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I'm not sure that I'm lucky enough to get a response, but in any case, it doesn't hurt if I post my writing here: “The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.” Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position. The statement claiming that the best teaching method is to appreciate positive acts and ignore negative ones relies on the efficacy of positive thinking: that the learner will be encouraged and motivated if their strong points are appreciated by the instructor. While there is some truth in the recommendation, this too strong claim ignores the importance of learning from mistakes. Before explaining why the statement in this absolute form can’t hold true, let me begin by mentioning some merits of the recommendation, The traditional method of teaching focused on the weaknesses and negative actions of the learner, as tough the positive ones were taken for granted: In other words, the student was supposed to be do things perfectly. Accordingly, punishment, rather than reward, was the main tool to correct the mistakes. This made learning a painful and unpleasant experience, since the student should always wait for being scolded and punished for their possible negative acts. In contrast to this method, the statement invites us to praise the students for what she does well, and instead, forget the mistakes. This would make learning a pleasant experience, as in contrary to the other method, students can always expect praises and rewards. It’s easy to see that this kind of teaching can be especially beneficial in specific cases: for example, consider a shy student that is not confident about her abilities: praises based on her real positive acts can give her back the confidence she lacks, while not mentioning her problems can help her stop her habitual negative thinking. However, there are serious problems with the recommendation, since while it’s essential to emphasize the positive side, it’s equally important to not forget the negative side. For one thing, the main aim of teaching is to help students to improve. Thus they need to know and work on their problems and weaknesses. In fact, sooner or later, when they are to utilize what they learnt in real life, they will find out their problems. But then, it’s much more difficult to change those habits that have been unnoticed for years: Consider a young person looking for a job: How can she cope with the problems of the world of business, if she wasn’t been told and helped with weaknesses by her teachers before? The world is too cruel to give her many chances to correct herself. Secondly, in some respect, acknowledging your negative acts can be more helpful than being appreciated for your positive one. It is so, since negative acts can reveal some essential weaknesses in us, so knowing and correcting them can help the student to prevent similar problems in the future. For example, if a student’s performance in exams is below her real knowledge, it might show that she has some problems coping with pressure. Thus, first acknowledging the problem and then finding a plan to resolve it, can help her prevent many more problems likely to happen to her in stressful situations. Thirdly, from the psychological point of view, while it’s important to give student enough confirmation and confidence, it’s as important to not make her have a distorted picture of herself; as tough she does everything perfectly. In fact, just praising someone for what she does well, leads to pseudo-confidence, because, sooner or later, in face of real problems, she will notice that she is not as perfect as she thought, hence the unrealistic image of herself disappears. This means that while praising someone for her good points can help her become confident, ignoring the negative one can even remove the good effects of the justified praise. Overall, the best teaching method would consider both positive and negative acts: How much we need to emphasize on one or another, depends on circumstances: For example, maybe the student is over-confident, so she should be more aware of her problems. Or perhaps, the situation is totally the opposite. The bottomline is that an efficient teaching method should take both sides into consideration, what the traditional method and the statement don’t do.

Hi all, I found an (aptly titled) Public Goods website that compiles/aggregates a bunch of free resources online that's relevant to budding/current PhD students, compiled by Christine Cai, a fourth year PhD student at Princeton.

Hi! I am an undergrad student entering my third year and have been an RA for a professor for over a year; however, I don't feel like I am learning a lot. Many of my tasks include monotonous tasks that aren't necessarily improving my skillset or making me excited about research. I'm curious to know if working with a PhD student would be a better experience. I think that working with a PhD student might help me learn more about research. Does anyone know any tips to reach out to current grad students and proposing work as an collaborative researcher/intern/RA?

Hello pharmacists! I am a high school student in AP research. This class requires me to do a survey. The survey that I am doing is how pharmacists feel about direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. This survey is completely anonymous, and is targeted towards community pharmacists in the United States and New Zealand. I'd really appreciate it if you could fill out this survey. Thank you! Pharmacists' attitudes about direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising

Can anyone who is either a current PhD student or faculty comment on the extent of PhD student deferrals from F2020 to F2021? I know it's kind of pointless but I'm still trying to figure out to what extent admissions are going to be more limited for us currently applying.

Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position. Throughout history children are being pressurized either by the parents or by the teachers to meet society’s standards of a successful career. Professions like doctors or engineers are enforced and encouraged on children more commonly growing up in Asian communities and this has led to a debate to fight for an individual’s right to free will of their own career. Nowadays may people including me believe that every individual has the right to follow their passion and no one has the ability to determine one’s success as success is based on hard work, dedication and of course some luck. Through the course of time no individual remains the same as with each step in life they are growing and learning different lessons in life and maturing each step along the way. If a student doesn’t do well in biology at school, there is no confirmation that he wouldn’t succeed pursuing a medical career. Not performing well at school could be due to a number of reasons – simply he is not working hard or maybe he couldn’t focus at school due to problems at home or maybe he was ill and couldn’t study enough, there are numerous reasons to why a student wouldn’t perform well but regardless to this, no one can predict the future of this student as it is possible for him to work hard later in medical school and be successful, therefore no educational institution has the right to dissuade students from taking a career path which they believe that the student would not succeed. Moreover, a student has the right to follow their passion and teachers should not come in the way of that. There are some careers like musicians, artists, actors or even writers who have less opportunities of success, as in this line of work only the best ones from a countless number people achieve greater success. Yet just because the chances of success is less or the job opportunities are low, one must never lose hope as there are countless examples of people who were struggling like J.K.Rowling who became the most famous author of the book Harry Potter which got rejected by publishers twelve times and Ed Sheeran who became a famous singer and musician even though he started off by playing on the streets. As well as, the definition of success varies for each individual, success can merely mean the person is happy in what they are achieving in life and not necessarily defined in becoming rich or famous. Ultimately schools should not persuade students to obtain different career paths rather let the students follow their passion in life. On the contrary, there are some people who believe that teachers, who invest a lot of time on students, know the strengths and weaknesses of a student and would be able to guide the student on a career path which suits him the most. They argue that with their knowledge and experience with the student, they have a better idea at what he will excel in the most and they also feel responsible to persuade a student towards success, as the number of students achieving success studying from this school increases so does the school’s reputation of good education. To conclude, I believe no one has the right stop an individual from following their passion as the definition of success varies for each individual and success cannot be predicted from before.

Any other international student starting this Fall having issues/delays with getting their student visa? It's really quite troublesome. Can't firm up apartment rentals and flights if the visa isn't even settled yet. Thankfully, my school has given us the option to defer to next year (with our current funding package intact), but I strongly prefer to not waste any more time.

I am an Indian student who is about to start his undergraduate degree in Economics (B.A. Hons.) from one of the top universities in India. While my academic experience of economics is still inadequate, my interest in the social sciences and mathematics is quite deep, based on my reading outside the curriculum and experience with some college textbooks. Additionally, I feel my talents have always been academic. Even though I have yet to decide for sure, I am most probably going to do research in Economics. At the very least, I plan to do a master's in the subject. My question is a general one: given that I am going to do a three-year undergraduate degree (with no double major option, so direct admission to a PhD is anyway impossible), how should I proceed to eventually end up in a T20 PhD? More specifically, (1) which master's degree will prepare me the best for a T20? (2) which master's degree is reasonably priced and/or funded? (a maximum, say, of 50,000 USD) (3) are UK M.Phil/MSc courses worth the high fees given that paying 50,000 USD in a single year, while possible, will be tough for my family (4) if possible, should I get 2-3 years work experience after my B.A. to fund further studies (will it hurt future applications?) and (5) what are the particular things I should try to add to my CV from now onwards? Obviously, my academic track record is yet to be proven. But I was a 99 percentile SAT student and my high school marks are among the best in my school (top 5 in a batch of 1000). So for the sake of this discussion, I am assuming that I shall perform at a similar level in my GRE and undergraduate courses. Thank you!

*You could just skip straight down to the three questions below. Hello, I'm an int'l student in Korea trying to get into us ph.d programs and this forum has always been of enormous help to me. I thank you all nice people and this place to share similar thoughts and exchange useful info. I would like to let you know in advance that my English isn't good, so please be patient with any possible non-fluency you find as you scroll down my post. I'm currently an undergrad in Economics in top 3 econ department in Korea. It has been only 6 months or so since I made up my mind to pursue my career as an economist (To be an economist for int’l financial institutons like IMF or World Bank is my dream), so I'm really hustling these days to boost my profile to be good enough. I have two more semesters to go till I graduate, and with my resonable expectation, I will graduate with CGPA of about 3.75~3.8 out of 4, with my econ & math gpa being just around the range. By then, I will have taken lots of econ classes, and 9~10 math subjects. Roughly speaking, I will be about top 3% of my cohort. I expected that if I achieve this kind of profile by the time I graduate and also continue my studies in graduate school of the same institution, I will be able to aim for top 20 by the time I take masters degree here. But as far as what I have heard from my seniors who are already in the grad school preparing for us Ph.D in econ, top 20 school like Rochester, Maryland,. etc are reserved for those who were the very top students in the undergrad, and I could reasonably expect to give a shot for 25~45 US programs. I don't want Maryland to be out of my reach, (because it's the best school around the DC area, where IMF, WB are located), so I started to look for alternatives, where I can get better letters and perhaps get away with the int'l student pedigree (terrible in English and not proactive and stuff like that) So, I looked up the posts in this forum regarding the MA programs that can be good bridges to US ph.d program, and the ones that I found nice are: CEMFI, BGSE, PSE, Tolouse, Boconni and etc. (I didn't include those in England because they were too expensive) I thought it would be very nice if I can get into these good MA programs, but I have found literally NO record of Korean student who took these programs to later apply for us Ph. Ds, so I'm worried about a couple things. (There's tons of Koreans who did their MA in LSE, but none in the aformentioned ones) ---‐‐‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Given that I get a decent score in GRE, what do you think are my chances of getting into these MA programs (they seem pretty tough to get into) and if possible, of receiving some finincial aid? I also have a 6 month RA experience (not economic RA) in an UN office in Korea if it is any of help. Also, if they are off my range, other alternatives you would recommend for good briges? 2. Do you think it is recommendable for an asian student like me to take masters in those programs? I'm afraid that I'll be like the only asian in those program whose English isn't good and because of that, the faculty will not likely consider me for RA or write a good letter for me. I'm particularly worried about this, because in my grad schools, competition seems pretty tough among grad econ students to stand out and get better letters. If the same thing goes for European MA's, I'm afriad it is unlikely for asian student like me to stand out and get a good letter, in which case I might as well just stay in Korea. 3. If it is all okay for me to be in the programs, I would try to get a letter from the faculty who have strong connection to US adcoms. How would I be able to tell who have strong connection? Any comment would be very appreciated. Big thanks in advance :)

I'm a CB applicant more interested in the JDM side rather than pure CB... I have offers from several "top tier" schools and I'm curious for people's thoughts on rankings within that tier. Note: I'm aware of the UTD/doc sig rankings. I've chosen not to rely too heavily on them, as CB profs often publish in non-marketing journals and are still leading scholars in their fields. I also value aspects of the program beyond publications (student wellbeing, professor interest in student support, etc).

Has anyone who starts this Fall or those who are yet to graduate heard of the massive increase in student health insurance rates (mostly applicable to those with 1 or more dependents) this year? I am seeing hikes starting from a minimum $100 for 1 dependent. In my case, I planned a cash flow based on the stipend amount in my offer. Now this sudden hike means I have to cut down somewhere else in an already tight budget. Moreover the university administration has declined to negotiate with the insurance provider. If anyone is facing a similar issue, how are you trying to remedy the situation?

Issue Question: Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student's field of study because acquiring knowledge of various disciplines is he best way to become truly educated. My response: Universities should basically keep a list of courses they provide before the student does their enrollment. This gives the student a brief sum up of what possibilities they can get during their course time. For a student aspiring any course he/she is recommended to take extra subjects which are out of their field of study. This is usually helpful for the students in the long run of their career. Let the student have a sense of satisfaction that they can get jobs which are out of their field.By giving the student education to varied feild courses the educators are basically creating a batch of students who acquire knowledge not just restricted to one branch but diversified by their application as well as area of intrest. This is hugely beneficial when students undergo industrial experience.For example let there be a person qualified from a masters in computers and a minors in business. This will allow that person to do a job in the IT sector of any firmthat it has a rudimentery knowledge of. This could be the major life changing factor especially in today's high unemployment rates as this would give an extra touch to his/her resume. However the students nowadays fail to see this point of veiw by which the syllabus makers do their job. Instead they consider this as extra work to be done during their studies. By not giving attention to that subject they ultimately fail in it degrading their moral. This could be the inly drawback for students who considers these extra courses not essential. For instance take a person who is aspiring core computers branch but have to also study useless (to him/her) courses which are not going to be helpful in the future even remotely. This would lead to less attention paid in the sujects of intrest. So basically students have to consider all future aspects of their decisions taken by them during the selection of their courses. This would provide them with great boon or would just be degradation to their current performance. Thanks in advance

What are some resources every Phd student in Finance should know?

Topic :- A teacher’s ability to relate well with students is more important than excellent knowledge of the subject being taught. There is saying in my country “A good teacher can make student culminate greatness and a bad teacher can equally plunged student down”. Teacher plays a very important part in the life of student. He is not only responsible for student’s subjective knowledge but for his personality as well. There is numerous example which can be easily found in mankind history. I do believe that a teacher ability to relate well with students supersede profound knowledge of the subject being taught. Although, a teacher should have decent knowledge of the subject being taught if not excellent. A potter need to know the properties of clay like whether it is smooth or rough when wet, whether it get dried quickly, how much strength of clay and so on. There is a reason behind this. As all types of clay tends to behave differently than others: what may work with one type of clay, it might not work with another. Based on this understanding, potter work with shapeless clay to derive some beautifully shaped structure. Same analogy can be applied to teacher-student relationship. A teacher plays the role of potter in shaping a student mind. And to do this effectively, teacher need to understand and relate to the student. If a teacher is able relate to the students, he or she will have profound impact on students than the teacher with excellent knowledge but little understanding of student. One Such example can be story of a boy named Alex and his teacher Ram. Alex was suffering of dyslexia and was having difficulties in learning even though he was studying in one of the best school of city which had most educated and recondite teachers. But it took one art teacher Ram to help Alex ameliorate his studies performance. Ram empathetic of Alex’s condition, developed teaching method based on the fact around the Alex’s predilection towards drawing and colors. Ram encourage Alex to see words and mathematics as he would think about his drawing and colors. This led to striking change in Alex’s study results. He scored well in every subject and went on to become one of the most successful student of his batch. Here, Ram’s ability to understand Alex’s condition and use Alex’s liking for drawing shaped Alex into a successful person. All teacher with excellent knowledge was not able to help him due to mere fact that they were not able to relate his struggles. Although, some people will gainsay that a teacher need to have excellent knowledge of subject being taught to give a thorough knowledge to a student. I agree to them to an extent. A teacher must have a decent knowledge of the subject being taught. If a teacher has decent knowledge of the subject and can relate to student, even with his limited knowledge he can inspire student to work harder and learn the subject. As with the story of Ram and Alex in which Ram even though limited knowledge of other subject inspired Alex to work harder and achieve success. teacher always have important role in the life of students. A teacher with excellent knowledge of subject might not be able to stimulate the mind of the student due to lack of understanding of his students. On the other hand, if a teacher can relate to student, he or she can inspire them work harder towards their goals. Although, teacher do require to have certain amount of knowledge as to ignite student’s understanding towards the subject.

Hi all, I have been going thru this forum and have seen a lot of expired visa related queries, however I wanted to post again since my situation is a bit different and I need advice. Here’s a little background. I came to the US in 2005 for my Bachelors degree. I graduated in May 2009 and have been working on my OPT ever since. My OPT is valid until November 2011 however my visa expired in November 2009. I understand my legal status in the US is maintained by my I-20 document and EAD, both of which are valid for me. Here’s where my situation gets a little complicated. I am an Indian citizen but my parents live in Indonesia (my dad’s job). I will be traveling to Indonesia next month and I checked with the US Consulate there and found out its possible for me to apply for a visa renewal in Jakarta, Indonesia. My dad has a work related Permanent Residence for Indonesia but I’ve never been to that country. I have all my documents ready (I-20, passport, I-94, EAD card, letter from my university stating that I graduated and am working on my OPT authorization, letter from my employer, pay stubs, letter from my father’s work stating that I’m his dependent, “zero balance” document from my university stating I have paid my tuition in full). My questions are: - Could they reject my F-1 since I have already graduated (even though technically OPT is still student status)? - Does having a job in the US imply I have immigration intent? - Is it rather advisable to get my F-1 renewed in Delhi, India instead? - Is there a difference between visa renewal and visa reapplication? - Could there be any other complications that anyone can predict? These questions may seem repetitive to some, none the less, I am really nervous about it. I’m debating whether it’s really worth traveling back at all. Any kind of help or support is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi My partner is a British Citizen and we have had a long distant relationship for approx. 3 and a half years now. I have recently moved to the UK on a student visa as we planned to get married after I had completed my 3 years course. I have passed my first few papers but now we want to get married ASAP as we have had enough. We are currently living in two different cities because of my course and we both are unemployed at the moment. My partner has a disability and is confined to a wheelchair. We want to apply for a spouse visa for myself but have no idea how to go about it. I found out that we have to be employed and living in the same city after getting married to be eligible for the visa, but none of the cases that I read about had the same circumstances as ours. Can somebody please help us out with this, any help/ideas will be highly appreciated. Thank you

Hello, I have long desired to do my post graduation & applied to top ten universities in USA. Fortunately got approved of admission to one of them. After my application I got married (in december) & my spouse is in USA from last 7 yrs on H1B & also is in process for GC (stage I-140) I am still in India (was waiting to hear from universities) while my husband is in USA now. The question is- will my F1 visa be rejected on potential immigrant basis because my spouse is in USA? I am worried as this will keep me away from benefits of scholarship ,TA/RA & OPT.:( I have not registered my marriage yet. Should I apply as Single status & get registered married after reaching USA? (my sponsor is my father & not my spouse) Will this land me in difficulties later?:hmm: Should I try for F1 as married & declare the truth about his GC process & if rejected apply for H4? (and bear the monetary & experience loss):mad: Please help me. Any suggestions /experience/ advice appreciated

:question: Question : Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Which point of view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer. :idea: Idea : Different universities apply different rules and policies on class attendance to their students. Most universities require their students to attend classes, while a number of universities make class attendance only optional for their students. I tend to support the former policy because from my observation, I find that mandatory class attendance benefits students more than optional class attendance. Here are my reasons. Firstly, most subjects in universities require real life experience, not only theory from books. For example, medical students can’t learn how to perform surgery only from books. They have to practice it in real life. Similarly, student teachers can’t learn how to teach effectively if they only rely on theory from books and hardly ever practice teaching in real life. By making class attendance mandatory, universities can ensure that their students really get the right opportunities to learn gradually from real life experience. Students can’t get and make the best use of such opportunities if they attend classes only when they want to. Secondly, most subjects in universities require group works or team works to prepare their students to enter professional world, because many professional jobs require ability to work in a team. For example, jobs in construction, legal fields, or social work usually demand team work. If universities make class attendance only optional, it is likely that group works won’t function as expected. Thirdly, class attendance can serve as a tool to build students’ discipline. Classes are so scheduled that students have to build good habits of organizing themselves and arranging their schedules wisely if they want to succeed in their studies. In the long run, students will benefit from those habits in that they will become well-organized and expectedly more prepared to face professional world which demands punctuality, efficiency, and effectiveness. If students are free to choose whether to attend classes or not, they tend to attend only classes which interest them and skip classes which bore them. In conclusion, fact shows that most universities decide to make class attendance mandatory because they are aware of the benefit students can gain from class attendance. Not only does that policy help students to concentrate on their studies, but it also instills good habits to prepare students to enter professional world. :)

hello , i wanted to know if showing a sibling having citizenship of USA will have negative impact while applying for student visa to USA, thanking you in advance,