Academia Stack Exchange
Academia Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [interpersonal-issues]

Questions concerning relationships and dealing with problems between people.

464 questions
85
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4 answers

How to deal with an academic 'stalker'?

Several years ago, my colleagues and I attempted to get a small paper published, it was rejected and we ran out of time - and as it was a 'side-project' type of paper, we left it at that. We thought that was the end of it - this was not the…
user21984
36
votes
10 answers

Is passion a must-have for a Master's student?

When I was accepted to become a Master's student, I had virtually no experience in the topics that my supervisor wanted to work in. Lately I've been catching up on background knowledge (I've been in the program for about a month), but I still…
Mahkoe
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32
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3 answers

How common are romantic relationships between faculty and students?

Romantic relationships between faculty members and students are often depicted in movies or books, and the student falling in love with his/her professor seems to be a bit of a cliché. But how common are such relationships in practice?
CJT
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17
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1 answer

Having caused a lab accident, how to mend my relationships with fellow students?

I accidentally caused a fire in my department laboratory. The fire was not big, and luckily no one was injured. However, it triggered the fire alarm and sprinkler system, which led to some of the common equipment being damaged. After the incident,…
bingung
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14
votes
0 answers

How do I politely tell a student to take a shower?

There's a student in my class who obviously has some serious body hygeine issues. To preface, this is a fairly packed class -- about 60 students in a small lecture room. The class is about 2 hours long. The problem has been so bad that when the…
yuritsuki
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12
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13 answers

Could not get along with any advisor, is it ego?

During my academic studies, I have always been ambitious in pursuing academic research with no luck. I have not gotten along with any of the professors whom I attempted to set up an advisor-advisee relationship with. This was not due to my lack of…
academicwasteland
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8
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2 answers

Is it normal for master's students to be sidelined, compared to PhD students?

I'm a MS student who just finished his second semester. The lab that I'm in is fairly large (around 30 people) and there are a variety of students working on different topics. Here in my country (Korea), people usually enroll as MS/PhD integrated…
Sean
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7
votes
2 answers

Laboratory second-in-command aggressive towards me

I am a Ph.D. student on a student residence permit in Germany, currently in the middle of my second year (out of three, but the project may be extended). There's a woman in the laboratory who gradually became more and more aggressive towards me,…
user132436
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5
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1 answer

Why is it that when I tell people outside my university that I'm a PhD student, I am sometimes told that I'm arrogant/privileged/ignorant?

This did not occur before I started my PhD. It does not occur when I simply say I’m a graduate student. I only say this when people ask what I do as a living (I do not namedrop this). This tends to occur when I vocalize a strong opinion or disagree…
anon
4
votes
2 answers

Dealing with suspects of sabotaging experiments

In a group, postdoc A believes postdoc B sabotaged her experiments. A shares her frustration with the PI (without proof) in a "half-jokingly, half-serious" sense. Since then, strange things appear to be happening in the lab -- specifically, B's…
scrx2
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3
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3 answers

Discriminated by senior researcher because of my ethnicity

I am working on a collaborative project between different parties, and there is a senior researcher who underestimates constantly what I ever propose or speak, and he tries to illustrate that I am doing nothing new. Although I have proven for the…
user103209
2
votes
3 answers

Accidentally overlapping research projects

During my research, it appears that I have managed to stumble upon a new kind of solution for a problem that our lab has previously worked on. My classmate in the lab worked on that problem prior to me and developed and implemented a solution to…
user1848065
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2
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4 answers

How to interact with difficult supervisors after graduation?

I submitted my dissertation after several years of working. I will have my defense soon, and I reported what I am going to talk in the defense. However, my primary supervisor now refuses to give further advice or comments because he said he had…
Rebecca
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0
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1 answer

How can I ask a professor for time-sensitive information when they are out for a family emergency?

I'm an undergraduate student, and at the start of the semester I was trying to organize something like undergraduate research (but more basic) with one of my professors. I have to fill out a form due at the end of the third week of the semester…
Calvin Godfrey
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0
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1 answer

What to do when finding difficulty in resuming study?

Suppose, I completed two semesters and left a university two years ago. I want to resume my study again. I e-mailed a specific guy in the faculty/department/institute. I need a readmission paper from that guy to resume my and he never responds to my…
user84565
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