fuzzylogician

Yeah, I can't bring myself to write in my books. I use small post-its to mark things in books that I want to remember or to take notes. Recently, though, as much as I can I try and work with pdfs (editable if I'm lucky, scanned otherwise) and highlight things in my file. It makes it easier to search, it shows up in my bibtex, and it's a hell of a lot easier to take with you when move to a new place.

Things change over time so it really depends on what I'm doing. It also depends on which advisor we're talking about. In my program we don't have a designated advisor but instead we can meet with whoever we want about our different projects. I do think I've developed kind of a pattern over the years, though. I enjoy talking to people a lot (professors, colleagues) so I like to have fairly frequent meetings with a variety of people. My main project these days is my dissertation, so I'm mostly meeting with my 4 committee members: One of them is my main go-to person for all things experimental. We meet twice a week, probably for about 3-4 hours total, to talk about experimental and theoretical aspects of my research (we have joint work together and there's a lot happening recently). We've always had very frequent meetings over the years. One person is my main go-to person for certain aspects of my theory, and we've always met once a week ever since my first year. One other person is probably the one with the closest interests to mine but they are at a different university (and time zone) so we try to meet every other week or so over skype. That's been the case for a while, though at other times we had a regular weekly meeting. The last person also has interests very much related to my work, but is on partial retirement and is traveling a lot because of ailing parents. This has been ongoing for quite a while, so we've had maybe 2-3 meetings a semester for the past couple of years, more before then. Even so, I wouldn't give up on meeting with this person, because this person invented part of the field and is amazingly brilliant and supportive. Before the whole dissertation craziness I met with several people on a semi-regular basis, probably once every other week or so. This really depends. As my projects shift and develop, it became necessary to talk to more people at different times. I don't want to waste people's time (and I feel bad coming to meetings with nothing new week after week) so I try not to over-schedule. On the other hand, when it comes to my two main advisors--the people who I've continuously met with over the years--I've tried not to cancel meetings even when I didn't have any new exciting developments to report. I've always had (at least) one weekly meeting with each of them, and they've been supportive of that kind of schedule. They've both encouraged me to keep my meetings even when I had nothing new to report, so we could rehash what I already had and talk about where I'm stuck. It's been great. I know other professors aren't that tolerant. So, bottom line, it depends on your work habits and what works for your advisor. It's something that's hard to know about yourself ahead of time. If your advisor is willing, I'd recommend starting with a weekly meeting, which you can adjust later as needed. But you should also ask your advisor what he recommends to make sure that there isn't a big difference in your expectations, which is bound to lead to all kinds of unpleasantness. Maybe also ask other students about their meeting schedules, if you get the chance.

What an amazing story. Congratulations on your degree and on your new job. How exciting!

First of all, since the school is just asking for one document, you can safely think of it as what we refer to here on the board as the statement of purpose. There is lots of advice you can find about how to write a strong SOP here and elsewhere. Second, as others have already noted, your statement doesn't give enough details about your interests. The questions you open with are extremely broad, and the motivation to be able to 'grasp the underlying concepts of the above questions in such a way that I can share the ideas and visualizations with anyone' makes it sound like you should read more on wikipedia, not go to graduate school to get a PhD. On a similar note, the goals you describe in the second paragraph are very vague, e.g. "I intend being a professional who can harness the power of data." One suggestion that may help is to turn your second paragraph into the opening paragraph, to define your interest in big data, then work on refining the first paragraph and present actual workable questions that are more precise. The first half of the second paragraph, until Witten et al... is not necessary there at all, it too is very generic. There are issues with your other paragraphs but you need to seriously revise the beginning before attending to the rest.

I second the suggestion to talk to your advisor very concretely about the numbers and where you stand. Depending on your relationship with your advisor and how you expect he will react, you might also consider talking to him about the possible alternatives for what you might do if you don't get support from your department. I would probably only mention getting a part-time job or staying with your partner and working on your own stuff away from the lab. Those things would take you away from the work that would benefit your advisor and might help him see the direct value he would get out of helping you (which honestly shouldn't be such a factor in getting him to do something, but unfortunately sometimes it is). The point is to make it clear that something is about to give, and you are looking for ways for that to not be your research.

Like everything in life, it depends. Take one or two incompletes because of a very busy semester or a personal problem where you've otherwise been an active participant in the class and where you've successfully made up all the missing work, and you should be fine. Turn it into a habit every semester as a way to catch up with your work, and it'll likely be noticed by the faculty in student evaluation meetings and it will probably not be viewed favorably. And, of course, this is on top of the usual disclaimers that sometimes a program or professor might have a particularly negative attitudes towards incompletes in general or incompletes in particular courses (e.g., in my program students are not allowed to take incompletes in first-year classes, that's considered not good at all. On the other hand, you can graduate with incompletes in your transcript and there is no problem with that assuming that you've otherwise completed all your requirements).

Choose an easier option. You'll have enough time to do the harder ones later on. In my program, the undergraduate intro courses are not considered the easier ones--they involve a lot of grading and grunt work-- though honestly as was already mentioned I'd really want to choose based on the primary instructor more than anything else. Assuming that you don't know anyone who you could ask for advice about particular courses and instructors, I'd go with a relatively small class of some kind. At least you are guaranteed not to have too much grading, if nothing else.

I don't see why not, especially if you are finishing your MA in good standing and will get good LORs from your current professors. You'll want to be careful about addressing fit and make it clear that you are very interested in getting an offer. A good way to do that would be to contact the school directly, as TakeruK suggests. You may need to go through the application process again, but it'd still be a good idea to give them a heads up about your application and express your interest in attending the school this application cycle. If they liked you last time, there is a good chance that they would still be interested, but given that you declined once they might want some kind of assurance that you won't do it again because it'd be a waste of their time and resources otherwise.

FYI, a paid position for a PhD student at the University of Utrecht to study micro-syntactic variation in Dutch and Frisian dialects. More details here: https://www.academictransfer.com/employer/UU/vacancy/23033/lang/nl/ Catch: must speak both Dutch and English.

Yeah we were also assigned a first-year advisor, who was in charge of signing off on our course selections (which was easy, since all first-year classes are required in my program), and nothing much beyond that. The chosen advisor normally has something in common with the student, but sometimes for various reasons the match isn't quite there. We could change advisors in our second year (or any time after that, really), so this isn't a big deal. FWIW I wasn't in touch with anyone over the summer before my first year and didn't get there early. I basically arrived in town a week or so before the semester started and did the whole get-keys-to-apt, rent-truck-and-drive-to-ikea, assemble-lots-of-furniture, unpack-everything, get-other-supplies-from-store, figure-out-internet-gas-electricity, etc. just before the semester started. I first showed up in my department on the first day of orientation. I met with my advisor for course selection on registration day, and that was that. No one ever paused to say anything about not being there earlier, and now that I'm graduating I can tell you that people who do show up early are the exception, not the rule (at least in my program). So, I'd say there is nothing to worry about, but you can email your advisor to ask if there is anything they recommend you do, just to be on the safe side.

Now could be a good time to email your advisor with an update. You could ask if there is anything he recommends doing before the semester begins, or if there is any activity he thinks could be of interest to you that will happen after you move to your new city. It may depend on the school/program, but in my program there is no expectation that new first-years show up for anything before the Fall, though they're of course welcome if they do want to come by early, e.g. for reading groups or dissertation defenses that happen over the summer. Normally no preparation is expected ahead of the Fall, though I do know some students asked about things they should brush up on, and got some suggestions from their advisors.

Oh, yes, they do. Some even freak out about their A's and will fight you for an A+. Even though they didn't earn it, and moreover the official transcript doesn't reflect the + but instead just gives the letter grades alone. People can be very high strung.

There is a relevant thread you might find useful, here:

I've kept in touch with some more than others (I had 4 LORs). One was really outside my main field (an emergency LOR, long story, don't ask) and I actually haven't seen them or talked to them since 2008. One I probably see once every other year and we have a polite short chat. I do think this person appreciates the updates but I kind of doubt my progress concerns them too much beyond that. My last two LOR writers I see once or twice a year at conferences and we usually enjoy coffee/lunch and a nice update chat. I believe that these two people do care about my progress and would do their best to help me, if I asked. I also keep in touch with two additional people who were not LOR writers for me, but were people who supported me before grad school and have continue to be supportive throughout. I email them or see them in person roughly once a year, when I have the time to go visit my alma mater.

Judging by the other thread you started, it seems like you're not entirely sure what you want to study within linguistics. Given that, I think you may have a hard time choosing schools that would be a good fit, and having a strong enough application to get in. It seems, then, that applying for an MA may be the best solution for you -- get some exposure to the different subfields, get some research experience, and put yourself in a position to have stronger LORs and a writing sample in the field. If, after you've gone through the program, you still think you want to get a PhD, I think you'll be in a much better position to do so. At the moment, though, I think it's not yet time for you to consider PhD programs.

In addition I'd suggest reading the field descriptions on the LSA website: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/articles-domain-linguistics. I think your question is too broad to answer, really. I also doubt that knowing what particular research question I am interested in will teach you much about the subfield in general.

^This. I think it's worth taking the time to consider why your advisor thinks you won't finish on time, in order to identify places where you may not be giving yourself enough time to complete a certain task. But given that the rest of your committee believes your timeline can work and that you've proven your advisor wrong before, I think the best course of action is to just do it again. I'd suggest staying in touch with your advisor on a regular basis in order to avoid any sudden unhappiness with what you're doing that may come up too late for you to finish on time. As long as the communication is there and unless there is any reason to think your advisor won't sign off on your work if you do finish, then I say go for it!

There will be some weeks when you need to work that much, for example right before a deadline for a grant submission or during finals week. But it shouldn't be the norm, or you'll just burn out. Grad school will be as manageable as you make it -- there is ALWAYS more to do and if you're not careful, it can become all-consuming. You can find lots of threads here full of advice about scheduling time off and having hobbies. It's important in order to keep yourself sane. Academia is a marathon, not a sprint. There is ALWAYS more you can do, but you also need to take care of yourself. I imagine you'll still want to sleep and eat once in a while? Maybe occasionally do the laundry and go grocery shopping? If you're planning to keep those things to a minimum on a regular basis, you'll work yourself to the ground on those weeks when there is an extra-special deadline that requires you to work more than usual (and they will come up). Do you really plan to work 100% most days and 150% on others with no break whatsoever? You think you can do that for 4-5 years, never mind your next career move as I mentioned above? Well, what can I say -- good luck to you.

Oh I do hope you do not intend to pursue an academic career. Life gets significantly more difficult after you graduate. There are fewer jobs than PhD graduates so getting that postdoc won't be easy, not to mention that first TT job. And once you're on the TT, it's publish or perish (and teaching and service) for 7 years until you're up for tenure. Maybe then you could start having a life, assuming you're not particularly rushed to get that Full Professor rank? Assuming you're one of the truly lucky ones who gets the perfect job straight out of school and can fast-track the TT, we're looking at a minimum of 10 years of everything on hold. If you're one of us mere mortals, you're probably looking at closer to 15 years of school-postdoc-TT job celibacy. I don't know about you, but I value the rest of my life just as much as my career. Being successful but completely alone for over a decade does not sound appealing at all. You need to start learning how to have a full and balanced life now, because it will not get easier later.

In principle, there is nothing stopping you from submitting applications to other programs and starting over. However -- first, you'd need to get letters of recommendation and that might be hard to do since I assume you wouldn't want to let the current program know you're thinking of jumping ship so you'd have to go to your old undergrad professors. Second, you'd have to disclose in your applications that you're currently in school and submit grades, etc. You'll need to have a pretty compelling reason for wanting to quit and change to a new program, otherwise schools will worry about your commitment level; no one wants to waste precious resources (time, money, a spot that could have gone to a better applicant) on someone who will drop out half way through. Third (and perhaps most importantly) you have to be careful not to burn bridges with your current school, assuming that you want to stay in the same field. This is related to the second point -- using up a school's resources when you have no intention of graduating won't go over very well. You'd need a better reason - e.g. a change in research interests that make your fit with the current program less than ideal. However, planning to do this before you even begin the program means that there is something very wrong here.

Yes, this is normal. You had 4 good options to choose from, and that means that you had to turn down 3 of those 4 good choices. That's a hard thing to do, even in a situation with perfect information about all the choices, and naturally that's never really the case when we make these choices. Mind you, this situation does not change depending on what school you choose -- regardless of the choice, there remain 3 schools that you would have had to turn down. Each of them has some good things going for it, or you would not have applied there in the first place. So any way you look at this, you end up turning down a lot of seemingly good options and are left with just one, which you hope is all that you want it to be. You just need to trust yourself and your ability to make good choices for yourself. Nothing has changed as far as your information about these schools is concerned, so there is no reason to doubt your decision now. It's absolutely true that there are opportunities that you will miss out on, but there is NO WAY to know what they would have been, and also NO REASON to think that they are inherently better than the ones you'll have. You've made a good choice (and this is important--all your choices were good!) and that means that you'll have good opportunities because of that. You can never predict how things will turn out, all you can do is give yourself a good chance for success -- and you've done that. I'm sure this feeling of uncertainty will go away once you start school. If for no other reason, then because you'll be too busy taking advantage of your existing opportunities to worry about vague options in other places that may or may not even be there.

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A professional job does NOT entail you should give up on having any relationships, pets, children, friends, hobbies, or time off to just relax. You are thinking about this all wrong. Thinking about this as a professional job means you devote a certain part of the day (=the working hours) to your studies, and the rest of the time can be devoted to whatever else is happening in you life, including all those other things. It's really important to have something else in your life beside school, whatever that is. Otherwise, you'll burn out very quickly.

FWIW I think that the people are by far the most important factor in the decision. If you're working with people who you get along with, you'll be happier and more productive. Same goes for having good weather and proximity to family - those are not things to take lightly, they will improve your quality of life. Now, as for having less of a perfect research fit, I wouldn't worry too much because 1) people change, and (very!) often the thing you were interested in doing before you start morphs and evolves in ways you can't even predict. 2) This school seems open to letting you do your own thing, and as long as they are supportive you should be ok. Keep in mind that the goal of a PhD is to become an expert in something so at the end of the day you want to know more than your advisor about your topic. Having a younger professor can have its advantages and disadvantages (you can search for threads about that on the board)--younger profs are usually more driven to publish and if you're one of their first students you'll have a real influence on how they evolve as advisors and (perhaps) researchers. They are closer to where you are and understand you better. On the other hand, they might have less influence in their field, which is why in this situation I normally recommend seeking out a second mentor who is more established in the field to supplement the advising you get from your main advisor. The funding situation should not be big factor, as long as you are getting enough money to sustain a reasonable student lifestyle. As long as you are not supporting a family, in my opinion, once you know you're able to live off your stipend, research should trump the best funding offer. This school offers the same TA responsibilities as school B and if I were in you shoes I'd view it as an opportunity to get more teaching experience than school A. So bottom line, what I'm saying is the best thing you can do is find the good things about this school and get yourself excited again. People are SO important and can make such a difference in your life. The other stuff you can't really control, including how your research will grow and develop. If you really can't get excited about this at all, then the only thing I can think of is very discreetly contacting either school A or B to ask if there is any way the offer could still be on the table, and going from there. It's sufficiently late now that it may be hard to make anything happen, but you never know. But -- again -- this seems like a fairly routine case of buyer's remorse and I'd first try to examine its sources and try to get past it.