Annoyed advisor - what next?

[geom-future]

I'm a first year grad student, at the end of my first semester working with my advisor on a project, and I'm still not near my first publication. I followed leads, got stuck places - still not where I should be in terms of results. I've let it depress me somewhat, and I admit I could have been more persistent. My advisor has made it clear now that he's very dissatisfied with my progress (and how I work and think), and that he's going to cut off my funding by the end of this next semester if I don't get a good result by then. He's up for tenure himself later in the year, so he's an aggressive researcher (part of why I chose to work with him, because I wanted an advisor who emphasized research productivity).

I am trying to focus more, although my stress levels are hindering it somewhat. The problem is, my advisor is very senior in the department and if he washes his hands off me, it's quite probable other professors wouldn't give me a chance. Especially since there is a fair deal of truth to his assertions that I could have done much better in terms of managing my priorities and keeping my project progressing. I'm a first year grad student by the way. At what point should I think of searching other advisors? How much should I realistically fear having to drop out because of lack of funding?

Edit: I'll clarify, I am indeed trying to be constructive and work much harder and focus in on whatever results I can. I don't know if the situation is still salvageable at this point though, in terms of my advisor-student relationship.

Edited January 30, 2011 by geom-future

[LJK]

So I don't know enough about this situation to understand why you think and your advisor thinks that he is being reasonable. You are a first year graduate student with one semester under your belt. Why does he think you should be ready to publish at this point? I don't think it is unusual to not submit manuscripts until you are in your third year let alone your first. How can your untenured advisor be very senior in the department? That doesn't make logical sense without more information. The tenured professors in the department will be voting on whether to keep him and therefore more senior. Senior indicates how long they have been in the department. By senior to you really mean influential? These are different things.

It sounds to me like you are being tossed in with all sorts of expectations and not being mentored. If you don't know how to approach research it is your advisor's job to teach you how to think about it. It's like taking upper-level major classes, they are about the content to some extent, but its more about learning how to read research or work problems. Its about learning to approach the subject properly. Either your advisor or a further along grad student should be teaching you how to approach research, how to recognize the beginnings of results, how to then focus in, etc.

How does funding work in your department? Is all funding through the advisors or is there the possibility of becoming a department funded TA if you are not given an RA position? Were you guaranteed funding for 4 or 5 years when admitted. If you have any sort of fall-back like this you might be a bit less stressed out about producing results. Look to grad students who have successfully gotten further in their grad careers than you have. Ask them questions about options should your advisor follow through with taking away your RA funding.

Finally, just because your advisor-advisee relationship hit a snag, that doesn't mean its over. He does sound like a bit of a hard-ass but you signed up for that, thinking it was positive he emphasized results. Are there other advisees of this same professor? They have probably been dealing with him longer and know how to approach him, how to avoid pissing him off, etc. You need to figure out what you have been doing, where the weaknesses you see in yourself are, what needs to be fixed. Set goals for yourself and meet them. If one of your issues is that you are not currently skilled at honing in on usable results, explain that to your advisor. Ask if you can set up a weekly meeting (if you don't have one already) where you show him what you have been doing that week and he can see if he can help you to focus on the right next step. It sounds like he is having you be too independent too fast. Demand more attention until you are at a place where being independent is a reasonable expectation. If there is any time that you are unclear on how to proceed or don't know what is expected of you, ask. I know the whole advisor-advisee relationship is scary in its power differential especially if your advisor is already threatening to take away funding, but the relationship is based on advice. Make sure he is giving you plenty. If he is not going to mentor you, do look around your department and think about whether you can 1) setup a co-advising or unofficial second mentorship with another professor who you could serve on your committees, or 2) see if there is another research fit that would allow you to study the things you want to study with a better advisor-advisee relationship. I think it is way too early for you to be thinking about dropping out. That seems to be stemming from the advisor-advisee issues which are to be weathered, rather than a disinterest in the research. If you aren't producing because you don't like research as much as you thought you would, that is when to consider dropping out.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I'm a first year grad student, at the end of my first semester working with my advisor on a project, and I'm still not near my first publication. I followed leads, got stuck places - still not where I should be in terms of results. I've let it depress me somewhat, and I admit I could have been more persistent. My advisor has made it clear now that he's very dissatisfied with my progress (and how I work and think), and that he's going to cut off my funding by the end of this next semester if I don't get a good result by then. He's up for tenure himself later in the year, so he's an aggressive researcher (part of why I chose to work with him, because I wanted an advisor who emphasized research productivity).

I am trying to focus more, although my stress levels are hindering it somewhat. The problem is, my advisor is very senior in the department and if he washes his hands off me, it's quite probable other professors wouldn't give me a chance. Especially since there is a fair deal of truth to his assertions that I could have done much better in terms of managing my priorities and keeping my project progressing. I'm a first year grad student by the way. At what point should I think of searching other advisors? How much should I realistically fear having to drop out because of lack of funding?

Edit: I'll clarify, I am indeed trying to be constructive and work much harder and focus in on whatever results I can. I don't know if the situation is still salvageable at this point though, in terms of my advisor-student relationship.

It is completely unreasonable to expect a first-year grad student to have publishable material at the end of their first semester. Or their second, for that matter.

I think you should have a talk with your department head and let him know what's up. Anyone who does research knows that first-year grads are unlikely to produce anything publishable. (The fastest person in my year, my department got his first paper submitted in Nov of his second year. At the rate I'm going, I'm guessing my first paper will be submitted around the beginning of my third--which seems to be common timing in the environmental realm.)

[TMP]

I also wonder what do you mean by "senior" in the department if he isn't tenured.

I would absolutely talk to the DGS, especially with this threat of having funding cut off.

[robot_hamster]

Wow, I agree with the others. This guy is being totally unreasonable. Who publishes after one semester of grad school? I don't know anyone!

[fuzzylogician]

I'll just echo what everybody else wrote. It's completely unreasonable to expect new grad students to have publishable work after just one semester. Hardly anyone will have publishable work after their first year! Most students I know don't have projects that are far enough along to be presented at conferences, let alone published in journals, until at least their second year, if not their third year.

[Eigen]

I also wonder what do you mean by "senior" in the department if he isn't tenured.

I would absolutely talk to the DGS, especially with this threat of having funding cut off.

I'll echo this, too... If he's up for tenure and worried about it, he can't be that senior in the department.

As to the rest, he seems quite unreasonable in his expectations- although it may be something more specific with the circumstances that he's upset with. It is also really field dependent... But yeah, a publication by the end of your first semester, unless you're wrapping up someone elses work seems a bit far-fetched.I could see wanting one by midway through your second semester- or to at least be getting close to publishable data, depending on the field.

As was also mentioned, you did want someone who would push you... How likely is it that you can pick things up, and get the results by the end of the semester? You still have a good bit of time to work on it. If so, then you may be able to push through and salvage the relationship with your boss.

Edited January 31, 2011 by Eigen

[XOwlfan]

I agree with all the previous posts here. Do you have a relationship with any other faculty members? Someone you can go to? I suffered for three semesters under a very difficult (unreasonable) adviser and kept everything to myself as I sought to manage things. Finally, in December, a professor I worked for as a TA contacted me to see how I was doing in my advising relationship, at which point I broke down and spoke openly about it. Apparently, my adviser has a reputation for this behavior in our department (has had this reputation for decades). I ended up being taken in by the head of graduate studies (who made it clear that I was not the first student to have experienced this). I say this because it may be that the other faculty members may not discount you just because this one senior faculty member does. It's hard to know what is going on behind the scenes.

[rising_star]

I'm a first year grad student, at the end of my first semester working with my advisor on a project, and I'm still not near my first publication. I followed leads, got stuck places - still not where I should be in terms of results. I've let it depress me somewhat, and I admit I could have been more persistent. My advisor has made it clear now that he's very dissatisfied with my progress (and how I work and think), and that he's going to cut off my funding by the end of this next semester if I don't get a good result by then. He's up for tenure himself later in the year, so he's an aggressive researcher (part of why I chose to work with him, because I wanted an advisor who emphasized research productivity).

I am trying to focus more, although my stress levels are hindering it somewhat. The problem is, my advisor is very senior in the department and if he washes his hands off me, it's quite probable other professors wouldn't give me a chance. Especially since there is a fair deal of truth to his assertions that I could have done much better in terms of managing my priorities and keeping my project progressing. I'm a first year grad student by the way. At what point should I think of searching other advisors? How much should I realistically fear having to drop out because of lack of funding?

Okay, so if your advisor is up for tenure, he hasn't been a prof for more than 7 years generally speaking. Unless you mean that he's up for promotion from associate to full professor (which often requires a process like that needed to initially get tenure)?

Anyway, I've never really heard of first year students publishing, unless they were publishing something from their master's thesis. I'd talk to other grad students about publishing expectations and norms. I'd also talk to the Director of Graduate Studies (or Grad Chair) to get a better sense of what the norms and expectations are.

Is your funding tied to your advisor or can you get funding through another person in the department or through a TA position? Also, have you thought about asking about switching advisors? It's not always as difficult as you might think, especially depending on the situation. You just need to talk to people and feel it out (as in, senior grad students in your department that could provide advice, the Director of Graduate Studies, etc.) to see if it's feasible. If you're miserable with your current situation, then it's something you should pursue...

As for salvaging that relationship, have you thought about trying to be more clear about what you need and getting clear expectations from your advisor? Maybe scheduling regular (once a week, every other week, etc.) meetings where you can update him on your progress (what worked, what didn't, where you're thinking about going) could help him understand how you work and think better than he does right now.

As was also mentioned, you did want someone who would push you... How likely is it that you can pick things up, and get the results by the end of the semester? You still have a good bit of time to work on it. If so, then you may be able to push through and salvage the relationship with your boss.

This is a very good point. I second all of this.