Choosing the Right Advisor

Today’s post is mostly for those of you that are newbies preparing to transition to graduate school in the next month but could also be for those needing to transition to a new research group. This transition is exciting and full of anxiety about what your near future holds. And pandemic or not, this anxiety would still be there. One thing that I hope you will be less anxious about though, is choosing the right advisor whom you will work closely with over the next three to six years (depending on your program requirements, general time to degree, and where you are in the world).

Believe it or not, your choosing well whom this individual is undoubtedly is one of the most critical decisions you will ever make. Trust. This is because your dissertation advisor (research advisor) is the most influential person you’ll experience in your graduate program. Your advisor helps shape your research project and experiences, impacts your day to day graduate workings, and ultimately, has a huge role in determining when you have demonstrated and completed enough, to give you the green light to defend one day. Yes, I know it’s too early to start thinking about when you’ll defend your dissertation when you haven’t even stepped foot on campus yet. But really, it’s not.

One of the most difficult things to watch and experience as a professor and mentor to many students is the heartaches and headaches that some students suffer through because of whom their advisor is or how they operate. Research advisors are not all created equal and don’t all come from the same place or background in life or even in philosophy around your doctoral degree. Advisors have varying levels of experiences in their profession and in their discipline. For example, some research advisors are junior faculty that have just gotten started themselves but need you to help build their research program. And other research advisors are senior faculty close to retiring but find it difficult to turn away brilliant students such as yourself, so they keep moving forward in their discipline.

Whatever their background, all advisors also have different personal and professional philosophies about what they expect from their team members, including you as a new graduate student. And one of the worst mistakes you could make, is to not take time to really learn as much as you can about your advisor and research group up front before you make the decision to invest in your career with them for the next so many years.

**Disclaimer**: Generally, most programs have a mechanism by which you can change advisors if it’s not working out at various stages in your program, so there’s an out that will exist if you need it. However, I would argue that as much as possible it could save you a lot of disappointment, heartache, headache, and setbacks if you do a few simple things upfront to help in your selection of the right advisor.

1. Meet with several potential research advisors in person when you get to campus. Now some programs have formal ways that they do this through either research seminar courses, or poster sessions, or even research rotations the first semester. However, this aside, it is worth your time to schedule a one-on-one meeting in person (unless you’re in the pandemic right now and your only option is virtual). This meeting is an opportunity for you to be reminded of the research that is taking place in that group but importantly an opportunity for you to ask as many direct questions as you can to learn about who this advisor is as an individual and how they operate as an advisor. Meeting with several potential advisors and having a set of questions that you are asking each of them, gives you an opportunity to hear different approaches to mentoring and advising and allows you to better field whom you feel is a good match for you.

 

2. Ask meaningful and tough questions. As much as your advisor will be interviewing you and deciding if you’re a good fit for them and their research group, you also are interviewing them and the group as well. Remember this. Hopefully you’ve done your diligence to get into a place where you have multiple options of advisors (even if you really only came for one person) so don’t feel that you have to settle for just one individual. So, what are meaningful and tough questions that you should ask of this potential advisor? Below are several to get you started but if you’re still unsure then schedule a free coaching call and we can discuss further.

“What is your approach to mentoring your graduate students?”

“How accessible are you and how would I access you throughout my time in your group?”

“What funding do you have now to support me if I join your group and how will you help me or work towards securing funding for me if I join your group?”

“How do you describe your research group culture?”

“What are the practical steps that you will take to get me started on my research project?”

“What are your career goals at this stage and do you plan on staying at this institution for the next five years?”

“How do you decide or determine when a student is ready to receive their Master’s or PhD degree?”

“How often do you communicate with your students and if I required more communication would you be available for that?”

“What are your beliefs around underrepresented groups in this discipline and specifically in your group?” —Now this could be relevant to you if you’re a female in a male dominated field, a neurodiverse learner, the only one of FILL IN THE BLANK in your department or scientific field, or if you’re an individual that values diversity and inclusion on many levels and want to work in a group that will foster that.

“What support do you provide to help ensure your graduate students are successful with achieving departmental milestones?”

“What support or help do you give when students are finishing in your group and ready to secure their next position?”

“What is your level of comfort with a student participating in outside research activities such as professional societies, student organizations, volunteer and outreach, or even hobbies that are not related to research?”

“What are the work times and hours that you expect? How do you handle vacations and time out of the lab?”

“How do you encourage scientific growth and development in this discipline for your students?”

…

You get the picture. Now you certainly may not cover all of this in a single meeting and perhaps some of these questions may be better directed to the other students in that research group. This list isn’t exhaustive either and there are certain questions that are more personal and necessary for you to just ask. For example, if you have a family you undoubtedly have to ask how your potential advisor will support you if you join their group? If you are not a native English speaker, you may want to ask how that advisor will help your transition to learning not only the English language but also the language of your discipline? Please don’t be shy here. This is all a part of your growing as a researcher and getting enough data points to help you select well.

3. Reference check your potential advisor. What?!!!! You didn’t know you could do that did you? Yes, you can. I’m not talking about go ask for a list of references that you’re going to call up as if this is a job interview. This is more so you getting some additional data points that come from others to either vouch for what you feel you’ve learned about this individual advisor or to learn about others experiences with this advisor. Most people will be honest if asked the right questions. An initial place to start would be with other students that are currently being advised by this individual. Set up meetings with them to ask your questions and really hear about their experiences. Sometimes you find out that someone who may seemingly appear to be a super tough advisor is actually the most supportive and kind individual you could work for albeit they have high standards for their advisees but help you every step of the way. You may uncover that some advisors have some personal beliefs or issues that will make it challenging for you to work with them. Or that others are awesome on paper and reputation, but are never accessible so you’ll have a tradeoff of reputation with actual help and doing things in your research very independently. Aside from folks in the group you can also ask students that may have taken their courses and even other professors in the department, or in the field (maybe mentors you have at other institutions) about what they’ve learned about this individual.

Okay, I know I unloaded a lot today with this one but it’s worth it and in fact you’re worth it. You have so many talents and gifts that will be unleashed as you navigate through your doctoral program, that it is imperative that you get situated with the right advisor. I hope that this will help get you started with your selection process.

 

Until next time,

 

 

Renã Robinson, PhD

 

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