Research Vs Advisor

[MicroNano]

Question in short:

is it more important to pick the advisor with whom you get along the best, or the specific area of research for which you are the most passionate?

More detail:

I've heard countless tales of "when you're in your 3rd year and everything is going horribly, to make it through, it will really help to have..." where ... is equally filled in with "a good advisor that you like" or "a research project that you care about and interests you".

I have already made a decision for a graduate school and am currently deciding between two advisors. To be fair, I like both advisors and both respective research groups, but one more so than the other, and vice-versa.

Professor A: I got to meet him, I agree with his philosophy toward research and grad students, I get the distinct impression that he will always hold my personal best interests as highest priority, and he is genuinely a good person. He is also extremely well-established in his field, tenured, and all his grad students like him and I seem to get along with them too. Fairly large group (~30 people)

Professor A's research: I find very interesting, but not my original motivating area of research back when I was applying to grad schools. He is also much more applied / inventory-like, as opposed to theoretical / research-scientist-like.

Professor B: Younger, well respected and somewhat established, but newly transferred up to my school, and therefore presumably will be working hard to get tenure (and also will be as new to the school as I am, regarding which courses to take, quals, and other advising areas etc.). I have a good initial impression of him, but frankly I know very little about him. He has only recently come under consideration and I will not get an opportunity to meet him in person or have extended interaction beyond phone calls before having to decide. Smaller lab (~8 people)

Professor B's research: Almost exactly what I was originally shooting for when I applied to grad school. Already a few interesting projects I may be able to work on. More theoretical in nature (although does include experiment), and more research-scientist-like.

All advice is greatly appreciated, as well as some context on what your background is and where you and your advice are coming from.

[newms]

Do you have to choose your advisor now? Some schools allow you to spend your first year working with different PIs to get a sense of which research group and which advisor you want to work with. If this were possible at your school, I would explore this option and spend time working with both profs during the first year to get an idea of which you want to advise you.

[MicroNano]

Do you have to choose your advisor now? Some schools allow you to spend your first year working with different PIs to get a sense of which research group and which advisor you want to work with. If this were possible at your school, I would explore this option and spend time working with both profs during the first year to get an idea of which you want to advise you.

Unfortunately I do have to decide now. Technically speaking, I was actually supposed to pick and advisor by April 15, when I picked the school. However, the original advisor (Professor A) was kind enough to give me an extra week to decide. Although I intend to make the decision asap, because every day later I delay Professor A, the worse position it puts him if I choose Professor B (because he will have kept the slot "reserved" for me for enough time to lose other possible students).

[newms]

Unfortunately I do have to decide now. Technically speaking, I was actually supposed to pick and advisor by April 15, when I picked the school. However, the original advisor (Professor A) was kind enough to give me an extra week to decide. Although I intend to make the decision asap, because every day later I delay Professor A, the worse position it puts him if I choose Professor B (because he will have kept the slot "reserved" for me for enough time to lose other possible students).

That's tough on an incoming grad student to have to choose their advisor right away. It sounds like you'd have the best of both worlds if you could have Prof A supervising your work in Prof B's lab Perhaps an ideal situation would be to have Prof A and B co-advise you, although I'm no sure if that's possible at your school. This is a decision that you're going to have to make, but here are some things that I'd consider:

1) 30 is an awfully large number of students for 1 prof to supervise. How much attention would you be getting?

2) It is better to be supervised by a tenured prof, since the possibility greater that a non-tenured one might leave while you are a student.

3) A younger non-tenured prof would probably publish more than a tenured prof, but how willing would the non-tenured prof be to let their students be first author?

4) Ideally you want to pick the research area that you're most interested in, since that's what you're going to be working on for the next few years.

5) How do the students of these profs tend to fare? Do they graduate in a reasonable amount of time? Do they find good jobs after graduation? What do their students say about them?

You have a tough decision before you, and I wish you all the best in making it.

[BKMD]

If I had to choose right away and if I had to choose only one (luckily at my school neither of those things are true, I wish this was a standard policy), I would go with B. It definitely helps to have an advisor you connect with, but if A has 30 students, I don't imagine you'll get a lot of one-on-one time which I personally value. Some tenured professors meet with their students individually every 1-2 months and have little input on their students' projects beyond helping to edit their papers. Some students don't mind this setup, but I'd rather have an advisor who is hands-on (not controlling but involved) and I find that this is much more likely to be true with younger professors who have more time. Newer professors will likely push to publish more which will benefit you as well. I would also say research fit is more important than personal fit, but then again, your research interests may change, so if you're still open to new ideas then maybe A would be better, since it sounds like you might prefer him.

I think it's a bad policy for a school to assign you to an advisor right away since ideally you should be able to explore your options first. On the bright side, at least you get to choose, since some schools make the decision for you. I'm sure you will be in a good position either way and you should be able to collaborate with both faculty, plus you can always change your mind in the future. Good luck!