cherrifaery

I'm a first (soon to be 2nd) year grad student, and I just finished my first paper as a grad student. When I handed my adviser a draft of my manuscript, the first thing they said was "Take my name off of it, I didn't have anything to do with this." While it is true that I came up with the project myself and did everything without their help, isn't it the norm to put your adviser's name as an author on your papers just because they are your adviser? That was the case where I went to undergrad, and seems to be the case with all the other profs in the department at my grad school... so I'm a little confused. To provide some background, my PI and I don't really have any relationship--I do what I want and periodically update her, and she doesn't really seem interested in getting any more involved. I'm mostly wondering if this is a snub because she doesnt like/disagrees with the paper or her backwards way of saying job well done. Isn't it usually harder to publish without a PI as an authour (in the sciences)???

No--I'm a first year phd student, and I was talking about my research adviser (at my university, we come in to work with a specific person, so from day one they are your research and academic adviser). So, the situation is really pretty bad. Is transferring even an option in grad school?

So I have an etiquette question. When I found out I didn't make honorable mention, I was pretty surprised. I went into it with great GRE scores (96th percentile verbal, decent math and essay scores, plus 98th percentile in my subject), reasonably good grades, several publications, great topic, alot of background in kind of an obscure interdisciplinary field... and (I thought) solid recommendations. So today I look at my review sheets, and I had three excellents and a good (from my 2 reviewers). Excellent merit, ideal broader impacts (outreach/women in math). And then I see the line "A reference indicated that this individual does not work well in teams. This is of major concern." And that was the source of my good (also the only negative on my review sheet). I know that one of my references (undergrad adviser) didn't write it, because he's written me letters before and really liked me (and I always worked in teams under him), which leaves either my graduate adviser or another professor. I really want to ask them if they wrote that, because why agree to write a rec. and then sabotage me? If it was the other professor fine, I'll keep it in mind and not ask them to write anything for me in the future, but if it was my ADVISER, what the hell do I do then? We already don't really get along--I haven't seen them since November, except briefly when I was signed up to give a departmental seminar (by my adviser), which they attended (but was to busy/didn't want to look at it before hand). My adviser really has no idea what exactly I do research on, hasn't asked me to work on any of their projects, and when I explain my project proposals or whatever, their eyes just glaze over and they go "I don't understand but fine, that sounds fine". I'm pretty sure I could say I was burning ants with a magnifying glass and they'd be like "Oh...ok." So, sabotaging me would pretty much be the straw that broke the camels back. So... is it ok to ask if they wrote that? And why? I'm really upset right now, but I don't want to make a mistake or cause some huge scene (especially since who ever wrote it apparently already thinks I don't play well with others).

When I try editing the html to get the awardees for 2008... all I get is a null pointer exception. What am I doing wrong here?

One of my friends is on the list, but I'm not. Either great or awful. I really wish that person had said how they got it though--I looked through the source code, and it seems pretty well hidden

This actually happened when I was applying to college too... Cornell accidentally sent out an email to everyone on their waitlist that they had been accepted. Then they were like oops, we sent the wrong email, you were rejected... but then it turned out that they had just sent it to everyone. I guess no one has figured out how to notify anyone of anything important via email without making it incredibly stressful, disappointing and confusing.

Ahhh NSF is evil. I think at this point theyre just making crap up to laugh at us. They are reading this message board going "Hmm... what can we do next?? TELL THEM THEY ALL LOST. AND THEN... tell them they won! And then tell them that we won't know until June, but in the meantime they can work on writing their proposals for next year!!!" ...grumble

Biology... Evolution.

I don't have anything posted... I guess this is bad news But I can still hope! NSF sucks. Also, I think everyone and their mom is trying to log into fastlane right now, since it took five minutes to load the home page without any images... also, my last name starts with an F. So extra bad news if its alphabetical.

At this point, I am totally having nightmares about when/if we ever find out... Luckily I have next year to apply too (given that my advisor's input on my grant proposal was "Uh, that looks ok I guess, I don't know. It should be fine. Its not like anyone actually wins that" I'm not feeling very optimistic). Hopefully being female and in a "trendy" field (biomathematics/evolutionary modelling) might help... or the reviewers will just be like "wtf is she talking about?". Do people usually find out from receiving an email notification, or do they post the list of winners on their website first? I wish this whole process was less opaque

I'm a UNC student, so I live in the same (general) area. NCSU is in Raleigh, so you should be able to find some affordable housing nearby. I know other people who are getting by with similarly small stipends. I would strongly recommend finding a roommate to cut your cost of living, and getting used to shopping at food lion. But, its entirely doable (especially if you don't have a car you have to worry about paying for--theres pretty good public transit). There are tons of students living on very small stipends in the area (Duke, UNC, and NCSU are all in pretty much the same area), so you won't be entirely alone. Where I live rent (for a 2 bedroom apt) is ~700 a month, and I spend about $200 a month on groceries. Utilities add on another hundred or so (we're in a severe drought here, so I'm a little afraid the price of water is going to increase... luckily its included in my rent). Is your stipend for year round work, or are you allowed to have a job over the summers? If you can work on the side, you can probably pick up a few thousand during summers etc. Since its the triangle, we have alot of companies that would hire CS students (SAS is a big one).

I applied... first year phd student in biology. But, since its biology, I'm going to say my chances are pretty damn slim (life sciences accounts for 30% of applicants and 27% of awards). Who knows when I'll hear back. Depending on who I've spoken with awards are either a crap shoot (the other girl in my lab got two honorable mentions in a row) or easy to get if you write what they want to hear. My adviser was on some panel about NSF merit criteria so she had some good pointers (who knew that the broader impacts were SO important...), but who knows. I hope more people post about whats going on!

Has anyone else applied to the ecology/evolution/behavior department at UT-Austin? I sent in my application back in december and still haven't heard anything! When I emailed them I was told that they are behind on admissions this year and "Your file has been circulated, and is awaiting final confirmation of sponsorship--if a professor has several applicants that s/he is interested in and only limited space available they will often wait until all or most of their applicants have been preliminarily accepted before making a final decision." What does that mean??? The admissions woman said they hoped to have everything done by the end of march... but that its out of her hands. I get the feeling I've been waitlisted and no one is telling me. Any thoughts?

My friend applied to harvard and ucla--i think for their cell and molecular biology tracks. She interviewed at UCLA but hasn't heard final word yet, and never heard anything from harvard

If you got interviews then you are probably at the top of their lists. Atleast for UNC, the one school that interviewed me before accepting me, I was told that if you're interviewing, you'll probably be accepted. They basically accept their top choices first, and then move down the list as people say no. Some students I spoke with were only accepted a few days before April 15. Those are great schools though!