fuzzylogician

This is far too vague for us to give you useful answers. I can only guess, but when grading I may sometimes decide not to take off points for a mistake that repeats across a large proportion of the students in the class. Like, if a lot of people misunderstood what a question was asking for, or had a different definition for some term than I was expecting. If it happens very often, I may decide it's a legitimate confusion and not something points should be deducted for. For an essay, if I find that a lot of students did something that deviates from my expectation in some way, e.g. in style or structure, I may lean towards not penalizing it. It's hard to guess what your professor has in mind here--maybe there is a particular issue that cost you 2 points that he is already seeing in some other papers and so he may end up not deducting points for. This is only a guess, though. I'd suggest asking him.

http://www.jasnh.com/

If there was no work on this in the past, then any finding should be interesting, even if it's the null hypothesis. The more interesting question, as you say, is the 'why.' But either way, it sounds like you did enough for a Masters thesis. Depending on what you have to say about your results, I'd say there might also a publication there (though for this part I am judging by my own field, I don't know anything about yours, but people tend to be interested in the first results about something noone has looked at before, no matter what the outcome).

Can we please just move on? Do you think anything good will come out of what you're doing other than derailing the thread? There is an interesting discussion going here. Can we concentrate on that?

I feel more physically attracted to people whose personality I find attractive. I do have physical features that I find more attractive on paper, if you asked me to describe my ideal partner's looks, but in reality I've dated people who didn't have those features and it didn't matter at all, once I got hooked on their personality (which is really what I am attracted to most). I don't think I behaved differently with the ones who were closer to my imagined physical ideal, at least not in any way I can see now looking back. It's an interesting question, though. Was there a subconscious difference? Maybe, who knows.

Personally I always think that it's better to take advantage of every possible opportunity. I'd do the interview. What if it turns out that Delaware is a better option than Stony Brook? Wouldn't you want to know? And if not, your acceptance to Stony Brook isn't going anywhere. You'll be able to accept knowing that it's the best option for you.

I'd say the first semester is the best time to have your advisor gone, if she is going to be gone for any one semester of your studies. You could talk to her ahead of time about a plan for that semester but in general the first semester is an adjustment period and you concentrate more on classes, so I don't think your progress needs to suffer at all from her being gone. You'll probably do some reading for courses and write some papers, and by the time you have any beginnings of an idea of what you want to study more, she'll already be back.

We're talking about parts of one paragraph in a multi-page article, where the paragraph is similar but identical to your thesis? Unless there is reason to assume foul play, I would just let this go. It's hard to see what good can come of suggesting that he plagiarized your work.

I actually did get a couple of I-20s in the mail from school that admitted me before I accepted their offer (and in both cases I ended up declining). It wasn't a problem, because I didn't initiate a visa application based on those I-20s. If you did start an application and then want to change the school, then it's different and I'm not sure how you'd go about doing that. I guess you'd either be able to change the details of the I-20 on your application or you'd have to start a new one. It may have implications for your SEVIS number and payment, too. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd have to pay twice. So bottom line, I'd suggest not starting your visa application until you're sure which school you're going to go to, and only using the I-20 from that school. If you do that, there shouldn't be any problems.

I agree that the conversation has taken an unfortunate turn for the worse, so I am indeed going to lock the thread. It's too bad that it had to end this way.

I don't have any experience with this but I can tell you that it'd be a new visa, not a renewal. I don't know what your field is, but if there is any chance you'll need to go through TAL, it might take a few weeks/months to get the visa, and you might not want to spend them in Canada or Mexico. Generally I've heard the same advice as you about not going to a third country and I understand why, but I'm not sure how risky it would actually be. I think that talking to your ISO is a very good idea.

Maybe I'm naive but I don't believe that everyone who does something I don't understand or says something that I disagree with or that's plain wrong or unpleasant is necessarily a troll. But yes, this board is not a dating service, it has a very different purpose.

To be fair, though, it was a reply to a post that did sound exactly that way: (And I resisted before, but "females"? What am I, a cat or a dog? Also, this.)

Something like "thank you for the generous offer. I am very excited and you are a top choice, but I want to learn all of my admissions decision first, so that I have all of the relevant information before reaching a decision." This exact situation didn't happen to me, but I had a faculty member tell me that I had to promise to accept their offer before they could officially make it, and that I had to do so very early in the process, before I had my other results. I refused to do that and gave an answer along the lines of what I just proposed. I ended up with an official rejection 3 months later. I don't regret it, I don't appreciate being pressured that way.

I moved from overseas with one suitcase, and have had family bring over random things over the years when they visit. I mostly took clothes and shoes, some jewelry and personal effects, some photos to hang up, some random small kitchen things that were hard to come by (like spices from home and a kind of can opener that I haven't seen here), and some supply of basic medicines until I figured out how things work here. It's nice to have some personal items that are familiar to make yourself feel at home. For example, my parents brought me sheets from home, which was nice. I have pictures of family that I got frames for here, some random trinkets, that kind of stuff. Otherwise, it's easier to buy things here, especially furniture and anything else that is expensive and/or bulky.

It's premature to worry about dissertation committee members before even starting your first year. The way dissertation advising works changes from program to program so you should talk to your advisor about this, but maybe not until you're a few years into the program and actually have a topic. Generally, an external member can be anything from a reader who you never meet with to someone from a nearby university who you have a standing weekly meeting with and who you have other projects with, and anything in between. If it's a good relationship, you probably want someone who would at the very least read your chapters and provide feedback on a somewhat regular basis, and perhaps agrees to have skype/in person meetings as the need arises. (Also, please don't post the same question multiple times. I've locked your other post.)

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It seems far fetched but not impossible. Suppose that this is over 10 years, since this person is almost up for tenure and has probably been flying with high frequency at least since being a postdoc. Flying from the West Coast to e.g. Tokyo or Paris is about 5,000 miles. Both ways = 10,000. Divided over 10 years, it means 10 overseas trips in the course of one year. I am going to be traveling that kind of distance this year 6 times between January and July (I have no plans for later in the year yet, but more travel is possible and even likely), and I've also done 2500-3000 mile trips two additional times. So, doable, but terrible. Doing that every year for 10 years seems not sustainable. I can't imagine continuing at this pace once I have a permanent job. But maybe if you're a hotshot at Stanford, that's what you have to do.

So you are asking internet strangers who don't even know what field you are in to write a section of a grant application for an unknown project for you? And you don't think this request is going just a bit over the top? We can give you pointers, but you are asking us to straight up do your work for you, and you're not even helping with the details. I think this is as far as I can go trying to help you. You need to talk to your advisor.

OK, now spell this out. What is that career, specifically? What are the new techniques you'll learn? Why are they important/useful? What skills will you strengthen? How will the grant allow that to happen? Why are these stills important/useful? How will all of this lead to you being able to pursue your desired career? It's the details that tell your application apart from the other ones.

Aside from some annoying 'this is my perspective from my (very elite) position at Stanford' this is really very standard. You manage a research group (which includes making hiring decisions, advising students, writing grants, presenting and writing up your work, etc), you do various admin work (including LORs, committee work, etc), you teach. The degree to which each component is weighed for tenure varies across schools, but not by that much. There is a lot to do and not a lot of time, some (most?) of this is stuff no one teaches you in school, and the stakes are very high. That's just the life of a professor.

We can't do this for you. You need to at least make the effort to write a draft. Start by putting together the list the reasons why you want the money. What are your long-term career goals? If this is for an MA, would you go for a PhD? If it's a PhD, do you want to go into industry or academia? How will this grant help you take a step in a direction that will allow you to achieve these goals? Does it contribute to a bigger question that you are interested in asking? Don't worry about prose yet, just identify the points you'd like to make. Once you have the points, you can organize them in a logical way and at that point it'd be easier to come up with a draft that you could send your PI. I would also suggest writing back to your PI and asking if s/he has any previous successful grants s/he could share with you so you get a better idea of how to write yours. Ask for advice on what should be in your application. These are fair questions that s/he should help you with, as your advisor.

You're still an international applicant for most relevant purposes, such as tuition, fees, visa, etc. The main ways it would matter that you did your degree in the US aren't ones where your official status matters. For example, you probably have a degree from a recognizable university and your recommenders might be better known to the schools you're applying to than people from another country. The one way it might help in an official way is that some schools might waive the TOEFL requirement for applicants who did a previous degree in the US. That's something you could just ask each school about. Other than that, I don't think there's a reason why you should be treated differently than other (international) applicants.

I would not attend such a program. I would also not want to attend a program where funding is competitive and students are constantly ranked. It would make for an awkward unfriendly environment where collaborations could not thrive. One of the things I valued most about my program was the feedback I got from fellow students, from hallway conversations, from questions asked at reading groups. I would not want to go to a place where my success could possibly jeopardize someone else's ability to pay rent.

Since the numbers are so small, I would probably not use the percentages at all. However, if you do use them I think you should also give the raw counts to avoid any misconceptions about the size of your sample.