Summary: Yesterday, my advisor told me that he wants me to change labs through because I said something "inappropriate" that made the lab unstable. He is a really famous professor and his citation is within world top 100 in our field. I don't want to lose the opportunity to cooperate with him. I...
But why this is gossip? I just told other people the truth. No matter what, they will finally know that my scholarship was canceled by the committee and the funding has a big problem. It is a dead end for me.
@deathlee "I did not get a scholarship I expected" may be a fact. "Funding has a big problem" is almost certainly an inference based on incomplete information. A graduate student would not normally have complete information about department finances, internal negotiations within the school, and negotiations with external funding sources. If you did have all that information, it would normally be confidential.
Voting to reopen. This is an interesting question now that it has been updated with more info. My impression is that talking about your salary is perfectly fine in academia, but apparently some answerers here are disagreeing -- this alone makes the question worth discussing.
I don’t think it’s possible for us to give advice when we have no idea what the professor’s reason was. The update has some speculation, but I’m skeptical that that’s the real reason and there’s no evidence given that that’s the real reason. It’d be a weird use of the word “inappropriate.” Much more likely that OP said something inappropriate to another student that made them feel unsafe or uncomfortable in the lab.
In Australia, students are well protected by their university. Your supervisor is bound by university policies. He/she can't kick you out for good reasons. Miscommunication is hardly a reason. I bet the reason he/she wants you out is because he/she has exceeded the number of students allowed by the university. Consequently, he/she is no longer allowed to recruit better students -- i.e., your supervisor is experiencing 'buyer's remorse'.
Why did your parent's friend give you the recommendation - does he actually know you well? The way you've presented that new info here makes it sound like he gave you a good recommendation because... he was your parent's friend.
Wow, that's a seriously bad situation. My advice/response below is now only half valid under this new knowledge; namely this being the half: "loose tongues sink ships". I am very sorry to hear that you have such a nasty fellow student that likes to damage other people's career. In future, do not give them the tools to do so. Another perspective how merely "stating the truth", as harmless as it may seem, can come to result in very ugly and unfair results. I hope it will work out well for you.
My parents' friend knows me quite well. We used to live in the same building when I was a kid. And I was visiting a student in his lab when I was an undergraduate student. In fact, that is mainly what the recommendation about, the experience in his lab. Yeah, it happened in Australia. But not Australia locals, we are all not Australia locals including the professor. This thing is about discrimination against your university. It is quite common in our country. I just didn't realize somebody would be so crazy.
Thank you all, really. In this time, I could still hear some warm voice. That means a lot to me.
You should look at your student handbook and talk to the administrators in charge of such drama issues. You may be able to get the other student on an honor code violation for making unfounded accusations of cheating. And you could probably put up a fight against getting kicked by the professor. Though at the very least you should just find another advisor at your school. You have a good explanation for why the recommendation is valid, despite whoever is friends with each other.
To be honest though, you used connections to get a position you had not earned through merit. It sounds like this is the real source of your problems. Your theories about crazy people and discrimination against universities and professors overreacting all make a lot more sense as just the truth coming out about someone with less merit getting an insider advantage.
Maybe I should. But I am really confused whether I violated the rule or not. If I violated the rule, what is the point to talk to the administrator? I passed the entry requirement or the University won't let me in. But the rest of the admission depends on the professor, which is very subjective. I do worked in the lab of my parents' friend and he knows me quite well since I was a child. From this perspective, he would be a perfect referral candidate. I may be with less merit. But whether I deserve the position depends on whether I could graduate. It is just now I can not prove that for myself.
@ASimpleAlgorithm The fact that he had a connection does raise warning signals, but it does not automatically mean that the recommendation was not valid. Under modern rules that I am aware of in our institution, such a recommendation may need a disclosure, but, to my knowledge does not imply disqualification of a reference.
@JiK I said the position was not earned through merit. Though its quite easy for me to imagine how a good recommendation might be not earned through merit.
@CaptainEmacs Perhaps you misunderstood my comments. I said he had a good argument for why it is valid (or at least fits with the more accepted way the well-connected provide their children with advantages). As for my second comment, that's just an application of Occham's razor.
@ASimpleAlgorithm You said "you used connections to get a position you had not earned through merit". OP got the position with recommendation letters. I really can't think of another way to interpret your claim that OP didn't have merit than that you think that the recommendation letters were not earned through merit. Maybe I have completely misunderstood you.
@JiK The premise of that logic would seem to be that one can earn a position based on recommendation letters alone. Which I simply don't agree with. Also, given that I said "You have a good explanation for why the recommendation is valid, ..." in the immediately prior comment, it is rather poor sport to insist that I justify the very opposite of my own words don't you think?
Please do not completely change your question after answers have been given. Your question was asked under specific assumptions and how to react to a situation given specific information, and this is what the answers are referring to. If you gained new information about the situation that completely changes your question or potential answers, please ask a new question. Link both questions to each other to clarify that they are different or provide an update for the insatiably curious, respectively. I rolled back your question to what it was when the last answer was posted.
When applying for my PhD position, I browsed my future advisor’s web page in detail and surprisingly found that one of my parents’ friend co-authored a paper with him. Our family members are all professors, so we know quite a lot of professor friends. Then we reached out to the friend and asked w...
Discussion on question by deathlee: W…
Discussion on question by deathlee: W…