Strangefox

I see...

But it you wrote the paper and your co-author only contributed a bit, should he/she be the first author only because he/she has translated the article?? Is it fair? The ideas are mostly yours, aren't they?

Why so pessimistic?

I think it depends a lot on your department (competitive or collegial), on your character (introvert or extrovert) and on luck

Me too!

This thread is wonderful!!! Everybody - thank you very much for the invaluable advice!!

What does "mind your P's and Q's" mean?

Could you tell more about that?

I am already planning things for the winter break, too!

Very interesting! Thanks!

Yeah, I totally understand you. I am so looking forward to September! And I have little time to relax now. I am preparing a paper for a conference. I am reading interesting articles in my discipline. And I am planning to continue reading them all way long till September. I don't think that I need the whole summer to relax. I am afraid that if I relax to much it will be difficult to get back into study mode

I wonder, in what disciplines are business cards appropriate? I guess in humanities they would look strange. Or not? And what about social sciences?

I see. And the federal tax will be 14% in my case, right?

Actually I am asking because of taxes. This resident/nonresident alien thing appears to matter in this case. Payments of scholarships, fellowships, and grants paid to U.S. citizens and resident aliens are not generally reportable to the IRS and are not generally subject to withholding of tax. However, payments of taxable scholarships, fellowships, and grants to nonresident aliens are generally reportable to the IRS and are generally subject to withholding of U.S. Federal income tax. And I am trying to understand how much I will have to pay off my fellowship because I am starting to look for an apartment and I need to know how much I will have after taxes.

Anybody, please help me decipher this! What Does Nonresident Alien Mean? A non-U.S. citizen who doesn't pass the green card test or the substantial presence test. If a non-citizen currently has a green card or has had a green card in the past calender year, he or she would pass the green card test and would be classified as a resident alien. If the individual has resided in the U.S. for more than 31 days in the current year and has resided in the U.S. for more than 183 days over a three-year period, including the current year, he or she would pass the substantial presence test and also be classified as a resident alien. So when I come to the US on F-1 visa, first I am a nonresident alien, but then I will become a resident alien?? When will I become a resident alien?? After 3 years?? But I will still be on F-1 visa. So the visa will be the same but my status will be slightly different?? Sorry, I am so confused by all these rules!

No problem, actually I am very grateful to you for posting this link! I've heard about this site before but I have never seen it. I think it's a very useful sourse of information. Yes, it's even worse in bigger cities! Type in Philadelphia on this website (that's where I am heading) and you will see a sex offender symbol on every street! It's so creepy. But when I talked to my friends, they told me what I have written in another comment here and it calmed me down a bit. What consitutes a minor sex offense? Oh, I am so not an expert here. But yes, minor or major, I find it shocking anyway

Me too!

I've just talked about that with my friends and they told me that it's not as bad as it seems. Many of these sex offenders did not commit any serious crimes. Many did bad or mildly bad things long ago. And many of them are (ex) child molesters. Of course they are all sex offenders who have done bad things at some point in their lives. But it's not like each and every one of them is a maniac that dreams about finding his next victim in the dark street. Some are just miserable people repenting their crimes.

Doris Gabriella Smith - I love that!!

Me too!! "Registered" means that they have already been in jail and now they are out but the community is wathcing them, right?

Yes, when you are tenured, you come to him and say: "Professor X, I have always wanted to tell you - you are a snarky person!" By the way, what does "to snark" exactly mean?? I didn't find it in my dictionary....

Your scores are good but, you know, scores aren't the most important part when you are applying. On the the most important things is fit. Read about all faculty in the schools you've listed, find out if there is somebody whose research interests fit yours, contact these professors, tell about your research, ask if they would be interested in supervising you and if they are taking grad students next fall. In schools where you get positive replies from professors your chances are high. In schools where there are no profs whose academic interests match yours your chances are low. That's the story And also don't forget to write a great SOP and choose a good writing sample!

I agree with both points! I am not saying he is a monster or something. And he is not breaking any laws. Actually, he is free to get enrolled in 100 PhD programs if he wishes to. It's just that such actions make him look pretty silly...

How would I suggest it could be done differently? For example, this way. Shakira is interested in world history and frequently studies the history and languages of the countries she visits. After her Oral Fixation tour ended in summer 2007, Shakira attended a class in Los Angeles at UCLA, on the History of Western Civilization. She used her middle and last names, Isabel Mebarak, and told the professor she was visiting from Colombia so as to avoid being recognized as a celebrity. Another link: The class began Aug. 6 and ended Thursday, though Shakira didn't attended the last few classes, according to course lecturer Robert Cleve. Cleve said he hadn't known she was a celebrity during the course and was astonished to learn she was a pop star. See, other celebrities can do it! In your theoretical situation involving yourself, you mentioned visiting only one school, right? ("For example, if I were a legacy at some Ivy league school and could just get in because my grandfather funded a building, you bet your butt I'd go, even if I'd feel a twinge of guilt for taking a more qualified student's place.") This is not so bad. Bad is that Franco "studies" in several school basically simultaneously, which is very hard to believe. And he enrolls with the purpose to get the degree. Now, look at Shakira. I think this is a wonderful example of how a modest and decent person would act. She is not advertising that she is a celebrity. She just sits there humbly and learns. Yes, she may visit different courses at different schools, but she does not enter the program with the intention to do all courses and get the degree. And that looks very realistic. People here say: Franco has lots of money, he can afford that. He can fly from one city to another to study in different programs because he can afford it. But what about TIME??? Celebrities have no time for studying! Look at other stories of celebrities (I don't remember names, but there are many) who had to finish their school or colledge or whatever earlier because they became famous and had a lot of contracts, shootings, concerts, etc. If a celebrity visits some courses from time to time, I say - that is realistic and that is great. But if a celebrity enrolls in programs one by one - or even in two or more at once!! - saying that he/she visits all courses and gets excellent marks and will get the degree in the end - I don't believe that, I am sorry. And yes, it looks like mockery. If your gradnfather had donated money to a school and you would have an opportunity to go to this school without paying for it from your own pocket - that would be totally fine. Because we are speaking about one program here. And James Franco is enrolled in many. On the other hand, if a person used his/her grandfather's donation as an excuse not to go through the same process as everybody else, if he/she wanted a school to let them in just for the money their relative had brought in - I would not say that is fine. Ok, such a person could study, why not, but they just would not be on the same level as other students because the latter worked hard to be selected and the former basically did nothing - their grandfather did.

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