fuzzylogician

Indeed I've heard it said that if the I-20 is stapled to your passport then you should not remove it. When you enter the US for the first time the immigration officer will remove it and process it. I think in the past it was customary to staple the I-20 to the passport for all F-1 visa recipients; apparently, however, they stopped doing that in some embassies (including where I got my visa) some time ago. At that time people were worried that they'd get turned back because of this, but it turned out to be just fine (including in my case). Bottom line, you've already removed the I-20 from the passport and there is no undoing that. I wouldn't worry too much, any other time after the first entry the I-20 won't be stapled to the passport anyway and immigration officers deal with that just fine. Of course you sill need the original I-20 (every time you enter the US between now and when you leave your program!) - stapled or not. As long as you have it, I think you'll be ok.

You should ask the schools you're interested in. A general policy that someone might have heard about for an unrelated school/field may not apply in your case. But as we've discussed in the linguistics forum in the past, the language requirement is something you need to pass *while you're in the program*, it's not usually a prerequisite for applying to the program. And, as discussed, showing competency is really not as big a deal as you seem to make of it.

I don't see why it should be a problem. Of course, it depends somewhat on your department's culture. It's possible that you'll be expected to show up just to be seen around the department and it's also possible that you'll find out that you get more done if you collaborate with your classmates on assignments or share the readings; it's also possible that there will be activities like reading groups, lab meetings, colloquia or other events that aren't part of the class schedule that will occur on your off-days. If you skip all these activities it'd be a shame and that could be frowned upon. But just as a general rule, if you don't have anything at all on your schedule, I don't think there should be any problem with not being around every day.

Well it depends a lot on the program you're starting, but in many cases the Americans, just like the international students, will be moving from a different part of the country and essentially starting over, just like you are. In my program, very few people lived in the same city for undergrad as for grad school -- and I live in an area with one of the largest concentrations of institutions for higher education in the world. So it's quite possible that you could make friends within your program or within your school. In the first few weeks of the school year many new students will be looking to make friends. If that fails for whatever reason, you can find friends through shared interest groups. There are several threads in the forums about go about finding suitable groups - for example through volunteering or websites like meetup.com.

A couple of quick thoughts for starters. Find yourself both foreign and local friends. My experience is that it is in general easier for me to bond with people with similar life experiences to my own, and being an international student is one major event in my life. I've actually found that this extends to Americans who have moved across the country or from small town to large city, etc. They have similar experiences with the initial adjustment, finding friends, etc. although clearly some cultural adjustment is spared them. Many international students find that it's an easy solution to have friends from their home country to speak their language with and share holidays, familiar foods, etc. The culture/food part you can also teach to your new friends, and it's a great way to stay in touch with your identity. The language you can keep by talking with family/friends from home. So, while it works for some people to have friends from home honestly in most cases I've seen it limits more than helps if you choose your friends according to that criterion. Be prepared for misunderstanding. More precisely, you may not even realize you're doing something wrong until some time has passed and you're more familiar with the culture. Find yourself friends who you can ask these small things (do you tip X, where do you find service Y, how should I interpret <this thing my professor said>, etc).

It only matters when (1) You are applying to a department that has rolling admissions (2) You are applying in a field where you are admitted and funded directly by your supervisor, as opposed to by your department (this is the case that TakeruK is describing). In fields where you are admitted to the department in general and then later on are assigned an advisor (most Humanities and Social Sciences, some other fields) then the department (or more accurately, the admissions committee) as a whole needs to gather and made decisions about applicants. Applicants are funded by the department and not by individual professors so decisions need to meet general departmental criteria. In that case, it's unlikely that they will begin looking at applications before the deadline. Decisions need to be made on a departmental level - the adcom may flag you as an interesting applicant before the deadline or after it but if only X spots are available then only the best X applicants (plus some margin) in the pool will get offers. It doesn't matter when you were flagged. In fields where decisions can be made early - e.g. a professor who directly hires her own students or a department with rolling admissions - the relevant decision makers may decide to admit you at any time. It may make sense to submit early. However, if you're a top applicant you should do fine even if you submit very close to the deadline.

As I wrote in response to the post directly below yours, as far as I know not many SLP students visit the IHOG forum. This forum is dedicated to helping international students deal with issues that arise from being international. For questions about applying to SLP, try the Life Sciences forum, where there seem to be more SLP students posting. Good luck!

I think you'd get more/better replies if you posted this in a more appropriate forum instead of here. This forum is frequented by international students and those who wish to become international students. They will not be able to answer very specific questions about SLP in the San Diego area. Try the Life Sciences forum, maybe, where it seems that other SLP students are posting.

European PhD programs usually require that you have an MA. They are research heavy and have a very light (if any) course load. The main issue would be to find an advisor who you could work with. Ideally you'd still want to publish in English and not Spanish, because the academic research community generally communicates in English (though this may be different for X-studies research written in language X, I suppose, but I don't know how this applies to Spanish linguistics). I can sort of see the appeal of studying language X in a country where it's spoken, but there is really no guarantee that the best researchers of that language aren't in the US or some other (unrelated) country. I would suggest that you search by advisor and not simply by country, and that you take into account the very different natures of European vs. American programs.

WornOutGrad, Are these changes of heart that your advisor keeps having documented? Can you show that she said X and then later Y (contradicting X)? Can you show that this happens over and over again? What happened to the students who left the group? Did they manage to graduate under someone else's supervision? Who cares if your advisor badmouths you, as long as you get to leave with your degree? Before you resign to failure and leave, you should do your best to fight for yourself. That way, later on when you look back at this stage in your life you'll know you did your best. If you try your hardest but don't succeed, you can (and should) still be proud of yourself for fighting through the hardships. Now, exhausting all the avenues that are open to you - once you've reached the conclusion that your advisor is not going to let you graduate anytime soon - includes confronting her about it, then going above her head to the DGS or department chair, and if no satisfactory conclusion is reached, go outside your department. There should be an assistant dean in charge of graduate students, or an ombudsperson, or someone else who could help you. It'd be best to reach an agreement that you can do X amount of work to graduate, preferably after reaching out to as few people as possible. But if not, do your best to raise hell and leave knowing that you tried your hardest. Whatever you do, though, I think that making a decision to change your circumstances and fight one way or the other is what can get you out of this state of mind that you're in. If you're already thinking about just walking away, seems to me that you are right there and have nothing to lose.

I only talk with my advisor (and other collaborators) on skype if we're in different countries. Otherwise everything is done via email or in person.

Attrition rates at my program are particularly low. The last time someone quit was before I joined the program (three different people from the incoming class of 2005 left during/after their first year, from what I hear). But I think it's not usual for there to be many more people who don't graduate, or who leave with a Masters at some point. I'll leave it up to more educated people than myself to give you numbers and links.

I've house-sat for our DGS once - she's not my direct advisor but still someone with power over me. I didn't get paid but I got to stay in her REALLY nice house for a couple of weeks and I liked the arrangement. It didn't involve much more than turning lights on and off, picking up the mail, watering the plants and taking out the garbage. I had to turn her down the next time because it didn't fit my schedule - no hard feelings on either side. I guess it really depends on your relationship with your advisor. I wouldn't feel bad about saying no to my advisor if it didn't work out, I assume that they would only ask me because they think I'm a trustworthy person so they would believe me if I just said that I can't this time (and any of these reasons would be accepted with no questions asked, I believe - don't feel comfortable, going out of town, have people visiting, have my own cat, etc).

Just to clarify what Eigen wrote: mods can easily see spam reports so we can delete those posts as soon as someone sees and reports them. If those posts are just down-voted but not reported, the only way we can find them is if we happen to be reading that post on our own. We don't always read through all the forums, though, and we can get busy sometimes so it may take us longer to notice spam that way. So, if you see something just report it - no need to say anything other than 'spam' as the reason for the report. It'll save us a lot of time and make the forum more user-friendly for everyone.

Also look at CVs of other students in your department, especially ones who are getting ready to go on the job market. I have: journal papers, book chapters, refereed proceedings papers, other papers. (I don't list things that are submitted/in preparation but I probably would if I were going on the job market). But your field may be different, so take this with a grain of salt.

Sounds like this is the first problem you've had with this professor? If so, don't over-react and don't go to the ombudsperson unless there are actual repercussions (e.g., if she is vengeful in some way). I would recommend apologizing - if she is so forgetful that she's already put this completely out of her mind then she'll probably forget again, but if she still remembers you'll be better off if you set the record straight. As wildviolet says - Feign ignorance. Smile. It doesn't matter that you're in the right and she is in the wrong, she is the one in the position of power.

Good luck to you! I'm sure it was a hard decision to make, and I hope that you'll be happy with the outcome.

Your mom will always be your mom and she will always want to help you. I say you let her and don't worry about it too much. Do it for her, in return for all the things she's done for you. For me, my parents didn't help me move because I moved overseas but they helped with the logistics of getting over here and then they visited me about a month after I moved and helped get me settled in with things I didn't buy right away. We rented a car and went on a trip to ikea to get small things for the kitchen and living room -- it was nothing I really needed, but I know they felt better for helping. I, on the other hand, am very grateful to know that there is someone out there who will always have my back, wherever I go and whatever I do.

Your profile looks great but I bet at least some schools will have (official or unofficial) cutoffs and you won't meet them. In that case, no one will ever see your file so all your credentials won't matter. If you can afford it, you should retake the GRE.

Common wisdom is that if you have two strong letters, it's ok if the third is not as good. If you can get a letter from an academic, even if it's a professor you only took some classes with, it sounds like a better solution than having a co-worker write you a letter. I think I'd go with your thesis supervisor. As a backup, many programs will allow you to go over the limit and submit a 4th letter. In that case, maybe you could have a professional letter as well, especially since you're applying to a professional program. I understand that your supervisor there wasn't the best person to ask for a letter, but I'm sure you understand that having a letter coming from a supervisor is much more influential than one from a co-worker (which is like having a friend recommend you). Is there no way of getting someone is some position of authority to write the letter? Or else, have an agreement with your boss that you write the letter and she signs it?

The kinds of letters that would be acceptable depends on the kind of program you're applying to. If it's a professional program, you can have more professional LORs and less academic ones. If it's a research-oriented one, they'll want more academic references. You also want letters with content that's relevant for the degree you're applying to so again it depends on what you did for work and the certificate and what you're applying to now. My guess would be, get the letter from the Certificate instructor. Get one from your boss at work, if you can. For the third letter, who can give you a strong letter that is relevant to the Masters? Maybe someone else at the Certificate program you took? Maybe it could be a general letter from someone at your undergrad institution? Maybe another letter from a supervisor at work? It's hard to know which is best without having more information.

Whoa, contacting deans and chairs for information about professors in your field? I'm not sure that would be appreciated by the dean or the professors. Look, it's August, people are out of town and may not answer their email promptly. Contacting deans seems like skipping like 5 steps in trying to find information about a professor, and doesn't even sound like a good 5th step. What do you expect the dean to do? Contact the professor and ask them to reply to your email? That will make you memorable for all the wrong reasons. If you can't find enough publications by these professor online (not even citations?) then maybe this is not a school that really fits your interests. If it was recommended to you by a professor, go back and ask them why and who to look at. Ask them to recommend papers. You could also try and contact the admin staff at the department to ask whether the prof has a website you didn't find, and then the DGS to say you're interested in the program - describe your interests and ask who might be a good fit for that. You can mention that you've been having a hard time finding information online. Keep in mind in doing all this that it's the summer and people could be slow. If you don't hear back from anyone I would stop trying for now, and resume about 2 weeks after the semester starts. By that time everyone will be back and not swamped with beginning-of-semester work. I also don't think it's terrible to mention people in your SOP who you didn't contact ahead of time, but that may be field-specific. I never contacted anyone so everyone I mentioned in all my SOPs (in the order of 20ish, total) were people I had no prior contact with. It didn't hurt me one bit. I went for 2-3 profs per department. If you have 3 profs, that sounds like a good number.

Oh man, what a terrible situation to be in, I sympathize with your anxiety! I don't have experience with anything like this but what I imagine I would do is consult my advisor and see what they say to do. I guess it really depends on how much influence this mistake has on the paper - even if you have to revise a section or omit it entirely, is there still an original claim in the paper that stands? I'd imagine that if so, then you still have a claim to a first-author paper. You might want to submit an errata, but the rest of the paper remains intact. Integrity would suggest that you should correct the mistake and that ignoring it is wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if many people would choose not to do that. If it's not large enough to affect the main point you're making, maybe it's a justified decision. The paper was published following peer review based on what you knew at the time, and things can change and improve. You'll correct the mistake and do better next time. In an event, you are definitely not the only person to have made a mistake that went to print. I can think of papers I've read recently that contain anything from small errors to large conceptual problems that in my opinion undermine the whole premise of the paper. I wish you luck -- will you come by to update us about what you decided to do?

Enough time has elapsed from the the expected notification date. You can legitimately email the conference organizers at this point and inquire about your submission. It won't be considered pushy at this point. Before you do that, though, does the conference have a website? If so, check and see if there is a program online or if they have an update about a possible notification date. Sometimes they will run late and other times somehow some rejected submissions might not hear back from organizers as quickly as accepted ones. If there is a program online and you're not on it, you know what that means.

What you are describing is your own program's policy. Policies change from institution to institution and even from program to program within the same institution. You need to consult with someone in your program (e.g. an administrator, an older student, the DGS, or your advisor) to get an answer to your question. There is absolutely no way for us to know.