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IRdreams

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  1. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to SOG25 in Why Mostly PhDs and Not JDs in University Political Science Faculties?   
    bobcatpolisci1,

    I think you make some interesting points, but suffice it to say that every professor/teacher is different. I don't think you would suggest that even every PhD would teach an intro to government class the way David Canon teaches his class. Some professors may incorporate more "current events" than others, some might take a more dialectic approach, while others will exclusively lecture on the debates and issues within the political literature. If the goal of liberal arts education (e.g. political science) is to challenge students into how to think and not what to think, this is not accomplished by simply filling students' heads with myriad (dare I say made up) theories. A more effective 'higher education' pedagogy requires a more balanced approach of lecturing on these various topics, with some theories, while also challenging students to interact, engage and offer their perspectives on various topics; this is where a JD, trained and experienced in the socratic approach, is particuarly effective. Then, the student who wishes to be further immersed in the theories and debates has the texts and grad school to immerse himself or herself according to his/her individual interest.

    With regard to the questions raised during each topic/section of an intro to government course, I have no doubt that JDs are more than competent to discuss and teach concepts such as voting behavior of the electorate (e.g. "donkey voters") or actors within institutions, or the cirumstanes leading to congressional committees delegating discretionary authority to administrative agencies (again, check out an administrative law course), or interest groups, iron triangle, power clusters, etc, etc. I will say though, some of the topics you suggest are discussed in intro to government are actually more likely found in grad school, not an intro to American government course. For example, "how do we measure the ideological preferences of SC justices, and how do their ideologies affect voting patters over time (not as obvious as you'd think, and all based on research done by political scientists)?"

    Now, unless you are arguing, and can show, that 1) every PhD political science professor focuses on the same approach and theories as Dr. Canon in their intro to government course, and 2) that 'one cannot be considered truly educated about political science unless taught in the same approach', then I don't think any of your points change my argument; I'd also venture to say you'd end up insulting the vast majority of political science grads. The simple fact is that all political science students, across the various insitutions of higher learning, are not taught exactly the same way or the exact same theories, even when taught exclusively by PhDs who are not Dr. Canon.

    A JD, as a result of the law school curriculum and electives, will certainly be competent to teach the system/institutions of American government (e.g. its Congress, Constitution, Federal Structure, Legislative Process, Courts, Interest Groups/Administrative State, Parties, etc) and can certainly teach the essentials of government to undergraduates.

    Additionally, I don't think I suggested a JD can teach these courses or topics "better" than a PhD, as that is a subjective determination. That is to say, one student might prefer how a certain JD professor teaches intro to government over how a certain PhD professor teaches the same course, and vice versa. Thanks for the challenging and insightful thoughts.


  2. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from singlecell in Buyng a bed online?   
    So I purchased a serta mattress at overstock for a good price. Delivery was 2-3 dollars and they set up in my first floor walkup. I also purchased a bedframe from Ethan Allen online with good results. I will note that most online sites are very deceptive about the materials of their "wood furniture." For example, "Solid Wood" often means hard wood solids...aka particle board. So if you are buying the frame from a less respected source it would likely be best to go for the metal options. Again, overstock has quite a few as do their competitors. If you just want the mattress, the best thing do to would to buy that online and wait to peruse craigslist for a frame since these are always on there in substantial numbers and for a fraction of the cost of new furniture. Furniture is a lot like a car; it depreciates quickly. Good luck.
  3. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to Bison_PhD in How bad is a C in grad school?   
    I found this description in a psychology graduate student handbook at a highly regarded public institution. Hope it helps.

    "Work in Graded Courses. The standards are:
    A+ Distinguished (rare: one student in three or four years).
    A Outstanding.
    A- Superior.
    B+ Typical and solid performance.
    B Competent, but a little below expectations.
    B- Weakness (a message to the student that s/he needs to perform at a higher level if a Ph.D. is the goal).
    C Failure (not at graduate level).
    IN Incomplete."
  4. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to switch in Snarky Professors....... How long to put up with them?   
    This is why Bernard Madoff ripped off so many people, why there was a financial crisis, why there was Enron. It was "smart" to ignore the lies, duplicity, dishonesty, fraud, manipulation, bullying to keep your job. There is so much fraud and dishonesty in these professions because people like you think it's "sophisticated" to keep quiet when you see clear fraud and bullying.
  5. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to switch in Snarky Professors....... How long to put up with them?   
    If you don't understand the key term in this hypothetical, then why are you answering my question? Sharing your ignorance is less valuable than you think.

    It is sad that students are so pre-professional that when they hear of dishonesty and bullying in academia their response is to look the other way. This is why Enron and the financial crisis happened. The people who knew something was wrong did nothing.
  6. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to crazyabout in Intense Fear of rejection invade your every thought   
    MIT Neuroscience grad program phd. can i get in?
    i will have 3.3 overall and 3.3 neuro gpa when i apply and have 3 yrs of research, but all at my small private liberal arts college
    i am involved in various activities:

    bio honor society----treasurer
    neuroscience club----i co-founded it
    i presented at 3 conferences my research---but the conferences were either at my own college or a near-by one
    i am working on a brain book for kids with my neuro professor, but it wont be published when i apply at mit, but i have been working on it for about 2 yrs now
    i am peer reviewer for an undergrad neuro research journal (impulse, if uve heard of it)
    president of amnesty internaitonal at my school for 3 yrs

    so, do i stand a chance of getting into mit, what about yale or harvard??

    thanks,
    be brutally honest
  7. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to Brad Miller in Which topic to choose for Research Proposal section of NSF GRFP   
    So I intend to start grad school this fall in Physics. I did two research projects as an undergrad but they were both related to condensed matter (CM)/materials science. At the school I got admitted to, students get admitted by research group so the school is less flexible than others in letting students switch their research topics. In fact, if I were to switch my interests and do research in Astronomy, the dept would not guarantee me funding. To be exact, I would get funding this Fall semester no matter what. But if I want to do research in Astronomy by spring 2012 but not another research area (ie CM), then I can't get a Physics TA, unless the dept has the resources, which is no guarantee given the budget cuts
    However, these past few months I have spent quite some time reading the scientific literature and I know alot more about the research in Astronomy but not nearly as much in condensed matter. I intend to apply for the NSF GRFP fellowship program for this upcoming fall. I heard that for the Research Proposal section of the essay, I need to have read alot about the research area I intend to talk about. So in that case, I feel more comfortable talking about Astronomy. But OTOH, I heard you should 'show, not tell'. In that case, I have much more actual research experience in materials sci than astronomy since I have NO prior resaerch experience in Astronomy. BUT, one of the Astronomy professors at my upcoming school was insistent on me coming to his school and has offered to talk to me through Skpye, from now until fall '11, as a way to talk to me as if I attended his group meetings.

    Which subject should I talk about in the Research Proposal section? Should I just do the research proposal in condensed matter/materials sci, so that way if I win the fellowship I can switch to Astro if I want to anyways? And thus just spend alot of time now reading the scientific literature in CM/mat sci? Or spend my time now talking to that Astro prof through skype, build a relationship with him so he can write me a LOR for the fellowship, and submit my research proposal in Astro, even though I wouldn't have had any Astro research experience at the time I submit the app? Also, a recent grad student of that Astro prof actually won the NSF fellowship a few years ago.
  8. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to Brad Miller in Which topic to choose for Research Proposal section of NSF GRFP   
    I should also mention that I was interested in another prof's research in lasers (not really related to CM/mat sci) at my upcoming school. I could start doing research with him this fall and write about that for the Research Proposal. But if I win the NSF fellowship, theres a fairly strong chance I would want to switch to doing research in Astro instead. Would that look really bad on me and would he frown on it, if I got a paid RA position with him for spring 2012 just to leave him after getting the NSF fellowship?
  9. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to lyonessrampant in Anyone else sometimes feel terribly unsuccessful?   
    I feel like this sometimes too. I think we all do. I went through a small bout of depression about this a while back. I'm older to be starting a Ph.D. program (though not with teens! I so admire the second poster's story!!!), and through, well, just life and personal situations took 5 years to get my (multiple) BAs, then a year off, then an MA, then three years off, and I'll start my Ph.D. next fall. I have been involved in speech and debate for, well, over a decade, and some of the people I competed with (my own age) from high school are already doctors and have beautiful houses and lots of money. Some of the people I competed with in college got into the very top programs in their fields, even though I feel I am as strong of a candidate (may just be ego , and, both worse and great, some of the kids I've coached when they were in high school went to fabulous schools and will be at the same point on the academic track as me. At the same time, I'm enormously proud of them! Anyway, I've come to the realization that we all take our time to get where we want to be. Some people maybe "luck out" (or work or whatever) and get there faster. Some of us learn lots of other lessons along the way and have other "life" experiences that perhaps these younger success stories don't have. Anyway, try to find things you've done that you're proud about, things that aren't easily quantifiable on Facebook or something. I have an amazing partner and he, in many ways, is my success story (that sounds lame and antifeminist but I don't mean it like that). We have a great dog, I have amazing friends, I get to work with great students, I've climbed Kilimanjaro, I've had amazing travel experiences, etc. These things aren't tangible so much as "I held office at a young age. I graduated from Harvard. I make $250 K a year, etc." BUT these individual experiences, in my opinion, do as much if not more than those other things to make life meaningful. Remind yourself why you're lucky, what you've loved about your life, and it will give you more energy to start your Ph.D., work through it voraciously, and continue to succeed in your life (at least that's what I've been doing). Best of luck!
  10. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to Strangefox in James Franco is Pissing Me Off   
    May be those who are modest and decent people?
  11. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from cashlesschemist in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    I really have to agree with the competition advice concerning your cohort. As a direct from undergrad, my first year was fairly difficult because I placed a bunch of added stress on my self when I thought about students who had masters or life experience. The former I even took to calling "false first years." A lot of grad school in the first year is learning how to play the game which experienced grad students will simply be better at. This does not reflect poorly on your aptitude if you are playing catch up in this arena...3 years on there is rarely substantial differences between undergrad admits and others.

    Taking criticism also resonated with me. It is hard. For many people, grades have been a source of self validation. In grad school, they suddenly become fairly meaningless in a lot of programs. At the same time, the actual critical reflection of your work goes substantially up. I still have to remind my self not be defensive during q/a during a presentation. My advice here is probably of a narrow focus, but I think if you are an externally motivated individual (ie gauge your self worth by the views of others) grad school will be an important place do develop more of an internal focus and it will also be a place of a lot of hard knocks...but they might be good for the soul.

    Department politics: I'm still bad at this. My first year I didn't think there was a lot of distention in the department. My second year: I see it everywhere. Be very mindful when Professors ask you about their peers as it is hard to be certain of their motives especially if you do not fully grasp your department's politics.
  12. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from Purled in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    So I brought up department politics originally partially because I have been recently embroiled in a bit of quagmire. My general advice on this topic reflects what has been said earlier: listen more than you speak. The hard part of this advice though is that professors are also keenly trying to scope out their peers. Thus they may ask you point blank questions about so-and-so and some experience they know you are having. I'm a heart on my sleeve person and have a problem lying/being diplomatic if asked a point blank question about say the professor I am TAing for who is all sorts of awful because he should have retired 10years ago. I still do not have a good solution for how to get out of these situations where someone is specifically pumping you for gossip. In my case, it is also hard because it is primarily my research adviser who does this and politely shutting down the conversation can create other issues. I think the best tactic is to give evasive answers from day 1 so that you will not be viewed as a go to source of information by professors on their colleagues.

    My horror story: Said elderly gentlemen had the bad habit of saying incredibly sexists and racist remarks during his undergrad lecture. One of the other TAs mentioned this to a younger faculty member who then called me into his/her office and asked me to be involved in a complaint about this colleague to the department chair. While I think the comments created a hostile environment, I definitely did not want to be involved in potentially forcibly retiring a very prominent academic within my field. As you can imagine, it created a sticky situation that I would not have even had to think about if I had just suffered the TA experience in silence.
  13. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from amam in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    I really have to agree with the competition advice concerning your cohort. As a direct from undergrad, my first year was fairly difficult because I placed a bunch of added stress on my self when I thought about students who had masters or life experience. The former I even took to calling "false first years." A lot of grad school in the first year is learning how to play the game which experienced grad students will simply be better at. This does not reflect poorly on your aptitude if you are playing catch up in this arena...3 years on there is rarely substantial differences between undergrad admits and others.

    Taking criticism also resonated with me. It is hard. For many people, grades have been a source of self validation. In grad school, they suddenly become fairly meaningless in a lot of programs. At the same time, the actual critical reflection of your work goes substantially up. I still have to remind my self not be defensive during q/a during a presentation. My advice here is probably of a narrow focus, but I think if you are an externally motivated individual (ie gauge your self worth by the views of others) grad school will be an important place do develop more of an internal focus and it will also be a place of a lot of hard knocks...but they might be good for the soul.

    Department politics: I'm still bad at this. My first year I didn't think there was a lot of distention in the department. My second year: I see it everywhere. Be very mindful when Professors ask you about their peers as it is hard to be certain of their motives especially if you do not fully grasp your department's politics.
  14. Downvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from Alyanumbers in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    So I brought up department politics originally partially because I have been recently embroiled in a bit of quagmire. My general advice on this topic reflects what has been said earlier: listen more than you speak. The hard part of this advice though is that professors are also keenly trying to scope out their peers. Thus they may ask you point blank questions about so-and-so and some experience they know you are having. I'm a heart on my sleeve person and have a problem lying/being diplomatic if asked a point blank question about say the professor I am TAing for who is all sorts of awful because he should have retired 10years ago. I still do not have a good solution for how to get out of these situations where someone is specifically pumping you for gossip. In my case, it is also hard because it is primarily my research adviser who does this and politely shutting down the conversation can create other issues. I think the best tactic is to give evasive answers from day 1 so that you will not be viewed as a go to source of information by professors on their colleagues.

    My horror story: Said elderly gentlemen had the bad habit of saying incredibly sexists and racist remarks during his undergrad lecture. One of the other TAs mentioned this to a younger faculty member who then called me into his/her office and asked me to be involved in a complaint about this colleague to the department chair. While I think the comments created a hostile environment, I definitely did not want to be involved in potentially forcibly retiring a very prominent academic within my field. As you can imagine, it created a sticky situation that I would not have even had to think about if I had just suffered the TA experience in silence.
  15. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from rising_star in advisor leaving univ, forcing me to tag along   
    I'm not in the sciences so my opinion might not count, but I would never move with an adviser who was moving down the rankings. In my field if you are at a school in the top 25 or so, you have as reasonable a chance at Academic placement as can be hoped. However, the placement rankings for the 26th and below schools drop below 4%. First and foremost you owe yourself the best chance at securing a reasonable job in the future which moving would seem to preclude if your field follows a similar pattern.

    Furthermore, on the adviser's guilt trip tactics: I actually find his argument rather ridiculous and underhanded. Again, you owe him nothing. Graduate students are notoriously underpaid. He received your services for several years at a low rate and it sounds like he got a lot out of the interaction. Even if he paid you out of his grant, the work you did for that pay is ALL he is due. One of the downsides of academia is that graduate students are often taken advantage of, especially due to our relative lack of information about academia. First and foremost, programs need RAs and TAs and they need more of these than they need young Professors so already grad school is set up somewhat like a ponzi scheme. While some programs are honorable in how they address these realities of the profession, others are not due to a fear that they would lose much wanted labor. My suspicion is that your advisers tactics fall within this deplorable tradition.
  16. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from fluffy in advisor leaving univ, forcing me to tag along   
    I'm not in the sciences so my opinion might not count, but I would never move with an adviser who was moving down the rankings. In my field if you are at a school in the top 25 or so, you have as reasonable a chance at Academic placement as can be hoped. However, the placement rankings for the 26th and below schools drop below 4%. First and foremost you owe yourself the best chance at securing a reasonable job in the future which moving would seem to preclude if your field follows a similar pattern.

    Furthermore, on the adviser's guilt trip tactics: I actually find his argument rather ridiculous and underhanded. Again, you owe him nothing. Graduate students are notoriously underpaid. He received your services for several years at a low rate and it sounds like he got a lot out of the interaction. Even if he paid you out of his grant, the work you did for that pay is ALL he is due. One of the downsides of academia is that graduate students are often taken advantage of, especially due to our relative lack of information about academia. First and foremost, programs need RAs and TAs and they need more of these than they need young Professors so already grad school is set up somewhat like a ponzi scheme. While some programs are honorable in how they address these realities of the profession, others are not due to a fear that they would lose much wanted labor. My suspicion is that your advisers tactics fall within this deplorable tradition.
  17. Downvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from Eigen in advisor leaving univ, forcing me to tag along   
    I'm not in the sciences so my opinion might not count, but I would never move with an adviser who was moving down the rankings. In my field if you are at a school in the top 25 or so, you have as reasonable a chance at Academic placement as can be hoped. However, the placement rankings for the 26th and below schools drop below 4%. First and foremost you owe yourself the best chance at securing a reasonable job in the future which moving would seem to preclude if your field follows a similar pattern.

    Furthermore, on the adviser's guilt trip tactics: I actually find his argument rather ridiculous and underhanded. Again, you owe him nothing. Graduate students are notoriously underpaid. He received your services for several years at a low rate and it sounds like he got a lot out of the interaction. Even if he paid you out of his grant, the work you did for that pay is ALL he is due. One of the downsides of academia is that graduate students are often taken advantage of, especially due to our relative lack of information about academia. First and foremost, programs need RAs and TAs and they need more of these than they need young Professors so already grad school is set up somewhat like a ponzi scheme. While some programs are honorable in how they address these realities of the profession, others are not due to a fear that they would lose much wanted labor. My suspicion is that your advisers tactics fall within this deplorable tradition.
  18. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to IRdreams in advisor leaving univ, forcing me to tag along   
    I'm not in the sciences so my opinion might not count, but I would never move with an adviser who was moving down the rankings. In my field if you are at a school in the top 25 or so, you have as reasonable a chance at Academic placement as can be hoped. However, the placement rankings for the 26th and below schools drop below 4%. First and foremost you owe yourself the best chance at securing a reasonable job in the future which moving would seem to preclude if your field follows a similar pattern.

    Furthermore, on the adviser's guilt trip tactics: I actually find his argument rather ridiculous and underhanded. Again, you owe him nothing. Graduate students are notoriously underpaid. He received your services for several years at a low rate and it sounds like he got a lot out of the interaction. Even if he paid you out of his grant, the work you did for that pay is ALL he is due. One of the downsides of academia is that graduate students are often taken advantage of, especially due to our relative lack of information about academia. First and foremost, programs need RAs and TAs and they need more of these than they need young Professors so already grad school is set up somewhat like a ponzi scheme. While some programs are honorable in how they address these realities of the profession, others are not due to a fear that they would lose much wanted labor. My suspicion is that your advisers tactics fall within this deplorable tradition.
  19. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to Eigen in advisor leaving univ, forcing me to tag along   
    You may not be comfortable with it, but is still true- he has spent a lot of time and money on you, and you're thinking about swapping to another group.

    You still haven't mentioned what discipline you're in, but you mentioned lab work... I know in chemistry (or related subjects) it can be quite difficult to change advisors part way through a program- especially past the first year. And you usually need your previous advisors blessing.
  20. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to Eigen in advisor leaving univ, forcing me to tag along   
    If you're in the sciences (which I gather you are), moving with your advisor is the usual course- it's quite rare for someone to switch to another lab in order to stay.

    That said, if you passed Quals, you should receive your PhD from your current institution even if you move with your advisor- something to keep in mind. We have a group that moved from a top-ranked program to ours about two years ago, and all the students that came with the PI who had passed quals would be receiving their degrees from said top-ranked program, even though they were finishing the work here.

    I'd reiterate the above advice about making sure you have things lined up at your current institution... Especially making sure that you won't lose time in swapping groups. In my field, the swapping of groups could set you back 1-2 years in your degree, depending on how far apart the research was.
  21. Downvote
    IRdreams reacted to Normal in James Franco is Pissing Me Off   
    I used to really admire James Franco, but now I think he's being incredibly selfish. His enrollment in all these programs makes a mockery of everyone else and it makes a mockery of the educational system. What it means is that we have a very famous, very charming man who is taking advantage of that to satisfy what I am sure is genuine intellectual curiosity and desire for personal betterment. However, what that also means is that he is taking away spots in programs one of us "normals" might have taken. And there's a lot more riding on getting into a graduate program for the average applicant than there is for James Franco.

    Not only that, he is trivializing the programs and the graduate education in general by overloading himself on classes and programs. There is no way any human being can complete a semester in excess of 43 hours - unless there is something I'm missing here and James Franco is truly some kind of savant, it just isn't possible. But instead, what most of us see is this guy who is able to achieve, in unrealistic quantities, what we are struggling with at the normal level. For him to take up so much space in all these programs and classes while making it seem so effortless is incredibly insulting if he is not making decent grades (that he earned) across the board.

    I understand the desire to want to continue one's education - obviously, all of us here do - but at some point he needs to take the initiative to educate himself, rather than pursuing so many degrees in so many programs. Again, I do think he seems like a nice guy, and he is certainly incredibly talented, but at the end of the day, he's screwing us. I realize he brings a lot of funding into the department, but the fact still remains that he is taking away spots from people who deserve them and he is diminishing the graduate school struggle for the people who have to be admitted and graduate on our merit alone, rather than fame. He's always going to get in to wherever he applies, but if he is being childish if he continues applying and matriculating. Somewhere past your thirtieth graduate degree, the diplomas just stop carrying the same meaning.
  22. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to nguyenho in To become a successful PhD student   
    Hi all,
    I found this article very helpful.
    http://matt.might.ne...l-phd-students/
  23. Upvote
    IRdreams got a reaction from singlecell in If I knew then what I know now (Officially Grads version)   
    So I brought up department politics originally partially because I have been recently embroiled in a bit of quagmire. My general advice on this topic reflects what has been said earlier: listen more than you speak. The hard part of this advice though is that professors are also keenly trying to scope out their peers. Thus they may ask you point blank questions about so-and-so and some experience they know you are having. I'm a heart on my sleeve person and have a problem lying/being diplomatic if asked a point blank question about say the professor I am TAing for who is all sorts of awful because he should have retired 10years ago. I still do not have a good solution for how to get out of these situations where someone is specifically pumping you for gossip. In my case, it is also hard because it is primarily my research adviser who does this and politely shutting down the conversation can create other issues. I think the best tactic is to give evasive answers from day 1 so that you will not be viewed as a go to source of information by professors on their colleagues.

    My horror story: Said elderly gentlemen had the bad habit of saying incredibly sexists and racist remarks during his undergrad lecture. One of the other TAs mentioned this to a younger faculty member who then called me into his/her office and asked me to be involved in a complaint about this colleague to the department chair. While I think the comments created a hostile environment, I definitely did not want to be involved in potentially forcibly retiring a very prominent academic within my field. As you can imagine, it created a sticky situation that I would not have even had to think about if I had just suffered the TA experience in silence.
  24. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to bgk in Forum Stats for Mar' 11   
    And yet you were!
  25. Upvote
    IRdreams reacted to bgk in eReaders   
    If you disable rich text editing in your user preferences on this site then you'll be to post. This is a known issue which I hope they will fix in the next release.
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