TakeruK

And the places that are really warm most of the time are in a literal desert. It will get much colder at night!

My opinion is that it's entirely appropriate to ask politely (choose your words carefully so it neither sounds like a demand nor that you expect them to say yes). If you ask politely, providing the justification you wrote here, the worst thing that could happen is that they decline politely. I imagine that you won't be the only one to ask, because events ending at 6pm means you are looking at flights leaving at 8pm or later (and 8pm is optimistic assuming that the airport is like, right there). I would imagine a lot of people are flying home to places that won't have a flight leaving that evening at 8pm or later (e.g. if they don't live in a hub city, it's unlikely they will be able to get home that night).

Hooray! Glad to hear that you are going to get the support to succeed in your program Happy new year!

Do the first thing. Submit the unofficial transcript by the deadline and then send your official transcript ASAP. If you are uploading a PDF for the unofficial transcript, use the annotation feature to write a very short (1-2 sentence) statement saying that this is just a temporary file until you are able to get the official transcript. The reason I'd choose this option is because it's the same as Option #2 except that this ensures you get something submitted on time. Sure, they might refuse to accept your official transcript on Jan 3, but if this is the case, they would still refuse if you have taken Option #2. You should not expect to be able to reach people at either school since it's the holidays (all admin staff at my school are off work from Dec 23 to Jan 2 inclusive). Finally, I know it's not what you want to hear, but you should be prepared for them to not accept your application because it is late. Most schools will probably be lenient and I hope it works out! But in case you get bad news, I find it helps me to be prepared for it.

In the classes I've TA'ed, we just add up the number of points earned throughout the semester as per the syllabus and if it's in the A- range, then you get an A-. It's not personal. We don't look at each student's grade and think deeply about whether or not they get an A or A- or B+, so it's not like we purposely decided that a student should only get an A- instead of A. The only exceptions are when the final score is very close to the cutoff and we're concerned about previous rounding errors influencing the grade. For example, if the cutoff for an A is, e.g. 94.0, and a student scores 93.8, then the prof makes a judgement call on A vs. A-. But those two grades are so similar that it doesn't really matter anyways.

I think @4eyes is very right about how our appearances should not affect how our work is judged. I hope to be part of an academic community where people can dress and wear (or not wear) makeup as they please. But I don't think we are entirely there yet. I was surprised a few months ago by a colleague (slightly older than me, but definitely still part of the "young" generation that is supposedly more progressive) commenting on a woman's attire at a conference in a negative way because it was "too sexy". My friend and I confronted him about this but I'm not sure we made an impact. I am pretty sure this person would never say anything to that woman directly about her attire, but clearly they would still judge others on it and would even comment to others about it. Because of that experience and other similar ones in the past years, I try to encourage academia to go in the directions of the ideals in @4eyes post but also recognize that the reality isn't there yet and generally lean towards what @kokobanana wrote above about first impressions. I think that while in order to effect change, people need to start "pushing the envelope", but at the same time, grad student candidates are in a pretty vulnerable position and doing so would be quite risky. When people ask me about these topics, I try to avoid advising directly for or against "pushing the envelope". Instead, I generally say something like what @4eyes wrote above, and then follow up with what @kokobanana said about first impressions and being remembered for their research/experiences instead of their clothes. Then I emphasize that it is important to be comfortable (both physically comfortable in the clothes and also being comfortable/confident in their choices) and I support whatever route they choose to take. I am not in biology, but I am hopeful and optimistic about improved climate/environment in the sciences for the future for issues like this. For these things, I really think the onus is on the people in charge to change things. People interviewing for PhD, postdoc, or faculty positions are on the "wrong" side of the power balance to make a real difference. So, one thing I keep in mind is to be okay with choosing to "fit in" (for example, wearing what's expected rather than to make a statement) for now. For other issues, I now have a little more security/influence as a senior grad student than when I was a new grad student (e.g. approaching faculty about changing degree requirements, course instruction, fairness in qualifying exams etc.) and I use that where I can to make a difference. But some bigger things are still out of my ability to make a difference, so they go on a list of things to work on when I have some power to change them (e.g. maybe getting admissions committees to undergo unconscious bias training if I ever end up on such a committee).

From the start of my PhD to about 3 months ago, I had a nice Swissgear Messenger bag. I can't find a version of it online (probably because they no longer make it?). I really liked it because it felt more "professional" than a backpack and it also does not mess up my nice clothes like a backpack would. I mostly used it for work travel, e.g. conferences and visiting schools etc. I liked it because there are 3 inner compartments plus a sleeve/pocket on the outside. The inner compartments are large and I usually used one for my laptop, one for miscellaneous stuff (snacks, cords, books, sweater, etc.) and the last one had pen holders and little pockets for USB sticks, my business cards, laser pointer, etc. The "misc" compartment was actually designed to hold some clothes and I sometimes pack an extra change of clothes if I am checking my main luggage in case that gets lost. For one very short trip (1 day, 2 nights), I packed all the clothes I needed into this compartment! The sleeve/pocket on the outside is very useful, I stash my boarding pass, flight confirmation, hotel confirmation, and other similar documents for easy access. I like the size of the bag because it was just the right size to go under an airplane seat but also still let me put my feet legs under the seat (i.e. it could fit nicely between my feet). And finally, I can slide it onto my rolling carryon luggage so it's "one piece" when I'm moving around the airport etc. After 4 years, that bag broke so I now have a new one. It's the Samsonite's "Tech Locker" (https://www.amazon.com/Samsonite-Luggage-15-6-Xenon-Locker/dp/B008HY5ZNI). The inside is a slightly different design, but I think it works a lot better for me. It's a little smaller, which is also good, because it fits under the airplane seat even more easily and it is less heavy. From the Amazon pictures, you can see that the interior has multiple compartments to organize electronics. The laptop area is well designed, it's actually in a pocket that is suspended inside the bag so that there is some cushion in all directions to protect it. It also has a pocket for my tablet, which is an improvement over my old bag (I didn't have a tablet back then though). It has all of the other benefits of my last bag though, except for the big miscellaneous compartment. However, these days, I'm very unlikely to travel with anything more than my electronics and my notebook, so it's perfect for me. Both bags cost me about $60 at the time of purchase. I got 4 years out of the last one, which was longer than expected and I expect to get at least 3 years for this one. I'm not sure if this meets the style requirement though, I generally just look for something that is black and looks like an adult would have lol. I got my Samsonite bag at one of their outlet stores and I noticed that they had bags that looked a lot nicer (leather) but they were out of my price range (several hundred dollars).

Hello! First, please take care of yourself during the break. If you haven't taken some time off, doing that could be a good idea. Next, I think you are right that you will have to do something or there will be negative consequences down the line. I have not been in your situation, so maybe this won't be the best advice but I hope it provides a useful perspective. I think that most of the problems that students have in grad school are due to unclear communication with the faculty. I think it's really important that you talk to the professors about these issues and get their support, if you are able to be comfortable with doing so. I think it is worth the risk (responding to the "not knowing who you can trust") because there has been and will continue to be more negative consequences for you if you don't get the right support. Again, I'm not in your shoes and I don't know what the situation is like, but I would ask myself what is worse: being labelled as a bad student and not getting nominated by the department for anything, or having people find out about your disability? I feel like the negative consequences of having the faculty know is unimportant if they are already writing you off as a non-successful student. But I'm not considering the emotional impact of having everyone know. I can't know how you would feel and I don't mean to minimize this part of your experience either. If you are finding it challenging to bring up, does your school's disability office have people that can guide you through this? If not, I would go to the school's counseling center and talk to a counselor for advice. It might also be helpful to come up with a plan for things that you need in class to actually help you (not just the recorder). For example, you can probably ask for professors to not call upon you in class (if it's part of the evaluation, then they can come up with an alternate way to evaluate whatever they're looking for). Or, if you want to still participate in this way, let them know to give you a little more time to formulate your response if they call on you. Ultimately, it's up to you what to do of course and I don't want to pressure you in any way. From the way you describe the situation, things sound like some action needs to be taken, but it's not too late to change the course of your graduate school. It also sounds like the upcoming semesters will go the same way (unless this first semester of your program is special for some reason?) so that's why I think intervention is better sooner rather than later. Finally, it's not just your responsibility to "figure it out" by yourself. The department should have some responsibility in ensuring you have access to the support you need to succeed. They accepted you into their program, so they bear some responsibility for your success. I think it is okay to let your new supervisor know what's going on---you don't need her to play "mommy" but it's no longer just a personal issue since it's affecting your academic performance. But maybe she can help you identify some professors you can trust and go to first. And if you decide not to tell the majority of professors, if other faculty mention your performance in reviews or other department meetings, you have an ally that can help you (without revealing the personal details). Good luck in the new year. I don't think you need to go through this alone. I hope you are able to find people on campus that you can talk to and get support for your disability.

I would say there's at least one more reason: 5) The department environment was not a good fit for the student. The faculty did not provide proper support for that student and failed to properly train that student. Basically, this is similar to #2 and #3, however, in this reason, the fault is with the department, not the student. Sometimes departments aren't able to meet the needs of their students. No department can always be everything for every student, but ideally, the admissions process should select the students they can support and if not, it is detected early on. Realistically, sometimes things go unnoticed and slips through the cracks, so the system fails and the student ends up leaving in their 3rd year or later. I bring up this point because I feel like #3 in the list above can be interpreted as "if you were not able to complete your PhD, then it was your fault that you weren't strong enough". I don't think being thick-skinned or having to "endure" anything should be part of the PhD process. Academia shouldn't have a "hazing" ritual and grad school definitely should not be such. Yes, it's definitely important for an academic to be able to receive constructive criticism and act on it, and yes, there will be parts of the "grind" that will suck more than others so it's important for the student to have some support system that will get them through these tough times. But this is true for almost everything in life, and I do think that the school has the responsibility to ensure they are providing criticism/feedback in a way that isn't hazing and also to provide support systems for their students. So, my opinion is that #3 above is written as if this was entirely the student's fault. In reality, I believe the department is partly or sometimes mostly at fault as well.

I didn't even know these "scores" exist. I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure my field doesn't use them for SOPs since they are short enough. We don't have writing samples but I can imagine people skimming these and then using some metrics as part of the evaluation. I agree with fuzzy that absolute rules on "proper" English aren't a good idea. But sometimes I say this and then people misinterpret as meaning active voice and passive voice are both equally valid and you can just use whatever! I don't think that's true either. When I read my students' work (mostly first year grad students and senior undergrads), I mainly discourage the use of passive voice in the Methods section and the summary of results. It just sounds so boring and dry! I would much rather read "We obtained 15 images of the star with the ABC Telescope on 15 October 2015" than "On 15 October 2015, 15 images of the star was obtained at the ABC Telescope". In a long methods paragraph, eliminating extra words is a good idea! Also, I encourage the active voice when writing things like proposals or application material because you want to emphasize your contribution to the projects you're discussing. (Sidenote: the term papers in the classes I grade are usually mock grant proposals). The active voice allows you to directly make the connection between you and the work. The passive voice is distant and impersonal. Not great for generating excitement about your work. Even so, I don't think this means that the active voice is the only good choice. But I guess if I had to advise someone who was new at this, I think that they would be better off using the active voice primarily, and then introduce/experiment with using the passive voice.

I don't think you have to worry. As you said, there will be people that are familiar with international academic conventions. It wouldn't make sense for someone to throw away your application because there are (or a lack of) footnotes. I only mentioned the professors and the difference in style as a possible explanation to any potentially conflicting advice you received, not that you must conform to a certain style! Committees already do many things to account for differences (e.g. grading systems, LOR tone, length of degrees, etc.) so this will definitely be considered too.

It's also my opinion that a SOP shouldn't have material that require the reader to look things up. Either you explain them in a way that the reader gets your point, or you don't mention it. I only see your first three footnotes, and to me, it looks like you already have three quotes in the first page, which seems a little surprising (you would want your SOP to be your words, not others). In addition, I don't think footnotes that are just references are useful because: 1. Either you are mentioning a classic/canonical piece of work in your field that everyone knows, so no bibliographic information is needed. For example, if I were to mention the Kepler space telescope in my essay, an instrument launched in 2009 that was responsible for discovering thousands of exoplanets, I would not cite it. I would simply say something like "In four years of operations, Kepler found thousands of new exoplanets." This is a common enough knowledge in my field that I wouldn't cite the paper that announced these discoveries in my SOP. 2. Or, if they need to look it up, they likely will not spend the time looking it up. I can't imagine a professor actually following the bibliographic information to read more about what you wrote, when there are likely many other essays to read. I think that if you ever have to say something that requires someone to read the source material for more information, then you have gone too deep in the SOP. In my opinion, the SOP is a weird piece of academic writing. It is an academic work, however, it is way less formal than anything you might publish. Here's how I imagine the tone of the SOP would be: You are visiting a professor at their school because you are applying there. You are sitting down with them for a coffee/tea/whatever, and they ask "Tell me about yourself, your previous experience and your interests in our program." The SOP is the written version of your answer. In this type of conversation, you wouldn't have footnotes and you wouldn't pull out books or articles to prove your point. You wouldn't quote others verbatim unless it's a very important or influential quote in your field that has special meaning (i.e. jargon) between you and the professor. The three footnotes (and maybe the quotes that go with them) that are visible in your excerpt seem unnecessary, but I haven't read the whole thing, of course. You aren't making an academic argument in a SOP, so you don't need to go so far as to provide the original text of quotes you translate. Differences in cultures could be important though. I don't know what you have written for Footnote #4, but I think this might be the only one that actually needs a footnote. I remember from your other posts that you are an American living in France but now applying to US grad programs, right? And maybe Americans won't know what the Loi Travail is, so if you are discussing your involvement in the demonstrations leading up to the implementation, it might be helpful to have one sentence explaining that the Loi Travail is legislation protecting labour rights (at least that's what I think it is). I think this is something that is useful to have as a footnote because readers who are familiar with it can skip over it and those who need a little more context can get it. But if this is going to be your only footnote, you can just incorporate it into the sentence as a phrase set off by commas. However, I'm not in your field and I'm not used to the norms of your field. I only mention this because you said that you were told by others that your footnotes were surprising. If these others are professors in your field, then I would definitely heed their advice. I'm just providing more examples and another perspective in case you find it helpful in hearing more about why footnotes are surprising in a SOP. But I will note one thing---for my field, I find that the academic culture in France* and North America is very different, especially in the level of rigor and precision in writing. For example, PhD theses in North America are often hastily put together at the end of the degree---it's just the concatenation of all your papers with about 10-20 pages of additional writing that provides an introduction and ties everything together. However, in France, the PhD theses are much longer and students will rewrite their published works to fit in the style of their thesis better. They also write much longer introduction that is effectively a very extensive literature review spanning 50+ pages. I mention this because if you are seeking advice for US schools, then find out if there are major cultural differences between the US and France in your field and seek advice from professors with experience at US schools if possible. (*I mention France here explicitly because a lot of people I work with are from France so I know specific stories/examples from France, but they say this is general to most of Europe)

My opinion is that the Statement of Purpose (and your application as a whole) should focus on the positives and only discuss the negatives when they are absolutely necessary. In your case, undergraduate grades from 20 years ago are almost meaningless, so I wouldn't even mention them at all. Grad schools want to see undergraduate transcripts for most applicants because most applicants finished their schooling a few years ago (or are applying from undergrad) so they use undergrad transcripts to gauge a student's readiness for graduate work/courses in their field. Since your degree was 20 years ago, it doesn't really matter how well or not well you did back then. They'll care more about your recent graduate degree as an indicator of your current ability to do well in their graduate program. So, in your application, I would just focus on this and other things that shows your academic preparation, e.g. did you have relevant work experience in the past 20 years? etc.

I think you're all fine then. In the last part, do you mean "get to campus" as in a pre-acceptance visit, or do you mean arriving to start your program? If you mean a time during the application process, then sure, maybe during your interview visit or at the end of an interview itself, you can let whomever conducted the interview know about your new contact information, in case they want to follow up by phone (but if you miss the opportunity, it's no big deal since they have other ways of contacting you!). If you mean arriving on campus to start your program next fall, I think don't think you have to mention the phone number change because most of the information from your applications will not carry over into your student record. Especially for things like phone numbers, you'll be asked them again when you register in whatever school you choose.

Glad the tip worked! Hope you are able to reword a few things to make things line up the way you want it to, but I'd agree with fuzzy to be sure to not spend too much time worrying about it because it's not going to make a huge difference. Personally, formatting issues like this one and the others I mentioned are probably worth around 20-30 minutes of effort, unless there is a strict page limit and this extra space pushes you a few lines over the limit (in that case, definitely fix it before submitting!)

I would follow the same approach as fuzzy. For me, it's important to be learning both the theory and the applications at the same time. I generally start with theory but just the surface level stuff. Then, I try to make a rudimentary version of it work. Probably will encounter tons of roadblocks along the way, so I would dig deeper into the theory whenever I get stuck. When I have a basic working model, I can go back and implement more details, generalize it more etc. It's helpful to do this with someone who knows what they are doing. You don't necessarily need their direct supervision, but guidance from them can really help. Also, eventually, you will have a complete model/product/etc. and it would be really helpful to have an expert take a look and try to poke holes in it. Since at this stage, you might not know the theory deep enough to understand caveats, so consulting an expert that knows about the main traps/pitfalls is helpful. The suggestion to join an existing project with others who are already using the method is a great one, if that opportunity is available!

If you have not discussed the course with the professor at all, then you should just drop the course and not say anything. If you have mentioned it in passing and told the professor you would be taking their course, then drop the course and politely let them know that although you discussed it with them before, you decided not to take the course this semester. If the prof had encouraged you to take this course and expected you to be enrolled, then you should explain the financial situation and they will understand. It's up to you whether you talk to the prof before or after dropping it. I think if the financial cost is too much then you should definitely drop it. If you still might take the course if the prof says something convincing to you, then try to have the conversation first. Personally, I wouldn't pay $2500 for a course so I'd drop it and take it as a PhD student if you get in! Edited to add: I forgot to say that all of this is indeed irrelevant to admissions and I wasn't suggesting that you talk to the prof since it could affect admissions. Instead, I think it's polite and professional to personally let someone know that you decided not to take their course if you had previously told them you would take their course

Can you write to all of the schools and let them know about the change in phone number? Others in your field might answer better, but I don't think they would give up simply because they can't call you. They have other ways of reaching you right? (email etc.)

I think it's perfectly fine because this option was given to you. It's not like you asked for something they weren't prepared to offer. If you feel bad, then ensure you get a morning flight out the next day.

I think the source of the problem is that the 2nd line of your new paragraph has yet another footnote (#4). So the software is stuck. If it tries to use the remaining space on that page to include the next two lines, then there's not enough room for both the 2nd line of your paragraph and also for your footnote #4 to be at the bottom of the page. So, it decides to just put the next paragraph on the next page. (I think most word processors will avoid having only a single line of a paragraph by itself so that's why it's not just putting the first line ("My political..." in the gap and then leaving the second line on the next page. You can test this by adding another paragraph in between the two you displayed here that is about 5-6 lines long and has no footnote. See if it moves up into the gap. If this is what's happening, my advice is to worry about this type of formatting at the very end. Through several drafts, my paragraphs might get longer/shorter or moved around, so it's not worth the effort of lining everything up right now and then having things shift around again later! It's in this stage that I modify wording to remove orphaned words too. In my field, we also write with "both sides justified" and when we also use jargony words that are just a bunch of things compounded into each other, it can create awkward spacing so I also make these edits last!

Since you're given the choice, it's your choice! Even if events end at 1pm, if you have a long flight, you might not be able to easily get a flight home that evening. So it's understandable if you want to stay and explore the city. You can even choose to arrange your own housing that second night if that makes you feel more comfortable (especially if you want to spend the afternoon exploring the city and the host lives far away from the city, for example). During my visits, I liked having a few hours to explore the campus/city on "my own" rather than as part of an official visit. It gave me more of a feel of what it would be like to be actually living there. So there's no advantage admissions-wise, but it could be a good experience for you if you want that.

For what it's worth, I often have the internal struggle of tie vs. no tie and continually doubt myself. But I have an easy solution. Ties are small so I always pack matching ties for my shirts. That way, I can wait until the morning of the event to decide, based on other cues I might get. In my field, ties are usually overkill and most of the time, the tie doesn't ever leave my suitcase. Usually, I only wear the tie for the conference banquet dinner or some equivalent dressy event. I might wear one for my thesis presentation at my field's annual science meeting next week. So, it's usually "wasted" energy packing a tie, but I feel that just packing makes me feel a lot more prepared and less stressed during the travel and second-guessing my decision to leave it behind!

I would contact the person in the department that is responsible for administration of the admissions process. They are likely also closed for the holidays though. I know that all administrative offices on my campus are closed from Dec 23 to Jan 2 this year, so if this was my school, you would have to wait until Jan 3. Fortunately, this probably also means that all committees, like admissions committees are also inactive at this time. I think the best thing to do is to email the above contact person and explain that you forgot to attach this particular page. Then, attach that page to your email (as a PDF) and ask if it can be added to your application. Hopefully, the admissions committees have not yet begun reviewing the files so your package will still be complete by the time reviews begin. A less-good scenario is that they already divided up the packages prior to the break and assigned profs to specific packages to read over the holidays. In this case, there isn't much you can do since you don't know who would be reading your package. But in this case, it may still be possible for your package to be updated before a final review etc. I would probably send the email now even though no one is around. They can get to it when they return. Or, if you are worried that it would be lost under the mountain of emails over the break, find out when the staff comes back (you can probably check which days employees have to work from the University's Human Resources page) and send it on that day. Or send it now and follow up on the second day back. Good luck!

To clarify, I don't mean co-supervision with the other prof. I meant working with this other prof as a collaborator! Co-supervision is a lot tougher, especially if you want it formalized due to regulations and also due to the commitment of the other prof being on your committee etc. etc. But if you have a good project idea and want to collaborate, it gives them a much lower level of commitment. They basically just need to put in as much as they want to get out of this relationship with you.

In the last month, I visited a bunch of cold places to give talks (not grad school interviews, but places I'm applying to postdocs). I layered my clothes to keep warm. For my bottom half, I wore long underwear + something like chinos. That seemed to be warm enough for me. For my upper half, I wore a undershirt, a dress shirt (no tie) plus a sweater that I could take on/off as needed. When I was outside, I also had a dressy jacket that had the look of a suit jacket but is thicker/warmer/meant to be an actual jacket. It's similar to a peacoat but isn't that. I don't know the name of this clothing item (maybe it's a sports jacket? lol). I also had a black toque to keep my head warm. For some places, a scarf as well. I'm currently living in California, so I don't really have a lot of dressy warm clothes. What I wore would be good for something like 15-20 minutes outside in cold weather---any more than that and I started to get pretty uncomfortable (unless I was also walking fast to stay warm!). Fortunately, for these types of visits, you spend very little time outside! Usually, the only significant time outside is during travel, e.g. getting from airport to the school or hotel room, and for these cases, sometimes paying** for a taxi or Uber could be worth it (especially if you would have to buy a lot of extra clothes otherwise). [** in my case, the fare was covered either by the school I was visiting or my grant, and your interviewing school may be covering these expenses anyways; but if they don't, it might be worth it!]