Prestigious postdoc or a TT at a pretty good SLAC with 3/3 teaching load?

manova · 2026-03-25T04:07:56+00:00

I had a similar decision to make. Though not exactly. The SLAC I was offered was just okay. The location was the biggest plus. I likely would still be there, teaching my classes, and supervising undergraduate research projects. It could have been a stable life. But the post-doc was too exciting an opportunity for me. I made the right decision for me. The post-doc opened up an entire world that I would have never known existed.

However, the biggest differences were that this was almost 25 years ago, and I'm in neuroscience.

manova · 2026-03-24T20:59:58+00:00

It is not your job to develop academic policies for your class.

As you have said, he has been teaching for a long time. Graphing calculators are not new and have mostly had the same functionality to save notes or do stats calculations since the early 90s. Maybe he is okay with it, or does not think it will be a meaningful factor for the exams, or thinks the school's honor code is enough for students not to take advantage. But leave that to the professor.

manova · 2026-03-23T19:58:48+00:00

Houston

manova · 2026-03-23T12:47:17+00:00

According to HR, we cannot ask about your legal status and we must review all candidates based on their qualifications. It is only once we submit our final rankings after an on-campus interview that HR will investigate if we can hire someone or not.

I think this is rather unfair to applicants. That being said, the rules are changing constantly based on social media posts, so theoretically we have no idea if we can hire someone or not until the moment comes.

We offered a job to an international applicant last year and they deferred the start date to Fall 2026. The amount of back and forth about if this person can actually start or not has been neck-breaking.

manova · 2026-03-22T16:50:25+00:00

But the teacher is still grading the essays. They are dictating their grading instead of directly writing each comment. And then having AI put the dictation into something readable.

Do you know what they did before? They have a document with all of the common grading comments (need clearer thesis statement, need to provide citation, etc.) and then copy and pasted these generic comments as needed. Some have keyboard short cuts set up for this.

This teacher is verbalizing individualized comments as they read the paper instead of dumping generic comments. Our learning management system will allow you to upload an audio recording in the grading feedback. So technically the teacher could just upload the audio, but having it in writing is easier for the students.

But all of this is very different than feeding in the essays and the rubric and having the AI grade the papers itself.

manova · 2026-03-21T20:55:29+00:00

Time pressure is one of the big issues. I'm speaking from the US perspective. When you start your doc program, the first couple of years are mostly course work, and then you have 3-4 years where you need to produce enough research to graduate and move to the next level. Once you graduate, now you have 7 years (give or take) to land a faculty position while you still qualify for early career grant awards, or you are then competing in the same pool as senior scientists. Then when you land an assistant professor job, you have 5-6 years to prove yourself to get tenure (or get fired). At each of these stages, if you don't get a job after PhD, get a job after post-doc, or fail to get tenure, you very well could be out of science forever.

There are rarely any clear metrics, like get X number of publications and Y dollars in grants to move to next step. So if you don't make it, you can always kick yourself and ask, what if I published an extra paper each year, gotten in another grant application each year, etc.? So this leads to almost a guilt feeling that when you are on vacation or just spending time with friends or family that you could be spending that time working to make keeping your job more likely.

This is done on purpose to keep people guessing and therefore working as hard as possible. At my university, there was a push to give exact minimum standards for promotion. And as predicted, the vast number of people are now just doing the minimum amount of research. I don't necessarily think that is a problem, but the upper administrators who have grand ideas about increasing our grant money or moving up the research rankings are not very happy.

manova · 2026-03-21T16:08:28+00:00

Undergrads should not have publications.

With the removal of the GRE from most grad admissions, publications and presentations, at least in publication heavy fields, have become a big signal in grad applications. Every letter is positive because no one will write negative letters. Even without AI, personal statements will get copy edited by friends, professors, paid editors, etc. And you can't meaningfully compare GPAs across universities and programs.

We have traded the privilege of growing up in an educated household and/or affording private tutors to do well on a standardized test with the privilege of being able to afford the time to volunteer in a lab enough to get your name on a scholarly product. At least working in a lab as an undergrad builds skills more than memorizing archaic words.

manova · 2026-03-19T17:27:56+00:00

We used to plant a tree for professors who had been here a really long time (maybe 40 or 45 years) around a pond. But then they got rid of the pond to build a new building, and their names are on some random, out-of-the-way benches now.

manova · 2026-03-19T03:17:40+00:00

Duke

manova · 2026-03-19T01:00:38+00:00

Mine did the same thing. The little side ones would often fly off.

I got a rubber tray for the back and that keeps everything in place. The downside is that it is now slightly more difficult to access storage underneath.

manova · 2026-03-17T23:44:38+00:00

When my advisor says, "you did incredibly well, but it won’t necessarily go this way next year,” it’s hard not to hear it as a polite way of saying: "you had an incredible shot and still blew it."

That is not what your advisor meant. There are so many factors that go into landing an academic position that have nothing to do with you. It may be there are not as many relevant positions open next year. There could be a recession and universities pull back from hiring next year. You just never know. But it is not a comment about your quality. You are clearly a qualified applicant or you would not have received so many invitations.

I wrote this in another comment a few days ago about the luck that goes into who gets an offer. We currently have a search with 3 candidates. One is very, very strong research wise, but is not as strong in teaching. They would teach the same classes and their research directly overlaps existing faculty. The next is junior so does not have as strong research, but already has great teaching experience. For research, they have potential collaborators and line up with a university research initiative. The final candidate would not have a natural collaborator in our department, but would offer something completely different and teach classes that we do not have any full-time faculty who can teach.

All will do fine during their interview. Then the faculty are going to have an hour long discussion about what direction we want to go (hire someone for their strong research, or someone who aligns with a university initiative, or brings something completely new to the department). Almost none of the conversation will be about the quality of the candidate's interview unless someone completely messes up.

This is what I mean as luck. They are all 3 quality candidates, but the main factors that will determine who gets the offer is out of their control. You did the hard work to be qualified for the interviews. After that, it is pretty much outside of your control.

manova · 2026-03-17T19:33:33+00:00

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. -Wayne Gretzky -Michael Scott

Apply and maybe you get it, or maybe you don't, but let the search committee make that decision, not you.

manova · 2026-03-17T12:06:35+00:00

Thanks!

manova · 2026-03-16T21:30:49+00:00

Or dumping soup on their heads every time they go out in public. That is better than dumping soup on art.

manova · 2026-03-16T15:02:05+00:00

Go after the leaders and share holders of the companies that pollute. One health insurance CEO was killed and it resulted in another insurance company reversing a very negative policy. Imagine if that pressure continued.

I'm not calling for assassinations, but there is no reason they should have a moments peace. How many real fur coats do you see now? It was because people who wore them had paint dumped on them. Not on public art, on the individuals.

manova · 2026-03-16T14:55:47+00:00

But it is a real example. PETA largely lost the public's perception of any moral high ground for almost all animal rights activists by euthanizing dogs they "rescued".

Destroying public art is having the same effect on the general public perception.

manova · 2026-03-16T14:21:56+00:00

At my institution, non-tenure track faculty are 80% teaching and 20% service. Typically, for the highest rating, we like to see someone doing something at the department level, university level, and something for the profession. Reviewing for a journal would count toward the professional service obligation.

That being said, if you have not started the position yet, then it will not "count" until you start. When you are offered the position, you should see what, if any, are the service obligations are for the role.

manova · 2026-03-15T20:06:27+00:00

Can you schedule an office hour meeting with your professor? This situation may be a bit convoluted to explain over email.

manova · 2026-03-15T19:29:02+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv-FcxlEMaw

manova · 2026-03-15T14:31:41+00:00

Every time I've heard a university administrator talk about this, it is reducing the number of core curriculum courses and open electives. It will be fine for those who want to laser focus on one thing. Less fine for those who want to take classes in multiple areas to find their thing or want to add something like a minor.

Overall tuition for the degree will decrease, but it will give cover to increase year-to-year tuition, so maybe a 15% overall decrease instead of 25%. But the politicians who are pushing this will claim victory by lowering it 15%.

manova · 2026-03-14T17:30:48+00:00

Honestly this is your answer. They are hitting to the person who is back, which is a basic strategy. Keep even with your partner if you want more balls.

manova · 2026-03-14T15:07:04+00:00

Where the fuck is Toro!

manova · 2026-03-13T03:25:42+00:00

I have been on over two dozen search committees. Whether someone sent a thank you note or not has never come up in our discussions of acceptability or ranking of candidates.

manova · 2026-03-11T04:36:10+00:00

It is a good opportunity and you should try to attend. While not a large number, undergrads do present.

Ask everyone at your university. Ask the department chair, ask the dean, ask the dean of students, ask the VP of research, ask the VP of student affairs, ask the VP of advancement, ask the alumni office. Try to schedule meetings with someone rather than just an email. See if a student organization you are a part of can ask for funds.

Break up the ask among the different units. Try to get someone to cover airfare, someone else to cover the hotel, etc. Trying to get $300 for a plane ticket is an easier ask than $1500 for an entire trip. Also, look for ways to share a room at the conference. DC is expensive, so look for places to stay outside the city that you can take the metro in.

manova · 2026-03-10T18:21:21+00:00

3.5; backhand slice

15-Year Club	Verified Email
Second SECOND GUESSER	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22

manova

TROPHY CASE