How often do you meet with your adviser?

[starofdawn]

How often do you meet with your adviser? I understand the answer can vary. I'm certain my adviser will ask me, "How often do you want to meet?" Even though this adviser has a lot of graduate students (~12), he seems to be on top of his work and attentive to his grad students. Should I answer every week, every other week, or every month? I also understand that the schedule can change depending on how research is going, etc.

 

Even if do not want to offer advice for me, please feel free to say "For me, I meet with my adviser X times per ____". It will help me figure out a ballpark figure.

[fuzzylogician]

Things change over time so it really depends on what I'm doing. It also depends on which advisor we're talking about. In my program we don't have a designated advisor but instead we can meet with whoever we want about our different projects. I do think I've developed kind of a pattern over the years, though. I enjoy talking to people a lot (professors, colleagues) so I like to have fairly frequent meetings with a variety of people.

 

My main project these days is my dissertation, so I'm mostly meeting with my 4 committee members: One of them is my main go-to person for all things experimental. We meet twice a week, probably for about 3-4 hours total, to talk about experimental and theoretical aspects of my research (we have joint work together and there's a lot happening recently). We've always had very frequent meetings over the years. One person is my main go-to person for certain aspects of my theory, and we've always met once a week ever since my first year. One other person is probably the one with the closest interests to mine but they are at a different university (and time zone) so we try to meet every other week or so over skype. That's been the case for a while, though at other times we had a regular weekly meeting. The last person also has interests very much related to my work, but is on partial retirement and is traveling a lot because of ailing parents. This has been ongoing for quite a while, so we've had maybe 2-3 meetings a semester for the past couple of years, more before then. Even so, I wouldn't give up on meeting with this person, because this person invented part of the field and is amazingly brilliant and supportive.

 

Before the whole dissertation craziness I met with several people on a semi-regular basis, probably once every other week or so. This really depends. As my projects shift and develop, it became necessary to talk to more people at different times. I don't want to waste people's time (and I feel bad coming to meetings with nothing new week after week) so I try not to over-schedule. On the other hand, when it comes to my two main advisors--the people who I've continuously met with over the years--I've tried not to cancel meetings even when I didn't have any new exciting developments to report. I've always had (at least) one weekly meeting with each of them, and they've been supportive of that kind of schedule. They've both encouraged me to keep my meetings even when I had nothing new to report, so we could rehash what I already had and talk about where I'm stuck. It's been great. I know other professors aren't that tolerant.

 

So, bottom line, it depends on your work habits and what works for your advisor. It's something that's hard to know about yourself ahead of time. If your advisor is willing, I'd recommend starting with a weekly meeting, which you can adjust later as needed. But you should also ask your advisor what he recommends to make sure that there isn't a big difference in your expectations, which is bound to lead to all kinds of unpleasantness. Maybe also ask other students about their meeting schedules, if you get the chance.

[Eigen]

I chat with my advisor almost every day, but as far as actual meetings go? We don't do anything regular, we meet as our project(s) demand. 

[TakeruK]

Our meeting schedules vary depending on our work schedules (ours and theirs). When we're busier (both teaching and TAing etc.) we meet less often because we're getting less done in between meetings. When we have a time that we want to focus on a task (e.g. getting a paper finished), we meet a little bit more since we're accomplishing more in between.

 

I am working with two projects right now and the standard/background meeting frequency is:

 

Project 1: One 30-60minute meeting one-on-one with advisor per week.

 

Project 2: One 60 minute meeting with advisor and the 2 other students in this group per week and one 15-30 minute meeting one-on-one per week. 

[rising_star]

Caveat: I'm in the social sciences so there's no lab or anything where I regularly interact with my advisor. And also, I work fairly independently most of the time.

 

My PhD advisor had a ton of students when I started, maybe 9 total. I think the only times I've met with him more than once in a month were when I was working on grant applications to fund my dissertation research and when I was his TA. As his TA, a lot of those meetings were about the class but were also very brief (5-15 minutes) and sometimes held while walking back to our offices after class. I've spent the past 3 years living thousands of miles away from my advisor. While we email sometimes, we Skype or talk on the phone probably once or twice a semester. Not even joking, by the way. I met with my master's advisor more often, but probably not ever more than twice a month before I was in the serious thesis writing stage (my last semester).

[Eigen]

I should also mention that this depends on your discipline- MS will likely be structured to have regular group meetings, which are quite typical in the lab sciences. 

 

Usually, the lab as a whole meets once/twice a week, alternating who's turn it is to present their work. It's also common to have people present literature/discuss recent literature, and take care of lab business, ordering, etc. 

 

Accordingly, regular meetings are probably less on an individual level, and more on a group level. 

 

Speaking of which, I highly recommend At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator- it's got some very good intro's to general workings of an academic lab. I've given it to graduating undergrads as gifts, as well as new grad students. 

 

http://www.amazon.com/At-Bench-Laboratory-Navigator-Updated/dp/0879697083

[CageFree]

I think this varies. Right now I'm meeting with mine every week for at least 10-15, but that's because I'm finishing a paper. I'll probably be meeting with him more often next year when I start studying for comps... but if I didn't have a class or other "obligations," I probably wouldn't meet with him often. 

[PsychGirl1]

I have time set up with my adviser once a week, but I have to confirm it by the Sunday before. Therefore, we have standing time but only meet when we need to. But she is really good with email, so prefers easy things be done that way as opposed to face-to-face (while my old adviser was the opposite). I usually meet with her 2-3x/month in person. My old adviser, I met every other week, and would never cancel, because it was much more efficient to get things done face-to-face.

[Monochrome Spring]

My advisor, who I'm starting RA work for next month, has specified that he likes to meet with his first year students once per week. He does this to make sure that everything is going smoothly and that there is time to catch problems early on. If I decide that I want less or more meetings, it's entirely up to me. But I get the feeling that once per week is still more than a lot of students get.

 

Edit: The weekly meetings that I mentioned are one-on-one meetings. We also have 1-2 weekly meetings for the whole lab group, depending on how many members want to present that week.

Edited May 28, 2014 by Monochrome Spring

[bsharpe269]

My whole lab meets once or twice a week while classes are In Session and 3 times a week over the summer. I meet with my advisor one on one as needed... Like once every other month maybe.

[Tall Chai Latte]

Everyone in my lab has a designated meeting time every Monday, but whether you actually use that time is entirely up to you. Some days you need more help and some days you need less. Having weekly meetings is a good starting point.

[AwkwardPants]

My advisor likes to meet individually with first-year students once per week just to help get them on track with doing research in the lab. These are usually 30-60 minute meetings, depending on how much stuff there is to talk about. I liked this frequency of meetings, so I have kept it up even though I am now in my fourth year. Weekly meetings help keep me focused if I know I have to have something new to talk to him about each week (either new data or a problem to discuss that is preventing me from getting new data). But we have a small lab (usually only 3-4 grad students at any time, all PhD students), and my advisor is fairly hands-on. Other people in different labs within my program don't have regular meetings and just schedule meetings with their advisor as needed.

 

We also have lab meetings once per week, but these are more for doing practice talks, discussing recent papers, etc.

 

If you're trying to figure out the "appropriate" response, maybe just ask your advisor what is typical for his students or what he recommends as a meeting schedule for helping you make efficient use of your time. You could also propose meeting more at first and less as you progress through your program. (Or vice versa if you're going to be more focused on coursework at first and more focused on your project later.)

[wildviolet]

I'm in the pre-dissertation phase, so I meet with my adviser for one hour every other week. I've heard that that may go up to once per week during the dissertation phase.

 

At first, I thought that one hour every other week adds up to only 2 hours per month... and that that was not a whole lot of "me" time. However, it has worked out well. Sometimes we talk about program milestones, paperwork, or the hoops you have to jump through. Most of the time, we talk about whatever is on my mind at the moment... a class assignment I'm struggling with, what I'm reading, or what I find interesting/exciting in my RA and TA jobs. I see him lots of other times during the week for research group meetings, but these adviser meetings are for me and my needs. I see them as a chance for him to get to know me and my interests/struggles/etc. We are continuing them during the summer on an "as needed" basis.

[ion_exchanger]

I've had a mixed bag. When I was a postbac, we never really had a formal meeting, I would just go to her when I had significant data. I guess that had to do with the kind of lab I was in, we weren't getting results weekly, it was a slower lab where you had to wait for a lot of the results. She was very accessible though, I could always go to her with ideas or problems. This was the norm for me for 2.5 years. My first rotation in graduate school was very different, the advisor wanted to meet about once a week or so to go over data and overall direction of the project. It was funny to me, sometimes she would walk past me and then double back and say, should we meet up? As if she hadn't spoken to me in a while. My second rotation, the PI met with everyone for an hour every week, there were scheduled meeting times. I feel like these two PIs are the kinds that make sure you are always doing work, all the time, you know that you have a meeting looming so you better have something to show me! My final rotation was/is a lot like my postbac experience, where there is no meeting time but I am always able to go to the PI and discuss my latest results and ideas. For me, this is the best format. I know that graduate school has definite deadlines and such, but I work a lot harder and smarter when I'm more relaxed rather than rushing to put something together just because a meeting is coming, or rushing a failed experiment only to have it fail again because a meeting is coming up. I had that problem with my first two rotations.

[St Andrews Lynx]

Not quite once per week for formal meetings. 

 

I like the current frequency, because it gives me time to think about research problems for myself and (i) come up with a solution myself (ii) demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the problem and possible solutions. 

 

However, when meetings are more frequent they keep the pressure on me to do work and make progress in my research. So I guess it is a balance.

[psych21]

I meet with my advisors (have two) as needed. Sometimes that means twice a semester, sometimes every two weeks, sometimes weekly, depending on the issues. Most meetings last 30-60 min. We email regularly, though, and I feel he is up to date in most of what I do. (I tend to be over-involved).

[psychologystudent1]

I meet whenever I have any particular to discuss with or show him. No point in wasting our time when nothing new can be shown. Sometimes that means every week, sometimes every month or two. I depends on how much work I did.   I like to be prepared for the meetings, like I have specific questions written down that I need answered to proceed with my work, so our meetings are rather short, usually 10-20 minutes.

[Bear247]

My adviser is pretty busy and has a big lab group in the context of my department.  He's naturally a very hands off PI.  I'm one of 8 PhD students in the lab, the department averages around 5.  He's pretty busy with conferences and meetings, so he usually sets aside one particular day a week that works for him during the semester/summer as "Weekly Meeting Day."  This summer, that day was Monday.  So every Monday, we all had a regularly meeting with him.  Depending on your project, you either meet with him as a group with the others working on the project or you meet individually.  I'm the head of my project and have two younger grad students working under me, so we meet all together for 2-2.5 hours.  For those who meet individually, it's usually 45 minutes - 1 hour time block.  

 

Outside of weekly meetings, we send emails if we can wait a day or two for a response.  If we just need 10-15 minutes, we try to fit into his schedule that day.  If there's something major, we let him know immediately.  Depending on his schedule, he'll either make time, or ask that the matter be the priority topic for the next weekly meeting.  

 

With each weekly meeting, we prepare a weekly report with two tables: Tasks Completed and Schedule Tasks.  In Tasks Completed, you state the dates the task was worked on, the project, the task specifically, and any details/comments on it.  In the Schedule Tasks table, you list the tasks in order of priority, what project they are for, any comments, and an anticipated completion date.  

 

If my adviser is out of town, he will either skype with you if he has time during your normal weekly meeting time, or he'll just ask everyone to email their weekly reports and communicate through email.  If he knows he's going to be out of town, he usually makes sure that in the weekly meeting before he leaves, we end the meeting such that we are clear on what to do and have enough to work on autonomously for the duration of his travels.  

 

Hope that helps.  

[juilletmercredi]

I think every other week is a good amount.  More than that and you haven't done enough in the mean time to warrant another visit, unless you are working on something particular.  Fewer times than that and you might find yourself needing guidance in between.

 

I met with my advisor every other week.  I only met with him once a week for about 1-1.5 hours when I was working on my dissertation proposal.  I also met with my secondary advisor (who was also on my committee)  every other week.  I didn't meet with anyone else on my committee on a regular basis.  Our committees at my graduate university didn't seem to expect that.

[toasterazzi]

During my MA, I never had a formal meeting with my advisor. We did interact regularly, especially at department functions, but I don't think I ever spent more than five minutes at a time in her office and those occasions were generally to ask basic program questions. When I got to my thesis, I didn't really have super formal meetings with my committee. I did meet with each of them individually at the beginning of the process. And I corresponded with them via email when I'd finished a significant chunk of writing. They all gave me written feedback a couple different times. But we didn't have a big, serious meeting until I defended.

 

I suspect things will go differently for my PhD though. I've already lined up an advisor who has interests that overlap with mine, and I think we'll be interacting on a more regular basis.

[shadowclaw]

During the first semester of my master's program, my advisor wanted me to meet every week in his office. What usually happened was that he'd either completely forget about the meeting, or he'd be really late (like 20 - 30 minutes) and I'd assume he just forgot again and head to the classroom and read over the material we were covering that day. I probably ended up meeting with him every other week. Sometimes the meetings were useful (I'd have questions or want to update him on something and he never reads e-mails), but other times I'd be there for 5 minutes.

 

During my second semester, instead of meeting with him, we had weekly lab meetings for everyone in the lab. I only went every other week because I had a long drive to campus and no classes on meeting day, so he told me not to waste my gas. Our meetings usually ended up being 15 minutes of everyone giving an update on what they were working on, and then if I needed to spend extra time with him, I'd go to his office.

 

I don't know what this semester will hold. I've done most of my data collection for my thesis, so what I need from him now is assistance with analysis and then in the spring semester commentary on the written and oral components of my thesis defense. But he'll probably have me meet with him weekly again.

[TMP]

I should point out that this may be field specific.  I'd find out in a way that prompts the adviser to tell you what s/he thinks is appropriate for your present stage in your graduate career.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

I'm starting my MA (Social Sciences) this Fall, but my primary supervisor will be someone I've worked for as an RA for the past year and a half. He also happened to be my supervisor for my undergraduate honors thesis. When my thesis started he told me that he usually saw his students once a month. I wound up seeing him once a week, if not every other week, however, when a bunch of RA tasks picked up in February. I never met with him for longer than 15 minutes to discuss my work (or the things I was doing for his projects) however. The majority of the real debate came in email correspondances, particularly towards the end of my project when I was drafting. I expect this dynamic to change, but I may be wrong and it may wind up being more of the same. I also know I'll have more than one supervisor (it was hinted at) so that person may meet with me more regularly.

 

I know for me it was important to establish something of a regular meetings. It helped to keep me on track and limit my procrastination. Even if it's brief, checking in never hurts.

[lyrehc]

It depends on the program and the advisor.  I see mine all the time but I'm also very Type A and she knows (and accepts) that.  

[bsharpe269]

 I'm the head of my project and have two younger grad students working under me, so we meet all together for 2-2.5 hours.  For those who meet individually, it's usually 45 minutes - 1 hour time block.  

 

...

 

With each weekly meeting, we prepare a weekly report with two tables: Tasks Completed and Schedule Tasks.  In Tasks Completed, you state the dates the task was worked on, the project, the task specifically, and any details/comments on it.  In the Schedule Tasks table, you list the tasks in order of priority, what project they are for, any comments, and an anticipated completion date. 

 

Wow, this is definitely not what I consider a hands off PI! This is really intense. I would be bothered by someone who made me fill out paperwork like this because I would interprit is as him not trusting me to do sufficient amount of work on my own. I guess since he has a lot of grad students, it may be necesary to have a system like this but I dont think I would be able to operate like that.