like paper notes end up getting archived (if not discarded), though I've still got all of my electronic notes easily accessible and searchable.  For a link about it, here's a previous answer I'd written with tips about electronic note taking.

@Nat have you heard the study that says hand written notes gave note takers a higher retention rate? Also, highlighting a textbook might be useful. I'll take a look at your answer though.

@dirtysocks45 Yeah, there're some strange studies like that.  I've also seen studies about how people tend to retain things better if they're written in a hard-to-read format, presumably since it requires more effort.  It also seems reasonable that people who're used to learning from hardcopies are more familiar with the process of doing so, such that they're likely to have some difficulty and reduced effectiveness while transitioning to electronic variants.  I'd tend to understand those effects as being circumstantial, rather than speaking to a fundamental quality of paper vs. electronics.

That's why I want an iPad Pro. I want the best of both electronic and hand written.

tl;dr-  Many books aren't available in ebook form for money and pretentiousness.

Money can be impacted because it's really easy to pirate ebooks.

Pretentiousness is relevant because there seems to be a stereotype about printed books being more prestigious.

Worth noting that I'm obviously against this practice, as I see it to be contrary to the mission of spreading knowledge and making academia more broadly accessible.  I would encourage instructors to select texts with electronic formats available whenever possible.
1.  Ebook availability makes pirating easier
It's pretty easy to pirate an ebook.  A quick automated script can take screenshots that're easily enough pasted into a word processor and saved as a PDF.  Common ebook apps attempt to have defenses against this practice, though they tend to be fairly easily defeated (which I won't elaborate on for obvious reasons).
The same can be done with hardcopy books, e.g. as demonstrated by Google Books, though it's a lot harder and typically produces lower-quality results.
2.  Many feel that hardcopy books are more prestegious
I have to stress that I truly despise this point.  However, the one book that I've written isn't available in ebook form as I wrote it as the request of a PhD advisor who insisted that it not be available in electronic format.  I protested this on multiple occasions, so while I strongly disagree with their logic, here I'll explain it.
First, we wrote the book primarily due to the publish-or-perish regime that rules much of academia.  My advisor felt that, by writing the authoritative book on a topic, it would establish recognizable authority across the field.  Students would know our names because they had to buy the book, and academics in the field would need a hardcopy of it on their book shelves.  And, of course, publishing books looked good on their faculty activity report, an annual report to their supervisor (typically a department head, or the school's president for senior professors).
My advisor had also expressed the opinion that readers respect a book more if they can feel it in their hands, especially as a hard-cover book.  The formality and expense impressed upon the reader the stature of the topic and the writers.  We've recently seen an example of how some students can feel that electronic materials are less respectable in this post.
And while my advisor didn't say this, I think that it's important to note that, until recently, ebooks and the internet weren't a thing.  Many older folks completed their education using only hardcopies, and due to that background, they have a strong emotional association between hardcopies and legitimacy, while electronic copies can feel cheap by contrast.


text:
If I saw a research result similar to mine from my PC duties, should and how should I contact the authors?
It happened many times that I saw a paper submitted to a conference where I am on the PC, or a journal where I am editing, and such paper had something similar to what I am working on. The situation is worse when I already have something better.
Of course I should declare a conflict of interest and should let others handle the paper. But I always wonder whether I should contact the authors.

If I don't contact the authors, they might doubt the independence of my paper from theirs. This will be worse if their paper was not published at that point (perhaps it got rejected several times).
If I do contact the them, they may feel that I push them to do something they don't want to, such as making their paper public or collaborating with me.

There are more pros and cons, but I will stop here to keep the question simple.

Contact the PC Chair or Editor-in-Chief who should be able to help.

Why should you "contact the authors"?

This is ironic. I was often invited to review papers explicitly because the paper was similar to some that I published.

What does "PC" mean here?

In my experience it is not a conflict of interest to be working on something similar.  As @TheWanderer said, that's exactly why you end up reviewing such papers.  Nor is it appropriate to use your knowledge of their submission to contact them.
Generally speaking, as a program committee member, you should treat what you see there as confidential, and treat the fact that you are reviewing it as confidential as well.  If you choose to provide comments in your review, based on your own experience, that can help them improve their paper, that's great.  If you feel like your personal knowledge of the area is such that to comment on it you would be revealing unpublished information of your own, you need not include such comments.  You should simply evaluate their work in the context of whatever is public at the time they submit.  If someone else publishes something that makes their work obsolete, and it appears between the time of submission and the time their own work would appear, it's rotten luck but I think they would still need to treat the soon-to-be-published work as having precedence.
The same applies as a reviewer for a journal of course.
In some fields there may be exceptions.  For instance, there are open-access journals with public, attributed reviews.  But in CS these seem quite rare.


text:
How do I get better at giving talks/presenting research?
I read many papers and try to present some of them at a reading group of some sort in my department (these are all quite informal). Both my most recent talks were what I consider quite bad, and I really want suggestions to get better.
I only choose to present papers that I understand reasonably well, but when I start talking about them, I often fumble, fluster, and feel the need to constantly look at my notes, even though I know the math (I am in Theoretical Computer Science). I often start saying a sentence, then pause and start afresh since I forget to add a "modifier" like, "given an epsilon > 0" or something like that.
I really don't know how to get better. Due to classes and research, I didn't get time to rehearse my talks before. I also recently gave a formal talk as part of my Qualifying Exam, which went very well (as the committee told me, but also, I felt it too!), but I'd rehearsed it six or seven times before the final talk.
I can't spend so much time for every talk. So I want to know if there are any suggestions to get better at talking. I know stage fright isn't an issue as I'm quite an outgoing person.
EDIT: These are all whiteboard talks.

can you give me an example of a paper in TCS? I am not sure of content and idea of research in this field. It is easier to explain on case study

Simon Peyton Jones, whose research is partially in TCS, has some really good material on this question.

I think you answered your question yourself - 6 to 7 trials does not seem excessive to me for an important talk, and you will get better over time - but it takes dozens of talks, not two or three, before you get good enough to wing a presentation in good quality.

Hey, do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice makes perfect!

One important thing, for both casual talks and more formal talks, is your notes. Too many details and you can't use them without interrupting the flow of the talk, too little and you can get lost.
After some time, I converged to the following solution. I usually prepare one or two pages of main notes, not too densely written, with the main items I want to speak about and large signs for important things to mention at some point. Beyond two pages, I just end up caught in the moment and diverge from the planned path and improvise too much.
Usually there are some points where I could need a complicated formula, a precise statement, or a question might occur that needs one of these in order to be answered; then I simply make a mark (circled capital letters of color) where they might be needed, and write down the details along with the same mark on a second set of more detailed notes. Then I can refer to these when needed.
Another, general advice: be careful of what you do not like in other's talks, think about why, and be sure not to do that. The flaws of talks are often broadly shared, and this can only happen because we do not realize we do exactly what we blame others for.

Thank you, Benoit. I really like the emphasis on having minimal notes with sketches of things to say. I now realize that the "too much detail" in notes is what always catches me by surprise; during the talk, when I look at the notes, I see a ton of stuff, and think, "oh no need to say all this stuff", and start "searching" for the outline/minimal stuff that would make sense to say. In the process, I lose connection with my audience, since my mind is on my notes. Very insightful answer, thank you very much!

The generic answer to this is probably "practice", but in the interest of giving you something more concrete to work with, I'll share what works for me personally:
When I make slides, I will usually formulate out what I say along with a given slide in my head or even under my breath. It helps me figure out when the slide isn't quite jogging my memory correctly, or when the organization doesn't follow my natural train of thought. I'll also usually notice if there's something I keep forgetting, and I can do something about it - practice that slide a bit more, add a reminder on it.
That way, I can easily get in 6-7 "rehearsals" of my slides just during the drafting process. Of course it's not as good as a real rehearsal, but if you don't have the time it's at least something. What it doesn't do as well is transitions between the slides, and I'll occasionally forget what order I have them in. I re-read my slides just before the presentation and also try to have my laptop screen show me a miniature of the next slide if possible to help with that.

Thank you, nengel. This would definitely help get in "rehearsal time" under the belt. Unfortunately all my talks are whiteboard talks, so I'll probably have to adapt this to those in some effective way.

When I use slides, I often print them out on paper and then add (in red ink for visibility) notes to remind myself of things that I want to say but don't think are  important enough to be on the slide.

Interesting, in my not-theoretical-at-all end of CS, even the most casual "what have you been up to this week" meeting involves handing around the projector cable. I wasn't aware "whiteboard talks" was even a thing!

Honestly there is no better means than to practice: but setting and audience matters as well, here are some pointers:

Location Counts: Practice at the venue if you can, or a similar location. Practicing at home is different than on-stage.
Know your audience: Practice with subject experts and laypeople. The information you give will need to be customized to the audience. If they are experts then you can skip 'basics', if they are not then you need to be aware that what's easy for you may not be easy for them.
Content: Slides are great for visuals, not really for text. When you present, you are telling a story. Having the audience read the story does not make for a compelling storytelling presentation.
There is no script: Trying to adhere to a script means that you will often hesitate and wonder if you are on-script or off-script. Instead, concentrate on talking points that you need to cover. Your expertise and experience on the research will fill in the actual wording for each bullet point.
Dress the Part: Your clothes will give you confidence. Although it may be psychological, the idea here is that formal wear will allow you to psyche yourself into thinking that you will do well.
Umms and Like: These verbal fillers detract from the message and are a sign of nervousness. The audience can't tell if you are nervous or not if you take your time and speak slowly.

The other answers, in my opinion, give advice for how to get better at giving formal presentations, which is not really what your question is about.
To get better at giving more informal talks (or chats, as I like to refer to them as), I suggest to get more practice at doing that. Typically, the way we as academics do that is to teach -- you need to get more teaching experience.
So, if you really want to get better, ask to sign up as a TA for a course over the summer. I know, I know, you're busy ... I get it; however, through teaching I've found that it really does help to acquire the much needed practice for formulating the necessary material and approach for an informal chat to help the audience understand what you are on about.

Here few main points from my Medium Post "A Hitchhiker’s Guide to giving a Mini-talk in Maths (or another technical subject)":
Give mini-talks
They are a great source of practice in a low pressure environment.
There are fewer things to focus on. Less material to prepare. Fewer expectations. You learn quicker. Fewer things can go wrong.
Choose topic you find interesting and exciting
Exciting your audience is the easiest if you are excited yourself. Avoid any topic you don’t really care about or find boring. Pick something you know or like to learn more about. Try to read and learn as much as possible before your talk. That will give your more confidence, among other benefits, and confidence is always a good thing when giving a talk.
Focus on one single point and make it dead clear
This is perhaps the best advice I can give. No one expects to learn a complete new theory in your mini-talk. But people like to learn something new. And learning one thing well is better than 5 things “half” or vaguely.
Break down your talk into parts
For mini-talks, I suggest 3 parts:

Motivation: Start here and intrigue your audience.
Precise content: Come to your main point and make it precise.
Examples: Support your point with examples and non-examples.


text:
How to explain past PhD withdrawal to employers/potential supervisors?
I am currently working in education but also looking for job prospects in more technical/mathematical fields. I signed up to a STEM job site and I am not sure how to give a good response to the question "Could you tell me about the circumstances behind you exiting your PhD?"
Basically, I quit a PhD 8 months after starting for the following reasons:

I hadn't fully developed the soft skills needed to be able to tackle one (e.g. time management, organisation, resilience) which resulted in slow progress.
I was struggling to manage myself in a lot of ways (e.g. money, food, mental health)
The area ended up being quite a bit out of my comfort zone (i.e. more pure mathematics compared to an applied mathematical background) and was chosen more based on fanciful ideologies rather than what I was traditionally good at, and it took me a long time to do things that my supervisor thought were straightforward.
I didn't have a break before starting my PhD and felt consistently burned out/depressed having gone straight into it after my Master's degree - not the best decision to make in hindsight.

I know the reasons in my head for dropping out of the PhD are sound, but I am struggling to come up with a way that explains what happened without potentially giving off an impression that I made a bad decision. I want to make a transition out of high school equivalent teaching (having been doing it for 2-3 years) into something more technical but would appreciate some guidance on how to answer the question I've mentioned above.
Furthermore, suppose I did find a niche of an area I was truly passionate about, or found a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) which I felt could truly advance my career in some way (say, being able to access some very technical and well-paid STEM role). How would I explain to potential PhD supervisors that I already quit a PhD without them thinking of it as being too much of a red flag?

What is wrong with mentioning the reasons you give here? Except maybe the second reason. But mention how you've addressed these issues in the years since and why at that point in you life, the PhD was just the wrong choice for you.

Well there isn't anything wrong with the reasons I mentioned above as far as I can tell, though maybe the second one could ring alarm bells. But if I wanted to do a different PhD (say) would these ring alarm bells for potential supervisors?

I wouldn't go into a lot of detail.  The person asking you this wants one single answer, and it should be something that puts you in a good light for the new opportunity and doesn't provoke hard follow-up questions.

If you want to go into the workplace, I would say "My previous program focused too much on theory without useful application and I really wanted something more applied.  I like to work on projects that have useful application in the real world."
Alternatively, if you want to be in industry, you can say that you realized you actually don't want to work in academia and your previous program was interested in keeping you in that realm, rather than preparing you for the workplace.
If you are pursuing more education, you may focus on differences between the field you quit and your new one.  Something like: "I realized I'm really much more passionate about computer science than I am about pure mathematics."
You should do nothing to mention the issue in anything that you give to everyone.  That's information to be conveyed in an interview, if at all.

It's a given that there were probably other things going on and your interviewer will assume there is more to it, but they are not your therapist and do not need to understand the whole situation.  Only give them what is sufficient and positive.
I was kicked out of a Ph.D. program at a very late stage because I simply was not performing well.  The main reason for my poor work was personal issues that are embarrassing and were my fault but were not directly related to my studies.  Later I re-applied to a program in the same field. When they asked why I dropped out I said that my advisor was travelling my whole last year and unable to supervise me well and that I had a compelling offer in industry. Both of those are true and were significant factors in my outcome. I didn't tell them I was also having personal problems at the time that negatively impacted my ability to focus on my work.
I got into the program and finished my Ph.D.  On the job market people again asked me why I did a few years at one school before finishing at another.  I said various things similar to the above but was never in a position where I really had to explain it.  I did some studies at one school, went into industry for a while, and then went back and finished at a different school.  That's as much as people know.  To this day my colleagues don't know what the deal was and have never had enough interest to find out.  That's the way it should be---professional conversations should be kept professional and private information rarely has a place in them.
I have seen people play the "I was young and immature" card and seen it work out, but it's a big risk.  My advice is to be honest with people, but don't undermine your future by dredging up potentially harmful issues from your past.  Instead say things that are true, put you in a good light, and will satisfy the asker.

I think it's good to show some ability to reflect on past makes and learn from them. To paint your current self in a positive light is not the same as pretending everything your past self did was perfect.
Lastly, what you did was straight out lie, which may or may not work.

Timon, if you were referring to me, I have never lied about my experience. Like most such events, my failure to finish was a result of several interacting factors. I see no reason to bring up personal, private issues as answers to general career questions unless there is no alternative. You don't want to be one of those people who brings up private or embarrassing issues in inappropriate times.

tl;dr-  Sounds like something went wrong in your past.  Prospective employers would likely be interested in understanding this prior event to inform their consideration about whether or not you'd be suitable for a new role.
Personally, I'd guess that the best way through this is to help prospective employers to understand what happened and how this information should inform their evaluation of whether or not you're the appropriate candidate for the job.
Most of the following's written in the first-person.  This is meant to reinforce the point that I can't really speak for hiring managers in general as there're many diverse viewpoints and philosophies.  So, the following should be understood as my own thoughts and perceptions.  Also disclaiming that none of this is legal advice; for example, there may be relevant laws/regulations/etc. involved in interviewing interactions and disclosures that aren't considered below.

I know the reasons in my head for dropping out of the PhD are sound, but I am struggling to come up with a way that explains what happened without potentially giving off an impression that I made a bad decision.

Sounds like you did make a bad decision at some point.  Still, unless you're trying to convince someone that you're infallible, that's not the worst thing in the world.  Then on the plus side, you avoided making the sunk cost fallacy: the decision to stick with a path that's no longer optimal merely because resources have already been spent on it.
Personally, if I were considering hiring you, I'd want to know the following:

What mistake(s) did you make?

I'd be extremely interested in this question, so you'd probably want to help me figure out the answer.  If I couldn't figure it out, I'd likely perceive there to be an unqualified risk, and probably opt to avoid that risk by not hiring you.

What do those mistakes say about you at the time you made them?
What do those mistakes say about you now?

What, if anything, have you done to correct for their causation?

How concerned should I be about any potential problem areas that they may reflect on?
How should I evaluate your response to these various problems?

While causing problems may reflect negatively on you, fixing them can still reflect positively.  You can earn points here.

It sounds like you've already given these some thought.  However, you might want to give it a bit more thought.  For example:

I hadn't fully developed the soft skills needed to be able to tackle one (e.g. time management, organisation, resilience) which resulted in slow progress.

That sounds pretty bad.  And while I'd give you kudos for recognizing it, I'd still want to feel confident that this problem is resolved, or at least manageable.
A major point here is that, if I hire you, I want to feel confident that I made the right decision.  So I need to understand exactly what happened and why, despite those facts, you're still the right person for the job.

Thoughts
So, here're a few of my first thoughts on seeing your points.  I'm speaking in the first-person here because my perceptions are my own; I can't generally speak for any hiring manager who might be considering you, though I hope that these may be helpful.

I hadn't fully developed the soft skills needed to be able to tackle one (e.g. time management, organisation, resilience) which resulted in slow progress.

Apparently you had trouble managing your time and working at the expected pace.  That's a pretty big problem in most positions in which you'd need to manage your own work flow.

Have you done anything to fix these problems?
Are they still problems?
If I hired you, how should I expect them to complicate things in the future?

I was struggling to manage myself in a lot of ways (e.g. money, food, mental health)

If you were a PhD student struggling with money or food, that's not so unusual or hard to understand.  If you're applying to be a PhD student again, it'd be a big point to address because it seems like you might have the exact same problems this time around, too.  But if you're applying for a higher-paid position, it'd seem less relevant (though you might still comment on if it'll be a problem, and if it won't, why not).
As for issues with "mental health", that's alarming.  Poor mental health can truly wreck people, and there's often very little an employer could reasonably do to help fix it.  No employer wants to be in that position, so you may want to:

Think about all the ways in which your mental health might adversely affect your employer.
Try to figure out how you might correct for any of those problems before going into any interviews.
Explain these to the interviewer.

Note:  There may be various laws/regulations/etc. surrounding mental health disclosure, discussion, hiring consideration, etc..  I'm not a lawyer and I'm not offering legal advice.  I am not asserting that anything here or in this answer is compliant with any given legality's rules or regulations.

The area ended up being quite a bit out of my comfort zone (i.e. more pure mathematics compared to an applied mathematical background) and was chosen more based on fanciful ideologies rather than what I was traditionally good at, and it took me a long time to do things that my supervisor thought were straightforward.

Is this a concern for whatever you'll be doing in the new position that you're being considered for?
Does this reflect on any sort of inflexibility that might result in an unwillingness to perform some future job function?

I didn't have a break before starting my PhD and felt consistently burned out/depressed having gone straight into it after my Master's degree - not the best decision to make in hindsight.

Could this be a problem now?
Are you prone to burning out, such that it might be a problem a few years down-the-line?

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


text:
Mentioning LGBTQ Identity in Personal Statement for PhD Applications
I'm currently applying to grad school to do a PhD in physics in the United States. I would really like to mention in the personal history statement/diversity statement essays: 1) the work I did in my undergrad to create a safe, informal community for other LGBTQ students in my department and 2) how it's a future goal of mine to be an openly gay professor (having an out-and-proud academic role model would have been very valuable to me, even though that may sound ridiculous*).
Is it prudent to mention my orientation in these essays? Or am I just asking for trouble?
My identity is very important to me as is the work I have done/plan to do to make academia a more accepting environment, but at the same time, I am scared that I will be risking my chances of getting into grad school by mentioning what's still considered a very 'controversial' issue by many people. Hope this question is appropriate for this forum, and thank you in advance!

(Edit 11/25) Note these statements are not the statement of purpose (which is entirely academic) but rather extra essays requested in addition to the statement of purpose. UC Irvine gave advice here about these essays as:

Write about your contribution to diversity in your Personal History Statement or Diversity Statement of the graduate application, if there is one. If there is no Personal Statement or Diversity Statement, then include a paragraph about your contribution to diversity and diversity activity in your Statement of Purpose.
  If appropriate, briefly explain what obstacles you have had to overcome and how
  that shapes what you aspire to do in your future career. This has been found to be an accurate measure of future success, dubbed grit.
  Describe any contributions to increasing diversity in the Personal History
  Statement or Diversity Statement. Discuss specific things you may have done
  (mentoring, tutoring, Physics or Astronomy Club president, etc.) that have acted to broaden the participation of women, minorities or other underrepresented groups.You could also discuss what you would do at the institution you are applying to improve equity and inclusion there; for example, start a graduate women in physics group or lead outreach events. Be sure to read up on what programs already exist at that institution.

*To explain just one example of why it would be useful to have an out instructor, I was subjected to explicitly homophobic criticism by one instructor at my undergraduate institution. I did not complain because I did not know whom I could trust, but if there had been an instructor who was out/even out as an LGBT-supporter/ally, I would have felt comfortable complaining about the harassment.

Are they explicitly requesting something called a "diversity statement essay"?

In absence of a explicit request, note that personal statements are broad and generalized for a purpose. You can write anything that relates to you here.

By all means, mention the LGBTQ volunteering you did. I'm not sure 2) benefits your application at all and I'd wonder if you might use the space to write more about physics.

I agree with Keron. You're hopefully not wanting to be a professor solely because you're apart of the LGBTQ community, rather because you're passionate about the field.

Well done with 1): If you can explicitly state what you did for and tie that into organisational skills and collaborative nature, then even better. Number 2) is something to state later on in your career, such as in talks where you want to give a personal element to what inspired and motivated you.

Nat, many of the schools are asking for a "diversity statement" or a "personal history statement". This is completely separate from the academic statement of purpose - which will be entirely about physics and why I want to become a prof because I'm passionate about physics, Keron and Eppicurt . I'll add some details to the question about diversity statements

@Nat Yes. Note that the "C" in "UC Irvine" stands for "California".

Where was your undergraduate institution?

I am scared that I will be risking my chances of getting into grad school by mentioning what's still considered a very 'controversial' issue by many people.

There's never any need to hide a personal commitment to diversity in an application in the U.S.  In other words, it would always be appropriate to list your specifics in sections on volunteer or leadership activities.  Also, if you received recognition or an award in connection with diversity advocacy or activism, definitely list it.  The admissions committee might include someone with a strong personal commitment to diversity, and if your application contains a clear hint that would make the diversity bell in that person's mind go "ding ding ding!", s/he can then push to get you on the short list.
However, I do understand your feeling of uncertainty about putting your commitment front and center.  Researching each specific university you're applying to will help you tailor the application to the position.
For some applications, you can write exactly what you wrote in your question (including the relevant details, within the space constraints, of course).  If a university specifically requests a diversity statement, that is a helpful clue that they may be looking for someone who will provide the kind of leadership you are hoping to provide.  Some universities are desperately trying to find people who will be an asset academically, while also strongly supporting diversity so they can increase their diversity graduation statistics.
At the other end of the spectrum, let's say there are no indications on the website of a strong commitment to diversity.  Maybe it's a small school with low diversity in its student body.  In this case you might choose to leave this aspect of yourself more in the background.  Quietly discernable.
Bonus feedback: If I were on the admissions committee, reading what you've written here, I'd say it's a great start for a diversity statement.  But I'd also be looking for someone who can generalize from his or her specific experiences.  Can you expand your statement a bit, building on your own experience, to arrive at a supportive stance towards other types of diversity as well?  For example, if you've ever been involved in allying with other types of campus diversity organizations, that would be helpful to include in your essay.

Sexual orientation should be your personal issue. Let's be professional.  Your personal identity should not be an exception from the current positions. And furthermore, how being an openly gay professor is related to what is most important - being qualified academic with teaching skills? And honestly, I think that you only want to claim your potential future rejection to be subject of your openly declared sexual orientation.

I definitely agree with the sentiment; the idea that an instructor should go out of their way to advertise their sexuality to students is egregiously creepy.  That said, apparently the application's actually asking for a "diversity statement"; how might the OP respond?

Nat, I think you misunderstand - I would not shout out to students that I am gay to "advertise my sexuality", I just mean "out and open" in that I would not be hesitant to, say, mention my wife in the way many male professors of mine have mentioned their wives (in a relevant way of course, typically mentioning their wives' relevant research). I would not want to hide, because I think having out role models is important for young LGBTQ students just the way having female lecturers is important for female students in male-dominated fields.

In (maybe) second version of the question OP stated that he would be an openly gay professor. That what has driven my response.

robinj, I absolutely do not want to use this as an excuse. I am asking out of genuine concern because I have had poor experiences in the past (another student outed me to an instructor who then made derogatory and defamatory comments about my identity for the rest of the year, and there was no one I could go to for help because I didn't know whom I could trust as there were no out LGBTQ/ally instructors). When asked for my "contributions to increase diversity", my efforts and hopes to create a more accepting environment for LGBTQ students is an integral part of that.

@daisy137 In the case that you've described, the instructor should've been disciplined.

@Nat, yes, but reporting them was not possible due to the extremely conservative environment I was in. Hence my desire to be an out professor to help any LGBTQ students in the same situation one day (not to creepily announce my sexual orientation to students).

Accusing the OP of self-outing as a preemptive excuse to complain about rejection is wildly speculative and unhelpful. Also maybe unwise to assume that somebody going by the name of "Daisy" is a "he".

Edit (in response to revised question):
In light of the revised question, this sounds like exactly the sort of thing they are asking for, so yes feel free to talk about L, G, B, T, Q and X.  However, my guess is that whatever you write here won't make too much of a difference (as long as you don't make yourself sound crazy or anything), for the same reasons I indicated in my original answer.
Original Answer Below (where it sounded like this was about a personal statement):
Unless they are asking specifically for you to address diversity issues, I don't think it matters much what you say about LGBTQ issues in your personal statement, as it has nothing to do with physics.  Note: depending on the department and admissions committee, the statement of purpose may be important or not important (e.g., Why do admissions committees consider the Statement of Purpose to be important? and How important is the statement of purpose in a PhD application for admission to a top school in the US?).
What I look for in a statement of purpose (in math, which I imagine is similar to physics) is basically what I look for in the rest of the application: your preparation for grad school, your talent and work ethic, your interests/fit with our program.  Though it also helps to get a sense of your personality (so it's not good, e.g., if you sound like a crackpot).
I don't think the issues mentioned in your question reflect too much on these things.  On the other hand, I don't think it will hurt your application if you want to briefly mention at least (1) and possibly (2) if you can weave them in naturally, but these things shouldn't be the focus of your personal statement, as they say nothing about why you want to go to grad school.  (Certainly your CV is a suitable place for (1), so it can make it onto your application there.)  Academia is relatively LGBTQ friendly in my experience.  However, we don't want to know your whole life story on your application, just the part of your story related to (in your case) Physics.

I should have clarified (and now have) in the question that these personal history statements/diversity statements are different from statements of purpose (and I will be submitting both separate essays to these universities). But thanks for the still helpful comments!

@daisy137 okay, I revised my answer

I can speak from personal experience in this arena.
I was out in my Diversity Statement to UC schools and any other school that asked about, but not in any Statement of Purpose or Personal History. I suggest just reading everything very carefully. Oftentimes, the groups that they state as ones that they do not discriminate will be different from the ones they count as diversity. There's a stock term of "visible minority" that is used to discount LGBT people as diversity. I don't suggest pushing against this. If they do that, then the university administration is not ready. Even if the department want to do something with this, they cannot. If they say something relative to LGBTQ stuff, then have at it (it's my impression that most if not all of the UC system is happy with work for LGBTQ folk counting).  If they do not specify, go for it.
My understanding is that, typically, the diversity statement will only factor in after they already know they want to accept you for purely scientific reasons. For example, I think UCSD can use this to find new fellowships through the administration.
An important thing to note is that (for the UC system) often they want to see that you have done something with respect to underrepresented groups, not just are a part of one. If being a part of one helps the author understand your motivation, then feel free to throw that into the diversity statement.
If accepted, you should be ready to walk into that department with everyone knowing. I declined going to a university after being accepted where I was out on my grad school application. At prospective weekend, the grad chair was very keen and quick with correct pronouns for my partner. YMMV. Also, people do not forget. I then met a faculty member again five years later after the prospective weekend and remembered what I had said in my diversity statement.

Is it prudent to mention my orientation in these essays? Or am I just asking for trouble?

Both of the points you have listed fall within the scope of the requested statement, so there is no inherent problem with either point.  The instruction to "explain what obstacles you have had to overcome" is a veiled invitation to mention any identity-based characteristics you wish, including being gay.  Moreover, my anecdotal observation is that the kinds of academics/administrators who focus most closely on diversity statements tend to be highly positively disposed to the kinds of groups targeted for special representation measures.  (If anything, telling them that you are a straight white male might be asking for trouble.)
One critique I would make of your proposed response is that you should think more deeply about what you mean when you say you want to be an "openly gay" physics professor, or an "out and proud" physics professor.  What does that entail exactly?  Specifically, what does it mean to be "open" or "out" in the context of teaching or researching physics?  Is it merely that you would like it to be generally known that you are gay, so that gay students can identify you as a potential support person, or do you intend to proselytise your sexuality in some way in the classroom?  (I doubt it is the latter, but that is the danger of being vague about what you mean; at worst someone might draw an inference that you do not intend.)  Your footnote explaining your own experience as a student could be helpful here, and could help clarify what you mean when describing the kind of professor you want to be.
(Finally, as a slight aside to bear in mind, it is potentially a somewhat humorous linguistic ambiguity to say that your "future goal is to be an openly gay professor"; it brings to mind a straight professor whose future goal is to become openly gay.)


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How do you cite some commonly circulated image on the Internet with no source
Pretend that there is some image on the Internet that is commonly circulated, like a meme template involving a picture of someone's face. If the original thing had no source, but one (for whatever reason) needed the image and its citation, how would one try to cite the image?

I would cite such a source in the same way as an anonymous or unknown author's work would be cited. You should consult whatever style guide you're using for your current manuscript.

I'd do this but include a web address (including access time) where the image can be retrieved.

A citation does not need to point to the original source of the material; just a sufficiently authoritative reference. For instance, if you cite a mathematical result that dates back to the 18th century you can cite a textbook, not the original source where it appeared.
In this case, you can cite the Wikipedia page of the meme if it has one, or something like knowyourmeme.com (warning: possible time sink).


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Should I send low GRE mathematics score to universities?
My GRE score is only 790 (77 percentile). I am an international student applying for PhD in applied mathematics at Tier 1 schools in the U.S. I am from the top university in my country and have a strong academic record and good recommendations. I have communicated with some faculty at some of these universities and they have expressed interest in my profile.
I am worried that my application would get filtered out just because of the GRE score. So I was wondering if I should send this score at all?

Closely related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/21031/gre-score-advice-should-i-retake

I am not an international student but I am at a top 5 school for Applied Math right now and I didn't submit a subject test score at all. My sense is that the subject score can be helpful if you're from a school the admissions committee isn't familiar with

@user1799323 Which university are you in, if you don't mind sharing? Also, was GRE subject score a requirement in the application, or just highly recommended?

77th percentile isn't low.

@Matt This is Brown's applied math division. The website says it's highly recommended and not submitting a score would make determining admission "very difficult," which is what I found a lot of applied math departments say on their websites

Can you retake and improve your score?

@TheMathemagician Unfortunately, it is offered only once in my country each year.

Many US universities are going to ask for the GRE results.  You probably won't be able to avoid having to send them.  Also, many schools pull the GRE data from ETS the testing service that administers the GRE.  That means even if you take the GRE a second time all of your GRE exams will likely be received by the university.  That is not meant to discourage you.  The program's admissions committee has final say on the matter and they look at other factors too.  If you are not good at exams, but good at applied work highlight that in your review process.  Good luck!!!

Ok, in that case, do you think my gre score would be a red flag. I was wondering if I should apply to the top schools at all.

My best guess would be no.  Here is my reasoning.  My undergrad work was awful.  Very awful.  I also stink at standardized tests.  However, I have a reasonable amount of intelligence and many years ago when I saw my career stagnating, I decided I needed to get an advanced degree.  I took the GRE's twice scored very mediocre.  However, I started taking non-degree-seeking grad classes and did very well in them.  I started meeting faculty members and getting to know people.  That all eventually paid off.  2 MS degrees and PhD from a teir 1.  So, yes, you can do it!!!!

I may have been wrong about the ETS scores following you.  I found another question on this site related to your question.  https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/58200/math-phd-applications-is-it-better-to-show-just-my-good-gre-score-or-should-i?rq=1

Thank you! That is encouraging to hear. I think my best strategy would be to include some "lower" universities for safety as well.

Just retake your GRE as quickly as you can. ETS allows you to choose which score you are sending. If you obtain a higher result and choose it to be sent, the previous lower score will not be visible to the institution you are applying to.


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Can I add non-cited reference to bibliography?
I want to add non-cited references to bibliography for two reasons.

Sometimes, it is not clear whether I referred to it or not. Clearly, not only citing a statement is a citation, but also citing an idea is a citation. But if I didn't cite the ideas and if another idea comes across my mind, sometimes I can not sure my idea is inspired by the references or not. In that case, I want to add the references to bibliography.
There are some references I didn't cite but it would be useful for the readers.

May I feel free to add non-cited reference to bibliography?
Addition: Maybe I had to clarify I am in Mathematics field, and many authors add the references to bibliography as a "reference", not as a "cited writing". If I cited anything, then I will definitely notify the readers the citation specifically. However, is it not allowed to add some papers or books to bibliography that I just referred to?

I have seen this done several times, usually prefaced by a statement that indicates you are including texts relevant to the topic but not mentioned explicitly in the body of the paper. This is most common in surveys.

Probably no one will notice.

It depends on the style you are following. I like this APA style blog post

For many students, the purpose of the reference list is to prove that they completed the assignment. They were assigned a research topic; they researched the heck out of it; and the reference list is there to demonstrate their hard work.

The blog goes on to differentiate the difference (at least in their opinion) between an APA style reference list where everything that is cited is in the list and everything in the list is cited and a bibliography (e.g., Chicago Manual style) where there can be things that are not cited.

I realized that I am not following APA style since I always thought the bibliography must contain the papers that not only I cited but also I refered. The reason I thought in this way is many papers and books in my field do in this way. Maybe Chicago Manual style is what I am looking for. Thanks for the link!

Why are you assuming this is the case of a student doing a homework? It's not clear from his question.

@user4050 I am not. That was just my favorite part of the blog post and it introduces one reason why you might want to do it, unlike the other answers which say don't do it.

To demonstrate I did hard work is not my reason, though. I wanted to credit the references that influences to my work, and I was worried about if the influence is indirect, is it over-crediting or not. Then I learned that it is allowed to add those references to bibliography as the blog post by Jeff Hume-Pratuch says, "Other documentation systems, ... A bibliography can be more expansive, covering works that were consulted by the author or recommended for the reader but not cited in the text itself". Please let me know if I misunderstood.

My writing rule is that I list in the bibliography only what I indeed cite. Bibtex helps there a lot.
But if you want to provide some further reference to the readers, then why not just cite them? Like,

The reader might find the works by Spongebob, (1749); Patrick and Star, (1997); Squidward et al., (2018) useful.

just more sane.

Ooops, necroposted.

The SE model encourages necroposts. Your answer is help so don't worry about it.

If an idea or a statement is novel and it's appearing for the first time there is nothing to cite. Anything else needs to be cited. And don't add any citations in the bibliography which you are not citing in the text. Otherwise the reader will wonder why you didn't cite it.

No. There are some "rules" that cannot be broken. One of those is regarding the citation.
I would perhaps write something like "(author,YYY) said.... (for more examples see author1,YYYY; author2, YYYY)"
And then put the reference in your written text to whatever you believe is useful as an extension of an idea you are giving. Use words like "For examples, see...", "See ____ for ___" where you can put the reason why you believe the reader should look at those "extra references".

You can effectively achieve the same result while avoiding the dilemma of whether you can add such bibliography entries or not:
Dedicate a sentence or paragraph to mentioning additional sources not otherwise used.
Even if something is not used directly, you're putting it in the bibliography because it's relevant, right? Well, put a sentence or a paragraph at the end of your "Introduction" or "Related work" section, or even at the end of the (sub)section where you almost-cite those sources, which can go something like this:
\paragraph{Additional sources} Other effects of foo on bar are
surveyed in \cite{Source123}. An alternative conception of the
frobnication of bars to the one presented here can be found in
\cite{Source456}.

I prefer to always cite everything, and indeed, to use bibtex so that it only adds cited items to the bibliography. (I belive this is the default, also.)
If there is an item I feel would be useful to readers, then I feel it is better to write a sentence in the text which explains how and to whom it would be useful. For example:

numerical studies on the subject include the monograph of Author~\cite{Author:2014} and two articles~\cite{Author:2010,Author:2013}

Likewise, if there are related ideas, then it is often nontrivial to understand how they are related, or what part of an article in particular is related. Explaining this to the readers is a service the writer should do. For example:

Lemma 3 in our work is similar to an approach of Gauss~\cite{Gauss:1814}, while the proof of the main theorem has the same ideas as a proof of Euler~\cite{Euler:1755}.

These both make it easier for a reader to write relevant literature. It is not uncommon to first find an article related to what one wants to find, and then read the introduction to find more possibly related papers, until finally finding what one is after (if it exists). Texts that say a few words about the relevancy of bibliography items are vastly superior to texts which only list related works, or, even worse, only contain them in the bibliography without any context.

I have done this on a couple of occasions and originally had the same worry, my solution was to just add a sentence explaining its relevance to shaping my text.
e.g

PERREN, C . and MLECEK, M . (eds .) (2015) Perception in architecture: here and now . Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

This book helped to shape my knowledge whilst exploring the other texts. No Citation.

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


text:
Loss of perspective after short-term postdoc
I'm a physicist and I might have figured out too late that I really like research, even if it hurts. I had a tough PhD, during which I worked in isolation on a new technique. I didn't publish along the way (my supervisor didn't believe in conference papers, I got scooped and in general nobody cared, even if I repeatedly stressed the issue). After my defense I was unemployed and I finished the paper on my thesis work, which has a couple dozen authors (I'm first) and was published on Scientific Reports. I had a 2 years postdoc offer in the department I did my PhD in, but I felt I needed a change so I said no. I opted for a five months postdoc on a topic slightly related to the one I worked on during my PhD, and I loved it. The advisor was great and I really enjoyed being treated as a human and having the opportunity to work on a hard problem. Unfortunately the data I worked on was meh, so although I developed a new software suite it's still not clear if the data is good enough for a publication (I think so, but let's see).
I am applying for postdocs, and I am not getting any interview. Is it because I only have one paper (three more in the pipeline), although introducing a brand new technique? I have the impression I have been cheated: everybody kept saying publish and it will be better, but things are not better (except for the fact that I closed a quite big problem). I got interviews with a few software companies, but I have a strong feeling that I will miss the opportunity to do research independently, instead that implementing something... Do you think this is unreasonable?
I'm probably better than average as a researcher, but I have a worse than average track record. Is there a way to fix things or is it game over?

Your first postdoc was quite short.  Would it be possible to stay on with this advisor, in a slightly different position?  Less pay?  Unpaid?  (If you have some savings.) Could you teach part time? // It's important not to get discouraged or panic if your job search isn't immediately successful.  Okay, you haven't had a perfectly smooth ride so far -- well, that happens sometimes.  Try to focus on the positive.  The skills and knowledge you've gained.  What you have to offer.

"Is it because I only have one paper" yes.
Also, your supervisor was correct.  Conference papers are not valued much in Physics.

Reputation: Regarding if your publication record is a problem, it depends on the field. I suggest searching on Google Scholar researchers at the same stage as you (ending their PhD and those that have started their first postdoc) to get a better idea.
Network: If you are on good terms with your first postdoc PI, which I assume you are, then also ask them if they know of any positions. It is insufficient to be applying for postdocs, in some areas they are very competitive. Your advantage is that you have solved a big problem (apparently), but who would know that? Use those that do know to help you out, they might specifically mention you to so-and-so who is looking for a postdoc.
Publish-or-perish: Stepping out of academia will put you in a worse position, I think it will be hard to return.

Thanks for the answer! Reputation --> I did my PhD in materials science / physics, and on average what people do is to learn a few techniques and apply them to study something. In this case, 3-4 publications seems to be the average. It is very unusual to make a new technique. Network --> I'm doing that. Publish-or-perish --> thanks for your opinion. I might need to get a job soon, but I will go on applying and finishing my paper.


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Do online students deserve video content?
I teach different courses online and in person and expect all my students to read textbooks and web pages. The online students get an extra explanatory text every week that is meant to replace the content that would be discussed in a lecture or seminar course.
A few students are surprised or disappointed that I haven't made and posted videos as well. I don't personally learn well from video content, but it seems some of them prefer, or even expect, to do so. Other than the several that have said as much, I don't know how many students feel this way.
Scripting, staging, performing, recording, captioning, and publishing quality videos is harder (at least for me) than editing a document. Still, has video instruction become so normative that I should take on this project?

The question is unanswerable. Online students "deserve" whatever the institution or company who is offering their courses promised them in exchange for their money. And your responsibility is to provide instruction in whatever format the people who hired you specified. If your employer expects you to prepare video content and that's what you agreed to when you took the job, then that's what you should do; if not, then you have no ethical responsibility to provide such content.

Just because you don't personally learn well from video content, doesn't mean your students feel the same. I agree with the above comment: It depends on what the students were promised when they signed up.

In response to above comments, to my knowledge, the institution does not require that course content be presented in any specific medium. If there were such a requirement, my question would be moot.

First of all, what students do or do not "deserve" is more of a moral/philosophical question than an academic question. However, I will attempt to respond to your situation in a way that is academically practical.
Students who are attending the in-person classes are getting a live, visual, possibly interactive version of the content, but online students are getting something different. Given that you mentioned online students asking for more visual media content, but no in-class students requesting an extra explanatory text, one might reasonably infer that the visual is more highly demanded. Also, you didn't explicitly say that the explanatory text is a transcript of the lecture or a copy of your lecture notes, so I'm going to assume it is not simply an identical typed version of what is said out loud. If students are taking the same course with the same assignments, syllabus, and expectations, it is reasonable for them to expect to get as close to identical materials as possible.
However, I don't think they are expecting a scripted/staged/performed video either. In most of my classes, the professor records a screencaptured video of the projector and/or a video of the lecture and posts it to the class' online site. That way, if you miss class, you can see what you missed as it played out. These videos aren't particularly high quality or effort, but they allow students to watch lectures even when they physically can't. Most students I know taking online classes aren't doing so because they prefer the format, they're doing so because they can't physically attend the class at the offered time but still want/need to take the class. Offering lecture videos helps to equalize the material available to both online and in class students.
Before you take any action, I recommend:

Checking to see if your university has a policy on recording lectures/seminars
Check to see how expensive it would be to start recording lectures
Survey your online students to ask if lecture videos would be beneficial. (If you find out it's not expensive, I would skip this step based on the feedback you've already received).


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How bad does the major GPA need to be for providing explanation in grad school app
I’m a sophomore in US college majoring in mathematics. I plan to apply for math PhD. I’m wondering how bad does the major GPA need to be for giving explanation? For example, do we need to provide explanations for a single A- out of straight-A’s?
Also, factors to take into account also include core courses (real analysis, abstract algebra, topology, etc.) vs. electives (combinatorics, number theory, probability, etc.), other courses taking along together e.g. 2 major classes in a semester vs. 4 major classes in a semester.

If the school has a cut-off, i.e. 3.5 and you have a 3.2, it would be prudent. But if the difference is 3.99 and 4.00, I would recommend that you spend the space on other topics.

Your GPA really only matters if it’s below about 3.5. Above that, other factors start to matter more.

@JeffE thank you so much for your answer! will your answer still apply if I apply to top schools and compete with other students who have similar statistics as me? In other word, between two seemingly equally qualified students, what will become a tipping point in eyes of admission committee?

"In other word, between two seemingly equally qualified students, what will become a tipping point in eyes of admission committee?" See this question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/45476/what-are-mathematics-graduate-schools-looking-for