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Edit: In the question I linked to, the dublicate was accepted by the OP. However, there are other questions like this one How do academics (faculty members, PhD students, etc.) balance their work and life? which are closed as dublicate of an US question. The current answer here talks only about the other question (which was closed by the OP), not about the other question or the general case. So the question is still unanswered.

Today, the following question was closed as a duplicate within an hour: How will several Cs and one F affect my chances of gettting into a PhD program? The questioner forgot to mention their country and the question was closed as a duplicate of a question "How to get into US PhD programs with bad grades". What I find strange about that is that there was no mention at all of some country, yet it was closed in favor of a question which has "US" in the title. The same happened last week with a question about work-life balance.

I find this really strange. I mean, even if it is statistically likely that the question is about US, shouldn't one give the questioner a few hours to edit in their country before closing as a duplicate of an US question? Or close it as unclear because the country is missing? Or is "US" somehow the default country we assume when there is no other information?

Just a note: I remember some answerer saying (about another student) something like "I assumed this was about the US because teaching assistants are mentioned". I don't think this is a good argument - in an English speaking forum, I would probably also use "teaching assistant", "grades A to F" and so on even if my home system does not use those words (when the details are not important).

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    The OP continues to be able to edit the question, which would then go into the re-open queue. – Jon Custer Dec 15 '20 at 21:41
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    @JonCuster: But is this how we want things to be? First close as duplicate of some related question and then "hope" that OP edites it? If I was a new user and this was how I was welcomed, I would probably not edit (are you even sure that it is known to all, especially new, users that this is what they should do and that this reopens the question?) – user111388 Dec 15 '20 at 21:44
  • I agree that it went a little fast, being under 2 hours (which is 'a few' mind you) from posting to closure. Perhaps better to request a larger fraction of a day. Still the OP, if they find their way here, should know the question remains editable by them. A look at the timeline shows only 2 close votes, one by the Community moderator, so it likely went faster than normal resulting in the quick close in less than 2 hours. – Jon Custer Dec 15 '20 at 23:17
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    @JonCuster and user111388 - the vote by the Community user is what happens when the question asker agrees that the duplicate answered their question. The OP themselves caused this question to be closed (you can see this if you mouseover "Community" in the timeline: academia.stackexchange.com/posts/160060/timeline ). Also, this is a bit of a special case IMO, where that "How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US" canonical Q&A contains a ton of content that is more broadly applicable. – Bryan Krause Dec 15 '20 at 23:29
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    @BryanKrause - I did not know that is how it appears. Thanks! – Jon Custer Dec 15 '20 at 23:37
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The vote by the Community user is what happens when the question asker agrees that the duplicate answered their question. The OP themselves caused this question to be closed (you can see this if you mouseover "Community" in the timeline) by accepting the duplicate.

Also, this is a bit of a special case where that "How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US" was created specifically to be a dupe target for this sort of question: What should we do with the "Can I get into X program with 3.xx GPA?" Although the Q&A mentions the US and has some very US-specific content, other parts are more broadly applicable.

It's been raised on Meta before that perhaps there should be other versions for other places: Do we need a “borderline admissions” question for countries other than the US?

If the question were not closed as a duplicate, it should have been closed as depending on individual factors; the dupe closure is a community decision to redirect rather than close these questions.

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  • Okay, if the user themselves closed the question, then it's of course okay. Thank you! Could you check if it is the same with the question academia.stackexchange.com/questions/159946/… ? I don't know how to open this timwline. – user111388 Dec 16 '20 at 6:26
  • @user111388 No, it's not the same. To open the timeline click on the clock icon below the vote count. – Massimo Ortolano♦ Dec 16 '20 at 8:40
  • @MassimoOrtolano: Thank you. I did not found the icon because it does not seem to be avaible on mobile version. – user111388 Dec 16 '20 at 10:38
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    @user111388 If you're on mobile, I suggest you to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "full site". It activates the responsive version with (almost) all the site functionalities. – Massimo Ortolano♦ Dec 16 '20 at 11:21

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