TheSunnyMan

Has anyone ever had professors flirting with them? It's definitely unprofessional and crosses boundaries, but is it normal to feel mutual attraction between you and a professor? Why would a professor flirt with their student? It's really awkward and a little uncomfortable.

Pretty sweet that you get updated on your performance from your advisor. I only met with my advisor twice, all during course registration. She's not exactly the most attentive mentor, but I guess this is only my first semester and there's not much to be said from her side. But still, I have a feeling that the faculty from my department or my university in general is pretty elusive about that stuff. They all have their heads buried under their research, so I have to really take initiative to seek them out. About your earlier advice, again, I'm relatively new to the department and haven't formed close personal relationship with any faculty memeber yet, so I feel a little trapped. But I did talk to someone about my situation today and she also advised me to 1) talk to that professor and ask her how I am doing in the course and how I can do better, as opposed to putting her on the defense and asking her why she is treating me differently or; 2) stick it out and continue to be myself and participate in class regardless of whether I'm getting acknowledgements or encouragements from her side because when it comes down to it, it's all about priority. I can either give up and be intidmated by ONE faculty member, not speak up in class, and risk the opportunity to learn or I can just keep doing what I should be doing, participating, improving, etc and not let her evaulation of me get in the way. I can't control her behavior and I'd probaly drive myself nuts analyzing every detailed thing she does or doesn't do to me in a relatively large seminar room.

It all depends on your program's requirements for making satisfactory progress. I don't know how your program works. Do you already have a MA? Because there might be some leniency for Bs at that stage, but I know you should strive for As in the PhD coursework stage. GPA matters when you consider external/internal fellowships, grants, scholarship, etc. Anyway, you should aim for As in your classes since you're entering a very elite profession and aiming to do superb work and not merely "good" work (not to say grades are accurate reflections of one's entire intellectual potentials, drive, and creativity). But being that that was your first semester, getting Bs won't hinder your continuation in the program, I don't think. Are you in the sciences or humanities? Grade inflaution is pretty rampant in grad school and your school should be no different, I assume... And trust me, we all (at least me) feel incompetent and defeated during our academic careers at some point, even if you have a 4.0 GPA. Keep your head up!

Absolutely I agree. If I talk to other grad students, and not to be wholly cynical, I might get responses like "get a reality check" or some other forms of racially insensitive remarks of my observations. Besides, like I wrote earlier, since departmental politics runs deep in my program, I'm not sure I trust anyone yet to disclose such personal issue to my peers, being that this is my first year of grad school and all. Tho I'm hesitant towards talking to an entrusted professor, too. No need to burn any bridges this early into my program. Besides, everything I've described so far is subjective, hardly anything I can write a bias report on, so playing it safe and staying low might be the best option. Such is life.

Reality check of what? Of departmental politics that permeates classroom competition? Favoritism? Academic elitism and discrimination? I think I'm being pretty clear that I'm remaining optimistic and open-minded about my situation and not simply resorting to race, regardless of my personal feelings of alienation in a discipline dominated by non-minorities.

"think outside your comfort zone even when your heart tells you u might be right." Nicely said. I do trust my gut instinct that this professor likes to play class politics to get under everyone's skin, but the fact that I'm the only minority student does make me extra sensitive to her subtle triangulating between students. But I guess I need to combat covert bias, whether it exists or not in this particular case, because racism still persists in academia. Thanks guys.

Has anyone ever felt marginalized in a seminar? I'm a minority student in a top PhD program that is pretty traditional (i.e., liberal arts discipline) and there aren't many minority students. For one of my seminars, I can't help but feel like the professor excludes, consciously or not, me in discussions. This person tends to ignore my comments, rarely calls on me but does have a tendency to call on other people during discussions. I'm decently intelligent, observant, hard-working, etc, and I rarely play the race card, but why am I feeling this way? Please don't trivalize my feelings as my being overly sensitive. I'm not suggesting her behavior is all racially-charged, but I've never felt this excluded or not valuable as a contributor in a classroom, particularly in a grad seminar setting before. Bascially, I feel pretty shitty/incompetent because she doesn't acknowledge me, am intimdated by her, and I don't think I'm completely paranoid. I mean, there has to be a reason in the way she acts towards me that's making me feel this way. She just seems to give more attention or encouragement to other students and I feel really left out. Thanks guys. Again, please give me constructive advice/insights and not purely reduce my feeling to insecurity or something.

UIUC is pretty good, too. There is the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. You can get certified there and apply to Cornell's Critical Theory School, and if accepted, UIUC will pay for your summer stay. <BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"> Shameless plug.

Hey guys, I'm completing the last part of the Javits application (FAFSA), but there is no code for the program. I know the application instruction said we can just submit our form and they will pull our files from FAFSA website, since "them" being Department of Education and can do tricky things like that? Thanks.

How rampant is grade inflation? Especially humanities PhD programs? Does everyone get As and anything below that would be disasterous? I know most schools have guidelines like 3.0 to stay in school and 3.5 to keep TA, RA, etc, but is this the real benchmark, or do programs actually expect 4.0 GPA? Thanks guys.