Taking a chance on one prof?

[mickeykollins]

So I've received my grad school offers and narrowed it down to 2 choices. I would like to go the first one, but theres funding issues there and I may not find out all the details until very close to the Apr 15 deadline, according to a prof. For the 2nd, its not ideal since I don't really like the location and it has only one prof doing research in my main interest for now. But according to the grad students I spoke to there, the dept plans to hire 1-2 more profs in that area, but theres no guarantee that I will like that research. Anyways, I have other interests, but they are distantly behind my main one. So much so, that I'm strongly considering reapplying.

Anyways, how risky is it to attend a school where theres just one prof you really want to work for? Ever since becoming the director of a facility on campus, I heard that he's not available to students nearly as much. However, he seemed like a pretty nice guy after visiting the school. He will apply for govt grants for funding throughout the next 2 yrs. If he can't get funding that way, he still has the funding from being director of the facility. He only currently has 1 grad student, and he plans to graduate in 2 yrs. He is getting funded by that facility grant. If he hires me, and the prof can't get the govt grants, then I can get funding from the facility grant if that guy graduates. Does this professor sound reliable to work for? Or would it be a major gamble to go to that school?

[rising_star]

Sounds like it could work out for you if you go there. It doesn't sound like a major gamble to me.

[ringo2009]

Hmm, its always risky to go to a school for one POI. The issue of his availability to you may be far less of a concern than the possibility that he could just pick up and go to antoher school. If that happened would you have a back up plan? Would this delay you graduating? Its always best to have a couple of people you could potentially work with when going to a PhD program. Placing all your eggs in one basket or on one professor sounds risky to me.

[mickeykollins]

Well, the dept plans to hire another prof in the area I'm interested in. But that prof will be an Assistant prof and non-tenured. I also don't even know who the person so I have no idea what his personality is like and whether his advising style clicks with mine or not

[mickeykollins]

Well, the dept plans to hire another prof in the area I'm interested in. But that prof will be an Assistant prof and non-tenured. I also don't even know who the person so I have no idea what his personality is like and whether his advising style clicks with mine or not

Also, I just heard from one former student of this prof that he almost never responds to emails. But if you ask him questions in person, he takes plenty of time and consideration to answer and help. That former student also never even went to a conference, but that was due to failed projects and bad timing. And yes, his students take about a year longer to graduate than whats considered the avg time to graduate for this field of study

Another red flag was that he mentioned that most of his students get 1-2 1st author publications, with anything higher being RARE. At another school I visited, which is similarly ranked to this school in this field of study, the students usually produce at least FOUR 1st-author pubs

Of this prof's last 30 pubs, he has been 1st author about 5 times. The others who are listed as 1st author on the pubs are: 2 were produced by grad students of his, 1 by professor who was a former student of his, 5 from postdocs who were former students of his, 5 by a postdoc who works for him, and 11 from elsewhere (professor who researched at the same school, prof who was never a student of his, etc)