fuzzylogician

Pretty_Penny, like others have said, your health should come first. You've already gotten some great advice about that. Please stay in counseling and try to remember that it could take time to get back to a place where you're feeling like yourself again. If possible, I think it may be a good idea to look into taking a temporary leave of absence for a semester. That would give you some time to really concentrate on getting better and also (importantly) to be away from your advisor. I want to stress that from the way you describe it, your advisor's behavior is NOT normal. I would encourage you to seek out ways of replacing her with someone else. I understand that it's complicated, but there is no way you could stay with her for your entire program and maintain your health -- and your health is SO much more important than a degree. I think some time away might help with several things - first and foremost, to distance yourself from the situation as I described. It might also help you put things in perspective and help you decide if you really want this degree. Coming back from a leave of absence to a new advisor might be easier than switching cold turkey, so it may allow everyone to save face and make the transition easier. Either way, though, I think you should talk to someone - department head or the DGS perhaps - about the need to find a new advisor. If there is one thing that is clear, it's that if you want to pursue this degree, you need to have a better advisor who can support you instead of damaging your health.

It's an acceptable thing to say *if* you know these kinds of collaborations already exist there and that they are encouraged (or, at least not discouraged). There are several ways to find out, including the department's websites and individual students/professors׳ websites or CV. Or if you know someone there, you could just ask and anybody there should know the answer. If it's not done, I wouldn't mention it. It would show a lack preparation and fit. If you mention it, make sure it comes after you explain what it is *about the department* that attracts you there, and that it's shorter than that first section.

It's probably an informal interview. It means that they are interested in your application and want to get a better feel for who you are. Perhaps there is something unusual about your application that they would like to clarify? Most of my interviews were (as it turned out) with schools that I had less of a good fit with, and the main questions were why I applied there, what I wanted to study, and who I wanted to work with. Those would be the questions I think you should prepare for - what are your interests, what work have you done in the past (anything in your SOP), what do you want to study in the future, and why there (including, who do you want to work with).

All -- thank you for the reports about Redflight. We are aware of the situation. No need to continue reporting these posts.

I'm not a postdoc but I don't think that really matters for what I have to say -- what you describe sounds like inappropriate behavior on the part of your PI. As you say, in terms of being competitive for jobs, you really need these publications. And in terms of the work, it sounds like you deserve the first authorship. The fact that authorship is not discussed at the appropriate time (at the beginning of the project), that it's effectively taken from you in this backhanded way, that your advisor is not letting you get the experience and credentials you need (and deserve!) and that she is threatening you in case you complain, all don't sound good. I worry that with this kind of relationship with your advisor, you also can't expect a very strong letter from her for job applications. What's sure, though, is that if you get into a head-on clash with your advisor, it'll hurt your letter. I think this is something you need to address because something needs to change. If you have a trusted professor or other mentor in the department, you could try and consult them about the best course of action in your department. Otherwise, I might seek the advice of an ombudsperson before I file any official complaint with the department. The crucial question is how you might expect the department head to treat your complaint; if this professor is tenured (and it sounds like she is) then she will stay long after you leave and everyone needs to get along. This is probably not the first time this has happened either. They may choose to sacrifice you in order to maintain a good relationship with her. I'd watch my step there.

My hobby: leaving doge comments on students' psets.

It depends on the market/city. In some places you can just find something on Craigslist and that's what most people do, and in that case you can look online and do most of the process without being there, and you'd want someone local (e.g. a current student in your department) to take a look at places you are serious about, because you do not want to rent a place sight unseen. You can learn a lot about neighborhood from google and googlemaps. In other cities you often work with one or more realtors. Where I go to school, it's been my experience that good places almost always work with a realtor, and the market is competitive enough that they can require the tenants to pay the realtor fees. The fees are normally around one month's worth of rent, but it can be anything from none or 0.5 to twice the rent. I'm sure you could get a realtor to work with you even in a market where that's not normally done. I'd start by googling for realty agencies in the city you will live in, reading some reviews - which can help you decide if they work with rental properties or only properties for sale and also how good they are, and then emailing some of them to ask for information. They should be able to tell you about fees and what kind of properties they have before you make any kind of formal arrangement with them. At least when I've worked with a realtor in the past, I signed an agreement saying I'd pay a certain fee if I take an apartment that the realtor showed me, but there was no fee involved in just seeing places. I had these agreements with three different realtors who had access to different properties I was interested in, and I only paid the fee once, to the realtor who showed me the apartment I ended up renting.

Leaving for a campus visit in 3 days, but both my job talk and my demo class are not ready yet. Still don't have a schedule for the visit, and haven't had much luck in getting information about who will be in the audience for these talks. You'd think that would be relevant for how I'd want to structure the talks, but yeah. So, anxious and excited --> can't sleep well --> tired --> can't work, but really need to --> work in bits and pieces, procrastinate, post a lot on the grad cafe, stay awake for long hours --> more anxiety and tiredness. Ugh. Break over, back to working on my handout!

Sounds like you have been admitted, congrats! You could email the department secretary for clarification, don't worry about not having much prior contact with them. I imagine they should be contacting you with more information soon, if you have indeed been admitted. I'd make sure for my own peace of mind. A quick "hey my app now says this, what does it mean?" (appropriately worded, of course) should do it.

I don't list those kinds of things, but I don't have enough content like that to make me really consider it. For academic jobs (which is what my CV is currently geared towards), I've been told this won't help. On the other hand, I can imagine listing some entries like that, if I had any that were relevant, for e.g. NSF outreach purposes for showing the "broader impacts" of my work. Field: Linguistics.

I wouldn't take the NRC rankings too seriously and I certainly would not recommend choosing a school based on it. Assuming you want a job in academia, your school name will open some doors for you (if it's a good one) but your advisors' reputations are even more important. One way to get information about job placement and success is to find out where people who are getting jobs now graduated from. This will give you a picture of how good the school was a few years ago, so not perfect but not bad (with some exceptions, like the program at McGill which I personally think is an up and coming force in the field). Really, I think fit is the key to a good graduate school outcome. By the time you graduate, you should have 3-4 scholars who form your dissertation committee and who write you letters of recommendation for jobs. The relationship you have with these people will determine to a large extent how competitive you are in your field. If you cultivate strong relationships with 3-4 influential people who will write you glowing letters, you are well on your way to success. If you work with obscure people, you'll have a harder time but still if you have a strong dissertation and publication record, that can be overcome (or, as happens to many, you end up working with just one person who writes you an amazing letter, but your other recommenders don't know you that well). The strength of your dissertation and other research will be largely dependent on your well-being in the program and how well-supported you are. If you are unhappy and don't get along with anyone, you'll have a hard time getting work done. For that reason, I'd choose a school where I felt like I connected with several professors over a more prestigious one where I didn't feel like I belonged. Same goes for student-student collaborations, which can be a great way to crank out research -- some schools have more of that than others, though you should keep in mind that it's unlikely you'll actually identify any potential collaborators in your cohort or in other years during your visit. But feeling like you get along with people you meet is a good initial indication. For better or worse, though, at this point you have several good options and it's likely that you will be happy and successful at any of them. There is no one correct choice. (Personally, I think I would have been happy at any of my top 3 choices, though I am convinced that I would have ended up with very different profiles and research activities at each one, but not in a way I could have foreseen when I was making the decision.) Feel free to PM me if you have questions about specific schools that I can help with.

Fair enough. But the rest of the post is still as relevant as before.

First off, I wouldn't worry about "asking too soon." You have been accepted, you need to make decisions about where to attend, and funding is an important component of the decision. I'd email and ask whether they can provide more information about funding, or when you can expect to know more if details are not available at the moment. Second, it's hard to know how (not) visiting might affect your funding since you haven't shared with us what field you are in, and funding structures are different across fields and schools. I can imagine that if you are in a lab-based science and are funded directly by a PI, that you would need to have a PI who takes you on and that meeting people in person could influence those kinds of decisions. On the other hand, in some fields funding is centrally allocated by the department (and often everyone gets the same amount of funding, unless they won some competitive award), so it wouldn't matter much if you visit or not. Some fields rely on TAships and you'd need to find out how those are decided (I would guess that visits aren't hugely important, but it's really just a guess). Visiting has other advantages beside funding decisions, so it may be worth going to visit at least the top 2-3 schools you got into, even if your funding is not dependent on the visit. The visit may make you reconsider which schools are the best fit for you.

Why don't you just ask the programs?

I don't really know of good examples of online version of the teaching statement, but here is some advice I was given: First of all, if you are an inexperienced teacher, the statement doesn't need to be long. 1-1.5 page is a reasonable length. Some part of the statement can be spent on concrete facts that pertain to the job you are applying for - namely, what are you prepared to teach at the school you are applying for? Name things such as the topic (perhaps course name), level of the course (ugrad vs. grad), brief description of content (e.g. students will learn theory X and application Y, use book Z, and are expected to be able to do W by the end of the course) potential for co-teaching with current faculty in the department. You may propose advanced seminars as long as you don't step on other faculty's feet (don't propose a seminar in X if you know that Prof Jones teaches the exact same seminar, unless you have reason to believe that Jones doesn't actually enjoy teaching X and would love to find someone else to take it over). Your list may include basic service courses for the department, anything that was explicitly mentioned in the job ad (if they say the candidate will be expected to teach Advanced Methods in Basketweaving, definitely say you can teach that, and explain how), undergrad seminars, grad seminars, possibilities for guided research for students (if your work is lab-based or allows for involvement or undergrads). Read the department's description of its teaching mission, if there is one on the website. Some SLACs and colleges place a lot of emphasis on guided research, one-on-one study opportunities, etc. Show the school you are familiar with their priorities and can fit with them. Even if you haven't taught much, you may have some ideas about what works and what doesn't based on your time in the classroom as a student. You need to have some description of your "teaching philosophy," but everybody realizes that this can't be more than a vague opinion since you are inexperienced. But you can still say some things about what you find important in the classroom, how you would go about teaching classes at certain levels, and how you would engage students. As much as you can, be specific. Give examples, use stories and anecdotes. What did you do well in the class taught? What could be improved? What did you learn about how students engage with the material? Again -- be specific! Finally, you might think about how you would approach mentoring students - both undergraduates and grad students. How would you try and involve them in your work? How would you make yourself available to them for questions or concerns? What guidance would you find important in different stages of the student's career (hands-on, hands-off; let them explore or send them down a certain direction; breadth vs. depth; grad school vs. industry preparation, etc). You don't need to have answers to everything, but the key to a good statement is the details. Everybody can talk about the generalities and big ideas, but the question is how you would implement them in the relevant environment - i.e. in the department you will be working at, if you get this job.

There is lots of good advice on the forum about how to present your work. I'd suggest a search of previous posts in this sub-forum. If you have specific questions or concerns we may have an easier time helping you. Some advice will be field specific and also depends on how long your presentation is supposed to be. Do people in your field normally use slides when they present, or a handout? In some fields you read a paper out loud to the audience, and in others that would not be acceptable at all. Same goes for the dress code - it changes by field but without knowing more I'd say for men: slacks and a buttoned shirt, perhaps a sports jacket; for women: nice pants or a (at least) knee-length skirt and and a blouse/sweater. Wear sensible shoes. The best advice I have without knowing more details: (1) ask your advisor for conference-specific advice. (2) practice you talk until you are comfortable delivering it. It may mean more than one practice talk, if this is your first time presenting. Time yourself so you know how fast you are going, so you can keep track of your progress during the actual presentation. Also -- have fun! Good luck.

This recent blog post by GMP: http://xykademiqz.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/musings-on-networking/

Your university's International Students Office will provide you with a document that states (1) how much funding you will receive from your department, and (2) how much it costs to attend your school (tuition+living expenses). If your department will fully cover all of the costs, you are good to. If there are remaining costs, the ISO will ask you to provide proof of your ability to pay the additional costs (i.e. a bank statement) and will only issue the document that states that you have funding after you show that you can pay the remaining expenses. You then go to the US embassy to get your visa with that document from the ISO about your financial support.

Well in that case it sounds like they are just lazy and are asking you to enable it. Don't! Have them find the answer themselves, if it's not anything they really need your help with. As St Andrews Lynx says, here you could definitely send them away: "that sounds like something that you can find out by yourself on google -- come back to me in 10 minutes if you are still struggling."

I'd probably try leading questions first. "Well, what do you think we should do?" or if they really don't know, "Why don't we try googling it. What would be a good search?" or similarly for fiddling, for which it's harder to make more specific wording suggestions. Turn it into a joint problem that you are working together to solve, but it's still their responsibility to figure it out and implement the solution. You could send them off to play with it on their own if you feel that they have the tools to succeed in it, and then your suggestions are fine.

I'd try not answering their questions but instead "brainstorming" together for a solution and have them do the actual work. That is, solve their problem, but not by making the process a black box that just spits out an answer, but as a process that they are involved in, perform themselves, and learn from. It might take longer, at least at first, but they are coming to you because either they are not independent, aren't sure they can do things themselves, or they think that asking you will save them time and effort (=they are being lazy). You want to build their confidence, teach them how to do things, and not let them be lazy -- all of which are accomplished by doing things together and having them come up with suggestions. If they are unsure in the beginning, walk them through your thought process about what you want to search for or fiddle with. Then have them do it, and come back to report what they found. Or, if necessary, have them do it with you watching and guiding them. This is an important part of being a mentor - you want to teach them to become independent.

Ask the department about the dress code! My guess is that nice/business casual is fine. E.g. jeans and a nice sweater or buttoned shirt, respectable shoes, perhaps some delicate jewelry. You could bring a jacket with you and put it on or take it off depending on what others are dressed like, if you want to be extra sure you're being appropriate. Appropriateness tends to depend on factors such as field and geography so it's hard to say more without knowing where the school is and what field you are in. Personally I think I wore jeans and a sweater or blouse to most of my open house events and I don't remember standing out in the crowd. It's what people normally wear here (of course, some people dress up more than others on a regular basis, so there is some range of things that are acceptable). I had a jacket in my backpack for the first visit but it would have made me feel over-dressed compared to the others so I never took it out and never wore it for any visit. As for behavior, the advice is the same as if this was an interview. Yes, you are already admitted, but still you want to make a good impression because the people you meet will be your future colleagues (even if you end up going to another school). I can tell you that people do remember admitted students who behaved in a strange or unacceptable way during the visits. Don't be that person.

It would make perfect sense to combine the two visits and I'm sure the two schools will be able to see the logic. I did something similar, though my schools were offering less reimbursement (a few hundred dollars each) so combining the money was what allowed me to travel in the first place. I combined visits to five schools and they were all very accommodating with receipts and joint reimbursement, they seemed to have experience with international students doing this kind of thing. Princeton and Yale are sufficiently close to one another that you could easily fly to/from NY or Boston. Getting from New Haven to Princeton will require a day of travel on various buses (or perhaps bus+train, if they are paying), but it's not too bad. iphi's suggestion makes sense: contact Yale to see whether they are able to pay for a flight that fits your schedule including the other visit, then ask Princeton whether they will be able to cover your travel within the US. I'd also find out about reimbursement for accommodations or alternatively options for crash space with students, otherwise that too could become expensive. I'm not so sure one-way tickets would be a good solution because normally they cost nearly as much as a return flight, but I suppose it depends on the prices so it might be worth looking into. However, my guess is that it won't really save anyone money, so I would only do that if for whatever reason Yale won't allow you to have an itinerary like you need.

That post pointed out the correct fact that you have no idea what you are talking about here. Your post brings up an imagined reason for that post, and includes a personal attack. I suppose you could say I am grumpy today. This is the fourth Loric issue I have dealt with today alone. At some point, you lose your patience.