Choosing your guidance/dissertation committee

[sansao]

So, the deadline to determine who will be on my guidance committee is coming up in a few weeks, and I need to start talking to people.  I've made a list of first and second choices based on intersections of concepts and subfields I want to include in my project, and there are some other options that could be ammended in later (I can change the committee with committee approval, but I have a hard deadline to establish at least the first incarnation, as it were).  I guess part of what's making this difficult is that I don't have a project yet, and so am basing my choices off of subfields that I'd like to include in my dissertation.  My advisor doesn't really support the "welcome to my lab, here's your dissertation project," model, so I will be building this up from scratch.  I actually really like that part, because I get to own the whole thing that way.  But, I'm nervous about sending out the first round of emails because I feel like I don't have much to say if they start asking me questions.  Is there any special etiquette to asking professors to sit on one's committee?  Anything I shouldn't do?

[rising_star]

Don't do it via email. Schedule a 15-30 min meeting. Come with a brief (500 word max) proposal of what you're going to be doing and be prepared to tell them what you think the overlap is. Ask what their style is for being on a committee (are they hands-on? do they want to read every manuscript before it goes out?) and if they would be interested in guiding/supporting a project in your area. Ask what, if any, concerns they have about being involved. Hope this helps!

[sansao]

Thanks, I obviously was about to do exactly the opposite of that.     That makes absolute sense, though.  I'm of the feeling that I should maybe also be armed with some type of Venn diagram outlining the intersection of interests, since my tongue ties up when I get really nervous.

[fuzzylogician]

What rising_star said. Presumably these are people who know you and who you get along with, so aside from the awkwardness of whole the situation I don't think there is any reason for you to worry. Once you invite them to join the committee and describe your shared interests, you could also ask for their advice on the process of choosing a precise topic. Talking to more people might be very beneficial and can help you have a project that everyone on the committee (and especially those who said they prefer to be hands-on) is excited about. 

[sansao]

Yes, with one exception my first-choice list is only people with whom I've built a repertoir through 4.0 coursework and TA responsibilities, and also have overlapping interests.  The exception is that the fourth person is the dean of the college, and that's part (read: most) of the anxiety, for what are probably obvious reasons.  But his research areas overlap with my interests almost as much as my advisor's.  I've been told there's probably a little political navigation to get him onto the committee, but that it's not impossible, and my advisor welcomed the idea - absolutely none of which prevents me from hiding under the table the instant I start thinking about setting up the meeting.  This person has hundreds of publications and has basically mastered academia.

 

Asking them for advice on choosing a topic is really a great idea.  Maybe I can recirculate the sum of previous advice as I approach each of them, and then complete the loop with a final meeting with my advisor and see what we have.  Thanks! 

[juilletmercredi]

My personal opinion:

 

-While you do definitely want to get people who are in your subfield and know your research, you want to get people who fit in slightly different ways and are going to push you on different things.  For example, one of my dissertation committee members is a noted methodologist who helped originate the use of the method I am using.  He doesn't do ANY work in my content area, just uses the method.  He's helping me with my models, my methods and results; once I'm finished with him my method will be airtight and less questionable in defense.  I have another committee member who likes challenging my theoretical framework around one aspect of my dissertation (in an encouraging way, not a 'omg i will never graduate' way).  Her expertise is in an area that the other four don't really know quite as well as she does.  You want to round it out.

 

-Secondly - I'm just going to say this bluntly - but subfield isn't even as important as someone who will read your drafts in a timely fashion, be relatively easy to schedule into a defense, and will help you graduate rather than hinder you.  The dean of the college may be awesome in your area, but will he have time to give you feedback (if you're in a field like that - in my department really my two advisers are the only ones looking at drafts)?  Is he going to be impossible to schedule a defense with because he's always traveling or whatever?  Is anyone you're thinking of a contrary person by nature who likes to pick academic arguments?  There's someone in my department who wouldn't have been a first-choice anyway, but who I was absolutely against having on my committee because he's like that.

[sansao]

Individually, none of their research areas overlap completely with what I want to work with (not even my advisor's).  In actuality, the dean may be the equivalent to the "methods" person you referenced from your experience, or at least someone who can help me analyze stuff at a different scale.  Between him and my advisor, there is almost full overlap, minus certain aqueous and geophysical knowledge that the other two bring to the table.  I think that's probably better than getting someone who has time to read it, but can't really comment on the material.  As far as I know, my advisor and the other two work together, share lab spaces, and are possibly the least volatile combination of people in the department.

[rising_star]

Since you brought up how they get along, I'd just say that it's important to think about whether these people have worked together on committees before or not. My committee members all get along fabulously but, they'd never all been together on a committee before. It was interesting to find out ways in which they disagree but I'd have preferred not to found out during my oral exams! Also, run ALL the names by your advisor before you start asking. There's someone on campus with great overlap with my research but my advisor nixed this person because of previous experience on a committee with them.