Questions tagged [academic-life]
Questions related to academic culture, academic communities, and the coexistence of "life" and "academia."
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Are old (>35) faculty candidates discriminated against all over the world?
I think that in India research institutes will never take a faculty candidate who is over 35. Is it so all over the world?
I am asking this question from the point of view of if someone starts their ...
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What makes academic failure different from failure in another career?
It is my understanding that academia as a nebulous whole has its own culture and speaks its own language that makes it a very different environment to work in compared to other so-called "industry" ...
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What is the best way to deal with cranks?
Imagine you are minding your own business when you receive an email from someone who claims to have discovered the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. He provides ...
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What are the goals and benefits of doing a PhD?
I'm a master computer science student in a German university and I will be graduating soon. I'm in a situation between accepting a PhD position or leaving academia to start looking for job. This is a ...
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How to stop feeling guilty about unfinished work?
My biggest challenge as a PhD student is best summarized by the following from PHD Comics:
"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com
A consequence of working in research is that the ...
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I wasted six years of my life getting a PhD degree. What should I do, and how will I survive?
I struggled with low self confidence throughout my bachelors, masters and PhD in chemical engineering. After spending two years in Masters and six years in getting a PhD degree, I am lost at what I ...
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How should I deal with discouragement looking at others success?
I'm a master CS student. I had so many troubles in my life. I didn't have proper schooling and were in difficult situations which led to me being not so good compared to my peers now at the graduate ...
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Are political/ideological reasons for career moves acceptable in academia?
Suppose one is happy at one's institution until something happens that makes it impossible to stay given one's strong ideological beliefs. Is it a good idea to mention these beliefs if they are the ...
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How to prevent physical/psychological health side effects of workaholism in academia and research?
As a research student, I spend most of my time working on my research career, even when I am at home, I am awake until 3 or 4 A.M just doing my research-chores.
As a matter of fact, long-term having ...
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Ways to manage something like a 'work-life balance'?
According to a recent international study on work-life balance within academia
"a majority of researchers and scientists had conflicts between their work schedules and personal lives at least two ...
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Typical experiences of transgender people in academia?
I've recently come to accept that I'm transgender (MtF, male-to-female). I won't go into the exact details of this as it's personal, but I have a "girl mode" where I identify as a female. I'm also a ...
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Is it important to maintain a work-life balance as a PhD student?
My apologies in advance for asking such a trivial question. My concerns may not be as urgent or serious as some of the others on here, but I have been worrying about this for some time now.
My life ...
user126346
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How does the US government shutdown affect academics? [duplicate]
I hope this question does not offend our American fellows.
I've read in news that the US government is partially closed and many agencies and services run by US federal government is no longer ...
user4511
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I am interested in retracting my old journal articles. Would it have any negative effects on my academic career?
I managed to successfully publish my old bachelor thesis in a good quality national journal in my country. However, I am thinking of retracting the article due to certain circumstances. First, I felt ...
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How do academics find time to write books?
Books covering primarily academic topics, from philosophy and neuroscience to physics and geopolitics, are usually written (not surprisingly) by experts in the field, which are normally academics ...
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How do teaching buy outs work?
Normally a professor is paid for eight to nine months each academic year for teaching several courses in the period. However, if a professor gets a research grant, he can support himself by the grant ...
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What are the perks of being a tenured professor at U.S. universities, besides having academic freedom?
For instance, one of my professors went to Princeton (for his undergrad math degree) for free, because his parents are tenured faculty at Princeton. Is such a benefit available to tenured faculty at ...
user58865
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Is this statistic about how many Latinos/Hispanics have a PhD in the USA correct?
According to Ileana Freytes-Ortiz,
< 2% of people in the US have a #phd
Of those, 6.5% are Hispanic
By defending my PhD yesterday, I just became part of the 0.13% in the US that is #...
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Tenure and tenure denial rates by universities
Is there a way or website to find the tenure and tenure denial rates by universities and departments? I heard from some faculty that the tenure rate at X university is Y%, so I wonder if there is a ...
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What practicable alternative do I have to not fly around the globe to present a poster/pollute environment? [duplicate]
Popularizing your research and results is an important part of a non-tenured researcher, which alreday and often starts after graduating with a bachelor and proceeds up to being a postdoc for many ...
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Most efficient way of booking academic supervision appointments
I'm wondering if there's a more efficient method of booking an academic supervision appointment. The method I experienced was a schedule on the professor's door, first-come-first-serve.
How do we ...
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What good is engineering research with no practical relevance?
I am a Ph.D. student currently doing research at a top engineering school in North America.
I am becoming more and more jaded at the fact that a sizable portion of the research conducted at my ...
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How do really talented people in academia think about people who are less capable than them? [closed]
To be more specific, how do really top professors think about students who are much less smart than them, the students can be their Ph.D. students or just students who were taking his/her class.
This ...
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Is it true that 'nice' professors fail to produce good students?
This is a very tough question to ask because there are so many advisors on this forum so I am expecting most inputs from the current grads. This question largely stemmed from a post I read online ...
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What should I do the day before submitting my PhD thesis?
I am submitting my PhD thesis in less than two days. I have checked all the tables, figures, appendices, references, and also checked spelling and any potential typos (which I believe there might be ...
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How do I gain back my faith in my PhD degree?
I am 3 years into a PhD program at a top North American university in STEM. My daily routine includes working on my research and preparing for courses I am assisting. In general, I would say that ...
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If you know a family member who is much more qualified and capable in mathematics than you are, should find another field of specialisation?
Imposter Syndrome and depression: I feel pretty depressed that I am not as "qualified" as a close family member. In particular, this family member has undergraduate and graduate (PhD) degrees from Ivy ...
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What do universities usually do with a student's graded final exams?
Personally I do not recall ever having seen any of my final exams I have taken during my undergrad (except in my nightmares). Midterms, quizzes and homeworks are usually returned to the students ...
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Are universities run more and more like businesses? What are the consequences? [closed]
I watched an episode of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" called "Is College Still Worth It?"
In there the point was made, with ample evidence, that universities are increasingly ...
user128124
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Is "flowery language" frowned upon in engineering and STEM related research?
I work in an engineering field (related to AI, machine learning, etc.) and something I found interesting is whenever I use "big words" or even long words like "substantiate" or &...
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What exactly is "campus security"?
I read this question where a teaching assistant asks how to deal with an aggressive student.
In her answer, the user Nicole Hamilton gives advice to call campus security. Now, in my naive foreign ...
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Is it OK to publish a book as an undergraduate?
I am a CS student at 4th year in my university. I have done a lot of real-world projects, worked as a freelancer for many years, and have released a lot of software in use by thousands of people. I ...
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How to address in-group bullying without compromising PhD/career?
I've been bullied by my supervisor and other members of my research group for the past couple of years.
Some of the things which have indicated bullying include snide remarks being made during group ...
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Improving work conditions of student assistants, PhDs, Postdocs etc
I have been following threads on this website for a few months now. However it's my first time posting. I am a postdoctoral researcher from a Western European country who has done reasonably well ...
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Is it common for people in academia to experience prolonged lack of sleep and how to deal with it?
Stuck in the lab again, for the third night in a row. I have never done three in a row I think I might just break a record. I cannot sleep, because the lab is super crammed and uncomfortable and I am ...
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Why do some individuals who are productive PhD students at leading Western institutions, then publish infrequently as faculty in their home country?
I am a computer science student from Turkey. While I was checking the websites and publications of various CS Professors in Turkey for my future studies, I noticed a strange trend. (Excluding minor ...
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What do you wish you knew as a student before you became a researcher?
There are a number of lessons I learnt as an undergraduate which I wish somebody had told me much earlier.
Although each of you learnt different lessons with different notions of which way is the ...
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Why do academics work only nine months of the year?
I'm wondering how best to respond to queries from non-academics along the lines of "Why should you be paid during the summer holidays?" This is the sort of question I hear a lot in this economic ...
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Why do academics drink so much coffee? [closed]
A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems -- Alfréd Rényi
All the universities whose staff lounges I've been to have had coffee machines with free coffee. I've seen groups name ...
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Social etiquette for interacting with PhD peers who complain *a lot*
People in my program complain a lot and usually not in good humor. How can I handle this socially and professionally?
Some of these people are my friends and some are no more than peers. In general ...
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How to handle pressure from collaborators when life circumstances make it impossible to get work done?
I am looking for a bit of advice on how to handle the workload in a PhD while juggling several collaborative projects plus family pressures.
I am in the final year of my PhD which, overall, has been ...
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Why do PhD students complain so much? [closed]
This question has two parts. First, a comparative question. Second, a broad question about why PhD students get so stressed and complain so much.
Do PhD students complain more than people in other ...
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Should I disclose my academic dishonesty on grad applications?
I just graduated in May this year (2023), and in my last semester of senior year, I was caught cheating on an exam and have academic dishonesty on my record, and I'm trying to apply for accelerated ...
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Difference between private and public universities as a faculty member?
As a grad student I was, for the most part, shielded from issues like high-level bureaucracy, departmental duties and politics, and long-term career advancement. Obviously these things become more ...
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Competition in department among professors
My professor that I've worked for, and other professors that I've met in undergrad, often complain about how it is "publish or death" situation in their department. Specifically, they have told me ...
user69180
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Why do academics tend to be reluctant to ask for help from other academics?
I've seen situations like the below happen quite a few times.
Alice writes a paper. It's well-received and receives a hundred citations. Bob also works in the area, and he engages a student Charlie ...
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How much do grades matter for a future academia position?
I am completing my PhD and I was wondering how much does the PhD coursework grades affect future academia applications? My undergraduate and master's was somewhat decent grade wise (3.8/4) in both. ...
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Is it appropriate for a PI to appoint someone who is a family member?
I am a junior faculty in one of the top-tier research US institutions. I just joined the department and hired two GRAs meanwhile. In addition, I would like to appoint one more individual in my ...
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Am I naive to think I can focus on professional programming and still be active in the field of CS as a whole?
I am working full time currently as a programmer in a summer internship. In the fall I will be continuing school and working part-time as a programmer.
I believe that I want to be a professional ...
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Fear of missing out: how to maintain a good attitude towards research in academia in the age of rapid commercial success coming from industry?
I am currently studying information transmission in biological neural networks at a (fairly prestigious) university, specifically, the interaction between neurons and their surrounding glial cells. ...
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