Welcome on this new emerging resource for physics graduate students at the Pennsylvania State University. This website is organized as a blog collecting relevant information in posts of different categories. Crossing links are similar to a Wiki and enable the reader to quickly jump between related topics.
Recently answered FAQs
The following collection shall give you a quick overview of information that you will find here:
- Research
- Coursework
- Teaching
- How can I organize my teachings effectively? In particular, I would like to do the grading as efficiently as possible?
- How can I automatically copy grades from an Excel sheet into Angel instead of typing every single grade?
- Where can I learn more about teaching methods and physics didactics?
- Can I also work as an instructor or lecturer?
- Computer
- How can I connect remotely to the PSU network via a VPN connection?
- How can I print from my own laptop (for instance, in the first year office)?
- How do I get free software (like MS Office, Mathematica etc.) through PennState and/or the physics department?
- How can I call & text for free in the US & Canada and do cheap international calls?
- Financial
- What type of bank account should I get? Is it useful to have credit cards? How does banking work in the US? What will impact my credit rating?
- What type of tax documents will I need to file each year? Where can I find more information and help on my taxes?
- How can I cheaply transfer money between my US bank account and my account in my home country?
- What is the best way to use reward credit cards as Penn State student?
- How does funding work at Penn State and how much do graduate students earn?
- Are there other ways, aside from fellowships and scholarships, that I can increase my income? Are there academic part-time or temporary jobs that would be professionally relevant to me as a physics graduate student?
- General
Unanswered FAQs
The following questions are still open and wait for some competent graduate students who can pass on their experience & knowledge to the next generation. Please email lucas.hackl@psu.edu if you want to write an answer or add content.
- Research
- How do I find a great advisor to get started with exciting research?
- How should I structure my work to work on my projects efficiently?
- What will be expected from my? When should I start publishing? How does it work?
- What is important for a scientific career in my field? Where can I find more resources?
- When can I start to attend conferences and who will pay for my trips? What are the regulations?
- What is the difference between RA and TA? How much differ the wages? When will my advisor pay for me as an RA?
- How do I improve my LaTeX proficiency to write scientific articles in a professional manner?
- Coursework
- What do I need to know about the required coursework?
- How does it work if I already did some of the courses during my undergraduate studies and I want to get exemptions?
- Teaching
- What are the different courses, I can teach and how much work is it?
- General
- How can I get involved in outreach? What sorts of outreach programs are available?
Disclaimer
This FAQ is written by current and former graduate students and with the goal to make the life of new graduate students easier. We took great care to make sure that the information provided is accurate, but at some point parts may be outdated and not up-to-date. In particular, we can not give a guarantee for accuracy. It is the responsibility of any user to check the accuracy of any information provided.
How to contribute
If you want to contribute, please contact Lucas under lucas.hackl@psu.edu, so that you can add/edit articles.