Questions tagged [undergraduate]
On providing academic services (such as teaching, advising, and research mentorship) specifically to undergraduates. Questions about undergraduate-specific issues that could not apply to graduate or post-graduate academicians are off-topic here and will be closed and deleted. Questions about coursework, etiquette, and other academic issues that apply to both undergraduate and post-graduate students should not be tagged [undergraduate].
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Writing a letter of recommendation as a graduate student
I am a MA student who frequently works with undergraduates on projects. One student has asked me if I can write her a letter of recommendation for graduate school. Are there any risks to me submitting ...
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Is it acceptable for a student to connect with a professor on LinkedIn?
Earlier in the semester, I was informed by both an advisor/academic counselor and a professor at my university that it is a good idea to connect with professors on LinkedIn if they have interests in ...
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Distance learning: taken seriously?
I'm currently in the first year of a six year bachelor's degree aiming for astrophysics. The course is a home/distance learning setup run by the Open University. While I am enjoying it thoroughly, I ...
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Having the knowledge of a graduate student but not having the degree requirements for graduate school?
Let's say that you're a 27 year old autodidact who has gained enough knowledge in a particular field of the formal sciences - like mathematics, for instance - to be able to take the highest course ...
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How do pass/fail classes look to PhD admissions committees?
I'm a junior hoping to do a PhD. I'm in a graduate level class right now in a different field. I believe almost all the other students are PhD students. The first couple weeks of the course were just ...
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Is it unethical to accept extra time on exams when I still do well?
I have ADHD (real, diagnosed ADHD, not just "I-say-I-have-ADHD-because-it's-trendy" ADHD). I have never taken the extended time exams that are offered for ADHD students, because I have never needed to,...
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How do project supervisors address the "freeloading" problem in group projects?
I am currently leading a three person team to tackle an undergrad engineering project that involves several parts. I am responsible for data analysis using sophisticated computer algorithms, another ...
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Graduate early with average GPA, or later with better GPA?
I've seen similar questions here, and I wish there was a narrower tag than the broad soft-question and career-development.
I am currently a freshman/sophomore-to-be at a top ten math program in US. ...
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Which is preferable, to go to graduate school at same school as undergrad or to go to a lower-ranked school?
I've heard from people that generally, it's a bad idea to go to the same school as your undergrad to get your graduate education.
However, in the situation that you get into only your undergrad ...
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How essential is your GPA for admissions to PhD programs to US universities in Theoretical Physics?
I am a Physics undergrad aspiring to pursue mathematical physics(string theory etc) as a future career. How much importance is given to your GPA by grad schools in the US or Europe for admitting ...
user2734
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Should professors pay undergraduate students doing research in their labs?
I have some undergraduate students doing research in my lab, and I pay them by the hours. I've observed that the students usually do what I tell them and don't go beyond that (as we usually expect ...
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Is it ethical for a lecturer to require students to purchase an online learning kit where kit is used for course assessments?
I am taking a course in a may-not-be-top-but-still-decent university located in North America. The course lecturer forces us to pay for an online learning kit from Pearson by adopting all the graded ...
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Is being an honors student really worth it?
This is a something I'm really concerned about. I am an undergraduate physics major, and I've been in the honors program at my university for a little while now, and that means certain things. I must ...
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Attending graduate school at my undergraduate university
I've been told by numerous people that (1) my undergraduate university will be disinclined to bring me on as a graduate student, and that (2) it's a bad idea to attend grad school where you completed ...
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Advisor wants first author. Do I have any leverage?
I'm doing undergrad research with a team, advised by a professor. I have a good relationship with this professor, but told us after the research started that he would be first author. I was at first ...
anon
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How should I start Undergraduate Research in Mathematics?
Dear Academic SE advisers,
I am a college sophomore in US with double majors in mathematics and microbiology. My algorithmic biology research got me passionate about the number theory and analysis, ...
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PhD admissions - (undergraduate) credit/no-credit influence on acceptance
I plan on doing a PhD in computational linguistics, which I intend to start in about 3 years. I have one more year of undergraduate study, and 5/6 of the courses remaining are for my minor in Applied ...
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Teaching a class likely meant to inflate the GPA of student athletes
Premise
My department recently finalized the faculty teaching assignments for the Fall 2019 semester (starts at the end of August 2019). As these assignments were being discussed a few weeks ago, my ...
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Our instructor threw together freely available YouTube videos and Wikipedia articles instead of lectures. What should I do?
I'm currently attending university online (at a notable public institution, not a crappy school—I feel compelled to mention this because one typically expects quality from good institutions). ...
anon
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Undergraduate not doing homework (case method)
I've recently started teaching undergraduate students using the case method (management subjects). However, I'm finding that most of the students simply don't do the reading at home. Even though I (so ...
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I've developed a close relationship with my past graduate teaching assistant, and I'm very interested in her: is it appropriate to pursue this?
The graduate teaching assistant I'm interested in taught one of my introductory courses. She needed research assistants, so I decided to join her lab. From all this we became very close. Ever since ...
user139545
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What is the basic structure of American higher education?
When I go to university for four years and study, e.g., law or medicine, do I earn an undergraduate degree? And do I have to go to university for another two years or so to get a graduate degree? Also,...
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PhD in Germany after Bachelors
Recently I have received an offer for PhD studentship in Biology from a lab in Germany. I have completed my Bachelors degree and I have solid 2 years of research experience with 3 peer reviewed ...
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Cons of graduating quickly
I read this question Does rigor/thoroughness of undergraduate program matter (for graduate/PhD applications)? and became very worried when I saw everyone blasting the OP for contemplating graduating ...
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How normal is it to have published as an undergraduate?
I’m currently in the first semester of MSc of psychology in a university in Germany and we got a lecturer from a university abroad who wanted to know what we had published. To his surprise, none of us ...
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Is it acceptable to ask how a professor would like to be addressed through email?
I am an undergraduate student working for a professor this summer. Up to this point, I have referred to the professor as Dr. LastName. I have met his research group; his graduate and PhD students ...
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How to obtain a fair recommendation letter from a professor who knows me via course, not research?
The normal case is that students should obtain a recommendation letter for graduate school from the professor under whom the student has performed research.
Currently, I am taking a course conducted ...
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Problem with undergraduate research supervisor, how to proceed?
Setting
I am currently an undergraduate student in chemistry and I have recently started working on an undergraduate research project in a known laboratory in the US. I am very passionate about the ...
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Can I write a systematic review as an undergraduate and get it published in a journal?
I am an undergraduate of Animal and Environmental Biology. I don't have much research experience, but I have taken some courses on research writing and have assisted some senior students in their ...
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Should I be concerned about the validity of my degree if my peers in other educational systems seem to have more difficult exams?
I'm an Italian student of mathematical physics at the university of Edinburgh. I have recently caught up with one of my friends and noticed that their exams in Linear algebra and calculus (analisi I, ...
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I am a 2nd year undergraduate student. What should I do now to prepare for my PhD?
I am a 2nd year undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering, in India. I am really willing to go into Academia as a researcher. I am specifically interested in Aerospace Controls. Some points to ...
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Attending conferences as a first-year undergrad
I'm a first-year undergraduate student in physics. Since starting my studies I've tried to get involved in research as much as possible. Recently, the team I work with encouraged me to submit an ...
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Overlearn in undergraduate College - good or bad idea?
I have no choice but to take courses I've already learnt in college.
So is it a good idea to overlearn?
Would overlearning help me to get into graduate school?
There are many ways for me to spend ...
user3992
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3
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Is it weird to visit a scientific conference as an undergraduate student?
I'm an undergraduate (Bachelor's) student and I'm thinking about attending a conference which exactly matches the topic of a research project that I'm working on at the moment. I have never attended a ...
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How to address an author showing replicated results from his paper?
I have replicated a method of interpolation recently proposed by certain author, and I want to tell him that I have done so. I suppose the author is interested in knowing that students are engaged ...
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MOOC / video integration into classroom schedule
Please forgive the rambling intro...
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are all the rage when people write about teaching. So many articles have been written about MOOCs killing universities while ...
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Can I be admitted to a master's in the USA after a 3-year European bachelor's program?
I am an Indian citizen and I'm planning to go for my bachelors to Germany. Since schooling in Germany is 13 years in length, I'll study 1 year in India before going there. I wanted to ask that after ...
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2
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How to make sure one understands each and every detail while reading a textbook/research paper without leaving any gaps?
I am a physics Master's student. I have good grades, with CGPA above 9(/10)(However, all courses in my university are graded on a curve so the actual marks are significantly lower than 90%). This has ...
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How to contact a prospective supervisor for undergraduate research at another university?
There are many helpful posts explaining how a hopeful graduate student should contact a potential supervisor (example 1, example 2). However, I cannot find any advice about how an undergraduate should ...
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1
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Proof of proficiency in mathematics
Apologise if this question isn't relevant to this forum, I tried my best to look for similar questions but couldn't find one.
I am a computer science major enrolled in a not-so-renowned university in ...
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How good is the International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics? (http://www.ijpam.eu/) [duplicate]
I had recently submitted my paper to this journal on the advise of my guide and quite fortunately, I received an email a few days back saying that the paper had been accepted for publication. So ...
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How to get good recommendation when working under a phd student as an undergraduate
I am not sure whether this is normal. I worked under a PhD student last year and I don't think I had any contact with prof.
After I finished my work last year, we arranged a meeting so I could ...
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Should undergraduate researchers expect payment?
I'm about a junior-senior in college and got the chance for an interesting lab that's conducting research information theory, where the role would be to help write ML model code. This is an area of ...
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I downoaded articles from libgen (didn't know was illegal) and it seems that advisor used them to publish his work
I did download some articles from libgen and by then I didn't know it wasn't right to do so, well some people say that there's no problem but honestly I think it is and I'm scared for what this ...
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Our teacher is encouraging us to use cracked software
I'm taking a course named Numerical and Computational Methods Based on Mathematica (Or in Chinese: "基于Mathematica的数值计算方法"), but Wolfram Mathematica is a bit expensive for me to afford. On the first ...
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Is it appropriate for a professor to require students to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being taught?
There's a professor at my school that claims to be writing a book. He is requiring students to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before certain lectures because he wants to maintain certain ideas ...
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Should I intervene when a colleague in a different department makes students run laps as part of their grade?
Basic Premise
Can a microbiology professor require students to run laps on the track during class for a grade, even if the class usually has no physical component to it?
Background
As part of my role ...
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How to explain a bad grade to a delusional student?
There is a student who attended a seminar where they were supposed to study an assigned research paper and deliver a presentation to the class. Their presentation was very low quality. Four (!) ...
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In case of in-lecture quizzes, is it unreasonable to fail students who are late or absent?
I am teaching a large undergraduate class this semester. One day a week (same day every week) we have a quiz. The syllabus doesn't specify at what moment of the class period the quiz will be given. It ...
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Why do undergraduate admissions in the U.S take into account nonacademic criteria?
College admissions in the U.S. takes into account many factors that are rarely considered in other countries and seem unrelated to academics. For example, legacy status (children of alumni may be ...
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