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brilliant vs hardworker, lazy vs slow

Grad Life

By sormani
Posted Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 08:33:55 PM PDT

Scenario:

A prof assigns a very difficult problem to a graduate student and then asks how its going a couple days later. The student has made some progress, is on the right track but not finished.

Which answer is better? Which would you give? Which would you prefer to get? If something in between, give an alternate response:

1) I spent 6 hours working on a problem and came up with a couple ideas and only one worth mentioning and its not firm but here it is...

2) I only had a few minutes to glance at the problem. Here's an idea...

What adjectives would you use to describe each student in a letter of recommendation?

Do you think different faculty prefer different responses depending on their institution/nationality/sex?

Would you go so far as to suggest a student be dishonest and answer (1) vs (2)? Do you think many students are dishonest about this?

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brilliant vs hardworker, lazy vs slow | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

[new] gender differences in letters of recommendation (none / 0) (#1)
by dkung on Mon Oct 24, 2005 at 07:57:13 AM PDT

Interesting post - thanks for bringing up these issues. I wouldn't say that students are actively lying about issues like these - more that different students have different attitudes and beliefs about mathematics that cause them to answer in different ways.

And your question about letters of recommendation brings up some research I read a long time ago. Even if you delete all gender references in such a letter, people can tell (with high accuracy) the gender of the person being described. Phrases like "brilliant" and "natural mathematician" go with men, and "hard-working" "diligent" go with women.

I don't recall the details of the study, but your post brings up the possibility that this isn't just due to the gender bias of the letter writers but could also be tied up with gender differences in the way students portray themselves to professors.

[new] More a question about the advisor (none / 0) (#2)
by brianbirgen on Mon Oct 31, 2005 at 09:29:44 AM PDT

I really think that the answer to this question depends on the advisor and the relationship that the student has with the advisor. I think I had a pretty honest open relation with my advisor and I could talk about most things. With my advisor, I would (and did) say things like: I worked on this all week and this was all that I managed to do. I decided in my career that I was trying to learn from my advisor, not convince him that I was smarter than I really was. However, I know there were faculty at my grad school with whom I would not say those things. There are faculty who don't want to talk about your financial concerns or your teaching or really anything other than your research. There are faculty that you would avoid telling that you are (or in my case, your wife is) pregnant until the last possible moment. If you have one of those advisors, where you are likely to be judged worthy or unworthy based on how quickly you solved a problem, I would be a little more insecure about my response. I will go on record saying that I think there are major advantages to having an advisor you can be honest with. Okay, maybe the other type have more connections and you will be able to parley that into a better position coming out of grad school, but eventually you will be on your own and learning to do research on your own is more valuable than impressing your advisor. Maybe someone who has a job at a research school might have a different perspective, but those are my two cents.

brilliant vs hardworker, lazy vs slow | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

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