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Marst

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Everything posted by Marst

  1. Such as simply covering a proof of some theorem that might otherwise have been skipped or skimmed over. If this is your way of having a conversation, I will call it a day. I am trying to learn something here, and this is not helping. Thank you for the reply that did contain more than a syllable, and have a good day.
  2. Something else being STEM, yes. The consensus here is more that if the average is an A, the class has been too easy, regardless of the quality of the work or the effort of the students. It is probably more natural in STEM than it is in the humanties to adapt the level of difficulty of a course, simply by covering more material (or in more depth) in the same amount of time.
  3. I genuinely want to know. My program grades harsher than most colleges, and it works quite well (for me, at least). An A is on track for a distinction, B is quite alright, and C is a sign you might want to put a bit more effort in. The average depends on the class. For instance, there was one class in which not a single student ever got an A on the problem sheets. My question is: what is the point of a system where you give a vast majority of students an A and consider anything below that a subpar performance? IMO the point of grades is to get some feedback as to how well you are doing. EDIT: It is worth pointing out that a minority ends up with a distinction, and transfer from masters to PhD is not unconditional. You have to apply for readmission and get a distinction in your masters. So, grades do matter here.
  4. What is the point of getting grades if they don't tell you how well you are doing? They might as well switch to a pass/fail system if they give out As to everyone who shows up.
  5. For undergrad I got a letter with all my final grades, saying that I had satisfied all the requirements and that the degree ceremony would be at date X. However for masters, I will not get my results until after I have started. And in fact, my PhD place is conditional on achieving a certain mark in my masters dissertation. I will have to find out how that works some time soon.
  6. I would recommend an MS if you are not all that interested in research and not looking for independent studies. Are you willing to leave the US? What subfields in maths and/or computer science are you interested in?
  7. That's why a GPA is always considered in the context of your institution and with your class rank. I understand why you don't think grading on a curve is fair, but how does explicitly rewarding effort change that? I would say it only adds to the unfairness. For instance,how would you avoid punishing people for being competent (and thus getting As without much effort)? Person A going beyond the syllabus may very well have put less effort in than person B just ticking off the requirements. So, what exactly does this have to do with effort? I agree that (undergrad) courses should have ceilings and only grade that what is in the syllabus, but that simply means that for the sake of evaluation person A and B have produced work of the same standard. Still, there is no reason to consider anything else but the result.
  8. I agree with most you are saying, although probably not in the way you intend it. Indeed, brains is not all that constitutes achievement/results, on the contrary. Therefore, rewarding achievement with a good grades does not equal rewarding someone's brains or innate intelligence or something. Because of the correlation between effort and achievement, rewarding achievement implicitly rewards effort as well. The same goes for consistency, filling out a journal entry, and all these things that show in the final result. It is even true that there is a correlation between attendance and grades. Thus, even attendance shows in the final results and there is no need to include this in a grading policy. Therefore, I argue that "effort" (that cannot be measured objectively anyway, and is therefore often reduced to attendance) should not be singled out and rewarded again. Of course, effort should be encouraged, because it helps people along in many aspects of their lives. I even think that effort should be rewarded in a natural way, which is at the same level as someone being polite, or considerate, or someone showing interest outside of the syllabus: as a TA I would be all the happier and patient to work with them. Yet, effort does not belong in a grading policy.
  9. Fortunately, this sense of entitlement because of effort is not instilled in children in the culture I grew up in. IMO grades should be given out based on the quality of produced work only. Take person A working at home and person B showing up to every lecture/class/tutorial/office hour. If A and B submit work of similar quality, giving them different grades is not justified. At all. Effort or hard work should only be rewarded by cutting people some slack if it comes to that, i.e. allowing someone to resubmit something, or partially revise his/her submission. But then again, I am allergic to coddling (smothering) and even dropped a major because of it.
  10. No, I did not consider it at all, even though I could have gotten a stipend triple the amount I receive now. My current stipend is 22k (half of that goes to rent and utilities, but I will probably move to slightly cheaper accommodation in a year). Mind you that 22k is a fixed amount here. It is all everyone gets. Given what I have spent this year, it is plenty to live off for a single student enjoying himself but not being wasteful. I would like to save a couple of grant or go on exotic holidays, but I am not getting my hopes up.
  11. Wow, it's great to have such a specific scholarship available. They don't happen to have those for every state, do they? Many congrats on your scholarship!
  12. Don't you have a language institute associated to your university? Ours offers a variety of (fast paced) language courses for people who need to master a language for their research or just for fun, either for free or for a small fee.
  13. Unfortunately for you, in terms of admission (especially to European universities) it is often better to come first in your class in a lower ranked university than it is to be mediocre at a higher ranked university. Where does your GPA place you, class rank wise?
  14. A couple of questions: - Why the US? - Are you from a country where a 9.8 GPA is exceptionally high? - Why a masters? Few people in the US go for terminal masters. Are you interested in a PhD? Usually, a PhD gives you a masters along the way, unlike in Europe where you need a masters to apply for a PhD (which are then full-time research, unlike in the US). Therefore, it would be quite possible to apply for a PhD out of undergrad, and you might not need Fulbright if you can secure funding.
  15. Personally, I attract rats more than I attract spiders. One night heard some critters scratching the ceiling. That's not uncommon, but I couldn't help but listening. At some point I heard a slight thump, and the scratching was gone. Slowly, I let my hand slide towards my flashlight and turned it on. There it was, the rat, in my bed right next to my head. Needless to say that I spent the rest of the night in another room with the lights on. I am now living somewhere with very few critters. It took me a long time to get used to the white/empty/blank walls, but now I fully appreciate the peace of this place.
  16. You seem to have a lot of frustration over your coworker(s). Everything alright, there?
  17. I am really sorry to hear that! It sounds a sort of similar to my health issues, only I don't start writing gibberish but just can't write coherent sentences anymore when I am having an episode. You know, grad school is tough for everyone, and tougher still if you health is interfering. It only makes sense to feel overwhelmed at times. Hang in there!
  18. A couple of people with different backgrounds all got what I do and why I do it, and it was a conversion starter because it is something many people can relate to.
  19. I think you might be the one overthinking it. In my case, my (single sentence) reply came across particularly well on one occasion. Therefore, I usually say something similar now when such an occasion comes up. There is nothing 'rehearsed' about that. I am not going to avoid saying something because I might have said something similar before. Even in academia people give similar answers to similar questions. That's only sensible. And why change a winning team? By the way, I do think 30 seconds is way too long for a casual conversation.
  20. It has been mentioned several times already, but the "you are so smart, I could never do that" is such a killer. I have noticed that people sometimes use it as a way to distantiate themselves from you, especially in groups where people start backing each other up on that. There's probably no way to recover from that. All you can do is control the damage as best as you can. In some cases where someone seems to be genuinely interesting/wondering, I bring up the research on maths skills (it turns out the difference between competence and incompetence in maths is confidence, rather than raw talent). Although I do not disagree with what you are saying, that's hardly relevant for this thread. Explaining something to not only a non-specialist but even a lay person, may take more than a single sentence. Such an abstract is usually longer than a sentence as well. To be honest, I think most people won't care enough to listen to your explanation for even a minute. It would be inconsiderate to make them listen to an entire oration if all they want is a single sentence with the general idea (and no explanation at all, really), or they are even asking out of politeness and don't care at all. If they are interested beyond that, you can still give them the full oration, but that will not happen all that often. What works for me: - Saying I am a PhD student often confuses people, as many have no idea about grad school, PhD or even how college works. In that case, it is safer to say "I study X" (for undergrad and masters) or "I do research (on X)" (for PhD). This may not work for everyone, but my PhD is full-time research since I already finished the coursework in my masters, so it's another way of saying the same thing. And foremost: - Have a single sentence ready that explains your field/research on an extremely high level. I am in pure maths and theoretical CS and just say: "I use mathematical models to prove that computer programs are working correctly". People can relate to that, and may even share whatever they know about bugs etc. That's not all that relevant to my research which is much more abstract and theoretical, but it is the whole point of why I am doing this research in the first place.
  21. Apparently the way to tell a friend that a mutual friend just passed away is by forwarding them an email addressed to the mutual friend saying "Rest in peace, *name*".
  22. Last time I saw the last girl I had a serious thing for is three years ago. The distance between us is so large, both physical and cultural, but we have kept sending each other messages for all these years. Hardly ever serious, but we keep mocking one another, flirting even, trying to make each other jealous (or is that what I want to see?). I don't dare hoping that when we meet again everything will be the same as it used to be, so I do consider myself available, but somehow I am too preoccupied to notice anyone else.
  23. I am in the same field as you. In my undergrad it was not at all problematic to take more than twice the normal course load and maintain A's in all of it, but that was a fairly mediocre university and course. For masters I traded up to a world top 5 university where we are supposed to take 5 courses (all theoretical CS, btw). The load of each course is about 15 hours per week for one term. Therefore, most of us take 3 courses for two terms. Although some people have taken 4 in one term, that's rare and definitely not recommended (my advisor felt very strong about that). After doing the work I can definitely relate to that. Both terms I started with 4 (or more) courses to see which ones I liked best, but I dropped the extra ones after a couple of weeks. Eventually I got straight A's in all of my courses, which is what I needed to stay on for a PhD with full funding and no TA/RA-duties. I am quite sure my work would not have been of the same standard if I had taken up more than 3 courses per term. If you can manage the load, sure, go for it. Programs are not the same, people are not the same. Just be prepared to drop some of the courses if it comes to that (i.e. plan ahead).
  24. Many thanks for your reply. I have been contemplating it for a couple of days. There are two things that I found particularly interesting and that I will reiterate for posteriority. - There is such a thing as working too much. - Let your sleeping dictate your work schedule, not the other way round. I think the main difference between our ways of working is indeed the fixed waking/sleeping times. I used to let my work dictate my sleeping schedule, so I would get up some time between 8 and 11 and go to sleep some time between 12 and 5. It almost embarrasses me to admit it, but I used to nap a lot as well. I have a lot of trouble being productive or focused, so for years I have been using this strategy of seizing every moment of focus even if that means working late into the night. I don't work too much per se, but I am so scattered and unfocused that I spend the whole day in a hazy attempt at working. That's why I don't have evenings off, in general. I have managed an 12-8 sleeping schedule for three days now. I am hoping to keep this up. Maybe it will help me be more productive. Today I have actually done something for a change. I am not always this pathetic, btw, but I am always hazy.
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