All Questions
44,514
questions
119
votes
9
answers
172k
views
How do you get a bad transcript past Ph.D. admissions?
I have a master's degree in International Studies, and a double major with Computer Science from undergrad. My transcripts suck. There's no other way to dress it up. I have pretty good teaching ...
user179
10
votes
2
answers
365
views
Do school-wide holidays count against personal vacation time?
I keep hearing different things from different people and it seems there is no clear policy laid out at my institution regarding the definition of graduate student vacation days; I'm curious how PIs ...
- 1,991
68
votes
7
answers
17k
views
Is it possible take take part in a research project if I'm not a part of a university?
I graduated with a Masters of Engineering, concentrating in digital signal processing, in particular medical and audio, almost two years ago. I've always been interested in research, but due to ...
- 1,403
23
votes
8
answers
12k
views
How to make a presentation that includes math symbols?
For many years, I've used Latex to create my presentations, because I need to include mathematical formulae and symbols. However, it's sometimes quite cumbersome to use, and it's much harder to do "...
user102
27
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Doing a PhD with significant external time obligations (e.g., marriage)
Graduate school has a reputation for being a tremendous time-sink. I'm currently married with kids, and I have a fairly busy extracurricular schedule. Is it common for married people - or anyone, ...
- 48.5k
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What rules guide whether to put qualifications on an academic business card?
I'm just wondering what rules of etiquette guide whether an academic puts qualifications on a business card. I'm assuming that either "Dr" at the start or "PhD" at the end is important to include ...
- 20.4k
18
votes
4
answers
627
views
How important are teaching portfolios in obtaining an academic position?
I have been recently introduced to the idea of teaching portfolios, that is a collection of teaching experiences and references made by peer educators. Their supposed purpose is to go along a ...
- 181
12
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do I effectively use tags to organize my bibliography?
I use the online tool citeulike to manage my bibliography. The main tool to organize the library is tags (functionally equivalent to tags here on this site). One problem I seem to be having is I do a ...
- 3,571
20
votes
4
answers
811
views
Does Pop-Science involvement hurt one's reputation?
There is a divide between the scientific community about involvement in popular science. I would define it as involvement in NatGeo/Discovery type documentaries, writing columns for newspapers/...
user107
19
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How to format for a useful journal club?
I've been attending my lab's journal club for a while, and I'm wondering whether there are better ways out there of conducting a journal club. To make the question more generic, our club seems to have ...
- 48.5k
67
votes
3
answers
3k
views
How to achieve successful collaborations?
Quite often, at conferences or while attending seminars, I will start an interesting discussion with the speaker, first on-site, then later by email, and even though at some point there seems to be ...
user102
14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What is the typical time period after which an incoming grad student is expected to start publishing?
An incoming graduate student is typically required to help out as a TA, take courses both related to their research and required by the program, as well as to start reading up on the research topics ...
- 9,641
10
votes
4
answers
705
views
Failing to deliver promised research
Will people look down on me if I say that I plan on doing research that I end up not doing due to various reasons, especially if I'm a PhD student?
I guess it's somewhat expected, and that ...
- 10.9k
8
votes
2
answers
427
views
Beginning PhD in related field without subject area expertise, will that be a problem?
I just finished an undergraduate degree in psychology, with a focus in biological sciences and pre-medicine courses. In looking at my options for graduate school, I've taken an interest in biomedical ...
- 48.5k
20
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Advisor asking me to work on research not covered by my grant
I have a rather difficult quandary. I'm a first-year student, and I joined my lab group to work on a clinical psychiatry/neuroscience grant. I've been making slow progress towards familiarizing myself ...
- 48.5k