serenade

So after claiming for years that I would never be stupid enough to fall for a scam email (I get emails in broken English from fake peer-reviewed journals wanting to publish for a fee all the time), I think I've finally been had. I got an email tonight from someone claiming to be from a research institution/funding organization that does in fact exist and is legitimate. He told me that my name had been nominated as an applicant for a study abroad program in a location that does in fact make sense for my research interests. He asked me for some basic information such as research interests/goals for study abroad etc. I thought that since the organization is actually legit and makes sense given my research, that maybe my advisor nominated me so I assumed the email was legitimate. I answered his questions, the only one of any substance being about my research interests, in which I basically summarized my proposed dissertation in a paragraph. I also asked him for the name of the person who nominated me. After replying at 10 pm EST (I found it odd in the first place that I got a professional email from someone claiming to be in the UK at 8:50 EST, which would be 1:50 am UK time), I get an email back an hour later saying that the chair of the research council was enthusiastic about my answers and promoted me to a finalist. That's when I knew something was up. By the time I got to the questions, I was sure it was a full blow scam. These questions asked me about my appreciation for fine arts; to rank my five favorite animals; my opinion of rabbit hunting; to rank my favorite pudding flavors etc. A complete joke. When I clicked on the name of the sender, he was using a gmail address - not one affiliated with the research organization, which lets me know he is posing as someone from there. He did not reply to my question of who nominated me, which I now realize is because no one did because the whole thing is fake. I plan on calling/emailing the actual organization tomorrow to let them know that a scammer is posing as one of their recruiters. Ordinarily, I would chalk the whole thing up to a pathetic scam, but I'm worried now that I supplied a paragraph basically laying out my entire dissertation topic idea. Of course, one would have to actually do the research to write anything substantive about my topic (since I have not even passed my dissertation proposal yet, my ideas are still in the preliminary "idea" stage - no results yet, though I speculated on some of the big claims my project would make). Do I have anything to be worried about?

Totally agree. This needs to happen. Just to provide another anecdotal example, however: when students who TA for my advisor ask him for a copy of the course books, he tells them that he expects students to buy their own. Seems unfair to me, but just be aware some professors do hold this view.

Thanks, guys. So the prof I'm TAing for left me and my fellow TA to proctor the final today. After it was over, I had four students complain to me that the other TA's behavior during the exam was distracting and they had trouble focusing. I'm curious if the following behavior sounds problematic to you and whether you think it's worth letting the professor know about the students' complaints. During the exam the other TA: -paced the aisles of a relatively small classroom (40 students) for two hours straight...up and down over and over and over -alerted the class at frequent intervals with seemingly ill fitting instructions ("you now have an hour and a half left...now would be a good time to make sure your name is on your paper"; "you now have an hour left...right before you turn it in, say the word 'mississippi' in your head 100 times and then proofread" etc etc) -rushed over to students when they dropped a pencil/water bottle to pick it up for them, even if they were on the other side of the room from where he was pacing at that moment -tried to talk to me or write notes to me on the board while I was sitting at the front of the classroom (I generally tried to ignore him) -before the exam even started, he told everyone he was now going to "put the fear of God in everyone" about cheating and gave a monologue about it -made everyone take off their hats so he could inspect them -threatened not to let anyone go to the bathroom -when students one by one came to the front to turn their papers in at the end, he would try to carry on extended conversations with them without even whispering even though other students were still working Do you think it's worth telling the professor about the students' complaints so that he could talk to the other TA about this behavior for future reference? (fwiw, this prof is both of our advisors)

Just out of curiosity, what do you personally do while proctoring an undergrad exam? Pace down the aisles? Just sit at the front? Do work/read? Remind students at regular intervals how much time they have left (or do you find this distracting)? Also, do you make students bring bookbags to the front of the class? Make them take off hats etc? Co-proctoring an exam with my fellow TA today made me realize how different our approaches to proctoring are. Just curious what other people do.

Thanks. This makes me feel a lot better to know that it's appropriate to be assertive in this way.

Thanks, TakeruK and Fuzzy, for your helpful suggestions! I really appreciate it. As to your questions, Fuzzy, the other TA suggested this during a hallway chat between the 3 of us (2 TAs and prof) and as soon as he did, I said that that wasn't feasible for me. So I think the professor gathered from that that the other TA had not run his plan by me before suggesting it. And thankfully, none of us had given the students any indication of turn around time, so that's one less hassle to worry about. But the good news is, as it turns out: crisis averted! Just got an email about an hour ago from the professor saying the more he thought about it, he decided to go back to his original plan of not giving students back their papers at all unless they wanted us to send it to them over the summer/get it back in the fall. But both your suggestions are really great ones, so maybe this thread will help somebody else in the future who runs into this problem. For the record, I was planning on taking option 6, TakeruK, since I think I had a pretty good case. As for my co-TA, well, he gets a bit anxious to impress our professor. The professor is both of our advisors and my co-TA thinks that doing things like showing his prowess to grade papers in 3 days will earn him some additional favor, I think. Also, he taught high school for several years before starting his PhD so I think he is used to his own way of doing things and sometimes runs on autopilot. He means well and apologized profusely to me after the professor walked away when he realized he put me in a bad position. He's just the kind of person who likes to take any chance to impress our advisor without always thinking things through first. Thanks again, TakeruK and Fuzzy!

For 10-15 page undergrad papers, what seems like a reasonable turnaround timeframe for grading as a TA? My professor originally said that we TAs would not have to return our students' final papers at all before the end of the semester. If the students wanted them back, they'd have to give us an address to mail it to over the summer or instead, wait until they got back in the fall. However, today one of my fellow TAs suggested the idea that we get them done within 3 days and give them back before the final exam. When I said that wouldn't be feasible for me, the professor gave us one extra day (giving us 4 days to grade). Because I wasn't expecting this turnaround time, I hadn't budgeted time to grade during the days the professor wants us to, and I have multiple deadlines for other things the days before he wants us to give back the exams, meaning realistically I'd end up with less than 24 hours to grade. Had he told us this in advance, that would be one thing but changing his mind the week before at the suggestion of another TA who has a lighter workload is another. Do you think I can politely negotiate about the turnaround time?

I think this sounds like a good plan. Things like this are often best communicated in person when you can read one another's tone, body language, and expressions. If he's as nice as people have said, it should go well! Good luck and congrats on starting your PhD!

???

For those of you who teach at religiously affiliated institutions or who have very religious students, have you ever encountered them writing self-identifiying religious acronyms on their work? For example, I've seen Catholic students write "+JMJ+" (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) and heard about Muslim students writing "PBUH" (peace be upon him) when referring to Muhammad. Do you think it's best to just ignore or instead to tell students that this isn't really appropriate for academic writing?

Ah, yeah, that's annoying. Just curious, were you glad the prof didn't tell you until the next semester or do you wish he/she had told you while it was happening? Me personally, I think I'd want to know, but maybe the prof thought he/she was saving you a headache?

my life motto

I remember that feeling. It's awful. But once you finish up and this is behind you and you don't have to think about your advisor any longer, things will get much, much better. Might take some time, but I hope it's encouraging to know that the way you feel now is not the way you'll always feel. Before long, this experience will be a distant memory.

I was faced with this dilemma during my MA program (my MA advisor and I had a major falling out) so I wrote polite, but not enthusiastic, thanks to him in my acknowledgements. You don't have to thank him first (though I did) nor does what you write about him have to be as lengthy or specific as what you write in your thanks to other people. I agree it would be a mistake to ignore him altogether for reasons stated in the post above, but you're also not required to go overboard in thanking him for stuff he didn't do. Sorry, these kinds of situations are real bummers, been there.

I found this awhile back and have been meaning to post it to this thread. There's another similar article that I thought I bookmarked but can't find. If I do, I'll post it, but in the meantime, this one is interesting. https://scatter.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/gradstudent-faculty-interaction/

^This might be part of the problem and is something I will address on the first day of this semester. It still bugs me that said student went above my head, but now I see something I can do in the future to reduce these kinds of problems. Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts!

No, nothing remotely inappropriate! Thankfully, that is something I never have to worry about with my advisor. He's 100% professional and these hugs happened in a crowded hotel lobby. It's more just that I found it amusing to shake someone's hand for over a year but then at a conference, the default greeting for some reason becomes a hug? I think fuzzylogician's answer above is a good guess though.

Has your advisor ever given you a hug? In the year and a half that I've known my advisor, it's only been handshakes. But then today at a conference he hugged me around the neck twice - once as greeting and once as goodbye after having coffee together. No idea why. I don't mind it all - just not sure what moved me from being on handshake to hugging terms.

This has likely been asked already, but does it seriously bug anyone else when you as a TA have a student who is unhappy with their grade and goes straight to the professor, not you the TA, to complain/negotiate, when the professor himself does none of the grading? As if they think that they can get the professor to ally with them against you. Thankfully, in my case the professor told the student that if they had concerns about their grade, they should contact their TA and then forwarded me his response to the student. What I don't think a lot of undergrads understand is that if you're trying to garner mercy from your TA to change your grade, going above their head is not doing you any favors. Also, I hate having to write such firm emails and be the bad cop, but no, dear student, I'm not going to "just bump you up" a letter grade that you don't deserve.

I realize this response is quite delayed so things might have changed since you first posted, but sorry to hear this. It's disheartening, I imagine, to come to a school to study with a particular person and then find that that's no longer a possibility. A real bummer. Out of curiosity, had you talked with this faculty member about being your advisor? I know you said that you indicated that in the application, but just curious if you and this person actually had a conversation about it. If so, then that faculty member was probably not making the wisest decision to take a student when his or her tenure was up in the air (unless maybe they thought that their tenure case was a shoo-in and this was a huge surprise for them, but even then...) Since you don't feel up to revisiting the application process (and who would?) I guess your best bet is to identify another faculty member at your institution who would be willing to advise you. Not ideal by any means, I know. Hope it turns out for the best!

I felt this way too for awhile (and still occasionally do) in terms of wondering if my advisor liked one of his other advisees better than me. At first I was envious of the way that some of his older advisees seemed to "click" with him more, but as time has gone on, I've realized that it just takes time to build that kind of relationship with someone. Having worked with him for over a year now, we "click" but this wasn't the case when I first started. So the way he treats you now is not necessarily indicative of the way he'll think of you/treat you a year from now. Relationships take awhile to build. Regarding the comparing yourself part, however, that can be tricky, I admit. But I've found that even your peers who appear to be excelling still struggle in some areas (both inside and outside of academia). Seeing their imperfections helped me not to be so envious. Also, in terms of having to get letters for the same grants/apps as this other person from your advisor, I know that can be stressful too. But don't assume that your advisor will always rank him ahead of you, particulary down the road when you've gotten your footing in the lab. You could excel at areas that your friend doesn't! And regarding the project, I second the advice about talking about this with your advisor who may indeed be able to modify it somewhat.

This is a tough situation. I think it depends on what kind of relationship you have with you advisor. To some advisors, asking about their future plans for staying at the university might not be a big deal. To others, it might seem like an invasive question. Only you can judge how your advisor might respond. If you think they might be fine with you asking, you could ask in general terms, i.e. have a meeting to discuss your own future acdemic plan/goals and ask for advice. For example, if you say "I'd like to defend my dissertation proposal in spring of semester X; do you think that is feasible?" that might prompt your advisor to be forthright with you about their own plans. If, however, you think your advisor would respond negatively to you even asking those kinds of questions, I suppose the only answer is to keep working and trust that if your advisor were leaving and wanted you to know, she would tell you. I don't know the situation, but it could be at least possible that she's planning on staying regardless. A tough situation with a lot of unknowns.

Really sorry to hear this, OP. I can imagine how devastating it would be to hear something like that coming from your advisor. We all struggle with imposter syndrome and comments like that can really kick it into overdrive, I know. But since other professors in your program affirm your work, I suspect that your advisor may be over reacting here. My suggestion would be to sit down with one or two other professors that do like your work and ask them for candid opinions of how you're doing academically and if they seem affirming, then come up with a plan to switch advisors. Not ideal, I know, but in the end, I think it's worth it to work with someone who works well with you.

If you're thinking about submitting a paper to Journal X and the editor of said journal will be at a conference at which you will also be presenting, is it a good idea to arrange a 10 minute chat with the editor? Not so much as "will you accept my paper" but rather "what makes a strong paper that is a good fit for the journal" etc. Does attaching a name to a face before you submit give you any advantage with the editor when he or she decides whether to send it out for peer review?