advisor/funding issues - seeking advice

[zhoutong]

I'm a PhD student (with American citizenship) at a prestigious

American engineering program that will remain unnamed. My doctoral

research got off to a late start because I was working full-time while

doing my MS/PhD coursework (my program doesn't guarantee

funding); my advisor did not offer me any financial support until after

I had completed my coursework. Although he did provide me with about

1.5 years of full support, I had to spend part of that time setting up

computational infrastructure for our group and dealing with some family and

health issues that I didn't want to discuss with my advisor because I

felt he would be less than sympathetic. I subsequently served 4

semesters serving as a teaching assistant for various graduate

courses. My adviser's continuous reticence about finances also

compelled me to find some part-time work elsewhere at my university.

After TAing my advisor's own course this past autumn (which took up

most of my time), in December my advisor told me that he was putting

me on "probation" because of my lack of research

publications. Although I extended my work day to between 11-12 hours,

set up a powerful new computational platform needed for our research,

put in a considerable amount of work into a research project that I am

still working on, and managed to submit a fellowship application (with

my advisor's blessings) two months ago (which unfortunately wasn't

accepted), my advisor recently told me that he can "no longer support

me directly." Although he continues to seem superficially supportive

because he still talks to me about my research plans and work,

recently told me about another grant possibility to which we might be

able to apply this summer, and has never said anything to me about

leaving his group (which I initially suspected would happen when he

raised the specter of probation), I strongly suspect that he has

chosen to not financially support me until he deems me sufficiently

productive but chooses not to explicitly eject me from the program so

as to not endanger his own grant applications; in retrospect, his

silence about funding in the past seems to have been a function of his

financial situation (he has only obtained a few grants over the past

several years).

Given that I feel that I have been making some research progress these

past few months and am not currently in financial straits (I still am

doing some part-time work), I'm extremely loath to consider leaving my

program. That said, my experiences are making me seriously consider

whether I should cut my losses and move on after finishing up the

project I am involved with at present. What particularly worries me is

that I know a student who recently quit my advisor's group without

completing his degree whose occasional remarks suggested that had not

been funded for a significant portion of his stay because of

insufficient research output. Although my chair and a dean in my

school said that switching advisors is a theoretical possibility

(assuming that someone would be willing to take me on), I'm not sure

how advisable (let alone feasible) that is given that the two other

faculty in my department who are doing work that I am interested in

don't seem especially well-funded either. Does anyone have any wisdom

to impart regarding my situation? At the present time, I am in the middle

of the 4th full-time year of my program.

[husky]

It doesn't sound like you are in a horrible situation. It's understandable that the professor won't support students that he feels aren't productive enough by his standards. But it is also important that the two of you have similar definitions for what "productive enough" is. Since you can take on the financial burden and he isn't kicking you out, why not just tough it out?

Unfortunately, though, the situation may become unbearable in the future. I knew a grad student who absolutely could not get along with her adviser. She said that the adviser worked her too hard and expected too much from her. So, she just got her masters degree with that adviser, then switched advisers ( and research topic) for her PhD. It's taking her a little more time to finish, but she is paired with an adviser who is a much better match. At any rate, I would not suggest you leave without getting a degree of some kind.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best.

[zhoutong]

Thanks for your reply.

I have already earned my MS, but my department's policies do not permit me to obtain my MPhil until I complete my thesis proposal even though I have completed my coursework requirements. A major factor that makes me (reluctantly) hesitate to remain with my advisor is his funding situation. Apart from being unsuccessful at obtaining new funding, he often seems to regard student financial concerns as a matter of low importance; after tersely indicating that he could no longer fund me without more external support, he blithely proceeded to launch into a discussion about a research topic I am working on without any further advice as to how I am to continue doing research and survive without any funding. Even his top student (who graduated a year ago and is now a postdoc) confided that my advisor never talked to him about the particulars of obtaining funding or writing grants. Given that my productivity apparently is insufficient in my advisor's eyes at this point, I feel that spending more time involved with part-time jobs will continue to put me at a disadvantage in comparison to the other students in his lab who are already more productive. The experience of that other student I mentioned in my first post also gives me cause to worry.