fuzzylogician

I have a heading "Other Academic Experience" underneath "Education" for summer schools and language programs. I think your course could fit in a similar section. I imagine a "Skills" section should be more about what you know and less about how you came to know it, so it may not be a good choice for listing the course.

Do you need to have a CV for anything at the moment? You're just now entering a grad program so perhaps you don't need to worry about this and hopefully by the time you graduate you'll have better ways of demonstrating your writing abilities. As it stands I don't think I'd put such an article on my CV unless I had reason to want to stress my writing abilities or outreach (or similar properties) because it's not academic writing and it's intended for a general audience, and I assume it's also not peer-reviewed. For most purposes, it won't help you to have such an entry -- it might simply look like padding.

There were lockers for all personal equipment at the facility I took the test at. You should find out what the conditions are like at the facility you'll be at -- call them and ask. I don't think they'll let you take anything with you into the exam room, though.

I used to have a "no professors on facebook" rule but it was useless because everyone friends everyone on there and it's not like I could decline a friend invitation from a professor I met at a conference. Once there was one, there was no reason not to accept invitations from all of my colleagues. Turns out it's one of the popular ways of staying in touch and networking in my field. I still have a "no students" rule that I intend to keep, but generally I think it's safer to assume that everything you post could be discovered and nothing is really private and confidential. Even having two accounts doesn't seem safe so I wouldn't post anything I wouldn't want read by my colleagues. That said, I wouldn't out right link my professional accounts to my social media accounts, that doesn't seem appropriate either.

I get into conferences, I get published, I get asked (and successfully field) serious questions from people who don't know me well - e.g. at conferences and similar occasions, I got my dissertation project funded by the NSF. People know who I am before I meet them -- that tells me that I am doing well. I also get told I do good work by my advisors and others in my department. I try to ask people around me once in a while how they think I am doing, even though that's a really hard question to ask. It's of course possible that people are still facilitating some not-great work that I do (we all have better and not-as-good projects) and indeed everyone sometimes feels inadequate, so it's a matter of trust: do you trust your advisor to tell you if you're not doing well, and do you trust the peer-review process in your field?

Sounds like the best outcome this situation could have. I hope it removes some of the PhD apps concerns.

Well, how did it work out? Are you willing to share the advice you got with the forum?

You might want to ask professors who sit on admissions committees about that. I can imagine the 'fail' looking better because it leaves more to the imagination than an F but really it should be exactly the same. The only thing a pass-fail system accomplishes is that if you get a 'pass' it's not clear if you did D-level work or A-level work. But a 'fail' is F-level work, so on the face of it there shouldn't be any difference. Again, if this is the way things are, I understand the concern but I just want to stress that while it makes things more difficult, it doesn't doom your chances altogether. It's important to keep that in mind - one slip-up should not make it impossible for you to get in anywhere. You'll just need to explain what happened and make it clear that is not a reflection of your abilities (instead, all your other grades are!).

This is an undergraduate course or a graduate course? Also, if you got an F instead of say a D or a C, what makes you think that you'll get a 'pass' instead of a 'fail' if the grading metric was different? I can tell you that in classes I've taught (and taken) doing only 55% of the work is not enough for a passing grade even if you were perfect (you'd need 60% to get a D), so it sounds like you pretty much got a grade that reflects the effort you put into this class. I can understand the instructor's reaction perfectly well, as I would react the same if someone missed many classes and only did about half of the work, and then wanted me to help them get a grade they don't appear to deserve. Now, obviously getting a 'fail' in a pass/fail course doesn't look good, but the same goes for getting an F in a graded class. This is just a guess, but I imagine that it might look better to get a 'fail' than an F--but this is not based on actual knowledge, just (perhaps incorrect) intuition. The best outcome would be a 'pass' but from your description that doesn't seem like a likely outcome. So I think the bottom line is that you'll end up with this bad grade on your transcript, and of course that's not going to help your admissions chances. However, it also doesn't doom you to eternal failure, it'll just have to be something you have to deal with (e.g. by explaining what happened in your SOP or having a LOR writer address it -- how you handle this will depend on how important this class: is it in your major, or outside, required or elective, etc.). At this point, I'm not sure there's much you can do so I'm not sure what kind of advice you are looking for.

Being first author is better than being further down the author list. If you can get that position, do it. It'll look better on your CV and everyone reading it (adcoms, but also others down the line) will appreciate it more.

You certainly don't have to finish. How dropping out will end up reflecting on your as a candidate will depend on how you present yourself in your applications. You may still need to submit transcripts from this second BA, and if they contain consistently bad grades leading to you dropping out, that may not help. But if you just realized that this degree is not something your want, and what you apply for in the future is in a different field, then probably having a one-line "I started a second bachelors in CS but later realized that my passion lies elsewhere" in your SOP will be enough to address any concerns that admissions committees might have.

Grad school is grad school--not much has changed about the process since last year. The advice here is as relevant as ever. If there is anything specific that you are left wondering about, you are welcome to ask here or start a new thread.

Sounds more like a personality trait than a "trick." Look, the more you postpone asking for help, the bigger the problem will become your mind and the less time you will have left to complete your project. I'm not sure what you mean by furious; you wrote before "My PI is very supportive and I enjoy working with her so far." Lets imagine you come to her and say that you've been having trouble coming up with a good topic and you would like to ask for her help. Suppose now she is unhappy and says she's disappointed because she thought you'd have done more by now. This would be a very unhelpful thing to say but I'm imagining that that's what you're afraid of and I can also imagine some people saying something of this nature. Well, then you pick it up and go from there - you say you'd thought you'd get more done too, but you tried X and it didn't pan out and you also thought of Y but couldn't make it work. So now you're here in her office and you hope that she can help you do better, because time is running out and you feel like you're stuck. You've never handled a project of this size or nature, and apparently the way you initially went about it was unsuccessful. How can you help me fix it now so that I have something ready before the deadline? The idea is to steer the conversation in a helpful direction, ask questions in such a way that it's clear you understand that it's your responsibility and you want to make it work, but you're inexperienced and you've encountered difficulties you hadn't planned on. That is precisely what an advisor is for -- they are there to advise you. This is a step in your education that's unlike anything you've done before and it's hard. You need guidance to make it through, and that's perfectly natural. If you'd already known everything coming into this process, what would be the point in going through it at all?

binftastic, I think that you are having some very damaging internal dialogs and they had better stop. You are talking yourself into believing that you can't do this, where we have absolutely no evidence that that is the case. If anything, we have evidence that you are a successful research student who has a good lab and a supportive advisor. You can do this and furthermore I think you should do this. Quitting without ever having tried will haunt you later in life. It's not a regret you want to carry around with you. I personally think it's better to try and fail than not try at all -- but again, there is no reason to think that you will fail to begin with. Reach out for help to get you out of this cycle. I don't know how much you're allowed to talk to your professors and colleagues about this (I hope that there is no restriction!) but ask as many questions as you can. I'm sure you can get support with organizing your thought process and with time management. Ask your advisor about those issues -- work back from the deadline and make yourself a schedule for getting things done. Do that with her, and if you need to, set up a weekly meeting or email or whatnot to report what you've done. Don't allow yourself to get stuck and just sit there. You have PLENTY of time! If it's allowed, ask your advisor how she goes about finding research topics. In the past I've sat in front of the relevant shelves in the library and read random things until something sparked an interest, and then I looked at the bibliography and went from there. I also find that sometimes reading the syllabus for advanced seminars can get me thinking about new ideas - they will usually touch on the most recent topics of research - precisely the ones that are still debated in the literature and where there is current active work being done. But -- don't read too much. That's an easy way to get bogged down. As soon as you find a topic that interests you, start talking about it to people. Try and formulate some very vague question or idea and take it to people; different people will take it in different directions, and probably some of them will be useful. I find it helpful at some point to write up what I am thinking, even if it's in bullet-point form and I have to list all the things I don't know about -- because once I do and I show it to professors, they will help answer some of the questions and ask new ones. Research is not done in a vacuum and I hope you are not required to do so for your quals. So talk to everyone - profs, cohort, upper class-men - and get yourself out of this negative way of thinking!

When I filled my IRB for the first time I got advice to walk through it with the person in charge of my program before officially submitting. It was great advice because she helped me with the details I wasn't sure about and then because she was already familiar with the application, she took it to the committee and helped get it approved very quickly. I also had examples of (somewhat) similar proposals but going through it with the person in charge was by far more useful than anything else.

You can enter the US on the F-1 visa no more than 30 days before the start day of your program, as listed on your I-20. On my count that means that if the date on your I-20 is August 19, 30 days before that is July 20 -- but why risk it if you're not sure? Fly in on the 21st and then you know you're definitely safe. ** this is the place to make extra clear that none of us here are immigration experts. That's why my advice is better safe than sorry. If you're going to fly in on the 20th, I'd email someone official at immigration and ask, or else not risk it.

I haven't seen your seminar paper so it's hard to tell how you'd have to revise it to be ready for a journal submission, but generally journal paper standards are higher than what would be considered a good seminar paper. The prose needs to be tighter, the evidence stronger, the structure perhaps different. You should sit down with your advisor or maybe the professor who you wrote the paper for and ask for specific advice about how to make your paper ready for submission. One important aspect is to choose where the paper goes -- the audience, background you can assume and what should be the main point(s) will be different for different journals. There are also technical issues that might differ re: editing, length, standards. Then find out what's missing or could be strengthened - usually you'd need less of a lit review and you might want to structure it differently than a seminar paper, e.g. lead with the exciting findings and your theory, and have the 'lit review' or discussion of other theories towards the end (at least that's common in my field, and it's not how beginning students tend to structure their papers). This really depends on the specifics of your paper, chosen journal and standards in your field. Ask a professor!

Give your advisor a chance to fix this. If matters are as you say, everyone in your department will have experience in appeasing this secretary. If you are left alone to figure this out (seems doubtful), the people who come to mind who you might go to - not knowing anything specific about your program - are the DGS and the department head, in that order. Also, perhaps there is someone else in the dept office who could help process the paperwork. You might also reach out to a more advanced current student of your advisor's and ask who they might suggest could help speed things along. However, for now I suggest you sit tight for a day or two and at most email your advisor to express your anxiety. I am sure this will work itself out.

Like many things in grad school, it depends. If you take a course through some non-school program (that is, it won't need to be approved by your advisor and it won't appear on your schedule/transcript) then no one will have to know and there is no reason anyone should care. If it is through the school, there is a chance that if you're not doing well it will be ascribed to that extra course. I think that it would perhaps make sense to hold off for a semester or two before taking on additional *time consuming* academic courses, because adjusting to grad school is difficult enough without the added pressure. However, everyone should have a life outside of school so I wouldn't worry too much about how pursuing a hobby might be perceived by your professors--only about making sure it fits in with the rest of your life and doesn't over-burden you too much.

At the moment, since it's not clear whether or not this professor is leaving and also whether or not there will be a job search to replace her and generally what the department will look like a year from now, I think it makes more sense to delay decision-making as much as possible. No harm will be done if you take a leave of absence now to concentrate on your health, and then a year later decide to quit your program and re-apply because your research interests are no longer supported at your current school. I think it even makes sense to separate the health-related decisions from the career-related ones, and this is a good way of doing so. You don't need to make this choice now and it's not like you're going to apply to another program right away, so why not put this program on hold instead of stopping completely -- seems to me that you keep more options open that way and you have nothing to lose.

Note of caution: if you have shared folders in dropbox, back them up regularly to non-shared folders or to an offline device (or better: both). Co-authors (read: old, non tech-savvy professors) may inadvertently cause harm to your shared content. They may not realize that dragging something to a local folder means it's deleted from the shared folder and they may not fully understand how the sharing works inside sub-folders of your shared folder. I've had to restore shared work, several times, because someone accidentally moved stuff around and re-arranged their own work directories without realizing it would affect my account as well. No one meant any harm, but if I hadn't had backups it would have meant that some work would have been lost.

I am a fast writer ("disgustingly fast," as my friends put it) but I can only write *after* I've worked through what it is I want to say. I can't just start writing and bullshit or write something vague that will be revised later. I need to have a clear vision of the entire paper before I can start the writing portion. Once I'm there, I build a skeleton of the paper. I start with the section headings. Then I write some abstract and introduction, even though I know full well that I'll need to revise them, because it helps me to lay out the plan. Then I go and write some key points underneath each of my sections, and create subsections. For each new (sub)section I try and put down the key ideas I would like to have there. I point out where figures and graphs should go. I also keep in parallel to the paper a list (I like workflowy for this and all my other list-needs) with the same level of detail - each section, subsection and things that need to be created and go there (graphs, figures, statistical models, things I need to find out, outstanding reading). The goal of all these steps is to break down the work to manageable steps. Once this is done, I can start filling in the blanks, and I try to have each step correspond to something that I can cross off a list, because that makes me feel like I've accomplished something tangible. It even helps me to create an item on my list and immediately cross it off if I've done X amount of work for the day and it doesn't correspond to any entire bullet point. It just helps me feel like I'm continuously making progress and it also helps me keep a record of the size of my steps and when they happened. I start with the easy parts - figures, graphs and descriptions thereof, as well as technical writing, because there is not much thinking to do there. At that point there should be at least a good 5-6 pages of the paper (some in bullet-point form, but never mind) and that's encouraging. After that I just plug away and work through sections, as much as possible in order so I don't end up repeating things in later sections that would have had to appear early. I have a policy of not looking back - what's written is written, it's an accomplished section and I move on. Later I go back and re-read. It's easier to edit once the whole thing is on paper and I think it saves time too. I imagine that creative writing is not exactly the same, but that's the process that works for me.

I imagine it's easier to get the word out if you have a written document as opposed to a patent or product. Linguistics is also a small enough field that it's not too overwhelming to keep up with the latest innovations in our field. It's also established practice to read and cite dissertations, and I don't know if that's necessarily the case in other fields that produce written work (probably not in all, is my guess). Also, this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

PhD theses are often read and cited in my field. They are frequently assigned as reading in seminars and they are generally a good way to get up to speed on the background of certain problems in the field. At the same time, theses are often turned into journal papers (or sometimes books). The content of the actual thesis doesn't go to waste, though I'm sure it's true that there are parts that very few people will ever read, and that's fine too. You write a thesis to fulfill a degree requirement by your university, and you then publish the work to make it accessible to your peers. What goes into writing these two kinds of documents is somewhat different.

We recently received the email below from our International Students Office. I know pretty much the same email went out to students at other schools; this is effective immediately and should also affect new students who are beginning their education in the Fall (of course you don't need the documents proving current enrollment that are mentioned below, if you're entering for the first time!). I don't think there is anything to worry about, but make travel plans accordingly: have any connections outside the US so you reach the US at your final destination, or leave enough time for a connection in the US. Remember that wherever you enter the US for the first time is where you have to go through immigration (also pick up and re-check your bags) and even without these new procedures it could take fairly long. FYI.