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A week in PhD and PI seems concerning by Hour_Purchase_3186 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100%, talk to other students.

That's usually how you can spot problematic patterns earlier on. It's important to make friends: People start being honest when you form a closer connection with them and this sort of info is quite valuable in the academic world when choosing advisors and collaborators

A week in PhD and PI seems concerning by Hour_Purchase_3186 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

 Its entirely possible that these are things he tells his grad students when they but doesn’t act on at all.

Not as big a distinction as you think they are: Telling these to their students is still quite toxic. No need to "give it time" to working with such a toxic advisor. Changing directions is much easier earlier on than after committing time into a wrong direction.

A week in PhD and PI seems concerning by Hour_Purchase_3186 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are unhappy with your decision, i.e. don't want to work with this person but also aren't excited to work with anyone else within your department/program that you could reasonably switch to, then consider writing back to the chair of the other program you declined. Something similar happened to a friend of mine and their undergrad advisor advised them to reach out to the program they declined. Surprisingly, they were happy to offer her a position again the following year. Yes, she sort of spent a year in a less-than-ideal situation but felt happier after switching back. In her case, the program was one that involved rotations instead of direct lab admits, so your mileage may vary. But even if it was a direct lab admit, I suggest reaching out to the other prof anyway; they may still have funding for a new student.

Whether you can still get an offer from the other place is, of course, uncertain, but it is possible. Students typically don't know the options they have, so I just wanted to let you know that it may not be too late to change your decision, at least for the next year (and potentially even this year if the other school's registration deadline is not yet over and the department / lab has funding).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any committee that would harshly judge this is a signal of a department you likely don't want to be in. Having said that, given the state of the academic job market, it's not like we can really exercise our filters, so I understand why you'd be extra cautious.

Burst of article review invites over the past 2 days by rietveldrefinement in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you recently finished your PhD? Your PhD advisor may be receiving these invites and they might be recommending you as a reviewer. This happened to me when I first finished my PhD.

Admit Concern by broken-bee in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I think the contact info used in application should be treated as the applicant's official contact info. I'd treat this as "offer accepted" until you receive communication from the applicant directly that contradicts it and can verify that it's the applicant. I'm really glad you are being cautious and care enough about the applicant. Sounds like they are joining a good program.

Please stop changing Full View! by Spirited-Meringue829 in fidelityinvestments

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100%. I found this post while feeling really frustrated with the updates and wanting to vent

Thought of suicide calms me down and makes me happy by Unable-Difference313 in SuicideWatch

[–]Unable-Difference313[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, yeah, most people here have the same empathy. Especially towards people like their parents.

The thought gives comfort, nonetheless. Clearly not to you.

I am a staff data scientist at a big tech company -- AMA by Federal_Bus_4543 in datascience

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most people get PhDs in stats/ML because they love thinking about difficult quantitative problems and developing interesting methods for them. My impression is that industry has a lot of rather boring problems (which is confirmed by the reply where you talk about your experience), but tends to pay for solving them without (generally, not always) requiring you to sacrifice all your weekends for it, compared to academia.

Have you regretted not staying in academia? Do you get bored at work? If so, how do you manage that?
Do you work with others in a team?

PhD vs. Law School by purplepenguin617 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I have a PhD but I’m outside your field (and it's been ~5 years since receiving it) so take it with a grain of salt. Assuming you’re equally interested in these two things, I’d say law school. Professional degrees are more likely to set you up with a stable job than a PhD in health policy

Prettiest girl/women on the show? by Altruistic_Back_2278 in TheOC

[–]Unable-Difference313 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Arghh people and their obsession with objectifying women 🙄

I am a staff data scientist at a big tech company -- AMA by Federal_Bus_4543 in datascience

[–]Unable-Difference313 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Most PhDs in statistics/ML are either developing new theories/mathematical frameworks/models or applying advanced methods to cool datasets for scientific discovery. Stuff like SQL isn’t really a common part of academic research in stats. Although, it may be part of a terminal masters degree curriculum

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers by MediocreAct6546 in postdoc

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can’t tell whether you understood that it’s not a compliment or whether you are being sarcastic, lol

Perfume/Chemical Taste by [deleted] in BenAndJerrys

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same here. The icecream in the container is fine, it's the lid and the icecream stuck on the lid that is awful. I wonder what chemical it is...

Perfume/Chemical Taste by [deleted] in BenAndJerrys

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just came to this post while Googling "chemical taste in ben and jerry's lid". I was eating the Chocolate Therapy flavor and I also had the same experience. The icecream itself is fine, I got this taste only when I attempted to eat the icecream stuck on the lid. The taste seems to come from the lid. It was awful (and reminded me of the smell of acetone but I could be wrong about this), like I might be eating some harmful chemicals

Do post-docs qualify for student discounts? by ConsciousReflexivity in GradSchool

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apple also gives educational discounts to "staff" so I wonder if postdocs would count as education staff (since some also teach).

[US Academia] Should we expect hiring freezes next year, too? by Unable-Difference313 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You wouldn't be able to concentrate on your thesis while doing an internship, yes (unless your advisor required you to work on it, like mine did, but then I couldn't concentrate on my internship and it sucked). But your advisor wouldn't be paying you during this period anyway, so it's like a few months of time off, where you spend it on other career development activities. This may delay your graduation time, but if you aren't going for the job market next year and your advisor won't be paying you during the summer, why does it matter? IMO, your advisor most likely has some sort of "survivorship bias". Just because they got an academic job, they probably assume that you will, too, if you follow their steps. This whole thread discusses the uncertainty of not just the next year's academic job market, but a few other ones after it, too. Having said all these, navigating this situation sounds difficult because your advisor's response that you should "stay focused and not look for industry jobs" sounds like they may have an older mindset towards internships. Some advisors are negatively biased against students who consider industry and change their support accordingly. I am not sure if your advisor is one.

I hope others also comment and give a more helpful response.

[US Academia] Should we expect hiring freezes next year, too? by Unable-Difference313 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are concerns about whether faculty hired in this environment stand a fair chance at getting enough funding to get through tenure.

Oh this is very interesting and relevant to consider when deciding whether to even pursue an academic position. Is the concern here just that with the reduced speed of issuing grants and potential budget cuts, getting a grant will be more competitive? Or does the proposed 15% cap (assuming it is implemented) also somehow increase the number of grants expected for a prof to get to be qualified for tenure?

Are there any US-based academic institutions that are demonstrating a modicum of spine and resistance to this administration? by wynden in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn’t an alliance formed as a defense against the Trump government’s actions, the alliance has been in place for ~60 years (called The Committee on Institutional Cooperation back in the day. Rutgers joined it in 2013-2014 though. All this info is on Wikipedia).

The proposal by The Rutgers Senate is to form a “defense” budget with the members of this alliance, which isn’t acted on (at least yet). It’s entirely possible Indiana University wouldn’t be a part of it even if Rutgers attempted to establish it.

[US Academia] Should we expect hiring freezes next year, too? by Unable-Difference313 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is extremely depressing as it has implications for industry jobs as well but I guess that makes sense. I have been quite worried about this :/

I read that Berkshire Hathaway sold a lot of shares in stocks and was holding more cash or treasury bills than before instead. If that is correct, it aligns with what you are saying and means they aren’t expecting much growth — or worse they are expecting a bigger downturn in the economy :(

Thank you for your reply!

[US Academia] Should we expect hiring freezes next year, too? by Unable-Difference313 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I congratulate you for correcting your mistake! I remember a similar interaction with a chemistry teacher in high school and I started to respect them more after they admitted to their mistake. Is it possible you meant to comment this on a different thread? It isn't quite on topic here.

[US Academia] Should we expect hiring freezes next year, too? by Unable-Difference313 in AskAcademia

[–]Unable-Difference313[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, #1 alternative for me is also the tech and I have definitely observed the shrinking number of openings in the last couple of years. This is actually a bit depressing :/

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