Is it good or bad if professors are hands off

[gradschoolprobs]

Hi everyone, I'm finishing up my thesis with a very nice but busy professor who doesn't really invest time in me other than reviewing drafts. For example, when the board initially denied my protocol, I made the edits and asked my professor to review it but never heard from him after a few days and so I submitted it anyway (which did then get approved). Another time, I asked him for contacts to recruit participants which he said will give me but either he forgot or he didn't have right contacts or what because I didn't hear from him and so I had to recruit myself. More recently, we were discussing about upcoming oral defense and I had to confirm with him because he clearly forgot which date! Is it common for professors to be very hands off? Do professors test students to see if they could do all tasks themselves?

Edited July 20, 2018 by gradschoolprobs

[frenchlover]

based on what i've heard, that sounds about right. 

[gradschoolprobs]

Thank you! Do you mean it's all a test?

[maxhgns]

No, it's not a test. It's just that you're relatively low on his or her list of priorities. It's also not about you. It's just the way they think of their duties to their students. Most think of you as being somewhat higher in the list of priorities, but their actions show that your real rank is somewhat lower than their conception of it.

Ideally, a supervisor should be hands-off in the sense that they let you pursue your own project and make and solve your own mistakes, but be hands-on in terms of giving you regular feedback, introducing you to their network, etc. It's a relatively hard balance to strike. Most err on the side of too little contact/feedback.

[Sigaba]

Common practices are often not best practices. Expertise in a field does not equate expertise in teaching that field.

The professor is doing you few if any favors with this approach. 

[gradschoolprobs]

Thanks everyone!