@ff524 I shared an office with an Asian women with the last name Zhou (pronounced something like Joe). Took our advisor years to get it right and not pronounce the Z.
A lot of the Asian students here choose American names for themselves. Including some odd choices (I had a colleague named Zhizhong who went by "Dexter", for example)
It is amazing only having to give the odd lecture here and there and not have to do any grading. I hired some good people and the funding seems like it is going to come.
I grew up in Boston so I am biased. I think Philly is really great. It is so affordable, good food (great kosher restaurants), music, shows, ... Penn and Drexel are in a great area. I would be cautious about Temple.
I'm not really into the whole R1 thing. I'm interested in TT positions at places with strong undergrads, that focus on undergrad research and teaching.
There are very few of those, of course.
So I'm applying to a few of those this year. Assuming no offers, next year I'll apply to a wider range of schools in the fall, postdocs and industry R&D in the spring.
I really like teaching, and I like working with undergrads. They're more fun for me than grad students.
@ff524 the problem with teaching heavy positions is that there is a big difference between a 2-2 and a 3-3. I couldn't handle that much teaching. I also get bored of teaching the same thing year after year.
On the other hand, I really hate stressing about grant proposals. having to figure out how to pay your grad students if nothing gets funded one year. Etc.
@ff524 How long are grants in your field? With NIH funding you get 5 years and can take a no-cost extension to make it 6 (or more). Still stressful, but it is not an all the time thing. The UK was tough with 3 year grants, but then again PhD students are only funded for 3 years.
@StrongBad depending on the grant, can be 2-4 years. It's a pretty tough funding climate
And the way the timelines work out, you need to have a student ready to get to work as soon as the grant starts. So you often need to hire before you have the funding sewn up
Funding aside, I also really like working with undergrads because it's low-risk and you can try out all kinds of crazy stuff
Negative results or problems that turned out not to be so interesting aren't such a big deal with undergrads
@StrongBad @ff524 I was in the Boston area for my first conference in the US in 1995. Actually it was in Woods Hole but I visited Boston too. Very nic:, as many people say, it is probably the most "European" of the US cities. And I took 5 kg in a week!
