Questions tagged [gifts]

Gifts are sometimes given in an academic environment, for example, a grad student may give a gift to their advisor/supervisor.

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(When) Is it appropriate to give a "thank you" gifts to a professor who is not your advisor or teacher?

As a grad student (or postdoc), past taking classes, is it ok to get a thank you gift for a professor who : has helped you with something (e.g. introduced you to someone for a collaboration or wrote ...
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12 votes
4 answers
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Having lunch with my advisor and his wife after graduation [duplicate]

I have a lovely professor who I've become very close with over the past three years. I am an international student and we are both from the same original culture. I recently finished my master's and ...
nikki's user avatar
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35 votes
8 answers
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Buying a gift for my PhD student after his graduation

All posts here on the "graduation gift" subject are about a gift from the PhD candidate to the professor (after the graduation of course). What about a gift for the student from the ...
Millemila's user avatar
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How should I thank mentors that I connect with via the Internet?

I am an incoming undergraduate student, and I have reached out to people who are currently pursuing/once pursued the field that I'm interested in (it's physics if it matters), via the Internet. Most ...
Claire's user avatar
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1 answer
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Accepting An Academic Gift From Supervisor

I have developed a good working relationship with my supervisor and I have expressed my interest in wanting to pursue a PhD in the field that I am working in for my masters degree. I have expressed ...
GrayLiterature's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
611 views

Giving a Professor a Gift After They Inadvertently Suggested I Do So

I know it has been asked several times on here whether giving a professor a gift is appropriate or not. The general consensus seems to be that it is unethical to both give and receive the gift [1] [2] ...
Dando18's user avatar
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What to buy for my British phd supervisor for christmas? [duplicate]

I want to buy a gift for my lovely Ph.D. supervisor for Christmas. But as I am a foreigner and we don't celebrate Christmas in our country, I have no idea. Could somebody please help me?
Marco's user avatar
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5 answers
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Is it unethical to give a gift to my professor who might potentially write me a LOR?

Undergrad going to apply for graduate school. I recently came back from a trip where I got some goodies - I thought it would be nice to give some of my favorite professors gifts. However, I am now ...
ta121312121's user avatar
26 votes
6 answers
13k views

Taking my Ph.D. advisor out for dinner after graduation

I recently finished my Ph.D. in the U.S. and will be leaving soon for a job in industry. I have got a precious gift for my advisor as I really admire him and he is one of my role models and totally ...
RezAm's user avatar
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When an academic researcher receives a gift funding from an industry partner, does the academic researcher's university take a cut?

When an academic researcher receives a gift funding from an industry partner, does the academic researcher's university take a cut, or does the academic researcher receives the entire gift funding? ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
54 votes
12 answers
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Should I give professor gift at the beginning of my PhD?

I will be in a PhD program in Germany in which the first year of the program consists of only studying courses under several different professors. Some people suggested me that I should give gift to ...
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9 answers
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Gift for mentor after his thesis defense?

I'm attending the thesis defense of one of my undergrad mentors this week. I owe almost everything about where I am today to him. I want to get him a gift, but I'm not sure what. He owns his own ...
ribs2spare's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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How to remind professor of a gift that they promised but haven't delivered?

I answered a challenging question in one of my courses by e-mail. The professor replied that I won a gift card for buying stuff from the university. It has been 2 months he has not issued the gift ...
nikki's user avatar
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28 votes
4 answers
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Receiving gift from student before grading MSc thesis. Is it ethical?

As a follow up on this question I am wondering whether it is ethical to receive gifts from students before grading their MSc thesis (or any other project where students feel like they need to thank ...
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2 answers
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Should I get my chair a card/small going away gift although she has never been there for me?

I'm a first year Master's student that works under the supervision of my thesis chair. At first, I was really excited to work with my chair because she is known as one of the nicest people & best ...
user94048's user avatar
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1 answer
1k views

In the US, is it culturally acceptable for a graduate student to give a small gift to a professor? [duplicate]

I am an overseas student who was recently admitted to a PhD program in the US, and I will soon travel to the US to meet my future PhD advisor and my fellow grad students. My future PhD advisor has ...
Freya's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is it weird to give your new PhD supervisor a "thank you" gift for supporting your application?

There is a similar question here as well as elsewhere. However my situation is somewhat different, so please read for marking it as duplicate. The questions I've seen asked has been about giving a ...
Patty's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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suitable omiyage [closed]

I graduated from Japan three years ago. I am now going in a visit, and will meet my professor and previous colleagues at one gathering. What is an appropriate protocol for omiyage in similar situation?...
k. alzabadi's user avatar
27 votes
6 answers
9k views

Is it appropriate to give a gift to a teaching assistant for helping outside of work time?

I am thinking of buying a small gift, like coffee, for a teaching assistant, who helped me solve problems in a particular subject, even outside of work time, to thank for the effort. Is this ...
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1 vote
3 answers
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Make my Professor a gift [duplicate]

I just received my diploma from my university. I'm very happy and my results aren't that bad either. Now, as the result is already known, I would like to thank my professor and my supervisor for their ...
user1170330's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
495 views

Ethics of giving students gifts?

I am instructing a section of a senior level capstone design course at an engineering university, split into two groups each working on a different project. One group of six is working with some ...
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0 answers
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Is it appropriate to buy a “thank you” gift for a MSc supervisor? [duplicate]

I'm about to finish my Master of Science and I was just wondering around this forum and the question "Is it appropriate to buy a “thank you” gift for a PhD supervisor?" inspired me for this question. ...
AlessioX's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Is it inappropriate to give one faculty member a larger thank you gift than another?

I'm a student at a large university, and, after a recent family emergency, received a lot of help from two faculty members in my department. My department adviser, after hearing about my family ...
drjacobs's user avatar
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0 answers
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Finding/giving an appropriate thank you gift to university faculty [duplicate]

I'm a student at a large university, and recently had an especially hard semester due to a family emergency. I withdrew from two classes, and the only reason I didn't have to withdraw altogether was ...
drjacobs's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
888 views

What is a suitable gift for an Italian PhD advisor based in the UK?

This question is already asked here. But I found the answers unhelpful, so I would like to ask again, and narrow to the case the advisor is Italian (but has lived in the UK for 20 years). I would ...
sean's user avatar
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Is it okay to give a gift to my research mentor who happens to be the dean?

I'm about to graduate and would like to give my research mentor a book as a gift. It is common in my institute (which is in the US) to give professors gifts as students graduate. However, the problem ...
Drecate's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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What type of gift could I give to my PhD advisor? [duplicate]

I will be defending my dissertation in this Summer and I'm planning to give a gift to my advisor. I'm not quite sure what would be the best and meaningful gift for a professor receiving from his/her ...
Lorderon's user avatar
5 votes
7 answers
3k views

How to thank a good teacher?

Say if you were a graduate of ABC university, and When you want to thank a teacher of this university because she used to help you a lot in some courses or because she has the same hobbies and ...
kitty's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
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Is it standard for graduate students to get gifts for their advisors?

Is it standard for graduate students to give their advisors gifts around Christmas, like chocolates or bottles of wine? What about other important people, such as their thesis committee members, or ...
Ben Bitdiddle's user avatar
15 votes
7 answers
5k views

Is it appropriate to give university lecturers Christmas cards?

Are there any issues or concerns a with student giving lecturers Christmas cards? I am apprehensive that the religious connotations of Christmas might offend some card recipient(s). However, if the ...
Lou's user avatar
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3 votes
4 answers
408 views

Is it a good idea to express my gratitude to a co-author with a gift card?

I am an undergraduate level student planning to put out a research paper for publication. The second author is a PhD student who has helped me to do much editing (including re-writing my entire paper ...
kuku's user avatar
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62 votes
9 answers
84k views

Is it appropriate to buy a "thank you" gift for a PhD supervisor?

I am nearing the end of my PhD and I would quite like to buy a "thank you" gift for my supervisor (although, she's the socially awkward type who I'm sure will be greatly embarrassed to receive one). ...
lemon's user avatar
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37 votes
8 answers
57k views

Is it ethical to accept small gifts from students? And how small is small?

Is it ethical to accept small gifts from students? In past years I have one or two students have given me small gifts, generally a box of chocolates. I judge the size of gifts on my international beer ...
StrongBad's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
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Gift to a supportive professor?

As you might have seen from my history I had a very bad advisor who deliberately underpaid me, stole my research work and undermined my career at multiple phases. Now I am done with my university and ...
james234's user avatar
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17 votes
4 answers
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Advisor's wife is having a baby, should we be getting him something?

My advisor's wife is having her first baby and he told us about it at our last lab meeting. We understand that this will mean he might need extra time/patience as the big day approaches, but are we ...
Zai's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
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Advisor getting married, should grad students chip in for gift?

Our advisor is getting married over winter break. None of us are super close to him and the wedding is going to be a very private event that none of us are invited to. Should all of us (his graduate ...
Zai's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
5k views

On giving gifts to LOR writers

Should one give gifts to those who one's close to, or those who one generally doesn't interact with very much? If the professors who wrote my LORs seem reluctant to meet me again for some reason (not ...
InquilineKea's user avatar
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