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fuzzylogician

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Everything posted by fuzzylogician

  1. fuzzylogician
    1. Maybe, yes, but it's not that easy. Funding decisions are made some time in advance of a position opening, money isn't usually just sitting around. I would also say it depends on why you are losing your current funding and if you have your advisor and department's support or not. 2. Yes, he can help if he wants to. He is not obligated to. Again, why are you losing your current funding? 3. The ability to switch to a Masters depends on the school so that's something to find out department-internally (your department's secretary would probably know). And yes, there could be funding for that, but "finding some scholarship or something" isn't a thing that just happens. Again, it's not that easy to get funding. You need to talk to someone at your program who understands the situation, the DGS is a good choice, and maybe also the department chair. You also need to talk to the international students office to get exact details of what a change in funding status would mean for your status as a student.
  2. fuzzylogician
    Guys, if I may, I can't stop you from discussing whatever you want, but this is one of the more pointless conversations I've read in a while. Even if it is the same person, it's a new username without any of the history, and that should mean something. Why don't you give her the benefit of the doubt instead of coming up with elaborate conspiracy theories?
  3. fuzzylogician
    Here is an answer to an almost identical question from the other day: If I had to guess, if your GRE is already high, improving it will have diminishing returns. I don't know how low is low, but a low GPA could be a potential problem and there might be cutoffs that you are not making, so your application might get cut at an early stage. I don't know how likely that is for your field and particular schools. "Adding research experience" suggests that you already have experience, but the quantity and quality can make a big difference, as can LORs coming out of those experiences. Having strong LORs and a strong and detailed SOP based on past experiences will go a long way. Having a faculty advocate will too, and it's never a bad idea to have one. Since you have the time, that seems like an obvious thing to try. Can't hurt. If you try again, you could also choose some lower-ranked schools, but I think the real question is what your career goals are and where they can be best met. You need to choose schools based on fit more than anything else. Did you choose appropriate schools this time -- ones where there is at least one (preferably 2-3) PIs who can support your interests? Did you write a strong SOP that demonstrated exactly how the schools could support your interests? Also important: if going to a lower ranked school puts you out of the running for the jobs you'd like to have, then what's the point?
  4. fuzzylogician
    Don't send a thank you note, it's too late. Just email to follow up on the interview, reiterate your interest in the program, and ask if there is a decision in your case, and if not, if there is a timeline for when you might expect to have a decision.
  5. fuzzylogician
    Your question is incredibly vague. Why don't you start by telling us what your options are. Do you have professors who know you? Do you have a boss that can say good things about you? Have you done an internship or anything related to your field of study and have a superior who could write you a letter?
  6. fuzzylogician
    You might want to tell us what field you are in, otherwise this is impossible to answer. In general: summer schools will usually be advertised several months in advance to attract students. Some will also have fellowships you could apply for. If you want to visit some other institution, usually you will have to pay your own way, as they will likely not fly you out. You could always email out of the blue to ask, but I wouldn't count on that working. You might also have your advisor make the introductions, and then chances are higher that it could work. If you have the funds, you might write a professor to say that you're going to be in town during [dates] and would love to meet with him/her while there. As a young student, it's not too likely that more than that will happen. As you become better known, you might get invited, or someone might be interested in arranging for you to have a desk or other privileges at the host institution. Again, if your advisor is making the introductions, they might assist with these logistics. Beyond that, I don't have too many ideas. Maybe your home institution has funds that you could access for a semi-long summer visit, or your department might. Funding doesn't grow on trees and isn't easy to come by, and it's rarely just laying around waiting for random relatively unknown students to visit.
  7. fuzzylogician
    For starters, you can use a tax calculator. It's not going to be perfect because it doesn't take tax treaties into account, but it's a start. You can play with where the deduction comes in and see what it does to the numbers. I don't know which option is closer to the truth, but it at least gives you a ballpark. I don't think anyone here is in a position to give you any more detailed tax advice. As you say, it's complicated. https://www.calcxml.com/calculators/federal-income-tax-calculator http://us.thetaxcalculator.net/ (there are others you can compare, as well) *also btw, relevant information you didn't give us and is why all I can do is give you links: are you going to be paid over 9 months (I assume) or 12 months, or something else? What matters at the end of the day is how much you make *a year*.
  8. fuzzylogician
    You might want to say what field this is concerning.
  9. fuzzylogician
    Information about field might help here. Assuming the stipend from A is enough to live on reasonably well, even if it's not the best, i would probably choose A in this situation. Both because it has better outcomes for students in the long run, and because the vibe you got from school B is something that I would worry about quite a bit. That said, you didn't really say anything about how you got along with faculty and students at school A and whether students seem happy there, and that, to me, is an important factor.
  10. fuzzylogician
    You should ask professors who know you well and can say good things about you. Working in a professor's lab is one way to get that experience, but if that didn't happen for you, taking several classes and visiting office hours, TAing or RAing for them, or just being visible at department events are other ways to go. If by a "personal reference" you mean a letter from a friend or family member, that's a very bad idea. If you mean something else, please clarify.
  11. fuzzylogician
    I hope it went well!
  12. fuzzylogician
    If you didn't get comments from reviewers and make revisions to your manuscript, then it was not peer-reviewed. That much is clear. The fact that there is a ISSN and DOI doesn't mean much more than that it was published with a serial publication and has also appeared online. I would advise against using language that you'll regret later, when you're not this upset. Stay professional. You don't know who is reading your email, and you are in danger of making a bad impression that will cause you a lot more harm than having this paper online for a few more days. I also would not assume bad intent without proof. Incompetence is usually a much safer bet.
  13. fuzzylogician
    What field is this? At least in mine, publishing in a non-peer-reviewed conference proceedings doesn't affect your ability to submit the same work (or often, an expanded version of the paper based on the same work) to a journal. You should also check exactly what statements you made to the journal when you submitted the paper. Some might ask you to state that the paper hasn't been published in another peer-reviewed publication and isn't currently being reviewed, both of which are still true. If you said something about no version of it appearing anywhere online (which in my field isn't done, but maybe others are different), then best you can do is contact the proceedings organizers again and insist that they remove your paper as soon as possible. I don't think there is much more to do at this point. If anyone brings it up, you say it was published without your consent and removed as soon as you found out. I don't think there should be any repercussions of any kind, since you are being completely upfront and professional.
  14. fuzzylogician
    The goal of any research is to test some hypothesis about something (vague, given the vague nature of this entire conversation). If you're going to decide what the findings are before you do the study, what's the point of doing it in the first place? In this day and age, that seems highly unlikely, but if true, I assume you mean this in the narrowest sense. You can probably find articles asking similar questions, testing a similar population, etc. Those are papers to discuss in a lit review, as well as any theory papers that helped shape the hypothesis you are testing.
  15. fuzzylogician
    Given the vague nature of the question a guess: the professor is telling you not to come with preconceived assumptions about what the study is going to show. So, crucially, "you should not approach the data with pre-established themes." This doesn't mean that published works don't come with their own theoretical bent and interpretation (I'm actually not entirely sure what you mean by a "theme"), of course they do.
  16. fuzzylogician
    Realistically, professorship jobs in philosophy are hard to get, even in lower ranked institutions. There is no guarantee that you'll get one, even if you are the very best in your field, it really is that competitive. So going down a path that trains you only to become a university professor might set you up for a lot of heartache. That is something to keep in mind and be very realistic about. Now, you could still choose to do a PhD in philosophy, but I would do it keeping in mind that you might need to end up with other jobs. I would research what philosophy alums end up doing, if it's not an academic job, and I would ask myself if those seem like jobs you'd want to have. Some universities give out that information, if you do a little legwork. This is something that is definitely worth knowing. Once in school, I think you'd want to actively pursue opportunities to make yourself marketable outside the academic job market. So, take internships, courses or certificates that train you to do non-academic things of your choosing, go to networking events, and be very strategic about it. I am not necessarily telling you not to do a degree in philosophy (though, I do want to say that you should only do a funded degree!), but I do think you want to seriously think about the post-degree job prospects of your degree, beyond the university professor option.
  17. fuzzylogician
    I think it's worth a try, especially if you can get your current department's support. I think seeking funding is a completely legitimate reason to reapply, and if you explain it that way, you may get favorable results. Applying while you're already in school might raise a red flag that you're having difficulties adjusting or producing work at your current institution. If you can explain that this is about finances and you get your advisor to back you up on that and confirm that there is no problem academically, you'll be in a good position. You should be able to write a strong SOP, given the time you've spent developing your ideas in your current program, and that should be an important goal. Of course no one can predict anything, but I don't think you have anything to lose by trying.
  18. fuzzylogician
    Two ideas: First, just do it. Write a lot, at any level. Keep a blog or a diary. The experience of writing a lot will teach you at least something about what works or doesn't and how to put your ideas on paper. Second, use the resources at your school. I assume you have been getting feedback on your writing from your advisor. Go over it carefully. See if you can identify themes in the comments, and maybe even have a meeting with your advisor specifically about writing to ask if there are specific pointers s/he can give you. With new drafts, use your university's writing center, if one exists. Also try to set up a peer process -- maybe there is a fellow student around who can help you edit your work, and you can help them by commenting on their papers as well. That's actually a very useful resource to have, even if you don't need help specifically with editing. It's always good to have someone around who is willing to read your work who isn't your advisor.
  19. fuzzylogician
    This is something that you should really consult with your international students office about. If you have to get a new I-20 then you can't enter on your new status more than 30 days before the start date on that I-20. I think the change of level is different and should allow you to travel whenever you want, so you should be able to come back early. BUT again, don't just trust anonymous people on an internet forum, ask someone who really knows. You should probably be traveling on your new I-20 anyway so you need to get it before you travel. Ask the people at your school what they recommend.
  20. fuzzylogician
    I am also not clear on what is happening. The main question I have for you is this: do you (or can you) have documentation that she is copying your work? That would be the first step to addressing this problem: make sure you can prove that it's your work, not someone else's. If we're talking about something as obvious as someone copy-pasting your older posts, I have to assume that the professor will notice eventually. If you both discussed the topic together and then posted similar ideas, I don't think you get to be upset at all, she is not copying from you anymore than you are copying from her. If you're sharing notes with her, stop doing that. I don't know how else she will have access to your work. Generally you should not allow random other people to have access to your research output, so this is a good lesson in that. Now, assuming you have proof, what to do is a question that's up to you. I don't think that bringing this to the professor's attention should cause you any trouble, but if this is your friend maybe the first step is to talk to her in private and tell her you know what she's doing and ask her to stop. Maybe offer to help if you know she's going through a difficult time, though of course you are not obligated to do that. Or you can choose to let it go if we're talking about a vague accusation that you don't have the evidence to support.
  21. fuzzylogician
    I think self-funding a PhD is a terrible idea and should not be done. I think it makes a lot of sense to reapply and attend a school that will offer you support. My main concern for you is that this year's application season is basically over, so you would be applying in roughly January 2017 to begin a new program in September 2017, so that's another year and a half you'd be spending in your current program. Once you're that far into the program, it might actually make it a lot more difficult to start over, both in terms of the investment you will have already made in your current program and because I know at least some programs that don't want to take students who are already far along in a PhD program at another school and would rather instead take someone who is untrained but shows potential and work with them.
  22. fuzzylogician
    This is entirely up to the department. I would venture a guess that most departments would not do this for applicants, unless they were very near the top of the pool, and there was someone who was specifically arguing in their favor . There is no sense in which getting "general" feedback makes any sense, I don't even know what you mean by that. The only feedback you want from departments is specifically as it pertains to your application and how it compared to those of admitted applicants. Now, it is possible that there was one thing that clearly stood out (very low scores, glaringly bad letter, no faculty to support your interests, etc) but most likely it's not that simple. It's probably a collection of smaller things that made the application overall less impressive than others. To give you a detailed response, someone will have to re-read your application and identify exactly what made it less competitive, and I bet that's first of all not easy to do, and second of all not something that departments would necessarily want to do, because it might give up too much of the inner workings of the process. There are also external factors that they may not want to share with you, like how many other applicants applied in your specialty, how much money they have this year, who among the faculty is taking new students and how many, etc. This is not an exact science, and schools don't want to get sued.
  23. fuzzylogician
    What field are we talking about? What degree? Usually it would be wise to have at least two academic references, and it sounds like you already have another professional reference (assuming your supervisor is your boss, not a professor). I'm also not entirely sure how a letter from someone who is not in a position to evaluate you or even see you work is all that helpful, especially if it's someone who hasn't even met you more than a couple of times. What are your other options? I am guessing that there is more context that you are not giving us, but without it I'm really not sure what more to say.
  24. fuzzylogician
    Nope, I don't really use it. But I would venture a guess that I do use other field-specific constructions that you might not find outside my field with quite the same frequency. They come from the writings of influential scholars, and I don't find it weird or surprising. Every field has its own lingo, and these expressions are just one part of it.
  25. fuzzylogician
    I think the GRE should not be on your mind right now at all. You need to figure out what you want to do with your life, as a first step, and that might take a while because I think rising_star makes a very good point that you need to be in a better place occupationally before you can really afford to think this through and make a decision. Once you have a better grasp of your long-term goal, then you can break it up into more actionable goals, including taking the GRE, if necessary. But first you need to do such things as decide what kind of job you want to have post-degree, where you might want to live, what schools will give you the best chances of getting there, and what requirements they have of applicants. If at that point it becomes clear that the GRE is required, then you study for it and take it. But I don't think this is something that should happen until a lot more of the actual thinking and planning has happened, and that could take a while.
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