advising
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This topic has been popping in and out of my mind for months now, but I never seem to have the time to jot anything down before I forget again… So today is the day! Professors, do you go commencement ceremonies to hood your PhD graduates? I did it with my first PhD graduate. While
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* I am in one of the most famous and most beautiful cities in Europe. I have visited it before. It is a lovely European city. It is not unlike the city I was born in. I find I have no desire to live here, ever. I find the buildings are old, the apartments small. Everything is
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A reader — PhD Student — has recently written to me, asking for advice about the situation with her PhD advisor, which has become very difficult: I’ll start off with some background about myself. I’m a 25 year old female PhD student. I left just shy of my master’s degree at another university so that I could switch fields
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There is work to do tonight, but I can’t make myself do it. Preparing a whole new midterm for one student who was ill, writing a letter of nomination for a student for an award, getting an abstract/bio ready for an upcoming talk. This has been a really difficult semester and I am really cranky. I
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Reader E has a question for the blogosphere. I am retelling the original email to better anonymize the case (as per E’s request). I think I managed to capture the gist of the experience; E, if something is incorrect, please let me know. ******* E completed their PhD in a physical science field at a tippity-top university (ranked
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As I wrote the other day, Eldest spends a lot of time swimming and the team he is on is very serious and successful. When compared to the best swimmers, he definitely has considerably less experience and his technique needs work. What I know is that he started swimming seriously in September, he’s a little above
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I miss FSP. I wish she’d post more, and I am sure I am not alone in this sentiment. One question I remember her asking is: Do you actually have to like your students? Or is it at least important not to dislike them? What if there is a student who really pushes your buttons? Perhaps they
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When you blog for a while, sooner or later you start revisiting the topics you discussed before. Some of them you visit multiple times. A few, ad nauseam. One of these perennial conundrums is what the necessary skills are for someone to become a successful academic scientist or engineer. In particular, how much zeal, drive, motivation,
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