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waddle

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Everything posted by waddle

  1. 1) What does one address a professor as in the US? An assistant professor? Here,in India we address them as Sir/Ma'am and when I was working in an American company (in India),everyone was on a first name basis. So I'm really confused. To be safe, "Dr. Awesome" or "Prof. Spamalot", unless they tell you otherwise. I'm not sure what the distinction between Assistant, Associate, Full Professors in India is, but in the U.S., they're all full-time faculty (but assistant professors and some associate professors--depending on the school's tenure system--are just not (yet) tenured) and thus should be given the respect accorded to professors. P.S. Never say "I want to work with Assistant Professor LeCool", that sounds pretty bad. Just "Dr." or "Prof." will suffice. 2) Also, how long is the phone call going to be? What is usually discussed? I know I need to be up to date with the professors research, but do I need to be in a position to state my research goal. If yes, how specific do I have to be? Depends, probably between 20 minutes to an hour. It's always different; they might ask you to tell a little bit about yourself, then they'll talk about what they do (or they'll just do this if they like to talk ... some people love talking on and on and on, all you really have to do is listen in that case), you can ask some questions and they'll talk a little more in depth, perhaps talk about the program and school, you get the picture. You don't really need to be able to propose a Ph.D. thesis topic, but just sound like you know in a general sense where you want to go with your research (e.g., "I want to model the impact of sulfur dioxide emissions on the climate" or something like that ... I'm not an atmospheric scientist so I can't really speak to what's considered a "general" area of research in that field) and with your degree. Basically don't say, "well, I want to go to grad school 'cause you know, that's cool and I don't really know what I want to do next, so you know, yeah." and you'll be OK. 3) How is it normally done? Does the professor call you, or do you call them? Over the phone?? or skype?? Ask them what's convenient for them, offer to provide them your phone number (or Skype name, since you're overseas, presumably). They'll probably call you, but just make sure with them beforehand.
  2. Just saw this about rock hammers: "It is also increasingly common to see authors put together a string of nouns to construct what they believe is a more educated or profound name for a very simple thing, such as a “single component rock sample acquisition system” (five nouns to mean rock hammer)." (from https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c10_p2.html)
  3. I tried a few different things and I think that pushing my schedule earlier works best for me (i.e., keeps me most energized during the day). I've been trying (on and off) to get up at 6 and take the first bus in to work at sunrise ~7 (early for me). I figure if I work a 10 hour day, with an hour for lunch, that puts me at 6 PM, which isn't too late that I get drowsy (plus I've got no windows in my office, so it doesn't matter that the sun sets at 4 unless I go outside), and the ground & air haven't cooled down that much so walking home is still doable.
  4. It's 11 PM. I'd just finished eating a late dinner. I decide to check my email once more. You know, just in case my advisor sent me something in the last two hours. "You have no new emails." I have no friends. (Props if you get the reference. ) Figure I might as well read a chapter in this book about programming before I go to sleep (I've been trying to learn to program so that I can move beyond Excel and actually make sense of my data). Get distracted and download & test a bunch of cool software only tangentially related to my work. Realize it's 3 AM and I didn't read that chapter. (Didn't feel too guilty about procrastinating on sleep at the time, as I'd just finished catching up a pile of work I'd neglected while I was out in the field, and needed to do something (relatively) mindless.) I read that chapter, set my alarm, and go to sleep after reading a couple of lines of a paper. Wake up to alarm at 9 AM. Hit the snooze button. (Except I didn't hit the snooze button. Somehow my half-asleep self managed to re-set my alarm to 12 midnight.) Wake up again. Hm, judging from the solar angle, it seems later than 10 AM. Look at clock. It's 11:30 AM. (!!!!!!) I just slept right through a research group meeting. Sit at my desk for an hour being discouraged & angry at myself. This is the second time this has happened. (I'd missed a class session earlier in the term due to oversleeping. That was three days after I'd gotten back from a long and sleep-depriving session of field work halfway across the world, so I didn't beat myself up too much for that, but vowed never to let that happen again. As you can see, I can't keep my own promises.) This was just ridiculous, unprofessional, and immature. I feel like an undergrad, except I don't think I've ever even missed things like this during undergrad because of sleeping in. I am so ashamed of myself and I feel like I deserve to be kicked out now. Ever since I started grad school a few months ago, I've been making unnecessary mistakes (usually because of bad decisions on my part) like this, in research, classes, and life in general. I'm not sure how I made it here, but I'm pretty sure I'm not doing anyone a favor (least of all myself) with these stupid, stupid screw-ups. P.S. I'm not sure why I posted this; I guess I just wanted to vent somewhere, and figured this would be the place to do it. Sorry to be a such a downer!
  5. Make sure to pack that rock hammer in your checked luggage and you'll be fine.
  6. I'll bite. What do you mean by "mostly computational/fieldwork"? Studying the Earth requires all sorts of techniques, in the lab, on the computer, on paper, and in the field. The methods you use depends on what you want to study, and what resources are available to you. I'm pretty sure that not much work in exoplanetary atmospheres requires going out and collecting samples, so I'm not sure what you're getting at here.
  7. Yes. All of this. Also bring a raincoat or an umbrella. It may be wet (it certainly was last year!). Also if you're shy, don't just camp out at the talks. Make sure to go to the poster sessions and just go up and talk to people, even random people whose posters/topics just look cool. (If you feel awkward talking to people you don't know, set yourself a goal of talking to the presenters of x # of posters a day.) Who knows? You might learn something(s). I sure did! Also, be sure to have fun! There are some great places to eat around (not in) Moscone ( ... though I think half of the attendees somehow end up at the Westfield mall for lunch; not sure what that says about geologists, but hey, food court food isn't half bad!).
  8. If "almost everywhere else" is biomedical sciences / cellular/molecular biology, then yeah.
  9. I would interpret it to mean that they have an RA position for at least one year. Because most NSF grants run for 3 years, RA funding from the same grant usually can't be guaranteed for more than three years in advance. If their grant runs out midway through your Ph.D. and they aren't able to get another one to fund you, and if the department doesn't guarantee funding (via TAships, etc.), then you might be out of luck (unless you have external funding of your own, like a fellowship).
  10. What makes you think these are less-reputed schools? I don't know specifically about Atmos/PO programs, but at least in the Earth sciences, Penn State and Stony Brook are very well-known and highly-regarded. I've seen quite a few professors who've come from the Ph.D. programs at those places, and besides, it's hard to get into academia anyways. (This also depends on where you want to go (R1 vs. a liberal arts college vs. teaching-oriented school, etc.) after graduating, but that's a different discussion.)
  11. Mike, just a heads up, in case you haven't considered it: The UC's are going through a period of low funding right now, and classes, instructor positions, and internal funding have been cut severely. This means that UCSD will have fewer openings for graduate students (less TA funding, and less internal funding), and funding may not be stable (I don't remember if Scripps guarantees funding, but it's worth looking into these days--you don't want to be caught without funding midway through your Ph.D.). It looks as if you're very qualified (and probably would be admitted to Scripps easily during normal years), but just be aware that if you are able to bring your own funding (via an external fellowship) to the school, you'll probably have a much greater chance of acceptance this year. Public schools in other states, and most private schools, are faring much better (relative to the UC's). Scripps is a great place, and I'm certainly not trying to imply that you shouldn't apply, but it's good to be aware of the financial situation that it might be in. (Feel free to PM me if you have questions you'd like to discuss.)
  12. FYI, this is the "Earth sciences" subforum. You may have posted in the wrong thread. But you're certainly welcome to hang out here!
  13. 8 applications is plenty--probably more than average. Only apply to a place if you would actually go there if they accepted you. If only your last pick accepted you, would you go there, or reapply next year? If the latter, don't even bother applying; it's just a waste of money. It's not a crime to be interested in more than one person's work! You haven't committed to them, nor have they committed to you yet. Think of it as a business deal--the contract doesn't come into effect until both parties have agreed on something. Feel free to explore--that's why you're applying to Ph.D. programs. You want to be cautious, too, just like them, so it shouldn't be a big deal if you talk with other professors. I made it clear that I didn't know exactly what I wanted to study yet, and I named a couple of professors in my SOP who I thought I would be interested in working with at each school. It doesn't mean that I've committed to working with them.
  14. That's more or less what I did, and I got responses from most (~75%?) professors/scientists I contacted. I also posted my CV on Academia.edu, and slipped a link into the part where I "tell them what I do currently"--as in something along the lines of "if you would like a little more background on these projects, please see my CV at LINK". Some of the professors actually looked at it, but not all/most. A couple of factors might be at play here. Perhaps they're hesitant to reply positively to an international student when they haven't seen the entire application (including scores, statement, etc.)? Or maybe they are just very busy (it is that time of year--everybody is trying to submit grant proposals/papers before the holidays and end of semester) and didn't have time to get back to you? Perhaps you would want to broaden some of your research interests--perhaps try emailing some of the more established faculty. Often, they have research projects in their mind or just getting started in their group that aren't necessarily reflected on their publications or website. This might be why you've only found assistant professors to have a good research fit with you--often it's the untenured faculty who actually have the updated websites, many older professors don't bother. Besides, it's good to have at least 2 faculty at each institution to which you apply who you'd want to work for, in case you actually end up there and something falls out with one of them. In my emails, I also sometimes asked the professors I contacted to suggest anybody else within that school with whom my research interests might fit, and with whom I might want to talk or work. Good luck!
  15. As to your first question, short answer: yes, assistant professors (fun fact: "junior faculty" might be more accurate than "assistant professor", since at some institutions, promotion to "associate" rank (a bump up in the pay scale) usually occurs before tenure) can accept students. Long answer: depends. New faculty may not have the political capital within the department to be able to recruit a student this year, especially if that would require the department to pony up money to support the student, given the financial situation of many U.S. institutions. It's near impossible to give you a good answer to your second question, without knowing how you've approached pre-admissions contacting of professors. It's a good idea to do it, but doing it the wrong way could kill your application. Maybe if you gave a little more detail we might be able to help? Good luck!
  16. waddle

    jerk academics

    Perhaps I should have phrased my post better. I meant to say that the smallness and permanency of an academic department--and the internal strife and in-fighting that can result as a result of interacting with the same 10 colleagues every day for 30 years--is something to consider when going into an academic career. I typed that post up in a bit of a rush, and somehow the message didn't come across as I'd intended. But thanks anyways for your advice, Sigaba! And yeah, probably a troll, but it doesn't really matter. Stuff like this will happen anyways, but it's probably a bit harder to get away from something like this as a tenure-track faculty member (as opposed to, e.g., working in a large company) without negative career impacts.
  17. waddle

    jerk academics

    Not sure if this story from the Chronicle is true or not, but it's really making me reconsider an academic career. Now, I know that (1) the vast majority of academics are not asshats, and are actually quite pleasant and fun people, and also that (2) there's bound to be a few bad eggs in every group of people--and that the tenure process could be nasty--, but I didn't realize that department politics could get so downright malicious. Just thought I'd share.
  18. Has anyone used Fitocracy? The "game" aspect of it sounds like a great motivator, but alas, I don't have an invite code so I haven't been able to try it.
  19. tomyum, I've been hitting many of the same problems you've been facing, and I'm just barely hanging on. Today, when lab work was going horrendously as usual, I started listing out each obstacle I've run into as a beginning grad student, and coming up with possible solutions for each--baby steps. It's wonderful how much support this forum provides! P.S. I've been lurking in the Earth Sci. forum but I think I'm going to get back to posting more-or-less regularly now. Do it!
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