mandarin.orange

Hi everyone, Just to follow up, this situation did resolve itself and my advisor supplemented my teaching assignment for the summer with a small fellowship. I waited to update until I actually saw the funds in my account. I didn't rule out that this would happen eventually, but I think the larger problem was that we (me + PI) went for a very long time -- many months and throughout the spring -- not on the same wavelength. Once PI officially transferred out of his admin position, finished his spring teaching (over)load and got thinking about fieldwork, our visiting students, incoming lab students, and long lab meetings, I brought up funding again. He merely asked how much I needed, what I would deliver in exchange for it, and off he went to talk to our senior dept. admin and it was done. I'm glad it worked out, but what a frustrating spring term. I'm a planner and project a budget months in advance. Rent is very expensive in this city, and first paycheck of the year is much delayed. So, I was worried, and kept applying for jobs, in the midst of working on quals, and teaching my own class. The part time work search was esp. time-consuming, stressful and frustrating, particularly making time for interviews to which I would never get a call back. I respect my PI, but he's often cagey and split personality about money like this (labmates will attest to this). It's only galvanized me to secure even more of my own funding next year. Finally, I want to give a big thanks to those who replied to my orig post. Most of you are long-time GradCafers and whose opinions I have really come to respect over the past 3-4 years. I cross-posted this on the C.H.E. forums, BTW, and got overwhelming response, in a completely different vein. Many were from professors who took the opportunity to school me on my financial irresponsibility, the unfairness of life, how I needed to switch advisors, that perhaps yes, I really should think about leaving academia as I am clearly oversensitive. It was...rather useless to my situation, but I guess quite illuminating in the end, as insight into how hardcore academics really think. Or at least, the type that spends (too much?) time over at The Chronicle.

Thanks for these replies...this was the first time since I've been here (3 years now) that, to my knowledge, a prospective came during summer. Usually my dept. waits until acceptances go out, then try to woo people at a really overplanned open house, and THEN I'll meet with/interact like this (usually at the urging of my advisor, at least for his potential students). After 3 years of much invested time with these prospectives -- already-accepted ones, mind you, many of which declined to come -- I am just in a more jaded place and protective of my time. So while I declined to take the time for a lab tour (largely b/c it's in another building and wasn't part of my plan for the day), I did mention a time and place this guy could catch me at the end of office hours. He came by and we had a brief chat; I was pretty frank about a few things -- his ill-timing (PIs are just not in the "woo students" mindset right now) and that I dislike current dept. leadership, but prospective PI (my advisor) is alright and probably his best match. Finally, I think it was here on Grad Cafe I once read of someone spending hundreds (or possibly a couple thousand?) in travel, making the rounds in summer for these types of visits. This only resulted in disappointment, lower bank balance, and the realization of how fruitless it all was. A lack of advice in some programs towards undergrads? Or people still think the approach of making college rounds during breaks/summer, as they did when high school students, is effective.

In a similar vein, how do y'all feel about this scenario -- plagiarism, or no? 1. Student who's been volunteering time in lab helping my analyses, or done research credits, wants letter of rec. 2. I ask for whatever cover letter/statement they're writing for he app, and latest CV. I suss out from student if it's internal thing that I can personally sign and rec will still have weight, or if it's something that should have PI's name (e.g. external internships, grad school app, REU, etc.) 3. I write the letter, which is pretty kickass with use of superlatives and referencing specific work ethic and specific accomplishments in lab, as well as highlighting other qualifications apparent on the CV. 4. If letter carries more weight to be from PI, I reformat onto univ letterhead and put all PI's contact info. I give to him to sign and submit, often following up with reminders (or, telling student to check in with him.) This has gotten to be pretty s. o p. in our lab. He's not around lab enough to know these students well, so the combo of specific letter + prominent professor in field's signature, optimizes the chances for the student.

Hi all, I wanted to ask those in the midst of the application process, or in the process of doing similar: of the schools you decided to apply to, did you do any visits before the application season and meet with P.I.s and current grads? Was this a strategy that guided your decision to apply? Did you do this during summer, and were people around and generous with their time? I ask because I received an email from one such prospective asking to meet during his campus visit in two days. However, so few profs and grads are around in the summer. Those of us who are, are absolutely swamped with research, writing, and teaching summer loads. This guy wanted a lab tour, and I had to say no. Our advisor won't be around to meet at all; he's off doing fieldwork. This request just strikes me as odd and last-minute. I want to say even ill-conceived, but would like other opinions before going that far.

Also: as a partition, perhaps IKEA's biggest modular unit rather than a screen? A friend has this in her studio apt.; I had a half-one and it holds a shit ton of stuff. It can serve as a base to ground one of their desks as well.

To save some money and situate myself very close to lab, I temporarily shared a 1-BD with another woman, where we each took a room. I had the living room. I bought this at IKEA -- slightly lofted bed. It's from their children's department. Only drawback is it's a twin size only, so I had to do the traveling/visiting to see my long-distance partner for those 4-5 months; he could not stay due to the size of the bed and the agreement I made with my roommate. There is a celestial-themed tent/cover you can purchase put over it. It was pretty cool...anyone who came over and saw the setup raved about it; it was like a little fort. For the space under the loft, I found that a certain size of IKEA's very popular and inexpensive modular bookcases just fit. It's here -- the 4x2 squares one, and you can get baskets, fabric drawers, etc. at IKEA too to make it entirely or partially like a dresser. I filled it with my books and kept it flush with the front of the bedframe. This left a small corridor behind for a ton of boxes, camping gear, and other storage. In my new apt, I ultimately kept the shelving unit. It's our entertainment center now and holds our DVD/cookbook collection. I also kept the twin mattress from the loft bed -- it was so comfortable and we can store it handily for our guests. I left the loft behind...once assembled, it was too wide for any door...but I sold it to the next incoming roommate for that apt.

Yes, it's expensive. Most folks in my lab group have one, and it really pushes the limits of the standard TA salary. Mine is paid off, and still difficult to afford. You could always rent cars as you need them your first year and see how it goes; a friend of our had long wanted to get a car this year, but found that renting as needed from Enterprise worked for her.

Hmm...guess I read once (long ago) that "thanks in advance" was passive-agressive, or implying there would not be enough time for a follow-up email after said thing was done to properly thank them. But I got that from a similar internet/article post like this (long ago), so who knows.

Well, I use it too, and I think support admin like this are quite used to starting/ending every email with some sort of nicety. Certainly it's better than "Thanks in advance."

Some Friday humor: "21 Things You Say In Work Emails, and What They Really Mean" #4 seems especially relevant to prospective students, looking for potential advisors...or current students, trying to court new collaborators. And #12 reminds me of the amazingly long and detailed "Signing your emails with 'Best'" thread here on Grad Cafe.

I agree, I don't think a "no-acad-LOR-writers EVER" policy is good advice, based on one extreme story you read online. 2 out of 3 of my LORs were from former supervisors, as I'd spent 7 years out of academia. And just like Vene, those were the folks that submitted quickly and on time. To the OP, this situation sucks and I'm sorry you are having to deal with it.

Thanks for this acknowledgement. I’m working hard and committed to this summer-in-residence, so it’s hard to hear the off-the-cuff comments in the group setting, like “Oh, I’ll light a fire under (new, incoming student) to finish his MA by tossing some funds his way.” Another grad told me an anecdote about how supported he felt by having my advisor on his committee, as he (advisor) just wrote him a personal check on the fly for a few hundred for conference funds. I can’t help but think there is something fundamentally wrong with my approach, because I have initiated this conversation so many times, with no results.

Thanks for the response. Yes, the summer class is a help; I seriously would be panicking by now if that wasn't helping to buy time until August. But after that, I will go rapidly into the red. In addition, I have debt from this past year's taxes, as well as the living expenses I had to take on last Oct due to that Nov 1 pay delay.

Third year into my PhD, it became apparent late winter/early spring that I was hosed on summer funding. I can't pay rent and expenses to be here, advancing on lab work, without a salary. I made the mistake of not asking more carefully/negotiating when I was newly-admitted student. For my first two summers, I applied for -- and got -- competitive fellowships at the university level. Now a candidate, I'm no longer eligible for these funds, plus it's unprecedented to get it 3x. Additionally, because of a university-wide pay structure with a substantial delay (first TA paycheck is Nov 1), I know these f'ships are not monetarily enough to bridge the gap anyway. I arranged a 1-on-1 meet with my advisor as soon as I knew this would be a problem (Feb). I had a budget and dollar amount of what I would need from June - Nov 1 to support myself, and be productive. He immediately expressed "no, I can't do that" right away, citing a cross-departmental move that he's making which starts Jul 1 (we've known about it) and how he's basically back to square 1 jump-starting new research funds. But, then he alluded to maybe some funds being available. I have since brought this up numerous times. I convinced my dept. to give me summer class that will be part time and cover my living expenses through August. But, there is still Sept-Oct to deal with. I've kept advisor up-to-date every step of the way, and politely inquired, and tried to be real, forthcoming, and transparent (with real $ amounts) about this. He's said things like, "Well, you had better hope that Labmate X and Labmate Y get their summer f'ships funded, so that there's money for you." In a lab meeting, he mentioned "there might be some money for someone to take the lead on new a, b, and c analyses." In a one-on-one meeting, "I don't want you to worry about eating cat food over the summer, haha." Labmate X and Y both got their fellowships. He still has not made me a concrete offer or brought it up in any way. In our last lab meeting, he polled us round-table to ask about our summer $ situations. I repeated the part-time summer class, but that there was still a gap to fill. He just moved on to the next person. Later, he was brainstorming out loud about "scraping together some funds" to bring an incoming, new student down earlier, before the school year, to work on lab stuff and help with fieldwork. So...wait, this person (with an incomplete MS thesis right now) gets priority?! I can't shake the feeling that this is game-playing and a deliberate keeping-his-cards-too-close strategy on his part. Is he paranoid about grads looking for a free lunch or something? He knows I'm a hard worker by this point. He's expressed wanting to motivate students to generate their own funding, but this seems too much. I see a few courses of action: 1) Arrange a 1-on-1 meeting, and ask One. Last. Time. about a research stipend. Lay out my plan of research that I want to accomplish. I should add that I have my own funds available (from society grants) for lab and fieldwork expenses, so I'm self-supporting in that regard, just can't use that money for salary. 2) Find more part time work (easier said than done...I have been trying!). Plus, there's working through how I will accept that this is going to be time away from lab and research, and put me behind. And, I suspect there will be backlash from him when he realizes I'm not in lab after all to give the odd lab tour, to supervise the next rando visiting student, to train the incoming grad student, etc. 3) Take out a student loan. And, feel no obligation to do anything except the labwork that's going to move along my research, or go stay with my partner for a few weeks and do my writing there. While it galls me to essentially occupy our lab "pro bono" and take on this debt, it does move along my progress to get out of here and graduate. My relationship with my advisor is generally workable and a good one. I respect him as a mentor and top scholar in our field. But, I cannot make any traction on this point. If he fails to fund me for part of this summer, I don't know how I'm going to work through some measure of long-lasting bitterness towards him.

LOL. I'm pretty sure there's a .gif for that.

Hooray!!

I think you've gotten great advice thus far -- particularly Fuzzy Logician's point to not just blast through it on your own and/or work in isolation, but keep checking in with advisor as you make progress, to identify what's s/he doesn't like and what could potentially slow you down. My advisor has recently expressed similar skepticism: was leery when I scheduled an earlier-than-ideal defense date (I did it anyway, and passed), and told me my publication timeline in my proposal was "too aggressive" and made me change it. It's only galvanized me to do it anyway better, faster, harder. Although now I wonder, was this a psychological trick...? And agreed, I've lost count of how often I see peers decide to "take another year" or "take another semester" for the sake of bettering their projects, to make up for getting behind, changing proposals entirely mid-stream, etc. Well, sometimes external reasons prevent that and we HAVE to be done, and on time, or just can't bear to be in school any longer.

Haw! Yes, we've had a visiting student, of mysterious origins, around lately. She's flouted basic lab safety a couple times, too.

Seriously: where are the cat pics? I showed you mine. Now show me yours. Otherwise I resort to going to reddit to get my cat-pic fix.

You're assuming the stress actually ends. So quals are done, yes...now it's just onto "publish or perish," no big deal, right...?

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a teacher who wouldn't appreciate this gesture, no matter how fuzzy their recollection of the student. I taught HS for 6 years (prob. 720 students total) before I threw in the towel w/ that as a viable career path. Whenever I hear I made an impact, however small or after-the-fact...well, that happens so rarely that it's HUGE.

So I passed my quals today! End of day email arrives, via univ admin: "Congrats, mandarin.orange! We will process your paperwork. And assess your $100 doctoral candidacy fee." SNEAKY BASTARDS.

To all the new kitty owners: I can haz pictures, plz?

It's $1425/month. From latest rates here. Dude. DUDE. Cost-wise, you can do so, SO much better than this. EDIT: actually, those were 2013-2014 rates. The 2014-2015 rates are more, and they are here.