Picking a Thesis Advisor and Second Reader

[istudy]

Next week, I have to interview faculty interested in serving as either an advisor or second reader to my thesis (MA English Lit. btw).

(1) What questions should I ask them to ensure that we will work well together?

(2) What other advice do you have for this process? 

 

Thanks

Edited April 19, 2018 by istudy

[fuzzylogician]

Well, as a first step I'd get of the mindset of interviewing them for a position that they are interested in. You have as much of an interest in this than they do, if not more. Think of this as a conversation, not an interview. You can't really know from one conversation how an entire advising relationship will look like. So I'd just think of it as the potential first conversation in the relationship. Tell them about your ideas and potential topic and see what they say. Ask them how they approach working with a student: how often will they meet with you? Will they read parts of drafts or only whole chapters? Do they expect you to come with fully formed ideas or will they guide you through confusion? You should also discuss these questions with their other students, to get a sense of how the other side of the relationship views it. Talk to them about how they think about the timeline to completion; what your post-MA plans might be; if they encourage you to talk to other faculty or not; whether they think submitting to conferences/journals early is wise or if you should wait. If you have any non-traditional plans (take extra courses, get a certificate, whatever), how do they feel about that? But frankly, mainly, you should just have a conversation to get a feel for how you'd get along.