TheSquirrel

Hi everyone, I am doing my PhD at a university that has a rather small PhD student population overall. My department itself has less than 10 PhD students, most of whom are not in my subfield (so we take mostly different courses, attend different talks because of our divergent interests, etc). And we are also outnumbered by a relatively larger MA program (most of whom do not end up writing theses, but doing an internship option which allows them to get internships in the government). As a result, there are very very few opportunities for me to socialize with PhD students in my field (and the same goes for socializing with PhD students in other fields -- since there are very few inter-departmental events, etc.). I've often had to hang out with MA students. But lately, I've been feeling that I'm kinda "above" that crowd. There's been a lot of drama among the MA students, and I have had strained relations with a few of them myself. I feel that they are, in general, rather immature and childish, and that we really don't get along all too well. Most of them are still in that childish / undergradish partying/gossiping/badmouthing phase (actually, one of the PhD students still is, too), which really is not my kinda scene (I prefer hanging out with friends and having discussions and debates over beer, etc). Do you hang out with MA students in your program? Should I avoid them in general? Do you feel like a PhD student who hangs out with MA students in general, gives the wrong impression to faculty, etc.? I mean, I don't mind hanging out with serious MA students. There are 2 MA students who have told me they don't like hanging out with their MA peers because they're immature, and prefer hanging out with the more mature/serious PhD crowd. What are your thoughts on hanging out with MA students? Also, what are your thoughts on getting involved in the department's graduate student association? Is that something that MA students usually do and PhD students don't? I'm kinda involved in that, but I'm wondering if I should withdraw from it? Do you think PhD students should distance themselves from MA students, and act more formal with them? I'm aware that it varies by the kind of university one is attending, the nature of the program and the size of the department, etc. My department is fairly small (not counting the undergrads, of course) compared to other departments. My university is in a big city, located downtown, so yes, there are opportunities for socializing outside the university, but I'm interested in socializing with the university crowd. Anyhow, your thoughts are appreciated.

This is what USC did to me. I emailed them numerous times and all they did was give me the same vague BS over and over again. Then, many months later (even after I had applied for and gotten my study permit to Canada), they sent me an email saying I had been rejected. Very disrespectful and lame. I wasn't surprised at the rejection -- after the emails that gave me no clear indication of what was going on, I just assumed I had been rejected. I'd recommend that you do the same. At any rate I would not want to go to a school that treats its graduate students like that. It's not your loss if you get rejected -- it's theirs.

Hey there! I've been in Montreal for a year now, doing my PhD at Concordia. Would also love to meet grad students!

Well, to be honest, you shouldn't have to put in more hours than you're paid for. I'd just prepare a few things to talk to them about, that are of relevance to the class. But nothing that requires major preparation. You're not the one teaching this course, you're just TAing it. If they can't fire the prof, it's their problem, not yours. You could also practically turn your sessions into group office hours, where people can ask questions about the material, about research methods, how to write a paper, etc. That's often what I do when I realize there's too much time and too little to talk about. Students like that. And I've had some really great questions that have set up very good and useful discussions -- far more useful than all of the prof's lectures put together... I like doing my own thing in classes. I've TAed the same course for the past 3 semesters, and in the first 2 semesters, there were 2 sections of the same course (with two profs), and the other prof (who I was not TAing for) was running the entire course and kept giving us lesson plans to stick to. I hated that. I did some of that stuff, but most of it was plain stupid and did not work well with my students. And every time I told him that, he would say something like, well, maybe you're not good at engaging your students. After some time, I just decided to do my own thing, and only cover some of the important things that he wanted us to cover in the seminar, and it worked out great. His lesson plans just plain sucked.

*shudders* I'm arachnophobic... So far I've had spiders only twice in my apartment, and luckily it happened when my mom was visiting -- she took care of them. If forced to, I'd probably just use a shoe or a slipper to kill the poor thing.. as long as it's not too big... if it's big, I'd probably try to spray it with those Raid insecticide stuff, and hope it works... but it's not just the killing part that scares me -- it's also the getting-rid-of-the-body part. I'd probably put on latex gloves and then use a combination of paper and tissue to carry and throw it into the trash, and then quickly throw away the trash into the garbage chute. Yes, seriously, that's how much even the tiniest spider scares me. It has nothing to do with growing up, I'm afraid.

Never heard of academia.edu either. Just checked it out, and it requires that you put your full name to sign up, and I'm hesitant to put my name on any such online communications/social networking system without at least first seeing an online demo or something.

I don't know about grad course workload for computer science, but 3 grad courses is a MASSIVE amount of work in political science. I took 3 PhD courses last semester, alongside a TAship, and let me tell you, I was ready to visit a shrink about 2/3rds into the semester. It almost drove me crazy. The workload did not seem humanly possible. A lot of the time I found myself going to class without having done the weekly readings (a big no-no in my field), which meant that I could not participate in class discussions (graded component) and often felt embarassed because I was visibly clueless about the stuff the prof had assumed we had read... But it was a sacrifice I had to make, to be able to finish my assignments on time. The quality of my work suffered a lot, though. I mean, I wrote mostly crappy papers. I think taking too many courses at the same time is counter-productive. In my case, I was forced to, since we're supposed to take an odd number of courses in my program (7), and I didn't want to waste an entire semester taking only 1 course. So I did the 2/3/2 option.It was NOT fun. I got A's on all 3 of them, but the quality of my work was wayyyyyyyyyyyyy below what I could've submitted, and I was shocked I got A's on the courses. I guess I was lucky that the profs I was taking courses with weren't extremely tough on grading. Another downside of my 3 course workload was that I only skimmed (or did not at all touch) the readings assigned for the courses, most of which are on my comprehensive exams list. I could've saved a lot of time if I had managed to read them, or if I had managed to actually take notes on them. The courses ended up being a complete waste of time and energy. It was not a good learning experience. I find that those courses that demand too much (and I really mean "too much") from students are counter-productive.

Zencarrot, Well, yeah, I will tell the prof about it the next time I see him. The reason I didn't want to tell him about it is that I KNOW I won't be able to do two RAships during the upcoming semester (alongside two courses and a TAship). I *told* the second professor that. Which is why she suggested that we do a contract from now til mid-September. My semester starts early September, and the serious research work for my main RAship will probably start around that time as well. SO I assumed that there won't be an overlap, and even if there is, it will be now - and I'm not taking any courses now. I was explicit with the 2nd prof about my inability to do a longterm /big project with her, even though she told me she had $22,000 to give out. I'm not willing to replace her with my own supervisor. She's not even in my sub-field. Is it actually common practice to turn down RAship offers from professors? Usually it's probably the other way around, profs turning down requests from students to RA for them. I imagine that turning down a prof is not a great thing.... is it?

Hi , Thanks for the replies. mechengr2000, how is this the equivalent of moonlighting? I'm not using the stuff I research for Prof A, in the research for Prof B. They're in different subfields. There's no conflict of interest involved. My main concern is that he will think I consider the second RAship as equally important as his RAship, when in fact that's not the case at all, since the second RAship is not even in my subfield (I only took 1 course on it, because it was mandatory, and the prof knows my abilities and offered me the research opportunity). Also, I don't want to be seen as someone who wants to take all the opportunities for herself, although it's only fair if the prof preferred me over others.. SHE contacted me with the offer, I did not go to her and ask to RA for her... That said, she told me she would do my contract, but I haven't heard back from her so far. Maybe she just changed her mind or something. At any rate, I don't think I'm an unethical person or that I'd be unethical for accepting her offer. I'm not even trying to keep it a secret from the prof I RA for.

As for tips, well, in your statement of purpose, do not try to justify bad grades or why you did not do your undergrad in the field you're now interested in. Put a more positive spin on it. Say something like, you were experimenting with your interests in undergrad (that's what most people do anyway -- I spent the first two years of my undergrad majoring in Computer Science, by the way ....), but you've now found your true interest.. also, do not talk about bad grades. That often goes hand in hand with the fact that you're jumping into unknown subjects. In my SOP I never brought up the fact that I had bad grades in my undergrad years. Especially if you're applying for PhD, mentioning that stuff is a sign of weakness... undergrad grades are less indicative of your potential for success than are MA grades.. Just my 2 cents.

I did my undergrad in English literature. Did my Masters in a totally different field (International Relations).. had no problem being accepted, without even having to take remedial courses. My first ever political science-related course was at the MA level. It was kinda scary at first, because everyone seemed to know tons of stuff that I had no idea about, but I caught up with them very quickly.. Now doing a PhD in Political Science...

Well, that may be the case, but IMO it's better to waste all that time, than to face the stress/exhaustion of commuting... been there, done that... it's terrible... I live across the street from my department and while I don't deny that I have often not been very productive after coming home, it has helped me a lot sometimes, when I needed a nap or some time off because I was stressed and needed some quiet..

Degree Level: Doctoral Software I use and can't live without : Windows 7 (came insalled on my laptop)MS Office 2007 (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint for the most part) ($ : i can buy it with a student ID for relatively cheap from my university computer store)OfficeTab (free) -- it's an add-on thing that allows you to use tabs inside Office instead of having multiple Office windows open at the same time... a real life-saver... can't imagine having 10 Office windows opened simultaneously..Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 ($$) -- absolutely cannot live without it.. there's also free ones that I've used for a while, that let you create PDF files, etc, but none can beat Adobe at its own game, really... but Acrobat is pretty expensive..SPSS (my university just made this available for free , but only for employees; however, since I have an employee ID, as I'm a TA/RA, I can install and use this for free). Have also used PSPP (free) at some point.Cisco VPN client (free from my university), to connect remotely to the libraries/databases..Firefox and Chrome (in case a site wouldn't open with firefox )Sophos anti-virus (free from my university).. one of the best anti-virus programs I've used..Nvivo (my prof bought it for me, as I'm working on this as a RA) -- for qualitative research

Hey IRDreams, Thanks so much for the reply. Very helpful tips and info. For some reason, my department has been working real hard to spook us all about the comprehensive exams. Not sure why. We're a small program, and so far, of the 5 people who have sat for the exam in the past 2 years, only 3 have succeeded (and I have been told that one of the ones who passed, barely did so... i.e. they were thinking seriously about failing him)... Granted that they were not exceptionally great students, but the numbers are rather worrying.. Anyhow, I know I shouldn't be paying attenion to the stats and just focus on reading/studying and be more self-confident, but it's unnerving. That said, the more I read, the more I gain in confidence. My major problem is, like I said, note-taking. I need to see the bigger picture before I take notes, and sometimes that doesn't happen until I'm done with the entire book, by which time I would be wondeirng what to write in my notes and what not to write... and even forgetting some important details. Also, it's easier to take notes on some books than others. Some authors have a terrible style and you can't even copy-paste portions of it, because it takes them pages upon pages to just express an idea. Also, some people in my program (and some profs even) told me that they often did not read books, but instead read book reviews of certain books. I'm not sure if I can do that. I mean, it's a huge time-saver, but that's sort of like cheating yourself... And I wouldn't feel confident to go into an exam without having read all of that stuff myself, instead having to rely on others' readings of them. Anyhow, you mentioned Trachtenberg re: syllabi.. did you mean this: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/trachtenberg/methbk/SelSyl.html ? I found this after I googled Trachtenberg, thanks to you. It's an amazing resource. Thanks!

Hi everyone, My supervisor has received a grant and wants me to RA for him (for a long-term project/contract). I said yes, but we have not signed the contract yet though I'm doing some minor work for him currently (on the agreement that he will pay me for those as well). The other day I received an email from another faculty member, and she was offering me a RAship... Now, I don't know how these thnigs work in different fields, but in my program (political science), we often have small RA contracts and do small amounts of work for different professors. So there's no program-long commitment by profs to fund a student.. mind you, my supervisor got the grant for 3-4 years, and my impression is that he wants to fund me for at least 3 years, but that's the exception, not the norm.. I'm short for money, so I thought this second RA offer was a good way to make some extra money (besides, she wants me to do some coding of interviews, which I've never done before, and she said it would be a good learning experience for me, which is true). I told the prof ok, and went to see her today, and did tell her that I have this contract that I will be signing in the near future. She didn't seem to mind it. She said she'd do the contract from now til the start of the fall semester, and I can then decide if I have the time to continue with her.. That seems fine. However, I still have not told my supervisor about this second RAship, and I'm not sure how to tell him about it, or if i should...? It's not like i'm keeping it a secret, but I don't know if it's something that I should be telling him about, or if he would be upset if he finds out.. Any thoughts on this?

I use my gmail account to communicate with profs, the department secretary, etc. Any university-related emails that are generated automatically (library recall notices, etc) also get sent to my gmail. I have a university email but only use it to communicate with the prof I TA for, and give it out to students in the class I TA. I don't give out my gmail adress to students. I like to keep things very formal and professional between us, and giving them my gmail address might give them the wrong impression. I also use my university email whenever I submit conference papers. I feel that could also make a difference in their decision to accept/reject. I feel like people wouldn't take me as seriously if I send them an email using my gmail account. On the other hand, I don't use my university account for regular communications with my profs simply because the webmail system is atrocious and I really dislike using Outlook or other mail programs... On the other hand, the fact that I only use the gmail webmail (and not a program that I can send and receive gmail mail with), might come back to haunt me, as I don't have a backup of emails I've sent and received over the past 3 years or so... if the gmail servers somehow crash and data gets wiped out, well... let's just hope that won't happen...

My supervisor told me, from the very start, that he does not want to put his name on anything I try to publish, because he wants me to market *myself* through my publications, whereas, according to him, if his name is on it , alongside mine, it might give the impression that it was written mostly by him, and my name was put on it just so that I'd appear in print. My impression is that in my field (Political Science), grad students tend to publish on their own, and don't have to add their supervisors' names, whereas in other fields, especially the natural sciences, they usually do include the supervisor's name... Also, my supervisor is one of the big names in the International Relations subfield of PoliSci, so he probably does not want people to think that he did the work and that I'm just using his name...

Hey! Great to see some folks here who will be attending Concordia. I'm a PhD student in Political Science, going into my second year.. Would love to meet you folks once you make the move, if you're interested. My department's PhD program is TINY, and I haven't had the chance to meet PhD students outside my department (there aren't that many PhD students at Concordia anyway).

Yeah, like Penelope said, you won't find many departments with more than one or two profs who specialize in SE Asia. Also, maybe it would be better if you market yourself more broadly in your personal statement, rather than limiting yourself to one region. That could increase your chances of admission. That said, have you looked at McGill university , in Montreal, Canada? They have at least one prof working on SE Asia. His name is Erik Kuhonta.

This is exactly why I am so worried about this. I also feel kinda childish when using the title, especially with profs I meet with just about every day. I'm wondering if the prof would be offended if I just ask him if I can call him by his first name? Has anyone here done this?

Hey RunonSentence... I mentioned my undergrad years, and how my TAs used to call their profs/supervisors by their first names. That was in the English department.. So there might be some truth to that. My sister, on the other hand, who did her BSc and part of her MSc at the same university, used to use "Professor" when talking to all her profs, including the ones she was working with. I guess it varies from department to department..

Thanks for the link -- I had run a search before starting the thread, but couldn't find anything on the subject. I've always called my profs "Dr. ___". But when I was accepted into a PhD program, the prof I used to RA for as a MA student, asked me to call him by his first name, because according to him, as a PhD student, I was now pretty much on the same level as a prof, i.e. that I should see profs as my colleagues. I actually do agree with him (and in fact, when my current profs encourage me to network with professors at conferences, they seem to be saying that I should view professors as my colleagues). I never felt uncomfortable calling my ex-prof Dr.___ as a MA student , but I admit, as a PhD student, I've been feeling rather uncomfortable with that. As far as I can tell, almost all PhD students here call profs Dr.___, though... And none of the profs have asked me to call them by their first name. I used to call the prof I used to TA for, "Professor ___" but at some point decided to make the switch because he had received his PhD only months ago (even though he was 60 years old or so).. That was a very easy switch, and it helped a lot that he's super-friendly, and not the type of person who would mind being called by his first name... But I have to admit I 'm a bit intimidated by the idea of calling other profs by their first names, without them telling me to do so... and even if they asked me to call them by their first name, I would obviously still call them prof or dr. in class.. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not against the idea of calling them Dr___ per se.. I totally understand what you mean that it's a humility thing. It's just that I feel that we could communicate better (and much more freely) about our concerns regarding my progress in the program, research work, etc., in a less formal atmosphere. I also forgot to mention that I am probably biased in favor of calling profs by their first name because as an undergrad, the TAs I had (they were PhD students) all addressed the profs they TAed for (or who were their supervisors) by their first name whenever I overheard them talking to them. So it always seemed to me that once you reach the PhD level, you're sort of viewed as a colleague, and should also view yourself as such. I was surprised to see that people did not do that at this university.

Hi everyone, I'm going into my second year of a PhD program. For the longest time I've wondered if I should call professors by their first names or just call them "professor" or "dr." (I mean, in front of them, not when talking ABOUT them)... I've usually used their title instead of their name, to be on the safe side.. but now I'm wondering if that really shouldn't be done at the PhD level? Or does it really depend on the professor's preferences? Do you call your profs by their names? Do you have different rules for different profs, depending on whether or not you work with them, whether or not they're your supervisor, etc? What's the best way to know what the prof's preference is? Should I just ask what he prefers? The problem is that I've been calling my future supervisor "Dr" for the longest time, and now it feels even harder to make a switch... I do feel like I should call him by his first name, because not doing so makes me feel kinda like an undergrad... What do you think? What are your experiences with this?

Yup , I'm at Concordia!

I've done both. I used to live a two hour's commute away (had to take the bus AND metro)... That was when I was an undergrad. Now I'm in my PhD, and I decided, from the very beginning, that I just could NOT deal with living so far away from campus. It was terrible, to be honest. A total waste of time. Also, my current university is located downtown, and typically, it's undergrads that commute and grads who live closer.. Also, as it's downtown and there are relatively few apartment buildings in the immediate vicinity of the university ) I don't get to bump into people I know all the time.. I *have* seen the same people over and over again, but they're not in my program, so it doesn't bother me at all . I live a 2-minute walk from school now. In fact, I can see my department building from my window. It's been great. It makes a lot of difference, IMO, because you get to save a lot of time AND energy. It's convenient both when you're doing coursework AND once you're done with coursework. I tend to do my research at random hours, so I can go to the library any time I choose, even past midnight (keep in mind that subway services usually run until 1am), and carrying a ton of books home wouldn't be a problem. I do have an office at the department, but sometimes I need a change of scene, and I end up going home for a few hours during the day, and having lunch and reading some, then going back to school.. Can't possibly do that if you're living so far away. It would be an insanely huge waste of time and energy. I'd say much of it depends on your study/research habits. With my study and research habits, living far from campus would be a killer.