fuzzylogician

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1047

All I can say is that at my PhD institution and at my current institution students are not even allowed to give one lecture (as a TA/visiting lecturer) unsupervised. They are certainly not allowed to be instructor of record for any class. At another institution I was a postdoc at, advanced students (3rd year+) were sometimes asked to teach the large all-purpose intro, but I don't think anyone's ever been asked to teach a graduate course. So at least from my own experience, this is fairly unusual.

I don't know your field but in mine it's usually not that helpful to reach out to professors before the deadline, and I don't think there would be any benefit to reaching out after, unless there is an actual reason to do so (like, you're trying to obtain a paper of theirs that's not available online). Emailing to introduce yourself and say you're interested in the professor's work won't do you much good at this point in the process, it's too late for that. I wouldn't email anyone at this point.

I'm confused at this point about which one is the "first professor" and which one is the "second professor", so ignoring those labels: If you think the letter you'll get will strengthen your application compared to not having it at all, it stands to reason to add it when possible. Otherwise, assuming that the professor you don't want a letter from anymore is the one who essentially said that he'll be writing stronger letters for other people, you might reply to say thank you and that his reply made you realize that you might be able to find someone else who knows you better and could write a better letter than [original prof], so you'll ask them but you thank [original prof] for his willingness to help. As long as you're polite, I doubt this person should be offended. He's going to be happy not to have to do this extra work, and will appreciate knowing that sooner rather than later.

It probably depends on the field. In mine, it doesn't matter at all if you're looking to stay in academia (applying for grad school or an academic job). People will definitely look at your academic website, and if you have one, your researchgate or academia.edu page, but I don't think anyone I know even has a linkedin page. Things might be different in other fields, and they are definitely different if you're looking to get into industry.

^As others have said, the best approach is to email right away, and keep the initial request very brief. You don't need to apologize too profusely, either. I would simply ask for a letter to support your application to Awesome U, and acknowledge the short timeline to submission. You might say you just recently discovered this one or that you're sorry you didn't email her sooner, but you would truly appreciate her support of your application. Offer to send any materials that would help her write a strong letter on your behalf, including your CV, SOP, writing sample, and bullet-point list of what you think could be included in the letter, but don't send any of those things along with the first email. If you get a positive reply, that's when you send them (hopefully, soon after you get the reply!), otherwise, you thank her for considering your request and say you understand that it was short notice and may not have left her enough time to write the letter. The first step though is to just send the email, and not to worry about it too much. You aren't going to be the first (or last) person to ask for a letter last-minute. (FWIW I am about to email 3 people to ask for a letter due in 5 days, and while I feel bad about that, I know that they'll understand that this suddenly came up, and they'll still want to help; I also expect that at least one of them will probably submit late, and that's fine too.)

Both options are possible, it depends on the school. If they interview only those people they are unsure about, they're most likely to do so via Skype/phone. If they bring people in to campus, most likely they'll invite everyone. Some interviews may be pre-acceptance but really only to make sure the people the department is about to accept seem sane; some interviews may truly be used to weed people out. And some are post-acceptance, and are really more of a recruitment device. In short: it depends.

Done (though I'm not sure your post should really be here).

If you've already submitted the application, let it go. If you're still working on it, I would edit the text to add the relevant citation, if it's not too much work. There is no way for the professor to know when you wrote your text, so it'd be good to avoid anything that he could interpret as you missing a relevant citation.

It would probably be advisable to talk about your trajectory. Why do you want to pursue this PhD, and how does this current Masters fit (and other studies) into the bigger picture? I think that an adcom is likely to want to see that you are committed and that you understand what you are getting into. If you seem like your interests are all over the place or you can't articulate why you want the PhD, that would be cause for concern. As for whether this Masters is a waste of time, it depends on why you're doing it. It doesn't sound immediately related to your PhD course of studies, so in that sense it won't help. On the other hand, maybe your particular research questions or interests are somehow relevant, or maybe there is another reason why you're doing it that makes sense, but I can't tell what it is.

It means you're in some database now that you've applied. It doesn't mean anything beyond that.

Someone who did no work whatsoever would most likely get an F. That has little bearing on how you should interpret a B. No one here is going to be able to answer your questions for you. Grading policies are a part of a particular department's culture, and you should address your questions to your department. One option is to ask more advanced students how to interpret a B or a C, or if they know anything in particular about Prof X's grading policy. Another, more direct, option is to simply meet with the professor and ask them how to understand the grade that you go. And if you're interested -- what you should/could have done to get a better grade.

My (male) PhD advisors never have, but my (female) postdoc advisor did on occasion, though not often. I, too, am not big on physical contact, so this is fine with me. I have also been hugged on occasion by other professors and colleagues. And yes, this happens much more frequently at conferences than at other places, and that intuitively makes sense to me. You see a lot of friends and acquaintances at a conference and you're usually in a meet-people-mode, so you might be more inclined to be friendly and more personal with someone that otherwise. I would take that to be the reason you went from handshake to hug.

A thesis counts as research experience. You don't need to make "excuses" for why you don't have publications or presentations; most applicants won't. The question at the end of the day will be if you can write about your experience in a detailed way and if you can leverage it into a discussion of your interests in general, why they are important, and why school X is the place to be to study them.

Assuming that you're applying for PhD programs in the States, your grades are good enough and not something you need to worry about. The question will be if you have research experience and can write a strong SOP, and what your writing sample and LORs look like.

They might, if they're curious. I don't think anyone here can tell you anything more definitive than that. It simply depends on the individuals reading your applications.

I basically did only what was required for credit, and I sat in or officially audited several other classes. I also took two years of language courses just for fun, for credit because they wouldn't let me take them as an auditor. I don't think anyone minded, as long as I was doing alright on my research and keeping up with my other obligations. My advisor wasn't really the type to worry about official requirements.

Since the deadline is more than 10 days away, it's entirely possible that your letter is not a high priority right now, given all the other things that your professors will have on their agenda right around now. Also keep in mind that there is some grace period for letters and professors know this, and sometimes use it, much to students' anxiety. But all this means that at the moment there is absolutely no reason to panic. You could email your professors about a week out and say something like "Hi Prof., I just wanted to remind you that the deadline for my application to School X is [date]. Please let me know if there is any information I can provide to assist you in writing the LOR. Thank you again for your time and for supporting my application! -me". I wouldn't send this right now because I'm sure that coming back from the break they are digging through lots of things that are already in their mailbox. In a few days they might be much freer. In any event, a week before the deadline is a good time to send a reminder, and if you don't hear back you could email again 1-2 days out.

I would strongly advise against using a "hook" unless you are absolutely certain it works. And since you are soliciting advice online and asking for example sentences, I doubt that you have that certainty. In that case, it might be a much safer bet to start with something like your research interests - straight and to the point. (I generally almost never think hooks are a good idea; the quote/statistic/joke/fact don't teach me anything about you as a candidate, and that's what I'm reading the SOP for. Tell me about yourself, not about some random unrelated fact.)

That's pretty poor design on their part.. but I'm sure the data is there and they can restore it. Mod moment: please don't cross-post the same question multiple times. I've deleted the other post you made.

Wow. Just to be clear, this is NOT acceptable behavior if you don't know FOR A FACT that the professor is okay with this. If I had a student do this to me, I would probably refuse to write any more letters for them in the future or have any contact with them whatsoever. I think I would also strongly consider withdrawing my support for whatever I was supposed to be writing for them. That is disturbing behavior, to say the least, and not something I could honestly recommend others to accept.

A first step is to have some familiarity with each program you're applying to, and at the very least that requires knowing something about the structure of the program - what courses you have to take, what other requirements exist, what professors you might want to work with. You can't write a good SOP (and for that matter, choose schools that are a good fit for your needs) if you don't know at least that much.

What do you want to study during your degree? What questions interest you? Are there particular skills you'd like to pick up? Are there particular classes you'd like to take? Anything at a different department or school? If your studies may involve fieldwork or travel, do you have thoughts about that? This is a pretty standard question.

What you are describing is exactly what I am suggesting. I'm not sure what you are imagining I mean by "pool expenses", but in any event the idea is simply that you go on one large trip and have different schools cover different portions of the expenses (that would include the international flight, domestic travel, and accommodations, at least).

1. Yes. Covering the cost of the flight entails getting you there and back. 2. Get a normal (return) ticket, this should be fine. You could let them know that you're combining the visit to that school with a few other visits to save on costs, and you're having the schools you're visiting share the expenses. This is fairly routine, especially for international students. Costs are too prohibitive (not to mention that the whole thing is time-consuming) to make multiple trips for interviews.