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Will doing a chargeback on tuition hurt my chances at getting into the same university for grad school?
I'm taking an independent phys ed course at my local university. I'm also currently studying for the GRE and I'm hoping to start grad school here in a totally different department in fall 2021. There's a professor I really like and have a good connection with here so I'm pretty set on this university.
The instructor cancelled the course after one class due to low enrollment, and the university is saying that since it started, it's too late for a refund on the $650 fee. I've called and tried to get a refund but their HR/registration department won't budge.
I paid with a credit card and I'm considering doing a chargeback. Would this hurt my chances at getting into the grad school later on, and I should just let myself be robbed?

Are you in the US? If the instructor cancelled that is totally different than you dropping. Have you spoken with the department chair or dean?  They may be able to advocate for a refund. If they won't  I would write a letter explaining what happened and send it to someone in upper administration.

Sounds like the kind of problem that can be solved by simply talking nicely to people, and bringing the unrequested evidence (proof that the course got cancelled, proof that you've paid for it and so on). Don't let yourself be robbed, but keep a very cool mind in the process. Also, there is no need to have legal proof, a video made by you and the instructor explaining the course was canceled is not so hard to do, and is very strong proof for your purpose.

Was this the only class you registered for? Is the $850 fee for tuition only or does it include other fees like health service/insurance, activity fees, etc? Is it a required class for you to graduate? Do you plan to graduate this term?

My reading of your question assumes that you are a non-degree student and have enrolled only for this course (you may have already graduated from this institution with a degree prior to enrolling in this non-degree course, but that is not really pertinent). Can you clarify if my assumption is correct or not? From some of the other comments/answers this seems to not be clear between myself and others.

If loudly going up the ladder of administrators all the way to the dean of students doesn't work, I'd encourage you to consider small claims instead of a chargeback. There's a decent chance the credit card company will side with the school (as they'll provide evidence you signed up and that the class started, winning the dispute); a small claims judge will very probably quickly side with you.

I agree with ceejayoz.  Also, you have two years to file with Small Claims court. With a charge-back, you don't have much time to act. And wih a charge-back, they could still retaliate against you. With a court judgement, they won't be able to.

@Mefitico a video? What do you mean? Why would you make a video instead of asking the instructor to write a letter? What would you even do with the video? If I were the administrator and forced to sit through a video for something I could have easily read, I'd be pretty annoyed.

@terdon : Fair point. First I'm assuming that the usual talking did not work for OP. The situation I want to avoid : OP goes to some admin staff claiming "instructor X cancelled the class due to lack of students". The employee there knows this is fair reason but does not know if the claim is true, but he won't say he/she is suspicious, nor will ask for written proof, he/she'll claim he/she "needs to check something", and OP request gets ignored because this worker does not even know who is instructor X and how to contact him, who also didn't send a memo warning the staff in advance.

@terdon : What I'm suggesting: Go to the instructor with your phone, ask if you can take his contact info (he might be uncomfortable with giving his personal phone, but an email should be okay). Instead of telling the adm staff to call him or send him an email, OP can ask the instructor: "can I turn on my phone camera and we explain together that the class was cancelled?", so no "sitting" through, no production, no more than a whatsapp message. The thing is that this authenticates both the instructor and the circumstance. Might sound unnecessary, but OP's problem should have been solved by now

@Mefitico yeah, that's what I thought you meant. As the instructor, I would find that incredibly intrusive (not everyone likes to be in videos) and as the HR person I would find it very annoying and more work than I am willing to do. All you need is a signed statement from the instructor. A video just makes everything harder in my view.

@ceejayoz Chargeback is far easier than dealing with court. And, if chargeback failed (which seems pretty unlikely to me, but I suppose it varies by card issuer,) then I would assume the small claims option would still be open (assuming that it was in the first place, absent an arbitration clause or some such thing.) But IANAL, so perhaps my assumption there is wrong.

The department that processes the chargeback has no influence on admissions whatsoever. I got a contract at a bank while I was in the middle of suing them. Successfully, too.

@ceejayoz  The charge was for a course, not for a single class. You can't fight a chargeback on the basis of "Well, I did some of what I said I would do". At worst, they'll be able to get it moved to a partial chargeback, but that's unlikely.

Would this hurt my chances at getting into the grad school later on?

Practices vary, but probably not.

Will it hurt me later on?

Very likely.  You probably will not be able to complete a graduate degree if the university thinks you owe money.

I should just let myself be robbed?

No, you should insist on a refund.  Ask the instructor and their department to help you get a refund.  Ask the registration department again.  Ask to speak to the head of that department.
HR is probably the wrong department to contact.

Indeed, you will probably not be able to start a graduate degree if the university thinks you owe money.  You could still be admitted, but they likely won't let you register for any classes until your debt is cleared.

OP may register but will not get a degree which will be withheld. Strongly recommended to make everything formal rather than operating by chargeback.

Oh yes. When I was about to graduate, I was told I still owed some money (which I was unaware of) and would have to pay it before I would be able to get my degree. The amount outstanding: 25p (roughly 33 cents US).

Yeah, registration and/or the bursar's office would be the places to contact, not HR.

@NateEldredge If the university 'thinks you owe money' after they have had a chargeback they would be in severe need of some re-education. It's not even proper accounting, let alone law.

@user207421: How so?  A chargeback just reverses the payment you made.  It doesn't erase the underlying debt and if it was valid, you may still owe it.  The university can sue to enforce it, and they can certainly refuse you any further services until it's paid.  If a court says the debt is invalid, that's another story, but the credit card company is not a court.

@user207421 https://www.google.com/search?q=collections+after+chargeback

HR is not your friend. I'd recommend talking to any or all of the following people:

The instructor who cancelled the class
The department chair/boss of the instructor who cancelled the class (after trying the instructor first)
The undergraduate ombudsman
The Dean of Students

You should also figure out what, from the university's point of view, "the instructor cancelled the class" means. Does the class appear on the university's list of currently ongoing classes? If no, talk to the registration department or to general university administrators. If yes, then talking to the instructor or their immediate boss is more likely to be helpful.
The ombudsman (if such a position exists at your university) can be a wonderful resource. They will not intervene directly, but they will give general advice and explain how the university's bureaucracy works.
University bureaucracies can be infuriating. Good luck!

I often need to remind myself this line "HR is not your friend." they may look friendly and act friendly but they're not your friend. You may have friends in HR, but the HR itself as a department is never a friend nor friendly. Even the most helpful ones are still looking out for the company first and foremost. +1

HR is the wrong department to talk to for a student, but I’m sorry, I have to downvote this repetition of the toxic myth that “HR is not your friend”. HR being your friend is a function of the workplace toxicity. HR can be your friend, and in a reasonable company they are. Don’t dismiss them without reason.

@KonradRudolph Do they ever help out low-ranking people address a serious complaint with their company or university? I thought the answer was no, but it could be that I'm misinformed.

it's not a 'toxic myth' at all, that's completely ridiculous to say.  HR is not there for the benefit of the employee, or in this case student.  They exist to protect the company.

@academic To the extent that this is within their power and responsibility, yes, absolutely. In all the workplaces I’ve had so far HR was helpful and proactive, and has, in two instances in particular, helped me personally (in one instance a group of people) enforce my interest against that of my employer. The claim that HR’s job is to protect the employers against employees is not true in general, and is indicative of malicious or incompetent personnel, not a natural law.

@academic well to be fair they certainly can be of help.  But just because they do occasionally act in the benefit of the low-ranking person doesn't make them an ally.  The analogy would be mandatory arbitration.  Just because the arbitrators don't always side with the company doesn't mean there isn't bias in that direction.

@eps “HR is not there for the benefit of the employee […]. They exist to protect the company.” — That’s true only in toxic workplaces (pretty much by definition, because it’s inherently adversarial). Healthy companies define HR’s role entirely differently, namely to help employees navigate the bureaucratic corners of their job.

@KonradRudolf HR’s job is to protect the company, in general. Sometimes that means protecting the company from their employees, sometimes it means protecting them from their own incompetence by helping out employees who might sue the company.

Either way, can we all agree that saying HR is not your friend is a bit sensationalist, and doesn't really convey any specific or actionable message? It's probably more helpful to just simply state what HR's role is (or is not).

@dwizum I don't think so--The sensationalist aspect is balanced by the amazing level of screwed some have attained by trusting HR.  Your safest bet is to always chant "HR is not your friend" under your breath.  If you are wrong, there is absolutely no harm done, but if it matters, that simple chant could save your career.

@BillK I agree one should be cautious about trusting HR, but you are wrong to say that there is no cost associated with not trusting them. Not trusting people absolutely has a cost (it means you can't rely on what they say and have to check it yourself).

I don't think it's even a trust issue. It seems that the issue is that people seek the wrong help from HR. They go to HR as a generic helpdesk. Then they get upset when HR doesn't unquestionably remove their obstacle, or it explodes in their face because HR has other (legitimate) motives. Explaining what things HR is and isn't there for seems better than mindlessly repeating a negative mantra. If you go to HR for appropriate things, you may find them very friendly! But first, you have to know which things are appropriate. Telling someone "HR is not your friend" doesn't accomplish this.

@MartinBonnersupportsMonica EXACTLY, you should not rely on what HR says and check for yourself.  Perfect summary, thank you!

@BillK Chanting "HR is not your friend" is no more or less sensible than chanting "IT is not your friend", "Janitorial is not your friend", "Accounting is not your friend", or "The secretarial staff is not your friend". -- For some bizarre reason HR gets specifically called out on this when they're no more or less likely to be your friend than any other part of an organization. -- HR is no more or less your friend than the instructor, the Dean of Students or the department head is. HR might not be the best people to talk to, but that has nothing to do with them being your friend or not.

Asking your bank for a chargeback may be a technical solution to the problem, but it is not a real solution. You may get your money back but if the University thinks you still owe them, they will hold your certificates until the debt is settled.
Consider shifting your focus from the money to the actual source of disagreement. Ultimately, it is a question of who is responsible for the cancellation of the course. From the first glance, it seems obvious that the University should accept the responsibility and refund the students, at least from what I can read in your question. But it's not happened yet. You need to understand better the university regulations relevant to this situation. You also need to understand better why the person in HR department believes they don't have to refund you.
Whom can you ask for help or advice? Can student union help? The head of the department, perhaps? Is there an external regulator in your country, e.g. Office for Students in the UK?
Also, is HR the right person to ask? Should you consult student finance, perhaps? Do you have an invoice / receipt  for the money you payed and is there an address on this document of someone you can contact with issues?
Your situation looks strange to me and I hope it will resolve itself easily as soon as you find right people to talk to. Good luck.

If the university thinks you owe them money after a chargeback they are in need of both legal and accounting education. This is simply not correct.

@user207421 It's quite correct. The chargeback is just the bank refusing to facilitate the payment. It does not do anything to change the status of your legal obligation to pay the university. The bank can even decide that the debt is 100% legally valid but still decide to do the chargeback because the payment violates some rule of theirs. That wouldn't mean you didn't owe the merchant the money. (How could it be otherwise? The bank or payment company decides whether the chargeback happens or not. Only a court can rule that you have no obligation to pay.)

@DavidSchwartz If I make a refund to a customer, whether voluntarily or otherwise, I can't keep it on my books as an account receivable. I will never receive the funds and it would be a mis-statement of the company's financial position to carry it as an asset. I have to make a journal entry to balance the books.

@user207421 You do not know that you will never receive the funds until you try to collect them. You can file a suit. You can place the account for collections. That the bank will not intermediate the payment of the funds doesn't mean the amount isn't owed or that the customer will not pay. Neither the bank nor the payment company can make that decision.

@user207421 Classic example: Someone buys something from you. You charge their credit card because you have an authorization on file. The customer files a chargeback claiming the authorization expired. You check, they're right, the authorization expired. They still owe you the money, right? They don't get the thing for free, do they? (They might even have an authorization for another card that's current and on file that you can bill immediately.)

Still pretty ridiculous that the university claims you owe the full course bill after receiving just 1 lesson then the course being cancelled ... a semester by rough estimation is 26 weeks - which makes the 650 just $25 per week .. let them deduct 1 weeks worth .. but 625 is to be paid back in my eyes. Only that HR is really not the right place to fight for your claim as already hinted

@user207421 OP making a chargeback is not remotely the same thing as the university giving a refund.

When I was an undergrad I had some similar problem. At my school there was a special student advocacy office called the "Student Conflict Resolution Center" that was able to do... well, exactly what the name says. They were tasked with helping students navigate this kind of bureaucratic headache (among many other things). I explained the problem to them, they listened and understood it, and then they fixed it in a matter of days. It as a big weight off my shoulders.
You might want to see if you have a similar resource at your school. If you do, definitely get in touch with them.

This might be handled through an Ombudsman/Ombuds office at some universities, which often serves a similar function (with a remit broader than just student conflicts).

This office would otherwise be called the Ombudsman's Office at many schools, and is a part of that office at my alma mater. I think the SCRC was formed with a mandate to specifically advocate for students.

I believe the correct term for a class to have enough students to be worth teaching is "to make."  If the class officially didn't make, you should get a refund of course: the school decided the course doesn't even exist and can hardly make you pay.  In this case, the school would not allow the professor to submit a grade, so it's out of their control.  The prof could decide to teach you anyway but they couldn't submit a grade for it as the class simply doesn't exist.
If the course did make but your prof is literally refusing to do their job (this happens thanks to tenure) then you have a tricky position: even when tenured professors refuse to hold class or office hours or unfairly fail all their students (there have been cases of this) it can be contractually almost impossible for the school to remedy.  From the school's perspective there is a class and your prof will eventually enter a grade for it, or not (which also happens).  You'll eventually have credit hours for it at that school, even if the class isn't meeting.  The prof might be penalized, but since you would be getting credit hours the school may not wish to refund.  In this case what can you do?
If you want the teaching then you're out of luck.  Prof says he won't teach.  (Though idea: if the same course is offered at a different time perhaps you could just switch sections?  You shouldn't have to, but just an idea.  Maybe the second prof can't grade your assignments, which is a PITA for them, but lets you listen to lectures at least, which shouldn't put them out.)
If you want the class knowledge and don't need the actual weekly teaching part, perhaps you could self-study and the prof would administer tests for you at mutual convenience?   That should be minimal effort for the prof and they might be amenable.  If you  additionally need some tutelage perhaps this could be available in office hours?
If you want the class credit and don't care about the knowledge you might be able to just get an auto-A or pass from the prof on just a verbal commitment to study the text.

Tenure means profs can't be fired for exercising academic freedoms, e.g. teaching courses or doing research which is not "liked" by the University for some reason. Tenure gives no protection if profs are not doing their job. Profs who refuse to attend the class can be fired for not fulfilling their academic duties.

"Tenure gives no protection if profs are not doing their job."  @DmitrySavostyanov if you research this Chronicle of Higher Education you'll find many cases where tenure does exactly that.  The theoretical reason for this is, I assume, to keep an institution from trumping up a job performance reason to dismiss a professor who they in fact want to fire because they're coming up with new ideas that threaten the powers in society.  "We can't fire Copernicus for his dangerous Heliocentric theory but he was a minute late to office hours so we'll just sack him for that."

I agree in principle, but there is a vast difference between being one minute late to office hours and dropping the course completely after the first couple of lectures.


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Leave of absence to leaving PhD program
I am in the unfortunate situation where I am being forced to leave a PhD program with a master of art in an engineering discipline. Advisor left while I was on leave (health reasons), couldn't find a new advisor in the same field (had to do it while off campus, which made it so much harder) so the university told me to pack up.
What is the difference between an MA and an MS and is one better than the other? Also would it be worth joining a new university as a masters/PhD student even with an MA?
I assume I have no recourse here and my only option is to packup, but if anyone has been through this or has any advice I would appreciate it.

did you write a thesis for your MA? or is it a course-based awarded MA?

What region of the world are you in?

I don't think this would make an ackward application. You/your advisor can explain the situation in your SoP / advisor's recommendation and get into another school.

In terms of whether it is worth it to continue to pursue a PhD, that's up to you and your own life and career goals. Based on your reasons for leaving the program, though, you may have a better chance of continuing in another program than students who leave for other reasons (such as failure to complete qualifying exams, conflicts with a supervisor, etc). You will probably need to explain your leave of absence, at least in vague terms.
Although US programs often admit students for direct PhDs, at least in engineering disciplines it is not that uncommon for students to be admitted with Masters degrees. At my institution, I just checked a couple of engineering programs and they allow at least some credits from a prior masters program to count towards the course requirements of the PhD, and they expect students with a masters degree to progress through the program more quickly. It's still more efficient by about 1 year to start as a fresh PhD student and skip a separate masters, but the masters degree is not "wasted" (whereas in some other disciplines there may be no transfer at all). Of course all of this will vary by institution.
There is little distinction between MA and MS; MA in engineering is more unusual but may occur when engineering programs build out of departments more commonly housed in the arts. Since your institution offers both, then that distinction matters more than the letters. Probably the thesis-based masters is better, but I suspect that it will matter little compared to a course-based masters plus the work you've done towards a thesis (especially if this includes publications).
If you decide to continue towards a PhD, I would suggest you begin contacting professors at other institutions that have research programs you are interested in, and simultaneously checking the posted policies for the programs at those institutions. You can also apply directly to programs you are interested in (hopefully those that have more than one professor in your chosen field; the narrower your focus the more likely you need to have an advisor in mind ahead of time). Pretty much the same process as a new student. Your former advisor may be a good resource for suggestions as far as who to contact if you are still on good terms with them (I don't see anything in your question that implies you are not).
Letters of recommendation from your former advisor and possibly others at your current institution that can explain the situation will also be helpful.

You have options.
Escalate to the chair, then the director of graduate studies, then the dean or provost if you feel the only reason is that your advisor left. You took this job (and it is a job - they get something in return too) with certain assumptions from the university that were not met. That said, if there is no advisor left that fits your interests, then best to pack anyway.
MS vs MA is usually designated by the school your program is in. It isn’t generally the case you get to choose. Both would be Masters degrees.

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University students and staff think my son is rich. Is there a possibility of altering this mentality?
My son is in his second year at a UK univ. It guarantees accommodation just for first...students rent privately themselves. It discretions other year.  For privacy, I won't say his degree. We live in Canada. Given vacations, he's in the UK for just 7 months.  We thought extended stay hotel is best. First, waste money to lease a flat 12 months! Second, stupid buy appliances and furniture, then sell them at loss when he finishes.
Anyways, his univ. requires address and he put extended-stay hotel. Someone leaked because many instructors ask him if he's staying in a hotel, but he never told them! Some students overheard and now many think he's Crazy Rich Asian! LMAO! He tried to explain we are not rich and extended stay hotel comes out cheaper. But no use!

Can he do anything to change this mentality of students and staff?
Is extended-stay hotel this un-ordinary for academics and students?
Don't visit academicians that visit just 6 months' stay there?

This question doesn't have anything to do with academia.  It would be the same if your son has a job.  I suggest this question would be more appropriate for http://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/

I'm surprised about the hotel being cheaper, because university towns usually come with a large amount of purpose-built student accomodation; tiny flats with their own furniture.

Don't know the current situation, but 15 years ago it was easy to rent a furnished room in a shared house for a few months in the UK.

No idea about UK, but here (Germany) we have so-called "Monteurzimmer" [literally room for service technicians]. These are furnished apartments that are rented out for durations of typically weeks to a few months. OTOH, in university towns, furnished apartments are usually to be had and renting for just the term are is not unusual. 3rd possibility would be to look for a room sublet by a student doing a term abroad.

Seen the edit, but I don't have much more advice (and even if I did, the question has been closed).

@FedericoPoloni ok ty. but you can edit your answer if you have more advice?

Can he do anything to change this mentality of students and staff?

Moving out won't help now that the voice has spread. Looking stingy in ordinary expenses will further stereotype you into a Scrooge Mc Duck type, so do not try to overcompensate by saving pennies. Just live a normal life. Do not drive to campus in a Lamborghini or a taxi, but do not reuse tea bags.
I am afraid it will take time and personal interaction to fix this and get across one's real personalities. Stereotypes exist exactly because they are easy to form.
On the bright side, as far as stereotypes go, it's not a particularly bad one.

Is extended-stay hotel this un-ordinary for academics and students?

For students, in my experience it is quite unusual. In many universities there are student dorms, of course, but they are aimed especially as students and they are a different thing.
For academics, it is more common; see below.

Don't visit academicians that visit just 6 months' stay there?

Yes. 1-6 month visits are very tricky to arrange from the logistics point of view: too long for a hotel, too short to make renting an apartment convenient. This kind of furnished accommodation is a godsend.
Nowadays these visits are reasonably common, but it is not unheard of that some academics, especially older ones, never went to one or hosted a long-term visitor. You basically need a semester free from teaching to do it, and once you have a family a long trip is a lot more tricky to arrange.
For this reason I would suggest you not to worry about faculty; things will fix themselves, and most faculty at least tries to be objective and not let these stereotypes influence them. For your own social life, convincing students that you are not Paris Hilton is your #1 priority. How to do it is is off-topic here though. As another stereotype says, we academics are not so competent about social interaction. :) So treat also my first paragraphs with a pinch of salt.
I would suggest you to head over at [interpersonal.se].

"Do not drive to campus in a Lamborghini or a taxi" LMAO!!! No he doesn't do that.

I understand your concern. This sometimes can be frustrating if it is really impacting the student's academic freedom or anything. The best option is to "IGNORE". There is no point in explaining all this to students and staff. Is it worth putting effort into changing people's mentality? There are other issues to take care of during academic studies. Your son should better focus on everything other than this.

I think there is absolutely no need to try change someone's perspectives on subjective matters. Your son told the truth and that is all that matters as honesty is very important in academia. However,  I do not see a point in explaining himself over and over again to people not willing to believe him.

he's in the UK for just 7 months...We thought extended stay hotel is best. First, waste money to lease a flat 12 months! Second, stupid buy appliances and furniture, then sell at a loss when he finishes.

Leases shorter than ten months are common and many properties are fully equipped.

many think he's Crazy Rich Asian! LMAO! We are not Rich. He tried to explain he's not rich and extended stay hotel comes out cheaper. But no use! Can he do anything to change this mentality of students and staff? Is extended-stay hotel this un-ordinary for academics and students? Don't visit academicians that visit just 6 months' stay there?

I've never heard of an extended stay hotel nor any student/academic using one, short-term leases, possibly in university owned property, are more common. Regarding chang[ing] this mentality, the maths is surely straightfoward:
extended stay hotel < lease

Whether that's true depends on your initial calculations. A quick search reveals a student budget calculator for the UK. Taking the University of Cambridge as an example: Accommodation is £231 per month, with term starting in Oct and ending in Jun, that's at least a nine month contract, totalling at least £2079. You can repeat those calculations for your son's university, which should provide a solid argument.

Kids tell me University of Cambridge guarantees accommodation all years. But some UK unis don't.

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Create YouTube videos on exercises of a University level course
Is it acceptable to create YouTube videos about exercises of a University level course ?
I struggle to follow a quantum mechanics course I need to take and thought about making YouTube videos where I explain the exercises and their solutions provided to us step by step. I already did that for two math courses last year, and not only did it help me a lot, it also helped other people that watched my videos. But some people told me to be cautious, because after all I did not create those exercises by myself and thus I have no right to talk about them in a YouTube video.
What should one do in those cases ?

You might find this enlightening: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/131263/72855

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

As an alternative to basing your videos on someone else's work, I suggest writing your own exercises. Each exercise should bring out the issues you want to cover in the corresponding video.
If you write your own exercises, on your own time, you own the copyright, and can do what you want with them, including creating videos about solving them.
That would be superior from a learning point of view, because your users will be able to watch your video, learn from it, and then check their understanding by completing the coursework.

Actually, I think it is easy to avoid most problems. Plagiarism is about presenting something of others as if it is your own. If you cite the source, giving proper attribution, you avoid plagiarism absolutely.
Copyright is another issue, but it is about copying something for which you don't have the proper rights. You don't seem to be doing that. Taking a video of the actual exercise statement (say, from a book) would probably be a form of copying, of course.
Ideas, however, are free to use. The solutions you give are your own and you can certainly discuss the ideas in an exercise without issue.
But a final issue should also be considered. If you are making it easy for others to engage in academic dishonesty by avoiding doing the exercises themselves, the professor of the course won't be happy with you and can possibly make a claim that you are assisting. That can result in academic sanction.
So, a good course, overall, is to make videos that don't "solve" the specific exercises of a course, but help people to understand the principles and insights needed to solve the exercises on their own. Using your own exercises is a good way to do that.

You should ask whoever created the exercises for permission. If they give it to you, then you can proceed. If they don't give you permission, better to know before you create the videos so you can do something else.
This is pretty much a good strategy any time you are dealing with copyright issues -- ask permission before you use the material.

Most times you get the same recipe, let's say a pie crust recipe but measurement amounts are different.  Sometimes it is 2 cups or 2.5 cups or in grams but the ratio is the same.
If you were to reference your professor, s/he would not like it that you give his teaching material away.
How to make your exercise sample yours, change proportions and examples.  Try to bring more than one solution.
I remember my professor telling that every exam, he asks around the same questions and there are only so many, but he changes them around.


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Undergrad research with friends; one of them does nothing
About halfway through last semester, my professor asked me to do research under her with a group of people I had been friends with since freshman year. Dream come true! These are all people I already like working with, it's research in a field we are all interested in, we already spend a lot of time together, etc. The best part is, we all benefit professionally from this! Perfect!
My only concern now is that one of my friends just doesn't do anything for the project except show up to the meetings. It causes me a lot of heartache because I am close friends with this person, and I want to see him succeed. I've talked to him about it before, he hasn't given me any reason. I've told him ways he could contribute, he just never does.
On another level, it makes me upset because this is an opportunity I imagine many people would love to have. It's not fair to other people interested in research that this person may end up piggy-backing his way to a publication! If I weren't on this project, I know I would be upset.
Any suggestions for how to handle this unfortunate situation?
(Also, if there's any way to make this anonymous, that would be nice, too... I'm not interested in one of my colleagues seeing this)

It sounds like this question is about undergraduate research.
If an undergraduate student does not want to participate in research, that's fine.  They're welcome to have other priorities.  Other students have no responsibility to deal with a student who is not participating.
If a student is trying to get credit for participating in research but does not actually do anything, that is a matter for your professor to deal with.  They're responsible for setting standards.
If the students are not getting paid, there is no reason for the professor to push out a student who is not doing anything.

One way is to try to ask him to help on the part you are normally doing alone. I'm not sure which way such request would work best (you may just tell him that you need some help and all other participants are busy with their own stuff, or it may happen that you both want to go to a movie and you just tell him that you cannot until you get something done, but together you can complete it twice faster, or something else; you'll have to use your imagination and common sense to play it right). It can easily happen that he is not motivated enough to work on the project alone and doesn't feel like he is worth much in the large group where, perhaps, there are several people who can do things better and faster, but wouldn't mind working with a single close friend on some small things here and there. It is just a wild guess, of course, but if you haven't tried this already, it probably won't make much harm. Just be sure to share with him some work that he certainly can do and that doesn't take too much time or effort in the beginning.
One thing that, most likely, won't work is to blame him for anything like "piggy-back riding". If he doesn't really care about the project, comes to the meetings just because he wants to hang around his friends pretty much regardless of what they are doing, and signed up for the research project following the same logic, that may achieve only that he'll finally opt out and you both will have some hard feelings in the end.
Just my two cents. I suspect you'll get plenty of good advices from other people, so I'll stop here.


text:
how to show I fit in with the department during faculty interview
A commonly asked question during the faculty position interview is

How do you fit in with the department?

It is quite similar to but different from

How do you fit in with the position?

I want to seek some specific suggestions as to answering this question, assuming the position to interview for has a 50-50 teaching and research appointment. What is the hiring committee really looking for from a candidate from this question?
In my previous interviews, I would answer this question by focusing on how I would collaborate with other faculty in the department. It seemed that the answer did not hit the point well.

https://theprofessorisin.com/2015/11/16/the-dreaded-fit-question-comes-first-by-kellee-weinhold/ You can likely get the book from your library.

Thanks for the link!!

In some very small departments they could be looking for someone to cover a field they don’t already have so focusing too much on how you have similar research to someone already there could have the opposite effect.

It's possible that the question is really "What can you do to help our department achieve its goals?"  To the extent that they're asking that question, you need to understand what it is that they want. You also need to let go of any preconceived notions that might have about "every college or university wants x, y, and z", because priorities really do vary.   In answering this question, you need to explain how you can contribute to the goals of the department.
This can be tricky to analyze because the real objectives of the decision-makers may not have been stated or might not match their public statements.  Furthermore, there may be conflict within the department or with higher levels of the administration about what the goals should be.  It's important to realize that the hiring committee would probably not have brought you to campus for an interview if they didn't believe that you could somehow contribute to the department.  ("Probably" is here to exclude the small chance that the interview is a sham because some other applicant has been preselected.  If you're caught in that situation then your situation is hopeless.) Therefore, it's likely that something or a combination of things in your application attracted their interest. If you can figure out what that was, and can convince the interviewers that you will deliver that desired result, then you will have successfully answered the question.
If there is conflict within the department or between the department and the administration, then the "wrong" answer to this question could hurt your chances of getting the job.
There are other possible interpretations of the question.
For example, the question could be "How will you get along personally with other faculty in the department?"  It seems silly to ask that question, and the interviewers can probably judge this more readily by observing your behavior during the interview.
Or, they might be getting at "Will you be happy working at our institution and living in this place, or will you be trying to find a better job as quickly as possible?"  If you can say "I really want to work here because ..." and you aren't obviously lying, then that will go a long way towards answering this version of the question.  On the other hand, if you answer "I want to turn this institution into the Harvard of southeastern Alabama", then that might not go over very well.

The other answer has good advice. But for a job with a research component, I'd interpret it at least partly as "How does your research synergise with our own?".
Point out things that you could work together with existing staff on; areas in which you could help each other out, and things where the combination of your skills/knowledge and their skills/knowledge might combine to produce something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Similarly, but less clearly, on the teaching side you might be able to identify how you fill a gap in their existing areas of expertise.


text:
Considering applying for a third PhD Program after having bad experiences in two
I am totally lost and devasted mentally and physically, I have been in a program and left after one year because of lack of experiment as well as racist supervisor. I have accepted to lower job in other country to sustain living until I got another phD in different country with the same subject, now I am seven months in and had a qualifier today, one of the examiners didnot understand what I am doing and cannot judge and they decided to have another qualifier in three months which I wasnot expecting, normally every student pass the qualifier.
The project coordinator was offensive to me and to me mani supervisor who is nice.
The project lack of experimental data and that is the curse of interdisciplinary project. I saw a lot of red flags happening and it is hard to taken in since i am alone and also worked hard and having a side activity related to the field which is successful.
I hope you can advise me as I really need support, I asked them to leave since we dont have data we cannot validate.
I have received an offer from other university where a supervisor wants me to join and he said I can do all the experiment I want.
I am crying because I stucked with two wrong places, I am actually working at university at my homecountry and I have to get PhD for returning,but now it seems I have to start all over again.
I am hitting 29,  and I see it is failure for me to experience, I hope I can chatt with someone for help in figuring out what is the problem as I really need it.....

I guess I don't understand your dilemma. You have an offer. If it seems better than your current situation overall, you should consider taking it. Your age is not material to such questions. You will eventually be 50 and then 70, if you are lucky, no matter what your choice is now.
If you've been misused in the past, don't let it color your decisions.
But, make a list of the positives and negatives of each possibility and then choose what seems to be best.

Thank you Buffy! I am afraid it would bad to two PhD programs and leave them to the third one,even with myself, I think maybe the problem, but the examiner isnot expert at , so it isnot shame to leave a second phD program to a third one?

I am now 7 months in the new program, the other one offers alot of facilities and experiment which I am lacking here and that is a big issue here.

@Erik You have an offer? Does it depend on anything? If it is unconditional and it has the environment you need, what keeps you from going there? Of course, switching PhDs again does not look great, but you very clearly do not like the possibilities of the place where you are. As Buffy suggests so well, make a list of pluses and minuses on paper and weigh them. Sleep on it, weigh again. Sleep again, weigh again. Then decide. Age is just one of the factors on the list. Not the factor, just one of them. TBH, 29 is not a pole position to start a PhD in, but not a losing proposition.

Yes, it is unconditional, however, as you said switching for third time looks bad due to the bad luck I had. I feel bad as I got masters  at 23 and due to some events I got delayed and then suffering mentally, I was always great. I dont understand what you imply by " TBH, 29 is not a pole position to start a PhD in, but not a losing proposition" allmy peers finished now, and I cannot figure why I am stuck in these siituations although I am doing new workm, maybe they dont understand it, but it is hard to take in. all these ,sorry I amjust crying because I was supposed to finish now.


text:
Is one spelling mistake in the academic CV a big deal?
Just after submitting my CV to graduate school for masters admission, I realized that there was one spelling mistake on the first page of my CV. I misspelled the word 'merchandising'(missed the h). Is it going to be a major issue for my application?

Will also depend on the word and what it then becomes - most software can find spelling errors so there is little excuse now.

Here, I brought you this https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/feeling-stupid

@MikeTheLiar the failure of this analogy is that spellcheck see "Brian" and "Brain" as valid, but what kind of spell checker misses  mercandising?  This is not just sloppiness but glossing over those squiggly red lines on the first page is obvious sloppiness.

Only if the mistake is in your email address...

@RonJohn: You're making the assumption that everyone uses spell checkers, particularly the sort that make squiggly red lines as you type.  Which in addition to being annoying, don't (at least in my experience) have an effing CLUE about technical vocabularies.

@jamesqf it's 2019, not 2009.  Even if he wrote it using vim and TeX, run it through spell.

Spellcheckers aren't a reasonable argument here for everyone. I personally don't like them. They incorrectly and inconveniently attack/flag a lot of terms I use. Then there's American vs Aus spelling, or dialects which aren't covered, etc. It's normalising but not in a strictly good way.
Whether misspelling words is a sign of a poor candidate or a lack of care stands regardless of the proliferation of spellcheckers; assuming they can read and spell and care about their application, then they could edit it with a fine toothed comb.

I recently changed jobs and I found a typo on my CV thanks to this question. Thansk I guess, but I got the job with the typo :P

@RonJohn: Of course, using "ispell -t" if you're doing LaTex.  And ispell was around LONG before 2009 :-)

One of my colleagues got hired although his CV stated "IhD" instead of "PhD" . In context, the head of the lab knew what was meant, so the CV didn't get trashed.

It's it a typo or a spelling mistake? That is, does it reflect badly on your typing or on your education? (think: beofre/before, or, its/it's)

What's the point of this question? Spelling mistakes in your CV are bad and you should avoid them if at all possible. Is this one spelling mistake is going to make a difference? Probably not, but only the person reviewing the CV can say for sure. Whether there's anything you can do about it now would be a better question, but you didn't ask that... and there isn't really much you can do now.

Look at it this way: any grad school that rejects an otherwise good applicant over a single spelling mistake is probably not the sort of institution that you want to be studying at anyway.

I'll give the same answer as Allure, but for a very different reason. Not only is it common, but most people won't notice it. And of the few that do, fewer yet would think it an important enough issue to bother with.
"Egad, this person misspelled a word. Horrors."
Nope, it ain't gonna happen.
But, you also need to be assured that no single thing, whatever it is, would likely derail an application (yes, a few obvious exceptions). Your acceptance is based on a judgement and the judges try to look at a complete picture of an applicant; both their past accomplishments and the likelihood of success in the future. The CV (as a whole), your statement of purpose, your grades and test scores, your letters of recommendation. Each of those contribute to a (fairly) complete picture. Flaws or issues in one part can be balanced and overcome by the positive and supporting parts elsewhere.
Relax. The judges are no more perfect than you are.

+1 <- Had to happen as soon as I saw the word "Egad" :)

A prominent professor in my field once said in a seminar that if she spots a spelling mistake in a job application, she thrown the whole application in the trash can.

@Sverre, certainly there are some. I wouldn't do it, myself, though.

No.
Check this paper out. As of time of writing Google Scholar says it's received 3871 citations, which puts it well into the upper echelon of papers. And yet on page 50 there is ...

To diagionalize the remaining four dimensions, we transform to a new set of variables

Obvious typo, but it's far from uncommon and it doesn't stop people from reading and citing the paper.
Exception: if you misspell a key word - for example if you apply to John Hopkins University instead of Johns Hopkins University - then the damage to your application can be more severe.

OP is asking about a mistake in his CV, not somewhere in a paper.

I had to read it a few times to actually find the typo...

I had to use google to check "diagionalize"....

Paper was accepted in 1985, so automated spellcheckers were surely not common (I'd wager inexistant by then). Your point is still valid, but the comparison might be unfair.

I'll give a different answer, which is deliberately not an answer to the exact question you asked.
Can you fix it? Can you overwrite your initial CV on the web application form, or ask the admissions administrator to replace it for you, or something like that?

If so, then you should fix it, because you're trying to present your best self with your application.
If not, then it doesn't matter whether it's an issue—it's out of your hands.

I've been able to do this on job application forms.  It may be worth double-checking if some option exists.  Also +1 because I like the second bullet point, which may (accurately) imply that heavily analyzing this to try to guess likelihood may overall be a moot effort.  (I don't normally appreciate what looks to be a non-answer, but sometimes identifying the lack of a possible answer is a relevant great answer to give.)

I’d just avoid wasting anyone’s time over such a simple spelling mistake.

For the purpose of admissions it's unlikely to have any impact.
If this were to support a job application, where a recruiter might have 500 resumes in front of them, and 95% of those resumes end up in the trash after one pass, you want to make every effort to prevent yours from being trashed, and every effort should be put into making sure your application package is as perfect as you can get it.

Well, I think that is always true, no matter the context. But errors happen to the beast of us. ;-)

Your answer hints at a distinction between a graduate school application and a job application, but I don't know what that difference would be. The most competitive graduate programs get over 1000 applicants each year, with single-digit acceptance rates.

@NuclearWang -- graduate applications go to a committee, and my experience is that the committee gives every promising candidate their due review, and "promising" is often defined by GPA, and sometimes GRE.  If the committee thinks you can academically make it through the program, you will get reviewed.  Even with 1000 applicants, acceptance rates are still an order of magnitude higher than for a job, where one person is often the winner.  An admissions committee is different from one recruiter with a tall stack of resumes in front of them.

Also, for grad school, there is a complete application package.  For a job, there's a one-page resume, and that's it.  The recruiter is using that single page to decide if your application will be advanced. A typo on that one page should be avoided.

And if you're using a recruiter - one thing I wasn't aware of until I was on the other side recruting candidates was they butchered every resume I received to "tailor" them to the position. When I did eventually hire someone he was shocked to compare his actual resume with what the recruiter forwarded to me.

Actually, if a recruiter receives 500 CVs, they're probably sorted by an automated algorithm, which takes keywords form the jobs descriptions and the CV into account, only the first few are seen by human eyes. Then the recruiter looks quickly over the first few to check if they're actually relevant (i.e. a repair mechanic is not a mechanical engineer). Only after that he might consider actually reading anything with attention enough to have the slightest chance that he would spot a typo (which again, is not his intention).

OP asks, will the spelling error be a "major issue for my application"
MAYBE.
The spelling error on the first page is evidence that OP might not have read their own paper prior to submission.  That is demonstrative of a lack of attention to detail.  Whether writing a simple email or important application, take the time to read it at least once to catch simple errors.  Especially if OP's spelling check language isn't set to English.  Such a drafting process is also an opportunity to find areas for general improvement.
Whether or not the reader(s) of OP's application cares about the error enough to let it affect their opinion of the application as a whole, is not knowable.

Personally, I'd like to say I would ignore such a mistake, and indeed my eyes would likely skip it. But if I noticed it, it would raise my brows. I'd suspect that either you are not using a spell checker on an important document (which would make me think less of you), or you've ignored some warning given to you (and spell checkers in fact do give lots of false alarms depending on context).
In both cases, this is an inconclusive sign of sloppiness. Which means I would have insufficient evidence to assume either case to be applicable to you. I would then make a conscientious effort to ignore those suspicions. I do believe that only an asshole would be picky on such minor problems (but you will find plenty of those people over your career). I've once worked with reviewing some extensive technical documentation written by non-native english speakers which had been updated plenty of times. I had express instructions to ignore minor typos such as "mercandise".
Then again, if those typos do create interpretation issues or if they are common, I'd let myself conclude that evidence is enough for me to consider that either you have bad procedures (i.e. you don't use spell check at all), or that you have been very sloppy/lazy (you didn't pay attention, you've wrote the CV overnight right before the deadline or similar).
So, if you are concerned, recheck the CV as whole using different spell-checkers (word, grammarly, etc.). If that was your only mistake, rest assured this shouldn't matter. If you find more than 3 spelling mistakes (or two major grammar ones), learn your lesson.

There are two main causes for incorrect spelling: You made a mistake, a typo, or you didn't know how to spell the word correctly. "mercandising" seems to be a typo. That's much more forgivable. Getting "your", and "you're" wrong would be more of a problem.
I did review someone's CV before it was sent out and noticed "wether" was used instead of "whether". You can figure out yourself why the spelling checker didn't flag it. Would have been embarrassing if the reader knew the word or looked it up (like I did).


text:
How to dress for visit to math phd program for accepted students?
How should I dress for my visits to math programs as an accepted student?  As if I were showing up to a job interview?  Shirt and tie?  Suit?
The visit seems nicely planned by the program - jam-packed with meetings and events with faculty and students.
(I'd guess that this visit would also be a great time to talk to faculty to see who could be a great match for me as an advisor.)

Tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and a pipe... :)

Relevant search: https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=dress

Which country? If it's in the US, dress comfortably but not sloppily. Jacket and tie is overkill unless you're a (comparatively) sharp dresser who doesn't feel overdressed like that.

If you're asking, you'll be fine.

@SolarMike, Birkenstocks, cut off surfer shorts, Old AC/DC T-shirt? ;-) Used to work in California anyway. People would confuse you with faculty of course, just like your suggestion would in Boston. Grateful Dead works for some generations.

Satire not-satire: https://www.theonion.com/nation-s-math-professors-announce-plans-to-continue-wea-1834887376

@JeffE Yes, with dark nylon socks.  This is the kind of thing I mean by sloppy, but maybe it's wrong to assume people know better. sigh

Math professors tend to be pretty casual dressers compared to those in other disciplines. Wearing khaki pants and a collared shirt (polo or button down) would put one towards the dressier end of the spectrum at most places, and jeans and a t-shirt / hoody are usually unlikely to cause one to stand out.
I think that if you were to wear a suit and tie to these events you’d stand out. Not in a negative way mind you, it’s just that all of the faculty members you’ll be interacting with will be dressed much more casually. If you wear jeans or khakis with a collared shirt and sweater then you’ll look like you put in some effort and are taking this seriously, but aren’t dressed up so formally that you stand out.

I think it's possible that one would stand out in a slightly negative way when appearing at a math department in a suit and tie. There wouldn't be any real negative consequences, certainly, but it could absolutely make the social events with other admitted students a bit less comfortable. At best, I think most people would be left nonplussed.

I suspect the most common reaction if you showed up to a math event in a suit and tie would be that everyone would assume you were lost.  ("Can I help you?  I think you're in the wrong place; the dean's office is in the next building.")

Wear whatever makes you feel comfortable within reason. Mathematicians will be judging you based on what you say and how you think, not what you wear. And if a future advisor for whatever strange reason judges you poorly based on what you like to wear, you probably don't want them as an advisor.
Remember, you've been accepted. You are now trying to find an advisor. You want someone who you will get along with. Be yourself. You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. Have fun discussing your mutual interests. Your attire is especially irrelevant in this situation [compared to the case where you haven't been admitted yet, and it's pretty irrelevant even in that situation too for most math departments in the USA]
Slacks and a shirt with a collar or a casual dress are pretty standard just because they are versatile, and you can pretty much go to any function in them and be at ease that your outfit fits in. But really, wear whatever you would normally like to wear at school or work. Perhaps there are some exceptions, but they are rather extreme ones, like showing up in clothes with very offensive phrases on them.

First of all, it depends on the University, so the best answer is probably to ask someone there, if you are already in personal contact with any Professors or graduate students there.
That being said, I would be extremely surprised if anyone expected you to wear a suit or even a tie. Many professors I visited with on my visits (Computer Science, U.S.) were wearing t-shirts, as they do on many days. Many others were wearing collared shirts, but I didn't see a single tie.
The safest bet is to wear a collared shirt and jeans, or something similar. Then you will look nice and put together, but not overdressed.

I wore khaki's, dress shirt, tie, and sport coat when I was in your position. The professor remarked that he was impressed that I took the occasion serious enough to look sharp. However, I would agree with others here that a tie is probably not necessary. Chinos, a dress shirt and a nice blazer/sport coat looks really sharp without looking overdressed in almost all professional occasions. I doubt anyone is expecting this level of dress given the current state of academic attire, but it would likely leave a favorable impression.

Business casual.  If you assume 20 students, you'll have 1 that wears a suit (or even just a tie) and look oddly out of place.  Probably 5 that wear jeans.  And look fine, but maybe a little undergrad-y.  The rest in business casual.  Given the economics, probably not even that fancy of a business casual.
My rec (for a man, don't know women's attire): slacks (anything from khaki to wool), some sort of neutral shoes (not wing tips, not sneakers, plain black or brown leather is nice because it can go from dressiest to most casual).  And a long sleeved shirt.  Maybe a sweater.  I wouldn't bother with a jacket.  Uh...I shouldn't have to say this, but wear a belt.
If you are the worrying sort, you can bring a tie in your bag.  But don' wear it.  You'll look like that 5% geek from my population example above.

I think 5% is a dramatic overestimate here. I can't think of a single case of seeing a mathematician in a tie in the last decade, let alone a graduate student.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/mathematician-calculates-177-147-ways-to-tie-a-tie (not a response, just thought might interest you)

I would call the university and ask if they have any particular preference. However, let’s assume that they do not, I highly suggest that you wear the type of clothing that makes you feel the most confident. Mind you, you need to balance that notion with the fact that you are going to be at a university. But the underlying idea is that if you believe that you look good, you’ll feel good, and that will shine through in an interview.

Calling the university to ask if you should wear a tie would be goofier than wearing a tie to an interview.


text:
Poor project description for bachelor thesis (student-exchange)
I'm going to do my bachelor thesis abroad this fall. I'm supposed to find a supervisor both at my home university and at the exchange university. I already found two professors willing to supervise me and got an interesting topic for the thesis.
Now the supervisor back here at my home university wants a short abstract explaining the content of the work I'm supposed to do when abroad in fall. The professor of the other university (well known in the field) has been very helpful so far and asked his PHD student to write a project description.
I feel like the professor didn't look at the description and just forwarded it to me from his PHD. I'm reluctant to send it to my supervisor here at my home university as I don't think he will be satisfied with it. I'm unsure what to do now.

I would show it to him along with your caveats. Ask for help from him but also offer your own suggestions about what might be "extracted" from the statement. Once you have some local agreement, send it back to the "foreign" prof as a suggestion.
Make it a negotiation, but first get some help and buy in from the prof you know best. Don't treat it as a "done deal" initially. Your local advisor can probably help a lot.
The bad English and bad formatting should be ignored. The imprecision is more concerning, but you can probably work around that. Especially if it is obviously too much to do in the time available.
I'll guess that the doctoral student at the other end was shocked and dismayed to have been given the task.

This seems like a good idea. I will get in touch with my local advisor tomorrow. But could you please explain why you think the doctoral student was dismayed? Here at my university it's common practice that the PHD does most of the supervision of the bachelor sudents.

Because of the poor job in writing it. It seems to indicate a lack of practice, so maybe unusual there.


text:
What kind of work is expected in Masters dissertation for admission to PHD in Number Theory in Europe
I am a Masters students in mathematics at a University in Asia.
I am applying to European Universities for Phd position in number theory.
I am interested in Analytic number theory and wanted to do my Masters dissertation in it, but no one in my university works in analytic number theory.
But fortunately, 1 professor from another Institute agreed to guide me . So, he has given me a research paper to study when I went to his institute to discuss with him but we couldn't discuss more about msc dissertation as he was very busy.

My question
  1. what is exactly expected in a masters dissertation by European Universities in pure mathematics for admission to a PhD program?
  2. Am I expected to prove new results?
  3. If I am unable to prove new results then how many papers I am expected to read given that I have 4 months of semester for dissertation along with 3 compulsory courses?

What will European universities expect of me in my masters thesis?

There is really no substitute for working this out with the professor. He is your best, perhaps only, guide to what is acceptable.

Check here

@Buffy I think your edit to the title has misunderstood the OP. As far as I can tell he is doing is MSc dissertation at an Asian university, and wants to know what kind of work would be expected if he is to have a chance at getting a PhD position in Europe.

@mmeent, you are right. Changed it again. Thanks.

@Buffy, You've entirely changed the question. The OP asked, what is exactly expected in a masters dissertation by European Universities in pure mathematics, not what is expected for admission to a PhD program. The OP may have asked a question different from what they intended, but I don't think changing the question is the correct course of action. Perhaps the OP can clarify their question? (Dxdxdada, maybe you can click "edit" and revise your question. In particular, you could clarify why you are asking about a Master's in Europe, if you are already studying a Master's.)

The OP may revert it, of course, @user2768, but it seems to match the content now as it didn't before. I found it very confusing initially. The OP doesn't propose earning a masters in Europe.

@Buff It made sense before, e.g., the OP might be seeking a second master's, they're curious, they want to switch, ...

@user2768, the OP states they are applying for a PhD. Actually, I think you can revert it. But maybe the OP should give an opinion here.

@Buffy I can revert, but I consider you or the OP to have priority over me. (I find co-authors reverting edits frustrating; I prefer querying.)

@Buffy I am not applying for 2nd masters. I am applying for phd program in Europe.

I think the most important thing is that you do well by the standards of your own institution and that you get good letters of recommendation from professors there.
Note that standards for a masters degree vary around the world. In some places very little research is required and the degree is based mostly on coursework. The "thesis" might be little more than an intelligent summary of some subfield. Perhaps something like a literature review for a doctoral dissertation. Other places the requirements are more research directed. While published papers are required in some places, it isn't universal.
But, it is in the nature of mathematics that if a research program is strictly time limited then what can be expected is also, necessarily, limited. Some problems remain unsolved after 100 years. Insight can't be scheduled.
Then, the question is, how will an admissions committee in a given place, say Europe, evaluate candidates from such a wide variety of programs and backgrounds.
Normally, it isn't a question of counting papers. Normally, it isn't any single thing. The admissions committee will be looking at what they hope is a complete record that indicates both the necessary background and a high likelihood of success in a PhD program at their university. Lots of things contribute to that. If you have done a dissertation, it will be a plus. If you haven't, but have done other "interesting" and relevant things, then those things will be a plus.
In the US this would be much less of a problem, of course. But, flexibility is required everywhere or a university would be forced to exclude too many good candidates based on things that matter less than qualities such as demonstrated focus, hard work, preparation, and potential.
Do good work by the standards of your own university, even if it isn't yet in the narrowly focused field you want to study for the PhD. Develop some insight, generally, into mathematics and especially number theory. Get good letters of recommendation.

I don't think this is addressing the OP's question at all.

@mmeent, thanks. I misread the question initially. This answer has been heavily edited.

what is exactly expected in a masters dissertation by European Universities in pure mathematics?

The answer will vary university to university. I suggest you short-list some candidate universities that might accept you and look at their dissertation requirements.

Am I expected to prove new results?

That's a possibility, but not mandatory.

If I am unable to prove new results then how many papers I am expected to read given that I have 4 months of semester for dissertation along with 3 compulsory courses?

That will depend on your dissertation topic, and could be as low as zero.

But the first part of the answer is the important part. It may well be mandatory in some places. And it is unlikely (though possible) to be as low as zero.

@Buffy Which bit is important? What's mandatory? And what's possibly as low as zero?

I was just quoting you, actually. Your advice is in three parts. The first part is key. New results may be mandatory, for example.

@Buffy So, you're agree that: New results are possibly required, but not necessarily, and that the number of papers depends on the dissertation topic, and could be as low as zero. Also, you consider the first point to be the most important.

@Buffy can you please tell the name of the institutions in which it is mandatory to have new papers published?


text:
Academic prospect survey
Is there any survey which shows the schools that current professors have attended in the past?
For example, "10% of current tenure positions in EU are held by Cambridge PhD graduates"
I'm interested in theoretical physics and I'd like to know if there is any way of finding such information.

For a sufficiently small sample you could compile that statistic yourself. Professors have websites and having a CV on them is common, so you can usually find out where a particular professor graduated from.

Yes, I'm more interested in statistics rather than specific cases

I suspect that if you are trying to find some correlation, it would be very minor. There are as many universities that have tenure position on a field as there are universities with PhD students in the same field. Its likely that with such particular small population, correlation would not pass significance values. I might be wrong.


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Why are engineering departments so large in U.S. universities?
For a math or physics department at a good university in the United States, there might be 20 or so full-time faculty members, while in the engineering department, I've noticed that there can be more than 100 faculty members -- even over 200 -- and many laboratories.
Why are engineering departments so large, in comparison to, say, math or physics departments?
Is there more funding for engineering research?  If so, does most of this funding come from the government?
I'm thinking of schools with math, physics, and engineering programs that are typically ranked Top 50 or higher (more like Top 30 or higher).

Can you give any examples of engineering departments with over 200 faculty? That figure sounds far fetched to me. And you do know that there are many types of engineering, right? The label “engineering” is usually applied to multiple departments inside a university, and tyically those departments are grouped in a higher-level organizational structure with a name such as “college of engineering”.

Also your claim about math departments is outright false. There are very few good US math departments with 20 or so full time faculty members, most of them will have 40-80. So the likely answer is that the premise of your question is incorrect and there isn’t any “why” to explain. But I don’t have enough data to feel comfortable posting this as an answer.

Who exactly do you count as 'full-time faculty members'? Professors definitely, postdocs?, technical staff at labs? (doesn't exist in math), phd students?

@DanRomik   CUNY  https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/people  lists 289 faculty and staff at the Grove School of Engineering. UCLA https://samueli.ucla.edu/facts-and-figures/  has 967 PhD candidates in engineering. Makes me expect round about 200 faculty capable of supervising PhDs.

@puppetsock those are schools of engineering, not departments. According to the page you linked, the UCLA engineering school is comprised of seven academic departments. As I said, there is nothing to explain here other than that OP is comparing apples to oranges.

@DanRomik Are the differences between what engineering schools call "departments" greater than the differences between what math departments call "subfields"?

@ElizabethHenning I don’t know. Not sure such a question can be given a meaningful answer.

@ElizabethHenning: I would say yes, in the sense that in a math department we expect that most of the faculty, regardless of their subfield, can teach most of the core courses of the undergraduate math major; whereas I don't think an electrical engineering professor would be expected to be competent to teach most of the courses in an undergraduate civil engineering program.

On an administrative level, at least in the US system, if you get a degree from a math department it's typically a degree in "Mathematics", with no subfield specified.  Whereas an engineering degree always specifies which type of engineering.  And the kinds of jobs a degree is expected to qualify you for reflect that as well.

Engineering, like business, is an extremely popular major because it has good employment prospects. It's also well-funded relative to more academic disciplines, because it's easier to get funding from both private and public sources for "useful" research.


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Is it normal in Europe for graduate courses to be all in the evening?
I have been looking into master's programs in Spain. 95% of the Spanish programs I've been seeing tend to meet in the evening, with times like 3-6 PM or 6-9 PM. It's not clear to me whether this is particular to the courses I'm looking at, or a national, or international phenomenon. I only have educational experience in the Americas -- in the U.S. and Chile, in which places class meetings were nearly always in the morning or early afternoon -- and had never heard of this before. I hazard a guess that it's a European norm, but this is the vaguest of suppositions.
In which fields or areas are late afternoon graduate courses normal? I can guess that this makes education more accessible to the employed, but the disadvantage to parents is significant.

In America at least, this is most common (as far as I know) in MBA and master's in education/teaching programs that often have working students.

As someone from Europe, the only place I have encountered where this was "normal" is Brazil - which is (obviously) in the Americas.

9pm in Poland and Spain happen at the same time because they are in the same timezone. Let that sink in and take a new look at the schedules.

Europe is not a country, but a continent. There is a lot of variability inside Europe. So no, it is not a European thing.
All Bachelor's, Master's and PhD courses I teach (in Germany) are between 10:00 ad 16:45. About 15 years ago I taught a course (in the Netherlands) in the evening for a part-time Bachelor's program aimed at people who work besides their study. For obvious reasons those programs tend to organize their courses such that they happen in the evening. However such programs tend to be the exception rather than the rule in my field (sociology) and the countries I am familiar with (Germany & the Netherlands).

It can vary even between departments inside a single university.. The history department at Leiden University has evening classes as well as daytime, while computer science is almost entirely daytime.

+1 for "Europe is not a country, but a continent."

At my university (Oslo, in Norway), no classes or meetings of any kind occur after 4pm.

Several countries in southern Europe have lunch, dinner and working times shifted toward later hours with respect to northern European countries or the US.
For instance, in my university, in Italy, lectures are scheduled from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm, both for undergraduate and graduate classes, and in the past I also taught up to 8 pm. Other universities have similar schedules.
In Spain, lunch time is frequently around 2 pm and dinner time can be around 9-10 pm, so lectures 3-6 pm may not be uncommon, and considered "early afternoon", and also 6-9 pm can be accepted.

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To be noted: they have lunch at 2pm because they are way more west than Italy yet have the same timezone, so 2pm in Spain is relatively closer to their midday than what you may think...

@Bakuriu but people wake up at the same time based on the timezone? If so, how would the position of the sun affect lunch times?

@JonathanReez They don't.

At the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, we have some courses that start at 8:00 AM. So I suppose it depends on university, course, semester. I prefer evening courses rather than early ones. But I don't know how are the schedules in USA.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


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Asking math PhD admissions for a decision sooner, given that I have received an offer from a good school
Can I ask other math PhD programs that I've applied to whether they could give me a decision sooner than later, as I've gotten an offer from a good program?  If so, should I name this program for them in my email or keep it private?

Is there any special reason you need to accept or decline your offer soon?

You can ask, but the most likely answer is that no information can be given. Decisions may not be finalized until near the deadline. There may be regulations that prohibit giving out information to individuals prior to agreed-on dates.
Mentioning the other problem does you no good and might possibly do harm. The admissions committee isn't going to disrupt its procedures because of such information.
I'd suggest that you just make a decision.
Another possibility, of course, is to ask the program that accepted you to let you delay your acceptance for a bit - a short period. They may be willing or not, but if you are a really good candidate the chances for success here are a bit better than for the other option. (My opinion, only)


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How to evaluate foreign credential evaluation services
I am considering earning a degree abroad. In order to do this it seems that I would have to hire two separate credentials evaluation firms: one to present my transcripts in the application, and later one to explain my foreign degree to my employer.
What are best practices for hiring such a service? Should they be able to do translation in-house, or will that definitely be a separate charge? Should they necessarily be located in the same country as the target institution?
I am aware of the U.S.'s National Association of Credential Evaluation Services; maybe many countries have such an accrediting body.

We were doing the same thing years ago. Found aan evaluation firm that would do all the paperwork etc etc for a fee of about 10k.  We went into the local government office and received all the forms (4) and lots of advice direct - all for free and it passed first time. It took us 2 evenings to complete the forms, collect copies of certificates etc.

From where to where are you trying to go? In my experience transferring degree credentials within the EU or between the EU and the US/Canada can be done relative informal with self made translations without any specific company involved. Only for some restricted professions (for example medical doctors) you need to  get foreign degrees recognized officially.

@quarague In this case, my documents would go in both directions between the U.S. and Spain. I will look again, but don't think these institutions are very flexible.

Yesterday one of my students showed me the precious transcript he had paid USD$1500 for...!!! This probably cost more than the tuition for the two-year degree that it described.


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For Master's admissions, are recommendations from academics preferred?
In making an application to a Master's program, would I be wise to seek recommendations from academics, practitioners, or both in balance? Or would any credible letter meet the required threshold? Or does this not matter?
I can easily imagine that for PhD programs the balance would be tipped towards letters from academics.

I think this depends a lot on your situation and the program, but as a rule of thumb if you're a recent graduate and your undergrad studies are related to the Master's program, then you should aim mostly for letters from professors.

@Kimball, that should probably be an answer

@Buffy Well, I was hoping the OP would clarify so someone could give a more specific answer---in particular someone who has knowledge of the types of Master's programs being talked about.

@Kimball I was hoping for a more general answer, but in my case, yes, the fields are related, but I have not been a student for fifteen years.

In that case, I don't think there is much reason to specifically seek out letters from academics unless there's one who knows you well now or remembers you very well.

Normally, you should prefer academics, but you want the people who can most honestly attest to your accomplishments and the likelihood of your future success.
However, if the MS is focused on things outside the normal academic tracks, on, say, industrial practice, then a letter from a practitioner who also has the ability to fairly evaluate you would be fine. But for academic subjects or in a field that can lead to a doctorate now or later, academics would probably be better.
But also note that you are appealing to an admissions committee that has a certain background and certain views. You want that appeal to be successful. Thus, if you expect that they all have an industrial focus, then someone (again, who knows your abilities) from that industry would be good.
For doctoral level admissions, you are right. The balance tips more firmly toward academics, but exceptions occur even there.

In making an application to a Master's program, would I be wise to seek recommendations from academics, practitioners, or both in balance? Or would any credible letter meet the required threshold? Or does this not matter?

At the very least, you should have a letter from at least one academic.
Even if you are fifteen years removed from academia, hopefully you can find an old professor and re-connect with them (in that case, I would send them a lengthy e-mail providing some context on the connection you used to have, some of the courses you took, your resume, and a draft statement of interest). I've occasionally connected with professors I had fifteen years ago, and they're usually happy to chat and kind of remember me after having their memory sufficiently jogged.
The rest of your letters could come from practitioners. Some schools will have different letters of reference templates for non-academic letters, but if not, make sure that they focus on academic skills: writing and communication, research ability, and likelihood to complete a graduate program.
We might accept somebody without academic letters, but we would probably put more conditions on the acceptance and/or recommend a probationary status.
(These recommendations are for a humanities program with no real industrial equivalent. Your experience might vary in a more applied field.)


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How to approach admissions when applying for a Master's without Bachelor's degree?
I have a decade of experience as a network engineer. At this point I'm consulting large ISP in a network design role.
I am thinking about applying for a Master's in computer networking without a Bachelor's degree.
Any recommendations on how to approach admission?

Where is this? US? EU? Elsewhere? I'll guess it is harder in EU/UK.

I primarily consider EU + UK +Swiss

@Buffy why would you say it's harder in EU/UK?

Because the bachelor's degree is much more specialized than in the US. So a masters student starts with more knowledge expected.

Within the UK all degrees will have entry requirements for a course, and I expect this is the same throughout Europe although I suggest you check for yourself. As I dont know the exact situation for the entry, ie university or country, I will answer in general terms.
Typical entry requrements are based on a progressive points system, where your previous qualification accrues you a certain number of points and these points can be used as validation of your suitability to be on the higher level course. Within the UK, we use UCAS Tarrif Points to acheive progress through the undergraduate (UG) phase and the UG degree award for suitability of Postgraduate progression. Note: Some UK Universities also offer access through the UCAS Postgraduate scheme, although this is not widely used by all institutions.
In non-typical situations as yours where you do not have the preceding qualification level, so therefore, do not have the correct number of points or potentially the preceding degree award, you can demonstrate your suitability by evidencing that you have professinally worked at a very high level. Then usually, the university will conduct their own assessment of the qualifications you do have, the level of your subject knowledge, the relevance of your work experience and your academic potential. It might also be that you have to submit a pre-entry assessment of some sort, so a demonstration that you can perform to the epected academic level. This non-typical route is more common in situations where the applicant is considered a "Mature Student" ie has had time in the workplace and is returning to education.
So, to answer your question directly, I would contact the admissions office of the relevant universities you are interested in and be clear that you would have to take a non-typical admission route, and enquire directly as to what their requirements would be in this regard. It might help to have examples of your work already in mind, case studies perhaps, that you can discuss with admissions, but bear in mind they will be non-specialists and will have to refer your query on to the course managers or similar.
HTH.

I thought UCAS points were only for undergraduate admissions? The OP seems to be interested in a postgraduate Master's degree. Otherwise, I agree with your suggestions.

@Emma You are absolutely right and the access to the PG courses is via the attainment made at UG level. Although there is also the UCAS Postgraduate access route, administered through UCAS and a small number of UK universities. I have made an edit to make that point clearer. Many thanks.

Thanks for clarifying!

Adding to the 'where are you' question - in many universities in Australia what you would do is apply for entry to a lesser postgraduate degree (eg Graduate Diploma) and, if you got sufficiently high marks, you could switch to the masters program after a year. Are you wanting to do a research masters or a coursework masters? Since it's network engineering, I am guessing it is coursework. If so, this type of conversion is fairly common.


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Attending a conference that my abusive ex-supervisor is also attending, how I should react?
I am going to attend a conference as I have been selected to a voluntary position and it is mandatory to meet up with the organizers. At this conference, my abusive ex-supervisor is chairing sessions and probably he is going to attend, he does not know I will be there.
I hate him so much as I was forced to leave because he was racist and narcissistic, travelling to another country with harsh conditions, it is a long story. Now I am working on the same topic with another nice supervisor.
No one knows what happened, but I am afraid of this encounter, I am so emotional and I hate him although he apologized via email after I left couple months, but I still have a grudge since he delayed my academic progress and I cannot tolerate with that, how I should react, ignore him completely, he is very awful person.

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/138243/20058

I want you to hear (hopefully not for the first time) that you don't deserve to be treated abusively or with racism, and it definitely wasn't any fault of yours that you were treated that way. I'm very sorry you have to deal with the fallout from someone else's harmful actions, and I wish you the very best in handling it. Treat yourself very well, whatever that means for you in that situation.

Same as how you would react to your abusive ex-bf (hypothetically), ignore, ignore and ignore.

I know I missed some high school reunions (academic teams, AP classes) because I wanted to avoid certain people. Not just because they'd make me uncomfortable but because I was worried I might take their bait or lash out. I'm sad I did, but the way I look back on it now is to tell myself I'm going to defuse tensions. I can say sorry, I'm just a bit uncomfortable right now, and I recognize there are things I could've done better at. (True: I didn't cope perfectly.) Honing diplomatic "weapons" like "Well, I know there are people you want to see more than me, and hope you can see them" helps too.

The best revenge is living well. You have a good start on that working on your topic with a nice supervisor, and attending the conference as a volunteer.
Ideally, treat him as just another academic you happen to know, about on the level of a professor who taught one of your undergraduate courses. I understand that may be difficult, but it tells him that his treatment of you was just a minor roadbump in your life. He is too unimportant to be even worth your anger. For a racist, seeing you happily getting on with your life will hurt far more than if you let him see he still has emotional power over you.

While I would never begrudge the victim of abuse the right to wish hurt upon their abuser, it's worth saying that the most important goal isn't to hurt the abuser but rather for the OP to treat themselves the best they can.

Just never end up alone with him.

+1 for this answer, it is good for the specific context of the question. Please note that, when the abusive behaviour actually happens, this philosophy should not lead you out of proper reaction (juridical for example, if compliant with country's laws)

@GregMartin I agree. I would have said something about that, except the OP seems to already be handling it, pursuing research with a supervisor they like, and attending conferences. What is important now is to not let the ex-supervisor mess up the OP's life by making them afraid to go to conferences.

@totalMongot Yes, I am assuming that the OP has done what they can, if there was any appropriate action to take.

Great advice. Double down. Proclaim loudly, in front of other people who know him, how happy you are now that you no longer have to deal with him.

Yes, ignore him as much as you can. But focus on the task at hand in your work. In professional company attacks reflect badly on the attacker, so work to ignore any negative messages from him. You want to be the good person.
If you can arrange to meet with the organizers as part of a group, of volunteers, say, it will help.

As well as the good advice to ignore him as much as possible, I suggest you have already worked out what you will say when you meet him. This will help you feel in control and less emotional as it is likely you will see him at some point. Don't approach him, but you may be in a situation where you can't avoid him. Even something blunt like "I'm really not interested in talking with you, please don't talk to me". If you ignore him then he may think you didn't hear him or whatever. Be clear and firm. You may also need a follow up in case someone else overhears and asks, something like "I worked with him for X years and it was a bad experience"

This should be the preferred answer: it acknowledges that entirely ignoring a senior colleague in public is not a realistic option, and offers specific advice for reducing the emotional charge of a possible encounter.

The feedback given here I think is helpful and mostly agree with. It's important to take what is said here and aggregate it in a way that your response to this person's presence is in line with your values.
You can only control things in your own experience, so intentional thought and intentional behavior. Your automatic thoughts, your feelings, and everyone else experience is something you can't control - and that's okay! It is what you do with these automatic thoughts and feelings in response to other's actions that is key and will help you come out on the other side of this.
It is helpful to have a few things lined up to say when (if) you come across this person. These statements should create boundaries and, again, should align with what you value. But don't try to plan out potential conversations - you've got no idea how he's going to react. Just keep in mind, and keep redirecting to, your vision on how you'd like to present yourself in this space.
Lastly, to re-iterate what Greg said above - I hope that you know that no one, ever EVER deserves to be treated in such a manner. It must have been extremely difficult to work through all of that, and I hope that you have given yourself credit for continuing to move forward with your work and what you care about. I wish you the best and good luck at the conference and all of your meetings! I hope the location is somewhere fun!
(Can you tell I've spent a serious amount of time in therapy? Ha!)

While Patricia's answer may work for some people, it would not work for me. I do not like explicitly acting as if something did not affect me, if it did. I think the best advice (for people like me) is the one given by Elizabeth in a comment:

Ignore, ignore and ignore.

As far as possible, at least. If they did not show me respect in the past, I have no obligation to show them the same amount of respect I may show other people, even if I still show the basic courtesy any other human deserves. Although I strongly encourage you to try to let go of the grudge, it is perfectly understandable if you want to minimize the possibility of getting emotionally affected by any meeting with him. And the best way to do that is to subtly avoid him. As long as you also minimize disruption to your own life (don't let your actions revolve around avoiding him), it should be fine.
Also, in case you don't want to talk to him, and don't want to tell this to him to his face, and he comes to you to attempt to talk, you can simply hold up your hand in a more or less universal 'stop' gesture. It should work for almost everyone, with minimal fuss, especially if you smile while doing so. After all, you would be happy to avoid a potentially uncomfortable talk, and he would probably be happy to just back off.