53
votes
Retracting Acceptance Offer to Graduate School
I don't believe there are any ethical issues and unlikely to be any legal ones. You will disappoint a few people, perhaps, but they haven't provided you things of value yet, so it isn't a question of ...
- 308k
47
votes
I unintentionally self-plagiarized in my graduate courses last semester and just realized, what should I do?
First and foremost, please stop panicking.
Second, you have no reason for questioning your ethics, because you were not aware of the rules.
There exist things that are obviously gross -- like forging ...
- 1,343
21
votes
I unintentionally self-plagiarized in my graduate courses last semester and just realized, what should I do?
Nothing. If there are two assignments that are similar to the extent that the same text can satisfy both and that text is your own work, then all you need to do to get completely clear of any ...
- 9,545
20
votes
Retracting Acceptance Offer to Graduate School
I think you need first to realize that some schools insist on early acceptance deadlines precisely so candidates are uncomfortable about changing their minds later on. There is nothing wrong on your ...
- 25.7k
20
votes
I unintentionally self-plagiarized in my graduate courses last semester and just realized, what should I do?
I mostly agree with Michael_1812's answer: This is relatively low on the scale of seriousness of academic misconduct, and you weren't aware of the rule, which mitigates somewhat. However, you are now ...
- 3,627
10
votes
I unintentionally self-plagiarized in my graduate courses last semester and just realized, what should I do?
So far you have two kinds of answers here. Let me summarize. One sort of answer (that I agree with) is that you have no real ethical concern if you honestly didn't know it was a violation. It was ...
- 308k
8
votes
Accepted
How can I choose between two PhD offers when I'm feeling "biased"?
Congratulations on your offers!
Since you would have accepted either in isolation, there really is no "wrong" choice here. Remember, this will be years of your actual real life so choosing ...
- 929
7
votes
Retracting Acceptance Offer to Graduate School
I had a very similar situation twenty years ago when applying for PhD places in biology. I went into the process late and the person I most wanted to work with had already allocated funding to another ...
- 790
7
votes
Advisor published some of my ideas (that I am working on in my master's) without informing me
I am sorry to hear that this happened to you. Successful academic relations are built on trust and it is awful to suddenly find your trust betrayed by actions of your advisor.
There is clearly an ...
- 50.1k
4
votes
How to deal with depression due to changing PhD advisor?
First, feeling bad for a bit because you think you made a wrong decision (darn, I bought the Ferrari, when I shoulda, coulda, got the Lambo) isn't the same thing as Clinical Depression. For the former,...
- 308k
3
votes
Does winning an external PhD fellowship improve my chances while being waitlisted at a university?
Yes, it's possible that an external fellowship can help you get admitted. I got an NSF fellowship while I was applying, and one school mentioned this to me in their acceptance letter (in fact, that's ...
- 31.8k
2
votes
How to deal with depression due to changing PhD advisor?
I think your depression will fade if you take action on the problems. If I understand you correctly, you have two problems: which advisor you should work with, and what happened with your friends. For ...
- 1,146
2
votes
What "ice-breaker" type activities would be suitable for a grad student open house event?
I've attended many conferences, and in my experience, classical icebreakers are quite boring. People just stand around with drinks and snacks and might talk to people they already know, if at all.
...
- 41.4k
2
votes
What "ice-breaker" type activities would be suitable for a grad student open house event?
My experience with engineers is going to suggest "hallway meetings" with beverages and food and a place where the people from the uni can mix with the people visiting. Maybe the uni folk ...
- 855
2
votes
Professor sent a letter of recommendation meant for one school to a different school
Elin, in a comment above, makes the right recommendation for what action to take at this point: the professor should email the admissions office and ask what to do, perhaps with the correct letter ...
- 2,926
1
vote
Contempt on the part of students
Unfortunately, you do not give us enough back-ground, especially not the country where you are studying and teaching as the reaction of your classmates to you is probably culturally embedded.
...
- 12.6k
1
vote
What "ice-breaker" type activities would be suitable for a grad student open house event?
I'd recommend an engineer-adapted version of human bingo. Participants get bingo sheets with prompts instead of numbers (e.g. "drinks more than 3 cups of coffee a day","has seen every ...
1
vote
What "ice-breaker" type activities would be suitable for a grad student open house event?
Create a "Play" so that the participants are the "actors". Give each one a script, perhaps with a single "line". Perhaps their line should be repeated several times when ...
- 308k
1
vote
How do pass/fail classes look to PhD admissions committees?
No one can predict how an admissions committee or anyone else, such as a potential supervisor, will interpret this, or any particular thing, really.
But, in general, it is the major courses (US system)...
- 308k
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