timuralp

The one thing I've found very true for myself is that no matter how busy you are in the first year, it is by far the year with the most free time -- you're not fully involved in research yet, not thinking of prelims/quals, proposal, making the next paper deadline. Make the first out of the first year in terms of exploring the town/city/surroundings and meeting people! It's a lot harder to make time for that later.

The one thing I've found very true for myself is that no matter how busy you are in the first year, it is by far the year with the most free time -- you're not fully involved in research yet, not thinking of prelims/quals, proposal, making the next paper deadline. Make the first out of the first year in terms of exploring the town/city/surroundings and meeting people! It's a lot harder to make time for that later.

The one thing I've found very true for myself is that no matter how busy you are in the first year, it is by far the year with the most free time -- you're not fully involved in research yet, not thinking of prelims/quals, proposal, making the next paper deadline. Make the first out of the first year in terms of exploring the town/city/surroundings and meeting people! It's a lot harder to make time for that later.

The one thing I've found very true for myself is that no matter how busy you are in the first year, it is by far the year with the most free time -- you're not fully involved in research yet, not thinking of prelims/quals, proposal, making the next paper deadline. Make the first out of the first year in terms of exploring the town/city/surroundings and meeting people! It's a lot harder to make time for that later.

The one thing I've found very true for myself is that no matter how busy you are in the first year, it is by far the year with the most free time -- you're not fully involved in research yet, not thinking of prelims/quals, proposal, making the next paper deadline. Make the first out of the first year in terms of exploring the town/city/surroundings and meeting people! It's a lot harder to make time for that later.

The one thing I've found very true for myself is that no matter how busy you are in the first year, it is by far the year with the most free time -- you're not fully involved in research yet, not thinking of prelims/quals, proposal, making the next paper deadline. Make the first out of the first year in terms of exploring the town/city/surroundings and meeting people! It's a lot harder to make time for that later.

The most common take I've heard is this: "If you're getting As, you're spending too much time on classes and not enough time on research."

Then again, make sure to fulfill all the requirements.

Well, this definitely derails the original thread, but I would argue the promise to take care of the pets is not a scam. If one subscribed to the notion that when the end comes, the believers are lifted and their pets may be left behind, it makes perfect sense to sign a contract with non-believers to take care of the pets for the remainder of the pets' short life. It would be a scam if the rapture occurred and the pets were not taken care off, but I'm not sure why selling "Rapture" insurance for the pets is a scam.

Well, this definitely derails the original thread, but I would argue the promise to take care of the pets is not a scam. If one subscribed to the notion that when the end comes, the believers are lifted and their pets may be left behind, it makes perfect sense to sign a contract with non-believers to take care of the pets for the remainder of the pets' short life. It would be a scam if the rapture occurred and the pets were not taken care off, but I'm not sure why selling "Rapture" insurance for the pets is a scam.

To answer the poster's question, yes. Your stipend is income and taxed as such, both at the state and federal level. First google hit about this issue from the IRS should answer all your question about the federal taxes. Check with the state about the state tax laws.

Withholding also depends on how you get paid. If you're getting paid from a fellowship, taxes will not be withheld and you will need to file estimated quarterly taxes. You may also need to file those with the state. There is also a penalty for not doing so (some percentage of the would've been collected tax). Finally, there is some leeway with that, as I think you get a break for some period of time if you transitioned from having the taxes withheld to not having that.

If you see that not enough or too much tax is being taken out, you can adjust it by submitting an updated W4 form and adjusting the allowances.

Ideally, students will have the foresight not simply to ask if one can write a letter of recommendation but if one can write them a strong letter of recommendation.

However, that's obviously not a commonplace occurrence. If i had a forgettable student ask for a letter, i think i would give them the benefit of the doubt and rather than flat-out refuse i would ask them to send me copies of their work and tell me more about why they want to pursue graduate study. I'm not arrogant enough to assume that if i can't remember a student that must be their error rather than mine--none of us is perfect.
If, on the other hand, the student just wasn't up to scratch (or it turned out that the forgettable student was forgettable for a reason), I'd tell them that it would be a bad idea for me to write a letter as it would not be a positive one and would certainly hinder their attempts to pursue graduate study. I would probably discourage them from applying altogether.

I think it would be pointlessly cruel not to make the student aware of the lay of the land in this respect, saying yes to all requests, however poor the student. The student's poor performance in your class is "punishment" enough for their lack of effort/ability; getting their hopes up and allowing them to spend hundreds of dollars on applications that will no doubt lead nowhere would be rather beyond the pale, i think.

So, what? How far would you take that "mission"? It is my duty now to lie in a LOR to enable a substandard, uncommitted student to get into grad school? Or to lie to a student, saying one thing ("i will write you a good letter") and doing another?

I think it's perfectly reasonable and indeed ethical to refuse to write a letter if you know it won't be a good one. And if the work they produced for you indicates that they won't do well in grad school--and, come on, grad school is not for everyone and it's not a holy grail--then i really think it's kind to tell them so. If it's a blip and they're acing their other classes, they can always ask their instructors in those classes to write letters instead.

Everyone must decide how much they're going to invest in their teaching. Given the mentors who taught me the craft of teaching, the choice was clear when it was my responsibility to stand in front of students. Nothing, not even preparing for a conference presentation and studying for qualifying exams, was more important than the undergraduates I was tasked to teach.

So I respectfully suggest an alternate set of questions.
How about telling students on the first day of class that, if they're going to need LoRs, they should to come to office hours and talk about ways to put themselves in position to get the best LoR possible?
How about re-enforcing this message in subsequent class meetings?
How about mentoring students so that they can take themselves and their coursework more seriously?
How about helping students to develop the skills they'll need to get into graduate school and to thrive when they get there?
How about showing that you're committed (rather than dedicated) to your students and their success?

In a previous post, you said something about arrogance. I ask you this. Is it a sign of humility that you assume you know what it takes to get admitted into a graduate program given the fact that you yourself are not yet a professor who makes these decisions?

Yes, you do have an ethical responsibility to disclose to a student that you cannot write a strong LoR. However, is it really your job to dissuade someone from applying to a program? In performing that task, whose interests are you really advancing? Yours or your students'?

FWIW, it's possible that the OP is referring to a different kind of situation—I taught mostly freshman during my MA, and several asked me for letters for local scholarships and the like, not grad school.


OP, my advice mirrors others' here: simply let the student know that it will be difficult for you to write a strong one at this point because of X, Y, and Z. (For example, "Well, I'm willing to, but at this point I can't say that I knew you very well because my attendance roster shows you were absent for half of our class meetings so far, and if you'll remember the feedback I gave you on your last essay draft, I feel like I haven't been seeing your best work so far.")

If you want to be kinder about it, you can tell the student what kind of performance it would take for you to consider the student having turned a new leaf ("I'll feel better able to write a strong letter if your next essay draft were really strong and your attendance improved"). Maybe that will have the dual benefit of allowing you to write the letter and also turn around the student's class performance.

I think that's less different than the real world than you might expect, depending on exactly where you work. If you're working a salaried (non-hourly) position, you're most likely not working strict 8-5 hours, but rather working as necessary to complete the projects on your plate. Add that to the fact that you may (or may not) be working only with people from your company, division, etc.... And scheduling times to work on projects gets even more important.

What I'd suggest is trying to find a "real world" solution- use shared dropbox folders to work on projects, send e-mails, IM, etc.... Rarely do you actually physically need to be together to work on a project. Meet up for 10-15 minutes after class and divide up the work, then meet for another 20-30 minutes before class to make sure it all fits together. With all of the online collaboration options that are available these days, you really shouldn't need to do the majority of the work in one place at one time.

A few things:
- try ssh -C for compression and see if the lag is better
- you can download stuff with wget if you know the URL (it can follow redirects)

You could also tunnel to an HTTP proxy if there is one setup at school.

Edit: Looks like the last suggestion is moot.

Compared to where, Europe? Tipping at restaurants and bars (not to mention for cab rides, deliveries, etc.) is customary all over the US. It is not just for exceptional service.


Anyone in the service industry makes a little over $2/hr. This is customary.


Now before you think I'm just attacking you, it sounds like this bar really does suck and the bartender may indeed be a dope who is just there to chase tail. In that case you give him (and by extension, the barback, food runner, and back of the house none of whose fault it is) his $1 and you leave. There are lots of bars that are not obnoxious and don't charge covers. It also helps to go during the week instead of on Friday and Saturday nights. Those are "amateur nights".


Well, then don't go out. If you can't pay, you can't play. I don't see why the bartender should have to pay (he has to tip out on his sales) to serve you; it's not his fault he got stuck with a cheap grad student (no one made you do it!) who gets paid to sit at a desk all day.

It's a free country and you can do what you want, but you shouldn't be surprised at getting a negative response nor should you be surprised if you get poor service when you don't pay for it. You can always get a 6-pack at the corner store if it's that big of a deal to you.

I wanted to clarify, in no way am I regular at any bars. I went to this said bar on 5 occasions my senior year of college, all on extremely busy nights. I understand they are told to serve girls first. As funny as it sounds, I was never a "repeat" customer in a night either so they couldn't even recognize me as the guy who doesn't tip. I only have 1 drink when I go out, and when I do need water, my girlfriend gets it... because she gets it quicker

Now on the other hand, if I was constantly getting drinks and the bartender was attentive, I think it'd be fair to tip. Especially with a running tab. But for my one drink that costs 6-7 dollars... I normally do not. I would like to note this specific bar (and all bars in the are) had a $5 cover for everyone. So my one drink was costing me $11-12 dollars. Probably helps my bitterness.

In NY, tipping is a much bigger deal than elsewhere. I personally do not tip if they're giving me a water (or a drink). I'm tipping them to pour something into a cup. That's ridiculous. I don't care what agreement they signed up for wage wise. I didn't force them to and I'm not going to tip them because the bar decided to give them a bad deal.

Maybe because I'm a guy I want to tip even less. Half the time, I'll be waiting 5 or more minutes in a crowded bar for my first drink because girls are served first, even if they just showed up. I'm not going to tip someone who doesn't respect me enough to take me in turn.

I'm sour about it. I don't have enough money to give to charity let alone a bar tender. I don't get tips for getting good grades or coding well.

Yeah, well, you know, that's, just, like, your opinion, man

One of the professors I had in undergrad wore an "I pwn n00bs" t-shirt to every exam. It was pretty entertaining.

One of the professors I had in undergrad wore an "I pwn n00bs" t-shirt to every exam. It was pretty entertaining.

Yeah, well, you know, that's, just, like, your opinion, man

One of the professors I had in undergrad wore an "I pwn n00bs" t-shirt to every exam. It was pretty entertaining.

Yeah, well, you know, that's, just, like, your opinion, man