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1500 questions
111
votes
9 answers
"Dressing down" to impress in academic settings
I came across this highly-upvoted comment on reddit (15,300 karma) by /u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod
The CEO of the company I work for said that it's not uncommon for
programmers to be asked to dress down for important meetings.
Apparently investors…
Darren Ong
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111
votes
11 answers
Why do Americans care so much about recommendation letters?
In Europe, we judge students based on their work and abilities. How are their grades? Do they have relevant work experience (TA/RA, maybe part-time industry work, etc)? What projects have they done? What courses have they taken? And of course the…
JezusIsWatfhing
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111
votes
16 answers
Student caught cheating when leaving class after handing me the exam
Usually I am quite clear that cheating and plagiarism are unacceptable. Although every semester I have to deal with several cases of plagiarism, I had not expected students to brazenly cheat in exams. A few seconds after one student handed me the…
user12512
110
votes
18 answers
Is it okay for a professor to leave the classroom only 5 min past the class start if nobody has shown up?
Last week, because of a subway delay due to bad weather I arrived 15 minutes late to class to find out my professor had left 10 minutes before because nobody else had arrived.
Was it okay for him to do that? Would it be rude to complain about this…
Ann Greene
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110
votes
14 answers
What is the best "last slide" in a thesis presentation?
There are some possible options as the last slide of a typical thesis presentation. I've heard of some possibilities:
A question-mark image (as the time to be slaughtered by the referees!),
A Thank You declaration (There are some negative…
user41207
110
votes
9 answers
Is Academia really just a huge competition?
I am currently an undergraduate student. I noticed that regardless of what courses I'm taking, there are always a handful of people who view everything as a huge competition. That is, they would do anything possible (other than committing academic…
WeirdestQuestions
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110
votes
8 answers
What makes someone deserving of a Ph.D.?
Few days back while attending a thesis defense, one Professor was asking the defender why does he think, he deserves the degree. I was wondering since then, is there really any general answer for that? or the answer should be given describing my own…
Bee
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110
votes
6 answers
What can I do when some people stole my master thesis work and published it as their own work?
Google scholar suggested a paper for me to read, I opened it and boom it was my master thesis work. My work was based on Arabic language but they claim their work is based on Telugu language. Even they did not bother to change the title. they just…
Infinite Looper
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109
votes
7 answers
What happens if a math PhD student fails to find a proof that is the main objective of their thesis topic?
How exactly do Math theses/dissertations work?
Is it fair to assume that the work involves trying to prove something? What happens if you can't?
I did a thesis in Computer Science, and though my results weren't great, I still had something to show.…
pushkin
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109
votes
11 answers
Why is plagiarism so harshly punished?
I realize why plagiarism is morally wrong and punishable. This is not a question about why it is wrong.
This question is about why plagiarism is dealt with so harshly compared to other violations. This might be because I'm uninformed but as per…
Prime
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109
votes
3 answers
What is a “sandwich thesis”?
On the Internet, I have found that some people have graduated with a PhD by means of a “sandwich thesis”. Could anyone explain what it is?
Dr. Snoopy
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109
votes
14 answers
My teaching evaluations arrived and female students statistically gave me worse scores than male students. Is there any possible explanation?
I'm a new assistant professor and I finished my first semester of teaching. It's my first class, but I think it went good: the students seemed happy and interested, I had many of them (both male and female) doing more than required, and some of them…
user117849
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108
votes
24 answers
How can I prevent students from writing answers on an assignment, then claiming I didn't see their answer?
What is a good way to prevent students from writing an answer after you hand back a graded assignment (exam/homework) and claiming that you did not see their answer?
It is clear to me that this particular student even used a different pen for their…
user14802
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108
votes
18 answers
Should I recommend a student with a bad ideology?
My problem is the following: I teach an honors course in an engineering discipline at a small university. (It is not exactly that, but "teaching an honors course" is a good approximation to what I do). Large US companies sometimes ask me to…
user6480
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108
votes
22 answers
None of 25 students at question session before exam has a question. What should lecturer do?
In a comment on another question Josef shared an anecdote.
And just another anecdote: A few weeks ago, there was a question hour at the last lecture timeslot before the exam. About ~25 of more than 120 people taking the course where there. Nobody…
Džuris
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