Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with academia

Interesting Non-Academic Fellowships

divabat — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:27:38 -0800

What are some interesting non-academic fellowships out there? Some examples of what I mean:

Sauve Scholars
Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows
Ashoka
Echoing Green
TED Conference Fellows
YouthActionNet Global Fellowship
YSEI Fellows

So essentially they give you money and support for your projects, or for attending an event of theirs, but the focus isn't on academia and is generally open to a wider selection of people (compared to traditional fellowships that are geared towards academics). What other terms do they use to describe themselves?

(the examples I used up there are largely youth-oriented, but other focus areas are more than welcome.)

Graduate work in Freudo-Marxism

jne1813 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:22:58 -0800

Where can I do graduate work in Freudo-Marxism? Is it even in fashion anymore? Also, how difficult/practical are these programs in terms of getting a professorship? I have an undergrad background in Political Science...theory mostly.

I'd also like avoid jumping on Zizek bandwagon, so any thoughts on that would be welcomed as well.

Yes, I really DO want to read your dissertation--please?

rhoticity — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:23:16 -0800

Is it in bad form to ask an author directly via email for an electronic copy of a dissertation or non-refereed academic article, if I, as a student, have no other method of access to the resources? I am in the process of writing a term paper for a college course and have run across citations for a dissertation and a presented paper at a conference, both by the same author (a professor at a school across the US from where I am.) Is it presumptuous of me to assume that it would be easy and normal for this professor to simply email me a copy of these two pieces of writing, without expectation of royalties or anything else? They're clearly for academic research purposes only, are extremely recent (no reason they would not be in electronic form, in other words), and are unavailable to me via any other modality.

Anyone have any tips as to things I should include in this email, provided I do end up sending it?

Writing a Travel Grant

tickingclock — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:34:19 -0800

I am applying for a small travel grant to fund a trip to a semi-local conference. The problem is that I have no idea how to write one! I am interested in presenting the results of my undergraduate research project at a small conference taking place at a nearby province. To help fund this trip, I would like to apply for one of the undergraduate travel grants available at my university -- but I have no idea what I am supposed to say. The application instructions are fairly minimal: "attach a one-page explanation of your role at event and title of presentation."

Some specific questions:
* Do travel grants have a standard format that I should follow?

* What kind of information are they looking for in the grant proposal? My role at the event and title of presentation will not take up a whole page -- what are they actually asking me to say?

* There is a separate application cover sheet that contains the important information such as the name of the conference, the amount of money requested, as well as the proposed dates of travel. Should I repeat this information in the proposal?

* Should I attach some documents that are not explicitly requested? I am thinking of things like the abstract, a proposed budget, and my resume.

This is my first time writing a grant, travel or otherwise (see: undergrad), so any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Summer classes on differential equations for an LA resident?

fermion — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:59:03 -0800

Looking for summer courses in differential equations, online or in the Los Angeles area. Since I got my bachelor's four years ago, I haven't had a lot of opportunities to use my skills in mathematics. I'm starting a Ph.D. program in the fall, which will involve some computational modeling of physical processes, and I would really like to brush up on the rustier bits.

It is proving difficult to find summer courses in differential equations, since it's not a tremendously popular subject. Can someone recommend a school--preferably within a half-hour drive of Santa Monica or Long Beach--that might have such a thing? I've checked UCLA and USC with limited success. Extra bonus points if the same institution has courses in programming (C++ or Java, for preference.)

Online courses would be excellent too, even preferable, but I'm even less sure where to start with those. I'd prefer something with a human instructor, rather than an entirely self-directed option like MIT's OpenCourseWare. Are there any distance learning programs with solid advanced mathematics classes?

Advice for faculty position job interview?

gaspode — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:48:56 -0800

I just found out that I have an phone interview for a faculty (assistant professor) position (biology) at a liberal-arts college this Wednesday afternoon. Yay! But I've never actually had a formal interview before. Help! Also, I'm pregnant. Questions and advice requests inside. Some background: Right now I'm a post-doc in a Neuroscience department at a medical school. This is my second post-doc position. I left the first one with several publications, but sooner than I would have wished because my husband and I were finding living in different cities untenable. I have never had any sort of interview. I did my PhD in New Zealand, where, at least at my university, there was no formal interview process, you just found a mentor, applied for a scholarship and if you got one you were good to go. My two post-docs (both in the USA) have been arranged through networking and chatting to people at meetings followed by informal and then formal job offers.

My specific questions: Most of the interview advice I read online really seems geared to business or IT-type interviews. Do academic interviews follow similar or different lines? Am I going to be asked about my biggest weaknesses, or will they be more likely to stick to asking about my research, teaching philosophies etc? I intend to do a lot of research on the institution in the next couple of days (beyond what I read about when I applied). How important is it to know the ins and outs of the research of everyone in the department? (remembering that we are just at phone interview stage?) Also, the job posting mentioned a reasonable amount of administration (they are developing a new concentration in neuroscience) which I would love, but I have no actual administration experience. Is enthusiasm enough?

When I started sending out applications, I wasn't pregnant and wasn't expecting to be due right at the start of the fall semester, so obviously wouldn't be able to start then. Is this something I should bring up from the outset?

Finally, any other advice for faculty job interviews would be much appreciated!

Should I go to grad school next year?

lxs — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:42:21 -0800

Please help me make the right decision about graduate school. I applied to seven grad schools this year and was rejected by all of them but one (the CUNY Graduate Center, FWIW). I was admitted with no funding my first year. Contrary to what this may imply, I really feel like I had a lot going for me on my application - I have five publications, have presented at four conferences, have a good job in my field (unfortunately one which is contracted and ending in July), language skills, a decent GRE score, and a MA (where I had a 4.0 GPA). I had multiple faculty members/advisers/professional contacts read all my essays/SOP/etc and everything sounded like it was good. I have spent several years preparing for grad school and I feel like I have a good variety of experiences/accomplishments on my cv so I'm not sure what I would add in a year's time that would make much of a difference if I applied again next year. It seems like the top programs in my field - ones that offer tuition plus a fat stipend - admit two or three people a year, whereas programs with less prestige don't necessarily fund all students. So, if I apply again next year, I could easily be in the same boat.

The school I did get accepted to has THE best potential adviser for me to work with. I work in an unpopular sub-field, and she is a real expert on it, so I would have the opportunity to take courses that are specifically on my interests. Also, this school is the only one I applied to which is willing to accept some of my MA credits. They have said (tentatively) that I would enter with about 21 of the 45 credits required to complete my course work. Because of this head start, I could conceivably take fewer classes during the first year I'm paying out of state tuition. Also, even though I did not receive a fellowship, my MA qualifies me to adjunct in the CUNY system so I would receive tuition remission if I were to do that.

The downside is that I (somewhat stupidly) paid for most of my MA. I now have about $45,000 in student loan debt. It is consolidated at what I think is a decent rate (4.5%). To start work toward my PhD next year, I would have to take out a loan my first semester of about $4000 to pay for my classes. I'm pretty sure that by my second semester I could handle an adjunct job, which would pay my tuition. I am also planning on getting a part-time job/doing freelance work, which I think I can handle since I will be a part-time student my first year. I worked almost full time while I was getting my MA and it didn't kill me.

My questions are this: can I make this work? Is this additional loan a big deal? This program is a great fit for my research interests and I want to go grad school NOW, while I'm enthusiastic and ready, but I don't want to do the "wrong thing." FWIW, I'm in the humanities (art history).

On the plus side, I've never had my bottom pinched.

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:21:11 -0800

How should I deal with an uncomfortable/inappropriate situation with an ex-advisor? I am having a difficult time figuring out how to handle a situation with my former graduate school advisor. I genuinely like him as a person and would definitely call him a friend. Even though I no longer work with him, we still collaborate and see each other at conferences. While I was working with him I was aware that he had a crush on me, which was a little awkward since he is married and a grandfather, but since nothing really happened aside from some mortifying TMI on his part (stuff about his youth and his relationship with his wife, mostly), I let it slide. However, ever since I left graduate school, he's made what I think of as slightly bolder moves - telling me how beautiful I was at my defense dinner, asking me questions about fairly inappropriate but possibly innocuous subjects (i.e. my opinion of an adult film star who happens to be from my parents' native country), sending me Christmas presents, etc. Most recently he sent me, for my birthday, two items from my Amazon wishlist, one of which is basically a pornographic graphic novel. Granted, my wishlist is publicly available, but the fact that my former advisor bothered to look up my wishlist and chose something like that to give to me just gives me the total freaking willies. My boyfriend (who my ex-advisor definitely knows about) has suggested that maybe he just picked the most expensive item off the list, and I'm hoping that's true. And up to this point I've tried to remain as neutral as possible about the way he behaves towards me, but now I'm just starting to feel harassed. He sent me an e-mail asking if my present had arrived, and I wrote him a thank you e-mail which stated in plain terms that I appreciated the gesture but that if he chose the gift on any basis other than price, that it wasn't a very appropriate present and that it made me very uncomfortable. Now I'm not sure if that was the right decision, though I tried to be as neutral as possible when I wrote it.

so, questions:

1) Am I overreacting to this present? Is it in fact a totally innocuous gesture to (knowingly or unknowingly) send a former student porn and something that is so not a big deal? or is it actually really creepy, and did I do the right thing in telling him how uncomfortable the present made me?

2) What can I do to get OUT of this situation? I really enjoy working with him on a personal and professional level, and would prefer not to alienate him if possible (beyond my personal fondness for him, it would probably hurt me academically because I need his recommendation letter for future job searches). But I'm sick of feeling like I'm in some cheesy 50's comedy where the secretary has to keep dodging the boss's advances. plus feeling like I have to navigate the situation is making me resent him for putting me in this position. I don't want to completely cut off all contact with him, but I feel like by not being direct I might be inadvertently emboldening him, and I don't want things to escalate (though it's hard to imagine what could be worse than porn for my birthday). what's my best course of action in this situation?

Youtube Comments Don't Count

sonic meat machine — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:57:24 -0800

I am interested in finding a good, interesting online academic community—discussion boards, chat rooms, and the like. I am primarily interested in Literature and Philosophy. Do these places exist, or are internet fora pure lulz?

How not to screw up a teaching career.

JonahBlack — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:34:50 -0800

I was tentatively offered a lecturer positions at a University for the coming spring semester, which I'm psyched about but has led to a dilemma. I am still in grad school, but due to some circumstances beyond my control (to put it politically) my getting out of grad school isn't going as quickly as I'd like. So I had decided to stop putting the rest of my life on hold and to that end I put in plan two motions. 1. I applied for a bunch of lecturer positions at various colleges, which for those who don't know, are part-time positions, where you get hired to teach on a course by course basis, semester by semester. Since I am fairly certain that after grad school I want to go into teaching, this is obviously a good career move.

and 2. My husband and I decided to start trying for kids in May.

Now I haven't had a lot of luck getting a position for the Summer terms, I have a tentative one for the Fall, and was just offered one at another university for the Spring. The problem being that if we do end up pregnant soon after starting, I wouldn't be able to teach in the Spring because I'd be due then. If it takes us awhile (pretty much anytime longer than a month or two) though, I could.

The dilemma comes in on how to respond to the offer for teaching in the Spring. I could a) be straightforward and tell them that I'd love the job, but that there is a small chance that I would have to back out if I ended up pregnant and that I could tell them by the end of the summer at the latest if that was going to be the case, or b) take the job and if I end up pregnant, try to back out gracefully, acting like it was a bit of a surprise that this ended up this way.

With a, I'm worried that they won't give me the job at all, and with b, I'm worried that they will be turned off and not offer me any future jobs. Obviously for having a kid the extra money I can make if I could work right up till the end of pregnancy would be best, but I don't want to hurt my long-term potential either.

So which is best? Does academia (or at least the adjunct/lecturer positions) take ok to the backing out for pregnancy? Any have any experience with this?

obscure-sub-field-of-anthropology corner

clockzero — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:16:45 -0800

What can you (you wonderful, bright, worldly people, you) tell me about legal anthropology? I'd like to know about its ideological construction, presence in academia, personal experiences, applications in the non-academic world, and whatever you've got. Thanks!

To grad school or not to grad school?

Sock Muppet Acct! — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:16:07 -0800

Interesting careers with a social sciences PhD? / Talk me out of grad school! I love psychology. I annoy my friends because I constantly bring up references to psychology experiments in conversation (its so relevant to life, the universe, and everything!) After pursuing a master's in another field and being supremely unhappy, I've decided that I need to get back into the world of psychology. But what drove me away in the first place was research and academia - though I love answering psychological questions, I don't want to deal with the bureaucracy inherent to academia or be stuck in an ivory tower - and though doing what you're passionate about means more to me than money, I want to be appropriately compensated for my human capital and don't want to come out of a 6-7 year program fighting hundreds of others for a below 50k assistant professorship. On top of all that, I want to apply psychology to real life situations and problems, as idealistic as that sounds.

So, my questions: Is it a bad idea to pursue a PhD when I don't really intend to be an academic researcher? What are other options? What are some private industry avenues for psychology doctorate students? For what its worth, I'm interested social psychology applied to issues like health, stigma, persuasion, and attitudes.

(sock puppeted to not out myself to my fellow public health grad students...)

How do I learn to like research?

TypographicalError — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:26:10 -0800

How do I get excited about my research or is academia really for me? I'm a 4th year graduate student in mathematics, specializing in combinatorics, mostly of the algebraic and geometric variety. I have passed all the requisite tests as a grad student to become a fully fledged PhD candidate, getting my Master's in the process. In fact, the last hurdle to getting the silly thing is, I need to write and defend my dissertation.

And here's where my problem comes: I don't seem to find research interesting. I really enjoy working on homework-type problems - things that I know have a solution and which can be done over the course of a week or so. However, I can't seem to find the energy to get into research.

Relevant data:

I've had a problem with depression for the last 10 years and have only recently sought therapy. I'm now on antidepressants and the quality of my life has improved tremendously. The reason I first sought out the treatment was because I was having such problems getting motivated to continue progressing in my degree (on top of all the other problems I had), but unfortunately that apathy has not abated. I feel silly, when my non-academic life seems to be going so well, to go back to my doctor and ask for bigger pills, but this may be something to try.
I have tried talking about this to my friends who are grad students, but most of them have checked down to the master's track. And even then, the general opinion about doing research seems to be apathy and distaste. I haven't tried to talk to my advisor about it, because I feel funny telling him that I don't like research. However, my advisor knows about my depression problems and could likely advise me on this sort of thing, as he told me that he has struggled with same in the past.
All my life, I have been the type of person that quits things that don't come easily to me. This is a major problem, and I'm working on it as best I can. However, it may be that case that if I was able to actually accomplish something in my research (which has not happened yet, not even any minor results), I would enjoy it a lot.
My advisor has only held an assistant professorship for a few years. That is, he is not tenured. This doesn't mean he isn't smart and nice to work with, but it does mean that he doesn't necessarily have a lot of free research questions lying around to hand out to grad students, so I'm sort of working uphill in trying to find things to work on.

This semester I have been trying to give my brain some candy to maybe relieve a little burnout. That's taking the form of a course in elementary piano skills, which is fun, but doesn't seem to be doing the job I intended for it. (In fact, I'm finding it more stressful than not, having never played an instrument.) But I really can't think of anything else to try, except doing research until I find it fun, which may not ever happen.

So, my question is: how do I learn to enjoy this and not get burnt out, or does it sound like academia is just not my bag?

personal information on a cv: yes or no?

arcadia — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:34:17 -0800

Should I include personal information on my cv? There's a mass of conflicting information about this online, so I thought I'd ask the experts at Metafilter. I'm about to send out an application to a small liberal arts college in Vermont. In addition to all my academic information, I've included some personal stuff such as 'built a solar house', 'student of aikido, Vipassana meditation' etc. These are things that reflect who I am and seem relevant, and hopefully make me look like an energetic, creative, motivated person (I am!) But some people say personal info. of any kind on a cv looks like padding, or irrelevant, or unprofessional.
I specifically want to work at a place that is more 'personal' and less 'academic', meaning that even though I'm nearly finished my PhD, I have absolutely no interest in being Mr. Overworked, Super Producing, Publish-Every-Month uber-academic. I want to work at a place where thinking and teaching are balanced with real life.
So what do you think? It's getting printed out tomorrow, so have your say before it's too late!

Hey... you.

SpacemanStix — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:27:33 -0800

When addressing a professor by a title via letter or email (e.g., Dr. Smith), and they respond by signing their name (e.g., John), are they inviting you to refer to them by their first name? I've been involved in academia for awhile, as a student transitioning to an instructor, and now hopefully a future student again; so I have corresponded quite a bit, and on different social levels academically, with people that you don't just run around referring to by their first name.

As such, I'm sometimes unsure when it's appropriate or inappropriate to refer to people by their first names. The transition thing from student to instructor was weird, when you are now teaching with those who used to instruct you. But one thing that throws me for a loop a bit is when I refer to someone who is deserving of the title of Dr. (or Professor if I want to be slightly less formal), and they respond in writing with their first name. Is this an invitation to refer to them as such? And is it impolite to keep addressing as Professor or Doctor, when they have referred to themselves as Steve? (for example).

I may be over thinking this, but it tends to cause some social awkwardness for me.

Till tenure do us part?

phaded — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:11:17 -0800

Throughout my college career, I could probably count on one hand the number of professors I've seen who wear wedding rings, and this includes professors who mention their spouses. Is this just coincidence, or is there something to it? I'll [hopefully] be graduating college at the end of this semester. One thing I've noticed during my four years of college is that very few of the professors I've had have worn wedding rings. I'm sure some of the professors I've had haven't been married; however, a good number of them mention their husband or wife during the course of a semester, and yet I've seen maybe two or three of them wearing any sort of rings--wedding rings included. This isn't a case of just one school, either; I'm on my fourth school (yes, fourth; I've transferred a few times), and I've noticed it at each of the four. Is this just a coincidence, as I suspect, or is there some unspoken rule in academia about wearing a wedding ring? This can be filed under ObservationFilter or CuriosityFilter, I suppose.

How to pronounce "Mary Jacobus"?

redfoxtail — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:37:19 -0800

What is the correct way to pronounce the name of the feminist/psychoanalytic critic Mary Jacobus? Which syllable is stressed?

Would I be likely to get good research done in China?

Coventry — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:59:08 -0800

If anyone has any experience with postdoc- or young faculty-type work as a foreigner in China, I'd be interested to hear how it worked out for you. I'm an Australian computational biologist currently working in the US and I'm curious as to whether it would make sense to look for a job in China at some point.

If you're a Westerner who's worked in Chinese academia (particularly scientific research), were you happy you did? Did you have the resources you needed? Did you learn much? Were there any surprising pros or cons, careerwise? Did you feel included in the life of the organization you were working for?

This is a somewhat idle question. I've already got a position lined up in the US for a couple of years, so I wouldn't be looking for work in China any time soon.

My Chinese is very rusty, but I spent a long time studying it in the past, so I think I could get up to speed on that score pretty quickly.

Do alternatives to the HBR exist, if so what are they?

geoff. — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:55:32 -0800

Has anyone had success doing an academic lit review of business topics, particularly marketing? I am asking if such things lend themselves to learning and staying competitive along the lines of a bioresearcher subscribing to Journal of Biology. Are top executives and consultants going through graduate-level text? I find the Harvard Business Review somewhat of a joke. It'll have good case studies and an interesting article from time to time, but it lacks substance. It is like the Redbook for CEOs.

I'm looking to see whether more serious periodicals exist and whether anyone has found success combing through things such as Journal of Business or Journal of Marketing? That is if someone is hypothetically involved in a marketing project and they have not had any real marketing experience since school could they peruse through major articles published in the last 50 years, get a good foundation and work their way through case studies and more recent articles to run a more effective marketing campaign?

To give a contrast to better explain what I am trying to ask: quantitative finance lends itself very well to journal articles and academia. I would almost argue that one could not be good at quant fin if they did not keep up on the latest theory and developments. This probably applies to a lot of high finance. I was wondering if this were the case in other areas of business and what publications, if any, are worthwhile.

NB I am well aware of the Black-Scholes debate and the backlash against academia by some traders and professors. That's a separate topic, I am wondering if people like management consultants are even aware of what is coming out of graduate or research programs.

Academia: Should I stay or should I go?

TheyCallItPeace — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:01:50 -0800

I will finish my PhD in a few months, and now is the season for postdoc applications. Thing is, I am not sure if I want to stay and academia. Should I apply for postdocs anyways and keep my options open? If not, any Ph.D.s out there (especially physicists) who have any advice on making the transition away academia? I do research in a field (Physics) where it is absolutely required that I do a few years of postdoctoral research (3 or 4) before I can even apply for a faculty position. While I really enjoy collaborative research, the prospect of taking short term jobs (1 or 2 years) for a few years, moving around, only to then have very little choice of where I could possibly get a faculty position, is really not all that attractive -- the jobs are few, and I'd have to go wherever they are. There is also the simple fact that there are way too many applicants for faculty positions, and very few positions, and hell, I am old (32), and will be even older when looking for a faculty position (35? 37?). Sounds kinda late to settle down and START a life.

For various personal reasons, I feel that moving half-way around the world for a temporary job would be selfish and irresponsible, even if it sounds exciting to live abroad and meet new people.

However, it is now the season to apply for postdoctoral jobs. The jobs I am applying for now have a starting date of roughly Fall 2008. I feel inclined to apply anyways, just to keep my options open, because everything is months away anyways. Is this bad form? I'd only apply for jobs I'd be interested in taking if I decide to stay in academia, so I think it is fair that I learn more about my potential choices to make an informed decision.

I plan on looking at what my options are in industry, but there is no doubt that there will be the need for some adaptation, because my area of research has close to zero direct practical applications at this time. I have skills that are transferable (both soft and hard), so I am confident I will be able to find something. Although I hear that a Ph.D. is valuable when looking for a job even outside your field of research, I have been in academia for so long that I am not sure if that is true or not. I did work in industry for a couple of years before going to grad school, but that was unrelated to what I did my research in, and it has been 5/6 years.

So, my questions:

1) Is it bad to apply for postdoc jobs even though I am unsure if I will want to stay in academia?

2) Anyone out there with experience moving from academia to industry/real world after doing a PhD on something that has little or no direct practical applications (e.g. theoretical Physics)?

Even if you don't have direct advice, but care to share your personal experiences with similar issues, that'd be greatly appreciated.

Switching MSW schools a bad idea?

everichon — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:08:36 -0800

Posting this for my sister. She is in a MSW program at a small private college, and wants to transfer to larger state college. She has stellar grades. She was warned by an MBA and MFA-having friend that switching grad programs within the social sciences is difficult and looks bad, even with good reason (death, family matters, etc.), and that it is a red flag to prospective employers.

Is any of this true? How feasible is switching schools one year into a MSW program?

Should I go for it?

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 05:42:22 -0800

I am a new college dropout. The whole incident behind it came as a total shock. I've messed up, I'm lost, and I'm not sure what to do. Naturally, there's a lot more inside. Due to a stupid lapse of judgment on my part involving me blowing off an assignment and copying part of somebody's computer program, I have an unerasable failure in a class, had my transcript marked (so I probably wouldn't be in "Good Standing"), and been asked to leave campus for a minimum of three years. Thrust into the "real world," I have no real idea what to do.

Before this incident, my grades in college were middling (B+ average), despite my stellar performance as a high school student (top 1% of class, near perfect standardized test scores, significant extracurricular accomplishment). Granted, I was taking classes about a year earlier than most people in my major due to college classes I had taken in high school, but my grades aren't fantastic mostly because I placed more emphasis on extracurriculars like music, programming, and math club, and building relationships in college, instead of acing the courses that were used to satisfy distribution requirements.

My dream was to go to graduate school in mathematics, and afterwards maybe do research at a lab or become a professor, but now that dream seems so far away, and I'm stuck just taking my syllabi and textbooks and working through problems in my spare time (MIT OpenCourseWare has been a great blessing). Thankfully, I've taken enough courses in math to pick up most introductory graduate texts and go through them.

I was in my fifth semester of college, and my parents have suggested that I just take this whole thing as a learning experience and start fresh at another college as soon as possible.

However, it seems like it's going to be very hard, if not impossible, to transfer anywhere with this looming over my academic record.

My parents are highly supportive of me whatever I do (bless their hearts), but we aren't particularly wealthy, and I feel terrible at just pissing away two and a half years of financial support, especially since I went to an expensive private college and because my little brother will be heading off to college in a couple years. Not to mention that I no longer have health insurance and my loans are going to be due, now that I am no longer a student.

At this point, my family has suggested that I just come back and help out at home, go to community college, and try and transfer to a UC school after a year or two with a fresh start, but I feel like that would be a waste of time and money, given my career interests, not to mention that the whole thing seems pretty disingenuous toward the Admissions committee.

At this point, I figure that I'm best off just honing my programming skills working on some freelance and open-source projects, heading off to Silicon Valley once I have the money, and working for a startup or tech company. It's not grad school, and there's not much mathematics, but working with computers is my second love: it is intellectually challenging, fun, and I could see myself doing it for a living. However, it's also risky and my job opportunities will be severely limited to my lack of college degree, but I figure if I'm going to fail, it's better to fail when I'm young and go out fighting, picking up valuable skills and life lessons while I still can.

I've been supporting myself through high school and college through computer jobs, so I have some experience doing standards-compliant web design, web development (Ruby [on Rails], PHP/MySQL, Python with Django, in order of proficiency), programming (C, Java), and *nix system administration (with shell scripting and Perl), and good references from each, if that helps.

I know it sounds like I've already made my decision to leave, but if there is any way for me to get a PhD in mathematics or a related discipline at a university good enough to make me employable, I'd be willing to make the sacrifice, even if it involves many more years of schooling. Even if I need to take out even more student loans. Even if I have to work from the ground up working during the day and taking night classes. Even if I need to sacrifice my hobbies and social life to get straight As on every course I take for the next four years. However, given that getting jobs in academia is a bloodsport, and that my academic pedigree isn't flawless, it seems that the practical thing to do it to cut my losses and keep math as strictly a hobby.

Maybe something in my head's not right for thinking I could get away with such a thing initially, maybe there was something deeper that caused me to crack and compromise my personal code of ethics, maybe college wasn't the best place for me at the time, but I feel like I need to make the most of this forced time off, and am looking to the hive mind for advice.

I apologize for the long message, and thank you if you took the time the read the entire thing.

Anonymous comments and specific questions can be sent to GoNorthYoungMan@gmail.com

Try to say 'Scandinavian academia' ten times fast.

umbú — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:01:22 -0800

Are there different expectations for academic job applications in Norway vs. the United States? I'm in the United States, and I'm applying for an ethnomusicology teaching position at the University of Oslo. Do any academics out there have experience in both the U.S. and Norway? I have a feeling that I should alter my application materials (CV, cover letter, teaching dossier and writing samples) to conform to their conventions, but I'm not sure exactly how.

Took courses, got A's, still not sure what it is.

StrikeTheViol — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:57:25 -0800

When I was younger, I read a sociology textbook trying to find out why sociology was treated as a separate discipline and how it differs fundamentally from the other social sciences. I learned a lot about Weber and Durkheim, but I still don't get it. Can you help? I took an introductory sociology course later, attempting to understand. It felt like it didn't differ materially from anthropology. I thought it might be the instructor, so I took another one, "Sociology of Technology" which could have been taught by a history professor with no change in the syllabus. I thought "there has to be something I'm missing", but what sort of research does a sociologist do, that a political scientist, or for certain topics a psychologist, for example, is not trained to? How are culturally-focused sociology and cultural anthropology, for instance, effectively different?

What are Web 2.0's effects on American politics?

eswusp86 — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 20:18:23 -0800

I always hear that blogging and YouTube are (and/or will be) revolutionary in American politics. Is this true? How so? Can you recommend recent books, academic articles, extended blog posts and other media that demonstrate (or argue against) the effects of blogging, citizen journalism, social networking web sites and YouTube on American politics? Differing viewpoints would be appreciated!