Anka

Hello fellows, I am Canadian citizen. I have been planning to apply for internship opportunities in US. I have been hearing a lot that border officials are targeting non-white people and denying entry for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, I also belongs to minority ethnic/religious group and I am scared to apply to US. I always think that border officials will question me for taking job (internship) from 'Americans'. This happened recently with someone who applied for volunteer position in US. It was in news.

The grad programs do accept students with disabilities. I have profound hearing loss ( which is both visible and invisible disability), my university have special accommodation plan e.g extra time on assignment, exams, interpreters etc. I am sure if you will talk to grad advisor/grad program director they will provide accommodations. They are legally obligated to provide you accommodations. My only suggestion is if you need accommodation do not ask at last minute...try to explain it to instructor/advisor before time.

Your comment seriously makes me think why they accepted the paper. My paper had lot of typos, grammatical errors..lol. To be honest I never submitted/presented any paper for conference. My field (biostatistics) is very specialized, whenever we have any biostatistics conference there are not more than 1000 attendees. The conference (established in early 1900's) is not a scam but crappy..umm may be. Their website is not updated on times and there also lot of typos. I think they have very few people at administrative level. Conference is in Europe and the cheapest flight I can find is just above $1000. there is also 400 hotel accommodation fee then 100 registration fee so it is almost 1500. In my university, there is a student association that covers $ 500. But I don't think it will make any difference in $ 1500. I don't think conference is worth...

I am in Biostatistics field..If you have passion for observing trends as you mention above..you will enjoy it. Biostatistiscs is not only probability/proofs. There are many other things which is very statistically oriented (e.g, regression, GLM, Bayseian modeling etc). It is more related to stats you learn in Psychology.

I was wondering if someone faced similar situations. My paper is accepted for conference but department have denied travel fund/grant. I have student loan money but not any other source of income. The total cost will be more than $ 1500. I don't have any primary publications. I am lead author for the paper...The paper is not related to my interest..It was a term paper for a course in masters program and it is very surprising for me that it is accepted... What people usually do in these situations...

Did he really said that ? This is kind of rude. If your advisor is well known and he have experience supervising students that he should understand that every student work on their own pace. For God's sake it's a PhD topic...I don't think you can easily come up with the research topic at the end of FIRST semester. I think students usually take courses and then they come up with some thing. May be talk to your other lab mates when and how they came up with research topic. What are some expectations of advisor from lab mates/PhD. May be give him a rough draft. May be you can gave your advisor some rough deadline to share a research topic. Summer is usually the best time to work on research topic as I believe there are less work load and you can only focus on your research... I think the reason your advisor is pushing you to work on some research topic may be because his research funding might be determined by the number of publication/work by students...something like that..

What that means

I feel like you are talking about me. I have posted a similar thing. I am glad you have realized it earlier (in your first year). I still believe it is your responsibility to identify your research interests, find something that relates to your advisor research. If you think your advisor is not giving you opportunity try to talk to him/her straight that you want to get involve in research project possibly in a publication(this is what I never did and I regret). If you think that your advisor is not actually 'advising' you, responding to your emails in timely manner, not involving you in his/her research project then that is a sign of BAD supervisor (that was my case and I regret again I did not do anything). My advisor is one of the leading researcher in his field in Canada and I believe in world, so I can expect delays in his email response but in your case your advisor is new, he/she might not be familiar with rules and regulations of advising. My supervisor's attitude was same with other students and 2/5 people change the supervisor early in the program...may be you can also think of changing your supervisor. GOLDEN ADVICE: Never work with someone who is well known in the field and new to field. I definitely think about this when I will apply for PhD in 2 years.

Thank you kind fellows for advice. I guess by not mentioning his name I will be in loss. It will not effect his reputation in any way. I feel the need to ask this question because my external committee members help me a lot during my thesis and advisor was not available most of time. Thinking about my 3 years of master make me angry and extremely depress. My advisor is also one of the reason for my current state. I can't get out of the feeling.

Sorry if this is posted before and mind my English (not a native speaker). I am almost finished writing my thesis.I know its a general practice to thank advisor in thesis acknowledgment section. I don't see any reason to acknowledge my advisor. He was totally absent during my master's program. He is well known researcher in his field. Most of time he was busy collaborating with his former PhD's and other colleagues. He never gave me any opportunity to involve in the project so I decided to work on completely different topic for my thesis research. His behavior was same for other students and 2 of his students drop out of the program. He took weeks to respond to my emails/general inquiry. I understand that advisors are busy but this was his job. We only met like 7 times during my 3 years of masters degree. The only thing in which he help me during master was signing some ethics form for data collection. Should I acknowledge my advisor. What kind of statement should I write. Do you think I am overly critical of my supervisor.

Thank you for your kind words. I was one of the youngest student in the masters program and I guess also a very immature one. I think this was also one of my weakness. I am applying for jobs and I might apply for PhD depending on the circumstances.

Dear graduate fellows, I am close to finishing my masters program. I have started evaluating myself .I am extremely depress as I feel like I haven't achieve anything. The following things are some of the things that make me feel a complete FAILURE in graduate school. 1. My first mistake was that I opted a topic that was completely different from my advisor's research. So most of the time in my graduate research I was on my own. 2. My advisor was super sweet but he was extremely busy most of time. In 3 years, we only had may be 7 face to face meetings. During my time he had three other positions and he also got very sick during my second semester. I refrain from sending her email during his sick leave and asking anything about research opportunity. During my time, two other student in our lab change the supervisors however, I stayed with my supervisor. I was very reserve and hesitant at that time. But now I think I should I have taken the step to change the supervisor in the beginning. 3. I never gain any GRA experience because I am very awkward and social anxious person. I have been to at least 10 interviews for different positions during my graduate school but I was only able to secure 1 marker position throughout 3 years of my masters degree. I have been to psychological counseling for two years before and during my graduate program but it was not helpful at all 4. I took three years to finish my masters program. 5. I got A and A + in all courses but my grades was lower than class average for most of courses as I can see on my grad transcript. 6. I never publish or presented anything may be this is not expected by masters student..don't know. 7. Throughout my graduate program, I was not able to secure ANY kind of funding from ANY source. I survived on government student loans but luckily I am not in debt because I got some bursaries which is different from grant. 8. I was never able to establish any good professional relationship with MOST of professors. So, I don't think I can ask anyone a reference for employment. I rarely participated in any class discussion. One of the reason which I recently find out that I have Central Auditory Processing disorder and mild hearing loss. It was very difficult for me to follow the conversations. Am I failure ? Is academia for not person like me ? I am thinking of applying for PhD after working for few years. Should I think about PhD ? If I wanted to do PhD where should I start improving myself ?

I am sure your low grade will not effect your chances to get a job. I have been to at least 10 interviews and may be 1 asked me for transcript. But low grade might effect chances of getting funding in your studies. Can you take the course again ?

I am a masters student in one of the best university in Vancouver, Canada. I am having really difficult time with my supervisor since the beginning of my program. He takes ages to respond to emails. Sometimes he forget to respond to email. He never involve me in any project. I never publish anything with him. During last two years, two of his students change supervisor and starting working with another faculty. I talk to those students and they both said that supervisor did not provided any opportunities during master. In the beginning, I was too shy to change my supervisor. Now, I am literally at the end of my degree. I can't change my supervisor. I am very frustrated. My life is a mess. Any suggestions ?