Approaching Faculty/Advisors for Funding/Publishing/Presenting Help

[Melvillage_Idiot]

When I was an undergrad, I had two absolutely incredibly advisors who always pushed me to pursue conference presentations (even if they were often very small state-level affairs) and a number of other professors who were encouraging, supportive, and all-around excellent. If I wanted to go somewhere to present, the funding would be found; if I had any questions, they'd be there to answer them. I didn't have to ask or worry or fret -- the department was on it, sometimes before I even knew what was coming myself.

I lost that when I came to my MA school. The Creative Writing part of the department were amazing, and I got loads of great experience and encouragement from them, but on the academic front even the simplest of questions were often met with silence. I hardly presented at the Master's level, and certainly never published anything scholarly.

I think the problem was at least partially the result of me being so spoiled in undergrad that I never really learned how to politely prod a department contact into helping me get something started. I'm also constantly comparing my experience in grad school so far with that of my partner, who's in a STEM field and has this ENORMOUS support network in place for help with things like conference presentations, grant proposals, outside funding searches, etc. That kind of system seems to be in shorter supply in English departments.

Anybody have any advice on approaching faculty/advisors for assistance with things like grants or side projects, or even simpler questions like, "Hey, you've published a boatload of articles on this paper's topic, any journal recommendations I could submit to?" Wherever I end up for the Ph.D., I want it to be a really active and productive experience in a way that I don't feel like I got in the MA.

[WildeThing]

I have asked many professors for help and to read stuff and usually they will do it but it might tale a long while because these sort of things aren’t really in their job description. Just go to their office and politely ask for the help you need and make sure to make it easy for them (i.e giving them printed copies to read, giving them ample time, etc.). Just make sure you’re not asking for something too broad or arduous and you’re good.

[fuzzylogician]

Taking the initiative isn't a bad thing. No one is going to hold your hand after you graduate, and you want to learn independence. Pick your favorite professor(s), schedule a meeting, and tell them about this project you're contemplating/working on/completing. Get their input on your thoughts. Develop a relationship. This shouldn't be a one-time thing: you want to go back and talk to the ones you got along with on a regular basis. You want their guidance in developing the project, their comments and questions, their suggested readings. When the time is right to start writing, you then ask to talk about possible publication venues and which ones might fit the work. At that point, they should know it well enough to be able to direct you, or offer input. Likewise for presenting, you may find advisors who suggest things to you, but you should also be on the lookout yourself, and ask for their opinion on your *plan* to submit to conferences and present the work. 

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

@WildeThing makes a good point about giving them ample time to read and respond - I found that I had the best success during my MA program when I came to them with a specific conference and paper already in mind - I'd email them the panel info and (if necessary) remind them about the paper. From that point, we'd talk about directions I could expand the ideas. At the same time, the paper and project development was entirely on me. I also gave them a lot of time to fit me in since they were busy with their own classes/grants/projects/books/and other commitments.

FWIW, I noticed a big change in the way support was given between my undergrad (which was totally focused on teaching undergrads) and my MA ititution (which was a flagship research university.) The profs in my MA were supportive - undoubtedly - but it fell on me to get what I needed in terms of resources. Also, the dept coordinator may have info on funding (or how to apply) so perhaps speaking with them directly (depending on your institution's policies regarding conference and travel funding) may be a better bet than asking your profs.

Re: publications. You may want to look at the dept handbook (or the website section on professionalization) @Melvillage_Idiot - at least one of the programs I am currently considering seems to have a professionalization course/workshop in the third year that addresses publications. I didn't publish as an MA so I don't know much on how that works but @fuzzylogician's advice about relationship-building and initiative is spot-on and echoes a lot of advice I've received to remember that, as a doctoral student, the relationship is more of academic kinship (especially in the later years) than the undergrad student/professor gig. *FWIW, I don't know what that looks like exactly since I'm not a PhD student yet but it makes sense to me.*

Edited February 10, 2018 by a_sort_of_fractious_angel

[TakeruK]

This is one of the questions I always tell people to ask the current students and the professors when they visit a school during a recruitment or interview event. Some schools would love to help you out but they just don't have the funding or the infrastructure to do it and you'll have to find it yourself. I would also say that especially at the PhD level (and even at the Masters level), it should be your responsibility to find external funding outside of the department for things like travel. Faculty might be able to lobby for you to receive internal funds within the department by talking to whoever holds the purse strings, but external travel grants are the students' job.

That said, you also mention research grants and such and yes, my experience in STEM is that there are workshops and such to help you submit. For one big grant in my field, we are all assigned admin staff to help us with the official grant submission and to ensure we follow grant rules. It's tricky because it's an official NASA grant in our advisor's name (but we actually do all of the work), however, since it's still an official grant, it needs to go through the steps that faculty grants go through (office of sponsored research etc.) that we normally have no interactions with. 

So ask about things like availability for funds to present etc. when you are visiting. When talking to profs, a good way to phrase it is something like, "How often do you send your students to conferences?" and you can follow up with questions like what types of conferences etc. For me, a good answer is something like 2 or 3 conferences per year, usually one "expensive" one and up to two "cheaper" one. Funding amounts varies with field and also with school though. For a school with $$$, I'd say that STEM students can expect something like $6000 per year for travel. For a school without this kind of money, you can't expect that though and be careful not to sound out of touch in the way you ask!

When talking to students, ask them how often their advisors send them to conferences. Ask them what their advisors cover. Some profs apparently only cover expenses there and not travel (??) and others don't cover meals because the reasoning is that "you have to pay for food at home anyways". The ideal case is government per diem levels. Basically ask if they feel they have the funding for travel required to advance/support their careers.

Often, people talk about rank just being a number and that it shouldn't factor into your decision too much. And to some extent it's true---a good research fit and a well known advisor will do much more for you than a brand-name school. But, often a brand-name school is correlated with how much funding it has for its students! 

[fuzzylogician]

12 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

For a school with $$$, I'd say that STEM students can expect something like $6000 per year for travel. For a school without this kind of money, you can't expect that though and be careful not to sound out of touch in the way you ask!

Yeah, I had less than half that amount for the entire 5 years of my program, so be sure to adjust your expectations. But there are a variety of tricks for making your money go a long way; I gave 15 conference presentations during grad school and another 13 were given by co-authors (without me there)... but we digress. 

[D13charlie]

On 2/9/2018 at 9:01 PM, Melvillage_Idiot said:

When I was an undergrad, I had two absolutely incredibly advisors who always pushed me to pursue conference presentations (even if they were often very small state-level affairs) and a number of other professors who were encouraging, supportive, and all-around excellent. If I wanted to go somewhere to present, the funding would be found; if I had any questions, they'd be there to answer them. I didn't have to ask or worry or fret -- the department was on it, sometimes before I even knew what was coming myself.

I lost that when I came to my MA school. The Creative Writing part of the department were amazing, and I got loads of great experience and encouragement from them, but on the academic front even the simplest of questions were often met with silence. I hardly presented at the Master's level, and certainly never published anything scholarly.

I think the problem was at least partially the result of me being so spoiled in undergrad that I never really learned how to politely prod a department contact into helping me get something started. I'm also constantly comparing my experience in grad school so far with that of my partner, who's in a STEM field and has this ENORMOUS support network in place for help with things like conference presentations, grant proposals, outside funding searches, etc. That kind of system seems to be in shorter supply in English departments.

Anybody have any advice on approaching faculty/advisors for assistance with things like grants or side projects, or even simpler questions like, "Hey, you've published a boatload of articles on this paper's topic, any journal recommendations I could submit to?" Wherever I end up for the Ph.D., I want it to be a really active and productive experience in a way that I don't feel like I got in the MA.

I had a similar issue going from a small community college to a much larger university. I had two professors at my cc who went above and beyond to help me with conference presentations and even a couple of publications. I was a mature student and I knew I wanted to go into academia at that point, so they were making an exception. One of them in particular would read anything and everything I handed to him, which is just incredibly rare and generous. At my current university, I have tried but never found anyone who is willing to mentor in the same way - or even read drafts for conference presentations. I get funding for conferences, which is great, but I was actually told to stop presenting and publishing a couple of times, including, in the first year, by my main supervisor. Thankfully I ignored the advice and my supervisor has since changed her tune, but the point I am trying to make is that support always varies from place to place.

Two slightly outside of the box solutions I found were to cultivate relationships with former academics and just to maintain the relationships with former mentors. I am still in touch with my cc professors and they occasionally read things for me. Going way back, I also occasionally email my  high school English teacher for advice on papers and things. I am really selective about what I send but if I know it will interest them, I ask for their feedback, allowing plenty of time to get it. Because I have school age kids, I've also found that I  meet people who are former academics (particularly women who took a break to have kids) on the playground and they have both the time and the inclination to do a bit of informal mentoring. I realize this doesn't work for everyone but again, the main idea is a good one I think; you don't just have to look for help within your university or department. Sometimes you can find willing mentors outside of the mainstream.

Edited February 11, 2018 by D13charlie

[Melvillage_Idiot]

Thank you all for the advice! I have since contacted the grad coordinator and a student at my one acceptance so far, asking about several of the questions suggested by @a_sort_of_fractious_angel and @TakeruK, and the answers I got back were all great. Also, thank you, @fuzzylogician, for the reminder that nobody's going to hold my hand when it's all over (or even now, really). I needed that. I'll be sure to keep all the rest in mind as I go forward. You guys rock.

1 hour ago, D13charlie said:

At my current university, I have tried but never found anyone who is willing to mentor in the same way - or even read drafts for conference presentations.

I totally feel this. Almost the entire academic/scholarly side of my department was super hands-off and passive; the only exception was our Shakespeare specialist, but he only gave that sort of encouragement to fellow Shakespeareans and outright told me that my own research interests bored him (we didn't have a great relationship). Thank goodness the creative writers and the university press gave me a ton to do, or else I'd have twiddled my thumbs the entire degree =P