TakeruK

How much people pay for (physics) tutoring depends on the location. I know grad students who can charge $50 or higher in New York City. At my MSc school, the typical rate for a graduate student was $30-$35/hr. I charged that much when I was in grad school and $25/hr when I was an undergraduate. I often see a lot of people who need to take the MCAT ask for Physics tutoring and they often say they are willing to pay $40-$50/hr. I charge "exam prep" type tutoring at a higher rate because 1) the market rate for this type of tutoring is higher (MCAT prep courses are really expensive) and 2) it takes more work for me to figure out what the MCAT asks than to tutor a course I have already took and tutored for many years. Finally, if your school has students who come from better off families, you might get some students who are willing to pay because their parents are sending them money for the tutoring. For physics tutoring specifically, I find that most often, the people who care enough to spend a bunch of money on going from like a 80% to 95%+ in physics courses are pre-medical students. Personally, I feel more satisfaction in helping an average student (who is taking physics for a science requirement) go from a C- to a B. But, I take any clients who are willing to pay as long as they agree to my ethical tutoring principles (i.e. I'm not going to do their homework for them).

I was able to bring 4 people--our school guarantees 4 tickets for every graduate and then the remaining seats are allocated to anyone who wants more by lottery. You can have more than 4 people be on campus with you for the day of the event though, and they can take pictures with you outside in your gown and attend the reception outside etc. My four people were my immediate family (3) and my SO.

My MSc school degrees are the titles of our department, so my MSc is in: Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy which is a nice 37 characters not counting blanks and commas. Even though that is the official name on my degree, I find it misleading since my work is actually only in Astronomy so I always shorten it to just "Astronomy" in my PhD applications, CV or other official forms. My BSc degree title was: Combined Honours Physics and Astronomy which I usually shorten to Physics & Astronomy for US schools or forms where I can select BSc (Hons.) instead of just BSc, or Hons. Physics & Astronomy for Canadian schools. My main problem with this degree name is that I have to be careful to make it clear that it is NOT a "double major" type program, but is really more like replacing some of the honours Physics classes with Astronomy classes. Sometimes the degree title make it sounds like I am fulfilling the requirements for both the Honours Physics and Honours Astronomy programs (but the latter doesn't even exist at my school).

I agree with bsharpe--I wouldn't make an "acknowledgements" section for this, but every bit of research work I did (whether it was for my thesis or someone else's) went into the second section of my CV (under "research experience").

Others above already already answered this. Yes, it is very helpful to show that you have been successful in getting funding in the past! It also means you cost less to your department/advisor and this might translate to extra benefits, such as your PI having more money to send you to international conferences, or buy you a nice computer (or other equipment). And it might mean a reduced teaching load (or no TA requirement at all) because your funding is external. This is all good even if your stipend doesn't change. The answer to "should I apply to this prestigious external award?" is almost always "yes!!" unless you know for a fact that you have no chance at all. But the NSF is something that every good student has a shot at!

I wished my instructors did this! I had to learn all these grammar terms in high school and it seems like we never used them afterwards. In addition, even if I didn't understand what a "misplaced modifier" was, I could always look it up and have a concrete understanding of what I need to fix.

I think even if there is not one single correct answer, it is still useful to have an example of what we are trying to achieve. I remember this frustration in my humanities classes, especially my freshman English classes as a STEM student. I would never know what the instructor/TA wanted from me, just a "B" on everything I write no matter how much/little time I spent on the paper. Sure, we had "perfect examples" in form of the works we were studying, but it's pretty hard for someone who doesn't have much experience writing to even get close to an essay by Orwell, for example. I must admit that as a STEM student trying to adjust to freshman level English classes, I really felt lost. An analogy might be that it was as if we were put into a woodworking shop, taught how to use each piece of equipment, and then were told to build something without being able to see what we were trying to build. For someone like me, who learns from repetition of skills and modeling my work after an example, the humanities courses were tough for me. In the end, I don't really know if it was because the class failed to account for my learning style or I failed to adjust my work habits to meet the demands of the different field. I never got to find out because I did my required 6 courses in the humanities and then didn't take any more courses! So, whether or not your students are right, I can at least sympathize with the frustration when we are used to being graded on an objective scale and then all of a sudden taking courses where things are much more subjective. I'm not saying any one way is better, but it's definitely hard for a student to transition from one to another. I don't know if I would give the same feedback after the assignment was due and graded vs. before an assignment was handed in. Whenever my students ask me "Is this answer right?" before they hand in their assignment, I try to not tell them yes/no but instead ask them what they think....why do they think it's right etc. Usually as they walk through their own logic, they will find a flaw (if they were wrong) or become more confident in their answer (if they were right). Sometimes a student is going off in the wrong direction but I never actually tell them exactly what to do until after the assignment is graded and they still don't know how to do it (I usually leave a note for them to come see me and we will go over their work). So, by analogy, as a student in a writing course, I would never expect my TA or instructor to edit my draft with me and actually provide me with what words I should use instead. It might be expected that the instructor might point out areas that need improvement. I don't worry too much when my students make it clear that "my" course is not their priority. In fact, I understand that they might have other priorities and accept that they might just want to barely scrape by because they have other pressing needs. I usually try to let them know what the minimal amount they need to do in order to pass (through the marking rubric). If a student comes up to me and tells me that they are pressed for time this week for whatever reason (sporting event, going home for the weekend, research project, midterms), I usually try to let them know what areas of the assignment is essential for their understanding of the material (and thus most of the grade) and what might not teach them very much but still take a lot of time (i.e. usually the distinction between an A and A+). Right now, I am TAing a graduate course, so I am applying the above "time management" help a lot more. It is not a core grad course for any of my students, so by definition this would be lower priority than the courses they will have to write comps exams on (and also the research they have to do in their first year!). For the undergrads, grad classes are generally an extra thing anyways. That is, I try not to take it personally if they de-prioritize my course and I try to not change how much/what kind of help I give based on how much I know they care about the course!

I agree that it is not educational to just write things like "you could explain this better". But it's also not educational to just write down the "correct" sentence for them (especially since there is no single correct way). My solution would be to show them an example of what a well worded sentence/paragraph/essay/whatever looks like and point out the differences between their work and the example work. It's up to the student though, to figure out how to transform their sentences into a well written paper.

In Canada, there is almost always a difference between A+ and A. And many Canadian schools do not use the US GPA system and instead report all grades and thus all averages as a percentage out of 100 (usually with a letter grade attached but the real important value is the number out of 100). So a 96 vs. a 94 can make a difference in our GPA, even though it might be small. The 90% cutoff for A+ is only for individual grades, not for GPA, in general. So even if this pushes your average from 89.9 to 90.0, it will not change your GPA from 4.0 to 4.3 (or whatever system you use). When grades are converted from percentages to a 4.0/4.3 GPA system, they are done one course at a time. So this single course will count as a A+ in the GPA conversion no matter if it's 94 or 96. I think you said you are already in graduate school? If so, then the grades really do not matter! Ultimately, if you really think you need the two additional percentages then ask about it. If you are just doing this to have a higher number because you like higher numbers, then it's not really worth it.

You normally have to talk to the school's international office before you get it -- they are the one that starts the conversation. I think I got an email from them to provide the necessary information around this time and then my DS-2019 (same as I-20 but for J-1) arrived in June.

I don't grade "traditional" essays/papers like I might write if I was in a humanities/social sciences course, but I have graded lab reports before and received similar questions. My answer to these type of questions is to create a list of expectations or basically a marking rubric. For example, for lab reports, I might list some items such as: Experiment procedure fully explained. References properly listed. Introduction provides background information on the experiment and summarizes the motivation for the experiment. Example calculations are provided for every calculation. etc. (I think a list like this can be easily modified for any course) So, when a student asks me a question like "What can I do to get an A?", I tell them to pull out the marking rubric/expectations I handed out and to follow that and do it well. Depending on the course, I might specify that minimally meeting all the expectations will earn them a "B+" or "A-" or whatever the grading scheme will be and the top grades will be awarded to papers that not just contains everything in the list but does them well. These items are still open to interpretation (i.e. what is minimal and what is "doing a good job") so I either provide an example paper from previous years/classes (with the example student's permission) or more commonly (because I don't really want to use someone else's work), I find a real scientific journal article that explains their experiment well and direct students to follow that example. Ultimately, I do think it is our job to be very clear on what the grading criteria is and exactly how they will earn/lose marks. However, that only needs to go as far as stating what we are looking for when we grade, not actually telling them how to fix every item and/or do it for them!

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I believe you. Unfortunately, I think this topic is very advanced and I cannot answer your question. To be honest, although the words are familiar, I don't really know what it is asking! And I have taken two general relativity courses with my physics degree (although this subject was definitely one of my weaker points). The best people to help you would be graduate students or advanced undergraduate students in Physics who are studying this topic. Not many of them frequent these forums though and I still think physicsforums.com would have been your best chance (since the people with the knowledge and the inclination to help would be there). But since that didn't work, perhaps you might try one of the following: 1. Quora http://www.quora.com/Physics 2. StackExchange: http://physics.stackexchange.com/ Finally, I think it is impressive that you are committed to lifelong learning! At my undergraduate school, all regular college courses (that don't have limited spaces) are offered for free for people over 65 years of age. Maybe you can check if your local college/university offers this and perhaps taking a course in relativity can answer this question and any others!

I used to have a 15.4" but now I use a 13" Macbook Pro (old non-retina). When I am using my 13", the screen seems huge to me though. I just switch between desktops to have more than one thing going on at once. I don't think I want the weight of anything bigger than 13" again but I think 11" might be too small for me. My hands are large and already crowd up most of the horizontal space on the 13" so I can't imagine typing comfortably on the 11". But I have never tried for a long period of time so I don't really know for sure! At work, I have a 30" monitor though. I don't do a ton of work on my laptop (except for writing papers/presentations) so I never feel the need for additional screen real estate with my laptop.

Yes, I received this at some schools (even before I accepted their offer!). Basically, in this case, if you are fully funded by your department, you should just complete the form as requested (my form lists the total $$ needed, and then a breakdown of how I intend to show this funding, and one of the ways is to attach a letter from the department confirming the funding). But no matter what, the International Office needs to know you have full funding before they can issue the I-20. At big schools, there is less communication between departments (in my opinion) so they might have you do (more) paperwork to send the info from one department to another. At my school, my department sent the funding info to the grad school which sent the info to the International Office for me, so when the International Office got my file, they knew a lot of the funding information already. They just asked me to fill in a form with some basic biographical information that they needed for the DS-2019 (equivalent to I-20), such as name, place of birth, any dependents, etc. But my school only gets about 200 new graduate students per year across the entire campus (and about 80 new international graduate students) so I can imagine how this level of convenience is not sustainable at much larger schools. Basically, I don't think schools start working on processing your I-20/other immigration paperwork until you accept their offer. Once you do, you basically need to work with this other entity on campus to get your international student status paperwork completed. I would direct all questions about this process to the International Office directly, since the people in the department you are applying to might not know the best/correct answer!

I also put soy sauce on my eggs (just did it this morning!) Other combinations that I like (some mentioned above): Salt + watermelon Salt + hot chocolate French fries + soft serve (e.g. a Wendy's frosty) Ketchup + Kraft Dinner (i.e. Kraft mac n cheese in the US) Dipping grilled cheese sandwiches in ketchup Sriracha + yellow mustard is a great dipping sauce for pretty much anything (it's served at all dim sum restaurants where I grew up) Putting maple syrup over everything on my breakfast plate (eggs is good, but something salty like sausage or bacon is amazing) (sharp) cheddar cheese + bananas Using italian pasta in chinese noodle dishes (okay maybe this one isn't that weird)

Hi hwl, The purpose of these forums is to discuss issues relevant to grad school applications and life as a graduate student (academically and socially/personally) and other issues relevant to graduate students (e.g. postdoc job finding etc.). Its purpose is not to answer technical questions about our fields, especially not like the ones you have posted here. This is in part because of the reason I just said (it's not the reason these forums exist) but also for the reason GeoDUDE! mentioned--many schools have "take home final exams" (i.e. the final exam is a long/hard homework problem set) and we don't want to inadvertently help someone cheat on an exam or homework. I am not accusing you of anything, but I hope you understand that when we are on the internet it is hard to determine if a particular question is just because they are curious or because they want someone to do a homework problem for them. Again, I am not accusing you of doing this, but this forum really isn't the right place to ask this type of question. But this doesn't mean that there is no place at all for these types of questions. I suggest that you post your question to this forum instead: http://www.physicsforums.com/. They have specific policies about posting and receiving homework help and it would be a good idea to read through their policies before posting your question!

Not standard at all. Also, if the first author is getting reimbursement for the conference from the department, then she should just submit her poster printing expense as part of what the department is covering/reimbursing. Unless of course the department is specifically excluding this expense! In general, when a department is fully reimbursing conference costs, poster printing is definitely one of them. Also, I think it's really weird that the student co-authors would be expected to pay for it. In my field, if for some reason the coauthors have to pay out of their own grant/funding, usually the professors will pay, not the students. In your case, I think you should ask her if she has checked if her supervisor/lab group/department will pay for it. If they already said no, then I don't think it's fair to expect you to pay for the printing. However, you might recommend that she find a cheap printer--sometimes the department might own one so you only pay the cost of printing (cost is usually around $20-$30) or the on campus printing service might have a good deal. Alternatively, she can consider a cloth poster if she has enough time between ordering and printing. See http://labhacks.tumblr.com/post/62420107780/the-25-scrunchable-scientific-poster -- I've heard many good reviews from my colleagues and seen some of them too. Only $25!

I understand your opinion, but my opinion is that the meaning of words should evolve based on how people actually use them and the same word can have more than one meaning depending on context. The only "guardians" of language should be the users and since people in academia are using "plagiarism" to include incorrect citations as well, then it will include incorrect citations as well. I don't agree that there is such a thing as "individuals who don't understand the importance of meaning". Every person using a language has equal right to modify it. Of course, if I personally decide to use "plagiarism" to mean "bananas" then this idea isn't going to catch on very well and no one will understand my meaning. However, everyone else in academia seems to understand that "plagiarism" includes lazy/incorrect citations so this is an appropriate meaning for that word. For example, a long time ago, the word "pirate" meant someone who robs ships at sea. Now, we still use it to mean stealing, but if a person illegally downloads a movie, they are still called a "pirate" even if this person is doing it nowhere near a ship nor at sea at all!

Yep, we are basically saying the same thing I chose the J (i.e. made sure the university would be willing to sponsor me on the J) for exactly the reason you state here! Here is what I have noticed about my experience on J-1 that is not related to being married: 1. The SEVIS fee for J-1 status is slightly different in some way but I don't remember. It's a tiny difference though. 2. Our International Student Program office told us that F-1 status was administered by US Immigration while J-1 status is administered by the Department of State. But I have not seen this translate to any real life day to day difference. 3. J-1 status is more rare, particularly for students (most postdocs are on J-1 though). So, I have encountered extra wait times from offices like the DMV or Social Security or the bank etc. getting confused when I hand them my DS-2019 and tell them I'm on J-1 status but they only know how to handle F-1 and I-20s. Usually they get a manager and the procedure is the same on my end (but it seems like the manager will tell them to key it in a little differently). The only time this became an actual annoyance was at the DMV where they didn't take my DS-2019 because they didn't know what to do with and then asked me to mail them a copy a few weeks later. Things that I know for sure are not affected by J-1 status (compared to F-1): 1. OPT is the same duration for both statuses 2. Taxes are the same -- all the IRS documents I read treat F-1 and J-1 the same way. But also, since these things vary a ton case-by-case I am in no way claiming this is an exhaustive list!

In terms of CV inclusion I would say: 1. Include it if you won the award and accepted the award. 2. Include it if you won the award from School X, declined it, but still attended School X under other funding (but really at $40k/year for 4 years, even with the increased cost of international tuition, the only award I can think of that can beat this is the Vanier at $50k/year). 3. Do not include it if you won the award from School X and declined it by not attending that school. If I understand correctly, each Ontario graduate school has a quota of awards to give out and they only grant them to students that attend their school right? So it's not quite "external" in the sense that an external agency evaluates and grants the awards. However, it is extremely competitive and thus prestigious! But this also means that if you don't attend the school it is pretty much equivalent to you not getting the award.

Right, which was why I tried to qualify my statement with both of those conditions! The two-year home residency requirement is not that the student must return home for 2 years after their PhD (and OPT) is complete. The requirement is that the graduate must physically reside in their home country for a total period of 2 years before they can get an immigration class visa/status for the US. So, as long as I never plan to immigrate to the US, I do not have to return to Canada at all if I don't want to. In STEM fields, OPT after your PhD on J-1 can last up to 3 years so you can still do your first postdoc in the US. The way I understand the 2 year requirement (but no experience with this yet) is that postdocs on J-1 status are not on immigration class visas so you can do multiple postdocs in the US anyways. And finally, there are ways to apply for a waiver for this requirement.

I want to say/clarify that I also understood the post saying "unfunded" to mean no funding at all, from any source! And I agree that in my field, the competition for external fellowships is an order of magnitude higher than competition for funding from the school. That is, probably only 10%-20% of graduate students in general are funded through "useful" external fellowships. (where I define "useful" as providing either all of your funding needs or enough so that the school can meet the remaining needs through TA/RA ships).

If you build your entire SOP argument about this professor then yes, I think this might get you rejected right away. But if you just mention it in one sentence along with other still valid statements about your fit with the department, then I don't think writing that would automatically make you get rejected. It would definitely make your application weaker, because it shows that you were not that careful in your application. But this might depend on the field. In my field, many people write to potential supervisors ahead of time to let them know that they will be including their name on the application. I also asked all of my old and current advisors and mentors about all of the profs on my list of people. I think that unless the move is very very recent then it's the applicant's responsibility to know about it before they mention them on the SOP. However, even if it's not your fault, if you wrote your application specifically to fit with this person, it will probably hurt you. This is why many people will advise you to write your SOP to have a good fit with several people (unless you really only wanted to work with this person then it's probably good that you got rejected!)

Finishing where he is now can be a long time--four more years! This seems like a very large investment of one's personal money for a degree that might not make it worth it in the end. I don't know what the best way to help your son because there isn't that much information here. I would probably say the best way to help is to make sure he chooses what is best for him! Again, I don't know the full story but I would think that having your family offer you the money to finish along with the sentiment that it's "unthinkable to just stop now" is kind of putting extra pressure. In my opinion, getting an unfunded offer basically means you were rejected but they can probably get money out of you. If I was in your son's position and knowing only the information I have from this post, I would either: 1) Just leave graduate school at the end of this year and find a different career path. 2) Apply to PhD programs again this fall for Fall 2015 start and stay at my current school long enough to get a Masters degree only. If I don't get in again next year, I would stop trying for PhD programs.

The main advantage of J-1 status is that your dependent can find work, which you say is not the case. There is really no other advantage to be on J-1 and as fuzzy pointed out, potentially even disadvantages too. Usually receiving money from the government will subject you to the 2 year home residency requirement if you are on J-1 (but not if you receive the same money on F-1). The 2 year home residency requirement is a negative for sure--why subject yourself to it when you don't have to? However, I don't think it's that bad--in many cases, the advantages of having a dependent work is far better than having to go home for 2 years before immigrating to the US (I would say it is only bad if both 1) you want to work in the US forever and 2) you will have zero opportunities at home)