fuzzylogician

Unless they flag you for administrative processing, you should get your passport with the visa stamp back within a few days following the interview. In that case having an interview in the last week of July should be fine. The main difficulty might be with logistics, if you want to wait with booking a flight and figuring out housing until after you have the visa so you're sure you can move. It's not impossible, but it might be somewhat stressful.

I've done this when I had someone I trusted see the place in person and take pictures or a video. It worked out, but there are obvious risks. There was always a reputable management company that I could read up on online, not just a private person. First time I signed electronically and gave the deposit when I arrived (I was overseas). More recently I signed electronically and mailed the deposit check and first month's rent.

You've most likely fallen in the Technology Alert List (TAL) trap. Nothing you can do about it now, though you can read about it online. Unfortunately it can take several months for the process to finish, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it but wait. You may have to miss the beginning of the semester, unless you're very lucky.

Congrats on the interview, and yes, definitely go. If they make you the offer, you can negotiate the start date. We're talking TT, right? That means it's a long-term investment, and they should be willing to wait for you for one term, especially when your materials also made it clear that you'll need it. Either way, it's good practice. If they do pick you, and they can't push the start date to a time that works for you, you can always decline. Better have that problem than turn down the interview before trying. As for vague questions.. I find that they are helpful because they allow you to steer the conversation in a direction that you're comfortable with. This was one piece of advice I got from a trusted advisor that took a while to figure out but I now think is extremely helpful: answer the question that you want to have been asked, not necessarily the one that you were asked. So take their question and work into the something that you are comfortable answering (obviously closely related, but find a way to bring out your strengths, even if they didn't precisely ask about them). Vague questions are good for that, because they allow you a lot of leeway to do that.

No such thing exists. Academia is a risky business. You'll need to (a) figure out the schools in your field that have a good placement record and are a good match for your interests, and (b) figure out their GRE requirements. Come back with questions about specific departments and you'll get better answers than anyone can give on your current vague question. (Overall, quant isn't going to be high on anyone's worries when choosing applicants, but beyond that it's hard to say anything specific.)

^ In addition, since your advisor seems to have some knowledge about this, if s/he has former students in the kinds of jobs you're looking for, ask them to put you in touch with those students. You can gain some first-hand insight and maybe those former students can help you get something in their company.

Caveat: an outside perspective. If you are fairly immobile, have a job, and are looking for a career move within the same location, I would imagine that having the right connections is even more important than having the official credentials. I would probably start from finding a way to become better known within the arts community in your town, to get to know the right people in the scene and to become friends with the decision makers. From there it's a matter or figuring out what credentials they are looking for in someone who is doing the job(s) you want. If it means a degree, that would be the time to do it. Otherwise, there might be other less expensive ways to stay in touch with the arts. Either way, I don't think that explaining your choice to return to school should be that hard, what you wrote above seems straightforward and honest and I suspect you're not the first one who's gone down this path. Being able to demonstrate your actions to get back into the scene and get involved should go a long way, together with being able to discuss concrete post-degree plans.

1. I wasn't assuming otherwise, just suggesting you keep this up. 1'. I (and a couple others) are trying to show you what the situation might look like from the professor's side, since you presented a fairly one-sided story. It may be hard for you to see the other side, and that's fair, but those of us with a bit more experience are trying to put it in perspective. You can take that as "taking her side" or simply providing context. 2. Her wanting to pick a publishable project is inconsistent with what you describe about project C, so I'm not sure what to make of this. Sounds like it'll be more work than you want to put in, though. That's fair, if that's what you decide, but she is within her rights to require a certain amount of work for what would count as a thesis she will pass. 3. No, the failure in communication started much earlier than this, that's my point above. She might easily think that she's already communicated that a couple of times and you're not understanding. But that's just a guess, since we don't have access to the correspondence and we weren't in the room when you had the conversation. 4. You are the one who brought up her tenure case with relation to a complaint. Of course you directly can't deny her tenure, but you have to know that negative complaints can't help her. Possible effects would obviously therefore range from "negligible" to "bad", but nothing good will happen. Venting is fine, but you should calm down before you make any further decisions. Even if you do decide a complaint is warranted, do it from a calm place.

Frankly, if the whole thing is 10 pages and you just want to be done, the best course of action is to suck it up and do what you're asked. Shouldn't take that long, and if you don't throw a tantrum she might still take you on and let you finish faster. This, though, points to what is probably a failure in communication: It seems to me that what she thought happened is that you brought up A and B, and she told you to do C instead. You, however, thought A and B were still on the table. You wrote a proposal for A. She said, please do C. You then wrote a proposal for B. So now I don't know why she hasn't responded to your emails, but from her perspective she might think she's dealing with a problem student who isn't responding to advice and is also being demanding at the same time. It sounds like you have two choices: you can do C and finish more quickly, even if it's less interesting to you (provided you don't blow this with inappropriate behavior toward her), or you can take more classes and drop the thesis option, even though it will take you longer. That's up to you. If you want to complain to someone, feel free, but I don't think you have grounds for a complaint here, based on the details you've given so far. And I think that going out of your way to hurt her tenure case is just wrong.

Now who's fighting straw men? We are trying to explain to you what things look like from the other side, and to provide some rationale for the professor's behavior. No one here (or anywhere, for that matter) claimed that there are no bad advisors. But in this particular case, we can easily see an explanation for the sequence of events the OP describes that doesn't involve malice, incompetence, or really any wrong-doing on the prof's end. I don't think this conversation is helping the OP at this point, so for me, at least, this is the last reply on this topic.

See here, for example. Some of us who have been on this site longer have actually helped OP with other questions in the past and remember their story.

Yeah, this is not uncommon at all. I don't think I had any contact with my program until about a week or so before the start of my first year. It was indeed anxiety inducing for someone like me (and, I would assume, you), who likes to plan ahead and know everything... but it's how they operate. I promise you, it'll all work out fine.

From the fact that the OP is working on their thesis proposal right now, it seems very clear that there isn't a finalized topic yet. I assume that what happened is that the prof agreed to serve as advisor on a general topic X, but there were still details left to be worked about concerning the precise research question within X that OP was going to work on (hence, "I mentioned 3 possibilities"). At this point, there is some guesswork that we've been doing because of missing details, but a general workflow would involve OP writing a proposal draft and receiving comments, revising based on aforementioned comments, rinse and repeat as often as necessary. OP doesn't discuss making revisions, so instead here they simply decided they didn't like the comments they received and felt that they steered them in a direction they didn't want to go. So far, so good, that happens. Now one of two things can happen. Either the two sides can come to an understanding and choose a topic that the advisor feels comfortable advising and the student is interested in, or the student can find another advisor who will agree to advise the project the student envisions. A professor is *not* obligated to advise just any topic a student wants to work on, even if there was an earlier expression of agreement to work with the student (advising means sometimes telling hard truths like "I don't think this is a productive avenue for research" or simply "I don't feel comfortable advising this topic" or "we don't seem like a good personality match"). Fields also vary widely in how much freedom students have in picking an independent topic, and I believe that OP is in a field with less freedom. So the bottom line is that either the OP can work their proposal into something the advisor supports, or they can move on. They seem to prefer the latter, which is fine, but from there to going after the professor and trying to damage her career there is a great (and unjustified) distance. @Eigen already covered everything I have to say about your opinions concerning what professor do and do not owe students, @lemondrop825. As someone who doesn't seem to have any experience with this, you have some very strong opinions. It might do you good to listen to posters here who actually work as professors and do advising work for their perspective on summer work.

As a general note of caution, advisors aren't always the best people to ask for advice for official program-related requirements. Some of them keep on top of changing curriculum requirements, but some don't. So as a first step, you should read up on requirements in the student handbook or online or wherever your program spells out timelines and requirements and familiarize yourself with them. As a second step, look up next year's schedule, there's a good chance it's already online and you can see who is teaching what when. It's pretty much guaranteed that that was already decided some time in the spring (fwiw I've already had my teaching for next spring decided! fall teaching and schedules were determined a couple of months ago). Then, while this may be something to discuss with your advisor, you may also get good results if you consult with the DGS. More generally, now may be the time to learn that your program doesn't get all that bent out of shape about coursework; they seem to think it's fine to figure that out in early fall, and that's actually not all that unusual. To the extent that you can choose what to take (in some programs the first year doesn't actually afford you that much freedom, if any), you just need to have some idea of what you want, and it'll all get sorted out on registration day, right before the semester starts. This is how things happened in my program and it was all perfectly fine.

From my experience things are very rarely as one-sided as you describe. I have no intention of helping you hurt someone's tenure case, so let me just mention a few things: - "She did not object" -- this one reads so wrong to me. She didn't say "yes, go ahead and do one of these"? What did she say? In some other contexts, we would be having a conversation right now about the meaning of consent. - "This summer, she left for abroad" ... " "She's an assistant professor and is always away on trips, giving talks, etc..." -- what's the problem here? It's the summer. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that just like at most other universities, she's paid 9 months of the year, but not over the summer. Investing in her career at this time is crucial. It's very common for professors be to less accessible over the summer and to cut down on advising and service (and there's no teaching) because they are not paid to do that over the summer. - "I mentioned this and never got any response from her again, be it email, Slack, whatever. I had to have her PhD student get my words through to her somehow." -- how long did you wait? Someone who is traveling might take a longer time to reply. See above about not getting paid to advise over the summer. Is this really as time-sensitive as you seem to think it is? Students I am working with, for example, understand that while they may work on proposals over the summer, I will be available to give more extensive feedback in the fall. - "Later I sent her a proposal and she rejected it. "" ... I'm so angry at the unequal relationship and utter disrespect she's shown by totally ignoring me..." --- first off, you should get this straight: the relationship is unequal. You are a trainee, not a peer. She is entirely within her rights to ask for changes to a proposal, including ones that may make you unhappy. As for the ignoring you part, see above. So my bottom line is this: you asked someone to advise you, and she took you on. You just started working on a proposal, not even agreeing on a topic yet. You wrote something up based on ideas you had that she had apparently not okayed and sent it to her. She read it and commented on it, but suggested a different topic. You objected in an email, which she hasn't responded to yet. Some unclear sequence of events transpired here, where you eventually had a PhD student contact her (we don't know how long you waited and if/how you followed up). Meanwhile, it's the summer, she is pre-tenure, traveling, and working on her case, most likely not even getting paid over the summer for advising-related activities. Now you want nothing more to do with her, and you're looking to harm her career. No, thank you.

Whenever I am asked one of those questions that I don't have experience with, my go-to strategy is to say something like "I don't have much personal experience with this but I have given this some thought, and here is what I think I would do/what I think is important in such a situation", and I try to bring it back to where I can speak with confidence. I don't think you want to justify anything, that's not a good approach. I think you want to acknowledge the truth of your situation and state it as fact, then show that you are a thoughtful candidate who can deal with all kinds of situations. A similar place where this may come up is "what is your experience advising undergrads/grad students/theses/dissertations/etc?" At some point as a young applicant, you will basically have no experience, and the committee will know that. So you just straightforwardly say "I haven't had the opportunity to advise [whatever], but based on my experience as an advisee, here is what I imagine my advising style will be (or: here is what I think matters most in an advisor)". Similarly if asked about teaching something you've never taught before, dealing with a difficult advising situation, etc. It's really about showing that you're a mature candidate who can do the job, more so than demonstrating that you've already done every aspect of it on some past occasion. For the diversity question, you want to say something about what you take diversity to be, why it is important, and how you can address it. It should be less about generalities, more about specifics. No one is going to say that diversity doesn't matter when asked that question, so just saying that won't teach the search committee anything interesting. It would be more helpful to describe *how* your courses can encourage critical thinking and *why* that is important for promoting diversity. If you've thought about how to promote participation from underrepresented student groups, talk about that here. Be specific and give details. Bonus points if you can give examples of things you've done as a TA or instructor that are relevant. This can be about selection of materials (is your syllabus a collection of works by white males or have you thought about inclusion?), about discussion topics, etc. There are lots of ways to bring it back to your comfort zone.

Sounds like languages are most likely just a hobby for you. Whether they look "impressive" on a CV is debatable and ultimately whether or not they will matter at all will depend on your career plans. If you want a career in a therapeutic field, Spanish sounds like a decent choice. Depending on your location, you might ask what other languages underserved communities speak, and that will vary by geographic location. Frankly, though, I would not choose a language based on some vague notion of prestige and I would not put too much stock in what it will do for your career if you're just self-taught and don't even have career plans at the moment. Treat it like what it is -- a hobby. Just go with what's the most fun for you right now.

Am I confused, or has that point not already been made and affirmed by others? Is there a limit of one point per thread no one's informed me about? What's your objection to me saying that people, in general, should consider having more than one go-to person, 70 or otherwise (the perils of working with someone who is close to retirement age having already been established)? I just don't see why you're objecting. Everyone can take from the conversation what they will.

My friend, I hope everything in life goes your way. But it's only wise to plan for eventualities that aren't really all the way out there. You really think no one gets sick, leaves the field, drops off the radar to take care of elderly parents in another state/country or to deal with a problematic marriage, spends time incommunicado in hospital with a sick child, takes their sabbatical very seriously and doesn't read email for a whole semester, etc? You indeed depend on your advisor for easily close to a decade, and if you think it's improbable that one or more of those things will happen over the course of a decade, I'll just say that three of the things I listed happened to my own advisors since I graduated, and none of the others are made up, they're all based on people I know. Shit happens.

More generally, though, remember this: young people get sick and die, too. It's important to have multiple relationships with people who might write you job letters. I know someone who had to leave academia because their advisor died. This student mostly worked with just this one person in a field where that's pretty normal (a PI leads a group, students collaborate with the PI and other group members, and occasionally with someone from another group). This PI was a big shot and had lots of connections, grant money, power; at the age of 46 they went in for routine surgery, and never came back. The student had their strongest letter taken away, and because they didn't have enough other strong connections, they basically lost their ability to be competitive on the job market. Long story short, instead of rebuilding and investing the not insubstantial amount of time it would take to generate new relationships and new strong letters, the student decided to leave for industry. Not how you want to make that decision, if you ask me. It's never wise to count too much on just one person, whoever they are.

There are no rules, you'll have to ask each individual person (and they may or may not be truthful with you, they don't owe you insight into their retirement plans!). There are obvious benefits to working with established researchers who can open doors for you. And there are potential dangers, like you mention -- they might become ill or leave the field, leaving you in the middle or your degree. Or even if you graduate, you continue to depend on your advisor for job letters for some time after you graduate, and it's good to be able to use their connections. If they're not active, that could be a problem. Then there are also obvious advantages and disadvantages to working with someone who is newer (and less experienced). One good compromise for me was co-advising, to get the benefits of young-and-energetic alongside old-and-wise.

This. Also, if it's not the same, the number for emergency/medical services on campus. I once had a student faint in class and the last thing you want to do is stand there and be confused and not know who to call.

Well, if you need to fulfill prereqs that you don't have and you've already finished your degree, there's not much else you can do than make those prereqs up by attending extra classes. You can explain the extra classes in your SOP, even spin it to show commitment. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about things you can't change.

There are ways of gently letting them know you didn't appreciate them missing a meeting. BUT, if this was an oversight or one-time thing (which can happen to anyone!), they would already be apologetic and probably don't need you to explain to them why it wasn't okay. If it's their modus operandi, it's unclear how much there is to gain from complaining to them. This is one of those situations where you have to realize that they have more power in the relationship and adjust accordingly, regardless of what's right. Some tricks that sometimes help manage the problem, though don't solve it -- don't be the first meeting after an absence from the office (in the morning, after teaching, etc). If they're already in their office for another meeting, you're likelier to find them there when you show up. If they postpone your meeting or make you wait a long time because the previous meeting ran long or whatever, find some other thing that needs to happen after your meeting (e.g. have another meeting!) so they can't assume anymore that you have free time or you're flexible and can wait (though this can backfire, so be careful. They may just cut your meeting time and not make it up!). If/when appropriate, have joint meetings with a third party that has some power in the relationship and is punctual or simply a superior. A flaky person can magically become un-flaky if they think they are being evaluated and there might be negative consequences. Sometimes just ccing someone else or making them aware of a commitment someone made to you is enough to get them to do what they said they would.

Why would they be random words? If you place your links correctly, you could have the link be the title of the presentation or publication, for example, and then it's perfectly clear what's going on. Or you could not have an underline at all but instead use a different color font to indicate the hyperlink, so when it's printed it's not a problem at all. In any event, beyond that I don't think there's much more insight anyone can give you. I assume some people (maybe most, these days) read everything on some electronic screen or other, but some may like to have printed copies to take notes on. The distribution of printers vs non-printers will vary by person/committee/institution and depends on the makeup of a particular committee at a particular point in time. It's down to personal preferences, not much more than that.