New answers tagged phd
2
votes
In addition to naming three professors, should I mention that I am open to working with other professors in SOP?
Unlike some other places, in the US it is seldom necessary to specify professors. It is useful, however, to be flexible. You may need to specify some subfield of the overall field, but little else. If ...
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12
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Accepted
How can I avoid this unproductive pattern with my PhD supervisor?
Keep in mind that this is subjective, but here's my advice moving forward:
Point 0: Reframe your expectations
As a PhD student, you want to do independent research, with some guidance from your ...
1
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Mentioning faculty in SOP while already mentioning them elsewhere in application
Use judgement. Not all redundancy is bad. If your goals are tied to one or the other of those professors then it might be worth it.
But I also suggest you stay flexible in choosing a research ...
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8
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How can I avoid this unproductive pattern with my PhD supervisor?
Obviously I'm not in the same room, so all I have is your description and interpretation of the (indeed unproductive) pattern/cycle. Here is my interpretation, especially since this is now the second ...
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1
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How to publish independently in top journals?
This is and remains a complex issue. As said by others, writing and positioning a paper is a skill which takes a lot of practice to develop and where an extra set of eyes can help a lot. Even after ...
1
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How to publish independently in top journals?
Although I acknowledge that a second-year Ph.D. student may not be prepared to publish independently, the underlying question is still valid. Contemporary scientific publishing has significant ...
0
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Work with structure and clearly defined performance outcomes after my Ph.D?
The reason I do not enjoy it is because it essentially boils down to doing things first and then only knowing how things are later.
I don't understand, this is sort of just how science works. We do ...
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0
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PhD: alignment with a supervisor
The advice I always give to those who are considering collaboration/supervision (especially to undergraduates and masters students) is that you can't just work well with the other person on a ...
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-2
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How bad will refusing to defend PhD look on industry-job applications?
People will initially assume you are the problem.
It is better to keep things vague as possible. And after getting a job and having a bit of time to know for sure you still want to pursue boycott you ...
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1
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A potential postdoc PI contacted my Ph.D. advisor without asking me for the contact info. Is this common?
Not a red flag. If I am looking to have someone join my group, get paid off my grant, etc., I have to do my due diligence and I am not going to ask permission to do it. The PhD advisor is the first ...
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0
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A potential postdoc PI contacted my Ph.D. advisor without asking me for the contact info. Is this common?
There are some things to take into consideration. If you applied to be my postdoc for example, then I need to secure about $115,000/year just to pay your salary (you probably only see 55-70k depending ...
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2
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How bad will refusing to defend PhD look on industry-job applications?
From my own personal experience doing industry interviews, if you went ahead with this and I was aware of the circumstances of your departure from your PhD program, this would look horrendously bad. ...
-3
votes
Is it possible to ask about RA positions after being rejected by the same lab for a PhD?
Absolutely. The best course of action would have been to mention this during the application and/or interview for PhD, otherwise it might seem that you invented a straw to clutch for after the ...
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0
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How do I mention low grades on the transcript due to genuine incompetence? (PhD Application)
Present the transcript as it is.
The admissions tutor will know the actual maths requirement of the program. S/he may say to a colleague something like, I have a candidate who is weak on maths but ...
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6
votes
Do PhD degrees in Germany require government accreditation?
In general, education is federally organized in Germany and thus many decisions, laws and regulations are only valid for single Bundesländer (federal states). Although there are general rules and ...
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3
votes
A potential postdoc PI contacted my Ph.D. advisor without asking me for the contact info. Is this common?
For me it’s 50/50 red flag. If you have officially provided list of references, then your potential postdoc PI should be contacting them first. If you haven’t provided contact details of your major ...
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4
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Forgot to debrief participants on an old qualifier project. Can this error cause my qualifier project and poster I did on it to be revoked at all?
Debriefing is not a universal requirement in human subjects research. I have never written one in an IRB I have submitted.
This is what my investigator's manual says (but check yours; emphasis added):
...
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1
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How to choose my first PhD students
I wish I could say I came up with this idea, but what my mentor did (not with me, he was my teacher since undergrad) with my coworker is he came up with an assignment for my coworker to do over the ...
- 1,883
2
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What is the consequence on purposefully lying on grad-school application (town of birth)
You should strongly consider your motive for lying: if a person responsible for admissions is judging (not "evaluating," i.e they are forming a "like" or "dislike" ...
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2
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What is the consequence on purposefully lying on grad-school application (town of birth)
If Sam isn't a citizen, lying is likely to attract grief from whoever checks up on visas — most countries do remarkably little data-matching, but if someone does bother that's a glaring red flag, ...
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11
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Advisor-student collaboration (or lack thereof) and paper authorship in mathematics: how does it work?
Just as another anecdotal data-point: (in the U.S., in math, at an R1) I view my job as PhD thesis advisor to be that of coach/mentor/educator/protector.
The "protector" part of my ...
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14
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Advisor-student collaboration (or lack thereof) and paper authorship in mathematics: how does it work?
As a preface, which might help explain the phenomena you observe, "grunt work" tends to have low status in mathematics. A solution to a problem that uses a large amount of "grunt work&...
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8
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Advisor-student collaboration (or lack thereof) and paper authorship in mathematics: how does it work?
In pure math and some parts of CS there is a parallel, but the "do some calculations" part is, perhaps, more challenging than you describe. If an advisor suggests a problem (not a ...
- 345k
7
votes
How do I mention low grades on the transcript due to genuine incompetence? (PhD Application)
I think you need a better understanding of why you underperformed in math before you complete your application, if only because you need to question your motivations in applying. Internalizing your ...
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6
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How do I mention low grades on the transcript due to genuine incompetence? (PhD Application)
Computer science is a rather confusing degree, because there are areas of it which are very mathematical (formal verification, for example) and areas which aren't (human computer interaction is one ...
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2
votes
How to publish independently in top journals?
The short answer is to do the kind of work that these top tier journals respect and publish. There's no easy formula, there's no recipe other than to publish that kind of work.
If you want to publish ...
- 1,883
11
votes
How do I mention low grades on the transcript due to genuine incompetence? (PhD Application)
As in Bryan Krause's answer, I don't believe your should bring up weak points (such as poor grades) unprompted. While I think you see "being honest about math incompetence" as a positive, it ...
5
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How to choose my first PhD students
I suggest that you start small (one student) and then see how that goes. If it works and you are comfortable with the current state, consider accepting another. (see below)
At the start, I'd suggest ...
- 345k
8
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What is the consequence on purposefully lying on grad-school application (town of birth)
You can typically read the consequences of lying on the admissions form itself. Here's an example.
The information supplied on this application is complete and true to the best of my knowledge. No ...
- 122k
4
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How to publish independently in top journals?
They accept articles (and are lenient) to manuscripts that are from a lab whose PI has good relations with them.
How would you know? Do you have insider information as to how the journal makes ...
- 122k
2
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How to publish independently in top journals?
I'm not sure your question is entirely fair. You seem sure that only papers from "friendly" PIs and labs are even considered. I don't doubt that there is some bias at the top, but why are ...
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0
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Etiquette for reaching out to previous students of advisor
I think this is very culture-specific, both in a broad sense (country/region) and a much finer sense (research group culture).
Personally I was very close with my advisor, but they are a taher ...
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Can two people write one letter of recommendation?
Yes, they certainly can. My lab head and I have done this for students I have directly supervised so that they have the benefit of my detailed comments on their day-to-day performance, and also the ...
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11
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What is the consequence on purposefully lying on grad-school application (town of birth)
Any sort of dishonesty is frowned upon. It could be anything from nothing to expulsion and it is impossible to say. If you lie about one thing, are you going to lie about others in the future (muses ...
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-1
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Can two people write one letter of recommendation?
Why aren't both of them writing letters? Typically, recommendation letters aim to provide a 'personal' perspective from a supervisor, co-author, director, etc. Since both of them may not be able to ...
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2
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Can two people write one letter of recommendation?
That would be up to the receiving institution to judge, but I suspect so. But it would possibly count as one letter of the (likely) three that you need, however.
Individual letters might be a bit ...
- 345k
0
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How do PhD letter of recommendations actually get sent?
Usually, if you need multiple recommendation letters from the same person, they will submit more or less the same letter to each institution, with maybe a few modifications depending on whether the ...
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34
votes
Accepted
How do I mention low grades on the transcript due to genuine incompetence? (PhD Application)
I don't think this is something you mention.
You present your grades; you present your research experience. You let the person judging your application make observations like "this person has ...
- 105k
1
vote
Etiquette for reaching out to previous students of advisor
In general, contacting former students of your advisor is a good thing. I am very close to many of the former students of my advisor. We have a lot of common bonds because we study the same area, ...
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0
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How bad will refusing to defend PhD look on industry-job applications?
There are lots of comments about why you should defend your PhD and move on. No doubt my comment is on the same line. I (and several other PhD students that I know) have faced similar situations ...
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4
votes
How bad will refusing to defend PhD look on industry-job applications?
Being in academia virtually guarantees that you will have to put up with and deal with toxic people.
Being in private industry virtually guarantees that you will have to put up with and deal with ...
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3
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PhD: alignment with a supervisor
To sumarize your problem, the industry partner is ready to fund a PhD position, but their academic reference person is not responsive.
You have a simple choice in front of you:
if you are motivated ...
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2
votes
How bad will refusing to defend PhD look on industry-job applications?
How bad would this look on job applications to industry jobs?
Note that I will be answering your question and not providing psychological or ethical support - there are good answers already.
TL;DR ...
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3
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How to choose my first PhD students
"First you are known by who you trained with, then you are known by what you've done, then you're known by who you've trained."
Don't be in a rush to accept students, and then choose ...
1
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How do PhD letter of recommendations actually get sent?
There are a lot of possibilities. If there is staff available, it may just get passed to them. But that is probably less available than in the past (US perspective).
But, given that the professor ...
- 345k
1
vote
Copyright issues and Self-Plagiarism in the PhD Thesis
I doubt that the university would withdraw the degree. After all, the error is partly theirs in not being more vigilant in such things.
I also doubt that there is much you can do about it other than ...
- 345k
2
votes
Copyright issues and Self-Plagiarism in the PhD Thesis
I wouldn't worry about it at this point coming from a US perspective for academic (dis)honesty concerns; possibly there is some local difference but I highly doubt it.
The "stapler thesis" ...
- 105k
2
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Attendance Date in PhD
I would probably write "08-2021 to present" for attendance date, and 05-2024 for expected graduation.
If you are forced to give a date rather than the word present such as due to some online ...
- 105k
6
votes
How bad will refusing to defend PhD look on industry-job applications?
My brother had reached ABD status and never completed his PhD as he had to take care of our mom when she was sick. He now works as an educational aid in a job that would just really only require a ...
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3
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A potential postdoc PI contacted my Ph.D. advisor without asking me for the contact info. Is this common?
It is 50% of a red flag.
Some PhD students have advisors who behave badly or unreasonably. Others might have all kinds of other reasons for not wanting their advisors to be approached like this. For ...
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