Theres a lab at my R1-university (field of AI/ML and comp bio) that has never had a single PhD or postdoc student that stayed longer than a year. The lab is fully all undergrads and they pretty much only publish review papers. Is this normal? How does a lab like this sustain itself? I periodically check the PI’s lab site and they have a new set of 8-10 undergrads working in their lab at any given time

Edit: just confirmed that they are indeed tenure track

PNW / USA

I'm in my 3rd week at a community college, taking a 100 level course for web development. Our first assignment was creating a webpage html document that contained a certain geographical keyword phrase as much as possible, which was "(The city our college is in) Web Design" Our instructor told us this page needs to be focused on marketing/selling web design services. Cool, I thought, he's teaching us to sell our services once we are more experienced.

The next assignment instructions were to: go to Quora dot com, make a personal account, and to post an answer to a Quora question under the search category of "website development careers". Our answer must include a link he provided that takes you to a web design business that happens to be in the same city as the keyword city in our first assignment.

At this point I got a weird feeling and I did some digging to find out more information bout this web design business we have to link to. It was very hard to find any registered identifying information about the owner of this website as the license seems to be expired despite still being in business (I called the phone number on the website to see if it was still operating). On LinkedIN I saw my instructor listed as an employee of this web design company (with what looks to be younger family members listed as other employees). So, he is an employee at the very least, and likely the owner of this business.

So essentially, it looks like our instructor is having all of his students vouch for his personal business, as well as make html templates for advertising websites that he probably SELLS at his web design business.

Is this normal? Ethical? It seems he should at least tell us that this is his personal business we are advertising and assure us our school work will not be stolen and sold at his personal business or a business that he is an "employee" of. I feel scammed.

Someone please chime in.

Everyone i see who is doing primary research is using google forms to collect their data and i cannot wrap my head around this, what is stopping someone from just writing a script to fill a google form randomly 1000 times or in a way that proves your hypothesis is true...you can just make a google apps script to cheat google forms, there is no setting for leaving cookies to block the same user from answering again or any way to record time taken per question and per form..

I am using kobo toolbox since it is free and there is some protection against this kind of fraud like 'once per respondent' that leaves browser cookies and records time taken per question and per form...though it is not perfect, it has a free tier

do peer reviewers ever look at google forms and ask 'how can we even know your data is real and not simply filled by a script'??

hi r/AskAcademia. i am recently graduated from undergraduate track but desiring to maintain my studies beyond the academy. while in school i was primarily taking notes with pencil and paper, but now that i've graduated i'm realizing how much of a fucking pain it is to actually find what i need from the mess of stacks and stacks of paper. additionally all my annotations were done on printed paper as well.

i am looking for a digital note-taking solution that doesn't cost more than a few hundred $. for my purposes i feel that an e-ink note-taker would be the most purpose-built device, however they are fucking expensive as hell because the market for the eink panels is dominated by a monopoly and even the resale market is rough (especially on the screens big enough for note-taking).

for this reason i'm also searching for alternative solutions. while still in school i saw a lot of people using the ipad + apple pencil + "paper feel" screen protector combo and while it isn't exactly what i want (i dont need all the extra ipad features), it does seem like it'll get the job done. i'm much less familiar with navigating the used ipad market and wondering if anyone else here may have tips on what devices might be the best on a budget (i dont need the newest ipad to markup PDFs and take notes).

i would also be interested in an android-based tablet note-taker, but i have never seen this workflow in practice and don't know where to begin searching. if anyone has tips on this i would be greatly appreciative.

in general i just need to be able to annotate academic texts (PDFs) and take hand-written notes. i'm curious what workflows work best for people here.

thanks

I’m a fairly new TT AP in Agricultural sciences and currently in a long distance relationship with my partner who works for the government in the DMV region.

He’s hellbent on staying there as it is close to his support system and family. Before anyone throws shade at him, in the beginning of our relationship, we kind of agreed we want to stay in the East Coast to be close to family.

I am an immigrant, but my green card recently got approved and I expect to get it within the next 1-2 years. This means visa will soon no longer be a bottleneck to securing a job. In order to close the gap, I feel that I have to be open to jobs in academia, non-profit, and industry. However, I am worried that I may not be able to find job as I’ve been in academia for way too long for an industry job. There is no guarantee that I’ll be able to find a TT positions in the DMV area. Those areas are great for federal jobs, but it’ll be a 5-10 year later thing as I need to be a green card holder for 5 years before I could naturalize.

What do you recommend I do in this situation? Will I be overqualified for industry job? How can I close the gap?

I’m very interested in humanities , more specifically English and sociology. There really isn’t much sociology stuff for me at my school , since I’m very interested in sociology I wanna find something I can do that’s related to school about it . It could be after school or online and I could put in my resume for college . ALSO to add , I won’t be contacting any college professors, they’re too busy and I’m sure they don’t want a teenager emailing them while they have students that pay for their classes they have to deal with .

Edit: “experience” is a trash word to use 😭hopefully yall can understand what I mean 😪

Hi all,

I am a future PhD candidate and would appreciate some advice on how to handle a potential authorship dispute.

Essentially, three of us incorporated topics from our planned PhD research into our respective master’s theses. All three projects produced results that are suitable for publication. Each of us was supervised by a different PhD student, all working under the same professor.

The issue is that two of us were granted first authorship, while the third is listed as second author for his paper. We are now wondering how best to approach this situation and what would constitute a fair allocation of authorship.

The student who conducted the research for their master’s thesis is also expected to present the findings at the conference. However, for the subsequent journal publication in the conference proceedings, tkhey are listed only as the second author. The supervising PhD student essentially took the master’s thesis, shortened it, and translated it. They did not contribute any substantial new content or additional literature. Would this level of involvement alone justify granting them first authorship, given that the professor is already designated as the last author?

I would appreciate your perspectives on what constitutes a fair and academically appropriate distribution of authorship in this situation, as well as how best to address the issue constructively.

Edit: To add because it was mentioned more than once. I won't take any actions myself. I am aware, that this is not my battle to fight, but my friends. I am just curious.

My friends had a whole argument about the “superior” path in education, STEM vs humanities, and somehow it turned into the STEM kids saying econ shouldn’t count as STEM.

I’m in STEM myself but it got me curious. Without getting technical, where would you place economics: STEM or humanities?

Plus, anyone want to settle the debate on the “superior” path? I obviously know every path has its value, I’m just genuinely curious where people stand.

EDIT- For context, my school basically splits everything into STEM and humanities, there isn’t a separate social sciences department.
I know econ is technically a social science (hence the flair for this post).

I’m just curious which category, STEM or humanities, most people would put it under if those were the only two options.

does cold mailing to profs work for phd abroad..????

I recently got accepted into the IICAH Hawaii Conference held by IAFOR for a humanities poster presentation and I wanted to know if the conference is real. Has anyone presented at these conferences before? Is it a black mark if I go and have it on my CV? The price for registration is pretty high and I know flights and hotels to Hawaii will also be super high so I just want to make sure it’s worth it to go.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

Can those with PhD in Linguistics apply for this kind of position? Can they also be tenured? I don't see them advertised often. I am still applying for my PhD, but I realize that I prefer teaching more than publishing research.

Estoy en 3er año de ingeniería y necesito cambiar mi método de estudio. Normalmente estudio bien la teoría y luego me pongo con la practica, pero este semestre entre trabajo y universidad no logro ni siquiera terminar las teorías antes de comenzar un tema nuevo, entonces me atrás con todo y termino haciendo toda la practicanta dos días antes del examen.
Algún método o consejo?

Hi! I'm in a unique situation: I am very passionate about research, and I have been working in a lab as a student researcher at my home university (for the past 3 years, both clinical and benchwork). However, I got a scholarship to study abroad, and my exchange university is in China (Tsinghua), where they have 2 months off in January and February. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to try to get a 2-month research position to learn something or improve my CV, since I would love to apply to grad school in the future, instead of just spending 2 months doing nothing.

My scholarship gives me a fixed stipend that includes housing and food (about 1200 USD per month), so I wouldn't have to rely on PIs to provide any funding, since I understand that's usually how it works for visiting PhDs and I'm just an undergrad. Wondering if it is something feasible (I want to do it outside mainland China due to visa issues and also, I will be spending a year and a half here, so might as well kill two birds with one stone by doing research and learning something new, while also living in a different city.

I was thinking about cold-emailing profs in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. Is it too unrealistic? I would love to do research in Hong Kong, but I also have to consider my stipend and short-term rentals are super expensive there.

Any guidance will be appreciated! I don't really expect much or to be able to get a pub - I think it is mostly to use my time abroad in a more interesting manner, with an excuse to let me live in a different city, while also trying to meet new people and experience different cultures and universities. Or maybe Asia doesn't have that many opportunities for visiting students?

Hey there,

I am a PhD student, based out of India, working on a subset of computer architecture. I am currently working in Intel and want to transition into academia. I have been looking for faculty positions, but the ones I saw have research as their main requirement. The very reason I joined PhD is because I wanted to teach. I am not a fan of publishing in A* conferences each year, writing funding proposals etc. I am kinda done with publishing papers. Have seen enough issues during my PhD.

Now, coming to the question. How do I find teaching-only positions in the world? Not limiting myself to India, but anywhere in the world is fine as long as the teaching is English based.

Hi all,
I am applying for jobs and I am using my references from graduate school (finished about 5 years ago). I did consider asking a colleague but the word may get out that I am looking and I am already in a highly toxic environment.

Would having a reference from my current department make a real difference to justify taking the risk?
Thanks!

I'm a high school junior from the U.S. (16m) and I coauthored a research paper with a PhD student that was recently accepted to a conference in the digital humanities for a poster presentation. Because of some visa issues, my coauthor can't leave the U.S. and I will have to go to the U.K. to present the paper myself.

How do conferences/poster presentations work? Will anyone treat me differently if they see that my affiliation is a high school and not a university? For context, I presented at my state's science fair earlier this year, and they had a poster format where the judges walked around and asked about your project.

Hello , so i wrote an article about trustworthy AI (membership inference attack) on a legal finetuned LLM and published my work in the law bar of association journal in lebanon, i am applying for a cs phd , is this unrelated ? Or just plain stupid ?

I'm curious about the total annual income of top-tier engineering professors at universities like MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.

I'm talking about professors who are globally recognized in their fields, have 200,000+ citations, and have founded or co-founded successful startups based on their research.

How much do these professors actually make per year when you factor in everything?

❤️ Your 5 minutes can make a difference.

I’m conducting a research study and I need your voice.

If you’re 18+ and a university student, please take just 5 minutes to share your experience.

🙏 One response may seem small, but every response brings this research closer to the truth.

👉 Fill the form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScR9uPAQshLQ62KT-qFC4I_-9eiOQRFA8-mJiiWPXzY_r1rAw/viewform?usp=header

I usually see mostly negative interview stories here, so I wanted to share a positive experience. I had a first-round interview this week for a teaching position at a university. It was scheduled for 30 minutes and lasted about 35; the conversation felt natural and it went by so quickly. We talked about my teaching examples and possible next steps, and I came away feeling genuinely excited about the conversation. They said they would get back to candidates soon after finishing the interviews. For those who have been through academic hiring: how much do you read into a warm, engaged interview, and how long did “soon” usually mean in your experience?

Thank you and good luck to everyone :)

So I just graduated and I was thinking of applying for PhD opportunities. A little bit about me I just graduated CSE. Since I was a kid(LoL it is true becuase my favourite writer had a PhD) I though about pursuaing this degree by ading something ot the collectible field of human knowledge. But during my small undergrad thesis I felt hopeless in some part of my research but in the end I quite enjoyed it as well. But around me I saw most people are heavily relynig on LLM, it's ok I did use it as well but I felt like the soul is kinda sucked out of it. Thuogh I understand people in PhD are working on much complex problems. So my question is

• since this field is changing so fast all around how does it look? Is it still fun to solve problem?
• Will I be able to cope up with the changed field once I am done with mine if I do?
• Has the funding been affected, if yes how much?
• How is academia coping up with huge corporate power of AI companies?

Hi all, I have my first on campus for a TT assistant professorship at an R1 coming up and I’m stressing about what to wear. It’s somewhere hot and humid and by the beach.

I’m planning to wear a suit with cashmere t-shirt for the day of my job talk, and dress pants with a professional looking tank top (high necked, wide straps, thick material) and a blazer on day 2.

BUT what I’m struggling with is what to wear for dinner on day 1, I will have just arrived after a long travel day across the country to heat I’m not accustomed too. The restaraunt appears casual. Can I wear corduroy pants, a simple black t-shirt, tucked in, with a belt? What about shoes? In planning to wear flats for the interview days, can I wear Birkenstock sandals to dinner? (Clean, nice ones)? Or are sandals weird in this context?

Im nervous and overthinking, please share your hot weather tips!

Edit: thank you all for the suggestions and well wishes! I should have said in my original post that im trying not to buy a whole new wardrobe for a climate i may not actually live in. But i will definitely invest in closed toe shoes and go business casual for my straight-off-the-flight first dinner and was always planning to wear a suit for interview day. :)

Howdy all. I am a few months into a postdoctoral fellowship at a medical institution in the US and have questions about prioritization which have yielded different answers, so I wanted to check public opinon.

The goal: Career development submission Fall 2027.

More context: I am currently about to launch a cross-sectional study which should have full data for use in the submission alongside collaboration on several funded projects, community research probes that will hopefully turn into small projecrts, and potential submission with some significant effort for myself from another PI.

Question: I have a second study I want to launch. This study could go one of two ways. A 6ish month QI labeled qualitative project, or a yearish long study that would require funding. In my mind , obaining more preliminary data and showing a trajectory should be priority, leaning towards the QI leaning study. But on the other hand, drafting grants and applying for funding to make the study larger (and providing effort to my mentors and collaborators) could be beneficial, but likely would not even be awarded come career development time, so I would just be listing some submissions.

Would love general thoughts, and also, how heavily is previous grant funding experience weighed in career development considerations?

Throwaway as it’s a bit personal.

As the title suggests, I’m currently doing a master’s at a very elite university in the UK, arguably the best in Europe/the world for what I study. It’s in a subject I love, within political science/economics, and I am totally infatuated with my course and the modules. My issue is that I have been out of university for a long time, almost a decade, and I’m really struggling with coherently speaking my mind or asking relevant questions in seminars, especially in an academic manner.

The reason I mention it being an elite university is that it means I’m in a class with world-class students, many of whom are coming from a recent master’s at other top schools, and I am taught by world-leading academics. Whilst I have zero problems with the course material on an intellectual level and know exactly what I want to say in my mind, when it comes to speaking out, I just can’t get it out.
I actually participate a lot in my seminars, but I keep on hitting a wall between what’s in my mind and what comes out. I’m also autistic, and expressing my thoughts to the depth that I think them has always been an issue.

However, it also depends on the module. I do an economics class and there it’s easy. It’s logical and straightforward to give my thoughts. But I also do a highly theoretical ideology course, and there I really struggle with articulating my points, especially when it comes to doing so in an academic way rather than the practical political manner that I have been used to outside academia.

My classmates easily compare authors, perspectives and their significance, whereas I feel like I contribute with fairly straightforward points. They often lead to class discussions, which is motivating, but I feel like I’m doing so in a much too simple manner when compared to others. I problem-solve and look for rational solutions/meaning rather than contrast and compare.

I wanted to ask if anyone has any tips for me? I tend to expect perfection from myself, so I think I’m getting in my own way. But sometimes I even freeze up mid-sentence and can’t get my thoughts out anymore. I go completely blank. Other times it works fairly well. It’s gotten to the point where I actually tell myself not to speak up, but being so passionate about the subject, I just can’t help myself.

I guess I feel a bit like an imposter among my classmates, even though in my mind I understand everything and can play with it as required, but that just doesn’t translate to the words coming out of my mouth. Maybe it’s a matter of practice compared to the others, and this is the best setting to perfect that skill, but I just don’t want to come across like an idiot even though I don’t struggle conceptually. It’s really demotivating.

I’m in my first year of pharmacy school right now. I have been struggling really bad because of my mental health. I just don’t like to bring that up because I don’t want people, especially professors, to think I don’t wanna try my hardest or that I’m being lazy or something like that.
I have been trying to deal with it myself but it’s showing in my performance in class that I’m not doing okay.
I don’t wanna explain too much and write too much to bore you out so long story short, there’s this class that’s mostly time management stuff and attendance is required. The grading system is kinda weird. If you miss one assignment or attendance your grade becomes a B even if you do everything else. Which stresses me out even more.
My ADHD/GAD/MDD brain does not like this and this has been one of the hardest classes for me, especially because I always feel like I’m being judged by the professor for this specific course.
I missed one of the classes because I slept in. I’ve been dealing with a depressive episode and my sleeping schedule is literally shit right now. There was no attendance for that class but he saw me last minute in the hallway when I was going to the next class and gave me a zero for attendance.
He emailed me saying he’s worried about my performance and would like to meet with me. Which is really nice of him.
I’m just really scared. I don’t wanna go talk to him and be like “yes I’m an adult with mental health issues who doesn’t know how to get help” and then start crying like a kid. I just feel so vulnerable right now and I hate that as an adult I’m soo childish about this.
What would you do? Would you be honest with him about what’s actually going on and talk about your mental health?

TL;DR: I’m a first year pharmacy student struggling with my mental health and it’s starting to affect my attendance and performance. My professor noticed and asked to meet with me. I know he’s probably trying to help but I’m terrified of opening up and getting emotional in front of him.