Changing Thesis Supervisors

[friesandwater]

Hi Everyone, 

I've recently decided to change supervisors due to the lack of understanding between us and personality differences. I think I would be better off with a few others in the department. Unfortunately, I think that this may cause some problems. My supervisor is the associate director of the program...

My first choice for my new supervisor is actually on my thesis committee. I'm just wondering how to draft an email to ask if he could be my supervisor before I actually tell them. Any suggestions on how to formulate an email? 

Thanks!!!

[Sigaba]

48 minutes ago, friesandwater said:

I'm just wondering how to draft an email to ask if he could be my supervisor before I actually tell them. Any suggestions on how to formulate an email? 

In the strongest possible terms, I recommend that you make this request in person and only after a conversation about the issues you're experiencing with the incumbent.

Pie in the sky, the face to face conversation flows in such a way that the person you want to be your supervisor offers to take the position.

Please consider taking the following steps.

• Make sure that the person whom you want to supervise your dissertation is going to provide you with the support that you need.
  • Try to have "off the record" conversations with this person's ABD's and with those who have recently received their doctorates.
    • Listen very carefully to what they have to say because some of the observations may be excruciatingly subtle.
• Schedule a conversation with the potential supervisor to talk about your dissertation.
  • Be prepared for this person to agree with some/many/most/all of the notes you've received from your current supervisor.
  • Be prepared to pivot towards a discussion of the interpersonal issues you're having with the incumbent. To me, "being prepared" means being professional. Your current supervisor can be a horrible person but it's up to you to keep the conversation from devolving into a festival of complaining.
    • To be absolutely clear, I'm not saying that you should disregard how you feel. I am saying that there's a time and place for certain kinds of conversations.
  • Be prepared for the person you'd like as your supervisor to not provide the empathy you'd like to receive.
    • To prepare yourself for this experience, Google "hurt feelings report," download it, print it out, and read it.
  • Be prepared for the person to indicate that you two could work together.
    • While this is your preferred outcome, it's critically important that you give yourself enough time to think / talk through the offer.
    • Have ready questions like "What kind of time table would you want if I were writing for you?" or "I would like to my work to receive a very close, very critical reading, is this something that you'd be able to provide?"
    • You won't have to ask all of your questions at once.
      • You can beg off by saying, "I am honored that you would do this for me and right now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Would it be possible for us to meet again in the next day or two to continue the conversation?"
  • Be prepared for the conversation to end without clear resolution. 

[ZeChocMoose]

I agree with Sigaba - do not do this through email! Instead, ask to meet with the professor who you want to be your new chair to talk about your dissertation.  Also - have you tried to have a conversation with your current chair to resolve your issues?  I can't tell based on your post whether you could reach a compromise or not.  And how far along are you?  Switching when you are one semester into your dissertation is very different from switching when you are almost finished with your dissertation.

[friesandwater]

Thanks both for your advice 

16 minutes ago, ZeChocMoose said:

I agree with Sigaba - do not do this through email! Instead, ask to meet with the professor who you want to be your new chair to talk about your dissertation.  Also - have you tried to have a conversation with your current chair to resolve your issues?  I can't tell based on your post whether you could reach a compromise or not.  And how far along are you?  Switching when you are one semester into your dissertation is very different from switching when you are almost finished with your dissertation.

okay, should I do this before or after I speak to my current supervisor about switching? We have, we have always had issues from the start, I try to resolve it but shes never willing to compromise. Im one semester in, I just finished writing up my proposal and was going through the editing phase of it. So its not tooo late, it may have been better to do this a month ago but I just thought id be able to go through another year with her but i cant. I feel like theres too much emotional abuse... 

Some issues i may run into:

1. shes the director, everything goes through her and maybe other professors in the faculty may not want to supervise me because they dont want to ruin their standing with her?

2. the professor i want to have as my supervisor is on my thesis committee already. i dont know if this complicates it or makes it easier for me/them. 

[ZeChocMoose]

On 9/16/2018 at 10:52 PM, friesandwater said:

Some issues i may run into:

1. shes the director, everything goes through her and maybe other professors in the faculty may not want to supervise me because they dont want to ruin their standing with her?

2. the professor i want to have as my supervisor is on my thesis committee already. i dont know if this complicates it or makes it easier for me/them. 

1. The fact that she is the director may complicate things. My guess is you can't be the first person who has switched away from her since you mentioned emotional abuse.  Can you find older PhD students or alumni who have done this successfully?  They would be the best people to talk to because they are going to know/understand local dynamics far more than we can on this board and hopefully share with you what worked/didn't work in their situation.  They also may know other people that you can talk to.

2. Does this professor have tenure?  If they don't, be prepared that they may say no because they don't want to get into a bad situation with the program director who is going to vote on their tenure case and also could sway other members of the department to vote against them.  

I think it is a plus that they are on your thesis committee.  Can you tweak your thesis enough that it makes sense for new professor rather than old professor to be the chair?  Sometimes this is the more diplomatic solution when your current chair is not working out.  Perhaps new professor knows more about x, y, z content area or does x, y, z methods - and you have realized this is the direction you want to head in so it makes more sense for new professor to chair your thesis now.

I would personally see whether new professor would be willing to serve as a chair before I would discuss with old professor that I am switching since you said that you don't think that you can resolve your issues with your current chair.  I agree with @Sigaba though that you want to ask new professor enough questions about their working style, expectations, timeline to see whether it meshes with yours so you don't wind up with a new set of issues in a couple of months.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by ZeChocMoose

[friesandwater]

19 hours ago, ZeChocMoose said:

1. The fact that she is the director may complicate things. My guess is you can't be the first person who has switched away from her since you mentioned emotional abuse.  Can you find older PhD students or alumni who have done this successfully?  They would be the best people to talk to because they are going to know/understand local dynamics far more than we can on this board and hopefully share with you what worked/didn't work in their situation.  They also may know other people that you can talk to.

2. Does this professor have tenure?  If they don't, be prepared that they may say no because they don't want to get into a bad situation with the program director who is going to vote on their tenure case and also could sway other members of the department to vote against them.  

I think it is a plus that they are on your thesis committee.  Can you tweak your thesis enough that it makes sense for new professor rather than old professor to be the chair?  Sometimes this is the more diplomatic solution when your current chair is not working out.  Perhaps new professor knows more about x, y, z content area or does x, y, z methods - and you have realized this is the direction you want to head in so it makes more sense for new professor to chair your thesis now.

I would personally see whether new professor would be willing to serve as a chair before I would discuss with old professor that I am switching since you said that you don't think that you can resolve your issues with your current chair.  I agree with @Sigaba though that you want to ask new professor enough questions about their working style, expectations, timeline to see whether it meshes with yours so you don't wind up with a new set of issues in a couple of months.

 

 

Thank you all so so much! I really appreciate it - this really helps  Im going to think about this the next few days and let you know what happens.