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threading_the_neidl

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  1. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to ss2player in 2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    You can also do what I did: work as a tech and use benefits to take free/cheap graduate classes. Worked for me!
  2. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Crucial BBQ in "Stripping a Professor of Tenure Over a Blog Post"   
    The student was prepared to record the conversation, which sounds like a set-up to me--especially since it ends with "I'll be bringing this to your supervisors".  
  3. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl got a reaction from Crucial BBQ in 2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    The reason I wrote was because I, and everyone else in Boston, have been walking through ~1-2ft of snow all week. On Monday, I was in shin high snow on the "cleared" path to my major research hospital. The accumulation was so rapid and intense that ~50% of our trains are out of service due to weather related damage. There are very few occasions where one truly needs snow boots, but the last week in Boston has provided one. :'(
  4. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Enhydra in For the seasoned interviewees: I have questions, (maybe) you have answers.   
    Generally it's seen as bad form, especially if the plane tickets have already been paid for. Many people have also reported shifting their school rankings around after visiting each program; what is your top choice now might not be so after going to all the interviews. However, if attending interviews is putting you in a difficult position financially you may have to cut some interviews... It's a difficult predicament. Hopefully some others can chime in with advice!
  5. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to ERR_Alpha in For the seasoned interviewees: I have questions, (maybe) you have answers.   
    Honesty if a program was that rude and minded about visiting a friend I wouldn't want to be there anyway...
  6. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to ss2player in For the seasoned interviewees: I have questions, (maybe) you have answers.   
    You'll be fine, it's none of their business what you do in your free time.
  7. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to ballwera in Choices: higher school ranking vs famous PI   
    Did you talk to any grad students from the PI's lab at Northwestern? 
  8. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to HIMJoel in Choices: higher school ranking vs famous PI   
    The location of the school in my opinion does not matter. What matters is the person you work with, so ask your self who are you happier working with, rather than a physical where question. 
  9. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Crucial BBQ in 2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    I would be careful with this.   The reason of a thank-you note is to show sincerity, with the main point being to say thank you. It is okay to reiterate your interests in the program.  It is also okay to thank the prof/PI for their insights into the program. However, a thank-you note is not the place to remind the prof/PI about how cool their own research is.  Any hint of brown-nosing could become your kiss of death.  You want to sound sincere, not desperate. 
     
    *edit
     
    The word awesome should not appear anywhere in the note. 
  10. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to fuzzylogician in Dealing with Undergraduate Assistants in Discussion Sections   
    I'm not sure that this is actually a problem but since you've already talked to the TA and to your professor about it, my main advice would be to try and change your attitude towards the TA and be very gracious when they try and help. It sounds like they have good intentions, even if their execution is lacking. If you respond negatively, even just in body language or tone, the students will pick up on it and be uncomfortable. That would probably lead to an environment that's not as conducive to learning as in your other section. I thought the language in your post came across as negative, and I wouldn't be surprised if it affects your interactions with the TA more generally. If I were a student in a class where the instructor and TA seemed to be battling each other, I know I'd do my best to stay as far away from it as possible, which would probably lead to less participation and less learning. 
     
    However, this is just an uneducated guess based on a short post. Maybe more context would help for why you think it's undermining your authority that the TA tried to help with a technical problem.
  11. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to ldoone in Heterosexual Male Students in Women's Studies   
    ^ RE the stuff on 'whitey' above - this is off the subject of men in women's groups and probably opening a whole can of worms, but I'd've thought that we'd all now pretty much acknowledged that there's racial slurs and racial slurs. The difference between a term like 'blacky', which targets a group who are still the subject of widespread institutionalised discrimination and have a long history of oppression based on the colour of their skin, and a term like 'whitey', which targets a group who, by and large (I know there are exceptions, I'm talking generally here) aren't and haven't, is enormous. Both terms are insults, and insults aren't cool - but the weight of those insults is entirely different. If, in say Europe or the US, you insult a white person based on their skin colour you're definitely being a dick, but you're not oppressing them and you're not contributing to massive institutionalised discrimination. If you use racial slurs against a POC then you pretty much are. The two things just aren't comparable. 
  12. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Katzenmusik in Heterosexual Male Students in Women's Studies   
    There is definitely a place for men in studies of women, gender, and sexuality!  I for one would welcome your participation -- it's always a bit sad to me when I'm attending a class that is all about breaking down gender norms and furthering the project of equality, but no men are present to learn and contribute.
     
    Many men in the field have focused on masculinity, influenced by the work of feminist scholars.  If you went in that direction, you might feel less alone.  
     
    Even if you do end up being the only man in the room, you should follow your interests and forge ahead!
  13. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to jbeld in Heterosexual Male Students in Women's Studies   
    Yes, there can be a place for you in women's studies. What you have to understand is that the whole academy is your place by default, and that the creation of spaces that don't devalue voices unlike yours is an incredibly important function of women's studies departments. If you don't understand why that is, I imagine you don't really get what the discipline is about and don't have much of a future in it.
  14. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Cookie in getting kicked out of a program   
    There are many possible reasons for expulsion, not all of them are related to academics performance. What the professors told you might just be a way to keep the matter confidential (since it is not your business to begin with). 
    It is unfortunate, but life goes on and the best you can do is to respect your friend's privacy, and maybe to offer help with moving etc.
  15. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to lewin in If I feel like the quality of education and students in my program is poor, should I leave?   
    I just want to pop in to defend the social sciences and dispute this implication that people in the "hard" sciences are smarter so going there would solve the problem.  Group discussions give people the opportunity to open their mouths and possibly look like idiots.  You might think that hard science students are more worthy of your time, but it could just be that in lecture-based classes they're not being given similar chances to demonstrate that many are, indeed, also morons.   [Assuming they're actually morons and we don't have an unskilled and unaware situation going on here...]
     
     
    My practical advice is that if your advisor relationship is fine, stick with it and focus your outside-of-class time on the students whose contributions you enjoy. Grad school is more about the research than the classes anyway.
  16. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Pol in DO NOT apply to Wisconsin Madison   
    Gotta love the smell on entitlement. 
  17. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to biotechie in programs at institutes/med school campuses   
    For the most part, you're only going to see larger programs if you're applying under umbrella programs. Funding is tight, so some programs are taking even less than normal. Just make sure you apply to several programs and give it your best shot.
  18. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Vene in programs at institutes/med school campuses   
    I think sizes like that are pretty common. Granted, they tend to accept more than just the 5-10 students as a good number will get multiple offers, so it's not as hopeless as it seems at a glance.
  19. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to funkydays in New guy here would like some sage advice :)   
    If you're working with HMS, look into using some of the educational reimbursements while you work there.  While your GPA is not optimal, taking either graduate level courses or any relevant courses will definitely help you improve your application.  I've heard others say on the forum that if their GPA was low, taking the subject test (and getting a high score) helped them overcome the low GPA.
     
    If the job you're at is where you want to be (as in, it is relevant to your future research area), talk with your supervisor(s) and set some professional goals you want to accomplish by 2016.  You should be having a frank discussion of what your career goals are, and see how this job can help you get to the next step.  Something like leading a project or increasing your participation in said project, getting a publication or two by the end of it all, etc.
     
    (This is assuming you have a good working relationship with your supervisor/PI)
  20. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to lewin in How to handle "argumentative" students?   
    It gets worse when they do give you rationale. I had a student who said they were on academic probation and if they didn't get a 70% in my class they would have to drop out of school. I just said that I was sorry, but it wouldn't be fair to the other students, many of whom would also have good reasons for wanting an extra 3% on their final grade. (And what I thought but didn't say was, "If this grade was so important you should have studied more.") 
     
    At least the story ends well: The following term I saw the student on campus walking to class so either they worked it out or were full of shit. Either way, I stuck to my guns.
  21. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to tt503 in Never TA'd before... think I am going to puke   
    You just do it. It gets easier the more practice you have. The first semester is a little rough (you'll probably learn more than the students do), because you're just trying to find your groove. Don't take the assessments to heart (if they are bad)--you'll get better. If you don't know the answer, there's no shame in saying, "I don't know offhand, but I'll find out." You're not expected to know everything, but chances are you'll know more than your students. My first teaching experience was teaching English to 30 students and I didn't have a Master's degree in it. It is intimidating, but I'd suggest you search online for good tips. I like to play games during some discussion sessions (think Jeopardy), or bring in relevant YouTube clips to help start discussion. Most students seem to appreciate when you don't have the same lecture style every week, because it's not as boring. :-)

    This week I have to lecture to 70 students on a subject I know nothing about. I'm not sweating it. (This comes after 5 years of teaching.)
  22. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to danieleWrites in Serious Moral Delimma   
    The problem is how to be fair to students. Certainly, we should expect them to realize that getting help during an exam and seeing questions beforehand is cheating. The problem is that the person doing the cheating was a teacher who apparently presented some of this cheating as part of the class itself. Did they earn the A the way that other students in other recitation sections did? No. Should they be punished for the cheating the teacher did? Did the teacher tell them this was cheating? Or did they expect this to be his teaching style?

    Whether anything happened to the students is likely a decision made based on whether or not the students were, themselves, involved in the cheating, or if the TA was cheating and the students merely benefited. If a teacher does a review for a test and the questions on the test along with the correct answers are part of the review, can you reasonably expect students to know this is cheating? If the teacher instructs students to raise their hands for silent help during an exam, can you reasonably expect students to know this is cheating? While the answer to this might be yes (obviously, the teacher shouldn't point out the correct answers on exam day), the fact that it's the teacher doing it means that students should be given the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not they knew this behavior was unauthorized assistance.

    Before you take this up to the chair or dean or provost or ombudsman, the question to examine isn't the student grades, but what happened to the cheating teacher. Was the teacher sanctioned in some way that is in line with the university's academic honor code? Does the teacher still have the assistanceship? Is the teacher still teaching? If the teacher was penalized in some way, then I believe (from what you've told us here) that the professor met his/her obligations regardless of what happened to the students.

    If the gossip mill isn't clear on it, I'm brazen enough to go to the professor up for tenure and outright ask what happens to TAs that violate academic integrity for their students. I might even speak with the chair or some other prof who would be in the know that I was buddy-buddy with.
  23. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to Igotnothin in Serious Moral Delimma   
    Tough situation. Definitely easiest to ignore it, but I think the right thing might be to report it. I don't understand what the grad student's motivation is - just eager to please his or her students? Or is there some kind of incentive if your students do well?
  24. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl reacted to gorki in Serious Moral Delimma   
    Contact your student ombudsman to discuss possible course of action. There's surely a way for you to inform the chair of the department without getting identified.
  25. Upvote
    threading_the_neidl got a reaction from mandarin.orange in URGENT HELP - PLAGIARISM   
    I enjoy the show, not a super fan, but I LOVE Festivus. Our department even has our own Festivus Pole. I'm pretty sure every faculty meeting is an Airing of Grievances, but what I'd really like to see is our chair and program advisor compete in the Feats of Strength.
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