TakeruK

My MSc was at a small town where we needed (and had) a car to get around. Now I'm in a big city with a great public transportation system and we didn't move our car. We get by without the car (groceries are only a 10 minute walk away) but we're really missing it now. But we're definitely NOT missing the insurance payments, frequent car repairs, gas, etc. Overall, I think the extra hassles is worth the savings in car costs, but we don't see ourselves continuing to live this way once we can afford to have a car again (our last city was way cheaper than our current home!!) Having a car would also save money by allowing us to live further away from the city's core / school area, which usually means a large reduction in rent (or increase in quality for the same rent). It also gives us a lot more options for grocery shopping -- we're currently limited by whatever is available in the nearest store. A car also allows for buying in bulk to save money (and time). Don't get me wrong -- I'm enjoying this change of pace without a car and I really do like biking everywhere. I also feel healthier that I'm walking or biking a lot more and I feel good about not contributing to air pollution. However, not having a car usually really limits your options and even the best public transportation system means you're depending on bus/train schedules and traveling outside of your area might take hours. So, for us, while I'm glad that we don't "need" a car right now, I'll be happy to have one again in the future! It just gives you so much more freedom since I don't really know of many cities that were specifically designed for not needing a car.

A friend of mine took a full year of credits extra and graduated a year later after taking pretty much every course the department offered. He definitely could have graduated in 4 years, or even less due to high school credits. I don't think this extra year hurt him at all, and he believes it's been helpful to demonstrate he has the right background. He got into and is attending a top 10 university for his field so he's probably right! I think that you are making the right decision for both financial and academic reasons. Your current stipend is more than some graduate programs and you don't even have to do more than take classes You also have a sound reasoning for taking these courses (it's not like you are just taking fluff courses now) so it sounds like a good foundation for your future graduate work as well as a logical progression if you talk about your courses in your SOP. I would only suggest that you try to get more research experience during this extra time. Maybe in the summers or alongside your courses. Maybe consider taking only the minimum courses to maintain full time status (and receive your military support) if it still allows you to take all the courses you want. It would be better use of your time to get additional research experience than a course you might not need. In addition, check carefully with your school's policies about staying longer than needed to graduate. Some programs have a maximum credit limit so taking the minimum courses might help you stay under that limit as well.

Maybe it's different in the sciences but it would be really strange to have a department with 10-12 people that do work you're interested in. Usually, your interests at the grad school level are refined enough that it wouldn't make sense for a University Department to have hired 10-12 people that do the same thing (unless there are hundreds of faculty at this department or something!). The purpose of mentioning names in a SOP (or elsewhere in an application) is to show that you would be a really good fit for those professors. So if you mention (more than?) half the department, that negates your argument that these people are an especially good fit for you. I wouldn't worry about potentially shutting out some faculty members because you didn't mention their name -- after all, you are applying to these schools because you really want to work with the few people that match your interests really well. That said, not every incoming graduate student needs to know what they want to do right away. It's definitely possible to get into schools just wanting to study the general field and pick a specific topic later. But if you want to go this route, then there's no point mentioning 10-12 names -- just don't mention any or pick a few that are really interesting to you.

Sometimes the connection is an old one. For example, a recent PhD from University A might be currently at University B as a post-doc but they still have a couple of papers to finish up with their supervisor from A. But since they are now funded by B, and perhaps using resources (computing, library, or otherwise) from B, their affiliation might be listed as B. Other times, especially for students, the connection is through the faculty members. My MSc supervisor has introduced me to many different people and I have started working with some of them, at different places. Like laura_b said, conferences/meetings are a good place to meet face-to-face. I think a lot of multiple-institution collaborations start with well connected faculty members. But for newbies like us, conferences are also a good place to start these collaborations. You might learn about some interesting research related to what you're doing so instead of trying to duplicate each others' work, you get together. In addition, senior grad students / new PhDs and postdocs might give a lot of talks at different departments across the country. This is a good way of getting your research out there so people know about you and want to work with you. And sometimes you might just notice a great paper, maybe with a great method, that you want to apply to your problem. So, you might get in touch with the authors and propose that they work with you to develop their method to fit your problem. Similarly, (although this may happen in the sciences more often), co-authorship might just be an acknowledgement of funding or other technical support. For example, if Prof. X has access to an instrument or dataset that is not yet publicly available and Prof Y. wants to use it, the two of them might collaborate. It's basically saying "you can use my data that I worked for years to get if I am a coauthor" but it's not as bad as it sounds. Usually the reason why the data (or instrument) is so hard to get/use is that it requires a great deal of expertise to interpret/use correctly. But the main research (and paper) might be completed by Prof Y. As to how to write these papers together, it might depend on the group. In one experience, for a paper with 28 authors at something like a dozen schools, we had weekly teleconferences to discuss the science/analysis but there was a core group that was responsible for writing the paper. After they are happy with a draft, it's emailed to the rest of the collaboration for comments, they are debated over telecon and then the process repeats a few times until we sent it to the journal, get referee reports, and repeat it all over again. I think it took over a year before that paper was published! In another case, for a much smaller collaboration, the first author was the main writer and she emailed the drafts out to everyone for comments. We would email back the small notes (e.g. spelling, formatting etc.) but discuss the scientific parts over Skype. We also used conferences as a place to get face-to-face meeting and we actually made a lot of progress! I think it's pretty common for an existing collaboration to take one morning/afternoon/evening out of the conference schedule to sit down and discuss their paper. Sometimes each collaboration has its own internal policies (in the most extreme case with the 28 authors, we had to sign a contract to avoid misunderstandings). Usually each set of comments were due by a certain date to avoid making the process drag out. Sometimes there are disagreements (especially when so many people/groups are involved) so there might be policies to handle that too. Usually the first author is the "leader" and has the final say in what goes where but it's their job as the leader to keep everyone happy too. With "modern" technology, there are even easier ways to work together now. There are dropbox-like services where coauthors can now make comments (and sometimes revisions) that are immediately synchronized with everyone else. This saves emailing back and forth a lot of files repeatedly (and worrying about whether or not you're reading the latest version). However, I have not used anything like this for a collaboration yet! The main struggle seems to be getting everyone on board with the same software etc.

I think people in your field would be able to recognize the "upper level" courses by name. I would imagine that undergrad education in most fields would be mostly standard? For example, a physicist who sees "General Relativity" on a transcript would recognize it as a 400-level or even graduate level course. Also, I wouldn't be too worried -- at the 3 schools I've been to, all 3 used different numbering systems. My current US school numbers undergrad courses from 1 to 99, lower level grad courses 100-199 and senior grad courses 200+. I think most adcoms are used to many different systems so if they wonder why the jump from 100s to 300s/400s, they might check the transcript more carefully and see that notation,. But if it makes you feel better, I would suggest adding a note in the "Special Comments" or "other Comments" box, usually on the last page of your application. If you really really wanted to, I don't think it would hurt for you to contact the schools but it's not necessary and you might look silly for doing so. Still, if you are really stressing out about this, looking silly might be worth it for your peace of mind.

I think this is a good point! I also think that a lot of people do this without consciously thinking about it though. But for classes where active participation is encouraged, especially at the first year graduate level, it might be helpful for instructors to spend some time at the beginning of the first class mentioning this as well as other thoughts that might help encourage more introverted people to speak out. Even though these types of classes/briefings might have already happened in senior undergrad courses, I think it would be worth mentioning again, since it's a new school and a new group of classmates. Sometimes I feel like a lot of profs who teach grad classes just expect their students to know what the expectations are, or just treat new students like senior grad students. This "immersion" or whatever you call it could have benefits, but it doesn't take much time/effort to be clear about expectations!

Google ads' algorithm is to display ads based on content of the page, so it's not a surprise that a post about insurance will result in insurance company ads. Liability insurance for TAs is a good point though. At my last school, it was one of the key concerns that we asked the union and University to clarify exactly what would happen if a student (or their parents) decided that it was the TA's fault that the student got hurt in a lab. It's confusing because our job description include things like "maintain a safe lab environment" but it's unclear whether this just extends to informing students of safety protocols and making sure students follow them or does it mean that we are legally responsible for the students' safety. If it's the latter, there were extra concerns since (1) we don't set up many lab equipment ourselves (lab technicians do it) and we don't have time allocated to check each set up (also, why should we know better than the lab techs that have been doing this for 10+ years anyways), (2) we can only remove students from the lab for unsafe practices, but this is a "reactive" approach -- they have to do something stupid/dangerous first, and (3) we don't get any additional training in how to maintain a safe lab -- we basically get the same safety protocols training, but nothing about how to actually handle a dangerous situation. I was in a physics program so while we did have some hazardous materials in our lab courses (lasers, things falling etc.), it's probably not as dangerous as a wet chem lab. I graduated and left before the University and Union figured out who was responsible for what. Ideally we would have liked to get it clarified that TAs are released from all liability (similar to how students usually have to sign waivers to release the school from liability). Maybe this was already in place but we just didn't know about it. Even if the school had an insurance policy in place for its TAs and profs, it would still be a nightmare to have to go through all the legal proceedings. I wonder what policies exist at other schools? If you are TAing a lab, do you know what you could be liable for? As for getting liability insurance -- I have always had liability insurance as part of my auto insurance or renters insurance policies. Renters insurance is pretty important and my insurance company actually extends the liability coverage in my renters insurance to everything else as well (i.e. I'm covered if my landlord decides to sue me for leaving the stove on and damaging the building or even if someone decides to sue me for libel!). So while I didn't go out and get personal liability insurance due to concerns about TAing, I think renters policies (or homeowners insurance) should cover this anyways! And I definitely think renters insurance is a good idea for peace of mind, no matter what your occupation is (some landlords might even require it).

When I was TAing lab courses, I was assigned 4.5 hours per week (3 hours in lab, 1.5 hours for prep and grading). I think I ended up working more like 5 hours a week overall, about half in the lab and half prep time (not all weeks had labs). So I would estimate a TA workload to be 1 hour of prep/grading/email time for every 1 "contact-hour" (i.e. in class or in lab). It depends on each TA assignment though, of course! We were paid for all the hours worked though. Also, we were unionized but there was no weekly limit on hours. Instead, hours were "billed" by the term (e.g. 54 hours per term) and it's up to the course prof and the TA to decide how to allocate those hours. The guideline here was also 10 hours per week, on average, per course. For things like grading, it's easy to adjust your work to fit in the number of hours allocated. It's also important to discuss the expectations with whomever you are TAing for, since you don't want to be spending hours marking an assignment that the prof just wants you to quickly glance over. As for the stipend, are you sure that your TAship is the only source of income? 10,000 a year for TA work sounds about right but that's usually only a fraction of your total support. It might be different in a Masters level program though. Sometimes I found that the department webpages are very vague about funding, but your letter of offer should clearly state what you can expect.

5 sections is a lot! My current program does not have a time limit on how much we're supposed to spend on TAing, but the requirement is one quarter-length course per year during years 2, 3 and 4 only. (So in one year, you've TA'ed more than I ever will in my current program). In my previous grad program, one TA unit was 4.5 hours per week (one section). Students with outside funding (and thus require less TA funding) work only 2 units per year. Students without fellowships work 4 units per year. So, even 5 sections in one year is definitely higher than the norm, in my experience. 5 sections at the same time is really abnormal! Gary in CA's work estimate is very high though. 5 one-hour sections plus 20 hours of grading is a ton of work to be doing on non-research! In Canada, we were paid hourly (~$40/hr for TAs) so the department has incentive to not overload us on TA duties (they can't afford to pay us $1000/week just to do TAing!). Remember that everything related to the TA work (including attending classes, answering student emails, meeting with the prof to talk about TAing, and doing the problem set also count as TA work, not just grading and teaching). For the OP, you should definitely look into your school and department policies on TA workload. Read over your TA contract or any other funding documents to see what you have to do. Even if the school basically says you have to work as many hours as necessary, with no extra pay (like my current school's deal), logging your hours will help you prove that you have indeed been working hard. It would be useful if you want to show how you are not going to be as productive when you have to TA this much! As for asking about RAing, you can just be up front about it, I think. Not confrontational of course, but I think it's reasonable to talk to your supervisor about how much work you are spending on TA work. Especially if you have an estimate of your TA hours to back it up. I would just mention that I feel that I am not able to get as much research done with all my TAing and ask if it's possible to be funded with an RAship in the future. If there's some department policy about funding that you didn't know, I think your advisor would let you know. Also, he/she might be able to help you transition out of TA funding if it's necessary too. EDIT: In addition, for the OP, they should look into how many hours they are actually expected to spend on TA work. Maybe they only expect you to spend 10 hours per week for those 5 sections (it could be possible if you are just leading the same tutorial section five times, and no grading, so that preparation time is not duplicated). Sometimes people spend too much time TAing but it could be a miscommunication of expectations. In my last 2 years, I found that I often wanted to spend more time grading etc. but I have to budget how many hours I'm allocated to work. In some cases, I might end up working up to 10% more hours than my contract, but I try to avoid working for free when possible! When there was a conflict between hours allocated and the amount of work required, students generally let the department know. They might assign (and pay for) additional hours, or they might remove a graded problem set, or the prof might do more marking, and hopefully adjust things next year. If the department don't do anything to address the discrepancy, I would just do the minimum work so that the students' learning is not damaged (but they would miss out on some enrichment) and let them know that I am unable to do more since they are not assigning enough TAs/TA-hours to this course. Sometimes, the school is more willing to listen to the voice of the tuition-paying undergrads!

Do what you feel like. I don't think it will affect your application positively nor negatively. So, if you are the type of person that wants to follow up this way, then I think you should go ahead. I did this for a few profs that I had longer interactions with. But if you feel like you have to do this because you think it's the correct protocol, then I don't think that's the case so you shouldn't force it.

That's a good point -- you can write the email as saying something like "I am interested in School X because of your and Profs. A, B, C's work on Subject Y." etc. if you are worried that the reader will think you are exclusively contacting them. However, I think it's generally expected that these initial contact emails are commitment-free on both sides. In addition, sometimes if you email one prof, they might even forward your email to their colleagues and/or suggest you get in touch with them. So, it's also important to keep in mind that anyone could end up reading your initial emails. That is, don't email one prof saying that "Topic X is my #1 choice" and then email someone else saying "Topic Y is my #1 choice", etc. When considering two different topics at the same school (or even at different schools), I'd temper the statements by removing the superlatives (e.g. just say that you are really interested in topics X and Y).

I'd like to second the suggestion of leaving his bags at the hotel front desk and picking them up when he's ready to go. Not all hotels offer this (call ahead and ask) but most will (unless you are staying at a super budget motel). However, it's reasonable to ask about the extra night. Since they are asking him how much time he needs, it's completely reasonable (even if he's the only one) to ask to stay until the next morning if he doesn't feel like taking a late train home after a long eventful day. In addition, for those flying in from further away, if the events end at 8pm, and factoring in 2-3 hours for both travel to and getting to an airport before their flight leaves, that means some people will have to take 10pm or 11pm flights home. That might not be desirable for everyone, especially if you don't live near a hub city so you have to make a connecting flight (which means you arrive at hub city maybe at 3am and might have to wait until 6am for another flight or bus/train home). So it's unlikely that he will be the only one requesting to stay the last night. In addition, there may be additional events happening after the end of official planned activities, perhaps scheduled by the grad students. Or, if he has time to stay the extra night, he can take a later flight home the next day and spend the next morning seeing the city on his own terms (instead of through whatever school events). I think you are allowed to negotiate the terms of your visit. For my MSc schools, I actually spent 1 full day visiting the school and 1.5 days seeing the city. For my PhD schools, there was some negotiation with all my visits. In one case, I stayed at a friend's place in exchange for additional travel support (international flight was slightly over their maximum support level) and in another, they agreed to let (and paid for) my wife to visit with me because we were able to stay at an even cheaper hotel due to her employee discounts. In reality, there is probably some maximum amount of money they are able to spend on visiting students. They don't usually tell you this right away though. Generally, they will probably accept all requests that keep them under that limit. When I wanted to visit with my wife, I asked them if it was okay and how much was the maximum support they would be willing to give and then we made our travel plans within that budget.

I don't mean to derail this thread too much, or to pick on anyone, but I think this statement MAY not true / helpful for the OP to make her decision. The "cost" of finishing school is the $15,000 debt plus whatever income the OP could have made by doing something else other than school for the next 2.5 years. To the OP: When my wife attended college for film production (which includes writing for stage/film courses), some of her teachers had MFA degrees. I know it's not exactly the same situation, but something to think about. However, my wife says that it seems like the college program emphasized real work experience over education when hiring their instructors. Also, we were in Canada at that time, and when my wife was attending the program, they were at a Canadian "College", which is the equivalent of a US "Community College". I think it would be a good idea to look at some local community colleges and see what kind of background their instructors have.

I also agree that it's okay to ask more than one faculty member per department about working with them. After all, you are just asking if they are taking students, you are not asking to join their group. Similarly, if they answer positively, that just means that they do have spots for students, it's not a commitment for them to take you if you get into their school. So, it's actually better to have multiple options at every school you apply to -- that is, you probably shouldn't apply to a school if there is only one person you could really work with. But this depends on the field too of course. In some fields/departments, you are admitted directly to a specific group. In other places, you do rotations at many groups in the first year. As for research interests matching up -- you are not expected to know exactly what you want to do. However, personally, I think it's important for a graduate student to know what they want to do, instead of being interested in everything. If you know what you want, then it's just a matter of looking at all the faculty members and deciding whether or not their interests matches yours. I'm not sure what you mean by "trying to mention their research in limited words" -- why can't you just say what you're interested in and mention that this matches up with Profs X, Y, Z. etc. There's no point summarizing their interests and then yours and then stating the obvious that they match up. Just talk about your interests -- the profs know what their own interests are! Finally, my post was written in the mindset of the sciences, where grad students generally work on a project assigned to them by their supervisor. Sometimes, it's a project that is conceived together and guided by both student and professor input. Thus, the majority of our funding comes from our supervisor paying us to do this work. However, I understand that some social sciences (but not sure about Psychology), grad students come up with their own project completely so that the prof is more of an advisor than a direct supervisor.

Someone who knows me in "real life" would probably be able to immediately identify me if they found my posts/profile on this forum. I'm not too worried about that because I believe that while there are differences between my personality here and in "real life", I'm counting on my "real life" attributes to override any incorrect conclusion about my character due to misunderstanding my posts. If someone were to read enough of my posts, they can probably figure out exactly what program and school I'm currently at. With a little bit more checking, they can probably figure out my name from matching up the current students in my program with their undergrad schools. I suppose someone might "meet" me on this forum first and then one day, when I apply to their school or meet them in person, they might be able to match me up with whatever opinion they have from my posts and that might lead to a less-than-desirable first impression. However, I really don't think anyone has any reason to remember my posts here and attach an opinion to my character. In addition, I realise that this is a public forum, so while some aspects of my character online is different than in-person (due to the medium, mostly, i.e. written text and time to compose one's thoughts), I don't use the anonymity to behave differently than in-person. However, I'm not sure why some professors would think the idea of an online community of graduate student is amusing! I think it's pretty neat and it's nice to hear that others face similar issues as us. In some respects, grad school is similar everywhere and in all fields. But the differences between fields/locations are also really interesting to me!

This phrase interested me because I often here people argue the opposite point (competition breeds excellence or something like that). I did not want to believe that self-interest is necessary for economic growth but I was feeling like that might be the truth. So it was nice to see the opposite point being made! However, I am not well prepared to enter in a discussion on economics at all. So maybe this was just a really naive comment! Anyways, that interesting phrase aside, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Did you intend to start a specific discussion topic?

As a Canadian, I'm fortunate enough to not need a visa to enter the US (but I still have to apply for F-1 or J-1 status). Here's what I've learned from my International Student Program office from last year's applications and also during the in-depth international student orientation sessions where they explained all the rules that apply to students. 1. Status vs. Visa: They are NOT the same. A "visa" is something that allows you to ENTER the USA. It looks like a page of your passport (has your photo and biographical info) and in fact, once you get it, it will be pasted into your passport. Depending on your nationality (i.e. whatever treaties the US has with your home country), your visa might have a "# of visits limit" (sometimes they are single entry, sometimes they are multiple entries) and an expiry date. No information about your school program etc. is on the visa. This is issued by a US Consulate. "Status" is something like "F-1" or "J-1" -- they confirm your legal status as a non-resident alien in the US. This is a 1 page piece of paper that is mailed to you, containing your school information, financial support, etc. You need this to apply for your visa, I believe. This document is issued by your School's International Student Program office and it also expires (well beyond the expected length of degree though). 2. Visas only matter when you try to ENTER the US. For example, if you have a visa valid for 1 year, you don't have to renew it after a year in the US. However, if in your 2nd year, you leave for a conference, or to visit home, then you need a new visa before you can enter the US again. But if you're already in the US, then it only matters that your "status" is still valid. 3. I am pretty sure you can apply for a visa to enter the US at ANY US Consulate. For example, many Chinese students end up going to Mexico to visit the US Consulate there to get a new visa (note: you cannot "renew" it, you apply for a new one once the old one has expired or you've exhausted the number of entries allowed) since it's easier than going back to China. This is called a "third country" visa application and they said it might be a little bit harder to do than applying in your home country, but not too much harder. This is necessary for some people who have single-entry visa only (which means their visa is no longer valid once they enter the US) because if they go to a conference in another country, they cannot return to the US until the consulate at that third country issues them a visa. I definitely agree with RiseofthePhoenix though -- talk to your new school's International Student Office once you are admitted (most schools have a policy that they won't help you unless you are going to attend the school for sure). They know all the ins and outs and they can walk you through the best path. But hopefully the above info will give you some advance warning of what to expect.

In the sciences, I don't think it's that unusual to ask for all that in one page. Most schools I applied to did allow me 2 pages, but one school limited things to 1 page, single spaced. I think this is about 400-500 words, which is definitely doable. How to start? I'd say get right to the point. Something like (but perhaps better worded): I am interested in a PhD program at School X to study Topic Y. [Maybe a sentence or two about why you are interested in this topic, or something to clarify your interest e.g. a specific method or way to look at the problem?]. 2nd paragraph could be: I will be completing my BSc in Chemistry at UNDERGRAD SCHOOL [with a minor in... etc. whatever applies]. Then describe your academic background (courses? honours? etc.) Next, I would write 1 paragraph each about any research experience you've had. Make sure you mention what you've learned and why it's important to the community. Also mention if anything came out of the research (patent? publication? conference presentations?). My paragraphs went something like this: My first research experience was with the Cosmology Group with Prof. A at School B. I learned to program in C in order to analyse data from Instrument D. We found that [conclusions E] led to [implication F]. [Maybe another sentence about your research?] During this time, from working with collaborators at many different institutions, I also learned how to communicate effectively during our weekly telecons. Ultimately, my research was published in [Journal G] and I presented the work at Conference [H]. The rest of my paragraphs went the same way, sometimes with a sentence to transition more smoothly. A little bit of anecdotal stuff is put here as I explained my motivations from moving from one project to another. Hopefully that showed that I have an overall academic/career plan. It seems like the prompt doesn't even want you to talk about why you want to attend their school (i.e. describing your fit). If that information is requested elsewhere, then that saves you a paragraph! Otherwise I'd probably conclude with why your background and experience has prepared you to study Topic Y at School X. In addition, talk about why School X is a good place for Topic Y (profs? facilities? etc.) Overall, the SOP in the sciences need not to be very personal. Its purpose is to clearly and concisely discuss your abilities, experience, and background. The less "fluff" you have, the easier it will be for the admissions committee to pick out your strengths. Sometimes the school wants to hear more of your personal background, but I think the explicit 1 page limit is a hint that you should keep it brief/concise.

In my experience, I found that research interests listed on faculty websites to be somewhat vague and if you just repeat them verbatim, it might not have a very strong effect. In addition, not only are these websites sometimes out of date, the list of topics might be quite large and you aren't always sure what their main / most recent focuses are. So it's better to read their recent papers and see if there is a theme to what they have been working on. If you notice they have several students, make sure to separate out the papers co-authored with each student since they might be working on different paths with different students. You can also email them a note saying that you are interested in X and ask whether or not they will be interested in working in that topic next year. You can frame the question as wanting to confirm that the website is up to date.

Another piece of advice that helped me (I started undergrad as a really shy person) is to convince yourself that it's okay to say something stupid sometimes. A class discussion isn't the same as a well formulated written argument. I now see these class discussions more as a "brainstorm" session, where we all just speak our ideas and talk them out together. I find it more useful because if I go home and think about it myself, I will miss out on the perspectives of my classmates. So, take advantage of the class discussion time to get the thoughts of your prof and classmates! If it makes you feel better, there was one physics class where the instructor would often stop, and say here's a 5 second problem, tell me what X is! A lot of the times, our first guess/answer would be wrong, but the instructor would talk it through with us and we'd get to the right answer sometimes. I found that was much more helpful than if he had just told us the answer up front. I also feel that sometimes it sounds like everyone is saying something really smart or deep or insightful. But remember that there are lots of others in the class, so it's unlikely that everyone is always saying something that insightful. Most likely, they are all like you, and they might each have something insightful to say once or twice, but since a different person might be speaking up each time, it sounds like everyone is saying insightful things. People tend to remember the insightful comments more anyways. So, there's a good chance that most other people in the class are feeling the same way as you (although maybe at different levels of severity) and are also nervous about voicing their ideas.

Maybe I don't fully understand the nuances of the English language but I did not interpret the OP's post as a person who was asking because they were considering using a ghostwriter for their SOP (i.e. plagiarism). Instead, I saw a legitimate question. There are many instances in life where people do not play by the rules and it's acceptable. For example, where I grew up, most people drive 10km/hr over the speed limit (even driving examiners admit this is okay as long as we don't do it during the driving test). Or, some people fudge numbers a little bit when filing income taxes (especially if they are earning wages off the record, e.g. tips). I'm NOT saying that plagiarism is a "minor/acceptable transgression". What I mean is that many "rules" are really flexible and when in a new situation, e.g. grad school applications, it might not be clear which rules are flexible and which rules are really serious. It's okay to ask and find out. We all wrote posts explaining why plagiarism is a serious transgression. In addition, I am actually also curious how many people plagiarise their SOPs. I would never submit any work I did not do myself but if I suddenly heard that supposedly a lot of people are doing it, I would be curious to find out how "big" of a problem this was. Obviously, asking my cohorts and supervisors would not be a good idea -- look how some people here responded to the OP. So, this forum, where you can be as anonymous as you want to be, is a safer place. In addition, people come from many different schools and background here, so you sample a wider range of responses. I'm not surprised that people do this though. There are reports of well established faculty members completely falsifying their data in published journal articles! My current school has a student-run council that investigates academic dishonesty and about a dozen students per year are found guilty. And the stories that were linked earlier in this thread about "sham PhDs" and ghostwriters are intriguing because they provide an interesting viewpoint, but they refer to practices that I've heard of happening before. However, I've never personally known anyone to have done something this dishonest, but as one of the articles said -- most of their clients don't get caught. So, I wouldn't be surprised if I found out someone I knew did this, but it would destroy my respect for them! I am optimistic though -- like the story of the external PhD examiner, most of these fraudsters will be found out. Sure, there will be a few cases where someone gets a position that they shouldn't have, but that happens outside of academia too. Resumes/CVs can be forged! I don't expect the world of academia to be any more honest than any other professional world since the consequences of lying in other professional fields are just as bad as academia.

I agree that if, for example, the expected hours of work into a paper was 6 hours and a student put in 12, it would be a cause for concern. For example, if I handed back a C paper and the student said "but I put in 12 hours of work!!", I wouldn't say "too bad!". Things like this did happen and what I said was that we should sit down and discuss the paper and the material. In my example though, I had expected students to put in about 10 hours in this particular lab report. So what I meant was that the student was putting in as much work as anyone else, but the quality was drastically lower. However, this student believed that because he/she worked as hard as everyone else, they deserved the same grade. Even with this experience, I would never dismiss a student as being "substandard" if they had to work more hours than expected. I would always investigate/try to find out why my students were taking longer than expected and evaluate whether or not it was due to poor guidance by me. I agree that it could be the teacher's problem for the reasons cherub states. And for some students, it was just misunderstanding the expectations (it's hard to know how to write a scientific report for the first time). Since it was a year-long course and there were actually 4 "final/formal lab reports", I decided to make the criteria more clear the second time around as well as changing the grading system to weigh each student's lowest report score a little less. One of the problems was, as cherub pointed out, mistaken priorities. Some students were spending a lot of time writing very fancy sentences or making really good graphs but all their writing did not communicate much science (i.e. mostly fluff). Other small things were mistaken emphasis on things that did not affect the experiment and not enough details on e.g. the methods. I saw this as a failure on my part to communicate the expectations, which I corrected. I also adjusted the grading scheme to not punish the students' grades for my mistake. I don't think teaching/mentor = grading. I think they form a feedback loop -- I teach/mentor, they submit work, I grade, I use the grades I see to adjust teaching/mentoring as needed, they submit more work, I grade some more etc. and keep adjusting my teaching until the term is over or we reach the point where the students are performing at the level I want them to.

Hi, I did my undergrad and masters in Canada and during my MSc, I was also the Department Steward for the TA Union at my school. It's hard to really say what is appropriate or not because that really depends on what your school's/department's policies are. Furthermore, most Canadian universities have unionized their TAs so if you have a Collective Agreement, that takes precedence over everything else. If you'd like, you can PM me details that you might not wanted to share publicly and I might be able to answer some more questions. However, I think your best bet is to find someone local who knows the rules and policies at your school. If you have a union, please find a representative. Otherwise, you can also talk to the Graduate Coordinator or TA Coordinator in your department (usually a prof), someone from your school's Graduate Student Council, or maybe even an ombudsman. If you are worried that the profs will all "gang up" or intimidate student representatives, you might find it reassuring to know that union officers, even though they are students, are protected by the Collective Agreement and will be able to speak to faculty and administrators as equals when it comes to conflict resolution like this. So, please do talk to someone at your school. If you're not sure what parts of your experience is "normal" at Canadian schools and what isn't, here is some thoughts: 1. The way you were informed of your TA position is VERY abnormal. The department or other University representative (not the other student) should have told you about your job AND you should have signed a contract for the 260 hours. 2. The Department/University is your boss, NOT the other student (of course, local policies might change this though). Generally, most Canadian schools will view this situation where both you and the other student are employees of the school, but you are just playing different roles. Chances are, you are both part of the same bargaining unit if you are unionized. Although the department might have asked the instructor for his opinion on who they should assign as his TA, the Department is ultimately your boss, not the other student. 3. It's pretty bad when a TA is unable to make 3/10 lab sessions. However, as you pointed out, it's not a huge number of hours lost because 9 (or 6 now, with your changes) out of 260 hours is a tiny fraction. In addition, in Canada, we spread our classes out through the whole 5 years and also might have to go out of town for research purposes (e.g. conferences), so it's pretty common to have to trade TA sections with someone else. Usually, it's an equal-hour trade so that no one is working for another student's stipend. But 3/10 lab sessions is a bit extreme. However, I think the instructor over-reacted. 4. What SHOULD have happened, in my opinion, was that as soon as you got the lab schedule, you should have asked the instructor to come talk to the faculty (both the prof in charge of the course and the TA coordinators) to set something up. I don't think the instructor has the authority to approve or refuse your request to take the 3 days off because you are employed by the University, NOT by the other student. In a reasonable department, the scheduling of TAs should have happened way earlier (most Collective Agreements would stipulate some deadline) and conflicts like this should have been sorted out before the TA list is finalized. What usually happens is that the TA Coordinator sets up the TA assignments, and they are sent out to the students. Any conflicts (maybe a class is happening at the same time as a TA lab slot) are dealt with and every year, one or two people move around. 5. As to whether or not you should have taken the TAship -- ultimately, it would have been neglect on your part to take a TAship in a term where you know you will be unavailable for a large while. As Eigen said, TAships are a 100% time commitment, so when you booked the flights home for the wedding, it was your responsibility for immediately informing the department that you are planning to be gone for 2 weeks in September. Same thing with the conference. This would have allowed everyone to properly plan for the circumstances. For example, you might have ended up doing a double TAship next term. Or, you might have been assigned a marking TAship. Or just with advance notice, substitutions could have been made. 6. It should have been okay for you to ask your instructor about covering your shift, but you have to remember that by doing this, you are basically asking him to work your hours while you keep the stipend. The more appropriate thing would be to bring up the time conflict and say that you are working on TRADING shifts with someone, perhaps the instructor has any ideas. You could then suggest that he cover a shift and you take up extra grading (but depending on what his duties were, it might not be possible). 7. As to whether or not it was appropriate for him to criticize you in that manner -- it depends on the policies in place. Most Collective Agreements (and departmental policies) have a set of procedures in place for these events (and they increase in severity as needed, from verbal warnings to formal written complaints on your file). Maybe his 45 minute long list of grievances was just out of frustration, and not according to policy, but everyone is human. Make sure you count that time as "hours worked" though (any meeting regarding the course should count!). However, if you are unionized and if he wants to take steps to a formal complaint, make sure you get to know the procedure. For example, you are probably allowed to have a union representative with you to make sure things are going properly. 8. It's not unusual for a TA to take time off for personal travel or conferences though. I did this a year ago (combined a conference with a honeymoon and missed two weeks). But I told my supervisor months in advance and we worked together to minimize any negative effects. For example, we scheduled assignments around my absences and the prof teaching the course covered the lab (usually both of us are in the lab but the class size is small enough for one person to manage). I made up the hours by doing extra marking for the final projects as well as extra office hours for students who needed help on the projects. But when I brought this topic up, I asked permission for the time off. I didn't have a right to it, but we were able to work something out because of the advance notice. So, overall, I think the whole situation is a big problem because of poor communication. The Department didn't let you know about the schedule in a timely manner. However, it does not sound like you let the department know about your constraints so that they would have had a chance to correct it. Of course, you are not obligated to let them know about your personal travel plans, but a mutual respect and cooperation is beneficial for everyone. If you both stick to your rights and the books, that's fine and maybe necessary in some cases, but it's far from ideal. Finally -- whether or not you should have taken the TAship. In your position, if it comes down to it, I would have done what you had (except I would have tried to schedule advance notice). I would have accepted whatever consequences that might have came out asking others to cover 6 hours of my TAship for something that was important to me. It's not ideal because it sours relationships and lowers the quality of education, but accepting a TAship (in Canada) is NOT akin to selling your soul. Missing 6 hours out of 260 is usually not significant enough for dismissal (and the term is over so that point is now moot). In addition, even if a formal complaint is filed, it goes in your EMPLOYEE record, not your STUDENT record (most schools will distinguish between this). Any notes in your employee records are deleted after X months (usually 12 or 24) and everything in your employee record is wiped out Y months after graduation (usually 12). Of course, check your policies, but these are the usual terms I see in Collective Agreements and other school policies. I take great pride in doing a good job of TAing and I really think that teaching is a vital part of being an academic. I try to do my job with 100% effort and commitment, sometimes going over the number of paid hours by a little bit too. However, no job would take precedent over important personal matters, and if the Department was not willing to be reasonable about the scheduling (i.e. if they had advance notice), then I would have followed your course of action.

I agree that communication between instructor and student about expectations is important (which is why I made the expectations handout etc.). But I don't (yet) understand the expected correlation between "hours (or effort) put in" and "grade received". I am glad they they might have put in X hours or worked really really hard, but if the end result does not meet the stated expectations for an A (for example), then they won't get the A. I was complaining about the sentiment that some students believe that they should get points simply for spending time on the work. I could understand the problem if the expectations were not clear so that students don't know how to use the time and energy to get the points. The cases I'm talking about though, are cases where we sit down together, go over their assignment and the expectations/criteria and the student shows that they understand where the marks were awarded (or not awarded) and after all that, they make a comment like "I spent 8 hours writing this, how can I get a B?" or "I wrote 10 pages! How did I not get an A?" I am happy to spend all day ensuring that the students understand the material and help them in the right direction if they ask for it. I try to promote a learning environment where I am on the student's side (i.e. it's us against the course material), but it's frustrating when comments like the above are mentioned. What else can I say other than "grades are awarded based on quality not quantity of work?" As for "not caring about feelings", I think that in order to grade objectively, I can't consider the students' feelings, so I don't. I can't/don't care that, for example, they worked really hard on the assignment, or that they spent X hours doing this instead of something else they'd rather do, or that they have 2 part-time jobs in order to pay tuition, etc. (although if they formally requested extensions on reasonable grounds, they would be granted in accordance with the class/school policies). I do care about my students' well-being and I am careful to not put down a student's work when correcting them (since I understand that even though they got it wrong, they might have worked really hard). But when I assign a final grade to an assignment, or the course, I don't care about how they might feel about what they get. A statement like "What shocks me is that they think we actually care about their feelings" requires context. When I read it, I interpreted it as referring to the grading process, not the teaching/mentoring process. I do this too since I remember appreciating it when my instructors did it for me. Since we are not allowed to post grades (even with names/IDs removed), I sit down with each student and let them know what they need to get an A, B, etc. Usually, near the end, some things will not be as effective in changing grades (i.e. after completing 7 quizzes, that 8th one next week will not have as much as an effect as scoring well in the final paper, for example). So, I also help them find a strategy to prioritize their efforts (as I understand they might have other final projects or exams) to get the maximum grade.

I also agree that the old power dynamic between instructor-student as presented by cherub needs to be updated but of course, it can never be removed as we are still responsible for evaluation of the student. So, I try to be as transparent as possible in my grading to avoid "confrontations" like this. I hand out a one-page sheet listing expectations and the prof and I usually work together to determine how we will handle some expected and unexpected circumstances (i.e. late assignments, non-attendance etc.). These policies are clearly spelled out in the first week and the students are reminded again before they hand in their first thing for grading. When I grade, I always try to write a comment next to any deductions! But I still get students coming in to see me for various reasons about their grades. Sometimes they have a different view of "expectations" than we do (i.e. wildviolet's participation mark example). I have to make it clear that they are graded on the quality of their work, not how much effort they put in (although there is usually a correlation). What irks me the most is when they expect that the class policies (sometimes policies that were determined through a class discussion) should not apply to them for some reason. Especially if that reason is something that everyone else has to deal with in college (e.g. other assignments or midterms). Another trend I am noticing is students expect their grade to correlate with how much time/effort they spent on the work, instead of the quality of the work. They might say something like "but I worked for X hours on this!" Sometimes, I feel like the students believe that they are the "customer" and they are complaining to me in the same way they might complain to e.g. Best Buy about their purchase not working as advertised. However, I almost always get these discussions in person, usually at office hours. Students would send me an email to let me know they want to see me, but I don't think I've ever gotten something like what wildviolet got! So I don't think the "sense of entitlement" is primarily caused by the technological paradigm shift (although email does allow one to be impersonal). I'm not sure what the difference is though, but I am pretty sure that our TAs probably said the same thing about us when we were undergrads!