shadowclaw

This is unfortunate but not as uncommon as you would expect. I know quite a few people who came to our university and ended up with a toxic advisor. Some trudged through, some switched advisors early, and some switched pretty late. I also had an advisor who I wouldn't describe as toxic, but I would definitely say that she was not entirely supportive and was a terrible communicator. I was especially frustrated with two things: 1) she frequently backtracked on things she said to me and I was perpetually confused about what I was doing because she kept changing her mind, and 2) her feedback on anything written was extremely generic and would require lots of going back and forth to determine what was the problem. I ended up getting a new advisor at the end of my third year, but thankfully this hasn't affected my research or time to completion trajectory. You are in a somewhat better position in that this person isn't actually your advisor, but instead is an unofficial committee member. There are a number of options for you, some better than others: 1. You can tell them that you have enough members on your committee and won't need them after all and thank them for their time helping you. Since they haven't signed off on anything, it's not like they can do anything to you to hinder your progress, and this can be done by email if you want to. Just be polite and don't place blame. 2. You also have the option of ghosting them. It's rude and would reflect poorly on you, but if you really can't stomach telling them that they're off the committee, it is always an option to just stop communicating with them. 3. You can keep them on the committee and ignore the unhelpful comments. Not all committee members have to contribute equally. Ideally, your advisor should be mentoring you and helping you the most, while the other committee members can vary in what they bring to the table. A good committee will be made of up people who can all contribute to your development as a researcher and advise you on your research, but that's not always the case, particularly if you are in a small department with faculty of a wide diversity of backgrounds. Since your department is small, I imagine it might feel awkward to be around this person after telling them that you don't need them on your committee anymore. However, if you've been polite, there's no reason for hostility, and it may be that this person would actually be happy to be off your committee. The only real negative I can see is that not having someone with research experience in your area on your committee might make it harder to get an academic job, but since you aren't interested in academia, you don't need to worry about that.

I'm not sure that it's true across the board, but it appears that if a school really isn't interested in you, they send out the rejection letters pretty quick. If you don't hear anything from them, you were most likely put onto some kind of waitlist. This happened when I applied to the University of Tennessee (my top choice). I wasn't invited for an interview and my POI didn't know anything. However, I had heard back from my second choice and needed to give them a yes or no, so I emailed the department head to ask about my status. I was apparently at the top of their waitlist and they were still waiting to hear back on some offers. Had some applicants declined their offer, I would have been offered admission. I think the same thing happened with UNC, as I received an very late rejection from them as well.

Both 1 and 3 are good options. If it's been about 2 weeks (or longer) since you sent your first email, then you should politely follow up. Professors are busy. They forget things sometimes. Sometimes they delete things, too. Approaching him at an event would work if it's happening soon and you can actually get access to him. Do be aware that when people give talks, however, they are often inundated with people afterwards asking questions. It could be difficult to pin him down to have a good chat! Of course, the opposite might be true as well.

Way back when, I remember this happening with Drexel University. I logged in to check my status because that's what you do when you're anxiously awaiting decisions, and there it was! I didn't actually get a letter or email from them for maybe two weeks. For my current program, I received an acceptance in like March from the department and the grad school sent me something else maybe 3 weeks later (at my school, the department notifies you of your acceptance first, then the grad school processes everything and makes sure you are eligible for admission and all that afterwards). I don't think I heard about funding until late April, possibly May. It's been a while, though, so I don't quite remember the details exactly!

Hey, another person who maxed out on credits! I did the same, myself. It was actually incredibly annoying, because when I started undergrad, they measured these things by time rather than credits. So you had to complete a 4 year degree in 6 in order to get financial aid. Strictly speaking, I did attend for more than 6, but not at the school I got my degree from and that's all that mattered. So I was in the clear until they changed the policy to be credit-based, which messed up my last year. But I found money. Anyway, to actually answer your question, the whole number of credits thing goes out the window when you go to graduate school. There is of course still a cap on the total amount of direct loans you can borrow, although there is also the PLUS loan, which I don't think has any limits but does require a somewhat decent credit history.

My current school offers amazing health insurance that includes vision and dental for its graduate employees. It's probably the best health insurance I've ever had in my life and I pay a very small amount towards it each month. My union rocks. Where I did my masters, they offered nothing at all, not even the most basic health insurance. So it really depends on the school.

I use ResearchGate for three things: 1) to find full-text articles that I do not have access to digitally (usually 1990s and earlier are only available in physical form for me, with some exceptions, although I rarely need access to these), 2) to make my work more visible and accessible to others, 3) to ask questions that I can't find the answer to elsewhere (e.g., request info on a certain topic, troubleshoot software, etc.). It's also been suggested on here in the past that having a good web presence is helpful for admissions because your advisor and the admissions committee look you up. I recall one thread in particular where someone said that they were in an office and spotted a list of applicant names with a note or title that said something along the lines of "couldn't find them on the Internet." So having an account on one of these platforms might help you look more professional or something. I don't know. I also think there's value in having your own website. If you intend to work in academia, you will need one eventually anyway. The website is helpful for some of the same reasons as ResearchGate and Academia.edu - you can post full-text articles and make your work accessible and visible. However, it's also a good spot to show off your research in a way that's more friendly to a broader audience. You can write up lay summaries, add photos and videos, and otherwise be way more engaging on a personal website. Having a place with your contact info is also super handy, too. I've had people contact me through my website about a variety of different things. I occasionally look at my website stats and I get several visitors each week, so people are looking at it for some reason! Oh, and it's also potentially useful during job searches - I'm sure it's handy to be able to point towards your website.

I have my research project set up except for actually planting my seeds. I have 120 20-gallon nursery pots filled with soil inside two greenhouses that I built. It took over a week of hard physical work to get all that done, and mostly by myself. My committee approved my methods, which were detailed in my proposal and also discussed in several email threads, and authorized me to use my startup funds to buy the supplies and get things set up. Yesterday, all but one basically said they had no idea that I was using the type of soil I had purchased. Two suggested that I dump the pots and buy different soil. Another suggested that we just add another set of replicates with the different soil and expand the research to consider different soil types. Finally, my advisor suggested we test the soil first to see if it's actually a problem and then go from there. I'm going to be really, really aggravated if I have to dump all of that soil. It was hard enough when it was dry, but now it's wet.

I don't care for Macs, but that's a personal preference. So my suggestions will be PC-based. I just upgraded to an Acer Aspire E15 (specifically this configuration). It was a little under $600, which was more than I wanted to spend, but it was actually the least expensive laptop that had all of the features I wanted. This includes a solid state drive, 8 GB of memory, a speedy multi-core processor, a DVD drive, a card reader, and an HD display. The battery life is also pretty good - it's advertised as up to 15 hours. I haven't really been keeping track to find out how accurate that is, though! It has has a light up keyboard, which I thought was silly when I bought it, but turned out to be quite nice for those late nights typing in the dark. I've had it about a month and I'm really happy with it. My previous laptop was an ASUS. I did like it, but it only had 4 GB of memory and struggled with Photoshop and some other programs. However, it had a fast start up time and many of the other features I wanted (DVD drive, card reader, speedy processor, HD display). A colleague has a more expensive ASUS (with more memory) that runs like a dream for games and other memory-demanding programs. However, my ASUS started having issues after 2.5 years and they became really annoying recently, which is why I bought a new one. My very first laptop was a Dell and it lasted like 10 years. Really the only reason I had to stop using it was because the charger port snapped off of the motherboard. I could have paid someone to fix it, but it was quite outdated at that point! However, they do last a long time. Why didn't I return to Dell? Mainly the price tag. Ultimately, I think the brand is less important than the hardware. Go for at least 8 GB of memory and get at least a dual-core processor (although you should be able to get quad-core for the same price these days). Solid state drives are also much faster than mechanical hard drives, although they are more expensive.

My PhD journey has been fraught with self-doubt, several hiccups, an advisor change, and often feelings of dread and poor self-worth. However, things have really been coming together! My current advisor makes me feel like an intelligent and worthwhile person. I love my new(ish) GTA position (although I loved my old one, too). I completed and passed my oral prelims yesterday and was informed that several committee members voted that I exceeded their expectations. I also found out today that my grant proposal for my research is being funded. It's not a mega amount of money, but enough to do a lot of cool things. I was told that the grant committee was really excited about my proposal, too! I am also officially a co-PI on the project, which means I have co-ownership of the project and get to put that on my CV. I don't know how these things work in other fields, but in the sciences, grad students often write the proposals (or big chunks of the proposals) and their advisors submit them in their own name, providing no recognition to the student. It's great to be acknowledged on this and the fact that I was able to secure my own funding as a grad student will look really good when I apply to jobs when I graduate!

Neogenesis has covered the basics, but to elaborate: Some conferences offer grants/scholarships to cover fees - check out the conference's website to see if they offer it! If it's far away and you need to fly, that gets dicier, as it's very unlikely that the conference can foot the bill for that. Getting a part-time job may or may not be a possibility. If you currently have an assistantship, sometimes your contract forbids you from obtaining additional employment. Sometimes it doesn't. You'd need to look into that if you don't know, although if you can earn enough money before the conference at a summer job after you've graduated, this may not be important. It can be hard to find a job for just a few months - most places are looking for long-term employees, although you might be able to find something through a temp agency or something that is summer-only. You can also often find odd jobs and other short-term gigs on Craigslist. I have a friend who started picking up some gigs on Rover... if you like dogs, you might be able to earn some extra cash walking dogs, letting them out to pee during the day, etc. If you don't mind needles, you can also sell your plasma. I know a lot of people who sold plasma to make ends meet. It's kind of a last resort thing and there's always the possibility that you won't be eligible because your veins are too small. You can also sells things on eBay or to a pawn shop. Not ideal, but if you're like me and hoard random stuff that you haven't used in ages, you might have something that someone might pay good money for that you really won't miss. And of course you can ask your family and friends. Do a GoFundMe if you need to. My ex-boyfriend funded his move from Pennsylvania to San Francisco with a GoFundMe. I even pitched in. If one of my friends needed money for a conference, I'd donate 20 bucks. Maybe your friends would, too.

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, I sense that you are worried that your advisor is unhappy with you for unknown reasons and is sticking you with this assistantship that you don't want. I doubt this is the case, but it's always a possibility. When they told you the initial decision was political, that was probably true. Maybe this other student knows somebody and had a favor done for them, maybe somebody in the department just liked something on their CV and wanted them, who knows. Maybe it was actually completely random, but they didn't want to tell you that they flipped a coin to decide your fate. As for the decision to renew your contract for this administrative assistantship, I don't think you should read too much into it. For one thing, your job probably required some training and it's easier to have you continue the position instead of hiring and training someone new. If you did the job particularly well, they may have also asked for you again. Second, I assume that this external assistantship could be given to any student at the university, not just those in your department. So it makes sense that your advisor would want to keep you on that assistantship if there's no guarantee that his or any other students in the department will get this assistantship if you don't continue it. It frees up funding for additional students in his lab. I also wouldn't describe your contract as having a hole. Administrative positions are what they are - it's not very useful to have a TA who takes off for winter break when there's work to be done. Is it fair? Maybe not. I am also on an administrative-type assistantship that works the same way. My previous assistantship's hours ran with the student calendar, so once finals were over and grades were submitted, I could chill out for a few weeks until the next term started. With this assistantship, I'm working all year except for official holidays, although per our union's bargaining agreement, I am entitled to 21 days away from work. However, I haven't actually had any issues with taking time off to visit family or go on vacation and my hours are super flexible. My supervisor is extremely cool. As for your advisor, I'm not sure I follow that he doesn't have enough funding to go around. From what you've described, everyone in your lab is funded. Just because he's taking advantage of external assistantships doesn't mean there's not enough funding to go around. However, if he really is taking on students without a funding plan, that's a bit irresponsible. Although many departments won't allow admission of new students if they don't have a plan in place for funding, so there may be more going on behind the scenes than you know.

Back pain

I made many horrible mistakes as an undergrad. My biology GPA was 3.8ish, but my overall was sub 3.0. Although it was a weird situation where I had a 3.59 at the college I graduated from, but when you added in the other three schools I attended, it was baaaaaaaad. My GRE scores also weren't bad, but not amazing either (something like 84th percentile V, 63rd percentile Q). On my first go, I was rejected from all of the PhD programs I applied to and accepted to all of the master's programs. I was even offered funding. At the school I chose, the program director had a chat with me one day and told me that the admissions committee really wasn't sure about admitting me. However, my LORs were so amazing that they decided to take the risk. When it came time to apply again for a PhD program, I had one publication submitted but not yet accepted, and I was in the process of writing my thesis. I had two of the same LOR writers again, plus my master's advisor. My graduate GPA was like a 3.85. I felt really good about that application season, although I ultimately got rejected by all but one school (although I was waitlisted at my top choice for a while). But here I am! Based on my own experiences, I would say that your GPA isn't really going to hold you back. A 3.6 is quite good, and while your bio gpa might be lower than you'd like, it also depends on where the low grades are. If you bombed your intro courses but aced your upper level courses, no one is going to bat an eye. And to be honest, working as a research assistant and getting those publications are going to make you look really good to the admissions committee.

I actually do put a late assignment blurbs in my syllabus. For this class, it wasn't exceptionally detailed, but did require students to contact me before the deadline if an assignment would be late. Which is why it's so frustrating.

I saw that you're already getting close to finishing your writing, but my two cents: The content of your thesis will be largely the same, regardless of format, so why not just do the manuscript format? It saves you the step of rewriting for publication, especially if you will be writing multiple manuscripts.

I aced the written part of my preliminary exams. I was really worried about the questions from one committee member - he's notoriously a handful and it's difficult to satisfy him. However, he was perhaps the most pleased of everyone with my responses! Now I just have to survive the oral component.

I'm feeling annoyed right now. Someone shared an article today about a study that has just been published. It's a great study and is very similar to what I had intended to research for my PhD, but in a different ecosystem. That's not was annoys me, though. What annoys me is that I completely shifted gears after my former advisor and several bird researchers told me that it was a bad idea and too much work for results that might be non-significant. Clearly, it was a good idea. I'm working on something quite different now and with a new advisor. My research is still exciting and novel, but I'm just so aggravated that so many people crapped on my ideas and made feel like I didn't belong. Ultimately, it's better this way, because my former advisor was a terrible mentor in many ways.

I'm frustrated with many people. I taught a graduate course this past term, and I'm shocked at how irresponsible several of the students were. I get that coursework isn't always a priority, but when it's five days past the due date for a major assignment and you haven't so much as said, "sorry, this will be late," that's bad. I'm also involved with program admissions and orientation (mainly sending out emails and scheduling things), and I'm shocked by the rudeness of some people and the inability of other people to check their email and reply with a simple yes or no. My prelims are also finally coming up in about 2 weeks. While most of my committee has been helpful with preparation, one committee member basically told me that their question would be more of problem solving question and doesn't require reading papers and studying. About a month out, they decided to give me a few review papers to help guide my thinking. Now they've suddenly sent me a bunch of papers to read. Sigh.

I'm getting annoyed with my school's requirements about committee members. Specifically, I need someone outside of my field whose sole purpose is to make sure the graduate school's policies are being followed. Faculty willing to serve in this type of position add their name to a database, and graduate students are provided with a list containing a subset of these faculty members to ask. I'm on my third list and I still can't find anyone. I got a bunch of "I'm on too many committees," a few people are on sabbatical, quite a few have simply ignored me, and today I got the most annoying response of all: "I only join committee close to my area of expertise." I just want to yell at this person - they're not supposed to serve on a project in their field or have anything to do with the content of the dissertation. They are purely there to make sure we don't sidestep regulations.

Working a summer position that requires waders and boots. I gave my supervisor my shoe sizes in both men's and women's sizes (since that's what he asked for). He ordered my waders using my women's size number, but ordered men's. So the boots on the waders were way too big. Someone else who he didn't order gear for yet took them and we got the right size. He then ordered me some knee-high waterproof boots the same freaking way. The boots run a little big to begin with, so it's like wearing boots that are two sizes too big. He wouldn't return them and told me to just wear several pairs of socks. Gee thanks, I love wearing four pairs of socks in 85 degree weather. My ankles keep rolling in them because they're so big and I have blisters on my toes from my feet sliding around. This morning one of my other supervisors asked if the label on my gear shelf was spelled right, since they had made a few spelling errors with others. I have a double barreled last name with no hyphen. They put a hyphen on the label, so I told her it was wrong and she made me a new label. I wasn't mad about it, but since she was offering a new label, I took it. Then the first supervisor basically told me that it wasn't a misspelling to add a hyphen. I informed him that my legal name has no hyphen. Then he got really pissy about it and started complaining that you can't have a hyphenated name with no hyphen. Whatever, dude.

Well all right. If any readers are easily offended, look away now. After he said he replaced her with a younger woman, my friend replied with "she may be younger, but my vagina hasn't pushed out two 10 pound babies." OUCH.

WOW my best friend just told me the most ridiculous thing about her ex. She was with this guy for 7 years or so, and they were married for maybe 5 or 6 (can't remember). He's been cheating on her for pretty much their entire relationship (she found this out in the past year), and a few months ago she decided to cheat on him since he obviously had no interest in monogamy. Long story short, he got pissed off that she cheated, tried to make her feel like she was ruining her life by not staying with him, and has been sabotaging her efforts to move out. So he finally lets it go and decides to date a friend of theirs who lives a few hours away. This woman is 3 years younger than my bestie, and he apparently told my friend that he "replaced her with a younger woman." Like dude that's hardly a significant age difference. If you're going to be an asshat about it and play the trade-in card, you're going to need a much bigger age difference. As is, you just sounds like an idiot. My friend actually had a magnificent response, but it's not really appropriate for polite conversation.

Today started off as a good day. The sun was shining, my morning meeting went quickly, I wrote a quiz for my class tomorrow... I even got in some exercise! Then I got an email that pretty much ruined my day. My program has slowly been progressing from a place where most students were funded and the program head was actively trying to make sure everyone in the program is taken care of, to a place where the focus in on recruitment and screw everyone already in the program. I didn't realize the program was headed this way until recently because I was one of the newer recruits that were financially taken care of - my first year due to a bit of luck, and this year because I was still new enough to warrant giving funding to. However, over the past year as I've met more of the older students, I discovered that many of them have basically been ignored in favor of driving all funding to new students. A few have taken jobs outside the university to support themselves as they try to wrap up their research and get out. One even told me that the program head told her to get a job bartending when she tried to discuss funding options. Two have moved back to their home states to work and are finishing their PhDs remotely. Our department assistant has traditionally helped students find TA positions in related departments as there are often excess TAships due to lots of grant money for RAs floating around, but today in response to an email I wrote her about funding opportunities for next year, she told me not to bother her with funding requests because the program head will decide who gets a limited number of TA positions our program has available and doesn't want students waitlisted for positions elsewhere because the funding isn't guaranteed. In any event, I've gone straight to the departments themselves to request placement on their lists for next year, but I'm very annoyed that our program head seems to be trying to block access to funding for older students. What good is bringing in new students if you can't fund them later in their degree? Just another reason why I kick myself for taking an offer with shaky funding.

I'm starting to get annoyed with one of my advisor's colleagues. My advisor is away until late July. He has a joint appointment between my program and a university-affiliation organization, with a bit more of his time spent working on projects for this organization. While he's away, one of his colleagues has been responsible for going to meetings and doing a few other things that he normally does. She does a great job, but for some reason she refuses to respond to me if her response is going to be negative and she has been keeping me out of the loop on things that are directly related to my research. For example, we went to a meeting together earlier in the year and I thought I left my water bottle in her car. I texted her asking if she could look for it and drop it off at the office next time she was in. She didn't respond and about a day and a half later I found it in my apartment (it had fallen out of my backpack and rolled under the couch). I texted her that I found it and she immediately responded with "great." Why couldn't she text me to say that she didn't have it? More recently, my advisor told her to order something that they would be using for training activities and for my research. She didn't immediately get back to him about it, so he asked me to check in with her. I emailed her asking if she ordered it and let her know some other info related to the project, but she didn't reply to me. A week and a half later, my advisor emailed her (and I was copied to the email) and she finally replied that she didn't order it because it wouldn't arrive in time for the training session, but that she'd order it now. Now I need what she was supposed to order for some public outreach in a week and I'm not going to have it If she had just communicated with us, I wouldn't have this problem!