fuzzylogician

I have once, when forced to use Word, created a LaTeX document filled only with \citep{blah} for each of my bib file references, generated the bibliography, then copy-pasted it into my Word document. Silly, but saved me a lot of time.

Some links to past discussions:

That is a good point that they have there. Why are you applying to American programs is your research is incompatible with theirs? It doesn't matter how strong you are, if they can't support your research, they won't admit you. And if that is the case, then whatever else you might think, your SOP is not strong.

Listen, if you have actually presented seven high quality different pieces of work and published three times and have a strong SOP and a strong writing sample and at least decent LORs, then there is not much that we can tell you other than that you should get in, and you should keep trying. I repeat my thoughts that eleven presentations is too many and that undergraduate journals aren't what you should target with your work.

Does "participate" mean "present" or just "show up and sit in the audience"? The former will count for something, the latter not so much. Honestly, 11 conferences at stage sounds like way too much. Five a year is not something that even seasoned researchers will do on a regular basis (caveats apply). There is no way you have enough original work to present so many times, so I assume you just go to conferences to hang out. You can meet people this way and that's not bad, but that's going to have only so much influence on your grad school applications if your actual application isn't impressive. Publications in undergraduate journals will likewise not count for much. Having one is fine, but pursuing multiple such publications really sounds like a waste of time. You'd do much better to have just one project on a level that would be more appropriate for graduate school. That should lead to a good writing sample, at least one strong LOR and to an ability to write a strong SOP. I notice you haven't said anything about those components of your application. If I had to bet, I would say therein lies the problem, and that is where you should spend your time for the next application cycle.

^ Oh, I agree with @Sigaba. In case that wasn't clear from my previous post. I think the chances of you explicitly asking something like "Is Prof X abusive/sexist/whatever" and getting a straight answer are slim to none, unless there has been a well-known publicized incident involving X to point to. This is true regardless of whether X is a wonderful person or someone to stay away from. This is not something many people would want to share with someone who is virtually a stranger, even if they know that this stranger might step into a difficult situation that they are either in or have recently extricated themselves from. Instead, the type of questions that might get useful answers are ones about the general atmosphere in the department and the university as a whole, and questions about the personality and advising style of X that are fairly generic. You listen both to what is said and what is not. What is not said will teach you just as much, if not more, than what is. You can also learn a lot from finding out who X's recent graduates are. Are there patterns? E.g., are they all men? Are there none in the past 5 years? Did they all leave academia? Do many of them leave with a MA even though they were originally PhD students? This doesn't tell you anything about sexist behavior, but it'd raise some obvious red flags.

You can ask. Whether you'll get a straightforward answer will depend on the individuals involved and is not guaranteed. There are some behaviors that are easy to classify as overt sexism and you might hear about one way or the other, but beyond that what you really want to know about are the micro-aggressions and implicit biases that might affect your life. This is much more difficult to put into words and is more about how students feel in the presence of a particular advisor and how they perceive their relationship with the person and department, their treatment more generally, etc. This is the kind of thing that you'll have to ask verbally, not in writing. Even if there is egregious behavior going on, it's unlikely that students will want to put it in writing and send it to someone they have never met (or only met very briefly). If you can talk to the students in person, preferably in an off-campus setting, that is your best option. Otherwise, a Skype conversation is your next best bet. You will want to be careful with how you phrase the question and only do it after you have established some connection with the student (and even then, only if you get the sense that they might be open to talking about this issue), and you will want to watch out both for what students tell you and what they don't, their body language, etc. I do think it's worth a try, because this could be a major influence on your life, and not a happy one. but keep in mind that it may not be easy to get an answer.

Talking to your co-authors is a good idea. I agree that you should not stand in the way of the paper getting published, so give your co-authors access to any data you have and answer their questions about methods or whatever else they need from you and can't take care of themselves. But beyond that, it seems that the utility you will get out of this paper is fairly limited, and it'd be best to distance yourself from your advisor as much as possible. If the revisions are minor and easy to make, maybe you could consider doing them quickly. But it'd probably be easier to move down the author list to a position where you have already done enough and no one is counting on you for more, or remove yourself from the list altogether.

Follow the graduate college's advice. If it were me I probably would have already contacted your supervisor several weeks ago to ask for an update or when I could expect one. At this point in the season, you are well within your rights to ask for an update and it shouldn't be weird at all. If the weirdness that you're worried about is getting rejected, you'll just have to get over that. That became an option as soon as you applied. You'll have to find out at some point, and it's better to know than to be kept in the dark. Your not knowing won't change the school's opinion of you; that has already been decided. All it'll change is your anxiety level.

Well that certainly changes things. Yeah, then I don't think you have any obligation to him, you are done and you should get as far away from him as fast as you can. It doesn't sound like a salvageable relationship and there is nothing for you to gain. I'd write him a very respectful email (ccing other co-authors for good measure) letting him know that you have moved on from the MA to your new PhD program, and that since this won't leave you enough time to work on the paper, you have decided to withdraw your name from the submission. Thank him for everything (even if you don't think you have anything to be thankful for), and keep it very polite. I doubt his response will be kind, but you can just get it over with.

xykademiqz has some discussions of publishing with students who have graduated. I don't think her relationship with her students is anything like yours. The gist, I think, is that students sometimes stop contributing to papers once they have graduated, and she finds it very frustrating. The situations she describes are usually different in that the relevant students are ones that go into industry and don't care about their publication record. Yours is different because presumably you want to maintain good relations as much as possible and add to your publications. Despite what you describe about your advisor, I wonder how bad the situation really is, given that you got into a PhD program. I assume your advisor wrote you a letter, and it couldn't have been that bad. I wonder if dropping out of this paper will harm your relationship even further, or help maintain it, or make no difference. I have no idea about expectations in your field so I'll wait for others on that, but in general my feeling is that it's worth your time to make a good faith effort to make the revisions if they are reasonable and should lead to a successful publication in order to keep the peace more than anything else. I don't know if this is a contractual obligation (it's probably not, since you're not getting paid anymore), but a lot of our obligations to colleagues aren't contractual, and yet we do them anyway.

This happens sometimes. Obviously, they think you have a chance, or they wouldn't refer your file to the other program's admissions committee or tell you that they think you have a good chance. Exactly how much of a chance, no one here can tell you. The fact that they told you not to submit additional information would suggest that they feel confident that they can make a decision without this information, which would tend to suggest a positive outcome. If I had to bet I'd say you have a fair shot at it, but of course I only have partial information and could be wrong. Either way, I don't think there is anything that anyone here can do for you, other than to say that if you are interested, tell them to go ahead with the process, and I'm sure you'll hear soon enough, one way or the other. Good luck!

Don't you think it would help if you gave us such information as what school and program this is in reference to, and perhaps which particular course, if relevant? Otherwise how could we possibly help? Given the very specific nature of your request, have you tried emailing more advanced students in your program to ask about their experience, help with questions, etc? There is a much greater chance of success if you simply email the people who are in a position to help you than if you post on an anonymous board that caters to all fields, degrees, etc and hope that someone from your program just happen to read your question. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if people would be willing to share such information in a private exchange but would not be as willing to post about it publicly.

I mean an automated way. As I said, I am a LaTeX user, and I can't imagine generating my own bibliographies. I'm in a less footnote-heavy field than (I think) you are, so I know less about that. LaTeX gives me more flexibility using footnotes than Word does, but I'm not entirely sure how Word compares to Docs there. Generally speaking, though, I'd worry about putting my work on a platform that says that anything I put on it is fair game for it to use.

I use LaTeX + dropbox. Occasionally if I am forced, I will use Word. If you are worried about collaborations, find out what your potential collaborators are using. Otherwise, my instinct is that Docs is probably not a good way to go for academic papers. There isn't a straightforward way to handle bibliographies or footnotes and then there is the ownership problem. Dropbox gives me access to my documents anywhere that I need them, although really I only work on papers either on my office computer or my laptop, so all I need is those two to be synced.

Your goal is to present yourself to the adcom in the most favorable and appealing way, so they flag you as a definite admit. So of course you want to talk about all of your recent experience and everything you've done to improve your profile in the past several years. But there is no point that I can see to explicitly discussing failures. That just won't advance your case. They will be able to see for themselves that you graduated X time ago and didn't go to grad school immediately, and they'll see that you've done some relevant work to improve your application. They may guess that you tried to apply before and were denied or they may not. Either way, it doesn't really matter. What matters is what you are doing now and how you'll fit into their program. So tl;dr: discuss successes, don't dwell on failures, unless it's short, to the point, and drives home a message about a further success.

First off, I don't think your situation is as out of the ordinary as you might think, unfortunately. If this is an interview for a F1 visa, you should only be required to show funding for your first year, although you might be asked about how you plan to fund the rest of the degree. I don't know if you'll be asked why you weren't offered funding by the department but if so I think it's fair to say that you don't know and you didn't receive feedback from the department on the issue. I think you should expect to be asked how you plan to finance your education and perhaps why it's worth the debt to get this particular degree. I think it's fair for you to say that you plan to apply for additional funding opportunities once there, and that you have a reasonable expectation that something will work out. But, in addition, you have inquired and you'll be able to leave with a Masters if you can't find this additional support (assuming that you can show that you can self-fund the Masters, which I assume you can, or you should not be going in the first place). I think this shows that you have a plan and are responsible, both of which should work in your favor, not against you, in my opinion. Beyond that, I don't see what else you can say, but assuming that you can show that you can self-fund (=so you can show that you won't work or do anything else illegal while in the US) and that this is a degree that's worth the expense (=it's a real degree, not a visa-mill, and you really want/need it for your future career plans), I think you should be ok. Disclaimer: I am not an immigration expert, and this is just my personal opinion.

I think you're fine, don't worry about it. Especially as a younger student (undergrad or prospective student), formality is perfectly fine; I posted this in Officially Grads for a reason, undergrads who don't know the professor can never go wrong emailing "Dr/Prof LastName". But once you are more advanced, everyone usually uses first names. I've on occasion been told to email e.g. Bob, who is a friend of my advisor's but I didn't know, and found it weird too. I can't remember what I would do (I probably didn't have a consistent policy and just went with what felt less odd in the moment). I am sure either choice would not have caused any problems.

Definitely not rude. Some of this also depends on the norms in your field. In mine, everyone is at a first pass "Dear FirstName" (even if you don't know them and they are quite famous) and often after the first email or two "Hi FirstName", but sometimes some people continue writing "Dear XXX" throughout the correspondence. The only people who might write "Dear Dr. LastName" are office administrators or others who aren't linguists. No one (other than students...) would write "Hey XXX" to a professor and probably not to a graduate student either, unless they were also a friend. I know other fields are different, so it's a little difficult to give advice, other than to follow the other person's lead if you're not sure. Staying formal may be a little tone-deaf, especially if you continue doing it despite what the other side might consider obvious hints, but it definitely shouldn't be interpreted as rude.

This. There is a good chance that as long as you can officially graduate before your program begins, you will be alright. But none of us can promise you that; you need to talk with your department and clarify matters right away (or: as soon as you actually know you've failed).

If the assistant continued signing their full name and stayed formal, you should have followed their lead and used similar language. If you have reason to continue to correspond with this person, you might try to find a way to stay more formal. I think the use of their first name is fine, but I probably would have said "Dear XXX" instead of "Hey XXX" and kept the rest more formal, too. That said, I don't think this is a huge problem that should forever haunt your dreams. Just take this as a learning opportunity and in the future try to pay closer attention to the kind of language people use with you in emails. More generally, when in doubt, it's always better to err on the side of too formal than too casual.

Two thoughts: 1. If this is common in your lab, how do others list it? I'm sure you're not the first person to run into this question. I'm sure others outside your lab have faced this problem and solved it, too. It's gotta be a known issue. Look at other people's CVs for the answer, or ask your advisor. 2. Your CV aside, your advisor will describe your role in obtaining the grant in his/her letter, and that will count for a lot, regardless of the actual wording of the line on your CV. You could build on it when you interview and when you are ready to design your first post-PhD project. This is where the fact that you did the writing will shine through, and especially in interviews, this will make all the difference. So, short version, I think you just find out what others do and do the same, and then you don't worry about it beyond that.

Whether or not you want to tell this story to your committee depends on your relationship with them. Do you think they'll be supportive and understanding, or are you concerned that their impression of you might change? If you don't know them well enough or you're concerned, you might do better to discuss this in a one-on-one conversation with just one of your committee members who you feel the most comfortable with. That said, I can confirm that the problem of participation in seminars is definitely not limited to first-generation non-traditional students. It's actually pretty common. I can guarantee you that the other students in the class, who you perceive as fast on their feet and more knowledgeable than you, are stressing out about their performance just as much as you are, and comparing themselves to you and not liking what they see. It happens to everyone. @Cheshire_Cat gives good advice on how to deal with this: setting manageable goals is a very good way to start. At first it may seem forced, and in fact you may actually want to prepare a comment or two ahead of time, if that's an option, but with time it'll become more natural, until eventually you'll stop even thinking about it. Same will go for teaching, conference presentations, asking questions at conferences, interviewing, etc. It may not come naturally at first, but with time and practice, you can most definitely do it.

This is your life. You should do what you think is right for you. Don't commit to attending a 5-year PhD program in the US, and presumably therefore a different career path, if you would rather be in the UK, just because the timing worked out a certain way. The only thing I would advise is to be very sure, and to do it quickly, if you are going to tell Cornell you've changed your mind. If you are professional and respectful, hopefully this should not burn any bridges for you.

Bottom line is, you probably are getting at least some of the busy work that the professor doesn't want to do, that's what they have RAs for! I don't know why that's cause for paranoia. If you're getting paid and need the money, or you will learn a useful skill, or you'll get co-authorship and it'll boost your CV, those are good reasons to take the offer. Who cares why the other RA isn't getting this. Suppose they are being "saved" for more prestigious projects, how does that affect your choices? The only relevant question is whether the offer you have in front of you is something you want. Playing what-if with imaginary projects someone else might get almost never helps anyone.