Eigen

I just gave you a post full of details of how to give yourself an edge. Graduate admissions aren't like undergraduate admissions- often, you're admitted because a particular researcher (in your case, Spergel) is interested in having you work with them. And admissions at Princeton in one area are going to be wildly different than admissions in another area, which is why I recommended you ask in the discipline specific subforums. Knowing what helped someone in Chemistry or Molecular Bio get admitted isn't going to help you at all. And if you want to be taken seriously, please, stop calling him Mr Universe.

How does the department handle rotations? When my wife was doing hers (my department doesn't do rotations), she decided about 6 weeks into her last one that she was going to go back to her first lab. She talked to the PI she was working with about it, and he said that she should make the move back as soon as she decided, that it was the most productive thing for all involved. In other words, he recommended she cut the rotation short so she could get started in the lab she was staying in ASAP. Might be a bit different if you're working on a project in the lab that you need to finish up, but otherwise... I'd just bring it up.

FSU also has an excellent analytical program. Depending on what area of analytical chemistry you're interested in, you might also be fine in a physical chemistry group working on spectroscopy/NMR/Mass Spec, or an inorganic group doing electrochem/photochem.

Anyone else working on this? Most of it was pretty straightforward, but I'm finding the "Year Summary" very unclear. It starts with requesting a 2-3 paragraph summary. Then it says it can either be 1000-5000 words, or 1 page. None of those really match up! 1 page typed (11 pt, TR) is about 750 words tops. And 1000-5000 words is 2-3 really long paragraphs. So basically, I have no idea what length document they're looking for. Additionally, it says it should be written "for the public", so should I put in a lot of longer explanations on how my project works?

But it's the research experience that makes you qualified to teach at the University level, which is what you're interested in. Go with what you were told on the CHE forums, there are lots of very experienced people there.

Spergel's an interesting guy, and certainly some neat research. Is it the engineering end of his work, or the theoretical ends of his work that particularly interests you? And do you want to work directly in his research group, or just on the same projects? It seems you're going about this the wrong way. You don't want to work at Princeton, you want to work with Spergel. Hence, you'd want to see what would make you the best fit for his group, and work towards that. Similarly, trying to get some summer research opportunities on his projects/similar projects wouldn't be a bad idea. Keep up with his papers, and take courses that will best help you to understand the work he's doing and how to further it. And above all, do lots and lots of research so you have that experience on your resume. Also, you'll probably get better responses to this in one of the Physics/physical science subforums, since this is a discipline specific question.

So you've asked very similar variations of this question before, and I have to ask- why the fixation on Princeton? It's a good school, but there are lots of other similar schools out there. Is there some specific resource, research center or faculty member you just really want to work with there?

This is quite true abut field differences. I would bet that the author agreements you sign with publishers still include clauses that make you, as an author, liable for self plagiarization. And I realize CS is a very different field with respect to publications, especially in the high regard for conference proceedings, it's quite an outlier to any related fields. But I can tell you that as you drift towards the cognitive science end that it's definitely looked down upon by other researchers, at least from the discussions I hear. The clarification on the difference between full paper to full paper and communication/proceedings to full paper makes a lot of sense, thanks for the addition. ::responses to edits::

Just because you see it doesn't mean it's accepted. It happens in my field, but people also get gutted for it in reviews, and it seems to diminish the impact of the work at times. Not to mention that publishers can technically go after you for breaching agreements if they so choose.

Yoshiko: The OP is talking about an external fellowship vs an internal assistantship. But yes, the point off fellowship is that you get to have a much larger role in directing your research. An RAship in the social sciences, from my understanding, tends to be a lot less of your research and a lot more of assisting with lit reviews, pulling books, etc. for a PI, while on a fellowship you're being paid to do your own research and coursework full time. The same professors who would have given you an RAship will often still want to work with you- but as Quinquenion said, you work with them, rather than for them. There's also a huge prestige factor that translates into better chances for funding down the road, opportunities for postdoctoral fellowships, and an increased chance of grant funding when you start applying. There's also the good will from e department, being as you're supporting yourself, which I've found to lead to an increased chance for the funding of travel for research and conferences, as well as funds for research. Since they're not paying for your stipend, they can more easily help fund you in other ways. Depending on the terms of funding at your institution and the fellowship, you're also probably more likely to get RA funding after the fellowship ends, as well as be more competitive for summer funding, etc.

The best answer is "don't self-plagiarize". The ideas are yours, so you don't need to cite them- but the exact wording needs to change, unless you want to heavily use exact quotations of yourself, which doesn't exactly come off well either. We run into this issue with our publications, and the answer is always to just rewrite the relevant passages. Since they're yours, you can cut it pretty close, but don't cut and paste the passages without direct quotations of yourself from whatever other source.

Your progress report each year is on you as a whole, and not on the project your wrote about. In fact, you don't have to even work in the project your proposed.

Not really... You take the NSF for prestige. I had several friends give up internal fellowships or assistantships that were paying more, but being an NSF fellow opens a lot of other worthwhile doors. I looked into it a bit when I accepted mine, and from what I recall, it wasn't possible, but I don't remember whether it was institutional or NSF prohibited. I think it was from the NSF guidelines, but not positive. Most major fellowships prevent doubling up. ::edit::

Pretty sure the NSF guidelines have some prohibitions on dual funding sources, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

Yeah, I would really doubt that you could do this in a way that wouldn't shoot yourself in the foot for future applications to the same school. If they took a bet on you this time, and it burned them due to a pulled acceptance, why would they take the risk again in the future? Some of what you say about grad school, however, makes me think that you might be in a non-funded discipline/program, in which case things might be a bit different. It might help if you told us what degree/program this was for.

I think pretty much every grad student gets them at some point or another. Mine seem to come and go, depending on how well my research is going. I think it's more just getting used to them being there, and telling yourself that all you can do is your best. We used to have a huge thread sticked on Imposter Syndrome over on the PhD Comics graduate forum, but it's since been taken down due to hackers and spam, sadly.

If you're posting it on Facebook and sending e-mails to people you know, don't you worry about a sample bias? Afterall, you're working with a defined subset of the population, and probably not one that's got a proper breakdown of the overall population of interest.

A fair number of mistakes, but the biggest one isn't one in the article. The article is explaining how to calculate your cumulative GPA vs a semester GPA. You don't combine undergrad and graduate GPAs the same way- mostly because once you've finished a degree (associates, bachelors, masters, etc) that GPA is fixed, and doesn't change. But also, graduate and undergrad classes are judged on different scales, and held to different standards, so combining them really doesn't work that well. You seem to be over-complicating the issue... Just report the GPAs you've earned for each of your degrees, since you've finished them all.

How is this different than any other similar-type of job, though? All are necessary thing to advance your standing, knowledge base, and visibility in any research based field, whether you're a student or not. Faculty and post-docs can't write them off. Industry researchers can't write them off. Why should we be able to? Properly, they aren't school-related expenses, but are rather career related expenses, and as such are not at all unique to students or "necessary" to the education, but rather professional development. You could probably get around it by filing your taxes under a schedule C and writing them off as business expenses, though- I bet you could get that definition to stick, since they're for your professional development, and as such are legitimate expenses for your "business". I know some faculty that do this, and it seems to work OK for them. Heck of a lot more paperwork, though.

Have you started writing up your dissertation? What about a prospectus, if required? Do you have a committee selected? If so, you might be able to ask some of your other committee members if they think you're ready. But really, does your research tie together to tell a relatively complete story that results in a decent contribution to the field?

My suggestion: Get a small pickup (Ford Ranger, etc). They're light on frills, but get decent gas milage, are pretty common in rural areas, are mechanically sound, and most of all, are usually pretty cheap.

Just for future reference, the multiquote functionality here is quite usefull if you want to respond to 3-4 people, instead of writing up separate posts for each.

IMO, you want to consider the reputation and publication record of the PI you want to work for as much or more than the reputation of the program. Past that, I'd also encourage you to think about which PI/research group you felt like you would fit into best, and would be the best working environment for you.

Went through the practice exams on the CD ETS sent out sometime before the test, but nothing other than that. I just wanted to have a feel for timing and flow. I also did a quick perusal of the ETS site for descriptions of score brackets for the writing section.

And see, in my department, if we asked we'd probably be told it was fine to get a job teaching labs across town, assuming we framed it properly. TakeruK: You seem to be mixing two issues consistently. One is having a life while in a PhD program- most places, this is perfectly acceptable, and quite often encouraged. The other is working a side job while in a PhD program. The issue isn't how much time you work vs. what you do in your free time, but rather how you split up your "working" time. And it's often based on the understanding that you really only have so many productive hours of energy in a day. If you're going to be expending energy working, then it should be on your PhD. In other words, working a second job isn't considered a "free-time" activity. There's also the idea that you should be working primarily to build up your CV. Most advisors really care that you go on to do pretty well in the field, because it shows them in a good light, and is kind of the point of getting a PhD. Volunteering, teaching, and even "service" (committees, etc) are all part of that. It's not the most important part of your CV (your publications and research are), but it's definitely a plus. Working waiting tables, on the other hand, isn't downtime, and doesn't contribute to your CV. Basically, even raising a family or spending time with your spouse, is an activity that is seen as being beneficial to your life long term, while a side-job really isn't.