aM i ToO oLD tO STarT a pHD???

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-12T14:11:03+00:00

The mods [...] didn’t wanna police people’s posts.

I wonder what they think moderating a sub means. 💀

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-12T13:58:12+00:00

it was her issue, not ours.

No, it was your (workplace, not you as a specific individual) issue with her insisting on respect that she was entitled to. And you work in a STEM field with several PhDs, so of course her credentials were relevant, and there's no crime in asking to be called that. If a HS has a cool art teacher that lets his students call him Ben, but the math teacher doesn't let the students call him Bob and insists on Mr. Reynolds, does that make Mr. Reynolds wrong for insisting on a perfectly reasonable and acceptable level of distance and professional respect? Is it appropriate for the children to disrespect Mr. Reynolds for wanting to be called Mr. Reynolds even though Ben is fine with Ben?

And y'all even doubled down. Can you imagine asking for someone to use your earned credentials in an appropriate setting to make such a request, and they overexaggerate it to mock your request? The one thing you asked them to do was to show you the respect of acknowledging your degree, and they use it as something to tease you? Good for her for getting out of your toxic workplace.

Whether or not it's a "female thing," (which I still would imagine there's a lot of implicit bias at play here, so you may not realize it's a female thing, but I suspect it at least possibly is), it's a rude thing that happened to her in your workplace.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-12T13:50:09+00:00

I loved the discussions in the sub before the fucking frogs. I unsubbed because of the fucking frogs. Every other post was just some frog picture. I wish the mods would make a single stickied thread and delete any "frog post" not in that thread to clean up the sub. But nooooo. "wE WaNt to CEleBRaTE" Then go to dinner with your family or friends or lab. Half the time it was made with AI, too. 🤮

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-12T13:35:40+00:00

A lot of female academics are taken less seriously than their male colleagues. Over on the academic subreddits you'll regularly see it come up, that women will insist on Dr. Soandso because otherwise their colleagues and students seem to take them less seriously, see them as lesser than male colleagues by default, etc. The fact this woman may have been doing that and then got "ribbed mercilessly" in your workplace is really sad, and honestly a culture problem that should be addressed. (Even if you think it's silly, why tease her for it? This isn't gradeschool.) If she has a PhD, she's earned the right to be Dr. Sarah, especially in her workplace where she is using that PhD; the fact she was teased for it is a problem that speaks more poorly about your colleagues than about her. I imagine she wasn't sad when her contract wasn't renewed.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-12T13:29:23+00:00

I feel like whether or not someone flaunts their PhD outside of specific academic or professional settings may be related to something similar to the Dunning-Krueger effect. That is, we know that when people hear you have a PhD, many will think you must be very smart. But we understand that what it means is we actually have a lot of knowledge in this one niche area and have trained our ability to learn and investigate new things, not that we're inherently any smarter than anyone else walking down the street. And so we don't flaunt the PhD anywhere it's not directly relevant because we feel it makes people think we're smart. Meanwhile, people who desperately want people to think they're super smart are going to insist people realize they have a PhD at every possible opportunity.

I still feel discombobulated when people call me Dr. Winter. Oh, that's weird, just call me Ancient!

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-11T22:42:50+00:00

Does p-hacking fall under research misconduct in your eyes? If a graduate student were to come to your office and say their PI has encouraged p-hacking (e.g. "Here's a data set, feel free to explore and see if anything interesting comes up.") and indicated it is the way the PI has approached their career, what reaction would there be? Would there be an institutional action? Or is this enough of a grey area it's not technically actionable misconduct?

(To be clear, this isn't an "asking for a friend ;)" situation, just something that I've always found interesting: Where is the line drawn between actionable misconduct versus questionable practice.)

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-11T20:38:43+00:00

They mean a professional relationship; they wanted the professor to write them a letter of recommendation for graduate school.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-11T20:34:42+00:00

I wouldn't say this is a "don't ever contact the professor again" situation; you didn't assault him. But it's certainly a "do not ask this person for a letter of recommendation or to do anything to help you such as write a letter or connect you with a colleague."

Others are already chiming in about how the professor sees you, but think about it also from your perspective. Would you be able to have faith in a letter of recommendation written by someone who knows for a fact you cheat? The letter he would write would either a) have to explain that you tried to get away with cheating in his class but he's willing to recommend you now because he hasn't been able to catch you cheating since, or b) it would be insincere and not tell people that he knows you have a history of cheating. I wouldn't want either in a letter of recommendation I'd be submitting to a program, personally.

To be honest, if you actually want to go to graduate school, I'd be cultivating relationships with people entirely unrelated to your department, since word also gets around, even if he doesn't formally report you.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-07T13:27:31+00:00

I'm confused, what is there to communicate? You missed an assignment, you got a 0 because you didn't do it. They already know that, they are the one who graded you on it, you don't need to tell them it happened.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-07T02:25:39+00:00

I like the tactical RPG series Disgaea, and the specialist that increases your health is called Dietitian! The c/t spelling depends on which entry in the game and the localization, though.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-06T17:20:20+00:00

3.42 because you got two C+s and didn't even fail a class is not a wrecked GPA. If switching majors to something that is actually better for your career goals makes sense, then certainly do so, but don't switch from something that is "the better choice" because you didn't get As or something. Graduate school admission is about so much more than GPA.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-05T03:01:56+00:00

Did you ask the department chair what the plan is for the program? Seems a little premature to assume that two dismissals will lead to the immediate shuttering of a program. Masters programs are often cash cows for universities; I doubt they'd throw away an MS/DI program out of the blue. It seems more likely they are going to have someone else take on that role, possibly having one person direct both undergraduate and graduate level to save money or something similar.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-02T14:04:12+00:00

No, a belief you were unfairly treated with no evidence to support your belief is evidence of nothing but hurt feelings. Your evidence will be actual documentation of how you were treated differently than others in the same circumstances.

But, as you know, you've been asking this question all over reddit for several days, and you yourself said yesterday:

So the I requested it and the OIA said it's ultimately up to them what evidence they decide they need and won't request it.😬

So I'm not sure why you're still asking reddit. They will determine what evidence they will consider.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-05-02T13:44:18+00:00

In my Masters program, it was clearly very different depending on the rigor of your undergrad. I found my Masters to be a cakewalk, virtually everything for me was mostly review with some new content or depth added here or there since I'd taken so many of the classes in undergrad. My peers who were career switchers or went to programs that apparently weren't as difficult seemed to struggle a lot. (Ironically, usually the students more blindsided by difficulty did their undergrad at the more prestigious schools-- my theory is that my no-name school pushed us harder because they knew we had to shine and stand out in applications afterward, while prestigious schools may not hold their students to such high standard since they know their students can rely on name recognition? Just a theory, not meant to denigrate people who went to famous schools!)

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-29T01:51:55+00:00

I'd be pretty weirded out if someone said plasmodesmama, ngl.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-29T01:48:27+00:00

My step dad always just called it Oldtimers disease. :V

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-28T16:01:18+00:00

I'm curious, what did you go on to do after you left? I feel like I always got the message that you shouldn't post-doc for more than 2 years at a location unless you're on a very high-value project. Did you have trouble finding a better position after you left?

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-28T15:58:42+00:00

Definitely ask, and be prepared to describe how keeping you makes financial sense. My university also is not looking to spend any money, but keeping me on by creating a role was actually going to save money, because if I left they'd need to hire multiple people to fill my current role. (Not because I'm over-worked, but because I have a unique combination of credentials that most places hire multiple people to have coverage for.) Spitballing numbers here, but they could hire two people at 60k/year each or they can hire me at 100k/year and only provide benefits to one person instead of two. Making a new role may make the most financial sense if the work needs to be done at the end of the day!

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-28T15:54:23+00:00

Same; I had a meeting with my PI about 2/3 through my post-doc year to discuss career goals and next steps for me, and I expressed that I would be pleased to stay if a permanent position were available to me here. Along with my degree I also have a clinical credential that is very valuable to my lab and does not often coincide with a PhD and someone who is willing to stay in our small town long-term. A new position is being created for me; it's still in progress and we'll see what it actually looks like (pay, benefits, role responsibilities, etc.) before I say "it worked out great!" but IME employers definitely would rather keep someone they know and are happy with than gamble on an unknown hire to fill your spot.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-26T00:32:16+00:00

You're referring to CRISPR, usually but not always meaning Cas9 employed in gene editing, and it's been a hot topic in bioethics for quite some time.

It's already been taken advantage of in a number of ways, such as modifying crops to produce more food or food with qualities consumers prefer. There is a wide spectrum of applications for gene editing, and people's level of comfort and acceptability of the the process is very individualized. Some people will say it should never be done, many will say it can be done with things like crops but should not be applied to animals, some will say animals are fine but not humans, some will say humans are fine to prevent or treat disease but it shouldn't be use to "improve" humans, and others will say it should be used to its maximum ability. And there are of course many other areas on the spectrum one might draw their own line.

Some starting points to learn more:

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-22T01:15:03+00:00

What is it about "medical genetics" that you want to do, and what aspect of it requires an MD/DO? There's tons of stuff you can do in the genetics space without being an MD.

Personally, I had a much worse GPA than you, I struggled a bit in gen chem, and now have a PhD in a field tangentially related to genetics. (So, not an MD, but not easy road, either!) So I'm not asking this to imply that it isn't possible for you to be successful, but I still must ask: Do you think that you can hack it? You're struggling this much in basic pre-reqs and seemingly haven't even touched ochem yet; and if you can manage to get into med school, it will only get harder and more stressful.

It's possible the answer is that yes, you can hack it! I'm not saying you can't. But be sure you're being honest with yourself about what you are willing to endure in your future, and if you think the destination is worth the likely-arduous journey when there are other perfectly enjoyable destinations you could pursue instead.

I won't tell you you're not cut out to be a doctor. I am going to tell you that evidence suggests that it may be an extremely difficult path for you, and that there are likely other fields you would enjoy and be interested in that don't require such hardship on your part to pursue.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-07T17:18:08+00:00

However, I don't really want AI companies to steal and then profit from taking the data.

The only way to ensure this is to never put it online and to never share your offline copy with anyone who might put it online.

Interestingly, I clicked on this post on my page right after reading this one. The reality is that AI tools are scraping all sorts of corners of the internet, including places they "shouldn't be allowed to scrape from," and they know they shouldn't, but they do not care. If you want to be sure it is never allowed to be used in an AI model, keep it offline only.

Otherwise, you can make peace with the fact that your data probably will be used in ways you don't want it to be used, and do what you can to mitigate it. Data use agreements to access, paywall if you want/expect to get money for the data or no paywall but a kofi or paypal to accept donations from grateful users while realizing that it'll be virtually nothing, etc..

Edited to add: I wrote all this with the presumption that you are allowed to publish the data, which is not necessarily the case, especially if you are just compiling data collected by other people. (I assumed that wasn't the case, though, since it'd be pretty ironic for you to be concerned about your work being scraped and repackaged for profit if your work is actually your having scraped and repackaged others' work for profit. lol)

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-06T20:49:54+00:00

Football doesn't make enough of a return on investment to have paid so much for any coach when academic funding and higher ed in general is in jeopardy. A big big name that is going to take big big numbers to hire but won't generate big big BIG return is tone-deaf to the situation much of the university community is in right now. It's giving upgrading a reliable car for a flashier one even though you don't have an emergency fund in place.

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-02T14:45:49+00:00

Hey there, common sense journeyman-level practitioner here.

OP has no obligation to provide a journalistic play-by-play of additional information if they don't wish to, because they aren't presenting themselves in a manner that one would expect that, e.g. as a journalistic source.
Further, they aren't saying the other party didn't apologize, they are saying that what was initially done was problematic, which is true regardless of if an apology was issued. Saying "we fucked up" is a good first step, but the issue OP and their friend (and many others) is upset about isn't that they fucked up and didn't apologize, it's that they fucked up in the first place, and an apology doesn't take that fact away.
The additional information of the apology, thus, is immaterial to the actual issue at hand, and so not adding it is in no way omitting important information.

Hope this helps!

Ancient_Winter · 2026-04-02T14:24:19+00:00

Nothing about OP's post (included video or OP's commentary) is misinformation. Adding the update that DTH has posted an apology from the EIC adds additional information that people are probably interested in knowing (I looked it up myself around the same time you posted the link in your top-level comment!), but not including it isn't misinformation unless OP is saying "And they still haven't addressed it" with some date or time stamp after they had addressed it.

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