TakeruK

It might depend on field, but in my case, only 3 out of 8 schools wanted official transcripts at time of application. Most of the schools I applied to were okay with an unofficial transcript. I had to provide official transcripts for another fellowship (in Canada) I was applying to, and they scanned the files and provided me with the PDF to check, so I used the same PDF to submit my transcript to other schools. Alternatively, you could also order an extra copy of your official transcript and then scan it and reuse for all your other schools. Some schools even said that a screenshot (made into PDF form) of your grades listing on your school's student login/registrar page would be acceptable as well. And yet another school wanted me to manually enter every single relevant course and grade. In addition, some schools (for example, UC Berkeley) only wanted transcripts from schools where a degree was completed, unless you are an international student. Overall, I would say that if there is a school that you feel would be a great match, deciding against applying to it just because you need to send all your transcripts isn't a good idea. But it is a good idea to manage your total list of schools to avoid applying to schools that you aren't completely sure about yet still require all official transcripts.

For courses that are not part of a degree program, you should only list them if they provide a relevant certification (like what GermanStudent said). Many schools also offer online / distance-education versions of their regular courses which count for credit towards a degree program -- i.e. one might take 4 courses on campus and 1 course distance-ed/online. In this case, there's no point listing the individual course on your CV.

Also, sometimes graduate students stay in the residence for e.g. 39 weeks and then move into another place that is privately rented. This could be a good idea if you don't live close to your new school and so it might be hard to find a place to rent privately.

I agree -- definitely get your new supervisor to take a look, especially at your research proposal. For both my -M and -D applications, I sought out a researcher, brainstormed with them a project, and wrote up a proposal. In the -M case, they also agreed to read over my first draft and gave useful comments. Also, I wouldn't consider the % feedback you get as "grades" -- i.e. less than 50% doesn't mean "fail". I think it's a comparative ranking and remember that it's only the strongest students apply so getting "middle of the pack" scores doesn't mean you're a bad student -- it just means that you're in the middle of the pack in terms of GPA compared with other students, I think. Other things that help are winning past NSERC awards (e.g. USRA or the -M award to get the -D award) and publications. For the -M, where grades are more important (50% of the consideration), I would say that a "strong" candidate woud be someone with an A average, or 4.0/4.3. If you have less than that, you probably would need strong research experience and LORs and all of the other stuff they consider. I barely had an A average when I applied for the -M for the 2010-2011 award year and I got it while my friend, who had roughly the same research experience (co-op, papers, and all that too) but slightly lower GPA did not get one. So, I feel like I barely squeezed in with a slightly above A average back in 2010-2011 and I can only imagine the competition is higher now!

We got a similar email too, except it was less scary sounding. For example, it did not tell us to carry any documents in addition to what was required before (i.e. no transcripts or proof of registration). I just returned to the US after an international conference yesterday. I was expecting to get more questions and secondary screening but that did not happen. I gave the agent my passport, boarding pass and DS-2019 and the agent just asked if this was my first entry on this status (it was my second). He also asked where I was going and whether or not I was a researcher. He also told me about the new electronic I-94 after I asked about how it works -- it's all electronically stored now and there is a website you can use to get your I-94 number in case you need it for e.g. the DMV. There was no additional questions at all -- even less questions than I usually get when crossing the border by car! It could just be the agent I got, or it could also be that they are reducing the extra security checks from last month. Or, maybe I didn't get asked all the proof of funding stuff since this wasn't my first entry. It would be interesting to hear from the reentry experience of others!

Not quite the same experience since Canadians don't get visas to enter the US. However, my passport was set to expire about 9 months after I entered the US but Canada doesn't allow us to renew our passports until 6 months prior to the expiration date. So, I entered the US on my old passport, and I was able to mail in my forms and photographs to get a new passport a few months after entering the US. When I did so, I removed the I-94 form (back when there was still a paper form) and then reattached it to the new passport when I received it. This also means that your passport does not have to valid for your entire stay in the US -- I'm not sure where you read that? I read that it just has to be valid for 6 months past the date you want to enter the US. For Canadians, until next month, we only have 5 year passports, so unless we finish in exactly 5 years and we get a passport issued just before we leave, it's likely that most Canadian students will have to renew their passport at some point. For your visa, during our international student orientation, we were told that it's actually possible to get a visa that is valid beyond your passport expiry date. If this happens, they told us that our visa is still valid even though the passport it's attached to might be expired/invalid. You should get your old passport back when you renew it, and they will do something (e.g. punch a hole) through the identification pages but leave your visa pages alone. So, you can use your still valid visa in your old passport along with your new passport to enter the US again afterwards. For your passport, are you sure that you will have to return to your home country to get a new passport? Would you be able to visit a Consulate Office or Embassy of your home country in the US to do this instead? Of course, please check with your school's international office to be more certain -- this is just from my experience and what I learned from my own international office.

At my current school, the department administrator announces all PhD defenses to the entire division. There are two parts: first a one-hour public lecture given by the PhD candidate. This is usually given at the level so that a non-specialist* can understand it. All terms are defined and all the work is motivated and justified. (*Note: When I say "non-specialist", I mean someone who is familiar with scientific methods but does not study that particular problem. For example, our division contains geologists, geophysicists, geobiologists, as well as planetary scientists. I would say that the lectures are given at a level that a first year graduate student in any of these specialties should be able to fully understand it.) The one hour lecture is followed by simple questions from the audience. The audience typically consists of the student's family, friends, and generally the rest of the students in the same option, and of course, the committee. The culture is very laid back and relaxed, this part is not really the examination (but I think technically it is). For every presentation I've seen so far, there is a lengthy (~10 minute) section devoted to acknowledging the student's friends, family, supervisors and everyone else important to the student. There is often many fun pictures of the student's advisor and committee members doing things like falling asleep in their offices or making silly faces. In one case, the advisor preempted this by having a slide with an "incriminating" picture of the student on the screen as the advisor introduced the student to the audience. After this part is over, the committee and student move to a private conference room for the examination to actually happen. This is where the tough questions will happen! After about 60-90 minutes of that, there is celebrations with friends, family, other profs in the department involving cake and champagne, usually.

At some conferences, especially the ones that happen annually for your subfield, I think it's common to present a "progress report" of what you're doing so that you advertise your work and speciality to your colleagues. It's better, in my opinion, to package/present this type of presentation as showing preliminary results though, instead of just simply stating your problem and what you've done so far. That is, if you are working on a long multi-year project, you could try to logically divide it into two or more phases and present the first phase after 1 year, and let people know what's coming next. You can also present work from a paper in progress in order to solicit early comments and reviews. If you are presenting to your own field, then the feedback you get after the presentation is likely to be the same reaction you would get from a journal review. In fact, if you are presenting at the annual meeting for your subfield, it's likely that the person/people who will end up reviewing your submitted manuscript will be in the audience (my field is small enough for this to be true).

At a conference, I would probably only present an idea if I believed that I could finish the work before someone else could. In Astronomy, this is usually true simply because I am the only one with access to my data (there is usually a proprietary period before it becomes public domain). Otherwise, a lot of theoretical work also involve a lot of very intensive code that would make it difficult for someone to reproduce exactly what I was going to publish from a 10 minute talk. I would also wait until it's almost publication ready because I wouldn't want to present a well developed idea -- I wouldn't feel comfortable presenting it unless it's something I've spent a good chunk of time on it already. Usually, this means that I would have enough lead time to finish the paper before someone else could "steal" it and "scoop" me. However, I'm currently trying to finish something I presented just over a year ago now -- I had planned to be finished by now but extra problems popped up! As for "stealing", I would be pretty upset if someone saw a talk I gave, and then beat me to the punch. It wouldn't be technically wrong, since I acknowledge that presenting it means it is in the public domain, but I wouldn't be very happy about it. I would expect the other person to have the courtesy to tell me about it -- whether it's that they want to do their own thing based on the idea I presented, or to collaborate, or to just let me know that they actually independently were doing the same thing! I've seen papers in my field where two groups came up with an idea on their own, found out about the other, and then timed their publications to go in the same journal, in the same issue. The papers even mentioned this too. So overall, by making sure that my stuff is good quality before I present it, I think my ideas would be well developed enough that I don't have to worry about having my ideas stolen. I think most people in my field are good enough people that they would at least tell me if they were doing the same thing. I also try to have a couple of projects going at a time, so that if something goes wrong with one, it's not like I lose everything! But I will probably be a little bit more careful to make sure my main thesis work do not get completely scooped when I get to that stage. As for idea stealing in seminars, in my field, I would expect that the profs would approach the student about working together if a really great idea came up in class. In most of my grad classes, there is a large final project rather than an exam, and it's not too rare for these projects to be done so well, that the prof and student spend an extra few months after the course to make it into a publication. When this happens, it's usually that the prof wants the student to write it up and offer to collaborate and this usually makes the student the first author. I would expect that if a student came up with a great idea in a class (either through discussion or seminar), the prof would give the student the "right of first refusal" to develop that idea further into a paper.

I don't know about practical training specifically but I know about lots of students who leave the US while their visa has expired, but F-1 status is still valid (e.g. the status is valid for 6 years [duration of program] but the visa might only be valid for 1 year and then they leave after 1 year). This is perfectly fine -- you don't lose your F-1 status. What happens is that you have to apply for a new visa though to enter the US before you can return. So I also know about some cases where the visa application is delayed and the student is stuck in the other country for awhile until their visa arrives. So, how long are you planning to visit your home for? If getting a visa is easy then as long as you start the process as soon as you get home, you should be able to get your new visa before you return to the US!

Yay! That's awesome about no more stupid printed receipts too, I'm glad it's finally gone digital. Another annoying paper thing that just ended last month is the paper I-94, which you get upon crossing the border. It was the most important piece of paper because it's the only thing that says a border agent personally approved your entry and you need it for everything. However, it was a piece of paper where you handwrite your name and a number and stapled to your passport. Luckily, starting a few weeks ago, all new entries to the US will have electronic I-94s! I'm glad that DHS is catching up with the digital age

I'm not 100% sure what you mean. As a Canadian, we do not need a visa to enter the US (which is why we cannot book an appointment!). Sorry if I have said this before, but there is a difference between "visa" and "status": "Visa" = right to enter the US. This might be a one-time only deal, or a "5 entries in 3 years" type deal. This is a page that is attached physically to your passport and looks like your passport photo page. Since this is only necessary for entry, it doesn't matter if this expires after you have already entered. You cannot extend or renew your visa -- if this runs out, and you are out of the US (e.g a conference) you have to apply for a new visa before you can reenter. "Status" = "F-1" or "J-1" usually. This is your right to stay in the US for some purpose, e.g. school. The proof of this status is your I-20 or DS-2019. You need to show to this to authorities to get e.g. your driver's license and of course, every time you enter the US (so always take it with you when traveling!!). When this expires (either by time limit or by graduation), you have to leave the US (after some # of days). You can extend this with your school as necessary. So, for us Canadians, we do not need a visa. Thus, you do NOT have to pay the MRV (however, we pay a different fee, see below). Your school's International Office should have contacted you about issuing you an I-20. For me, they asked me whether I wanted to be on F-1 or J-1 status around May last year. They gave me a form with some info to fill out, e.g. full legal name, birthdate, names of dependents etc. and then the DS-2019 (I-20 for you) arrived in the mail. Once you have this, you can then use the numbers on the document to pay your SEVIS (also known as I-901) Fee https://www.fmjfee.com/i901fee/index.jsp You are supposed to have paid this BEFORE crossing the border. You pay the fee online. The fee is $200 for F-1 and $180 for J-1. No extra fee for dependents (F-2, J-2). Note: if we weren't Canadian, we would pay the MRV as well as the SEVIS fee! In the ideal case, you pay the fee online, then wait until they mail you back a very official receipt (it's more like a certificate). When it's time to cross the border, you need your passport, I-20, and your I-901 "receipt". They can technically turn you away if you do not have the receipt in hand. You do get a temporary receipt as soon as you pay it online, but they say that it's up to the agent's discretion whether or not they will accept the temporary receipt if they can look up the official transaction on their computer (but count on Murphy's Law working against you on the fateful crossing border day). It takes 2-3 weeks for them to mail the official receipt, so pay this well in advance (otherwise, you might have to pay $35 for courier shipping).

I did also (try to) look at the international tax treaty but it's super full of legalese and things that apply to all sorts of cases other than students! I think the main gist of the tax treaty is that we won't be double taxed -- that is, as long as we remain Canadian residents and US "non-resident alien" status, we will only pay taxes to Canada on Canadian income, and taxes to US on American income. Tax treaties, in general, do not get you out of paying any tax at all, from my knowledge. I don't think you file Form W8's with your tax return. I remember filling one out for a University because they reimbursed me for a prospective student visit. I also think I filled out a W8 when I started at my school here, last fall. As far I understand it, you give it to a US employer who is paying you, a non-US citizen, compensation for something. They use it to keep track of who is getting paid or something? Sorry, my knowledge is obviously fuzzy here! I might have forgotten to mentioned this above, but I got all of my tax withholdings back in the 2012 tax year because my US income was only $2250. This was because 2/3 of my stipend is paid for by a Canadian fellowship while the remaining 1/3 and tuition waiver is paid for by the school. In this same thread, on April 26, I posted a link to a Wikipedia article and tried to explain how to compute how much tax you would owe. If I was single, and had all of my stipend paid for by my school, according to my numbers above, I would have to pay a total of $345 on federal taxes (for the $7250 I would have received in the three months between Oct and Dec 2012). So, if you basically had to pay $730 on 4 months (Sept to Dec?) of fellowship income, that does sound a bit high. But maybe you have a really high paying fellowship? Or, maybe you are not paid monthly but you might have received a giant lump sum last fall for a period of time beyond Dec 2012. Obviously, I don't want to make you write your stipend value here, so here is some ballpark numbers for you to use to judge if you probably paid the right amount of tax (if you don't feel like doing the calculations I mentioned above, or want to confirm your calculations): If you are paid monthly, AND your annual stipend is $X, AND you started in Sept 2012 and thus only had 4 months of income, AND you are single, then you would pay the following federal tax amounts for the 2012 tax year: $20k stipend = $287 in taxes $25k stipend = $453 in taxes $30k stipend = $620 in taxes $35k stipend = $787 in taxes So, if the amount of taxes you ended up paying don't match up with the stipend ranges above, then maybe there is a problem! For example, you might have forgotten to deduct the "personal exemption" of $3800 from your taxable income (which would cost you $380 or so). Did you do your taxes on paper or with tax software? However, you should also remember that there is state taxes in addition to federal taxes. I can't estimate those rates for you, but the taxes withheld might be at both the state and federal level. And, unlike Canada, you have to file state taxes separately from federal taxes. So, in order to get your state tax withholdings refunded, you would have to file state taxes too! Hope that helps you figure it out! You can also send me a PM with more details if you are still confused and want to discuss actual numbers in private.

Agree with fuzzy. Also want to say that I think it's perfectly fine to enter a diverse / interdisciplinary field (e.g. "A-B" where A might be astronomy and B might be chemistry, or in your case, computational science and linguistics) with a stronger preparation/experience in one or the other. Most of my cohorts in our Planetary Science (which is a combination of geology, geophysics, physics, chemistry, and astronomy) have undergrad backgrounds in just one (or two related ones) of these subjects. One of us had an interdisciplinary degree in the wide field of planetary science, and that person says they feel it's easier to take something you know really well (e.g. physics, or chemistry) and then go and apply it to the interdisciplinary field and learn the other stuff as you need it, instead of having a wide background but no specialties. I'm not sure if it's necessarily true, since no one can see both sides (can't be both a generalist and specialist at the same time!) but it's something worth thinking about. I would personally also prefer to be really good at "A" and have working knowledge of "B" when going into an "A-B" field, rather than know a general amount of both "A" and "B".

I would write the email after finals/graduations. Everyone has the most time in the summer probably, especially early in the summer. Profs might do a lot of travel for conferences and stuff right after the term ends though, but you should try an email soon after the summer begins, then try again in a few weeks if you don't hear back. I would title the email something like "Grad School advice" or something like that? You probably don't have to make it complicated and identify yourself as a former student in the subject line -- do that in the first line of the email. Profs probably get a lot of emails from their current undergrad students about grad school advice so it shouldn't be a big deal, I think!

Just to be clear -- this was my first year filing both US and Canadian taxes and I'm obviously not a tax expert, so I can only tell you what I think is true based on my experience this year and from figuring out stuff from talking to other international/Canadian students/phoning the CRA. 1. I think this sounds right -- if you are a "non-resident alien*" (NRA), they pretty much withhold as much taxes as possible when they pay you. So if we get a 1042-S, it's likely that we'll get a refund rather than pay extra taxes. This is different for Americans who might get a W-2 for their fellowship. Also, as NRAs, we don't get to deduct a lot of stuff from our taxable income, so I would expect to still have to pay a bunch of taxes, that is, I wouldn't expect to get all of my taxes withheld given back. In the 2012 tax year, I did get everything back, but this was because I just started in October 2012 so my US income was really low. *Non-resident alien: Unless you have some American ties (spouse? family? green card?), for the first 5 years of your F-1 or J-1 status, you are a NRA. After this, if you spent an average of 180 days per year in the last 3 years (or something like this) physically residing in the US, then you can be a resident alien for tax purposes and able to claim a lot more deductions. 2. The way I read the CRA publications (in my previous post), we are a resident of Canada for tax purposes (even if you spend all of your time in the US, as a student, you can claim intention to return to Canada). This means that I only filed my Canadian-based income with the CRA and I only filed my US income with the IRS. So, this means I'm not "double-taxed" on anything. I think this is the correct thing to do, and the CRA accepted my filed return. Note: Exception is for state taxes. In California, you are taxed by the state on foreign income sources if it is for work performed in the state of California. So, my Canadian fellowship that is paying part of my stipend here would be taxed at the state level in California but not at the federal IRS level. This likely varies from state to state though! 3. Yes, I think this is true. We would file a form TL-11. I didn't know about this when I filed my Canadian taxes, but a Canadian friend told me about it and he has done it successfully for the last 3 years. Also, when I brought in the TL-11 for my school's financial office to fill out, they knew exactly what to do so this is something that many Canadians commonly do. I haven't filed my own TL-11 yet, since I forgot to do it in April, I had to wait until they process my original return before I can file a correction. This has now happened but I have been too busy to figure out exactly how to file a correction. We have something like 10 years to file a correction though, so I'll probably do it sometime this summer. Finally, the CRA has a hotline you can call for random tax questions. There was a short wait on hold in early April but it wasn't too bad and it should be less busy now. Also, if you haven't done so already, I would really recommend setting up an online account "My Account" on the CRA website. You can track the status of your return, see how much room you have left in your TFSA, educational tax credits etc. and an electronic copy of all your tax forms (T4s etc.) so you don't have to wait for a Canadian employer to send you their version, you'll get it as soon as they submit it to the CRA. You can also do things like change your residential or mailing address easily, and it seems like you can file corrections too!

Note: Obviously this will just be my very subjective opinion on this topic -- your own needs and expectations may not be the same, but I hope you (or someone else) will still find these thoughts useful. I'm very interested in cheap, lightweight, and very basic laptops such as the Chromebook. However, I still don't think it's worth the price at this point. My problem is that it is far too lightweight. Only 16GB on "on-site" storage? My phone has the same storage capability! Google Drive is pretty cool, but 100 GB is not a lot and you only get that free for 2 years -- then it's $5/month to keep the same level of space. So in the 4-5 year lifetime of the laptop, you will have to pay $370-$430. You would only get 100 GB of storage, and most of that is only available where you have an internet connection (which is true in most cases, but not always true in some places you might really want to access something, e.g. airports, airplanes, cheap hotels that you're staying in, coffee shops etc.). Also, sometimes while an Internet connection is theoretically possible, it can take a long time to actually connect! Overall, I like the idea of the Chromebook but currently, it cannot replace my primary computing needs. Other than the issue of storage above, I also want to use my computer to do things like store / edit my photos, connect remotely to a work terminal, run Skype, create high quality figures and PDFs, make animations from still images (for science!), store and read papers on my hard drive directly (e.g. with Mendeley), and keep copies of old presentations, data, etc. that I would want to show others "on demand". I feel that the Chromebook is really good if you find yourself spending all of your time on your computer using Google Chrome only. I do find myself using most of my time on Chrome, but not all. I used to only use OpenOffice for my "office suite" needs, but at my current school, we all get the latest versions of MS Office for free, and I cannot believe how much better MS Powerpoint is over OpenOffice. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you do "get what you pay for". I think I've already used MS Powerpoint enough and it has improved my work enough in just the last 8 months to make it worth the $80 price of MS Office Student Edition if I had to pay for it myself. So, because of the lack of functionality outside of running web apps (I just checked: you cannot install any software that isn't a Chrome App since it only runs the Google Chrome web browser: http://support.google.com/chrome/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=1289187&ctx=topic&answer=1290513). That is already a deal-breaker for me -- I don't want to spend $250 for a web browser. The storage space issue is another thing. Therefore, I don't think I can ever use a Chromebook as my primary computer. It would be a great secondary computer though, but as aberrant said, the Chromebook is priced at about the same level as tablets or even just a little bit under an iPad ($400). For a secondary computer, I wouldn't need a keyboard, and touchscreens are much better. I also feel that some tablets are much more developed than the Chromebook. Personally, I only have my primary computer (which is a traditional laptop) and I don't have the budget to spend $300+ for a secondary "fun" computer that I don't really need. Since I don't have unlimited money, something like the Chromebook (or other tablet) is pretty low on the list of priorities -- maybe I'll get it one day, when I have tenure, haha. Conclusion: I think that the limitations of the Chromebook prevent it from being a primary computer (or it would cause a lot of frustration and effort), yet the cost of it is too high to be a good investment as a secondary computer. I would personally spend 2-3 times as much and get a full working laptop as my primary computer and use a phone or something for lightweight, on-the-go browsing.

In addition, if you have a Kindle or other e-Reader, membership at your local library also allows you to "borrow" e-Books for free instead of having to buy them. This also means you don't have to physically get to the library and carry books home (nor would you have to worry about returning things on time), which is convenient especially if the library is far away! Usually, to qualify for library services, you just need to prove residency in the city/town -- a driver's license with a local address would be nice but otherwise any photo ID plus any other document with your name and local address on it (e.g. lease, utility bill, bank statement) would work too.

I was not allowed to take anything into the exam room, other than a few items that were on the "allowed" list (pencils? key to the locker etc.). I definitely would not have been able to fit a small suitcase in the provided lockers and I would not have been allowed to have it with me in the exam room. However, when I wrote the computerized GRE, I ended up arriving over an hour early (I had to travel several hours to a nearby city to write the exam). There was plenty of room in the exam room so they just checked me in and let me start as soon as I was ready. So if you need a little bit of time in between GRE and traveling, you might want to try to arrive a bit early and see if they will let you start earlier. This might give you time to lock your bag in a gym locker, or a locker at a bus or train station. A good idea would be to call your testing centre though! You can probably find their phone number on your ticket somewhere! They will be able to tell you if you can take the test earlier or if they have alternate ways to storing your luggage securely.

I wouldn't put an article like that on my academic CV (that is, something I would use to apply for academic jobs or fellowships). However, I would probably include it if I was writing a CV/Resume for other work, where non-academic writing is a useful skill. For example, some schools ask students to submit resumes for TA appointments, so something like that could help you get a course you want, if it's relevant. It might also be useful for small competitions like getting a travel grant for e.g. a teaching, outreach, or science communication conference/workshop/etc.

This is probably highly dependent on the person and circumstances of course! I submitted my MSc thesis in August, but the next round of graduation ceremonies was not until November, after I would have already moved far away from the school. So, I didn't even go back to cross the stage for my MSc. I don't feel too bad about this since I am planning on a PhD so that's when I'd get my family to come see it etc. However, if I was in your position and I had the chance to cross the stage last June (before I submitted my thesis), I might have done so if both (1) I wasn't going to get another degree afterwards and (2) my family were going to travel all the way for it. For me, the only real reason to do the ceremony is for the memories of celebrating the accomplishment and that it's probably more important to my family than it is to me. So, I'd figure like 10 years down the road, I'm not going to care whether or not my ceremony was technically a few months early (or even a year early if I end up taking that much longer to finish).

I'll second aberrant's point about immunisations -- you can get it done at the school. There is no vaccine requirement to enter the US, only to enroll in the school, depending on the state. My school also wanted a physical, which cost me about $120 in Canada (since it was for a 3rd party, it wasn't covered by our national health insurance) and I found out later that I should have waited until I arrived and then got it done for free, covered under my new school's health insurance! Oh well. Some schools also will offer a no-fees, no-interest startup loan to help with initial costs until your stipend kicks in. I got $2500 from my school, which you pay back in 18 monthly installments starting 6 months after the loan issue date.

Every school I've been to (visited and attended) has allowed their PhD students to combine 3 published, peer-reviewed journal articles into a PhD Thesis. Some schools have extra requirements, such as first authorship on all three papers. Some schools only require first authorship on 2 papers and a statement from the advisor certifying the student contributed the majority of the work on the 3rd paper. Almost all schools require the student to write a little bit to fill in the gaps, but some schools have specific requirements while others let the thesis committee decide. That said, just because all these schools allow students to write their dissertation in this way, this does not mean that all PhD students do it. I get the sense that many students strive for this goal (because it means less time spent writing a dissertation, and more time being directly productive on research and writing peer reviewed articles) but not everyone is able to do it. I know for some students, getting that third paper might mean an extra year in grad school, so they might just opt to spend a few more months writing up the dissertation the old fashioned way. Or, maybe they aren't interested in academia after graduation, so publications are not a big deal -- they just want to write up the darn thing and get out! However, in Astronomy/Physics/Planetary science, I think 3 papers during grad school is a reasonable goal.

I think most of what you said would also apply to STEM fields. A PhD dissertation is meant to be publishable quality work -- after all, the work towards a PhD is original research! However, many STEM students do not always revise and publish a dissertation because it usually happens in the opposite order. Sometimes, this is because a PhD dissertation usually covers far too much information to fit into a single paper. So, usually, students will write at least 3 papers during their time as a PhD student and get them published in peer reviewed journals. Once they have 3 good papers, and both the student and advisor feel they are ready to graduate, the three (or more) papers get revised and turned into the thesis. The papers are reformatted into the school's thesis format, of course, and then the student would usually add a chapter or two at the beginning (to provide a more descriptive background than what is usually seen in papers) and some summarizing remarks at the end. This way, it's not too difficult to churn out a thesis when you're ready to graduate -- it would probably take about 1-2 months since you have been writing parts of your thesis (in form of the papers) throughout the years! In this format, the thesis is really just a way to show to your committee that you have done good work and are ready to graduate. I think the "manuscript" thesis described above is the ideal way to write theses in STEM fields. Sometimes though, a student is ready to graduate but doesn't have all 3 papers ready (or the last one is still under review etc.) Or, they aren't interested in getting papers out of their work for some reason, and they just want to finish. In that case, students would write a "traditional" thesis, modifying some published papers into thesis format if necessary. This process takes a lot longer! For Masters theses, I think it's more common to write the thesis first, then rework it as a paper though. 2 years is usually not enough time to finish your coursework, research work, and go through the whole peer review process!

In your shoes, I would make sure to look out for myself first and foremost. Would you be financially okay if you were to lose income for the next two months? If not, then don't tell them now. On the other hand, you also want to keep a good relationship with former employers. You definitely would want to end things professionally and extend courtesy in allowing them to hire and train a replacement. That's something that's hard to judge so think about how long would it take to train you? I wouldn't worry about the time it might take for them to find a replacement though, since I would suspect there are a ton of qualified people out there. So, maybe some balance of how much you need the income and how much you want to maintain good relations. Not knowing anything else, I would probably say give about 4 weeks notice and you can adjust that +/- 2 weeks based on how much you need the current income/future goodwill. Or, maybe tell them right after you come back from your leave (i.e. after you've signed a lease). But that's just my thoughts!