Barndog

Yes, thank you for the obvious, yet remarkably unhelpful answer. I was hoping for some advice before talking with my advisor. However, I've since worked it out.

I would like to decline an invitation to present at a conference occuring in less than two weeks. Today I was offered full accommodations and 60% airfare cost but still need to fork out an additional $700 for the ticket. I'm in between funding, so money is tight, and I’m certain my advisor won’t fork out the extra cost. Furthermore, I've only presented a handful of times and feel rushed to throw something together. With little experience in this realm, is it ridiculous to pass on such an opportunity? If not, would I insult those offering financial support? I've never been in this situation before. Thanks in advance.

Hi All, I'm in my second year of an MS program and just figured out my thesis (after hitting many brick walls). My current idea was to do a suitability study on a small location w/in a state. After contacting this state (a gov. agency), asking them if anyone would be interested in my results, I was asked to include the entire state, if I would follow methods used by someone who did a similar study on an adjacent state (since they offered funding, I agreed). The former study synthesized data already in existence, and also created a tool to analyze this information. I really liked their methods and would love to do the same thing, but how ethical is this? Of course I would cite their work, but I feel strange using their thesis as a guideline for my own. Not only that, the student was a former MS student in my department. I would ask my advisor, but he's not available until late next week, and I'm eager to get started. Thanks.