Usmivka

Did you document this at the time? A journal with dates? I can't imagine you having a problem if you bring this plus contract to department chair or ethics committee, whichever is more appropriate. Even without, you are fine with the contract. Time to get moving on this, more time here on the forum won't get you any closer to your goal, and most folks here are now repeating the same advice you got days ago. This isn't going to harm you if you are tactful, and the prof has way more to lose, don't let him bully you into being quiet. What he did is illegal and unethical, both grounds to boot him from his job with no possibility of rehire anywhere in academia. Frankly, by sitting this long without doing anything when you knew this was happening, you've almost let him get away with it.

Go through the posts...many have made good suggestions. You did everything right to protect yourself, and should do the same in the future, and now you need to take it up with the department chair or university ethics panel, depending on where you will get better support--3 or 4 people have very specific suggestions in this regard above. A lawsuit is the last, worst case scenario as I pointed out before, and it should never come to this point. The quote above likely meant "other party" or "offended party." They are saying that you have not provided any assurance that you have talked this through with the prof to try and iron out differences, or told us what the outcome of such a meeting was (until just now that is). I have to tell you though, that what you write above about the prof telling you ages ago about a change of plans calls some things into question. Why was he having these second thoughts? Did you actually uphold your end of the contract by working on the manuscript sufficiently to get credit? And why did you not follow through to fix this at any point before publication? Maybe a timeline and full account here would help all of us be more useful? Or if you are uncomfortable with that, maybe now is the time to move forward with some of the suggestions above?

I'm sorry, this seems like a bad situation. Are you sure the cost of the degree will pay itself back and is worth pursuing? If this isn't the top program in your field, perhaps you should look into post-grad employment rates and talk to some current and recently graduated students. My partner didn't get into any funded programs her first round of applications, but ended up in a great job that made the second round a breeze two years later. This could be worth thinking about. Not to discourage you if you are set on this program--if this is right for you, great, go for it, it just seems you are not so sure this is the case if you are posting this. Also, Boston is hideously expensive and getting more so. That is a problem in a city that is 30% students, many of whom are 'independently' wealthy or are funded. Your loans stand to become a bit larger every year given the high annual rent increases if you plan to live in any of the cities immediately adjacent. See the Boston forum in the city guide. You could live cheaper out in the burbs, but then transportation costs go up. Edit: Why did you post this in two different forums? You should ask the admin to merge these posts.

For info on the most recent NRC rankings, here is a good start: http://en.wikipedia....ouncil_rankings. Here is another less solid overview but Sociology specific: http://www.insidehig...ctoral_programs . And here is an academic paper from a mathmetician exploring the flaws in the rankings (really good paper, totally worth a read): http://www.ams.org/p...urvey/mucha.pdf . As an update to what you find there, the rankings were later determined to be so seriously flawed (missing data, nonsense data, rankings based on who had heard of your program and knew someone in it, grouping programs in an illogical manner) in nearly every field that the team who assembled them put together a press release stating that the process was not valid and universities and students should esssentially ignore the rankings. They rereleased modified rankings in 2011 (found here: http://www.tvworldwi...st=0&live=0), with many schools shifting by >10% relative to peers (ie could go from top 5 to top 50 or vice versa), but these were not widely disseminated and were generally regarded with skepticism based on what a poor job the panel did previously. Many specialists across a broad array of graduate fields subsequently warned that the NRC data should not be taken seriously (see the wiki article above). If you want a realistic "rank," at this point the only option is comparing publication and post-graduation job rates since the previous good NRC rankings are so out of date.

Depends on the place. Where I used to work, the CV and application was a formality because the individual employers chose their new hires before even posting the job. Everyone had to apply through the online hiring system which was vetted by HR, but so long as you were remotely qualified they passed your app on to the person who posted the job, who would immediately send back the name they had already decided on for a rubber stamp. For actual open application processes where the hirer hadn't already identified someone in house (most state schools give preference to current state employees by law), then it tended to be straight up merits--but the the person who posted the job always got to see the full application if the applicant made it through the "minimum qualifications" screening at HR. But writing a note to your prospective boss isn't generally what people mean when they say to "direct" a CV. I think a more common approach would be to rewrite your qualifications section to emphasize what experience and job skills you have that are immediately pertinent to the job description.

I suppose my point was not so much that MDs don't do research, as that they are generally not considered for professorships because they do not have equivalent research experience and publications. But I was poor at wording this, so my bad. Anyway, I don't think a partial week of research in someone else's lab is the same thing as being a professor, which is the post author's stated goal. And especially in grad school, I don't believe this approach (partial weeks for a short period of time between medical training obligations) leads to a lot of first author papers, at least when compared against a typical natural/physical science PhD student's 5-6 years of focused research day in and day out. I don't know any students, or even any profs at my institution, that only work 4 (or 5!) days a week and have the output required to get tenure. I spent much of my undergrad in the University of Washington medical school (my department was next door, my girlfriend's was part of the med school) and I can't think of a single example of a MD only tenured professor in any of the academic units there --not that my knowledge is exhaustive (there were however plenty of MD/PhDs). If professorship on a research track is the goal, a MD only degree is not the way most people or hiring committees choose. But as I said above, I know somebody out there will find the counter-example. Something I don't think anyone has addressed yet: your happiness (and thus most other aspects of your life and education) is going to impacted at least in part by distance to your girlfriend. If she is in Boston, this seems like no-brainer, unless you two already are in a distance relationship.

I think this was bit unclear--MD/PhDs are as described above, but with an MD only you will not have the research experience in grad school or academic pedigree to do research later, and will not be considered for a post-doc (which is the pre-req to a professorship at most universities). Professorship is out the door if you do an MD only. I know there are some counter examples of MDs that don't have PhDs and are currently profs, but these are by and large from a different generation, and mostly honorary/emeritus regardless. This really doesn't happen anymore. I also know this is an invitation for someone to go find a 30-something doing research that disproves my argument, but I suspect this is more the expection that proves the rule, if they can be found (I defer in advance to whoever takes the trouble to prove me wrong). P.S. I agree with most of those who posted above. Unless you are so passionate about health that you really, really want ~1/4 million in debt, the MD only route is nuts. This should not be about prestige or family. That debt will hang over you for decades, and if you are wealthy enough that it doesn't matter, you sure as heck better be planning on community health for the disadvataged, or public health, or some other field that doesn't get enough practicioners because they can't afford to go into a no recompense field.

Totally different field for me, but there may be similarlities: 1. GPA is more of a threshold--you need a minimum value to be considered, but beyond that it won't make a difference unless it is very high or just borderline. Many programs actually post this information on their websites. The admissions site will often have a link to a spreadsheet with the GPA, GRE, TOEFL and other scores of applicants and those actually accepted. If not online, you can likely request this info. 2. There can be a preference for BS students, yes. This varies PI to PI though. Mostly it has to do with an advisor who takes you on will prefer someone who they can train and will work for them for more years as opposed to fewer. Remember it costs them money to host you, even when you are paying some tuition. Students who already have an MS might be expected to be in a hurry to leave. 3. True. Many programs do not allow credit transfers. This is both for the reason above, and because they teach with certain expectations and goals in mind, and want every graduate to reflect them to a certain standard. Hopefully someone with more insight in your specific field can provide more info. Good luck.

When I was applying to school, I used this approach: For e-mail: 4-5 sentences max. 1. Greeting, who I am, why I am contacting them (applying to grad schools, looking for advisor, and like such and such about their work). One to two sentences here, no more. 2. Is this worth pursuing? i.e. are you looking for a grad student, would they need to come with funding or not? this is the most pertinent thing for both of you. 3. What I do, in brief. eg I have a background in using isotope and gas tracers of biological and physical processes in the surface ocean, and this seems related to your work on --- (even better if I could show I had my own ideas that fit into their work). I think it is very important to point out here that many profs websites and papers are woefully out of date with what they are currently working on, so building a case about how excited you are about a specific project could actually hurt your chances vs someone who comes in with his/her own idea that the prof can get behind. 4. something to this effect: if I seem like I could be a fit, let me know and I'll send along my CV. If you like that let's talk by phone for 5 min. End with contact info, and a thanks for your time. 2 weeks later, a phone call to them, if I haven't heard back already: "Hi, I'm so and so, I wrote a couple weeks ago inquiring about whether you are looking for a grad student and I might fit the bill. Do you have time to talk now or sometime in the future? Let's set a time." It never took more than that for me. But to be fair, I only contacted two people and was solicited by a third based on a rec from my undergrad advisor. This is brief, yes, but most PIs are super busy, and applciations season is also grant writing season for many, or time for teaching a class. I know from asking afterwards that people who wrote essays didn't get responses, not out of malice but because the profs thought they needed more time to read and answer well, and it got buried in the inbox. The same profs were much more comfortable with a quick reply to letter that they could read in a minute. All the details can wait until you both are on the same page about interest and ability to get into the program. For what it is worth, other folks admitted ot my program who took the time to write a snail mail letter ALWAYS got a response. That seems to be the best way to show courtesy, not a Victorian-esque letter of introduction by e-mail. PS. I think it is redundant to say you have read such and such paper of theirs--you wouldn't contact them if you didn't know what they were up to. You can show you know what they do by demonstrating interest in a project related to what they do. All the schmoozing and super details can wait for follow up letters, once you are both invested in the process.

Wow, I've had exactly the opposite experience with my 1 year old ideapad (supposedly the upmarket thinkpad, basically the same thing with a bigger screen and a graphics card that can be switched on and off). The following problems started withing 1 month of getting it. There is no way to set fan speed without changing the BIOS, but it is set too slow so my machine overheats and dies unless I have it on a raised grill or vented platform (can't even be on a flat desk, and forget your lap, it has copper heat exchangers that will give you burns). I've had numerous hardware bugs, mostly caused by the bloatware they add onto the machine, and it is super difficult to disable all of it since the drivers like to reenable themselves randomly and slow things down. I also get frequent bluescreen "fatal errors" and freezing, and the startup is insanely long. I do nothing more complicated than running Matlab scripts on it (no fancy modeling, just plug and chug matrix algebra), but this can kill the machine too. The wireless card is severely underpowered and drops connections every 5-10 minutes if you aren't within a few feet of the router, so you might as well plug in. But forget using it at conferences or on other trips. The battery life is a joke and the power time estimater is seriously flawed/optimistic (it will tell me I have 2.5-3 hours, and then 40 minutes later tell me I have 30 min remaining, then 5 min later shut itself off because it is out of juice--all with screen completely dimmed, wireless off, no programs running but notepad or excel). And the charger block is so rediculously huge it can't fit in most laptop bags--literally 2-3 times the size of chargers that come with any other laptop. I got the extended warranty, but they want me to send it away for a couple weeks for any work, which I've yet to find a time for since I actually use my computer! Maybe this is just the lemon in the family, but based on this experience I will never buy Lenovo again. In contrast, I previously had a 2004 Apple iBook that ran flawlessly until 2011 (with multiple 4 foot drops onto concrete floors)--and it was still faster than my new thinkpad even with way outdated hardware because Apple actually takes time to streamline their programming. The only reason I stopped using it was because the solder on the chip pins was getting old and cracking, and I didn't want to reopen it every couple months to find and resolder whichever pins were coming loose. I know they don't make them like that anymore, of course, so maybe new macs aren't as good a buy (it looks like they are selling 3 year old hardware at 500% markup, boo), but you should really consider something besides a Lenovo. At least Dell's are predictable in dying the week after the warrenty is up.

If you have the cv you describe above, schools will certainly weigh that favorably against the GRE. I don't know whait is like in your field, but in mine I think the GREs are more like a cutoff. You don't have to be great, just good enough to get past the gate. I think this is even more true for a "thinking" degree like sociology as opposed to someone who needs to demonstrate basic math competency.

In your field, I'd guess job experience counts more than the degree. That is why most professional school masters students work for a while first. In my field, a MS is moderately more employable than a PhD or BS, but not by a huge margin, and for very different jobs. I've had a number of engineering students (say mechanical or chemical) tell me that in their field they only get masters if they plan to teach. Maybe there oere other Construction Managers out there on the forum who can clarify this?

okristentree, try not to fall off off the planet when you get to Illinois. There are no mountains to hold onto.

I've had very good experiences couchsurfing conferences. I think I'm at 4-5 now (and about 20 non-conference related surfs/ 30 hostings), the rest I've had department funding for (as opposed to lab funding, which I try to preserve). I actually think couchsurfing is a much better experience because I like being a tourist wherever I go, and the whole point of couchsurfing is that the hosts know and love their city and can help you experience it the way they do. There is also an unspoken rule that you don't use couchsurfing for business trips. If you come off as just wanting a place to sleep, you will nearly always be rejected or ignored outright. After a couple of less than great experiences with folks in town for conferences, I've mostly stopped hosting conference goers. However, if you are honest about what you are there for but also make a point that you want to explore the city and meet interesting people, you will often get a positive response (assuming you have a reference from your local CS group, have hosted and don't only stay with others in the system, etc.). A lot of being hosted/hosting is about the fit with the other folks and mutual interests, so having more than a skeleton profile makes a big difference. I'd check out the CS forum to find out how to make yourself out to be someone worth hosting rather than a moocher, and attend your city's annual CS meet and greet. Also remember, CSing is not free! Someone is putting you up, so you should plan on treating them to a dinner or getting them a small gift. At this cost to you, if all you want is a bed, a hostel is a better choice. That said, for counterpoint to the positives I read above, many of my hostel experiences have been distinctly negative. More expensive than they should be for the amenities offered (might as well camp), overcrowded, and waking up at all hours of the night when someone else is coming in drunk or leaving for an early bus/flight. It is hard to get much out of a conference if you are falling asleep on your feet and smell of someone else's booze. If you splurge for a private or double room, the price hits the point where you can often find equivalent deals at a cheap motel (or even a nice last minute room at a hotel) on priceline or a similar online travel broker. Good luck! PS Many conferences have student travel scholarships, and room-sharing e-mail lists. If you share the room with another rgad student you'll get to meet someone interesting in your field, and keep the price down.

Agreed, totally location dependent. I moved to an area with some of the higher rental costs in the country (not the worst by a long shot!), and food is more expensive to boot because I'm now further from the green belts where most agriculture occurs. Utilities switched from being mostly super cheap hydroelectric to very expensive gas and oil heat and coal based power plants. I'd say my normal monthly costs (including transportation) went from roughly $900/month to ~$1450/mo, and came with a major downgrade in my quality of life (if I had a similar apartment and recreational activities here, I think my costs would be about $2200/mo). This is part of the territory in downgrading from a 'real' job to grad school, but it was definitely more than I bargained for because of economic factors outside my control (rents spiked because fewer people were buying condos, and they won't come back down because I'm in a student heavy city where there is always new demand regardless of price or quality). On the other hand I have in-laws who moved to Florida from the same area, and their costs have gone down substantially.

Talk to the school, confirm they do in fact prefer a letter, then tell this to your reccomender and ask for her to follow through. No harm, no foul.

Milk crates...I'm sorry, I didn't even think about how this might pose a difficulty, I've had mine for so long! On my bike I mounted the rack quite low and close to the rear tire--I got lucky with the frame screw holes that it works this way. My milk crate is only 1ft tall, so the top of it is actually about an inch below my seat, so it hasn't ever presented me trouble.But I could see this varying with your bike frame and height. Also, I normally high step over the center anyway, leaning the bike a little as I get on, so I've never tried sliding on from behind. If this is a problem you can't work around, I agree that paniers are the way to go, but they can be very expensive. That's why I did the crate in the first place. To obtain my most recent crate, I went to the local minimart and asked the owner if I could buy one off him (technically they are the property of the store or distributor. He said everyone else just steals them anyway, so as long as I took one of his crummier ones it was mine for free. I gave it a good washdown and it's worked well. I secure it with a long rachet strap wound through the sides of the crate and the frame. Previous crates have come from my lab jobs--turns out milk crates are perfect baskets for deep-sea experiments, deck chairs, reagent carriers... If I can find a camera I'll take a photo to post so you can see how I mount it. As a side note, the ghost bikes memorials started in St Louis becuase of a rash of cyclist deaths beginning in 2003. In this city I'd be more concerned with having the lights and reflectors for safety than ticketing.

Uhm, MIT EAPS is a fine geology program, but not the best. WHOI is one of the top 3 ocean programs, and certainly the most recognized globally. I think your concern should instead be, does having the MIT label dilute my WHOI goodness?

This is still incorrect, regardless of field, see the links I posted above for NSF data reporting and authorship guidlines. Or your favorite journal's guide for authors.

I'm in a small grad program where many of us live much or all of the year at a field campus remote from any other young educated types. Dating within the program is endemic. It makes for a lot of awkward relationships/breakup/love trinagles (all of which I find hilarious, but I know several others find frusterating as all get out). And then the couples are competing for the same jobs in the same subfields when they get out. Lots of wonderful couples come out of this, and they seem to stick together once they leave, but one or the other is always serially underemployed. I see this in grads 10-20 years down the line. I know it is tough to 'guide' feelings, but it just seems so much more financially healthy to date someone in an unrelated field--preferably one with income potential!

I can't believe I'm reading all of this about you just pulling up stakes. If you talk to the advisor and can't come to an understanding (I still haven't heard anything that assures me this isn't a misunderstanding yet...), talk to the department chair before you do anything else. He/She will want to have a sit down with the three of you. The last time I saw an advisor do something unethical like this (not even illegal that time, which you seem to be in a position to say that it is in this case), the department immediately offered the student full tuition/stipend for unlimited duration with a new advisor. Pulling stuff like this absolutely ruins a schools reputation, and they will do whatever they can to keep it on the down-low. The department will take it seriously, and the only ones in any position to hurt your career would be you and the advisor. Any settlement (I'll assume out of court) would have a proviso to protect you from retaliation and a non-disclosure agreement. Besides which, the prof will be too worried about his own hide to pull anything--he has much more to lose. Switching programs implies a failure on your part. Although for comfort reasons you will probably want a new advisor. Don't start down the path of "I'm going to transfer," because that tells the prof and department that you can be forced out--that should be your choice, not the only option. Heck, if you are in your state bar you probably have attorney friends who would represent you for nothing if it ever had to go to courts...but here is the thing: If you have independent council lined up and have already aired your concerns with the department chair, it will never go further than the university ethics panel. Also, it sounds like this isn't an issue since you have a contract, but regardless, I think anthropologygeek is wrong --regardless of who grant money goes to, if you did the work and acknowledge the funding source, you must be credited (big caveat here, for the natural sciences I'm 100% about what I'm saying, with NSF funding, but I'm just assuming the same for whatever the government anthropology funding sources are). See the other "my prof screwed me" thread.

The length of your degree should not matter. Someone who completes a BS in 3 years at a US school would not be viewed less favorably than someone who took 4-5 years to do the same degree. I don't know how universities will look at your particular combination of degree and test scores, but if the admissions committee is not familiar with the granting institution, your test scores, research, and published papers will be more important than they would be otherwise. Pretty much any UC or CA state school would love to have an international student paying full tuition, their budgets are hurting.

Huh? Not if there is a written contract he's not! If you truly have a contract (not just a verbal agreement), it is illegal to appropriate another's work without recompense or acknowledgment. And regardless of whether or not you have a contract, if the prof used your work without acknowledgement, this is plagiarism. Any academic department will take this extremely seriously, and may fire the prof. I'll assume you have talked through this with said prof so there are no unstated misunderstandings--this is super important, don't go off half-cocked! If there is no resolution and you are in the right, contact the department chair, with contract in hand. If they don't resolve it, contact the universities legal/ethics office, provide them with a copy of the contract. If they don't sort it out, contact an attorney, have him/her look over the case so you can make an informed decision (this part should be free). If you have a good case, you can have the attorney contact the publisher and take the prof to small claims court for the attorney's fees. A reputable lawyer won't take this on if you aren't likely to recoup his fees (which you should specifically ask about). Note that the attorney route only works if there was an actual contract--if the prof instead plagiarized, this is not illegal, simply unethical. It should never get this far though, since universities take plagiarism very seriously. I should point out, an e-mail sent from your prof's university account that reinforces your assertions is sufficient written proof of your claim in most states.

Sorry, clearly it has been a while since I bought gear! I'd try craigslist if you are looking for something less expensive, lots of folks buy racks they stop using quickly. And if you do get a rack, make sure to get one with struts--there are screw holes in the frame to attach these to, and the "floating" racks (Attached just to the seat post) have a nasty habit of slipping down. I'm the same way, I still don't own a rain jacket because they always seem too expensive. But the plastic poncho or wet fleece can get real annoying. Sometimes it is better to just get the gear. If you are looking for a little LED light for your helmet, university health or transportation offices sometimes hand them away for free as a safety thing.

Absolutely you can submit it! I'm not suggesting that the PI wouldn't be an author (if they actually put any of the work in) or that the grants wouldn't be acknowledged. I had a very supportive PI in my undergrad program, but I still submitted my first paper, since I was the lead author. All of the correspondence with editors, responses to reviewers, etc, was my responsibility. My PI suggested I do so as part of the learning experience. You don't just abrogate your responsibilities as a scientist and author because the money was awarded to the PI. Your manuscript, you submit it. The only reason the PI need be part of submitting a paper you are first author on (other than the usual authorial contributions bit if they are an author) is that they have money to pay for the submission. In fact, most NSF funded research has public reporting requirements after a certain period of time (usually 2 years--so the work gliabiologist did should already be in the public domain or close to it, even more reason to publish). See the data management requirement in the general NSF grant instruction packet (http://www.nsf.gov/p...mc_id=USNSF_179). I can go mine data that was collected by another PI for his/her grant and write a paper on it. For another example, NOAA funded work in oceanography tends to end up here (http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/). While it would be courteous to invite the PI who collected the data to collaborate, nothing more than an acknowledgement would be required.