Grad student's progress & PI's Tenure

[LawnMary]

I am a second semester PhD student. Next year will be my PI's 3rd year at the university and he will be going through the tenure process. I am seriously thinking about switching to the MS track but I am worried that this will hurt his chances of getting tenure. Usually I don't think this would be a problem but he has already had 2 PhD students quit within their first year and I am the only one left. I am very concerned about my PI's career because we have been friends for a long time.

 

Any advice on how my decision might impact my PI's career would be great.

[Tall Chai Latte]

The simplest suggestion is: just focus on yourself. I guess there will be some impacts, but I'm not sure how big it is towards a professor's tenure case in general. I believe they are evaluated on teaching, service, and research (publications, research $$$ they bring in etc). How many students they have mentored is not the main focus (I don't know for sure, so take all this with a grain of salt). 

 

Your responsibility, on the other hand, is to take care of yourself and your career. Forget about the friendship for a moment. It's your PI's responsibility to worry about his tenure case, not you. 

[zabius]

At my undergrad institution, whenever a professor was up for tenure, the department solicited letters of recommendation from his/her current and former students (both undergrad and graduate) and TAs. Of course the tenure committee is mostly interested in the professor's research (publications and grant money, as Tall Chai Latte said), and internal politics (i.e. the connections that this professor has and how the other professors in the department feel about him) can also be very important. But I'm led to believe that they also gave good consideration to these letters from former students. I wrote a couple for professors in my own department, as well as one for a professor in another department whom I had taken many courses with.

 

So, you could still switch to the MS track but help your professor out by writing a strong, supportive letter for his tenure committee. Tall Chai Latte is right... you should place your needs first here. And I don't think that necessarily has to hurt your professor's career.

 

Out of curiosity, though... do you know why the other 2 students quit? If it's because of conflicts with the professor, I can see that reflecting a little poorly on him.

Edited March 3, 2013 by zabius

[LawnMary]

Zabius,

The reason the other grad students left were unrelated to the PI. One didnt pass the english exam and the other wanted to swich from the life sciences to math.

[fuzzylogician]

Agreed, staying for a PhD when you are no longer interested in the degree is a bad idea. You need to do what is good for you, not your advisor.

 

Sounds like you and your advisor have a great relationship -- if so, you could bring this question up and ask for his advice on switching to the MS in the least damaging way to his tenure process (e.g. maybe it's better if you switch at the end of the year instead of in the middle, or before the faculty meet to have a students progress meeting, or whatnot. It's possible that it makes a difference for obscure administrative reasons that you would not know about). Also, as has been pointed out, you will still likely be sought out to write a letter for your advisor some time next year, and in it you can explain the reasons to caused you to switch degrees and be very positive about your advisor. One thing you could do to make sure you are asked to provide a letter is to talk to the department head and explain that you are switching for unrelated reasons but are interested in supporting your advisor through his tenure case; that way, hopefully when the time comes for your department to assemble his case, they will think of you as someone who will write a strong letter. This is something that your advisor will not be involved with directly (this part of his case will be created by the department, not him) so you want to make the people who will be in charge aware of this.

[juilletmercredi]

In general, my advice is to worry about you and let your PI worry about his own tenure.  I know it's natural to worry about your advisor's tenure case (I worried about mine, as well, when I contemplated dropping out - he was 2 or 3 years from tenure when I was considering it).  But if your advisor has been doing what he's supposed to be doing to get tenure, your decision shouldn't have a huge impact on his tenure case.  In addition to that, you can't stay on and do something you don't want to do to help someone else maintain their job, especially not for 3 more years!  You'll be miserable and maybe resentful.

 

For what it's worth, it's my advisor's 7th year here and my 5th, so I entered when he was beginning his third year as an assistant professor.  He is up for tenure this year, and I was not asked to submit a recommendation letter for his tenure file.  I am his second doctoral student, so I would be a logical person to ask if any students were asked (the first is currently a postdoc, but my advisor did not advise him through his entire doctoral program, just in the last 2 years).  We are at an R1, so while the number of students he has shepherded to graduation or close is probably important, his grants and publications are far more important.