TakeruK

Deferring could be a good option. This is definitely one reason that schools would grant a deferral.

In my field, the reviewers' duties would include ensuring that the statements made by the authors are scientifically sound (not just statistically sound). I agree that they should not be expected to reproduce the work themselves, but I do think it is the reviewer(s) duty to ensure that every conclusion drawn by the author(s) logically and scientifically follows from the stated assumption and premises. And that the assumptions are reasonable assumptions to make.

This is a very personal decision so I can only give advice if I was in your situation. It is impossible for me to give advice on what you should do since I don't know you well enough! If I was in this situation, I would reapply to funded programs in the future. If I am not able to get into a funded program, I would not attend graduate school and pursue a different career path. You are right that changing fields makes it tougher to get a funded program. I suppose one alternative, if I could afford the cost, would be to do an unfunded course-based Masters program (or a post-bac type program) with the intention of filling in whatever gaps you might have due to the change in field. I would only do this if I think it is worth the investment (i.e. having these courses will actually make the difference). I'm not sure how much this would cost, I'm thinking from a Canadian school perspective (i.e. costs around $7000 for a 1 year program). Otherwise, I would try to reapply with a focus on fully funded multidisciplinary programs where your different field is celebrated rather than a negative.

It's normal in my field to indicate these types of declined fellowships on your CV, same way as fuzzy said.

I think everything Eigen points out is very important. Although it's perhaps not something I would consider at point of application, because, as others pointed out, the information is hard to find online! I waited until I had offers and could visit and talk to graduate students to get the info. Then I put it all into a little spreadsheet to properly compare financial offers. It's interesting to hear about programs that decrease pay after some period. In almost every program I've visited, your pay either stays constant or increases after you pass candidacy. In Canadian schools, it is usually the case that tuition for graduate students goes down by several thousand dollars (e.g. from $6000/year to $4000/year) so once you finish classes (e.g. candidacy), you see a pay raise equal to that difference. There was only one case where my pay went down after the first year, but that was only because the pay boost was either a "signing bonus" or a special external fellowship that only lasts one year. But (other than bonuses) the amount that the department and University contributed to my pay would always be the same or increasing with each year, at all schools I visited.

Maybe it depends on your program, but in mine, you would never have to explain why you missed a class, unless you are asking for something special due to missing class. For example, if you were sick and missed a day of classes, if you never said anything, no one would even question you. But if you asked the professor for a copy of the class notes, or an extension on the homework (if homework is due that day) then you would have to explain. If you missed an entire day for some reason or other, people will likely just assume you were not feeling well, or you had something more important to do. Our professors do not keep tabs on us or require us to explain where we are each and every day (but again, I know other places do require this). If you don't attend class, you will definitely have to face the consequences--like others said, it may look unprofessional, and you will miss out on academic and useful interactions with your peers. However, it's your choice whether or not these consequences are worth it. In our programs, we are adults and capable of setting our own priorities as long as we accept the consequences of our choices and our actions. Personally, if it was a really special concert, I might miss class for it if I know there won't be a quiz or other important things happening in class that day. If I miss class for a concert though, I would know that there is no excuse for me to ask for extensions, I'll forfeit any grades for quizzes in class, and I'll definitely will not ask my friends to take notes for me. So it better be a really really good/important concert! But I'm actually not a big concert goer so I probably would not be in that situation. However, other personal reasons have caused me to miss class without a valid academic excuse before. For example, my parents visiting for a long weekend (one of those weekends where it's a long weekend where they live, Canada, but not in the United States). I know your main question has already been addressed and you have proof that every class is important. I'm just addressing the larger point, which is that, unlike undergrad, graduate studies (at least in my program) means you are responsible for your own education and you should be the one deciding what's best for you, not your friends, not your family, and also not your professors.

My wife and I share our Kindle and the only purpose we use it for is reading for entertainment. But I also have no idea how to put PDFs of articles and papers on it (I guess I can probably plug it into a computer or something? But haven't tried to do that yet). I personally like to separate "work" and "play" so I don't plan on putting any work reading onto my fun reading device. Also, I think the screen is way too small for reading papers. First, the two column format of papers might not display well on an e-reader. I have not tried it yet on my Paperwhite, but I've seen other people use e-readers to view papers as PDFs and the display just shows the PDF cut up into screen sizes so it's a lot of flipping back and forth (i.e. first screen might show the top half of both columns, so you flip to next screen to see bottom half of first column, then flip back to first screen to see first half of 2nd column, etc.). Second, the Paperwhite does not display colour, and colours are essential for understanding some plots in my field. Third, I often need to flip back and forth between text, tables and figures to properly understand the work. This is easy on a full screen (with a mouse and everything) but really hard on an e-reader. Fourth, without a full keyboard (or mouse), it's hard to type and draw annotations. And finally, hyperlinks in reading papers are super useful to me--I can click on a reference and it will go to the page for that article on the journal's website.

I think that does sound a little suspicious to me (especially since all of the other students are not being asked to remove their name). In general though, it is not the norm in my field (and perhaps in all of STEM) for a student to be the primary person on these big research grants. I recently applied for a NASA fellowship for graduate research and although it is only me that is being evaluated (my supervisor provides a LOR for the judges) and the writing must be all mine, the PI on the grant is still my supervisor's. I know my school also does not allow graduate students to be in charge of an entire grant (although I will be the one to decide how to spend the $3000 student allowance). But technically, the grant is administered by the school and my PI, not me. However, this is standard practice for this fellowship (it says so in the instructions) and everyone is doing the same thing (and every student must be on the grant of course). So, having your advisor be the primary on the grant is not weird at all. And going through your school's grant office / office of sponsored research is normal (I had to walk my application all over campus to get various signatures). But your advisor asking you to remove yourself from the grant is weird. I would recommend you have a talk and say that you are not comfortable with this and that you do not think it's necessary to remove your name and that you want to have your name on your work.

I don't know what you mean by these two accounts. To be clear, a University affiliated credit union does not mean that your account at that credit union is the same account as your school's student account (where you might be charged for books, fees, tuition, cafeteria etc.). I also have a University affiliated credit union account and my stipend is direct deposited into my Citi bank account as well as my credit union account. Your University affiliated credit union account is as much a bank account as any other and is completely independent of your student account at the school.

The average range of grades in the B- and up applies to grad courses that are not seminar courses too (i.e. with homework that are "right or wrong"). In my program, grad students TA grad courses and I usually grade so that you get most of the points for using the right method and explaining yourself. But our courses also usually have weighting like 50% homework and 50% final project (no exams). So the final project part is where we can be more lenient if necessary. Also, this is true even with courses that are all homework and exams. I took a course that was like this and got several 60% to 70% on some homework (just wasn't worth the time). I still ended up with an A-. This particular course's grading policy was to layout the distribution of scores and natural breaks in the curve corresponds to A, B, etc.

We currently use an older version of the Paperwhite (I think we got it in 2013). It's great but I only use it for reading novels and nothing else (no web surfing, no reading papers or technical articles etc.) I like how the touchscreen responds and I can only imagine the newer version would be just as good if not better. The page turns when I want it to, and I don't have annoying problems like multiple page turns with one touch. Also, it is easy to differentiate between a touch that will turn the page vs a touch (on a particular word for example) that will pull up a definition. Even if you accidentally touch right on a word to turn a page. Navigation within books is decent--the popup menu that shows chapters works fairly well. It's good at remembering bookmarks so I can pick up where I left off. Page changing is also very smooth and fast. And I really really love the e-ink screen. I wasn't sure about this at first, but the e-ink screen with the white light is so much easier on my eyes than reading from a LCD screen. Again, all my experiences are based on my old Paperwhite but I really love it for what I use it for. Would highly recommend Paperwhites in general for a basic e-ink reader.

Our Graduate Office (i.e. Graduate Deans) provides travel awards (up to $500, but only once per grad career) on a needs-basis. You need a letter from your PI saying that 1) they support your decision to attend this conference and 2) they have no money available to pay for the costs. Our Graduate Student Association does not provide any travel funds for research (because the Graduate Office fills this need) and while we do collect student dues, these dues count as student fees that our advisor pays for (i.e. part of our "overhead"). So our grad student association would very rarely fund anything that has direct benefit to a single student only (we generally fund things that would benefit the campus as a whole). All needs-based funding go through the Graduate Office.

I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to try to guess what Professor X's intentions are! Sometimes overthinking small things like this can lead to unnecessary anxiety and/or awkwardness. One thing to keep in mind is that you should not consider anything in academia set in stone until it actually happens. So, even though you talked about courses a month ago, since Fall is still several months away, it's not surprising that things change. You might even find that one of the courses you're planning to take to suddenly get cancelled! So, although I understand it's frustrating to have to go back to course selection when you thought it was already decided, I think you should not count the conversation you had a month ago as a factor in your decision. Ultimately, you should take the courses in the order that is most beneficial to you. I am guessing that it is not possible for you to take both Course A and Course B at the same time this fall (but if it is, this sounds like the best compromise). Here are some things you should consider though: 1. Course B enrollment is low, which might mean that in the future, it might not be offered as many times, or it might even have fewer than 5 students in the future and thus be cancelled. If you have a chance to take Course B now and you do want to take Course B at some point, it's safer to take an opportunity offered now, rather than wait for the future. 2. Professor Y (instructor of Course A) will understand if you decide to change your course selection due to advice of your RA advisor. Prof Y can still be your dissertation advisor if you don't take their course right away. 3. I think right now, out of Professors X and Y, if your decisions can only make one of them happy, it's better for you to appease Prof X rather than Prof Y, for now, as X is the one paying you. If you plan to take both A and B, then why not take B first? However, if taking Course B instead of Course A will have detrimental effects right away, then I think it's important to stand up for yourself. Finally, as I said in the beginning, academics should be fairly flexible with their research and coursework plans. I would not count on a course actually running until the first day of class. I would not count on a plan for research/collaboration actually happening until it actually happens! Things can change quickly so we have to adapt.

I think it might have a little to do with field too because my colleagues in different fields at a past institution told me that none of their work are funded by their PI's grant. Students would have to fund their work entirely out of grants that they apply for themselves, or with department money allotted, etc. However, in my field (and many other sciences), all of our work is tied to a grant from our PI. PIs are expected to spend most of their time writing grant proposals and then using that money to hire grad students to do the work. Some very theoretical fields do not have as many research grants, but for my field, all of my work is funded through a NASA grant that my PI won. This grant covers all costs related to my research work: my salary, my benefits/overhead charges, page charges for journals, buying equipment and travel to conferences. Since this is my PI's grant, it's up to my PI's discretion to spend the money (they decide if I can go to a certain conference, or which journal we submit to, which equipment to buy etc.) What I was trying to say above is that grad students can still win additional fellowships with a research allowance for the grad student themselves. When students have one of these fellowships, this is money in addition to whatever grant money already exists to fund the student's work. So this usually means extra conferences for the student, or, maybe the PI only had money for a domestic conference but the student supplementing with their fellowship might allow them to go to an international conference instead. So, these two examples (most common form of travel funding in my field) are both not institution based. (Unless you want to make an argument that your institution brand name has a indirect effect on grant success rate).

There is a difference and while I think a lot of what shinigamiasuka says is true, I do not think this is the main reason why there is a different standard. For example, I was told the same thing and I'm from Canada, where our education system is pretty much identical to the United States. The main reason for a different standard is because at most public US schools, the tuition rate for international students is about 3 or 4 times more expensive than the tuition rate for domestic students (although our stipends would be the same). This ultimately results in the total cost of an international student to be around 2 to 3 times more than a domestic student. The reason for the tuition rate difference is that public schools are funded by the government (taxes) and Americans pay taxes towards this while international people like us do not. This means that public schools often have a low rate of international students. In most US schools, this is around 10% or lower. So, if a school is accepting 40 students, there would be only 4 international student spots. As an international applicant, this means we would have to be in the top 4 of the international pool to get in (but if we were American, we just have to be in the top 36). Then, on top of this, certain schools, especially the University of California schools, are very very popular with international students. I know one professor who worked there and he said that 75% of their applications are from international students!! But only 10% of their spots are awarded to international students. The entire world is very big, it's much harder to be the top 4 applicants in the entire world than the top 36 from the United States. When I applied to US grad schools, my mentors told me that while I should still try for the University of California schools, I should apply to more private schools because tuition there is the same for everyone and thus there is no difference in cost! And they were right--I got into some top private universities but rejected from all of the University of California schools (even ones that are supposedly less competitive than my current school). At my current private school, the international student population is around 45% !! Much larger than 10%. Therefore, my advice to international students with strong profiles is to focus mostly on the top private schools and/or apply to a very large number of schools because the chances of getting in is much lower for international people like us!

I agree with Eigen that the two statements: Your PI does not want to (or is not able to) pay for you to go to the conference and Your PI wants to steal your work are not the same thing. I would even say that the statement "Your PI does not want you to go to the conference" is different than the above statements. As ballwera says, every author on the work has equal right to present it (as long as they don't misrepresent their contribution). It would only be strange/weird if your PI wants you to go to the conference, but wants to present your work instead of letting you present it. I would even say, in this case, even if you were paying your own way and even if you found your own funding, the PI still has the "right" to say that they don't want you to go. After all, you work for your PI and time spent at the conference is working time. Your PI has the right to say that they would prefer you go to another conference or that they would prefer for you to stay in the lab and work instead. If this happens though, then there might be reason to wonder about their intent. But, what I mean to say is that being lead author of a work does not mean you necessarily have to go to every single conference and present it. It is smarter to just pick and choose the ones you think are best for you to present and let your PI or other coauthors present your work at the conferences you don't attend. If you continue talking to your PI about this topic, instead of focussing on this one particular conference, I would move forward and just ask about future conference plans. I think it's always a good idea to plan your conferences in advance. At any given time, I usually know my travel plans for the next year. Right now, I have three conferences coming up, one in August 2015, one in November 2015 and one in July 2016. I will probably be thinking about Fall 2016 meetings after this summer is over. Bulk sum/travel allowance is pretty common in mine. First years in my program get $400 for travel in the first year, which isn't very much, so it's usually used up in a single trip. First years in another program here get $1500 as a research grant upon starting. Because this is a rare grant that actually allows for equipment purchase, many people use it to buy a laptop to work on and the remainder for one trip. In my field, many graduate student fellowships come with about $3000 of research grant money that works like a bulk sum travel allowance. Generally, we are not allowed to spend it on equipment, so we generally spend this on travel. Having a fellowship like this is awesome because this means the student can have more control over where they present their work. While these fellowships are competitive in nature, they are not really fellowships tied to specific research, but I suppose you might still consider it that way. Overall, I have never spent my own money to do work related travel. My opinion is that it's just not worth it (for every conference I could not get funding to attend, I was able to find an alternative conference that was just as good where I could get funding). Missing out on a single conference because you didn't have funding isn't really going to ruin your career, in my opinion.

I am on J-1! My school's student insurance plan includes medical evac/repatriation as part of every health plan (even though it's unnecessary / not applicable to the domestic students). So I don't have to worry about it personally. However, my spouse, on J-2 does need this insurance. My school offers it as an add-on for $85/year. So it's definitely possible to get a separate policy and it's certainly affordable (compared to other health costs). If your school doesn't offer a separate medievac-only policy, then perhaps you can call up some major insurance companies and see if they offer it.

University affiliated credit unions are great because they are used to students But not every school has one and I found that non-University credit unions offer much fewer services and do not have the expertise to properly handle accounts from foreign persons. But maybe I just had a bad experience!

I don't know whether or not you'll be able to get funding as it really depends on each individual case. I don't think they will "punish" you by not offering funding, but you will probably have to compete for funding again (i.e. if there are new applicants that they would prefer to give funding to instead of you, then you might end up in a scenario where you are admitted but do not have a funding offer). Also, please note that this might not even be a possibility. The school might require you to reapply all over again. But if that is the case, then you should accept that. You are asking for something that is not normally granted in academia. Normally, if you want the option to apply to more schools, you can't also have a safety net offer in hand. That's just not how it works.

The custom in North America is to not make a big deal out of paying. So, it would sound weird if you had a discussion about paying for the meal before it is time to pay. In many eating places (e.g. cafeterias, fast food, fast/casual), each person gets their food and pays for it and then sits down. In this case, as GeoDUDE! says, just be prepared to pay when it's your turn to come to the counter. If the prof wants to pay for you, they will ask the cashier to charge it to their bill instead. In restaurant/sit-down places, the bill comes after the meal and the server will generally ask the table if there will be separate checks or all the food will be on one big check (some places will not give the split check option though). Let the professor or whoever is in charge answer that question. If it's separate, then you'll get your own bill to pay. If it's all on one big check, then when the check arrives, what normally happens is either: the professor will say they will pay for everyone, or the bill is passed around the table and each person figures out how much they owe and puts that money down (don't forget tax and tip). In any case, as GeoDUDE! suggests, just assume you will pay unless the professor offers to pay. It's customary to not mention paying in conversation at all. Sorry if this was over-explaining, since you mentioned that you were worried about different customs since you are international, I thought I might cover the most common scenarios

All banks allow you to cancel your account at any time. Personally, I would recommend one of the major banks (so that when you travel, you can easily find their branches or affiliates), such as Citi, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc.

I agree with phdreally--a deferral is just a delayed start date, not extra time to decide between schools. However, I would interpret a deferral as "delayed start date provided everything stays the same". That is, I think it's okay for you to defer for financial and family reasons, and then if the professor's funding falls through, it's completely reasonable for you to change your mind since the offer is now different than the one you deferred. Also, I think it's perfectly fine to defer because you are not 100% certain you want to attend a PhD program at all. In my field, it's fine to defer for a job in industry and then if you decide you actually don't want to go back to school, it's fine to decline the offer. However, it is not okay to defer multiple offers from different schools and it is not okay to defer the offer from a school to apply to more schools. The way I see it is that you can defer only if you commit to that school should you choose the academic path. The only ethical alternative I can think of is to be honest with the program and say exactly that. Some schools will allow this. Some schools will say that their admission offer is valid for one year (so you can just delay accepting the offer, rather than deferring) but the funding offer expired on April 15. To me, it sounds like you might just be having normal "second thoughts" when making a big decision. However, if you are truly not ready to commit to this program (and not apply to other opportunities), then I would advise you to reevaluate whether you want to go to grad school or not. If you are still not sure, the best thing to do is to just reapply to more schools next year (don't commit to anything this year). You can't have it both ways and keep an offer in hand while also exploring others (not unless you have explicit permission).

The CGS-M program is now harmonized between NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR (i.e. they all work the same way now). You can see the details (including eligibility) here: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/CGSM-BESCM_eng.asp To answer your question though, it sounds like you say you started your program in January 2015. This means you are eligible to apply for a CGS-M in 2015 (by the December 1, 2015 deadline) because you meet the main eligibility criteria: You will just fit in because it will be exactly 12 months. The earliest you can start a new award (unless they changed this) would be May 1, 2016. Therefore, you will be eligible to receive the CGS-M funding for the period between May 1, 2016 through the end of your Masters program. Partial awards are allowed and will be pro-rated. However, if you are planning to start a PhD program in Fall 2016, after your masters program has ended, it might be in your best interests to instead apply for the SSHRC Doctoral level awards instead. If granted, these awards would start in Fall 2016. Information here: http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/fellowships/doctoral-doctorat-eng.aspx. I am not certain whether or not you can apply to both a CGS-M for finishing up your Masters degree and apply for a SSHRC Doctoral award in the same year. Both CGS-M and SSHRC doctoral awards count towards your maximum number of years supported by SSHRC, so in my opinion, it might be more beneficial for you to simply apply to the doctoral award if you are starting a PhD. If not, you should apply to the CGS-M.

When making flashcards, I do not remove the ones where I can remember with the first guess. I find that when I do this, I will eventually forget about it. Instead, I continually review and practice all of the cards. 50 words a day is way too much (for me). I learned about 100 words per week. I also made my flashcards in stacks of 100 (all evenly distributed through the alphabet). Each week, I reviewed the same flashcards over and over again until I knew all 100 words. Then, the next week, I had the next 100 words. During the second week, I mostly reviewed the new stack but I also made sure to go back to the old stack occasionally to ensure I still remember them. This means that near the end, it would take me longer to learn 100 new words because I would still be reviewing the old ones, which is why I say "about" 100 words per week but it took me about 8 weeks to get to 500 words total. So maybe a more accurate count is an average of 65 words per week. In my opinion, when studying for the GRE V, it is far better to know the exact definitions of a small number of words (even just 200 or 300) than it is to know the general "context" of 1000+ words. As I said above, a lot of the questions involve knowing the precise definition and you will make a lot of mistakes if you are answering based on general context knowledge only. Of course, you need to choose which 200-300 words wisely--I think the "most common GRE words" list is a good way to go--they are "most common" for a good reason!

In some cases, some foreign people need an invitational letter in order to obtain a tourist visa to the United States. An international student is allowed to write such a letter, usually for their family member who is going to be visiting them. But since in your case, you won't already be in the United States, I'm not sure how helpful or useful it would be. Also, if you really really need to prove that you are brothers, one good way to do it is show your birth certificates. Birth certificates usually show your parent(s) names, so that might be enough. If one of you were adopted, then perhaps the appropriate paperwork from the adoption would be the right thing.