Keeping in Touch with Previous Advisor/Mentors

[ZeeMore21]

Hi,

I just finished a one year fellowship program at a school this past week, which was very exciting. I really am looking forward to attending a new school in the fall for my PhD. Yet, I am a bit down about leaving the advisor I had while I was doing the fellowship. Out of all the advisers I have had, this professor is by far the best and I feel like he really made an effort to support me and my work even during a short period of time, on top of guiding me through the crazy application process. He really invested time in me, so I really am thankful for him. Sorry for going on about how great he is though! You get the point.

But anyway, the last time I met with him, last week, he did mention how we would get to meet during MLA and other conferences and then joked around that I should make sure to send him weekly emails when I start my new program...but I joked back that I wouldn't get around to that with all of my reading so we agreed on monthly.

But to wrap my rambling up...I guess I wanted to know how you guys deal with maintaining strong relationships with past advisers or mentors who you admire? Is maintaining a strong relationship possible? How does the relationship change? How often do you contact them? I really would love to make sure I keep in contact with this adviser, but I do know once I am at my new school, I should focus on my relationship with a new advisor, so there has to be some kind of balance I am assuming.

I really didn't feel that I would care that deeply about keeping in touch with this professor, but like I said before, he really made an impact, and I really would want to find some type of way to maintain a relationship without me coming across annoying or clingy. I would still like to keep it very much professional and academic. Sorry again for the rambling, this has been close to my heart so thanks for the advice!

[Tall Chai Latte]

You know, I was wondering about this too. I have such a relationship with a previous professor I worked with, and I care deeply about maintaining this. I don't know, it just feels right to continue keeping in touch. Like yours, mine made an impact as well, and was the one inspired me to pursue grad school. Anyone has any tips on how to keep it all professional?

[ZeeMore21]

You know, I was wondering about this too. I have such a relationship with a previous professor I worked with, and I care deeply about maintaining this. I don't know, it just feels right to continue keeping in touch. Like yours, mine made an impact as well, and was the one inspired me to pursue grad school. Anyone has any tips on how to keep it all professional?

Glad I'm not alone, was worried it was just me being sentimental lol. Thanks for the support!

[beanbagchairs]

Me too!

I would like to keep in touch with my former supervisor. Here's what I am planning to do:

1) Email him yearly to say hi and give a quick update about my progress.

"I just wanted to say I passed my comps", or "I am going to present in this so and so conference", etc

2) He told me to drop by if I visit the city. Similarly, I told him to let me know if he is around the city that I'll be in. I'd ask him to have a cup of coffee with me

[ZeeMore21]

Me too!

I would like to keep in touch with my former supervisor. Here's what I am planning to do:

1) Email him yearly to say hi and give a quick update about my progress.

"I just wanted to say I passed my comps", or "I am going to present in this so and so conference", etc

2) He told me to drop by if I visit the city. Similarly, I told him to let me know if he is around the city that I'll be in. I'd ask him to have a cup of coffee with me

That sounds good, but I don't know I don't know if it would be good only to get in touch once a year?

[lyonessrampant]

I email my profs/advisors from undergrad and my MA, and it was 2006 when I graduated from undergrad and 2008 for MA. I email randomly, monthly or every few months, and since I'm quite close with my undergrad advisors, have dinner/coffee when I'm in town. I think emails every once in a while is not only fine but a good idea. That's how you network, and networking is realy important in academia.

[beanbagchairs]

I also have an industrial researcher as a co-advisor. Do I also keep contact with those types of researchers? They are not academics. I am afraid I'll annoy them if I keep emailing them once or twice a year.

[Neuronista]

I also have an industrial researcher as a co-advisor. Do I also keep contact with those types of researchers? They are not academics. I am afraid I'll annoy them if I keep emailing them once or twice a year.

You are so sensitive

I think e-mailing once every few months is perfectly fine, especially if you had a strong professional relationship with your advisor, and especially that you have something real to say. Like telling him/her you passed this or that exam, or that you've started working on your dissertation, or that you'll be giving your 1st seminar, things like that. You might want to ask him/her for advice or tips in such situations. And if they really liked you as their student, they will care enough to reply and they will never get annoyed.

And glad to know that other people think about these things too, because I was thinking I was overly sentimental too when I felt that I should stay in touch with my MS advisor (who I consider to be my mentor) when I leave for PhD.

[beanbagchairs]

You are so sensitive

Haha indeed. That's on top of being emotional and constant worrier.

[natsteel]

I also have an industrial researcher as a co-advisor. Do I also keep contact with those types of researchers? They are not academics. I am afraid I'll annoy them if I keep emailing them once or twice a year.

I'd be surprised if any advisor you have worked closely with for some period of time finds 1 or 2 emails a year annoying. If they've invested time in you, they want to see you succeed. I actually have four mentors at the end of my undergrad.

I've developed really strong relationships with them... so much so that I'm actually getting married at one of their houses this summer. 2 of the other 3 friended me on Facebook a year or so ago so I will keep in touch that way in addition to emails.

I had a professor in my field in both semesters of my freshman year at community college and I kept in touch with him with an email once a semester or maybe every other semester basically saying what was going on with me and my progress. Later when the PR office at my old CC interviewed us both, he mentioned those periodic emails and how happy he was to get them. I think a lot of us overestimate our professors' thresholds for annoyance. Most will want you to succeed and take pride in that success and so they'll want to hear it about it when you do.

An email at the end of each semester or each summer is a good start to maintaining professional relationships with past advisors/mentors.

Edited May 8, 2011 by natsteel

[far_to_go]

My MA advisor and I are friends on Facebook, so I do keep in touch with him there. Not ideal for everyone, I'm sure, but it works for this particular relationship. I also send him syllabi from courses I'm taking that have content that's relevant to his interests. He asked me to do this before I left, and it's worked well as a way to touch base every semester or so. We also met up for a beer at the most recent AAA meetings.

Incidentally, it's a good idea to maintain contact with one's former fellow students as well. Several of my MA buddies are now in PhD programs in various fields at different schools, and we keep up by Facebook, reading each other's blogs, occasional e-mails, meet-ups at conferences, etc. Never too early to begin cultivating one's academic network!

[Tall Chai Latte]

My previous advisor is at my undergrad alma mater, I suppose I would come by and see him if I come home. Plus we still have unfinished manuscripts, so we are still in close contacts.

[Jess77]

My two professors and I from undergrad, who I considered mentors from working in their labs and taking their classes, have different "keeping in touch". My one prof, who I thought I would be more in contact with, has actually gone the opposite. It's more or less the "how's everything going? let's get the old lab together for dinner" every once in a while. My other prof, who I thought she and I would never keep in contact with after undergrad, just 'cause I didn't think she really liked me haha has gone the opposite way. I'm still working with her on her studies, in fact, I'm helping her conduct a follow-up to the cohort from last summer during this summer. We're talking about collaborating and ever since I've graduated, I started babysitting for her and whatnot. I guess it just depends on the relationships you've cultivated from the beginning. For both of them, it's definitely more on a colleague level instead of professor/student now.

[cheshirequeen]

My father is a professor, and he actually takes it personally when he DOESN'T hear from former mentees, especially people for whom he wrote recommendation letters. Echoing a few posters above and based on what I've heard my father say, I would strongly recommend that you touch base with professional updates at the very least, and another thank you every once in a while. My father loves hearing about the successes that his former students have had!

[psych21]

I stay in touch with my MS advisor. We still collaborate on articles, presentations, etc. In fact, I present more with her than with my current PhD advisor. I email her whenever something big happens (but so far my big news were good), we have seen each other a few times, flew together to a conference, will fly together to another one, etc. I think it's a very important relationship and she kind of helps me stay connected with my MS field, which is not the same as my PhD field (but my professional goals lie somewhere in between, so I'm fine, I just need to stay tuned to both fields).

Shoot emails whenever you can, let them know how you're doing, ask about how they're doing. They'll appreciate it! After all, they believed in us enough to write letters recommending us, so they think we'll have interesting stories to tell.

[Silver Thread]

I stay in touch with my MS advisor. We still collaborate on articles, presentations, etc. In fact, I present more with her than with my current PhD advisor. I email her whenever something big happens (but so far my big news were good), we have seen each other a few times, flew together to a conference, will fly together to another one, etc. I think it's a very important relationship and she kind of helps me stay connected with my MS field, which is not the same as my PhD field (but my professional goals lie somewhere in between, so I'm fine, I just need to stay tuned to both fields).

Shoot emails whenever you can, let them know how you're doing, ask about how they're doing. They'll appreciate it! After all, they believed in us enough to write letters recommending us, so they think we'll have interesting stories to tell.

Just out of curiosity, what was your MS field? (And what is your specific psych subfield now?)

[stanzi]

send a card via snail mail ... more meaningful and personal!

or if possible drop by their office.

[psycholinguist]

My father is a professor, and he actually takes it personally when he DOESN'T hear from former mentees, especially people for whom he wrote recommendation letters. Echoing a few posters above and based on what I've heard my father say, I would strongly recommend that you touch base with professional updates at the very least, and another thank you every once in a while. My father loves hearing about the successes that his former students have had!

This is so good to know. Thank you!

[RNadine21]

I hadn't thought about it until I had a seminar on networking, which included the inportance of keeping up with old contacts. I decided then and there to open up contact with my academic advisor from undergrad. I sent her a quick email asking her how things were going and giving her an update on what I've been up to. I even sent her a link to the paper I published. She was very excited and asked to show my paper to the department head. I definitely plan on emailing her every couple of months.

I now go to the school where my research mentor is (and he's on my thesis committee) so no worries there

[eat.climb.love]

A few of my favorite profs added me on LinkedIn. I added one of those profs on Facebook but that is because she is young/chill and has seen me in settings outside of the classroom. I love some of my other profs but fb would be a little awk for them.

I am also huge on hello emails to my close mentors and send them cards when hear about something cool that they did. These people helped me so much with the app process and school that I wish I could do something cool for them. I do not live near where I went to school so snail mail and email will have to do!