Potential Adviser on leave potential first year

[Jdealla]

Hey all,

Just wondering how bad this is. I applied to work with an adviser who is a perfect fit for me and he says that he'll be on leave the first year 2011-2012 that I would be in school there. Knowing that the first two years are for coursework and minor research papers, do you guys think that this is going to be a problem for me in the admissions process?

From their guidelines PDF:

"By the fall term of the second year, each student selects a prospective area for a dissertation

and requests an appropriate faculty member as his or her thesis supervisor. The student

thereafter consults with this faculty member about choice of courses, seminars, and fields of

study and, above all, about preparations for defining a dissertation topic. If this faculty

member is absent on leave, the student may need to ask another member of the faculty to

oversee his or her work temporarily."

Edited December 5, 2010 by Jdealla

[a piece of bread]

Hey all,

Just wondering how bad this is. I applied to work with an adviser who is a perfect fit for me and he says that he'll be on leave the first year 2011-2012 that I would be in school there. Knowing that the first two years are for coursework and minor research papers, do you guys think that this is going to be a problem for me in the admissions process?

From their guidelines PDF:

"By the fall term of the second year, each student selects a prospective area for a dissertation

and requests an appropriate faculty member as his or her thesis supervisor. The student

thereafter consults with this faculty member about choice of courses, seminars, and fields of

study and, above all, about preparations for defining a dissertation topic. If this faculty

member is absent on leave, the student may need to ask another member of the faculty to

oversee his or her work temporarily."

As it is clearly stated in their guidelines, it depends on the rest of the faculty, to what degree they can help you. If there is someone who can replace him/her, and you can convince both of them, I don not see a problem.

[StrangeLight]

it also depends on whether your potential advisor will be in town or not. if they're on leave to write, they're usually in the city and you can see them just as often as you would if they were technically "in residence" that year. if the advisor's going to be abroad doing research, ask directly if s/he would be willing to take on a new grad student while on leave. some do, and maintain regular contact through skype and email, and others don't.

[Riotbeard]

it also depends on whether your potential advisor will be in town or not. if they're on leave to write, they're usually in the city and you can see them just as often as you would if they were technically "in residence" that year. if the advisor's going to be abroad doing research, ask directly if s/he would be willing to take on a new grad student while on leave. some do, and maintain regular contact through skype and email, and others don't.

My advisor is off all of this year (my first), but we have been able to meet regularly. Also, before it was clear he was going to be in town this year, I was going to have a temporary advisor. I would e-mail them, and ask if they plan on taking students, but it shouldn't be to big of a deal.