Questions tagged [graduate-school]
On schools that award advanced academic degrees, such as master's and doctoral degrees. This tag is mainly for questions about the structure and organization of a graduate school or the fundamental experience of being a graduate student. Do not use this tag for questions about research in graduate school (use [research] instead), coursework in graduate school (use [coursework]), gaining admissions to graduate school (use [graduate-admissions]), etc.
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How should I deal with becoming discouraged as a graduate student?
I am a third year (starting fourth year in the fall) PhD student in mathematics. I've passed all qualifying exams and am currently doing research. As far as I can tell, I am not doing poorly. I have ...
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How to effectively deal with Imposter Syndrome and feelings of inadequacy: "I've somehow convinced everyone that I'm actually good at this"
Imposter syndrome is a psychological phenomenon wherein an individual is convinced that they do not deserve the success that they have achieved despite (perhaps extensive) empirical evidence to the ...
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Two years into my PhD program, and Mom is dying of cancer. Should I tell my advisor about it?
I just finished my 2nd year of PhD, and my mom has been dying of cancer since the end of my 1st year. She nearly died in January but thankfully pulled through. She was just diagnosed again a few weeks ...
anon
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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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Is it okay for a professor to leave the classroom only 5 min past the class start if nobody has shown up?
Last week, because of a subway delay due to bad weather I arrived 15 minutes late to class to find out my professor had left 10 minutes before because nobody else had arrived.
Was it okay for him to ...
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I have stack-exchanged through my undergrad math program. Am I likely to succeed in mathematics PhD programs?
I'm currently a third-year mathematics student at a top-20 private research university in the US (though mostly known for the humanities). We have a small undergraduate mathematics department, but we ...
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Will my cancer ruin my chances of going to graduate school in math?
I commenced my bachelor of math 8 years ago and at the same time I was diagnosed to have cancer. Because of the treatment process and the emotional state that I was in, I only completed 3 subjects in ...
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Should I seek professional help because I have a lot of math books?
I’m a graduate student in mathematics. One day, there was a discussion between graduate students about how many books a working mathematician has. Then each student would talk about their personal ...
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How should I proceed when a (famous) professor says I'm not good enough for research?
I am a PhD student in a Computer Science department, doing research of a mathematical nature. Some of my research problems drifted from my advisor's area of expertise, so I reached out to a researcher ...
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Is 8:00 AM an unreasonable time to meet with my graduate students and post-doc?
I am a recently graduated PhD, but for the past few years I have been on an 8:00-16:30 schedule with a lunch break at noon. I arrive between 7:45-8:00 and get started immediately.
Now I am on as a ...
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Am I reading enough of the scientific literature? Should I read for breadth or depth?
Ever since starting graduate school I've tried to make scientific reading a part of my daily ritual; I track pages read using Beeminder, and the graph doesn't lie. It keeps me honest.
I aim to ...
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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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How to deal with a colleague who always puts you down?
I am just starting out my PhD which will take 5 years to complete and I am dealing with a person in my own research group who cannot stop putting me down every chance she gets.
In our research ...
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How to deal with a nosy fellow graduate student?
There is another graduate student at my school working in the same area as me that is extremely nosy about my work. His curiosity definitely goes beyond the normal amount of "What are you working on?" ...
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Is generic "thank you" email a waste of time in academia?
A very busy professor just responded my email. He answered my questions, and in the end, he explicitly said something like "Please let me know if you have any questions" or "Please respond if you have ...
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Is transferring to another university an option for an unhappy PhD student?
I've heard of people transferring between graduate schools because of their advisor moving to another school and taking their students with them.
Do students ever transfer for other reasons? If a ...
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Advisor drops MSci student suddenly in final semester
Today I had a fellow student (who is working on a master's degree) come to me and inform me that our mutual advisor (call her Professor WW) had just dropped her as a student for "personal reasons." I ...
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I am currently debating whether to leave my PhD program- any advice?
TL;DR: Young graduate student in his first year of a PhD program who has lost a passion for the academic world. Seriously considering quitting but don't know what to do. Science background.
My ...
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Supervisor has said some very disgusting things online, should I pull my name from our paper?
I’ve been interning at a research lab for 8 months now, putting upwards of 10 hours a week into our project. We find out if our first of three papers was accepted for a significantly-sized conference ...
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What can I do to recover from a short term burnout?
Over the past few days, my advisor and I had been going really hard. We got a really good idea and the preliminary results looked good, so I started spending long days in the lab, going home only to ...
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Points to consider when deciding whether to get married during a PhD
Marriage is a recurrent topic in the lives of most PhDs. The meagre pay and the burden of responsibility could make marriage in the middle of PhD look like a terrible idea. But on the positive side, ...
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Is watching porn in university a crime?
I am about to start my graduate studies in an American university, moving from my native Peru. Over the course of my under-graduation, I have developed this strange habit of watching porn at odd times,...
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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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Should you tell grad students to apply for grants you know they won't get?
I am a humanities professor at a middling university in the United States. My department has a poorly funded Ph.D. program, which attracts second-tier students at best. (The good Ph.D. students go to ...
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Bombed an academic interview, should I do anything about it?
I had an interview a few days back for a grant for graduate studies. The interview panel consisted of various judges including some of the most renowned and well known researchers/professors in my ...
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Is it frowned upon to go to office hours as a graduate student?
I'm a graduate student (PhD, first year) in physics, and there have been a few times where I just can't figure out something regarding the material/subject of the class. Normally I just tell myself ...
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University I rejected is asking which other one I chose over them; should I tell?
I got PhD admission offers from 2 Universities (say A and B) and yesterday decided to accept one of them (University A).
Today I decided to let University B know that I would not be able to join them....
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Asking a professor to teach better
In my mathematics program, one of the qual prep courses is being taught by a professor who, put bluntly, is not putting in the effort.
He is essentially reading from the book (which I don’t ...
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How to deal with an abusively condescending professor?
I am a beginning graduate student in Mathematics. I have a professor who always brings up the fact that my GPA is not great in my undergraduate degree even though my performance is above the norm in ...
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Is it okay to expect advisors to offer a word of condolence?
I'm a third-year Ph.D. student. A few months ago, I lost my maternal grandfather and grandmother in quick succession. More recently, I lost my close friend in a bus accident and my paternal ...
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Age and Graduate school
I am 33. I live in the US. I am a neither a US citizen, nor a green card holder. I have worked in various jobs as a research assistant (physics, biology, economics) usually involving programming, ...
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Is it acceptable to wear the same outfit every day?
I am a male graduate student in natural sciences at a public university. I want to simplify my life a little bit by wearing the same outfit (more or less) every day. (Obviously I would have multiple ...
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What are some options for a graduate student abandoned by Ph. D advisor?
I'm currently doing a PhD in applied mathematics, I'm about to start my final year. The problem that I've been working on for the last 2 years was originally proposed by my advisor and one of his ...
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How do so many people here on Academia.SE, and in general, afford lavish higher education programs?
I graduated last year with a BS in Computer Science. I do not come from a particularly wealthy family, (very low middle class), and was only able to afford my education via school loans/scholarships ...
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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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What should a proper email signature look like for graduate students?
So far, what I have is
First and Last Name
Title
Group/Lab Name
School Name
Address and Phone
I'm especially confused about the "title". I'm not sure if it should say "Graduate Student", "Research ...
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Is it common to drop 50% of PhD students in a program?
I recently spoke to a graduate coordinator of a mathematics PhD program I was planning to apply to. I asked about admission, requirements to complete the degree and such. The program coordinator ended ...
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In teaching, what are the advantages of using slides over doing board work?
At my university, most lecturers and professors use slides in teaching. This is true for most engineering, mathematics and science courses. I am more comfortable with doing the board work and then ...
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Regret after not being able to solve a problem that my supervisor did easily
I'm a first year PhD student and I was asked to think about a problem last week and I tried to work out some examples, did some computations, but I wasn't successful. Basically, I didn't really make ...
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Is talking about quitting to your supervisor a point of no return?
I have been feeling miserable about my PhD degree situation for a bit of time, and I just started therapy. So far I've tried not to take drastic decisions such as quitting, because I know I am ...
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Received an ultimatum from PhD advisor to leave that broke me completely. How to cope emotionally?
I am a PhD student in an American university, on year 4 of a 5-6 year program. Recently (three months ago), my advisor told me to leave the program since he doesn't think this subject is for me (he ...
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Reality check on advice for statement of purpose
I'm about to write a statement of purpose for graduate admission and my advisor passed along to me the following pieces of advice to keep in mind while writing (based on his style and experience in ...
user60569
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How true is the stereotype that PhD graduates are overqualified?
I am a Masters student, and I think this is the only place in the whole internet that do not hold stereotyped negative attitude towards PhD recipients. From time to time,however, these sort of quotes ...
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How to reconcile desire to succeed in academia/willingness to prioritize research with ethical concerns about fair work practices?
I'm not 100% sure how to phrase my question, but I've been grappling with this for sometime and thought maybe the responses would provide me some insight.
I'm currently at PhD student soon to be on ...
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Can one excel in graduate school with a demanding family life?
The essential gist of my question relates to what the real, unvarnished realities are of graduate, post-graduate, research, fellowship, and professorship attainment - when you aren't a single person ...
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Is it appropriate to ask to be delisted from department webpage?
I am a doctoral student. I share an office with one other individual. As is customary, the names, emails, and offices of graduate students are published on the department site.
I am the victim in a ...
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MS in Mathematics, having trouble finding work outside teaching algebra
10 years ago, I got an undergraduate degree in IT/CompSci from a good school. I spent most of my hours playing video games or drinking beer, and learned only enough to get a barely passing GPA. I ...
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I feel like my mathematical competence is fading
Background:
I studied Physics and Mathematics (double major) in my Bachelor, and now I'm working in the field of (theoretical) biophysics (I'm a Master's student). I have had a fair amount of research ...
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Will people judge me negatively for skipping department seminars?
I'm a graduate student in the Earth Sciences. The breadth of my departments runs the gamut from geobiology to geophysics and everything in between. As a result, a large number of the department ...
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How can a new PhD Student objectively evaluate how well they are doing?
I'm a relatively new PhD student, and I'm faced with a new (for me) situation. Before, I always had grades and the likes to tell me how good or bad I was doing: if I was at or near the top/bottom of ...
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