Eigen

Yeah, I didn't split mine out until I had 3-4 in each section.

Are you talking about a CV here, or a resume? I would say it's uncommon to have references listed on a CV, although it's common practice on a resume. Similarly, the way you're doing your publications and presentations is unusual, what with bullet pointed descriptors. I'm used to a CV that would have, say: Oral Presentations Hopeful, G. (May 2012) Oh My Goodness: Application Season is Here and it is Driving Me Bananas! Undergraduate Research Conference, City, State. Poster Presentations Hopeful, G. (October 2012) Ins and Outs of Applications. Undergraduate Research Conference, City, State. Peer-Reviewed Publications Hopeful, G. Application Woes. J Grad. Appl. 5(10) 2009. So to me, an abstract wouldn't merit an entry in the last bit. When I have an abstract from a conference published in a proceedings publication, I just use that citation under the appropriate header in oral/poster presentations as the official citation for that event.

I would say you're going about this backwards (looking for schools, then seeing if faculty interest you). I'd suggest finding research that interests you (reading papers) and then see where those faculty are. Then see if that school interests you.

Yeah, I know it's very different in some of the more independently structured fields even within the sciences- Ecology, Geology, etc. Things where people are working on their own project more independently, and not as a sub-project of some overarching 10 year scheme.

Depends- you say it's published in your university's research library. Is this published as part of, say, a proceedings of (insert national organization here)? Or is this just a listing of abstracts for a University research fair? Personally, I just cite the published abstract under "Poster Presentations" as my entry for that item on my CV. As to invited presentations and talks, again it depends. Is another university inviting you to come give a research talk as a seminar? Then absolutely. By on the same topic as the abstract and poster presentation, do you mean the exact same topic? Or just the same project? For a CV, assuming you mean references to your cited work, you include all of them. A CV should be a comprehensive list of your academic achievements, and all officially published material counts there (assuming it's not one of the above cases where you're citing the same work more than once).

Just curious, why do you assume I'm synthetic? (Hint: I'm not). Also, it's not different. Theoretical chem? Sure, maybe, but mostly because there's a tendency for some groups to have no interaction between members. Experimental PChem and Materials Science? Those are fields I overlap predominately with, and the interactions really aren't that different than any other lab-based experimental scientific discipline. Also, the way you defined physical chemistry, it's pretty much every area of modern chemistry. You might be able to have some holdouts in the ultra-pure total synth labs, but pretty much every area of chemistry is largely driven by physical instrumentation and computers these days, some of them just also do wet-lab work.

I have to say I wholeheartedly support every point in the original post. Overly harsh and frustrated? Sure. True? Absolutely. TakeruK- you may not be evaluating the junior students in your program, but the senior students in my program certainly are evaluating the new ones. As they pick rotations and try to join groups, you can bet that the PI's will ask their senior students if we think they will be an asset to the group. Similarly, there's a large chance some of the senior grad students will get talked to before first or second year fellowships get doled out, at least to get a feel. And even in a group? My boss asks me about how other students are progressing on a fairly regular basis, and I know he asks our post-doc(s) as well. We do more of the day-to-day managing of projects, and we can be in a better position to evaluate or help evaluate. Does that mean we're spying and reporting and you should never honestly talk to senior grad students? No. But, for instance, telling all of the senior grad students at the mixer that you're only here doing grad school because it's easy and low-maintenance until your music career works out? Probably not the best move, and definitely something that will make it back to the faculty. As to getting too comfortable? When you're so comfortable that you forget that the people you are talking to are peers and colleagues, and you talk about how you're blowing off your research, before you've proven that you have chops and this is just a one-time thing? That's not good. Should you blindly follow the procedures that your lab has laid out, or that have been developed by senior students? No. Should you, without having read any of the suggested and relevant literature (and/or never having worked in the area before) start pointing out parts of the protocol you feel should be cut before you've even done it once? Probably not. If you come to me for advice or to learn a technique, and then spend the entire afternoon I set aside to teach you telling me that I'm doing it wrong, or that it won't work for you, chances are I'm not going to be thrilled about teaching you something else in the future. Do I care if you take what I teach you, decide it won't work for you, and don't use it or heavily modify it? Not at all. But if you then come back and tell me my protocol was bad when you didn't follow it and it didn't work because you thought you could cut things that I've found out you can't, I probably won't be thrilled. And special treatment doesn't require objectively special circumstances. Sometimes it just requires the individual thinking they have special circumstances. Like thinking they shouldn't have to take the required coursework because they're brilliant geniuses, and all of the rest of us were just plodding morons that needed guidance. Or thinking that they should be excused from the required seminar, rotations, etc. because they know better/don't need it. As to questions that can be easily found via google? I'm happy to answer, but my answer may consist of "have you googled that?" Asking other people for help with simple stuff is fine. If you do it enough times, it comes across like you're not dong any background work of your own. If you consistently ask people to explain something to you when the first hit on google is a review article explaining exactly what you're asking... It comes across like you want other people to do your work for you.

Students who are planning on teaching don't necessarily need a post-doc. Students who are planning to become competitive research faculty, do. People who want to lead R&D groups in industry do as well. The better the research institution, the more post-docs they are likely to have. That said, post-docs in general aren't so highly competitive, but the good ones are.

I think his point was that publicly posting research proposals is considered really unwise. At best, you get feedback from random strangers, at worst a random stranger likes your proposal and pursues it themselves, thus scooping you and beating you to publishing it. Your research proposals should be looked over by people you personally trust- colleagues, undergrad advisors, or your current faculty advisors. And even then, I'm a fan of playing them close to the chest.

I've never seen a department organized to have a student or faculty mentoring plan setup outside of the advisor committee. If you need help, it's up to you to approach senior students and ask. Or, you can go to your peers. This is the level where you need to start learning how to work with your peers for help, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

Wait, you have no senior graduate students? You're the oldest person in the program? Is this a new program or something?

Yeah, we fund people who are just attending with small grants too. It's not all that usual from looking around though, and certainly not large amounts.

Also check grad associations at your school. I just finished processing about 30 $200-$500 grants for grad students for SfN. In general though, traveling if you don't have results to present is hard to find funding for.

Just mentioning, there are S(mall)LACs and S(elective)LACs that are often lumped together. The latter are much more research intensive, and can have significant research possibilities.

IMO, there is a terminal degree for someone who is ABD: a masters. At least in my field, that which distinguishes the PhD from an MS is the dissertation. So being ABD is pretty much having an MS and some extra work experience.

Cheating is cheating. And should result in suspension or expulsion from the program. I personally consider this a very hard line.

Sounds like you're either not making it strong enough, or diluting it too much. The cold brew I'm used to drinking has about 3x the caffeine of a normal cup of coffee, and packs quite a punch. But I brew it strong, and only cut it about 1:3 water to concentrate.

There used to be a Pol Sci GRE subject test, but it was discontinued in 1998, I assume due to the lack of benefit relative to other measures (transcripts, letters, writing sample).

I drink enough that the acid was starting to get to me, so I drink exclusively cold brewed. I make it at home and leave a jar of it in my fridge at the office. That said, the building that houses our labs has a coffee shop built in on the first floor, and they give significant discounts to the regulars, so I end up drinking there a lot.

I feel like the CHE STFU Center For Professional Development is relevant here. There was no inference you can't disagree, the point was that there are many, many times in life where it's better to simply listen, nod and smile, walk away and discard the incorrect advice. Think of platitudes like "choose your battles wisely" and "discretion is the better part of valor". Learning that you can be perfectly satisfied with knowing you are correct without having to prove it to everyone else is a valuable skill for life in general. Not every statement you disagree with needs to be argued, and to be honest when there's a power differential, disagreeing about something that really isn't all that important to begin with. Should you take a stand on issues you feel are morally worthwhile? Sure. But that certainly isn't the majority case. And it has nothing to be with being a grad student, it's equally applicable to junior faculty in discussions with senior faculty, faculty working with administrators, administrators with the board of directors. Or heck, you with your spouse or that crazy person you meet on the street that's convinced you're an alien. Not all incorrect statements, suggestions, advice or ideas need to be refuted.

Just curious, which of these seem department specific to you? Following instructions and not ignoring them seems pretty generic to me.

There are a handful of schools that pass along some of the CoE money to the student to use a grant for research expenses. They're in the vast minority, though, and it's all schools at which the actual cost of education (tuition+fees) is less than the 12.5k that the CoE provides (state schools with cheap tuition). At the majority of schools, your years tuition+fees will be more that the CoE, and it will go towards paying those and the school will eat the rest.

Are you close with any of the rest of your committee members? Could you see what their opinion of your project as a complete dissertation is? How many publications have you gotten out of the work so far? Are there more you could push out reasonably rapidly? In general, the "list of questions you were given to answer" as a starting grad student isn't usually a complete list of what you need to do to graduate. The answers to those questions then shape other questions, that you answer, that gives rise to a full project. How did your dissertation proposal/prospectus go? Did your committee like it? Did they seem to think that if you completed the research you'd outlined that you'd be ready to graduate? Have you proposed a specific 18 mo plan of research to your advisor that you feel wraps up your project, or did you just tell them you want to be out in that time frame?

Depending on the commuter lot, you don't have to pay for parking. If you park at the one on Broadway and Leake, there's a shuttle on to campus every 20 minutes all day, and parking is free (no tag needed). There's another one by the north end of campus, and that one is quite expensive. Personally, I can't see paying that much for a small apartment, but it all depends what you want. We live out in the suburbs a bit (still within 15 min to campus), and pay $1400 for a two bedroom house with a nice yard, all utilities included.

From what you describe of your mentor, I wouldn't say they let you down, or were not on your side. I would say you may have had too high of hopes. The only thing it seems like they haven't come through with is research experience, which while related is separate from them being a mentor. It seems to me your entire focus on her "lack" as a mentor is in relation to not getting you research experience. You say she responds to your e-mails (that aren't about helping her with research) and that she's met with you a couple of times in person. What exactly do you want her to be doing that she is not? Defining what you want in a mentor that you are not currently getting is the best place to start in looking for a new one.