The Post For Stuff You Wanna Tell People

[Juvenal]

I'm reading the PhD applications that don't mention any faculty the student has an interest in just in case I can think of someone for who this student might be a good fit. Otherwise these apps don't get forwarded to the committee. One mediocre applicant submits a writing sample that is oddly detailed but lacks an intro or conclusion. One search for a particular sentence on google scholar reveals that the entire submission is the middle four pages of a 2020 journal article written by someone on another continent. The whole writing sample was plagiarized.

I wish there were a job where I could get paid well for this skill!

But think of your chuckle with the "gotcha!"

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm reading the PhD applications that don't mention any faculty the student has an interest in just in case I can think of someone for who this student might be a good fit. Otherwise these apps don't get forwarded to the committee. One mediocre applicant submits a writing sample that is oddly detailed but lacks an intro or conclusion. One search for a particular sentence on google scholar reveals that the entire submission is the middle four pages of a 2020 journal article written by someone on another continent. The whole writing sample was plagiarized.

I wish there were a job where I could get paid well for this skill!

But think of your chuckle with the "gotcha!"

Ever think of letting the applicant know? You could say something along the lines of, "I was really impressed with your application until I discovered the blatant plagiarism..."

[Dismal]

I forwarded it to the Graduate School to see what they will do, but yes, I’ll probably send the journal article to the applicant with my observations.

[ergative]

I once had a prospective student--let's call them Cheat--send me a PhD project proposal that was so good I got in touch to ask for a zoom meeting. But the direct communication with Cheat revealed such appalling English skills that I found myself wondering how Cheat could have written the project proposal. So I googled around. Eventually I found a match at the program for some conference--or, like, some departmental events listing boasting about a student--let's call them Goodkins--presenting at that conference. It was very indirect, but the key point was that Goodkins was presenting a project with the same title and similar description as the proposal that I got offered from Cheat.

Because this wasn't a full program with author contact information, but instead some departmental listing, and because Goodkins did not have a student profile on the department web page, I had to  get in touch with the department admin team at Goodkins's university and ask them to pass along a message. At length, though, I managed to get in touch with the Goodkins's supervisor, and sent her the proposal, and said 'does this look familiar?'

Long story short, Cheat had done a summer program at Goodkins's university, and Goodkins had shared their PhD proposal to help Cheat draft their own. Except Cheat stole it and sent it to me.

Naturally, I informed Cheat that I had no interest in working with someone who had stolen a proposal from another student. Cheat tried to say that they had misunderstood, they were willing to change the proposal, etc. etc., but I stopped responding.

Gosh, I'm still angry about this. Poor Goodkins. I should look up where they are now; it was an excellent proposal, and their advisor is a very well respected person in their field. I hope they're doing well.

[Dismal]

Oh my!

[Dismal]

But I still think higher ups in the grad school office should issue some type of Grand Banishment from ever applying to the U and maybe any other U if that were possible. Maybe tell the applicant they are on “a list,” like a no fly list but a no apply list.

[Dismal]

I'm reading the PhD applications that don't mention any faculty the student has an interest in just in case I can think of someone for who this student might be a good fit. Otherwise these apps don't get forwarded to the committee. One mediocre applicant submits a writing sample that is oddly detailed but lacks an intro or conclusion. One search for a particular sentence on google scholar reveals that the entire submission is the middle four pages of a 2020 journal article written by someone on another continent. The whole writing sample was plagiarized.

I wish there were a job where I could get paid well for this skill!

Unpleasant update on this PhD applicant plagiarism issue.
The graduate school office sought the advice of the University's legal team and the advice to our program was to just reject the student but not say why. They don't want to get involved since the applicant is not a current student.  Attorneys, you are very weak.

[marshwiggle]

I'm reading the PhD applications that don't mention any faculty the student has an interest in just in case I can think of someone for who this student might be a good fit. Otherwise these apps don't get forwarded to the committee. One mediocre applicant submits a writing sample that is oddly detailed but lacks an intro or conclusion. One search for a particular sentence on google scholar reveals that the entire submission is the middle four pages of a 2020 journal article written by someone on another continent. The whole writing sample was plagiarized.

I wish there were a job where I could get paid well for this skill!

Unpleasant update on this PhD applicant plagiarism issue.
The graduate school office sought the advice of the University's legal team and the advice to our program was to just reject the student but not say why. They don't want to get involved since the applicant is not a current student.  Attorneys, you are very weak.

However, it also doesn't tip off the student that the plagiarism was detected, so they can't get smart and try to hide it better next time.

[jimbogumbo]

Unrelated.

You are a real tool.

[apl68]

Amazon, you really blew it with that book order we made that you let disappear and pretended never happened.  We had ordered that book at the request of a new patron.  Now we've finally got it in, on a re-order, two months or so late.  The patron's furious at us for letting him down.  You're making us look bad.  This is just one reason why we use a wholesaler instead of you whenever we possibly can.

[sinenomine]

The (small) town where I live has one traffic light, and it’s solar-powered. We’ve been socked in with heavy clouds for a couple weeks, so it’s been a long time since the light has worked. There’s a possibility of a few hours of sun tomorrow. It’ll be an exciting moment when the light illuminates.

[apl68]

If you buy a house abandoned by a hoarder, and while cleaning it out find a dozen boxes filled with ancient, filthy, damp abandoned books, there's really no need to bring all that by the library first before dumping it.  While we appreciate people letting us go through batches of donations, surely common sense would suggest that material in that condition doesn't meet anybody's minimum standards.

[Parasaurolophus]

A very short hair has made its way under a fingernail. Ouch. Extraction is proving difficult.