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Human: Want to be a professor but worried about actual impact I might be able to have Hello, so I’m about to start my master’s in literature and culture studies and genuinely love my subject. The post might seem ridiculous and I have a long way to go so there will be changes, but I find this subreddit really helpful and would like to get some opinions, hear of experiences, know of other options, etc. For a while now, I’ve been considering whether I want to be a professor. I work as an undergraduate assistant currently and I always knew academia has a lot of problems (I’ve been fortunate enough to be around people who’ve had jobs there so I have some idea of the unsavoury aspects) but recently, while checking student copies, I felt extremely disillusioned. I was asked to just “classify” papers and the teacher said I don’t need to correct the mistakes. It left me feeling horrible because I knew the students wouldn’t really get information on where they made mistakes even though there were some clear patterns, both in the papers of individual students and entire sections. I know academia has been commercialised but can professors even give time to students? Or even just the students who are struggling? Can they actually mentor students in a way that benefits the student’s lives? Are they allowed to share their works with the general public or do they even have the time to do that? I’ve seen prominent scholars offering lectures accessible to the public but they charge exorbitant prices like $300 for them and the academics may not decide the fee but I personally want no part of that. I know the answers to these questions might vary based on place but a general idea would be great. The other issue I guess is more complex. I keep hearing statements like academics are detached from reality, etc. But that always struck me as strange because fields like psychology and sociology involve so much research based on interviewing people? And I sometimes feel like that is something people say because they don’t like what some academics say. I don’t know. I’ve met some professors who are out of touch and honestly they just left a bad taste in my mouth. A part of me wants to just get an okay paying less stressful job and make educational videos on youtube, both somewhat diluted but entertaining ones (I think some dilution is bound to happen if entertainment is an aim) and also in depth somewhat dry and more academic ones. I have always enjoyed fiction but thankfully in my undergrad I came across amazing novels, literary theory, etc and a lot of the material really seem like they would be able to change people’s perspectives or at the least increase their empathy toward certain groups. I’m not idealistic but I do believe that exposing people to new texts and ideas can help them live better lives and someone somewhere might be helped even the slightest bit. And the whole wave of people with degrees making these insanely good quality videos that reach hundreds of thousands of people for free is really inspiring despite the chances of very few actually being picked up by the algorithm. However, I also feel tempted by the idea of maybe one day getting tenure and having some form of stability (I am aware that the opportunities are shrinking and it’s very difficult but still). The problem is I don’t want to be in a place where I can’t actually have some form of a positive impact or am highly restricted. I’ve had some great teachers but their influence on me has been restricted to studies. I have no idea if the same teachers could help students who for eg could not devote most of their time to studies like me or struggled in uni because of a range of reasons (I’ve been lucky in that I found what gets me to study and I really like my subject so even if I did bad initially I picked up my grades by the time finals and assignments were due. Also thankfully faced no severe emergencies in my undergrad years). TLDR-Is being a professor worth it if I want to reach a lot of people and have a positive impact? Or should I go for a job that pays well or takes up less time and try being an educator (somehow) on the side? Assistant: This isn't the career to go into if you want measurable impact on big social things. If you'd like to be the band-aid that allows others to ignore those big social things, absolutely.

Human: Want to be a professor but worried about actual impact I might be able to have Hello, so I’m about to start my master’s in literature and culture studies and genuinely love my subject. The post might seem ridiculous and I have a long way to go so there will be changes, but I find this subreddit really helpful and would like to get some opinions, hear of experiences, know of other options, etc. For a while now, I’ve been considering whether I want to be a professor. I work as an undergraduate assistant currently and I always knew academia has a lot of problems (I’ve been fortunate enough to be around people who’ve had jobs there so I have some idea of the unsavoury aspects) but recently, while checking student copies, I felt extremely disillusioned. I was asked to just “classify” papers and the teacher said I don’t need to correct the mistakes. It left me feeling horrible because I knew the students wouldn’t really get information on where they made mistakes even though there were some clear patterns, both in the papers of individual students and entire sections. I know academia has been commercialised but can professors even give time to students? Or even just the students who are struggling? Can they actually mentor students in a way that benefits the student’s lives? Are they allowed to share their works with the general public or do they even have the time to do that? I’ve seen prominent scholars offering lectures accessible to the public but they charge exorbitant prices like $300 for them and the academics may not decide the fee but I personally want no part of that. I know the answers to these questions might vary based on place but a general idea would be great. The other issue I guess is more complex. I keep hearing statements like academics are detached from reality, etc. But that always struck me as strange because fields like psychology and sociology involve so much research based on interviewing people? And I sometimes feel like that is something people say because they don’t like what some academics say. I don’t know. I’ve met some professors who are out of touch and honestly they just left a bad taste in my mouth. A part of me wants to just get an okay paying less stressful job and make educational videos on youtube, both somewhat diluted but entertaining ones (I think some dilution is bound to happen if entertainment is an aim) and also in depth somewhat dry and more academic ones. I have always enjoyed fiction but thankfully in my undergrad I came across amazing novels, literary theory, etc and a lot of the material really seem like they would be able to change people’s perspectives or at the least increase their empathy toward certain groups. I’m not idealistic but I do believe that exposing people to new texts and ideas can help them live better lives and someone somewhere might be helped even the slightest bit. And the whole wave of people with degrees making these insanely good quality videos that reach hundreds of thousands of people for free is really inspiring despite the chances of very few actually being picked up by the algorithm. However, I also feel tempted by the idea of maybe one day getting tenure and having some form of stability (I am aware that the opportunities are shrinking and it’s very difficult but still). The problem is I don’t want to be in a place where I can’t actually have some form of a positive impact or am highly restricted. I’ve had some great teachers but their influence on me has been restricted to studies. I have no idea if the same teachers could help students who for eg could not devote most of their time to studies like me or struggled in uni because of a range of reasons (I’ve been lucky in that I found what gets me to study and I really like my subject so even if I did bad initially I picked up my grades by the time finals and assignments were due. Also thankfully faced no severe emergencies in my undergrad years). TLDR-Is being a professor worth it if I want to reach a lot of people and have a positive impact? Or should I go for a job that pays well or takes up less time and try being an educator (somehow) on the side? Assistant: Bail on the professor idea and tickle your teaching itch by being an adjunct faculty member at a community college. Becoming a professor is difficult and becoming one in this field is even harder. You will likely have to pay for your advanced degree and you won't get a job that takes advantage of that education. Get a degree in business or marketing communications and leverage that into a job; then teach writing, english or literature on the side.

Human: Is there a good word for when you’ve submitted your PhD but haven’t defended it? Quick run down: I submitted my PhD last month in the Netherlands (yay!) but it’s the sort of process where the reading committee will approve it next month, and then I won’t defend it until September (which is more a ceremonial thing than a serious defense like in some countries). So I’m no longer a PhD candidate, but not a recipient or doctor either. The reason this all matters is I’m giving a public lecture next month and the organizer kindly pointed out PhD candidate is out of date, but by that point it should all be done except the defense. So... what do I say I am in the lecture bio? Thanks for any thoughts! Assistant: You are still a PhD candidate.

Human: Is there a good word for when you’ve submitted your PhD but haven’t defended it? Quick run down: I submitted my PhD last month in the Netherlands (yay!) but it’s the sort of process where the reading committee will approve it next month, and then I won’t defend it until September (which is more a ceremonial thing than a serious defense like in some countries). So I’m no longer a PhD candidate, but not a recipient or doctor either. The reason this all matters is I’m giving a public lecture next month and the organizer kindly pointed out PhD candidate is out of date, but by that point it should all be done except the defense. So... what do I say I am in the lecture bio? Thanks for any thoughts! Assistant: Congrats! I've seen the abbreviation ABD for "all but defense" used before. I'm not sure if its meaning would be recognized everywhere. It does feel a little informal, which could be good or bad depending on the setting.

Human: How far in advance do PhD students typically know about the date at which they will defend their disseration? 2 months in adavance or like 6 months in advance? How far in advance do PhD students typically know about the date at which they will defend their disseration? 2 months in adavance or like 6 months in advance? Assistant: It depends on the student, the committee, and the school. I scheduled mine 6 months in advance. Another student in the same program but slightly different committee had the final date in 2 months. Personally, go with the 6 months, if you can. Gives you a better structure for the last push on your dissertation and you're less likely to have scheduling conflicts with your committee.

Human: How far in advance do PhD students typically know about the date at which they will defend their disseration? 2 months in adavance or like 6 months in advance? How far in advance do PhD students typically know about the date at which they will defend their disseration? 2 months in adavance or like 6 months in advance? Assistant: Look at your school guidelines. Mine required us to submit the exact date, time, and location at least 2 months in advance with a bunch of signatures, an abstract, and our CV 🤷🏻‍♀️ You can schedule as far in advance as you want though

Human: PhDs who successfully landed a job in academia: how's your workload compared to that of a PhD student? Are your responsibilities as time consuming? Is your mind constantly set to work, due dates and what needs to be done next? How's the pressure to meet the job requirements vs the usual PhD pressure? Assistant: Postdoc was fine -largely like an extended PhD although this depends mostly on what your PhD was like and how much academic freedom you're used to. Tenure track is an unending hell, where you switch from grant deadlines, to brief moments of research, to service and to teaching. The pressure continues to be largely self inflicted. But everything takes up so much time.

Human: PhDs who successfully landed a job in academia: how's your workload compared to that of a PhD student? Are your responsibilities as time consuming? Is your mind constantly set to work, due dates and what needs to be done next? How's the pressure to meet the job requirements vs the usual PhD pressure? Assistant: Ph.D Student - lots of research work, but nothing else TT - HOLY SHIT BALLS WHY THE FUCK AM I DOING ALL THIS EXTRA CRAP. DID WE ACTUALLY NEED A MEETING FOR THIS? COME ON NSF PROGRAM MANAGER, PLS RSP. OH WAIT GOT TO SPEND HOURS ON A 50 MIN LECT, ALSO GOT TO SPEND HOURS GRADING FUCK!!!!!!!!! I know it's a meme to complain about grad school, but grad school was seriously the happiest time in my life so far. I got to do research and only research the whole day.

Human: My supervisor is tougher with me because she believes I can take it. Is it fair ? (F29 - PhD student in communication ) My supervisor - as well as my chair committee - told me they are harder on my while I defended my comprehensive exam. It was the hardest moment of my academic life so far and even though they told me it was clear for them it was a success, it made me rethink about everything and why I was putting myself through this. I feel it is ok that they try to bring me further in general but during a defense … seem unfair to me, my colleagues are having it waaaay easier I feel (a PhD is already hard enough in itself). What are your thoughts ? Are you tougher on some students because you *believe in them* ? Assistant: “Equality” means each person gets the same; “equity” means each person gets what they need (not necessarily the same). Is one more “fair” than the other? Hard to say. Sounds like you were treated equitably though.

Human: My supervisor is tougher with me because she believes I can take it. Is it fair ? (F29 - PhD student in communication ) My supervisor - as well as my chair committee - told me they are harder on my while I defended my comprehensive exam. It was the hardest moment of my academic life so far and even though they told me it was clear for them it was a success, it made me rethink about everything and why I was putting myself through this. I feel it is ok that they try to bring me further in general but during a defense … seem unfair to me, my colleagues are having it waaaay easier I feel (a PhD is already hard enough in itself). What are your thoughts ? Are you tougher on some students because you *believe in them* ? Assistant: My PhD advisor worked harder to get his other PhD-students jobs and research funding because they were allegedly less potent to make it on their own. He literally said this. "I don't have to worry about molobodd, he will do fine regardless." He wasn't wrong, but this very notion still pisses me off, decades later.

Human: Leaving academia for something completely different, after a pretty positive grad school experience? [Cats] In my later twenties. I'm set to finish a PhD in the humanities next year. Diss is at the stage of getting to be nearly being done (note the hedging, but my defense date is set, so it *will* be done when it needs to be done). I'm on schedule for a year-5 on the clock finish, I didn't go into any debt at the graduate level, and I'm actually coming out with a fair amount of savings, due to a bunch of TAing/RAing/extra little projects. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I have a publication in a "good journal", I've won a few prizes, I'd be as well-prepared for the abysmal job market as anyone. Grad school wasn't horrible. It was fine. Fun sometimes. One hell of a life experience. I just don't want it anymore, though. Your passion for the field is supposed to be enough to obviate all the bullshit, and my passion for my field has waned considerably. I'm very interested in areas of the humanities and believe fiercely in the value of a humanistic education, but my particular field just doesn't do it for me anymore, at least not to the extent I'd give up everything, move to Podunk NE (IF I WERE VERY LUCKY), and wade through all the bullshit that is trying to chase the tenure dream. I don't love it enough for all that. I don't regret having done it, because when I started I genuinely thought it was what I wanted out of life. But my priorities have changed. I'm interdisciplinary, and I like my "secondary" discipline FAR more, but would very likely not be qualified to get a job under its aegis (and I've checked it out extensively). Plus, the importance of living life. This vague haze of guilt and inadequacy has become the norm, and I don't want that for the rest of my life. I've seen so many bitter, disillusioned, depressed professors. My friends with non-academic jobs all seem MUCH happier. (Grass is greener?) I like teaching well enough. I try to do my best possible by the undergrads. I don't have that deep love of teaching a lot of grad students seem to, though. I've even taught a course on basically my academic crack, my subfield, but even that didn't elevate me to the heights I expected. I find research alternately isolating, depressing, mind-numbing, and extremely stimulating. What I enjoy the most of all is the writing. Trying to write creatively and expressively. Cultivating a style. Playing with words. This is what I have always loved. I really enjoy the large metropolitan area I live in. I'm not from here, but I have friends here, furniture, a nice apartment, a cat, roots, memories. I want to stay here, at least for the time being. There isn't any chance of getting a job in my field here, so I'm kind of forced to do something else. I've heard and read a lot about AltAc, and I'm an eager little peruser of the Chronicle, the quit lit industry, the Professor is In, etc. I've thought in circles for so long about what to do, ever since I felt my passion waning, which started to happen a couple years back. But, you know, here's the thing. I love cats. I love every kind of cat. You may giggle, but cats are my number one passion in life. Books about my field, ehh. Any information about cats, DEVOUR. I want a job that involves cats. I don't have any veterinary-related experience at all. I'm a humanist. I was not good at science. I don't want to be a vet or anything, I just want to be around cats every day. I volunteer at a major shelter, but that's about it. I've been picking up all the training possible at the shelter. I plan to scour shelters, vets, pet stores, etc for employment. I'll clean up cat poop all day, as long as there are cats. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any stories of having successfully done something completely different. Not necessarily after having been crushed and beaten down and destroyed by adjuncthood, but just.... taking a different path, one that your degrees didn't prepare you for at all. I'm terrified, to be perfectly honest. If there's no luck with cats, I'm formulating other plans. Then again, I do remember having read about a scholar in my field who quit after being denied tenure and ended up working with horses, so hey. Assistant: I've heard of plenty of PhD's taking completely different career paths after graduation. That's the glory of doctoral work. It prepares you for independent work... In anything. All your skill sets are applicable elsewhere, even if your specific background isn't. I'm probably about to do the same thing. Listing off all my skills and qualities I've picked up in grad school that would make me kickass at anything else really helped abate my fears. Eventually you'll realize you can do anything you want.

Human: Leaving academia for something completely different, after a pretty positive grad school experience? [Cats] In my later twenties. I'm set to finish a PhD in the humanities next year. Diss is at the stage of getting to be nearly being done (note the hedging, but my defense date is set, so it *will* be done when it needs to be done). I'm on schedule for a year-5 on the clock finish, I didn't go into any debt at the graduate level, and I'm actually coming out with a fair amount of savings, due to a bunch of TAing/RAing/extra little projects. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I have a publication in a "good journal", I've won a few prizes, I'd be as well-prepared for the abysmal job market as anyone. Grad school wasn't horrible. It was fine. Fun sometimes. One hell of a life experience. I just don't want it anymore, though. Your passion for the field is supposed to be enough to obviate all the bullshit, and my passion for my field has waned considerably. I'm very interested in areas of the humanities and believe fiercely in the value of a humanistic education, but my particular field just doesn't do it for me anymore, at least not to the extent I'd give up everything, move to Podunk NE (IF I WERE VERY LUCKY), and wade through all the bullshit that is trying to chase the tenure dream. I don't love it enough for all that. I don't regret having done it, because when I started I genuinely thought it was what I wanted out of life. But my priorities have changed. I'm interdisciplinary, and I like my "secondary" discipline FAR more, but would very likely not be qualified to get a job under its aegis (and I've checked it out extensively). Plus, the importance of living life. This vague haze of guilt and inadequacy has become the norm, and I don't want that for the rest of my life. I've seen so many bitter, disillusioned, depressed professors. My friends with non-academic jobs all seem MUCH happier. (Grass is greener?) I like teaching well enough. I try to do my best possible by the undergrads. I don't have that deep love of teaching a lot of grad students seem to, though. I've even taught a course on basically my academic crack, my subfield, but even that didn't elevate me to the heights I expected. I find research alternately isolating, depressing, mind-numbing, and extremely stimulating. What I enjoy the most of all is the writing. Trying to write creatively and expressively. Cultivating a style. Playing with words. This is what I have always loved. I really enjoy the large metropolitan area I live in. I'm not from here, but I have friends here, furniture, a nice apartment, a cat, roots, memories. I want to stay here, at least for the time being. There isn't any chance of getting a job in my field here, so I'm kind of forced to do something else. I've heard and read a lot about AltAc, and I'm an eager little peruser of the Chronicle, the quit lit industry, the Professor is In, etc. I've thought in circles for so long about what to do, ever since I felt my passion waning, which started to happen a couple years back. But, you know, here's the thing. I love cats. I love every kind of cat. You may giggle, but cats are my number one passion in life. Books about my field, ehh. Any information about cats, DEVOUR. I want a job that involves cats. I don't have any veterinary-related experience at all. I'm a humanist. I was not good at science. I don't want to be a vet or anything, I just want to be around cats every day. I volunteer at a major shelter, but that's about it. I've been picking up all the training possible at the shelter. I plan to scour shelters, vets, pet stores, etc for employment. I'll clean up cat poop all day, as long as there are cats. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any stories of having successfully done something completely different. Not necessarily after having been crushed and beaten down and destroyed by adjuncthood, but just.... taking a different path, one that your degrees didn't prepare you for at all. I'm terrified, to be perfectly honest. If there's no luck with cats, I'm formulating other plans. Then again, I do remember having read about a scholar in my field who quit after being denied tenure and ended up working with horses, so hey. Assistant: >Then again, I do remember having read about a scholar in my field who quit after being denied tenure and ended up working with horses, so hey. *hay FTFY

Human: Accepted onto a TA position but no staff account or pay has been arranged for me As the title says I was accepted onto a TA role at a UK university. I completed and passed all right to work checks and so far I've taught for the past 3 weeks at the max my PhD contract allows (5 hours/wk) so thats 5 hours a week at a wage of 15 p.h which means that I've worked (so far) for free and am owed £225. I've asked the university 3 times now if there is a way for me to claim these hours and they said an unforeseen error has prevented the creation of my staff account. It sounds dumb but here, the staff accounts allow you to access the class teaching materials, claim hours worked and contact HR if something is going on. Currently I can't do any of this and I have more and more unpaid hours racking up. I'm tempted to suspend my TA activities until they pay me because I'm really running low on cash... Assistant: Are you paid through unitemps? They've been shitting the bed lately.

Human: Accepted onto a TA position but no staff account or pay has been arranged for me As the title says I was accepted onto a TA role at a UK university. I completed and passed all right to work checks and so far I've taught for the past 3 weeks at the max my PhD contract allows (5 hours/wk) so thats 5 hours a week at a wage of 15 p.h which means that I've worked (so far) for free and am owed £225. I've asked the university 3 times now if there is a way for me to claim these hours and they said an unforeseen error has prevented the creation of my staff account. It sounds dumb but here, the staff accounts allow you to access the class teaching materials, claim hours worked and contact HR if something is going on. Currently I can't do any of this and I have more and more unpaid hours racking up. I'm tempted to suspend my TA activities until they pay me because I'm really running low on cash... Assistant: University HR tend to be irredeemably incompetent. The only way I’ve managed to get them to do anything was to pester the shit out of them.

Human: An odd question: Can you recommend fun, interesting academic journal articles that are not too long? So I teach a foundation course in academic reading. We establish early on the difference between academic journal articles and general reading, and students comment that they can identify the academic journal articles because they're boring. I think we were all there at one point. I have a great academic journal article about how to read an academic journal article But what about actual journal articles? I have several links to the most read articles, which is pretty cool, but do you know of articles that say something above and beyond the rest about issues most of us care about? 14-20 page examinations are...probably too long to hold my neophytes' attention, so something more succinct-but-readable is what I'm shooting for. I teach a lot of engineering, STEM, pre-med and robotics students, but I do also have humanities students. As such, I don't think there's any one subject that is off-base. Bonus points for controversy and things we can debate. Assistant: https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094 This is a randomized controlled study about jumping out of an airplane with or without a parachute. There is a twist at the end that is quite funny.

Human: An odd question: Can you recommend fun, interesting academic journal articles that are not too long? So I teach a foundation course in academic reading. We establish early on the difference between academic journal articles and general reading, and students comment that they can identify the academic journal articles because they're boring. I think we were all there at one point. I have a great academic journal article about how to read an academic journal article But what about actual journal articles? I have several links to the most read articles, which is pretty cool, but do you know of articles that say something above and beyond the rest about issues most of us care about? 14-20 page examinations are...probably too long to hold my neophytes' attention, so something more succinct-but-readable is what I'm shooting for. I teach a lot of engineering, STEM, pre-med and robotics students, but I do also have humanities students. As such, I don't think there's any one subject that is off-base. Bonus points for controversy and things we can debate. Assistant: The Peter principle revisited: A computational study https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2009.09.045 Computational simulation showing that companies should randomly promote their employees. Won the IgNoble prize. In fact, any of the IgNoble prize winners would be good. https://improbable.com/

Human: How do you get over presentation anxiety as an academic? Hi all! I’m a newly admitted Ph.D. Candidate in a humanities field (communications-related). My biggest fear in going into a Ph.D. Program is not the long hours or lack of money, or amount of little reading/writing for the next four years. My fear is that I have crippling performance anxiety when it comes to presentations. Ironic, I know, considering the program I’m going into. I’m not a TERRIBLE presenter, especially when it’s something I’m passionate about, and I have some experience in academic presentations from my master’s degree research. I just get insanely nervous and then this whole negative feedback loop occurs where I’m too aware of the change in my voice and my palms sweating and then my brain starts to black out. And even though traditional academic conferences and the like can be some of the most boring experiences on Earth, I want to be able to communicate my ideas and research in engaging ways, especially if I end up going the TA route rather than an RA route (although I’d like to gain experience in both). Anyway, what tips and tricks have any of you hardened academics learned to be better presenters and/or lecturers. (A friend of mine recommended beta blockers lol) Assistant: Get a teaching position. You will be forced to get over it. I was a wreck my first semester teaching....but it made me get over my pubp Ii c speaking anxiety!!! Also, remember that presenting is required for most jobs out there so it's not something you'd even be able to avoid if you didn't do a PhD. It's just a fact of life. You will do great!

Human: How do you get over presentation anxiety as an academic? Hi all! I’m a newly admitted Ph.D. Candidate in a humanities field (communications-related). My biggest fear in going into a Ph.D. Program is not the long hours or lack of money, or amount of little reading/writing for the next four years. My fear is that I have crippling performance anxiety when it comes to presentations. Ironic, I know, considering the program I’m going into. I’m not a TERRIBLE presenter, especially when it’s something I’m passionate about, and I have some experience in academic presentations from my master’s degree research. I just get insanely nervous and then this whole negative feedback loop occurs where I’m too aware of the change in my voice and my palms sweating and then my brain starts to black out. And even though traditional academic conferences and the like can be some of the most boring experiences on Earth, I want to be able to communicate my ideas and research in engaging ways, especially if I end up going the TA route rather than an RA route (although I’d like to gain experience in both). Anyway, what tips and tricks have any of you hardened academics learned to be better presenters and/or lecturers. (A friend of mine recommended beta blockers lol) Assistant: Practice. Teaching does wonders for public speaking.

Human: Is it advisable to change your career and become an academic if you are looking to shift from a toxic and stressful industry like banking? Non-native English speaker here. I work at a bank and the environment is very high pressured and rushed and full of dirty workplace politics and downright toxicity. Its customer service rush all day long, with loads of multitasking from 9:30 till 8pm five days a week. There is huge sales targets, fifteen minute lunch breaks that are mostly done at around 4pm. You cannot roll up your sleeves, call someone, go online or get out of the floor without permission. You can't go out for say the post office or banks without permission and lots of explaining. People are extremely toxic, has unhealthy competitions and are abusive for mostly no reasons and you are micromanaged. I like doing research on Economics and Business, particularly economics and I was wondering whether it would be worthwhile to change careers to become an academic. The academic environment of a lecturer seems very relaxed from what I have seen of friends. Lots of vacations, time on your own during the day, only 4-5 classes on 1.5 hours a week, little politics given that you rarely need to interact with other colleagues etc. But that is only what I see from the outside. However according to wikipedia there seems to be separate large articles on Bullying in Academia and Academic abuse in academia. No such articles for the finance industries. So it *seems* to me that given there are such large articles, Academia might have even more of a toxic environment than Banking or Finance. Can someone provide some advice or guidelines into whether it would be worthwhile to shift to an academic-researcher career if one wants to get out of a toxic industry? Assistant: Regarding having holidays: my colleague applied for long service leave and management insisted he come up with a publication plan before they would let him have his required leave... ie. What research work are you going to do in your holiday. Welcome to academia.

Human: Is it advisable to change your career and become an academic if you are looking to shift from a toxic and stressful industry like banking? Non-native English speaker here. I work at a bank and the environment is very high pressured and rushed and full of dirty workplace politics and downright toxicity. Its customer service rush all day long, with loads of multitasking from 9:30 till 8pm five days a week. There is huge sales targets, fifteen minute lunch breaks that are mostly done at around 4pm. You cannot roll up your sleeves, call someone, go online or get out of the floor without permission. You can't go out for say the post office or banks without permission and lots of explaining. People are extremely toxic, has unhealthy competitions and are abusive for mostly no reasons and you are micromanaged. I like doing research on Economics and Business, particularly economics and I was wondering whether it would be worthwhile to change careers to become an academic. The academic environment of a lecturer seems very relaxed from what I have seen of friends. Lots of vacations, time on your own during the day, only 4-5 classes on 1.5 hours a week, little politics given that you rarely need to interact with other colleagues etc. But that is only what I see from the outside. However according to wikipedia there seems to be separate large articles on Bullying in Academia and Academic abuse in academia. No such articles for the finance industries. So it *seems* to me that given there are such large articles, Academia might have even more of a toxic environment than Banking or Finance. Can someone provide some advice or guidelines into whether it would be worthwhile to shift to an academic-researcher career if one wants to get out of a toxic industry? Assistant: Depends where you are, both nationaly and per institution.

Human: (UK) How are you guys feeling about the DfE saying that academics should still teach face-to-face. I teach nursing students. I do not want to do that in person. They are in and out of hospital every week, they're high risk. But even aside from that, why do I have to teach face to face when every other sector can work from home. I won't lie, I'm on the brink of quitting my job. I've applied for roles outside of academia, and if I had the financial means to I'd leave now. (For more reasons that covid but it is a driving force). How do you all feel about having to teach face to face? Any advice? Also sorry, no idea what flair to add here. Assistant: I’ve taught online and in person and found that student engagement is much higher in person. Even I have trouble paying attention to online presentations. Most of my colleagues want to teach in person too. But we’ve all had vaccine boosters and students are also required to be vaccinated.

Human: (UK) How are you guys feeling about the DfE saying that academics should still teach face-to-face. I teach nursing students. I do not want to do that in person. They are in and out of hospital every week, they're high risk. But even aside from that, why do I have to teach face to face when every other sector can work from home. I won't lie, I'm on the brink of quitting my job. I've applied for roles outside of academia, and if I had the financial means to I'd leave now. (For more reasons that covid but it is a driving force). How do you all feel about having to teach face to face? Any advice? Also sorry, no idea what flair to add here. Assistant: PhD student. I'm aware that I may be in a minority here but I'm not particularly concerned. I thought remote teaching ended up working well during lockdown so it wouldn't be the end of the world if we reverted back to it. On the other hand, I'm extremely low risk, I teach extremely low risk students, and by this point nobody has an excuse not to be fully vaccinated. Schools are still operating in person so I don't really see why we should expect to be exempt.

Human: What did you give up (long term) for being an academic? Let me preface this by saying I am a senior undergraduate student in the medical engineering area, leaning heavily on neuroengineering and microtechnologies. As I near the end of my degree, I see two paths I want to follow: R&D, or academia. I have little experience in both, so it's not like both are completely unexplored (fortunately) for me. I want to make educated decisions, such as what type of masters to pursue, where I want to live, how it would be best to handle personal finances, etc. And to do this, I would like to decide what I want to do long term. I understand that these two paths are not mutually exclusive, nor is it impossible to transition from one to the other. Having said that, I wanted to ask you as a community, what have you sacrificed (at any level) to have a career in academia? Assistant: I guess I could have made more money if I had been equally successful in an equally competitive field outside academia. No regrets, though.

Human: What did you give up (long term) for being an academic? Let me preface this by saying I am a senior undergraduate student in the medical engineering area, leaning heavily on neuroengineering and microtechnologies. As I near the end of my degree, I see two paths I want to follow: R&D, or academia. I have little experience in both, so it's not like both are completely unexplored (fortunately) for me. I want to make educated decisions, such as what type of masters to pursue, where I want to live, how it would be best to handle personal finances, etc. And to do this, I would like to decide what I want to do long term. I understand that these two paths are not mutually exclusive, nor is it impossible to transition from one to the other. Having said that, I wanted to ask you as a community, what have you sacrificed (at any level) to have a career in academia? Assistant: Time with my loved ones, which lead to terrible mental health.

Human: [Hungary] My laboratory supervisor wants to throw a house party to celebrate one of our labmember's paper getting published, and also to celebrate him getting a new house. How should I behave? Act? How can I respectfully leave when I get overwhelmed? I'm part of a rather small theoretical/computational chemistry laboratory - there's the professor, a PhD student and myself (BSc 3rd yr). We finally got all calculations done, finished final draft and submitted the manuscript. We expect it to get thru with revisions, so prof wants to celebrate (and he conveniently has new house and covid restrictions are getting lifted). Is this a Hungarian thing to do? If not, what should I expect? How should I behave? And - I tend to get overwhelmed from socialisation/noise due to congenital stuff, how do I back out once it's too much without offending him? To note: Ages - Prof 57, PhD Cand. 27, myself 24. Assistant: My dad was a lab head and dept chair, and I grew up with most of our socializing being at his technicians house, we had barbecues with his students at least once a year. I also went to my post doc advisors house twice a year. So yes, this happens. Nervous students don't have to stay long, and everyone is on their best manners. No hook ups, only have 1-2 drinks, etc.

Human: [Hungary] My laboratory supervisor wants to throw a house party to celebrate one of our labmember's paper getting published, and also to celebrate him getting a new house. How should I behave? Act? How can I respectfully leave when I get overwhelmed? I'm part of a rather small theoretical/computational chemistry laboratory - there's the professor, a PhD student and myself (BSc 3rd yr). We finally got all calculations done, finished final draft and submitted the manuscript. We expect it to get thru with revisions, so prof wants to celebrate (and he conveniently has new house and covid restrictions are getting lifted). Is this a Hungarian thing to do? If not, what should I expect? How should I behave? And - I tend to get overwhelmed from socialisation/noise due to congenital stuff, how do I back out once it's too much without offending him? To note: Ages - Prof 57, PhD Cand. 27, myself 24. Assistant: Party before reviewer feedback.... bold.

Human: My referee just told me he never received the link to upload my letter. The deadline passed a hour ago. I don't know what to do. I am so hurt right now. I put blood in my application and I really felt like I had a good chance to get in. I sent everything in 15 days before the deadline, confirmed my referees availability to provide a reference, sent them a draft when asked and offered a reminder before the deadline. Yet, one of the two informed me that he never received the link or the form -- a hour after the official deadline. I panicked and immediately contacted admissions, sent them the reference he forwarded me (without reading it) and gave him the contact so that he can reach out and explain the issue. He didn't answer yet, but man, I feel awful. I am afraid my chances are gone and getting paranoid about the other reference as well --- I haven't heard from my other referee after he confirmed his availability and assumed that everything was going fine, but now I am second-guessing everything. What else can I do? Any tip? Assistant: Sometimes those letter of recommendation emails go to “junk” email. Depending on the email settings and whatever letter of recommendation service the program uses.

Human: My referee just told me he never received the link to upload my letter. The deadline passed a hour ago. I don't know what to do. I am so hurt right now. I put blood in my application and I really felt like I had a good chance to get in. I sent everything in 15 days before the deadline, confirmed my referees availability to provide a reference, sent them a draft when asked and offered a reminder before the deadline. Yet, one of the two informed me that he never received the link or the form -- a hour after the official deadline. I panicked and immediately contacted admissions, sent them the reference he forwarded me (without reading it) and gave him the contact so that he can reach out and explain the issue. He didn't answer yet, but man, I feel awful. I am afraid my chances are gone and getting paranoid about the other reference as well --- I haven't heard from my other referee after he confirmed his availability and assumed that everything was going fine, but now I am second-guessing everything. What else can I do? Any tip? Assistant: I've had letters come in late as well, and I agree that it's all probably fine, especially since you let them know what's going on. It's also great motivation to never do the same to your own students one day! Good luck!

Human: Advice please -- I don't think I'm qualified to be a postdoc in my field I'll be graduating within a year and the job market is looming. At this point in my career, I don't think I'm qualified to be a postdoc. I can get specific if you think it's relevant, but what it comes down to is that there are some skills that are essential to succeeding in my field, and I am just not very good at them (e.g., programming). I am a smart person and I know my field inside and out, but I'm just not very good at these things. If something depends on it I can limp through and get a program written with a great deal of help from google and better programmers, but it will never be as good as one written by someone who knows what they're doing. I always thought I would develop these skills as a grad student but the truth is 5 years have passed and I'm still barely competent. I wouldn't hire me as a postdoc knowing how bad I am at these things. I don't know what to do. My PI is no help. Any advice would be appreciated. Assistant: Dude, I'm a programmer, I've been one for over 20 years and think I'm pretty good at it and so do others. The stuff I write daily is written with a "great deal of help from google and better programmers", exactly as you wrote. It's normal and exactly how it's supposed to be.

Human: Advice please -- I don't think I'm qualified to be a postdoc in my field I'll be graduating within a year and the job market is looming. At this point in my career, I don't think I'm qualified to be a postdoc. I can get specific if you think it's relevant, but what it comes down to is that there are some skills that are essential to succeeding in my field, and I am just not very good at them (e.g., programming). I am a smart person and I know my field inside and out, but I'm just not very good at these things. If something depends on it I can limp through and get a program written with a great deal of help from google and better programmers, but it will never be as good as one written by someone who knows what they're doing. I always thought I would develop these skills as a grad student but the truth is 5 years have passed and I'm still barely competent. I wouldn't hire me as a postdoc knowing how bad I am at these things. I don't know what to do. My PI is no help. Any advice would be appreciated. Assistant: You'll get to your postdoc site and look around and realize it's the same bunch of idiots that your fellow grad students were. Then you'll get to your assistant professor university and realize it's the same bunch of idiots that your fellow postdocs were. But then you'll teach undergrads and beginning grad students and realize that you're pretty smart. Then you'll live the rest of your life feeling pretty smug.

Human: Having doubts about starting a PhD Hey everyone, I’m just looking for some advice because I’m feeling pretty conflicted and unsure about whether I’m on the right path. I’m just finishing up a (notoriously intense) MSc programme in neuroscience and have an offer of a PhD at a prestigious school starting in October. I’ll preface this by saying I am TIRED. This whole year I’ve been firing on all cylinders, barely any time for hobbies and friends, just like the rest of my cohort. So I appreciate that it’s a caveat and a lot of advice will be for me to take a break. However, I’m having doubts for more reasons than just burnout. 1. I want to have children, and will be in my early 30s upon finishing the PhD. Extending the PhD would not be ideal, I’d prefer to just finish it and get it out of the way so that I can start working. 2. My main aim here is to get the PhD and go start making money in industry because I have been a broke public service employee/student since leaving school, and want to make some real income to fund an enjoyable lifestyle. I find my research area interesting, and there’s a lot that can be done, but it’s also difficult. Often, I feel like the dumbest person in the room. My PI says that a PhD opens a lot of doors, but then I see lots of people without them doing just as well if not better. What is special about a PhD that it’s worth undertaking? 3. I need some semblance of work life balance in the long term. In the MSc it was very ‘pump and dump’ in terms of coursework, with periods of insane work and then some downtime. Is a PhD like this? My last job was insane levels of stress and very high accountability for low pay. What’s the likelihood of experiencing a more or less consistent workload? Would appreciate hearing about people’s experiences, regrets, advice. Assistant: >My main aim here is to get the PhD and go start making money in industry because I have been a broke public service employee/student since leaving school, and want to make some real income to fund an enjoyable lifestyle I would just go and done that now - nothing in your post suggests a PhD makes any sense.

Human: Having doubts about starting a PhD Hey everyone, I’m just looking for some advice because I’m feeling pretty conflicted and unsure about whether I’m on the right path. I’m just finishing up a (notoriously intense) MSc programme in neuroscience and have an offer of a PhD at a prestigious school starting in October. I’ll preface this by saying I am TIRED. This whole year I’ve been firing on all cylinders, barely any time for hobbies and friends, just like the rest of my cohort. So I appreciate that it’s a caveat and a lot of advice will be for me to take a break. However, I’m having doubts for more reasons than just burnout. 1. I want to have children, and will be in my early 30s upon finishing the PhD. Extending the PhD would not be ideal, I’d prefer to just finish it and get it out of the way so that I can start working. 2. My main aim here is to get the PhD and go start making money in industry because I have been a broke public service employee/student since leaving school, and want to make some real income to fund an enjoyable lifestyle. I find my research area interesting, and there’s a lot that can be done, but it’s also difficult. Often, I feel like the dumbest person in the room. My PI says that a PhD opens a lot of doors, but then I see lots of people without them doing just as well if not better. What is special about a PhD that it’s worth undertaking? 3. I need some semblance of work life balance in the long term. In the MSc it was very ‘pump and dump’ in terms of coursework, with periods of insane work and then some downtime. Is a PhD like this? My last job was insane levels of stress and very high accountability for low pay. What’s the likelihood of experiencing a more or less consistent workload? Would appreciate hearing about people’s experiences, regrets, advice. Assistant: a masters is a more intense workload. a phd is a more psychological challenge where your success is largely based on your effort, skill, and luck.

Human: Anyone else get a bit lost after PhD? Hi, I am lucky enough to be a full time research fellow in a university here in Australia. I love the project I am on and my supervisor is wonderful but I find myself missing structured learning. I have been looking at grad cert courses in different fields (I am in criminology). Please tell me I am not the only one who goes through this kind of post-PhD mania/boredom? Assistant: Evidentally this is one area of life where I am ahead of the curve, because I'm not even finished with my PhD and already feel lost

Human: Anyone else get a bit lost after PhD? Hi, I am lucky enough to be a full time research fellow in a university here in Australia. I love the project I am on and my supervisor is wonderful but I find myself missing structured learning. I have been looking at grad cert courses in different fields (I am in criminology). Please tell me I am not the only one who goes through this kind of post-PhD mania/boredom? Assistant: Like another commenter said, you can make your own structure. My PI was completely hands off during my PhD which I found challenging, so I requested weekly meetings - purely to give myself regular deadlines by which to produce data. That made me structure my learning overall. You can sign up for courses like you mentioned, attend conferences and give yourself learning and/or networking goals... Whatever works best for you!

Human: To PIs and grad students: do you think labs will reopen for undergrad research this summer? I'm a stuck-at-home undergrad because of COVID, and while I think it is still early, the lockdown is starting to lift in CA. Are there any labs that are allowing undergrads to return? Assistant: No undergrads - just my two cents. My University barely letting grad students even work.

Human: To PIs and grad students: do you think labs will reopen for undergrad research this summer? I'm a stuck-at-home undergrad because of COVID, and while I think it is still early, the lockdown is starting to lift in CA. Are there any labs that are allowing undergrads to return? Assistant: I’m at an R1 in a state that is almost entirely reopened and currently undergrads are not allowed to be in labs. I believe they are re-evaluating this in the coming weeks, but I would be surprised if it changes this summer. Unfortunately with the liability of grad students, postdocs, and other lab members allowed to be working again under a new normal, undergrads are just not the priority. You could always reach out though and see if there is any work you can do remotely!

Human: Academic workers strike part II: Would you still support the strike if it led to a substantial reduction in academic worker positions? I saw on the previous post that there is overwhelming support for the strike. I am a supporter, but the one thing has given me pause is concerns from PIs that there would be layoffs and reductions in the number of personnel. This might ultimately be good for the field (to reduce the number of workers) but it certainly comes at a cost. So, follow-up hypothetical: **Would you still support the UC academic workers' demands if it led to high (say 25-50%) rates of layoffs for current graduate students, postdocs, and other academic workers, and commensurate reductions in the number of available academic worker positions going forward?** Assistant: Absolutely. Universities crank out too many PhDs, and the academic job market is suffering as a result. Fewer people competing for tenured positions + proper compensation for pre- and non-tenure academic jobs is a net positive.

Human: Academic workers strike part II: Would you still support the strike if it led to a substantial reduction in academic worker positions? I saw on the previous post that there is overwhelming support for the strike. I am a supporter, but the one thing has given me pause is concerns from PIs that there would be layoffs and reductions in the number of personnel. This might ultimately be good for the field (to reduce the number of workers) but it certainly comes at a cost. So, follow-up hypothetical: **Would you still support the UC academic workers' demands if it led to high (say 25-50%) rates of layoffs for current graduate students, postdocs, and other academic workers, and commensurate reductions in the number of available academic worker positions going forward?** Assistant: Yes. I would be pretty mad about it if they fired a bunch of current graduate students rather than just, y'know, not hiring so many moving forward, but I would be mad at the university, not the striking workers.

Human: In your institution, what are the odds of a PhD candidate getting a pay raise? Hi all, Some background to this question. My PhD candidacy is as an internal employee of the university, so in that position we get full salary, benefits and so on. Now, with that as a starting point. Within this position things have been going quite well and I have luckily been involved in things above and beyond the regular 'workload' of a PhD candidate, e.g. My supervisor and I do a project involving big names in our field from Stanford and Harvard and I've personally had numerous (national) media report on my work, always with of course our faculty's name attached. While I enjoy my job a lot, obviously none of us work just for fun. So I'm contemplating discussing with my direct supervisor or HR to ask for an increase in salary that fits with the work I am doing that benefits both the law faculty and me. My main worry is that they will say: 'Yes you've been doing many things but that is part of any PhD candidacy and does not warrant extra salary.'. However, in that case, no PhD could ever get a salary increase, and that seems ridiculous. So how do you look at this matter? Assistant: Somewhere between zero and less than that.

Human: In your institution, what are the odds of a PhD candidate getting a pay raise? Hi all, Some background to this question. My PhD candidacy is as an internal employee of the university, so in that position we get full salary, benefits and so on. Now, with that as a starting point. Within this position things have been going quite well and I have luckily been involved in things above and beyond the regular 'workload' of a PhD candidate, e.g. My supervisor and I do a project involving big names in our field from Stanford and Harvard and I've personally had numerous (national) media report on my work, always with of course our faculty's name attached. While I enjoy my job a lot, obviously none of us work just for fun. So I'm contemplating discussing with my direct supervisor or HR to ask for an increase in salary that fits with the work I am doing that benefits both the law faculty and me. My main worry is that they will say: 'Yes you've been doing many things but that is part of any PhD candidacy and does not warrant extra salary.'. However, in that case, no PhD could ever get a salary increase, and that seems ridiculous. So how do you look at this matter? Assistant: Are you unionized or not? If so, you likely get cost of living raises. If not, YMMV. Individual raises for merit? Nope. Even faculty generally can’t get those without coming to the dean with a competing offer.

Human: PhD students, how busy are you at the end of the semester? Do you get busier when the semester is just about to end? Specify what year you are in as well Assistant: I don't really have time to answer this to be honest.

Human: PhD students, how busy are you at the end of the semester? Do you get busier when the semester is just about to end? Specify what year you are in as well Assistant: Depends on whether you’re taking classes, or journal clubs for classes, or ABD. First few years maybe a bit busier if you have final projects. Journal clubs, nah. ABD the semester ceases to have meaning unless you’re a TA and have a heavy grading load

Human: Is it inappropriate to give a thank you gift to my supervisor? I'm working on my honours thesis at the moment to be submitted at the end of this year. I had some unexpected problems with my original supervisor, and I now have a new supervisor who has been fantastic. She very much rescued the project and has enabled me to finish it, and has taken me on unexpectedly on top of her existing workload of students/classes etc. I was thinking of getting her some flowers or a small thank you present that I'd give her after the grades are released (regardless of what mark my thesis receives) as a thank you for going above and beyond to help me. Would this be inappropriate? Thanks in advance! Assistant: On a previous question, another poster made the following statement that I have found helpful: in academia, thank you notes/cards go up the food chain; gifts go down.

Human: Is it inappropriate to give a thank you gift to my supervisor? I'm working on my honours thesis at the moment to be submitted at the end of this year. I had some unexpected problems with my original supervisor, and I now have a new supervisor who has been fantastic. She very much rescued the project and has enabled me to finish it, and has taken me on unexpectedly on top of her existing workload of students/classes etc. I was thinking of getting her some flowers or a small thank you present that I'd give her after the grades are released (regardless of what mark my thesis receives) as a thank you for going above and beyond to help me. Would this be inappropriate? Thanks in advance! Assistant: A small gift is surely appreciated, especially with a well written note! In the past I received a bottle of wine (actually the student brought a bottle every time he was in town and visited to say hi, for a couple of years!). I also received a nice pen (that I still use). And I would love flowers/plants (but for some reason they are mostly intended for women). Cookies and food in general is also cool.

Human: Does anyone really use something else than Google Scholar (+Forward/Backward Search) and Sci-Hub? Is there anyone who is really using anything else but Google Scholar and forward backward search? I tried using other searches/databases but I will either get the same results or worse results. Is anyone really not using sci-hub? Even if I have access to quite some databases, it seems Sci-Hub is much faster and much more convenient. I am just interested in how other people do research. Like in real, not from any YouTube Tutorial that explains how to do research. What do you really do? Because for me it is basically limited to Scholar + Forward/Backward search and Sci-Hub. Assistant: I'm in social science and I almost exclusively use JSTOR and my school's library databases, and I'll go directly to major journals if I think they'll have anything close to what I'm looking for. I don't think I've ever used Google Scholar, at least substantially.

Human: Does anyone really use something else than Google Scholar (+Forward/Backward Search) and Sci-Hub? Is there anyone who is really using anything else but Google Scholar and forward backward search? I tried using other searches/databases but I will either get the same results or worse results. Is anyone really not using sci-hub? Even if I have access to quite some databases, it seems Sci-Hub is much faster and much more convenient. I am just interested in how other people do research. Like in real, not from any YouTube Tutorial that explains how to do research. What do you really do? Because for me it is basically limited to Scholar + Forward/Backward search and Sci-Hub. Assistant: I’m in Liberal Arts and I’m not aware of anyone that relies on Google Scholar.

Human: Does submitting journal articles for review give anyone else massive anxiety? I feel like I should be relieved. I've spent over 4 months on this paper(Start preliminary research in september did the bulk of writing in october then gave myself time to edit until now), and now I'm finally done. But I can't get rid of the sneaking suspicion I am going to get rejected. I've been told my writing is good by my professors but I'm not sure it is to the level of being published, especially as an undergrad, and the subject matter of the essay is so specialized I can't submit it to any other journal. Assistant: Submit it now! I am giving you permission to let it go. It’s like the lottery. You cannot win unless you play. Let the reviewers decide if it is worthy. And be prepared to get rejected. That is all part of the process. In academia, you will always get way more rejections than acceptances. And the journal may give you feedback that will help you to determine what to fix and where else to submit it. Best of luck!

Human: Does submitting journal articles for review give anyone else massive anxiety? I feel like I should be relieved. I've spent over 4 months on this paper(Start preliminary research in september did the bulk of writing in october then gave myself time to edit until now), and now I'm finally done. But I can't get rid of the sneaking suspicion I am going to get rejected. I've been told my writing is good by my professors but I'm not sure it is to the level of being published, especially as an undergrad, and the subject matter of the essay is so specialized I can't submit it to any other journal. Assistant: If you’re never getting rejected you’re not sending your papers to the right journals. You have to get used to it, even when the reasons for rejection are arbitrary or plain wrong.

Human: Salary freeze for another year. Anyone else experiencing this? TT faculty here. Our university has kept salaries stagnant for yet another year (they claim it is due to COVID). I was wondering if others are experiencing this and whether it was worth jumping ship to another institution. Assistant: Oddly, we had been flat for 2 years before COVID, then my state school (in the south) got flush with federal dollars during COVID so we actually got across the board raises last year. It was only 2%, but hey, better than nothing, which is what we typically get. Jumping from one TT job to another for a COLA-esque raise seems...ill-advised, but if the jump nets you a significant raise plus more historically consistent raises then sure, why not?

Human: Salary freeze for another year. Anyone else experiencing this? TT faculty here. Our university has kept salaries stagnant for yet another year (they claim it is due to COVID). I was wondering if others are experiencing this and whether it was worth jumping ship to another institution. Assistant: My institute (state system on the east coast) announced cola + merit raises for this year so it's definitely happening.

Human: Can someone who gets an MS be a researcher and publish papers regularly? I am a master's student in the geosciences and so far I am enjoying the research. I was wondering if having a Master's degree would qualify me to do research in the future or if I would need a PhD. Assistant: You don't need a degree to be a researcher. Just curiousity about the world, the willingness to learn, persevere, write up your findings and submit them for peer reviewed publication.

Human: Can someone who gets an MS be a researcher and publish papers regularly? I am a master's student in the geosciences and so far I am enjoying the research. I was wondering if having a Master's degree would qualify me to do research in the future or if I would need a PhD. Assistant: Just depends on who's money you will be using for the most part. My mom knew the Miami snake man, and he only has a BS in marine biology. That said, his experiments and production costs are relatively low on cost compared to most scientific research. Fame and notoriety can factor in as well, so keep that in mind, but I would say definitely not impossible, especially if you find the research yourself if your nice and wealthy.

Human: Do British researchers working at American universities write their papers with British or American spelling? Curious Assistant: As others have said it is mostly the journal - although British journals rarely enforce British spelling on US authors in my experience. Over the years I've gradually shifted to using American spelling in my writing, mostly for consistency.

Human: Do British researchers working at American universities write their papers with British or American spelling? Curious Assistant: In my experience (mathematics, I'm British but have worked also in Finland and Czech republic, also collaborated with both European and USian colleagues at universities in USA), whoever writes the bulk of the paper gets to decide. As long as the paper is internally consistent, it's fine.

Human: Does your family often put you on the defensive about being in academia For context, I'm a recent STEM PhD graduate now thinking about forgoing an industry position to do a postdoc. Now, I get it - from a practical employment standpoint, both a PhD and postdoc don't really make a lot of sense. There are much easier and direct ways to make good money, neither have fixed timelines for when you're "done", and so on. It can be pretty hard to articulate to someone on the outside why one would bother. Certainly, I'm a grown-ass man. I don't need validation from others to justify doing something I enjoy. But it does get tiring hearing yet again about how you're wasting your life away while you could be buying a giant house like X's son, etc. I've gotten a lot better about rolling with the punches and not getting too defensive about it, but I feel like I'm not the only one who faces relentless skepticism from family about academia as a lifestyle decision. Being in STEM, at least I can point to lucrative exit opportunities in industry. But in a way, that makes it worse since I'm currently considering a doing postdoc instead taking up industry offers. Assistant: I’m starting my masters year and was doing undergrad research, hoping to apply for a PhD starting 2023. My family called me selfish for pursuing a PhD, say it’s a waste of years, how it’s simply to show i’m ‘better than everyone’ and to brag about intelligence. Say that getting a PhD doesn’t give me life smarts, because it’s not having a child or getting married. I’m still going to be a Woman in Stem tho 🫶🏽

Human: Does your family often put you on the defensive about being in academia For context, I'm a recent STEM PhD graduate now thinking about forgoing an industry position to do a postdoc. Now, I get it - from a practical employment standpoint, both a PhD and postdoc don't really make a lot of sense. There are much easier and direct ways to make good money, neither have fixed timelines for when you're "done", and so on. It can be pretty hard to articulate to someone on the outside why one would bother. Certainly, I'm a grown-ass man. I don't need validation from others to justify doing something I enjoy. But it does get tiring hearing yet again about how you're wasting your life away while you could be buying a giant house like X's son, etc. I've gotten a lot better about rolling with the punches and not getting too defensive about it, but I feel like I'm not the only one who faces relentless skepticism from family about academia as a lifestyle decision. Being in STEM, at least I can point to lucrative exit opportunities in industry. But in a way, that makes it worse since I'm currently considering a doing postdoc instead taking up industry offers. Assistant: This academic world is foreign to many people, but we who live in it know it’s a wonderful world. Hang in there.

Human: Being arrested for a social cause - does it impact grad admissions or career in academia? I'm heavily involved in community organizing. I am concerned that one day I may face an unfair arrest for merely peacefully protesting, as I've witnessed other community members be arrested for non-violent action (such as blocking a street; blocking a path and chanting inside a building). Has anyone in academia that's involved in activism and arrested for a social movement find that their arrest has created obstacles in their career or have impacted their admission to graduate programs? For context, I live in the U.S. Assistant: It will depend on the university and the cause, as well as the details of the arrest. I'm an oldie. Back in the 60s, in California, arrest for Civil Rights protest, or some anti War protest, would count against admission to any University of California campus, but might help with Stanford.

Human: Being arrested for a social cause - does it impact grad admissions or career in academia? I'm heavily involved in community organizing. I am concerned that one day I may face an unfair arrest for merely peacefully protesting, as I've witnessed other community members be arrested for non-violent action (such as blocking a street; blocking a path and chanting inside a building). Has anyone in academia that's involved in activism and arrested for a social movement find that their arrest has created obstacles in their career or have impacted their admission to graduate programs? For context, I live in the U.S. Assistant: no. the only thing I could imagine is a felony conviction showing up in a background check. but you're not going to get a felony from what you describe.

Human: How to deal with abrasive student over extra points I just started out as a faculty member for the very first time and I am now getting to have my first round of angry student responses over final grading. One student had a pretty arrogant tone in demanding extra points for two qs. One of them is a flat out no since it was multiple choice and it was explicitly mentioned in the instructions that there would be no partial credit in his case of selecting both the right and wrong answer. The other one pertains to the grading rubric for a subjective question. My problem with revealing the grading rubric (from my past experiences working for another instructor as a TA) to the class has been chaotic. Students in that case swarmed Piazza with venomous rants and did not even spare the poor prof in his RateMyProf profile. I do not want to go personally go through that same experience as my prof did right now since I have to start preparing courses for the upcoming quarter. Any advice on dealing with this would be most welcome! Assistant: I don't understand why the rubric wouldn't be made available prior to the due date even, so that they had clear instructions to follow? A good rubric available to all tends to cut down on rants, rather than create them, and in any case it is only fair to know what the grading criteria are and that you applied them equitably and fairly.

Human: How to deal with abrasive student over extra points I just started out as a faculty member for the very first time and I am now getting to have my first round of angry student responses over final grading. One student had a pretty arrogant tone in demanding extra points for two qs. One of them is a flat out no since it was multiple choice and it was explicitly mentioned in the instructions that there would be no partial credit in his case of selecting both the right and wrong answer. The other one pertains to the grading rubric for a subjective question. My problem with revealing the grading rubric (from my past experiences working for another instructor as a TA) to the class has been chaotic. Students in that case swarmed Piazza with venomous rants and did not even spare the poor prof in his RateMyProf profile. I do not want to go personally go through that same experience as my prof did right now since I have to start preparing courses for the upcoming quarter. Any advice on dealing with this would be most welcome! Assistant: The r/Professors sub might be a good place for this!

Human: Email greetings doubts. Do I (a potential PhD student) keep calling a professor, I exchanged several emails with, Dear Professor [name] [surname] ? I have been looking for a PhD position since some time and have been talking to various professors about it. I always start the first email with Dear Professor XYZ, and often they say: "you can call me XYZ" which is a bit of a relief since I find it awkward to keep calling a person Dear Professor all over again. But I am also taking to professors who did not say that and either I keep starting emails with their title and full name or I just start saying "hello" to avoid using the name and title ( not ideal neither) since I start to feel as if I am overdoing it with a "Dear Professor" when they say" Hi Kiwitoja". Is there a number of emails exchange after which I can start greeting them less formally? Or is it just in my head that "Dear Professor" starts to sound weird? Assistant: Just keep the "Dear Prof X" until they tell you not to. No prof ever got angry about that, but I know many of my collegues hate it when students start emails with "Hello", "hi", "yo, wats up!?", etc.

Human: Email greetings doubts. Do I (a potential PhD student) keep calling a professor, I exchanged several emails with, Dear Professor [name] [surname] ? I have been looking for a PhD position since some time and have been talking to various professors about it. I always start the first email with Dear Professor XYZ, and often they say: "you can call me XYZ" which is a bit of a relief since I find it awkward to keep calling a person Dear Professor all over again. But I am also taking to professors who did not say that and either I keep starting emails with their title and full name or I just start saying "hello" to avoid using the name and title ( not ideal neither) since I start to feel as if I am overdoing it with a "Dear Professor" when they say" Hi Kiwitoja". Is there a number of emails exchange after which I can start greeting them less formally? Or is it just in my head that "Dear Professor" starts to sound weird? Assistant: It varies from Professor to Professor. Whereas I let my own research students call me by my first name, I hate it when unknown students, or students that are taking one of my classes but are not familiar to me call me by my first name. To me, first-name-basis is something reserved to close relationships. I would suggest you ignore the advice given here and go by Dr. Last Name until he/she gives you green light to go on a first name basis.

Human: Do professors view students interviewing them as an inconvenience? TL;DR- Will professors view me asking to interview them about their career as an inconvenience? I am doing a project that requires me to reach out to contacts all around my academic field and interview them regarding their career. However, when I reached out to some of my professors, most were willing to provide me contacts from their networks, but one came back and said that he discourages me from interviewing people within the field. He said that often times professors or other professionals view students asking to interview them as an inconvenience. Is this a common consensus? I feel discouraged to continue with this project now because of this. Assistant: I love been interviewed by students. I really do.

Human: Do professors view students interviewing them as an inconvenience? TL;DR- Will professors view me asking to interview them about their career as an inconvenience? I am doing a project that requires me to reach out to contacts all around my academic field and interview them regarding their career. However, when I reached out to some of my professors, most were willing to provide me contacts from their networks, but one came back and said that he discourages me from interviewing people within the field. He said that often times professors or other professionals view students asking to interview them as an inconvenience. Is this a common consensus? I feel discouraged to continue with this project now because of this. Assistant: I would only be annoyed if the student gave me short notice, was unreasonable about scheduling, or was ill-prepared with questions.

Human: How to summarize PhD in 15 minute presentation? I will give a 15 minute presentation at a (non-academic, but research field) job interview, overviewing my previous work. I have my thesis defense presentation (exhaustive and long). Any tips on how to shave this down and focus the presentation? I am overwhelmed by the idea. Assistant: we do a thing called '3 minute thesis' which is quite a useful exercise because you often get asked to explain your thesis and people aren't going to sit around a listen to you for three hours! University of Queensland started it and their help page might be useful to you https://threeminutethesis.uq.edu.au/resources/3mt-competitor-guide As others have pointed out key is distilling the key points, and tell a story

Human: How to summarize PhD in 15 minute presentation? I will give a 15 minute presentation at a (non-academic, but research field) job interview, overviewing my previous work. I have my thesis defense presentation (exhaustive and long). Any tips on how to shave this down and focus the presentation? I am overwhelmed by the idea. Assistant: What is your topic, why is it interesting, what did you do, and what have you found out? Don't go into the specifics.

Human: Can somebody write a dissertation outside of academia, enroll in a Ph.D. program, and submit it? This is purely hypothetical. Let's say somebody really enjoys the humanities (since a hard science would likely require actual lab time) and spends nights and weekends for several years working on a pet project. At the end, he has produced a several hundred page original work, with appropriate research and citations, etc. Would he be able to enroll in a Ph.D. program--maybe a European program where there is no coursework?--and submit his dissertation? Assistant: Not from any reputable university. Even if you didn't have to complete any coursework (classes or thesis credits), and further assuming there was no residency requirement for the program, you'd still need to find a prof to lead your examination committee, and multiple others to populate the committee. As a prof I can't imagine any scenario that ended with me agreeing to do that for a random person who cold emailed with a dissertation attached.

Human: Can somebody write a dissertation outside of academia, enroll in a Ph.D. program, and submit it? This is purely hypothetical. Let's say somebody really enjoys the humanities (since a hard science would likely require actual lab time) and spends nights and weekends for several years working on a pet project. At the end, he has produced a several hundred page original work, with appropriate research and citations, etc. Would he be able to enroll in a Ph.D. program--maybe a European program where there is no coursework?--and submit his dissertation? Assistant: Who would ever agree to supervise such a student? Not me. Also, the PhD is a program, not just a written product.

Human: Restrictions on hours worked at a side job during a PhD - do universities enforce this? I am a prospective PhD student and I am puzzled about restrictions on outside employment for full time grad students. My prospective university places a limit of 400 hours worked in a year max - excluding research, of course. I understand this is done to encourage students to focus on their research but it is limiting. I have held mindless jobs before that did not distract me at all from studying but the 400 hours rule would prevent me from working more than 1 day a week. My question is: do universities enforce this? Do universities sue grad students or revoke scholarships if they have a side job that goes beyond the max hours? PS: Note that I applied for scholarships. A side job would supplement my scholarship and allow me to build work experience. I Assistant: It varies wildly from school to school. My school has a “no outside work” policy and enforces it very strictly. If you’re doing something under the table like babysitting or pet sitting you can get away with it but anything more than that and you’ll get kicked out.

Human: Restrictions on hours worked at a side job during a PhD - do universities enforce this? I am a prospective PhD student and I am puzzled about restrictions on outside employment for full time grad students. My prospective university places a limit of 400 hours worked in a year max - excluding research, of course. I understand this is done to encourage students to focus on their research but it is limiting. I have held mindless jobs before that did not distract me at all from studying but the 400 hours rule would prevent me from working more than 1 day a week. My question is: do universities enforce this? Do universities sue grad students or revoke scholarships if they have a side job that goes beyond the max hours? PS: Note that I applied for scholarships. A side job would supplement my scholarship and allow me to build work experience. I Assistant: I've worked on the side and no one asked or cared. Idk how they would find out unless you told them but that's just my uni

Human: How do I hire a PhD or professor for a 1-2 hour interview? I want to talk to a PhD/professor in a very fringe area of psychology and ask them questions about their very specific subject area. Just an hour or two discussion and maybe take some notes/ ask them about the general topic. I'm not a business but I could pay them via venmo/other means. How do I go about doing this? Assistant: Send them an email. Most people like talking about their research. If they don’t respond, it’s because they receive 100s of emails per day, so you’d better have a convincing project or idea or reason for requesting their time! Pay probably won’t be as convincing as the reason you want their thoughts on said particular area

Human: How do I hire a PhD or professor for a 1-2 hour interview? I want to talk to a PhD/professor in a very fringe area of psychology and ask them questions about their very specific subject area. Just an hour or two discussion and maybe take some notes/ ask them about the general topic. I'm not a business but I could pay them via venmo/other means. How do I go about doing this? Assistant: In Canada, all clinical psychologists are required to be PhD’s as long as they haven’t been grandfathered into the profession. Find a clinical psychologist in practice, and book an appointment. I’m sure they’ll value the ease of the interaction, more so than if you were a tough patient. Edit: I understand from the questions other redditors have asked that OP wants to chat about optimal teaching methods for an art mentor (OP).

Human: As a PhD student just started teaching, how should I prepare good powerpoint for my sessions? Hi guys! Hope you are all well. So the title of this post generally summed up my question. And thank you in advance for any advice. In short, while preparing for my first lecture (which is next week) these days, I got really confused about how to present my lecture content to students in a good way: I found it difficult to make my lecture powerpoint more lively, engaging and interesting, and not just putting walls of words in all of the slides. I will be teaching art history and film studies - both are humanity subjects which requires loads of texts in their discussions and nothing much more, apart from clips and screenshots of films or photos of artworks and artists. For me personally, this has made it very hard for me to think about more engaging ways of doing my powerpoint. Besides, I personally do not have much previous teaching experiences. Meanwhile, the way lecturers from my MA study teach these subjects cannot give much inspirations for me. They tend to just read from their slides, instead of using it as to assist and elaborate lecture contents... So I do not really have anyone to learn from. Assistant: In art history your slides should be only images and identifying information. No other text. Before computers we used slide carousels and wouldn't even have the ID information. Professors would hand out photocopies with that. Some still prefer that to maintain the image-only nature of the class, but that's pretty old school. edit: So many people in this thread who either didn't read the full OP or didn't stop to think about how teaching art history might be different from teaching in their discipline

Human: As a PhD student just started teaching, how should I prepare good powerpoint for my sessions? Hi guys! Hope you are all well. So the title of this post generally summed up my question. And thank you in advance for any advice. In short, while preparing for my first lecture (which is next week) these days, I got really confused about how to present my lecture content to students in a good way: I found it difficult to make my lecture powerpoint more lively, engaging and interesting, and not just putting walls of words in all of the slides. I will be teaching art history and film studies - both are humanity subjects which requires loads of texts in their discussions and nothing much more, apart from clips and screenshots of films or photos of artworks and artists. For me personally, this has made it very hard for me to think about more engaging ways of doing my powerpoint. Besides, I personally do not have much previous teaching experiences. Meanwhile, the way lecturers from my MA study teach these subjects cannot give much inspirations for me. They tend to just read from their slides, instead of using it as to assist and elaborate lecture contents... So I do not really have anyone to learn from. Assistant: Never read your slides. For the love of God, human, do not read the slides. Also, speak more slowly than that.

Human: How do you keep a reading habit outside of your field/research? I've always kept a habit of reading, fiction and non fiction. Now that I'm one year into my MPh I just don't have the will power to read anything else besides what I need to. I would guess this could be a more common issue among academics in humanities... Just interested to know how you deal with it. Thanks! Assistant: I lost the ability to read for fun during my PhD and never got it back. Part of it was I realised how bad so many writers are. Also the information density is just too low. I’m in a STEM subject as well. I do like reading Reddit and people’s life dramas though, but it’s small and digestible and also I can comment (proactive!)

Human: How do you keep a reading habit outside of your field/research? I've always kept a habit of reading, fiction and non fiction. Now that I'm one year into my MPh I just don't have the will power to read anything else besides what I need to. I would guess this could be a more common issue among academics in humanities... Just interested to know how you deal with it. Thanks! Assistant: I finally read a boot for pleasure again.. 6 months after leaving my postdoc

Human: Dear, kind, hello professor? How to email a reseacher Hi! I’m a Swedish med student and have started to email research groups regarding our degree project. I’m completely lost on how to begin my email to foreign professors or PhD students, could you help me out? We’re not very strict with titles in Sweden, and I’ve emailed a few swedish researchers in swedish and just went with ”Hi Peter! I’m a med student bla bla bla…”. This is completely normal here. But I’m not sure how to write the professors in english, who are not from Sweden, should I follow the laid back tone we use in Sweden and go with ”Hi George”, or should I make it more formal? What first word should I use, hello? Dear? Best? He is an adjunct professor. Maybe ”Hello professor [last name]? Or ”Dear adjunct professor George”? Do you see where I’m going? I have no idea about which words, titles and names to use. Which are just weird and which are normal? Kind regards, a confused student who would like to use his native language instead of english but have realized that academia is mostly in english. Assistant: Not normal internationally. The correct way is: Dear [title] [last name]. Move only to first name when they explicitly tell you you may.

Human: Dear, kind, hello professor? How to email a reseacher Hi! I’m a Swedish med student and have started to email research groups regarding our degree project. I’m completely lost on how to begin my email to foreign professors or PhD students, could you help me out? We’re not very strict with titles in Sweden, and I’ve emailed a few swedish researchers in swedish and just went with ”Hi Peter! I’m a med student bla bla bla…”. This is completely normal here. But I’m not sure how to write the professors in english, who are not from Sweden, should I follow the laid back tone we use in Sweden and go with ”Hi George”, or should I make it more formal? What first word should I use, hello? Dear? Best? He is an adjunct professor. Maybe ”Hello professor [last name]? Or ”Dear adjunct professor George”? Do you see where I’m going? I have no idea about which words, titles and names to use. Which are just weird and which are normal? Kind regards, a confused student who would like to use his native language instead of english but have realized that academia is mostly in english. Assistant: Absolutely do not say "Dear Adjunct Professor \[name\]," even if that is technically the person's title. It may sound like you're trying to demean his status by reminding him that he's merely an adjunct professor. I'd recommend saying "Dear Professor \[last name\]" regardless of whether they are an adjunct professor, assistant professor, associate professor, etc. EDIT: For context, my experience is entirely in the USA.

Human: Is it weird to email a professor/paper author about how they did something in their paper? Hi! So I'm studying this paper that works on a specific mathematical model, and I was curious about how they plotted it to compare it to real world data. As in, there are solvers out there, but there's also a solution in the paper (that I honestly don't understand very well tbh), but yeah, there could be more than one way to plot it, and since I'm not very experienced with this, I wanted to ask the author how they did it, and for some general clarifications about the paper itself as well. Has anyone done this before? And do you actually get a reply? Or would the author get annoyed by simple-ish questions, and maybe not respond? (Obv, they're probably really busy anyway, so I wouldn't want to disturb them either :/) Any advice on how to email/speak to them in a way that would likely get me a response? :/ Assistant: Yes it's totally fine, you will either get a response or at the worst get ignored. In most cases they will be glad that someone is noticing thieir work. Check for an up to date email rather than the one given in the manuscript as people move about between institutions and their old email may no longer be monitored or active.

Human: Is it weird to email a professor/paper author about how they did something in their paper? Hi! So I'm studying this paper that works on a specific mathematical model, and I was curious about how they plotted it to compare it to real world data. As in, there are solvers out there, but there's also a solution in the paper (that I honestly don't understand very well tbh), but yeah, there could be more than one way to plot it, and since I'm not very experienced with this, I wanted to ask the author how they did it, and for some general clarifications about the paper itself as well. Has anyone done this before? And do you actually get a reply? Or would the author get annoyed by simple-ish questions, and maybe not respond? (Obv, they're probably really busy anyway, so I wouldn't want to disturb them either :/) Any advice on how to email/speak to them in a way that would likely get me a response? :/ Assistant: Not weird at all. Science is a community endeavor. I like getting inquiries about my papers. I don't think someone should publish if they're not willing to answer reasonable questions about their methodology.

Human: Has anyone been to a "predatory conference"? I'm constantly getting spam to present at the Veterinarysummit-2015 conference put on by the infamous OMICS group. The emails are so poorly written it's comical. Out of morbid curiosity: do these conferences actually happen or is it 100% a scam to profit off of registration fees? If you've been--why did you go and what was the conference like? Assistant: http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/09/12/conference-attendee-to-omics-i-want-out/ for a fun read.

Human: Has anyone been to a "predatory conference"? I'm constantly getting spam to present at the Veterinarysummit-2015 conference put on by the infamous OMICS group. The emails are so poorly written it's comical. Out of morbid curiosity: do these conferences actually happen or is it 100% a scam to profit off of registration fees? If you've been--why did you go and what was the conference like? Assistant: No, but for $850 (plus hotel & transportation fees), you can come visit me and talk science for 2 days. The third day geological field trip is free and you can share my bag of Skittles!

Human: Living Costs as a PhD Student As a prospective PhD student in the US or Canada, is the stipend given to the PhD student in STEM enough if I bring my wife with me for the living costs for the two of us? Assistant: Stipends are generally to support you, not you and a family. I think this would be very difficult.

Human: Living Costs as a PhD Student As a prospective PhD student in the US or Canada, is the stipend given to the PhD student in STEM enough if I bring my wife with me for the living costs for the two of us? Assistant: In the US absolutely not and your wife would not be able to work. Better look elsewhere like the EU.

Human: PhD students: How does your daily and weekly routine look like? How do you manage sleep, chores etc with such long hours? From what I understand PhD students work 80 hrs a week roughly. Now, I an out of home for 60 hours a week 5 days (9:30 to 7:00-7:30pm work) and I can't find time to even put on shampoo other than weekends, let alone cook and all. My chores pile up if I miss them on weekends for example fixing the computer, doctors appointment. Its impossible if the chores cannot be done outside working hours like banking (some procedures require your physical presence), getting license for eg. I was wondering: * How do you manage time for exercise, chores like cooking, banking, personal grooming, meditation/relaxation (?), at least 7 hours of sleep, dining, partying, giving time to kids/friends/partners/relatives etc? Basically how do you manage other aspects of your life other than work? * What does your daily and weekly routine look like? Please provide the specifics in detail including how much time goes for each activity. Assistant: Following this for tips on how to get my life together!

Human: PhD students: How does your daily and weekly routine look like? How do you manage sleep, chores etc with such long hours? From what I understand PhD students work 80 hrs a week roughly. Now, I an out of home for 60 hours a week 5 days (9:30 to 7:00-7:30pm work) and I can't find time to even put on shampoo other than weekends, let alone cook and all. My chores pile up if I miss them on weekends for example fixing the computer, doctors appointment. Its impossible if the chores cannot be done outside working hours like banking (some procedures require your physical presence), getting license for eg. I was wondering: * How do you manage time for exercise, chores like cooking, banking, personal grooming, meditation/relaxation (?), at least 7 hours of sleep, dining, partying, giving time to kids/friends/partners/relatives etc? Basically how do you manage other aspects of your life other than work? * What does your daily and weekly routine look like? Please provide the specifics in detail including how much time goes for each activity. Assistant: Field dependent. Chemistry and molecular biology type lab based fields expect about 10-12 hour days 6 days a week. There is some variability there dependent on experiments but I would say that is normal in top 10 programs for a graduation in 4-5 years. Edit: those who are downvoting I would love to hear about your experience in the fields I defined in top 10 programs. This is my experience getting my PhD and as a postdoc of the time commitment it takes.

Human: Why did you choose the academic career? What was your dream and have you reached it? What would you say to your younger self that is going to start the bachelor's degree in few months? Assistant: I wanted to be a professor since i was young, and achieved it, and now ten years later and i hate it. The idea that i have to go back in three weeks makes me want to go back to sleep and never wake up. ​ As for an advice: you know there is littleto no more room anywhere (i'm in Paris, but i know it's true for all of Europe, and i think the US) in academia right? There are sometimes a thousand candidates for a position. So best of luck, but think about it twice.

Human: Why did you choose the academic career? What was your dream and have you reached it? What would you say to your younger self that is going to start the bachelor's degree in few months? Assistant: I dared to dream the dream. A small office, access to a good library, and the opportunity to learn forever. The reality has been closer to joining a personality cult and constantly having to prove my worth.

Human: Foreign postdoc, difficulty with PI, not sure what to do next TL;DR: PI aggressive, yells at me, hits tables, other, worried to go to HR or her boss, as I depend on this job for my visa. Have tried several different ways of dealing with her directly, always ends with her raising her voice, interrupting me, and sometimes calling me names. I have heard that this power dynamic happens sometimes, are there things that I can do? I am not trying to be vague, I am wanting to be careful about the information that I put out into the world right now. Please let me know if I have left out important information that might help answer my question, and I will try to answer it. Thank you. I will not add too much to my TL;DR. She becomes aggressive with me quickly, raising her voice, hitting the table, she sometimes calls me names or tells me to tell the truth, suggesting that I'm lying to her. I have a history where I am very much not ok with being yelled at like this or with people hitting things or behaving aggressively around me. I have told her this and she continues and says that I'm being dramatic. I have tried to solve the issue by talking with her many times, and then by email so that I would have a record of the conversations and so that she would not interrupt me or be able to yell at me so easily. She has responded to this by telling me that I am causing problems, and telling me that we'll talk about it in person, where she starts to get aggressive with me again. I am not perfect. I realize that I have my difficulties working with other people sometimes too, but never like this, and I can usually fix the problem by talking with the person and trying to understand where they are coming from and what they want. This is not working with this person. I don't want to create any problems, and I don't want to lose my visa, I just want to survive this time with this person, and hopefully not lose my career with her bad recommendation. Does anyone have any advice or has faced a situation like this? Does any part of this sound like a cultural difference that I am not understanding? My PI is also a foreigner. Please ask any questions, I will try to answers. She has never physically touched me when she was acting aggressively like this except to move me out of her way a little one time. She has not called me terrible names, but ones that I think do not fit my behavior and are maybe not appropriate for the workplace. I do not know her boss well, but they are very close and I worry about bringing this to her. Thank you very much. EDIT: I am working as a postdoc at a large, private research university Assistant: I am really sorry you are going through this situation. My advice would be to start searching for jobs aggressively, this is not sustainable for your mental health and less importantly your productivity.

Human: Foreign postdoc, difficulty with PI, not sure what to do next TL;DR: PI aggressive, yells at me, hits tables, other, worried to go to HR or her boss, as I depend on this job for my visa. Have tried several different ways of dealing with her directly, always ends with her raising her voice, interrupting me, and sometimes calling me names. I have heard that this power dynamic happens sometimes, are there things that I can do? I am not trying to be vague, I am wanting to be careful about the information that I put out into the world right now. Please let me know if I have left out important information that might help answer my question, and I will try to answer it. Thank you. I will not add too much to my TL;DR. She becomes aggressive with me quickly, raising her voice, hitting the table, she sometimes calls me names or tells me to tell the truth, suggesting that I'm lying to her. I have a history where I am very much not ok with being yelled at like this or with people hitting things or behaving aggressively around me. I have told her this and she continues and says that I'm being dramatic. I have tried to solve the issue by talking with her many times, and then by email so that I would have a record of the conversations and so that she would not interrupt me or be able to yell at me so easily. She has responded to this by telling me that I am causing problems, and telling me that we'll talk about it in person, where she starts to get aggressive with me again. I am not perfect. I realize that I have my difficulties working with other people sometimes too, but never like this, and I can usually fix the problem by talking with the person and trying to understand where they are coming from and what they want. This is not working with this person. I don't want to create any problems, and I don't want to lose my visa, I just want to survive this time with this person, and hopefully not lose my career with her bad recommendation. Does anyone have any advice or has faced a situation like this? Does any part of this sound like a cultural difference that I am not understanding? My PI is also a foreigner. Please ask any questions, I will try to answers. She has never physically touched me when she was acting aggressively like this except to move me out of her way a little one time. She has not called me terrible names, but ones that I think do not fit my behavior and are maybe not appropriate for the workplace. I do not know her boss well, but they are very close and I worry about bringing this to her. Thank you very much. EDIT: I am working as a postdoc at a large, private research university Assistant: Even if you find temporary working cadence (kissing thier butt, amazing results etc) these personalities are unreliable and too easy to offended. Imagine putting up with shit for years and not getting a recommendation. It happened to me. Strongly encourage you to start searching for somewhere else.

Human: Do you know anyone that would think it is ethical to submit to Nature for their 10k€ fee/2k€ review fee ? I've read the news that Nature will start accepting open access papers for a 10k€ fee. 6 months of a PhD salary. You could also send a paper and get a "guided review" for 2k€, that they say will be "more insightful". linky I'm wondering...Even if your group did have such money... Would you consider publishing with them? Is it ethical? Will a funding agency ever approve spending so much money on a paper? Assistant: Generally speaking, Open Access is not free of charge. But OA papers tend to be more cited, because they are more widely available. So they're basically saying 'if you pay us a fee, you will have a still greater visibility than the one you would already get with Nature'. To be honest, if you have the type of funding that allows you to do research that can be published on Nature, you should have the 10'000 euros to spare for OA publication.

Human: Do you know anyone that would think it is ethical to submit to Nature for their 10k€ fee/2k€ review fee ? I've read the news that Nature will start accepting open access papers for a 10k€ fee. 6 months of a PhD salary. You could also send a paper and get a "guided review" for 2k€, that they say will be "more insightful". linky I'm wondering...Even if your group did have such money... Would you consider publishing with them? Is it ethical? Will a funding agency ever approve spending so much money on a paper? Assistant: All the senior scientists judge each other by publishing in these journals, while simultaneously shaking their heads and saying, "it's a terrible system." They still don't realise that they themselves are the system. It's a tragic comedy.

Human: I recently joined a predatory publishing group unknowingly, how do I stay true to my values while still working there? I started a new job, which I didn't know was a backend for a predatory publishing group. I have very less options to work elsewhere since I have very less experience and a gap in employment during covid which happened when my parents got unwell. I really want to stay true to my values but it is hurting me a lot inside. What do I do? Assistant: If you're aware of your new employer being a predatory publishing group, then other future potential employers may also know this. It's a difficult situation, but staying put in the company may hurt your chances in future job searches. Obviously the alternative option is that you quit and you're unemployed again. Sorry, it's not an easy situation, but something you may want to think about.

Human: I recently joined a predatory publishing group unknowingly, how do I stay true to my values while still working there? I started a new job, which I didn't know was a backend for a predatory publishing group. I have very less options to work elsewhere since I have very less experience and a gap in employment during covid which happened when my parents got unwell. I really want to stay true to my values but it is hurting me a lot inside. What do I do? Assistant: Don’t worry about the employment gap. Covid and taking time off to care for a sick relative easily explain that. No one with bat an eye.

Human: How do university grades work in the US? Does GPA apply to university? I have noticed that quite a substantial portion of university students in the US seemingly manage to graduate with a GPA of 4.0, which, in my understanding, translates to them having achieved the highest possible grade in all of their courses. Where I am from, achieving a seemingly equivalent feat (highest possible grade in all courses, including thesis, doctoral viva, ...) translates to the President attending your graduation and personally congratulating you. Only about 0.04% of all students manage to achieve this. So, my question is how does this make sense? Does this have something to do with the distinction of "college" and "university" in the US? Is this just a case of Grade inflation being much worse in the US than in Europe? Is it possible to "fix" your GPA if you have not achieved the highest possible grade in some exam? Assistant: >I have noticed that quite a substantial portion of university students in the US seemingly manage to graduate with a GPA of 4.0 Where are you noticing this? Where do work that you see a substantial portion of students' GPAs?

Human: How do university grades work in the US? Does GPA apply to university? I have noticed that quite a substantial portion of university students in the US seemingly manage to graduate with a GPA of 4.0, which, in my understanding, translates to them having achieved the highest possible grade in all of their courses. Where I am from, achieving a seemingly equivalent feat (highest possible grade in all courses, including thesis, doctoral viva, ...) translates to the President attending your graduation and personally congratulating you. Only about 0.04% of all students manage to achieve this. So, my question is how does this make sense? Does this have something to do with the distinction of "college" and "university" in the US? Is this just a case of Grade inflation being much worse in the US than in Europe? Is it possible to "fix" your GPA if you have not achieved the highest possible grade in some exam? Assistant: My own anecdotal experience (in the humanities) is that grading standards in US universities just tend to be more lenient, at least compared to Canada, where I did my graduate work. As a grad TA, our guidelines for grade distribution suggested 15-35% A-range grades as the norm (which was already raised from 5-25% in previous work) whereas the state university I'm at now tends more towards 50-60% A-range grades.

Human: What software/hardware did you use for research in the 90s Messing with an old Macintosh today, I started wondering how these early machines were used for academic work "back in the day." For those who were already doing academic research in the 90s (either as students or staff): * Did you use a computer beyond email and word processing? (typing up the final draft) * If so, what were you able to use the computer for? Writing and organizing notes? Reading sources? Creating a reference database? Statistical analysis? Project/time management? Communication? * What OS did you use, and what was your typical workflow → what was your go to software and file formats, and what role did they play in getting you from the initial idea to publication? Was the computer just an afterthought or was it one of your main tools? I'm especially interested in people who used Macs for academic research in the humanities and social sciences (from Macintosh System 1 to Mac OS 9) ...but I would also be happy to hear from those in other disciplines and on other platforms (DOS, Windows, Amiga, Linux, etc.). Assistant: So I know this is farther back than OP is asking, but can we pour one out for the poor souls in the 70s who had to do their dissertation analyses on punch cards, one test at a time, and you would drop the cards off in the morning and then come back in the afternoon to discover you accidentally had two swapped and so there was a compiler error and you has to run the regression again

Human: What software/hardware did you use for research in the 90s Messing with an old Macintosh today, I started wondering how these early machines were used for academic work "back in the day." For those who were already doing academic research in the 90s (either as students or staff): * Did you use a computer beyond email and word processing? (typing up the final draft) * If so, what were you able to use the computer for? Writing and organizing notes? Reading sources? Creating a reference database? Statistical analysis? Project/time management? Communication? * What OS did you use, and what was your typical workflow → what was your go to software and file formats, and what role did they play in getting you from the initial idea to publication? Was the computer just an afterthought or was it one of your main tools? I'm especially interested in people who used Macs for academic research in the humanities and social sciences (from Macintosh System 1 to Mac OS 9) ...but I would also be happy to hear from those in other disciplines and on other platforms (DOS, Windows, Amiga, Linux, etc.). Assistant: WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. Write some papers and occasionally do some analysis.

Human: When applying to a postdoc, can I provide a list of referees instead of cover letters? To summarize, today I found out about a postdoc position that will finish in less than 48 hours. There is no way for even my advisor to provide me a cover letter, as he is on vacation overseas. I have a close work relationship with two other professors, but honestly I think I'd be a dick by asking them for a letter to be written until tomorrow. Would it be rude of me to explain in a document file that I do not have cover letters available at hand, but then list the name, contact information and my relationship with these 3 individuals, and that they may provide a reference upon request? P.S.: This is actually my first time seeing a positing asking me, the applicant, to send the letters. The others I've applied to all asked me to list name, contact information and relationship of 2 or 3 people. Assistant: I'm a bit confused. Typically you would write a cover letter yourself - it's your explanation of why you want the job and why you'd be good at it. Your references would provide references or LoR. I've never heard of someone writing your cover letter for you.

Human: When applying to a postdoc, can I provide a list of referees instead of cover letters? To summarize, today I found out about a postdoc position that will finish in less than 48 hours. There is no way for even my advisor to provide me a cover letter, as he is on vacation overseas. I have a close work relationship with two other professors, but honestly I think I'd be a dick by asking them for a letter to be written until tomorrow. Would it be rude of me to explain in a document file that I do not have cover letters available at hand, but then list the name, contact information and my relationship with these 3 individuals, and that they may provide a reference upon request? P.S.: This is actually my first time seeing a positing asking me, the applicant, to send the letters. The others I've applied to all asked me to list name, contact information and relationship of 2 or 3 people. Assistant: You likely won't even be considered, as your application would be incomplete.

Human: Is there a research database that allows you to search for articles based on the theories or methods of analysis that were used? Specifically for communication studies, please, if anyone has leads. Thank you! Assistant: Talk to your librarian! They will be most familiar with the databases you have access to.

Human: Is there a research database that allows you to search for articles based on the theories or methods of analysis that were used? Specifically for communication studies, please, if anyone has leads. Thank you! Assistant: Academic librarian here: not that I know of. As others have said, advanced search strings can help with this. I highly recommend chatting with your institution's librarian (or one of them) to request some recommended search strings.

Human: How are co-first authorships viewed in academia? If it's mentioned that both authors contributed equally, does the order of the authors' names matter at all? Assistant: My doctoral supervisor who was pre tenure (first mistake of mine) convinced me to list our names alphabetically on the primary article from my field study. Since my last name is at the end of the alphabet this meant she was listed first. There was an asterisk added that said “both authors contributed equally to this paper”. The result is that my dissertation research is forever cited w her name first. That pub helped get her tenure.

Human: How are co-first authorships viewed in academia? If it's mentioned that both authors contributed equally, does the order of the authors' names matter at all? Assistant: First co-author = first author > second co-author >= second author. That’s what I think

Human: what are the major differences between R1 and R2 institutions? What are people's experiences in these situations and how do you like your job? Assistant: R2s that want to become R1s - without spending significant extra cash for support (admin, time, resources, extra people) - are hellholes filled with delusional admins that grind their pretenure faculty to dust and embitter the senior faculty that didn't get a lucky punch with a big grant. They are amongst the *worst* places to work in academia.

Human: what are the major differences between R1 and R2 institutions? What are people's experiences in these situations and how do you like your job? Assistant: The amount of Rs

Human: What are the limits of ethics using AI to write a manuscript Short history: Can I use ChatGPT to rewrite one or a couple of paragraphs to resolve reviewers' comments? Am I cheating? I just discovered the ChatGPT3 from OpenAI and I'm in love. It has helped me a lot to overcome a creative block I was facing to finish a manuscript from my PhD where 2 of 3 coauthors (the 2 advisors) are quite absent, and for this reason, I stopped working on this manuscript for 1.5 years. Every time I tried to take it back I felt anxious and blocked. However, I'm currently passing a great moment of my life that brings me back to the joying of scientific writing, especially a couple of high-impact manuscript acceptance this last month. Thus, using the ChatGPT I got the draft of two paragraphs that helped a lot to move fast with this manuscript. Because I'm deeply editing these two paragraphs I think there are no ethical concerns about it. However, today I ask the ChatGPT to rewrite the paragraph of the objectives in another manuscript that received a minor review. The major concern is the lack of clarity in the objectives. Thus, I just asked to the ChatGPT rewrite this in a clearer manner and nail it. The paragraph is amazing now and I'm planning to use it directly as it is in the manuscript to send back to the journal. My question however is if I'm pushing the ethical line far from the gray area and if I can be punished in the future for this approach. Please note that I'm talking about a couple of paragraphs (300 words maximum). Assistant: I personally think it sounds problematic. There’s a larger problem at hand if you’re turning to ChatGPT to rewrite 300 word sections for clarity. At the end of the day it isn’t your words so you’d need to reference/cite it. Even then as a reviewer I’d be concerned about the rest of the document. Good luck!

Human: What are the limits of ethics using AI to write a manuscript Short history: Can I use ChatGPT to rewrite one or a couple of paragraphs to resolve reviewers' comments? Am I cheating? I just discovered the ChatGPT3 from OpenAI and I'm in love. It has helped me a lot to overcome a creative block I was facing to finish a manuscript from my PhD where 2 of 3 coauthors (the 2 advisors) are quite absent, and for this reason, I stopped working on this manuscript for 1.5 years. Every time I tried to take it back I felt anxious and blocked. However, I'm currently passing a great moment of my life that brings me back to the joying of scientific writing, especially a couple of high-impact manuscript acceptance this last month. Thus, using the ChatGPT I got the draft of two paragraphs that helped a lot to move fast with this manuscript. Because I'm deeply editing these two paragraphs I think there are no ethical concerns about it. However, today I ask the ChatGPT to rewrite the paragraph of the objectives in another manuscript that received a minor review. The major concern is the lack of clarity in the objectives. Thus, I just asked to the ChatGPT rewrite this in a clearer manner and nail it. The paragraph is amazing now and I'm planning to use it directly as it is in the manuscript to send back to the journal. My question however is if I'm pushing the ethical line far from the gray area and if I can be punished in the future for this approach. Please note that I'm talking about a couple of paragraphs (300 words maximum). Assistant: I’m not sure about ethics but wouldn’t it be easier to get colleagues to proof-read for you and give suggestions? Then you don’t need to worry about whether it’s considered cheating, and you might learn how to write more clearly for the future

Human: Are PhD students and Academics allowed to operate a startup on the side in their free time? Is it even possible given the work hours? I was wondering whether its allowed and possible for PhD students and lecturers to work on a startup (eg a regular startup or an invention startup or a research startup) on the side. By allowed, I mean whether academic institutions allow it and if not what will be the consequences if you are caught. For possibility, I mean whether one has the time and energy (after necessities like commute, work, chores etc) to work on a startup business on the side. Please answer for both PhD students as well as Lecturers (the first rung on the academic career) Assistant:

Human: Are PhD students and Academics allowed to operate a startup on the side in their free time? Is it even possible given the work hours? I was wondering whether its allowed and possible for PhD students and lecturers to work on a startup (eg a regular startup or an invention startup or a research startup) on the side. By allowed, I mean whether academic institutions allow it and if not what will be the consequences if you are caught. For possibility, I mean whether one has the time and energy (after necessities like commute, work, chores etc) to work on a startup business on the side. Please answer for both PhD students as well as Lecturers (the first rung on the academic career) Assistant: Check with your University. A lot of them have startup incubators now. But generally, if you have a startup with external funding, you will write into a contract that you are paid X% of your salary by the Uni/grants, and y% from startup, and you would have to keep any resources used between them separate. If you do all your startup work from home, that should be simpler, but you should check with your contract and iron out any details before getting started.

Human: Maybe this is US specific, but how much are we expected to work over the holidays ? I have a toddler and his daycare is out for the holidays. His dad, the usual caretaker when daycare are closed, has a lot of work to do for his own business. This year, due to covid, our university technically has a few days where everyone is taking off unpaid in order to I guess help with the financial strain of covid, so in theory we should have dec 24-Jan 1 off. In practice though, meetings are scheduled in this time. I’m not going to not participate if meetings are scheduled, but I’m definitely a bit unhappy about it. It’s been a hard year and I would’ve liked the time to unwind, instead of this very unclear , unspoken expectation that we do work during this time. Is there a ...better way to handle this than just keep my head down and work as much as I feel like I could? Assistant: "Just a reminder that I am taking unpaid leave next week so will not be available for meetings. See you in January!"

Human: Maybe this is US specific, but how much are we expected to work over the holidays ? I have a toddler and his daycare is out for the holidays. His dad, the usual caretaker when daycare are closed, has a lot of work to do for his own business. This year, due to covid, our university technically has a few days where everyone is taking off unpaid in order to I guess help with the financial strain of covid, so in theory we should have dec 24-Jan 1 off. In practice though, meetings are scheduled in this time. I’m not going to not participate if meetings are scheduled, but I’m definitely a bit unhappy about it. It’s been a hard year and I would’ve liked the time to unwind, instead of this very unclear , unspoken expectation that we do work during this time. Is there a ...better way to handle this than just keep my head down and work as much as I feel like I could? Assistant: I will not work Thursday or Friday. Next week I may look at stuff, but it'll be if I want to. If I don't want to do anything, then I won't. I am US too.

Human: Number of working hours in a week How many hours, ideally, should a PhD student be working for, in a week? It probably varies with individuals, research areas, and supervisors, but I have heard many stories of students working 70-80 hours a week for many weeks and wonder whether that’s normal. How does productivity, in general, scale with the number of working hours and when does the law of marginal returns kick in? Is it very field-specific? Assistant: My funders told me they did not expect me to work more than 35 hours per week. You should not flog yourself simply because you are doing a PhD.

Human: Number of working hours in a week How many hours, ideally, should a PhD student be working for, in a week? It probably varies with individuals, research areas, and supervisors, but I have heard many stories of students working 70-80 hours a week for many weeks and wonder whether that’s normal. How does productivity, in general, scale with the number of working hours and when does the law of marginal returns kick in? Is it very field-specific? Assistant: You should work the hours that you need to work to get a reasonable workload done - not a STEM person but I average 45 hours a week, some weeks that means 60 hours, others it means 20. I do keep track because if I'm up to 11 tonight working on this article then I'll claw back some time Friday afternoon. More hours doesn't mean more productive, it generally just means more stressed.

Human: I requested a few exam copies, ended up not adopting them, put them out for other professors to take. The publisher now wants me to either adopt the textbooks or pay an invoice? I had no idea these were the terms and did not sign anything, but apparently one must either adopt the textbook, return it, or buy it at a 20% discount. These books looked promising but are not a fit for my classroom and were swept up by other professors once I set them out. Am I *legally* obligated to purchase them/adopt them? Even if they send me an invoice, can I just ignore it indefinitely? Assistant: This is ridiculous. It's a shakedown by an aggressive bookseller. Unless you signed a purchase or license agreement, you can safely ignore them. I receive free copies of textbooks all the time from reputable publishers. It is definitely not customary for them to send you a freebie then demand payment.

Human: I requested a few exam copies, ended up not adopting them, put them out for other professors to take. The publisher now wants me to either adopt the textbooks or pay an invoice? I had no idea these were the terms and did not sign anything, but apparently one must either adopt the textbook, return it, or buy it at a 20% discount. These books looked promising but are not a fit for my classroom and were swept up by other professors once I set them out. Am I *legally* obligated to purchase them/adopt them? Even if they send me an invoice, can I just ignore it indefinitely? Assistant: Why not just return them?

Human: Transitioning (female to male) as a grad student (neuroscience, USA) I'm a trans man in a biomedical science (neuroscience) PhD program. I've socially transitioned and am out personally to my friends (but not family) and professionally in my grad school, in the sense that I am not hiding that I am trans, but did not broadcast it/make a big announcement to everyone when I came out. I'll be starting testosterone hormone therapy in April. Are there any trans academics here, especially in the sciences, who can share their experiences transitioning in academia? I'm lucky that my PI, labmates, and grad school friends are all supportive, but am concerned about how I will be treated in the broader scientific community if people find out I'm trans. I'm in my second year so am optimistic I will pass by the time I finish my PhD, but while in grad school I'll still be going to conferences and networking outside my immediate academic circle. I'm submitting a grant in the next couple of months. I can't change my legal name so my submissions/transcripts being under \[feminine birth name\] but me being referred to with male pronouns in letters will be a dead giveaway. How likely am I to be discriminated against? Academia is generally liberal, but I've heard from multiple PIs who've sat on study section that people can be petty for all sorts of reasons, and I don't want to paint a target on my back. Should I pretend to be a woman for the time being and have my letter writers refer to me as such just to be safe? In terms of publishing, I have a first author paper from undergrad under my birth name. I now go by my nickname which is a shortened version that's gender neutral (think Alexandra --> Alex), so my initials are the same. Assistant: You should read some articles by Ben Barres. He was a prominent neuroscientist at Stanford who transitioned early in his career. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago, but he wrote many articles on his experiences.

Human: Transitioning (female to male) as a grad student (neuroscience, USA) I'm a trans man in a biomedical science (neuroscience) PhD program. I've socially transitioned and am out personally to my friends (but not family) and professionally in my grad school, in the sense that I am not hiding that I am trans, but did not broadcast it/make a big announcement to everyone when I came out. I'll be starting testosterone hormone therapy in April. Are there any trans academics here, especially in the sciences, who can share their experiences transitioning in academia? I'm lucky that my PI, labmates, and grad school friends are all supportive, but am concerned about how I will be treated in the broader scientific community if people find out I'm trans. I'm in my second year so am optimistic I will pass by the time I finish my PhD, but while in grad school I'll still be going to conferences and networking outside my immediate academic circle. I'm submitting a grant in the next couple of months. I can't change my legal name so my submissions/transcripts being under \[feminine birth name\] but me being referred to with male pronouns in letters will be a dead giveaway. How likely am I to be discriminated against? Academia is generally liberal, but I've heard from multiple PIs who've sat on study section that people can be petty for all sorts of reasons, and I don't want to paint a target on my back. Should I pretend to be a woman for the time being and have my letter writers refer to me as such just to be safe? In terms of publishing, I have a first author paper from undergrad under my birth name. I now go by my nickname which is a shortened version that's gender neutral (think Alexandra --> Alex), so my initials are the same. Assistant: I don’t have any specific advice or insight for you, but if you aren’t already aware of Ben Barres, I’d suggest looking him up. He was an extremely successful trans (f to m) neuroscientist. He has written pretty extensively on topics that you might find helpful, and was a champion for mentorship of LGBTQ and other underrepresented groups. He even wrote a book called “The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist.”

Human: Used to have lots of emotional issues but stubbornly remained in school and shot my GPA. Now I’m a straight A student on track to graduate. How can I stand out when applying for grad school? Hey all, as the title says I had lots of emotional issues my first six years in university, which led to a staggeringly low 1.96 GPA. I took a couple of years off, worked and saw a psychologist in the meantime. I worked through my issues and returned to uni getting straight A’s my last two semesters in senior level classes . This has only risen my GPA up to a 2.37, however. It’ll be a long while before I can even get up to a 3, let alone a 3.5 to be somewhat competitive. I’ve been doing research as well and my professor thinks we can publish in a few months to a year. I really want to apply to grad school, but I’m aware that my low GPA will auto reject me from most schools. I figure my only real option is to just keep retaking classes until my GPA is up to par, but undoing six years worth of damage is a daunting task to say the least. So I ask you, do I have a choice? Is there anything I can do to “wow” grad schools and convince them that my poor GPA is no longer reflective of my ability or maturity level, or should I graduate, find a job, and slowly grind one class at a time until my GPA improves enough to be competitive? Please don’t sugarcoat it, I’m aware of the consequences of my immaturity but I really want to get into grad school (it’s my dream to someday get a Ph.D.) and am willing to do what it takes to atone for those mistakes. Thank you in advance! Assistant: Quite a few universities here in Canada only take into account your last two years of full time study when calculating your GPA for grad school admissions. I’m in the arts/humanities—I’m not sure if it would be the same for your field, but it might be worth checking. Direct entry to PhD is rare here, but MAs are generally reasonably funded, and you could be a strong applicant to PhD programs in the US after finishing a Canadian MA with good grades and more research experience if you decide to move back.

Human: Used to have lots of emotional issues but stubbornly remained in school and shot my GPA. Now I’m a straight A student on track to graduate. How can I stand out when applying for grad school? Hey all, as the title says I had lots of emotional issues my first six years in university, which led to a staggeringly low 1.96 GPA. I took a couple of years off, worked and saw a psychologist in the meantime. I worked through my issues and returned to uni getting straight A’s my last two semesters in senior level classes . This has only risen my GPA up to a 2.37, however. It’ll be a long while before I can even get up to a 3, let alone a 3.5 to be somewhat competitive. I’ve been doing research as well and my professor thinks we can publish in a few months to a year. I really want to apply to grad school, but I’m aware that my low GPA will auto reject me from most schools. I figure my only real option is to just keep retaking classes until my GPA is up to par, but undoing six years worth of damage is a daunting task to say the least. So I ask you, do I have a choice? Is there anything I can do to “wow” grad schools and convince them that my poor GPA is no longer reflective of my ability or maturity level, or should I graduate, find a job, and slowly grind one class at a time until my GPA improves enough to be competitive? Please don’t sugarcoat it, I’m aware of the consequences of my immaturity but I really want to get into grad school (it’s my dream to someday get a Ph.D.) and am willing to do what it takes to atone for those mistakes. Thank you in advance! Assistant: A lot of universities only calculate your GPA based off of your last 60 credits (2-ish years). What does your GPA look like if you calculate it this way?

Human: Is academia (teaching/research at the university level) a good career path for someone who prefers to work thoroughly vs. quickly? I really enjoyed doing independent research for my Master's. I've been in the professional world awhile also, and I know that I struggle a bit in fast-paced work environments where I have to move between lots of small projects. However, I'm intellectually curious and my work gets good feedback when it's a bigger project where I have enough time that I'm not cutting corners. I was diagnosed with ADHD as as an adult, so that might be part of why I do better in jobs where I have a fair amount of flexibility on scheduling and work hours. I'm curious if this sounds like it would be compatible with academia? Or do you think this would still cause problems? Assistant: “Move between lots of small projects” is practically the _definition_ of professor.

Human: Is academia (teaching/research at the university level) a good career path for someone who prefers to work thoroughly vs. quickly? I really enjoyed doing independent research for my Master's. I've been in the professional world awhile also, and I know that I struggle a bit in fast-paced work environments where I have to move between lots of small projects. However, I'm intellectually curious and my work gets good feedback when it's a bigger project where I have enough time that I'm not cutting corners. I was diagnosed with ADHD as as an adult, so that might be part of why I do better in jobs where I have a fair amount of flexibility on scheduling and work hours. I'm curious if this sounds like it would be compatible with academia? Or do you think this would still cause problems? Assistant: If “quickly” means you like being done with one thing and moving onto the next, no, it’s likely not suited for you. Depending on the field, you might be working on the same problem for years, and persistence is sometimes more important though speed certainly helps. I think the only exception might be those applied fields where salami slicing contributions into dozen articles a year is encouraged…but that would mean rewriting the same thing over and over with minimal changes.

Human: What would your students be surprised to know about you? I just saw snippet of a Dr. Phil episode surrounding a college professor with a major drinking problem. When I was an undergrad I wasn't close to many of my professors. Most of what we discussed was related to topics within the confines of the major. I knew if they had kids or were married... but nothing overly sentimental, save for stumbling upon that one was going through a bitter divorce. It never really occurred to me that they had problems in their own lives. What would your students (undergrad or grad) be surprised to know about you? Assistant: I watch a non-zero amount of children's cartoons every day.

Human: What would your students be surprised to know about you? I just saw snippet of a Dr. Phil episode surrounding a college professor with a major drinking problem. When I was an undergrad I wasn't close to many of my professors. Most of what we discussed was related to topics within the confines of the major. I knew if they had kids or were married... but nothing overly sentimental, save for stumbling upon that one was going through a bitter divorce. It never really occurred to me that they had problems in their own lives. What would your students (undergrad or grad) be surprised to know about you? Assistant: That I'm generally a quiet guy who doesn't have a ton of friends and am very content to spend quiet evenings with my wife. This would shock them as in school I am a very outgoing, bombastic, high-energy person who will talk to anyone at any time. I do that so I'm better at my job. It's tiring and the last thing I want to do at home most nights.

Human: Those of you with a Ph.D./currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program, hindsight is 20/20, so what's one thing you wish you knew prior to entering your first year that would've made a huge difference? I will be a first-year Ph.D. student this coming fall pursuing a degree in sport & exercise psychology. I am curious for those of you who have completed your Ph.D./are current Ph.D. students: * What is one thing you wish you knew prior to starting your program? * Knowing what you know now, what is something (some skill, piece of knowledge/information) that you think if you knew back then, would have been helpful/made the experience/transition into a Ph.D. program a little smoother for you? (Being intentionally a little on the vague side here...) Assistant: Relationships matter, a lot, as much as or more than your science. Network constantly. Show your advisor your best work. At conferences, talk to famous people in your field and be admiring. Do not be critical. Everything is interesting, everyone is working on something cool. Be nice!!!!! Be humble. Read everything. Write early, write often, publish constantly in grad school. NETWORK. Be respectful to your teachers and your colleagues. Be professional. BE NICE. Seriously just be nice.

Human: Those of you with a Ph.D./currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program, hindsight is 20/20, so what's one thing you wish you knew prior to entering your first year that would've made a huge difference? I will be a first-year Ph.D. student this coming fall pursuing a degree in sport & exercise psychology. I am curious for those of you who have completed your Ph.D./are current Ph.D. students: * What is one thing you wish you knew prior to starting your program? * Knowing what you know now, what is something (some skill, piece of knowledge/information) that you think if you knew back then, would have been helpful/made the experience/transition into a Ph.D. program a little smoother for you? (Being intentionally a little on the vague side here...) Assistant: You will have at least one breakdown/public sob-fest. That does NOT reflect on your ability to complete/succeed in graduate school.

Human: Unpublished Thesis by Publication flagged as plagiarism by a journal editor. What to do? After submitting a manuscript, the editor flagged a large portion as self-plagiarism. Turns out the journal uses TurnItIn and it scraped my alma mater's thesis repo. Thing is, in Australia it's really common to do a thesis by compilation which contains a series of manuscripts intended for submission - my thesis is online, but my old uni says it's not considered published so I shouldn't need to cite it and that it's not plagiarism. I've already reached out to the editor and explained the format and intention of the thesis, (this has happened before and other editors have understood this process), but I'm anticipating the worse. My options could be: 1. Have the editor understand and move the manuscript on for review. 2. Completely rewrite the article. 3. Redact that chapter of my thesis, so it's technically not available (even though it's not published) - with this option, I'm worried TurnItIn will retain the old version, and even if the chapter is not available, it'll still falsely flag as plagiarised. Anyone else run into this situation? Did you have to rewrite? Is redacting a suitable solution? Assistant: Why is a journal using a tool as ethically compromised as Turnitin?

Human: Unpublished Thesis by Publication flagged as plagiarism by a journal editor. What to do? After submitting a manuscript, the editor flagged a large portion as self-plagiarism. Turns out the journal uses TurnItIn and it scraped my alma mater's thesis repo. Thing is, in Australia it's really common to do a thesis by compilation which contains a series of manuscripts intended for submission - my thesis is online, but my old uni says it's not considered published so I shouldn't need to cite it and that it's not plagiarism. I've already reached out to the editor and explained the format and intention of the thesis, (this has happened before and other editors have understood this process), but I'm anticipating the worse. My options could be: 1. Have the editor understand and move the manuscript on for review. 2. Completely rewrite the article. 3. Redact that chapter of my thesis, so it's technically not available (even though it's not published) - with this option, I'm worried TurnItIn will retain the old version, and even if the chapter is not available, it'll still falsely flag as plagiarised. Anyone else run into this situation? Did you have to rewrite? Is redacting a suitable solution? Assistant: editor here - yep you should be fine. The system I use makes it fairly hard to discover the exact source of the overlap - you have to do a lot of scrolling - so it's easy to slip up and mistake an unpublished paper for a published one.

Human: How horrible is the market for professors I have read that it harder to get tenure than to be an nfl player. I was specifically looking at history, I am a guy who spends way too much time watching youtube on strange historical topics and documentaries. I am looking into a ma of history but I just wanna know how much longer society expects me to be in poverty! Assistant: The odds are very very long. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you. I’m not in history, but I am in an arts/humanities field. I went to a very good PhD program. I had a cohort of 5. I am the only one with a TT job.

Human: How horrible is the market for professors I have read that it harder to get tenure than to be an nfl player. I was specifically looking at history, I am a guy who spends way too much time watching youtube on strange historical topics and documentaries. I am looking into a ma of history but I just wanna know how much longer society expects me to be in poverty! Assistant: An MA in history isn't going to get you an academic job as a historian. And frankly, a PhD isn't likely to get you that much closer to it, either. That's a uniquely terrible job market in academia (comparable only to fields like english or philosophy).

Human: How old it "too old" for a prospective PhD supervisor? As a preface I haven't actually communicated with the professor in question so it's entirely possible that it's not even an option. I am currently in the process of finishing my master's and looking for a PhD. I know of one professor whose research interests match very closely to mine and I have been following his work for the past few years as well as reading his earlier work. In addition to this, both my bachelor's and master's theses are relevant to what he is doing, and in turn I want to further specialize in his field. My main worry is that the professor is in his early seventies and although it looks from his webpage like he is still accepting phd students and like he is very active publication-wise, I don't know if it would be a good idea in the long term. The general field is theoretical computer science if it plays any role. Is there any general guideline on when a prospective supervisor is too old? Or am I just being ageist and shouldn't take age into account if someone is accepting new students? Assistant: There are lots of other good comments here, but I want to add a slightly unpleasant (and morbid) thing about older advisors- they are human beings and despite being academics, they don’t live forever. For a PhD I would be very afraid of my very senior PI passing away or retiring before I finish. Both for the mental component to grief as well as potential of not being able to finish or having difficulty finishing.

Human: How old it "too old" for a prospective PhD supervisor? As a preface I haven't actually communicated with the professor in question so it's entirely possible that it's not even an option. I am currently in the process of finishing my master's and looking for a PhD. I know of one professor whose research interests match very closely to mine and I have been following his work for the past few years as well as reading his earlier work. In addition to this, both my bachelor's and master's theses are relevant to what he is doing, and in turn I want to further specialize in his field. My main worry is that the professor is in his early seventies and although it looks from his webpage like he is still accepting phd students and like he is very active publication-wise, I don't know if it would be a good idea in the long term. The general field is theoretical computer science if it plays any role. Is there any general guideline on when a prospective supervisor is too old? Or am I just being ageist and shouldn't take age into account if someone is accepting new students? Assistant: I think it is reasonable to confirm that they are not planning on imminent retirement. But the professors in my department who I've witnessed ramping up (winding down?) for retirement have all stopped taking PhD students to focus on getting through the ones they have.

Human: to those of you who burned out, how did you feel and what made you realise you needed time off? I think I might be a little burned out. I'm a second year postdoc way behind schedule and I would like to hear other people's experiences with burnout. How did you feel and how did you overcome it? All opinions welcome and thank you for the responses. Assistant: I literally stopped caring about shit, dreaded checking email, and had a really hard time mustering the gumption to handle even simple/5 min administrative tasks Edit: overcame by taking a sabbatical at the perfect time, and literally focusing on doing totally different stuff for awhile. It takes awhile to get over the cumulative stress that builds up from years of academia.

Human: to those of you who burned out, how did you feel and what made you realise you needed time off? I think I might be a little burned out. I'm a second year postdoc way behind schedule and I would like to hear other people's experiences with burnout. How did you feel and how did you overcome it? All opinions welcome and thank you for the responses. Assistant: Exhausted but can’t sleep!

Human: Serious question: why does anyone do a PhD? It seems like I only seem to read posts on bad experiences while doing a PhD. (Relying on 1 advisor the whole time, they may be toxic, etc.) Not only that, but it seems like job security is ass even after completing a PhD with no promise whatsoever of a higher paying job or even job security. I’m not trying to offend anyone, just genuinely curious. Is it only because some jobs require a PhD? Assistant: Don’t treat PhD’s across disciplines as homogeneous.

Human: Serious question: why does anyone do a PhD? It seems like I only seem to read posts on bad experiences while doing a PhD. (Relying on 1 advisor the whole time, they may be toxic, etc.) Not only that, but it seems like job security is ass even after completing a PhD with no promise whatsoever of a higher paying job or even job security. I’m not trying to offend anyone, just genuinely curious. Is it only because some jobs require a PhD? Assistant: Because a PhD is an immensely rewarding experience on its own terms if you enjoy the work (and only some supervisors are truly terrible), and because it's required to go into academia. There are very few other experiences in the modern world where you get paid to produce a thing over several years with very few checks except for whether the final product is worthwhile.

Human: dietary restrictions and campus visit I'm a recent PhD in the humanities, USA, and have just been invited to my first campus visit. I have a lot of specific dietary restrictions for medical reasons, and I don't want to make things awkward or seem high maintenance, but I also don't want to end up having bad reactions to foods and being unable to perform well in the interview events, or having embarrassing medical issues in front of everyone, etc. After reading some advice online and talking to one advisor I did email the office admins organizing my trip to politely let them know my dietary restrictions and ask if it would be an issue. They gave the name of the place they were planning to have a dinner event and the place they use for lunch catering. I called the dinner restaurant and they aren't able to make anything I can eat. I can't eat anything as-is from the lunch catering either, unless they were able to request a special version of one dish without some of the ingredients on it. Should I let them know I won't be able to eat at the dinner place and ask if it would be possible to request a lunch without certain ingredients? Or plan on bringing my own food to everything? Or just not eat while I'm at interview events? I don't want to make a fuss but I also know (from going to meals for events in my own department as a grad student) it can be really socially awkward and make others uncomfortable if we all go to a restaurant and I don't eat anything, or it could make people feel offended if I bring my own food to everything. Would really appreciate some advice - thanks to anyone who can help. Assistant: I’ve served on our appointments committee several times and I would much prefer to know about this in advance of the your visit. As a committee member, I’d be more comfortable knowing our guest is comfortable. Someone really should have asked you about dietary restrictions or accommodations right away. I’m sorry they didn’t.

Human: dietary restrictions and campus visit I'm a recent PhD in the humanities, USA, and have just been invited to my first campus visit. I have a lot of specific dietary restrictions for medical reasons, and I don't want to make things awkward or seem high maintenance, but I also don't want to end up having bad reactions to foods and being unable to perform well in the interview events, or having embarrassing medical issues in front of everyone, etc. After reading some advice online and talking to one advisor I did email the office admins organizing my trip to politely let them know my dietary restrictions and ask if it would be an issue. They gave the name of the place they were planning to have a dinner event and the place they use for lunch catering. I called the dinner restaurant and they aren't able to make anything I can eat. I can't eat anything as-is from the lunch catering either, unless they were able to request a special version of one dish without some of the ingredients on it. Should I let them know I won't be able to eat at the dinner place and ask if it would be possible to request a lunch without certain ingredients? Or plan on bringing my own food to everything? Or just not eat while I'm at interview events? I don't want to make a fuss but I also know (from going to meals for events in my own department as a grad student) it can be really socially awkward and make others uncomfortable if we all go to a restaurant and I don't eat anything, or it could make people feel offended if I bring my own food to everything. Would really appreciate some advice - thanks to anyone who can help. Assistant: I can relate. I have a lot of dietary restrictions as well. I prefer to eat before hand and not eat at the event. BUT MAKE SURE TO EAT BEFORE. And possibly a snack in your bag.

Human: Would it be weird to email the author of a textbook about a part of a (mathematical) proof that neither my supervisors nor I understand? I am an MSc. student in Mathematics, currently doing a directed studies course under my thesis co-supervisors. I've been going through a chapter of a well-known textbook in the relevant (sub)-area, and there is a line in one of the proofs that I don't follow at all. I spent a long time playing around with the proof, but I didn't get anywhere. I also asked my co-supervisors and they didn't know either. One of them tried a few different ways and emailed me about it, but couldn't get it either - he thinks it might be a typo, but even if it is, he isn't sure how to show what he thinks it should say instead. It's really bothering me that I can't make sense of this line of the proof (and because I'm not clear on this part, certain parts that follow it don't make sense to me either). So I'm just wondering if it would be some sort of "faux-pas" to email the author and ask about a line from a proof in his textbook? Thanks! Assistant: Absolutely contact them. Authors love hearing feedback from readers; it doesn't happen often enough imho.

Human: Would it be weird to email the author of a textbook about a part of a (mathematical) proof that neither my supervisors nor I understand? I am an MSc. student in Mathematics, currently doing a directed studies course under my thesis co-supervisors. I've been going through a chapter of a well-known textbook in the relevant (sub)-area, and there is a line in one of the proofs that I don't follow at all. I spent a long time playing around with the proof, but I didn't get anywhere. I also asked my co-supervisors and they didn't know either. One of them tried a few different ways and emailed me about it, but couldn't get it either - he thinks it might be a typo, but even if it is, he isn't sure how to show what he thinks it should say instead. It's really bothering me that I can't make sense of this line of the proof (and because I'm not clear on this part, certain parts that follow it don't make sense to me either). So I'm just wondering if it would be some sort of "faux-pas" to email the author and ask about a line from a proof in his textbook? Thanks! Assistant: Have you tried checking the author’s personal website to see if an errata sheet for the book has been published? If not, I’d send an email asking for clarification and mentioning that everyone you’ve asked is also stumped. Authors want people to be able to understand their writing, and feedback like this is valuable if they plan to write an update.

Human: For those of you on search committees, are you receiving more, less, or the same amount of applicants this year? I'm wondering whether COVID has created a large backlog and therefore more applicants per job, or if it has had the opposite effect where more PhDs have turned to industry, gov, k-12, etc. Assistant: We have had fewer applicants this year, surprisingly.

Human: For those of you on search committees, are you receiving more, less, or the same amount of applicants this year? I'm wondering whether COVID has created a large backlog and therefore more applicants per job, or if it has had the opposite effect where more PhDs have turned to industry, gov, k-12, etc. Assistant: Far, far, less applicants. We had a very successful search last year. There were around 25 applicants and, quite frankly, too many good ones. This year we only have eight, and not many that look promising.

Human: TT position I’m interviewing for has a history of opening up very 2-3 years .. since 2012. Is that a red flag? Hi all, I’m interviewing for a tt position in a very small department (4 full time faculty, in a very specific field). When I Google this position - I see they’ve run the same posting every 2-3 years for the last 10 or so years. Would you consider this a red flag? Or indicative of something else going on? Or just normal… Assistant: My department is about to advertise a job for the third time in ten years. We are a small department that cannot offer the resources the position needs the way a larger department at a bigger university can. The last few hires have been fantastic but they reach a point where they outgrow us and move on. We probably should change up the position but doing so would require a pretty major overhaul of our entire curriculum.

Human: TT position I’m interviewing for has a history of opening up very 2-3 years .. since 2012. Is that a red flag? Hi all, I’m interviewing for a tt position in a very small department (4 full time faculty, in a very specific field). When I Google this position - I see they’ve run the same posting every 2-3 years for the last 10 or so years. Would you consider this a red flag? Or indicative of something else going on? Or just normal… Assistant: I really like the following question to ask your interview panel: Overall, what do you think your college does well and in what areas do you think it could improve?

Human: Would I have a hard time finding a tenure track position in computer science(machine learning in particular) due to my age if I finish my PhD at 38 in the United States? I have heard in machine learning, most people get their PhD at the age of 30\~32. So I would be at least 6 years late or even 10 years older than my peers. Would this put me at a serious disadvantage when I am looking for a tenure track position? Assistant: I think your scientific age, the years passed after PhD, is way more important than your actual age. Most universities seem prefer to hire candidates who are within a few years after their PhD. I don't think they would care about the age if you have competitive CV.

Human: Would I have a hard time finding a tenure track position in computer science(machine learning in particular) due to my age if I finish my PhD at 38 in the United States? I have heard in machine learning, most people get their PhD at the age of 30\~32. So I would be at least 6 years late or even 10 years older than my peers. Would this put me at a serious disadvantage when I am looking for a tenure track position? Assistant: 38 isn’t old and no one will care. A PhD in CS is ask one of the few degrees that have a better time on the market. Besides CS depts schools of Ed hire CS people, as do schools of information. It all depends on your focus snd how productive our are. Moreover if that doesn’t work you can easily find jobs in the private sector that pay well.

Human: How to apologize to my professors for chronic absenteeism? I am probably going to fail most of my classes this semester, due to constantly being absent I haven't even shown my face in my biology lab. I genuinely feel horrible about this because 1) my grades and education *are* truly important to me and 2) I never wanted to disrespect my professors' or their time this way. I do not expect them to give me any makeup work, extra credit, or anything like that, but I want to go to their office hours and apologize directly because I want them to know that I am genuinely sorry. I may also have the same professors again when I have to retake classes, and I don't want them to have a bad taste in their mouth. There is no excuse for missing so many classes, but I wasn't just missing class because I didn't feel like going. Right at the beginning of the semester I became homeless, and I do not have any support here. I've been working two jobs; one being 40 minutes away from campus. My car broke down (a few times) during the semester so I had to catch the bus + walk for hours a day just to commute, especially if I worked both jobs on the same day, in addition to class. I was also extremely sick and in a lot of pain for almost a month, for reasons I cannot provide medical documentation for excused absences. I feel terrible that it has even come to this, but this semester has been one of the hardest of my life, academically and personally. ​ TD;LR: I have missed around 75% of my classes this semester and I want to apologize to my professors in a way that they know I am disappointed in myself and truly sorry. I don't expect them to help me pass by giving extra credit or anything, it is just important to me to have a good relationship with my professors; I really do appreciate them even though I haven't shown it. *this is a throwaway account but this is a serious question* Assistant: Do your professors know you personally or won't they even recognize your face/name? If so, a very polite and sincere email would be enough in my opinion. Also, I'm sorry about your situation OP, you are very brave and I wish you the best.

Human: How to apologize to my professors for chronic absenteeism? I am probably going to fail most of my classes this semester, due to constantly being absent I haven't even shown my face in my biology lab. I genuinely feel horrible about this because 1) my grades and education *are* truly important to me and 2) I never wanted to disrespect my professors' or their time this way. I do not expect them to give me any makeup work, extra credit, or anything like that, but I want to go to their office hours and apologize directly because I want them to know that I am genuinely sorry. I may also have the same professors again when I have to retake classes, and I don't want them to have a bad taste in their mouth. There is no excuse for missing so many classes, but I wasn't just missing class because I didn't feel like going. Right at the beginning of the semester I became homeless, and I do not have any support here. I've been working two jobs; one being 40 minutes away from campus. My car broke down (a few times) during the semester so I had to catch the bus + walk for hours a day just to commute, especially if I worked both jobs on the same day, in addition to class. I was also extremely sick and in a lot of pain for almost a month, for reasons I cannot provide medical documentation for excused absences. I feel terrible that it has even come to this, but this semester has been one of the hardest of my life, academically and personally. ​ TD;LR: I have missed around 75% of my classes this semester and I want to apologize to my professors in a way that they know I am disappointed in myself and truly sorry. I don't expect them to help me pass by giving extra credit or anything, it is just important to me to have a good relationship with my professors; I really do appreciate them even though I haven't shown it. *this is a throwaway account but this is a serious question* Assistant: - there is no excuse for missing so many classes - i became homeless 😐

Human: How to tell a professor I don't want/need them on my committee? I'm working on forming my research topic for my MS studies before I write the proposal. Time is of the essence, and I know I'll be able to do it, but the problem is that there's a professor who agreed to be on my committee who I don't think I'll need the help of. She agreed to help with the last part of my analysis, but I've decided to drop that part for something else that will help me tell a more consistent story with my research. I haven't signed any forms yet, but I'm just a bit antsy about telling her about my change of plans. What sort of approach should I take? I can provide more details if necessary. Assistant: Just be straightforward. If anything, she'll probably be relieved. I'm sure she's happy to be on the committee, but every professor I know is incredibly busy, and having a commitment evaporate is a gift.

Human: How to tell a professor I don't want/need them on my committee? I'm working on forming my research topic for my MS studies before I write the proposal. Time is of the essence, and I know I'll be able to do it, but the problem is that there's a professor who agreed to be on my committee who I don't think I'll need the help of. She agreed to help with the last part of my analysis, but I've decided to drop that part for something else that will help me tell a more consistent story with my research. I haven't signed any forms yet, but I'm just a bit antsy about telling her about my change of plans. What sort of approach should I take? I can provide more details if necessary. Assistant: It happens. I completely agree with just_dumb_luck. Be honest and straightforward and use clear language when you inform her of the change in your plans. Also express gratitude for her willingness to invest her time in your project.

Human: What do academics in STEM wish their colleagues in the humanities knew? Saw an interesting thread asking the inverse; curious to know what people think in this direction. Assistant: There's good reason that there are multi-author papers. Science just doesn't progress without large collaborations. Long gone are the days of some person coming up with their own theories of everything or running their own lab at home making groundbreaking experiments.

Human: What do academics in STEM wish their colleagues in the humanities knew? Saw an interesting thread asking the inverse; curious to know what people think in this direction. Assistant: If theory doesn’t agree with empirical data, there’s no good reason to keep believing that theory.

Human: PhDs in humanities/social sciences: how long did it take for you to find your first long-term job? By long-term job, I generally mean that temporary jobs don't count. For example, casually TAing before you graduate, and odd part-time/full-time jobs you take to keep yourself afloat, such as retail, catering or bartending jobs. But both academia and industry jobs count. If you're willing to, please also kindly tell what exactly is this job. I'll enter the last year of my PhD journey and start searching for jobs, so want to give myself a heads up about the reality. I hope that hearing about your experiences would help myself (and people like me who are also looking at this post) to keep a healthy mindset and a realistic expectation during the process. Thank you! Assistant: In many fields, a large portion of PhD holders never obtain (or even seek) full-time jobs in academia: https://activelearningps.com/2022/05/23/thorstein-veblen-was-right/.

Human: PhDs in humanities/social sciences: how long did it take for you to find your first long-term job? By long-term job, I generally mean that temporary jobs don't count. For example, casually TAing before you graduate, and odd part-time/full-time jobs you take to keep yourself afloat, such as retail, catering or bartending jobs. But both academia and industry jobs count. If you're willing to, please also kindly tell what exactly is this job. I'll enter the last year of my PhD journey and start searching for jobs, so want to give myself a heads up about the reality. I hope that hearing about your experiences would help myself (and people like me who are also looking at this post) to keep a healthy mindset and a realistic expectation during the process. Thank you! Assistant: After getting my PhD, I had 4 years of postdocs (one 1-year position that was at anther part of my PhD-granting institution, one 3-year position at a different place) and then I chanced into a TT position. Which for my field (History) is about the average length of postdocs for people (3-5) who do luck into TT positions (and of course, many do not). If I hadn't chanced into the TT position then I was planning to go into the think tank world; I wasn't interested in moving around and doing endless postdocs.

Human: How many rejections before you consider a manuscript a dead end? Do you have any rules of thumb for how long you're gonna keep working on getting your manuscript published before ditching it? I just had my first manuscript rejected by the editor from 2 journals in 2 months. My PI is taking it in stride, but I'd like to get an idea about how many shots I get to take before calling it a day. P.S. any insights in how to get your work published in the first couple of attempts are also welcome. :) Assistant: I have once had 5 rejection for a single paper. It ended up being published in a journal more prestigious than the first five, after some work of course.

Human: How many rejections before you consider a manuscript a dead end? Do you have any rules of thumb for how long you're gonna keep working on getting your manuscript published before ditching it? I just had my first manuscript rejected by the editor from 2 journals in 2 months. My PI is taking it in stride, but I'd like to get an idea about how many shots I get to take before calling it a day. P.S. any insights in how to get your work published in the first couple of attempts are also welcome. :) Assistant: Are these 'desk rejects' or did they at least get reviewed? If it's consistently desk rejected then you need to change it. If it's at least getting reviewed then you know what to change/improve for next time around. Keep in mind that PIs often have 5\~7 projects at any given time so 1) yes it will hit harder for you than for them but also 2) you need to be the one pushing and be the last to give up, because they are not going to be as affected by this as you.

Human: Do professors check emails during the summer months when school is over? Title! Assistant: Definitely, but whether they respond to you is a whole other story. Undergrads are low on the totem, so be persistent.

Human: Do professors check emails during the summer months when school is over? Title! Assistant: I check email throughout the year, but I have a hierarchy of response times: Provost: Immediate response Department chair, dean: Same business day Colleague: 24 hours Student in an active course: 24 hours Advising students: 24 hours Student in previous course: 48-72 hours Colleague who has pissed me off in recent memory but is not currently on P&T committee: Wait until second request

Human: How do I politely ask my co-authors about the status of my paper? So the title makes it seem pretty obvious, but I'm wondering how to word my email to be polite and professional. For some context, professor A below and I are in the same university; the other co-authors are in a different one. I'm a 4th year PhD student. In my first semester (so about 3 years ago), I worked with a professor (A) on a research project that ended up as a paper, with me as first author. I decided to work under a different professor, although I've maintained a good relationship with professor A so far (he's on my committee as well). When we submitted the paper back then, it got rejected, and we edited it, incorporating the feedback from reviewers. Since then (about 2 years ago I think), I've heard nothing about the paper. I emailed professor A, who referred me to the other co-authors, who didn't reply. After nudging the other co-authors for a while, they finally, after a year or two, re-submitted (this was a couple of weeks ago). I was a little annoyed at the lack of communication and the slow progress on the paper, but I didn't say anything. Today, a different journal emailed me asking to confirm authorship. I'm *very* confused, and pretty annoyed. I don't know why two journals emailed me about the same thing; I'm annoyed I haven't even seen the final paper that's gone out to these journals; I don't know why nobody has communicated with me about these decisions such as journal choice (I've never heard of this journal, but at least its IF is fine). I feel like I should *really* reach out now. I don't want my annoyance to come across, so I'll probably write it tomorrow, but I don't know how to put forth basic questions such as the ones above. I'm not actually sure who to address it to, either--I get the feeling professor A has no idea about some of these as well, though I could be wrong. I've met the corresponding author (who probably submitted) in only one meeting, so I don't really have a relationship with him. How (and to who) do I write this email? Assistant: If you are first author then it’s your work (at least in my field) and you’d have done the majority of writing and should be consulted about submissions. Only possible exception might be if you gave your advisor or the PI full control to handle it for you. Have you asked your current professor for guidance? I know he’s not on the paper but that might be a good thing. He (or she) could give you unbiased advice. But if you are first author you are well within your rights to follow the duck up. C

Human: How do I politely ask my co-authors about the status of my paper? So the title makes it seem pretty obvious, but I'm wondering how to word my email to be polite and professional. For some context, professor A below and I are in the same university; the other co-authors are in a different one. I'm a 4th year PhD student. In my first semester (so about 3 years ago), I worked with a professor (A) on a research project that ended up as a paper, with me as first author. I decided to work under a different professor, although I've maintained a good relationship with professor A so far (he's on my committee as well). When we submitted the paper back then, it got rejected, and we edited it, incorporating the feedback from reviewers. Since then (about 2 years ago I think), I've heard nothing about the paper. I emailed professor A, who referred me to the other co-authors, who didn't reply. After nudging the other co-authors for a while, they finally, after a year or two, re-submitted (this was a couple of weeks ago). I was a little annoyed at the lack of communication and the slow progress on the paper, but I didn't say anything. Today, a different journal emailed me asking to confirm authorship. I'm *very* confused, and pretty annoyed. I don't know why two journals emailed me about the same thing; I'm annoyed I haven't even seen the final paper that's gone out to these journals; I don't know why nobody has communicated with me about these decisions such as journal choice (I've never heard of this journal, but at least its IF is fine). I feel like I should *really* reach out now. I don't want my annoyance to come across, so I'll probably write it tomorrow, but I don't know how to put forth basic questions such as the ones above. I'm not actually sure who to address it to, either--I get the feeling professor A has no idea about some of these as well, though I could be wrong. I've met the corresponding author (who probably submitted) in only one meeting, so I don't really have a relationship with him. How (and to who) do I write this email? Assistant: I’m not sure how things are in your field, but in mine, journals do not allow simultaneous submissions. Unless your field is different, if you’re getting these emails from multiple different journals, you definitely should ask about that because that could get you into trouble.

Human: co-author#2 wants to pull his data because of pettiness. What do I do? is this even allowed? I'm the first author of a science paper. I'm getting ready to submit a manuscript (revisions) to a significantly high IF journal (ACIE). Due to some personal conflicts, my 2nd author (**2**) is being petty and throwing a tantrum and wants to take his ball and go home. As I drafted the % contribution everyone made to this paper and outlined the fact that he would not be 2nd author until the PI said he will on promise that \[**2**\] will work on the revision, he is now crying about it and had emailed the boss. Subsequently, the PI emails me the following: "\[**blockov12**\] - this is going badly. \[**2**\] is now threatening to pull his data out of the paper - which is ridiculous. I will now have to have a meeting to assign each of you work. I told you this was not going to get the reaction you wanted and this is now causing me work. The point is to get a list of things done and have a reasonable agreement on how to get them done." My question, for my fellow peers and scientists/authors; 1. What can I do 2. What can my PI do? 3. Is he even allowed to pull his data out? it doesn't belong to him but to the PI (maybe university) 4. What do you generally think? 5. What you do in this situation? I can probably redo the substrate table that **2** did but it will add time - and we're on a timeline to get revisions done. For context, we're both in grad school and I'm senior to him. Assistant: The PI has told you what to do quite clearly. *I told you this was not going to get the reaction you wanted and this is now causing me work. The point is to get a list of things done and have a reasonable agreement on how to get them done* And by this part, it seems there are interpersonal issues you did not deal with correctly, which your PI specifically warned you about.

Human: co-author#2 wants to pull his data because of pettiness. What do I do? is this even allowed? I'm the first author of a science paper. I'm getting ready to submit a manuscript (revisions) to a significantly high IF journal (ACIE). Due to some personal conflicts, my 2nd author (**2**) is being petty and throwing a tantrum and wants to take his ball and go home. As I drafted the % contribution everyone made to this paper and outlined the fact that he would not be 2nd author until the PI said he will on promise that \[**2**\] will work on the revision, he is now crying about it and had emailed the boss. Subsequently, the PI emails me the following: "\[**blockov12**\] - this is going badly. \[**2**\] is now threatening to pull his data out of the paper - which is ridiculous. I will now have to have a meeting to assign each of you work. I told you this was not going to get the reaction you wanted and this is now causing me work. The point is to get a list of things done and have a reasonable agreement on how to get them done." My question, for my fellow peers and scientists/authors; 1. What can I do 2. What can my PI do? 3. Is he even allowed to pull his data out? it doesn't belong to him but to the PI (maybe university) 4. What do you generally think? 5. What you do in this situation? I can probably redo the substrate table that **2** did but it will add time - and we're on a timeline to get revisions done. For context, we're both in grad school and I'm senior to him. Assistant: Is it just me, or is drafting a "% contribution" document kind of abnormal? I've never seen this in any lab I've worked in, and frankly, it seems a little insulting to calculate exactly how little or how much someone contributed to a manuscript. I don't know, I may be off, but that seems very odd. I understand the purpose but generally, determining the order of authorship for middle authors doesn't require that degree of effort and is usually pretty obvious.

Human: [Advice needed] Got a job offer during PhD (final stages) - do I quit now? Using a throwaway account. I am a 5-th year PhD student in a US University in the field of computer algorithms and optimization. My PhD funding will stop in some months from now (by the middle of 2022), and I am about 2/3 rd way into my dissertation as on this date. I received a job offer from a company that wanted me to work as a research scientist in my area that pays well, and they would like me to join very soon. They didn't seem particularly interested about whether I had a PhD or not at the time of joining since other employees in similar roles in this company do not have a PhD. When I told my advisor about this, he told me that me leaving at this point would practically be the end of my PhD program, as he would not be able to make it convenient for him to work with me on the rest of my dissertation if I joined the company. What do *I* think about it? I've been working on algorithms of various kinds for my dissertation during my PhD, and I like this kind of work. However, an infuriating thing about academia is the extent to which you need to satisfy a reviewer's/advisors whims and fancies. Papers that I send to conferences/publications are rejected because they want something more. Projects that I am working on need constant revision because my advisor always wants more results. At the rate I am going, I am not sure if I will be able complete my PhD successfully before my funding ends. This has made me disillusioned with academia, and I really want to start something new with my life instead of beating up old horses (my dissertation projects) hoping to squeeze out more results. Industry roles in my field seem a lot more forgiving than academia, and they pay really well. But I also hear from my colleagues and friends that I might as well stay a few more months and complete the PhD after trying harder, given how long I have been in the program. I would like to know from you these: 1. What are your views on my situation? 2. If I am not interested in academia any more, and only want to make my future in the industry, is having a PhD on my resume worth it? 3. How can I talk about an incomplete PhD on my resume? I am at an ABD stage. Would this impact future job prospects, or will my job experience help me out later on? 4. If you believe I need to stay on in the program, why would you think so? Your insights on this will be greatly appreciated. Assistant: No…you finish

Human: [Advice needed] Got a job offer during PhD (final stages) - do I quit now? Using a throwaway account. I am a 5-th year PhD student in a US University in the field of computer algorithms and optimization. My PhD funding will stop in some months from now (by the middle of 2022), and I am about 2/3 rd way into my dissertation as on this date. I received a job offer from a company that wanted me to work as a research scientist in my area that pays well, and they would like me to join very soon. They didn't seem particularly interested about whether I had a PhD or not at the time of joining since other employees in similar roles in this company do not have a PhD. When I told my advisor about this, he told me that me leaving at this point would practically be the end of my PhD program, as he would not be able to make it convenient for him to work with me on the rest of my dissertation if I joined the company. What do *I* think about it? I've been working on algorithms of various kinds for my dissertation during my PhD, and I like this kind of work. However, an infuriating thing about academia is the extent to which you need to satisfy a reviewer's/advisors whims and fancies. Papers that I send to conferences/publications are rejected because they want something more. Projects that I am working on need constant revision because my advisor always wants more results. At the rate I am going, I am not sure if I will be able complete my PhD successfully before my funding ends. This has made me disillusioned with academia, and I really want to start something new with my life instead of beating up old horses (my dissertation projects) hoping to squeeze out more results. Industry roles in my field seem a lot more forgiving than academia, and they pay really well. But I also hear from my colleagues and friends that I might as well stay a few more months and complete the PhD after trying harder, given how long I have been in the program. I would like to know from you these: 1. What are your views on my situation? 2. If I am not interested in academia any more, and only want to make my future in the industry, is having a PhD on my resume worth it? 3. How can I talk about an incomplete PhD on my resume? I am at an ABD stage. Would this impact future job prospects, or will my job experience help me out later on? 4. If you believe I need to stay on in the program, why would you think so? Your insights on this will be greatly appreciated. Assistant: Just from your area of study and the job title 'research scientist' I am drawing some conclusions what/with whom (generally speaking) the job could be. I looked at those jobs myself and they seem quite happy to hire people with awarded PhDs, unless you are really, really good. So if those types of jobs in general are appealing to you, consider finishing your PhDs to ne competitive for multiple employers.

Human: Condescension in science, how do you deal with it? As a young trainee I struggle interacting with condescending PI’s and other trainees. It’s surprising how many people I interact with have this character trait. As a young trainee I struggle not letting it affect me. I know their behaviour (and my response) probably stems from imposter syndrome and insecurity, but that doesn’t stop it from making me feel shitty. What are some strategies that work to respond to this kind of behaviour in a professional but respectful way? Assistant: You need to cultivate your ego. If you're working hard and you know you're being productive, this should be a "sticks and stones" situation.

Human: Condescension in science, how do you deal with it? As a young trainee I struggle interacting with condescending PI’s and other trainees. It’s surprising how many people I interact with have this character trait. As a young trainee I struggle not letting it affect me. I know their behaviour (and my response) probably stems from imposter syndrome and insecurity, but that doesn’t stop it from making me feel shitty. What are some strategies that work to respond to this kind of behaviour in a professional but respectful way? Assistant: Work to outperform their expectations. Although you could professionally confront them about it, I think doing well is the best revenge, and will hopefully earn you their respect. Of course, if their behavior crosses the line there are other measures you should take, but if it's about your own confidence then it's important to build and believe in your own skillset. Best of luck!

Human: When applying for a teaching position, should you send them your full course outlines? So I’m finishing my PhD (humanities - Lang and Lit) and the perfect assistant professor job has opened up and I have been encouraged to apply. I have two courses that are pretty unique and I think the dept will like them both. My question is, when you apply to academic jobs, do you send them your module outlines or are you protective of your intellectual property? To be more specific, my outlines feature everything - week by week primary readings, secondary readings for seminars, methods of assessment, recommended reading lists etc etc… I was concerned “what if I send all these documents to demonstrate how prepared I am, they like my courses but prefer a different candidate so just reject me and ask the other candidate if they can teach my content?” I appreciate that may sound ridiculous, but I’m just curious what is common practice? I haven’t copyrighted anything.. . I don’t even know if you can copyright module outlines..? Any advice would be really appreciated! Assistant: No, too much info that they haven't asked about. That you have those modules ready to go is and indication of why they would like these is probably good cover letter material. They're already reading plenty of resumes they don't want to read syllabi too lol.

Human: When applying for a teaching position, should you send them your full course outlines? So I’m finishing my PhD (humanities - Lang and Lit) and the perfect assistant professor job has opened up and I have been encouraged to apply. I have two courses that are pretty unique and I think the dept will like them both. My question is, when you apply to academic jobs, do you send them your module outlines or are you protective of your intellectual property? To be more specific, my outlines feature everything - week by week primary readings, secondary readings for seminars, methods of assessment, recommended reading lists etc etc… I was concerned “what if I send all these documents to demonstrate how prepared I am, they like my courses but prefer a different candidate so just reject me and ask the other candidate if they can teach my content?” I appreciate that may sound ridiculous, but I’m just curious what is common practice? I haven’t copyrighted anything.. . I don’t even know if you can copyright module outlines..? Any advice would be really appreciated! Assistant: Send your best no one is gonna steal anything.

Human: How did you decide on getting a PhD? Hi everyone! I’m wrapping up my masters degree soon, and I find myself considering between a PhD and transferring to industry. Currently, I don’t have a research question that I’m dying to study for my PhD, and I’m worried that if I pursue a PhD without this purpose, I might not be able to handle another 5 years of hard work and low pay. I am still curious about getting a PhD, however. I was wondering how you, personally, chose your path into academia? Did you hope to stay in academia after or did you think a PhD sets you apart for industry? Did you go into it knowing what you want to study? Are you happy with your project now? For those of you who finished grad school and is looking for an industry job, is a PhD helpful? Would love to hear your stories and any advice you might have! Assistant: Was bored during the pandemic last 2020. I'm now about to write my dissertation.

Human: How did you decide on getting a PhD? Hi everyone! I’m wrapping up my masters degree soon, and I find myself considering between a PhD and transferring to industry. Currently, I don’t have a research question that I’m dying to study for my PhD, and I’m worried that if I pursue a PhD without this purpose, I might not be able to handle another 5 years of hard work and low pay. I am still curious about getting a PhD, however. I was wondering how you, personally, chose your path into academia? Did you hope to stay in academia after or did you think a PhD sets you apart for industry? Did you go into it knowing what you want to study? Are you happy with your project now? For those of you who finished grad school and is looking for an industry job, is a PhD helpful? Would love to hear your stories and any advice you might have! Assistant: I thought I wanted to teach in Higher Ed. Turned out I really loved research. Stayed in academia bc I like the freedom to pursue my own research interests and like added teaching and mentoring that comes along with it.

Human: When did you start writing your PhD thesis? Social Sciences PhD Candidate here. I'm about to defend my project proposal. But I have a lot of literature in my Zotero library, I am thinking of starting to write the literature review chapter. Is it too early to do that since I have not yet begun recruitement and data collection? Assistant: I’m in the social sciences too. I don’t think you can ever be too early really. As long as you have your framework and key questions mapped out you can start writing it up. Just be prepared to have to edit it as you find more supporting information.

Human: When did you start writing your PhD thesis? Social Sciences PhD Candidate here. I'm about to defend my project proposal. But I have a lot of literature in my Zotero library, I am thinking of starting to write the literature review chapter. Is it too early to do that since I have not yet begun recruitement and data collection? Assistant: i was told to start writing on my first day (international relations).

Human: Birthday gift idea for communication professor starting her first full-time job this fall Hello everyone. After years of adjuncting and working toward finishing her PhD, my wife managed to snag her first full-time teaching gig, starting this coming fall semester. We couldn't be more thrilled. We packed up the family and moved into a new house in a new state, and now that the dust is finally settling I'm remembering I need to get her a birthday gift. So with that in mind, I'd like to get her something for her office or in some way related to her new job, as this is such a huge deal for our family and I'm so proud of her. So is there anything you'd recommend for a new communication professor starting her first full-time job? Thank you! Assistant: honestly: a unique stapler and tape dispenser for her desk. lol. it's amazing how often people will "borrow" those and then you lose them forever when they all look the same. But also a spa day during final exam time is a good idea.

Human: Birthday gift idea for communication professor starting her first full-time job this fall Hello everyone. After years of adjuncting and working toward finishing her PhD, my wife managed to snag her first full-time teaching gig, starting this coming fall semester. We couldn't be more thrilled. We packed up the family and moved into a new house in a new state, and now that the dust is finally settling I'm remembering I need to get her a birthday gift. So with that in mind, I'd like to get her something for her office or in some way related to her new job, as this is such a huge deal for our family and I'm so proud of her. So is there anything you'd recommend for a new communication professor starting her first full-time job? Thank you! Assistant: Ergonomic mouse pad and keyboard. Save her wrists as she writes out those long grants and pubs.

Human: If competition for faculty positions is so intense, why are there so many complaints about the quality of research? I hear the following two claims quite often - 1. Getting a faculty position is tough, and even the top graduates from the top grad schools have trouble finding faculty positions at the most prestigious schools. 2. Most papers that are being published are not of high quality, while innovative and meaningful research is only done at the top schools and research institutes. If the first claim is true, then shouldn't those top students and postdocs that end up at less prestigious schools and research institutes still be producing high quality research? Assistant: To succeed in academia, you need lots of publications. You can spend 2 years crafting a great paper that will get into a top journal, or you can pump out 5 mediocre papers to mediocre journals. Generally speaking, the latter is much better for your career, so that's what happens.

Human: If competition for faculty positions is so intense, why are there so many complaints about the quality of research? I hear the following two claims quite often - 1. Getting a faculty position is tough, and even the top graduates from the top grad schools have trouble finding faculty positions at the most prestigious schools. 2. Most papers that are being published are not of high quality, while innovative and meaningful research is only done at the top schools and research institutes. If the first claim is true, then shouldn't those top students and postdocs that end up at less prestigious schools and research institutes still be producing high quality research? Assistant: Maybe the top institutes can produce more / better papers due to more funding? > innovative and meaningful research is only done at the top schools and research institutes This is not true. It's not "only" done there.

Human: Are there any famous engineers or people who worked in the stem field that also excelled in other fields like English literature, philosophy, and so on? The title says it all. I think Wittgenstein studied something within the stem field, but he became also a philosopher. The reason I'm asking this question is because, today I was asked if I would study stem if it didn't have such a high demand in the job market? As in, you would not get a high pay for your job, and I said no because I am studying something so I can get a high-paying job later and don't have to worry about financial instability (assuming that I play my cards right). This is of course the sad reality that many of us have to face today, I much rather had studied sociology and philosophy if it would lead to a high-paying job, because I enjoy it and like to read about it on my spare-time. It's something that many people are interested in subconsciously, because philosophy helps with critical thinking skills, and who doesn't want that? If you are interested in English literature, you are going to have a good vocabulary probably, and also being well read. with the sociology, you will be able to analyze human social interaction from a macro and micro perspective, and seeing patterns that are not usually seen by people. I have to know the limitations of being someone who work within the stem field, and being able to do things outside of work that you enjoy. I know some will probably say that if you enjoy something and you do it well, you will become successful and make good money, but I don't think it's possible to stand out that much in e.g. philosophy and sociology, there are already plenty of people that are very successful. Assistant: How about Isaac Asimov? He had a PhD in Biochemistry and taught as a professor for a few years before his writing became his primary focus.

Human: Are there any famous engineers or people who worked in the stem field that also excelled in other fields like English literature, philosophy, and so on? The title says it all. I think Wittgenstein studied something within the stem field, but he became also a philosopher. The reason I'm asking this question is because, today I was asked if I would study stem if it didn't have such a high demand in the job market? As in, you would not get a high pay for your job, and I said no because I am studying something so I can get a high-paying job later and don't have to worry about financial instability (assuming that I play my cards right). This is of course the sad reality that many of us have to face today, I much rather had studied sociology and philosophy if it would lead to a high-paying job, because I enjoy it and like to read about it on my spare-time. It's something that many people are interested in subconsciously, because philosophy helps with critical thinking skills, and who doesn't want that? If you are interested in English literature, you are going to have a good vocabulary probably, and also being well read. with the sociology, you will be able to analyze human social interaction from a macro and micro perspective, and seeing patterns that are not usually seen by people. I have to know the limitations of being someone who work within the stem field, and being able to do things outside of work that you enjoy. I know some will probably say that if you enjoy something and you do it well, you will become successful and make good money, but I don't think it's possible to stand out that much in e.g. philosophy and sociology, there are already plenty of people that are very successful. Assistant: Blaise Pascal, inventor of the first calculating machine, developed probability theory, and wrote *Pensées*.

Human: What are some free/inexpensive online certifications that would meaningfully improve a CV for those of us on the job market or in adjunct limbo? Assistant: CompTIA A+ the IT field is always short handed and looking for people with an A+ you are guaranteed to find a job within 3 months. When I got my certs and posted my application on Indeed I got calls non-stop.

Human: What are some free/inexpensive online certifications that would meaningfully improve a CV for those of us on the job market or in adjunct limbo? Assistant: you can email some editors and ask if they have anything on their desk that needs review--book, journal article, etc...

Human: PhD students/PhDs that have undergrad major in different area than their PhD: Why did you focus on something else? How difficult was the transition? What would you advise someone who wants to do the same? [X-Post r/AskReddit] Assistant: My undergrad degree was in business management and my phd is physics. I don't think that it's any harder now than it would have been if I had my undergrad degree in physics, with the exception of my math classes. I didn't really have enough time to take some classes like partial diff. eq which might have been handy. So I'd say I'm a little disadvantaged in my math skills, but at this point, I think you need to be able to just go open a book and learn whatever it is you need.

Human: PhD students/PhDs that have undergrad major in different area than their PhD: Why did you focus on something else? How difficult was the transition? What would you advise someone who wants to do the same? [X-Post r/AskReddit] Assistant: I have undergrad degrees in both sociology and biology. I was at a school with a lot of pre-med classes and a lot of weeders so I feel totally burned out with biology and a lot less motivated to study it. My PhD program is in sociology, but I study health (and possibly genetics when I feel better about it) so I still use my bio degree.

Human: First PI grant accepted! I just found out today that a huge project I'm PI on got picked up - I officially have a grant history! It's a gigantic "win" for my institute, with a 5-year funding opportunity that covers half of my salary the entire time. We're all soft-money here, so having 50% of my salary locked-in for the next 5 years is more security than I've had since I started the money-game. It comes with all of the "oh my God now I have to do all of this stuff I promised" feelings, but I'm incredibly excited to do this work. It's more modeling/theoretical work than the operational work I'm usually doing here, which makes me happy. Score! But it comes right on the heels of some pretty bad news in my family - my brother just lost his job in an ugly way, not six months after he and his wife bought a house. They're terrified that they won't be able to keep the place. So I can't exactly parade my success around them at the moment, other than to let them know that they can rely on my for financial support through the down-time. So I came here to celebrate instead! Who has two thumbs and a 5-year grant: this guy! Booya! Assistant: Congrats! From one (former) PI to another, make sure to look at the grant reporting requirements and deadlines now, so you can work them into your increasingly busy schedule. Tracking your activities, collaborations, and presentations now will make report time SO much easier! :)

Human: First PI grant accepted! I just found out today that a huge project I'm PI on got picked up - I officially have a grant history! It's a gigantic "win" for my institute, with a 5-year funding opportunity that covers half of my salary the entire time. We're all soft-money here, so having 50% of my salary locked-in for the next 5 years is more security than I've had since I started the money-game. It comes with all of the "oh my God now I have to do all of this stuff I promised" feelings, but I'm incredibly excited to do this work. It's more modeling/theoretical work than the operational work I'm usually doing here, which makes me happy. Score! But it comes right on the heels of some pretty bad news in my family - my brother just lost his job in an ugly way, not six months after he and his wife bought a house. They're terrified that they won't be able to keep the place. So I can't exactly parade my success around them at the moment, other than to let them know that they can rely on my for financial support through the down-time. So I came here to celebrate instead! Who has two thumbs and a 5-year grant: this guy! Booya! Assistant: Congratulations! I hope that this will happen to me soon too!

Human: What is the most obscure benefit you've received as a result of having a PhD? My friends keep trying to convince me to do the phd and keep referencing "benefits", but don't have any examples! Assistant: I can select "Dr" on online forms instead of having to specify my marital status.

Human: What is the most obscure benefit you've received as a result of having a PhD? My friends keep trying to convince me to do the phd and keep referencing "benefits", but don't have any examples! Assistant: I get free public transit in my city, but that's cause I use my phd for being a professor. But free public transit! Also the entire phd process + being a prof involves a lot of free food. At least once a week I eat something I didn't pay for as a result of my job and it was more common as a grad student.

Human: What professional advice do you wish someone had given you as a new grad student? I just started a 2-year M.Sc. program in Biology (Ecology track) in Canada (I am from the U.S.) and am hoping to be a professor one day. As we all know, the job market is extremely competitive... what can I do over the course of my program to give myself a better chance? What do you wish you had known when you started? Assistant: You're not done with your project when you're done collecting data, defending your thesis/dissertation, presenting it a conference, or when you've gotten a grade. You're done when it's published.

Human: What professional advice do you wish someone had given you as a new grad student? I just started a 2-year M.Sc. program in Biology (Ecology track) in Canada (I am from the U.S.) and am hoping to be a professor one day. As we all know, the job market is extremely competitive... what can I do over the course of my program to give myself a better chance? What do you wish you had known when you started? Assistant: Graduate school, and all of academia, is filled with insecure people. Neurosis is the norm. People who wanted status, but realized they had a serious deficit of social skills, are the ones who stuck it out. Occasionally a mentally stable and honest person will make it through. They're able to criticize themselves, and able to tolerate the imperfections of those around them. Find those people. Work with those people. Be polite to the others, but keep your distance.

Human: STEM Research Professors: What do you wish you had known before the end of your Post-doc? What wisdom would you share with Post-docs who are looking for tenure track positions that you wish you had known just before you looked for a position. Also, what are bits of wisdom that really helped you on your own journey? Assistant: If the team that you’re going to join is made of toxic people, do not believe “it’s ok, I’ll just avoid them and focus on my work. I cannot miss this opportunity”. You won’t, and things are only going to get worse. You will be stuck in a power play, have to take sides, and it will have consequences on your research. Better find a healthy workplace 100%.

Human: STEM Research Professors: What do you wish you had known before the end of your Post-doc? What wisdom would you share with Post-docs who are looking for tenure track positions that you wish you had known just before you looked for a position. Also, what are bits of wisdom that really helped you on your own journey? Assistant: Are you asking about research professors (who are often not tenured but on soft money) or TT professors who do both research and teaching?

Human: Would it be bad for a young PI if their student goes to industry rather than academia? My confusion stems from more of a general question: what's important for a young PI? my own PI is quite young and I'd like to have a good relationship with him, the prerequisite to which is to know what the other side would like to gain. And more specifically, I wonder about the question I posed at the title. Assistant: Not bad, no. If a PI has students who go into academia and succeed there, it reflects well on the PI. In the end it shouldn't matter for your decision. Personally I don't push my students one way or the other, and support them in whatever they choose. Even though it will be slightly to my advantage if they choose to go into academia, I disregard that completely. Their happiness is way, way more important than my cv.

Human: Would it be bad for a young PI if their student goes to industry rather than academia? My confusion stems from more of a general question: what's important for a young PI? my own PI is quite young and I'd like to have a good relationship with him, the prerequisite to which is to know what the other side would like to gain. And more specifically, I wonder about the question I posed at the title. Assistant: No.

Human: Scholars of Reddit, have you ever recieved a bad grade or have ever failed a subject before? I know this might sound dumb, but it's been at the back of my mind for about 3 weeks and I wanted to ask some people. Assistant: Assistant Professor at R1, computational focus- Classes failed- First go around at undergraduate- Many. Failed out of school. Got my head on straight and gave school another shot. Ended up going all the way to PhD.

Human: Scholars of Reddit, have you ever recieved a bad grade or have ever failed a subject before? I know this might sound dumb, but it's been at the back of my mind for about 3 weeks and I wanted to ask some people. Assistant: Got a D in music appreciation my sophomore year of undergrad Eat shit Dr. Phipps

Human: To anyone who is teaching/working with students: is there something that students sometimes say in email that you absolutely don't like? Often when mailing a professor or other staff member, I doubt for a long time what to say, because I don't want to sound rude or anything. Are there any types of emails that you absolutely hate? And are there things that students are often afraid to ask/say in an email, that you actually don't mind at all? Assistant: “Did I miss anything when I was absent [day]?”NO WE SAT AROUND AND PLAYED CARDS. 😡

Human: To anyone who is teaching/working with students: is there something that students sometimes say in email that you absolutely don't like? Often when mailing a professor or other staff member, I doubt for a long time what to say, because I don't want to sound rude or anything. Are there any types of emails that you absolutely hate? And are there things that students are often afraid to ask/say in an email, that you actually don't mind at all? Assistant: "I really need a B in the class" (two days after the final) "Can I do extra credit" (the week after course grades were due) "Not to be pushy, but" "Hi there" or my first name as the opening.

Human: PhD holders working outside of academia, if you could take it all over again, would you do your PhD? (I hope this isn't the general *Do you regret your PhD* post. I will try to be specific about what I'm asking.) I'm mainly asking those of you who completed your PhD before you accumulated extensive non\-academic experience, but all perspectives are welcome. If you are not currently working in academia, I am interested to know: * What do you think are the differences made by your PhD experience to your specific role in your workplace? Is the knowledge you gained during your PhD years central to your work? In particular, is there any way you could do your current work without having gone through the PhD? * If you were offered your current job (or a version of it demanding less experience/knowledge) at the same time you received the offer to your PhD program, in hindsight would you have chosen the job or the PhD? If you had chosen the job, would you have decided to never do a PhD or just delay when you would do your PhD? I am about to begin a job in quantitative finance after I complete my MSc. Internationally it is common for PhD holders (usually from physics or applied mathematics) to work in this area, and I will be working with a few such people. Before I received the job offer, I had prepared myself (mentally at least) to apply for PhD programs in mathematics. I ask because one of my current long\-term goals is to complete a PhD in mathematics and then eventually join university faculty, provided I have the right credentials and luck at the time. I am very aware, however, that I might get cold feet about this once I start the job, certainly from a financial perspective and possibly from lifestyle considerations. My primary motivation behind wanting to pursue a PhD (eventually) is that I wish to be technically knowledgeable in my field of work. It would be a dream to contribute original research one day, and for the sake of my career in quantitative finance outside of academia, the PhD is a strong qualification to have. Also, I would find it difficult to even **feel** knowledgeable in quantitative finance without a PhD since it is so common to encounter individuals with them. Assistant: Engineering PhD at a national lab, and it was totally worth it even though my PhD experience was miserable. I basically function as a professor who doesn't need to teach classes and with, typically better funding. I still get to do lab work when I want, and, by working outside of academia, I meet people day to day who have real problems that need to be solved. Pull technology is always more exciting (and fundable) than push technology.

Human: PhD holders working outside of academia, if you could take it all over again, would you do your PhD? (I hope this isn't the general *Do you regret your PhD* post. I will try to be specific about what I'm asking.) I'm mainly asking those of you who completed your PhD before you accumulated extensive non\-academic experience, but all perspectives are welcome. If you are not currently working in academia, I am interested to know: * What do you think are the differences made by your PhD experience to your specific role in your workplace? Is the knowledge you gained during your PhD years central to your work? In particular, is there any way you could do your current work without having gone through the PhD? * If you were offered your current job (or a version of it demanding less experience/knowledge) at the same time you received the offer to your PhD program, in hindsight would you have chosen the job or the PhD? If you had chosen the job, would you have decided to never do a PhD or just delay when you would do your PhD? I am about to begin a job in quantitative finance after I complete my MSc. Internationally it is common for PhD holders (usually from physics or applied mathematics) to work in this area, and I will be working with a few such people. Before I received the job offer, I had prepared myself (mentally at least) to apply for PhD programs in mathematics. I ask because one of my current long\-term goals is to complete a PhD in mathematics and then eventually join university faculty, provided I have the right credentials and luck at the time. I am very aware, however, that I might get cold feet about this once I start the job, certainly from a financial perspective and possibly from lifestyle considerations. My primary motivation behind wanting to pursue a PhD (eventually) is that I wish to be technically knowledgeable in my field of work. It would be a dream to contribute original research one day, and for the sake of my career in quantitative finance outside of academia, the PhD is a strong qualification to have. Also, I would find it difficult to even **feel** knowledgeable in quantitative finance without a PhD since it is so common to encounter individuals with them. Assistant: Yes, a PhD is absolutely necessary as a Research Scientist (conceptualizing, initiating, implementing, and managing therapeutic projects and programs) in any biotech or pharmaceutical company.

Human: Starting a phd - what’s one thing you wish you had? Have a friend/colleague starting a phd shortly, need to get them a gift. It’s a science based phd if that makes a difference! Notebook is an obvious choice, would an academic diary be useful? What’s one thing you found most useful and/or wish you had when doing your phd? Thanks! Assistant: I think this is a question that is really personal and depends on a discipline. But if they work from home and don't have a second screen, I would get them a second screen, lol. I could also use an external drive for all the books I downloaded and never read XD. A good chair that would help their back not break when they write, maybe ? :P

Human: Starting a phd - what’s one thing you wish you had? Have a friend/colleague starting a phd shortly, need to get them a gift. It’s a science based phd if that makes a difference! Notebook is an obvious choice, would an academic diary be useful? What’s one thing you found most useful and/or wish you had when doing your phd? Thanks! Assistant: Honestly, some nice things for self care. Coffee, tea, something cozy, hand made soap, bath bombs, food, etc. Doing a PhD is extremely stressful for most people.