Picking an advisor

[NeurosciMRI]

I will be starting my graduate program in two months and I received an email not too long ago about picking a possible faculty member to serve as my advisor for the duration of my graduate studies. Although I have an idea of faculty members that are conducting research that I am interested in, I don't know if certain faculty members will be a better "fit" than others. What are factors that I should look for in picking an advisor aside from similarities in research interests. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[fuzzylogician]

In my opinion, the (by far!) most important factor in choosing an advisor is personal fit. The person you choose will have a lot of influence over your life for the next 5+ years, in probably more ways than you can imagine now. This needs to be someone who you get along with, and whose personal style fits with yours. This is something that can best be surmised from a one-on-one meeting with this person: do you 'click'? Can you carry a simple conversation? Beyond that, is their advising style compatible with yours - do you want someone who is hands-on or hands off? Someone who lets you have a say in developing a project, participating in grant writing, etc., or assigns you to something they obtained themselves? Do they co-author with students? Do they want to read drafts of your ongoing work, or get full, polished drafts? How much notice do they need to schedule a meeting or read your draft? Do they want to meet on a regular basis or only when there is a specific need? These are personal preferences on both your sides but it's good to get on the same page early, to avoid disappointment down the line. Relatedly, how large is their group? Do older students mentor younger ones? How well do recent alums do on the job market? The prof's reputation will be a major factor in your success in obtaining your first job. 

 

Now, as a secondary (but still important) consideration, how closely do your interests match? If they match closely, you are good to go. But if not, this doesn't necessarily mean the person is not a good choice. I think a personal fit is MUCH more important than a close interest fit, as long as the person is willing to support you in your choices. They should be an expert on some relevant aspect of your work, but I'd much rather work more closely with someone who is less of an immediate expert in what I do but is a supportive person who reads what I write, asks smart questions, and gets along with me, than an expert who is makes me miserable all the time. 

 

A great way to get a sense for someone's advising style is to have them read something of yours, for example your writing sample that you used for applications, before you meet. This will help you get a sense for whether they seriously invest time in their students' work, what kind of comments they give, what they have to say about next steps. Alternatively, you could talk about a new proposed project you have in mind, if there is such a project.

[Dedi]

In my opinion, the (by far!) most important factor in choosing an advisor is personal fit. The person you choose will have a lot of influence over your life for the next 5+ years, in probably more ways than you can imagine now. This needs to be someone who you get along with, and whose personal style fits with yours. This is something that can best be surmised from a one-on-one meeting with this person: do you 'click'? Can you carry a simple conversation? Beyond that, is their advising style compatible with yours - do you want someone who is hands-on or hands off? Someone who lets you have a say in developing a project, participating in grant writing, etc., or assigns you to something they obtained themselves? Do they co-author with students? Do they want to read drafts of your ongoing work, or get full, polished drafts? How much notice do they need to schedule a meeting or read your draft? Do they want to meet on a regular basis or only when there is a specific need? These are personal preferences on both your sides but it's good to get on the same page early, to avoid disappointment down the line. Relatedly, how large is their group? Do older students mentor younger ones? How well do recent alums do on the job market? The prof's reputation will be a major factor in your success in obtaining your first job. 

 

Now, as a secondary (but still important) consideration, how closely do your interests match? If they match closely, you are good to go. But if not, this doesn't necessarily mean the person is not a good choice. I think a personal fit is MUCH more important than a close interest fit, as long as the person is willing to support you in your choices. They should be an expert on some relevant aspect of your work, but I'd much rather work more closely with someone who is less of an immediate expert in what I do but is a supportive person who reads what I write, asks smart questions, and gets along with me, than an expert who is makes me miserable all the time. 

 

A great way to get a sense for someone's advising style is to have them read something of yours, for example your writing sample that you used for applications, before you meet. This will help you get a sense for whether they seriously invest time in their students' work, what kind of comments they give, what they have to say about next steps. Alternatively, you could talk about a new proposed project you have in mind, if there is such a project.

This. The main reason that my top choice school is my top choice is because I feel there is a personality fit within the lab. Just talking with professors over email, I can tell if their conversation seems rigid or it flows. When I feel rigidness, I kind of see it as a personality mismatch. Of course, what counts as rigid or flowing depends on the personality of the student.

 

As for interest fit, I probably will never find an advisor that does both epigenetics and animal welfare. So personal fit is more important to me.

 

Considering that I've been research volunteering here for 1 1/2--2 months and I might possibly get my own project shows that I've been fairly successful here. Sure, I've made mistakes, but it's not a big of a deal if the lab members and PI like you. This is another reason why I believe personal fit > research interests, and maybe even GPA and GRE scores (I believe that you do your best when you have supportive lab members).

 

Does your grad school have a rotation program? If so, that may be a good way to determine personal fit if your research interests overlap multiple professors'.

[TakeruK]

I cannot agree more with what fuzzy said! Especially the part about choosing a personality/compatibility fit over an exact research match!

 

Here are some things I did when selecting my MSc and PhD advisors that I found helpful:

 

1. During a one-on-one talk (or Skype), usually during the "prospective student visit" type events, it's really a two-way interview. They ask you questions about yourself but you're allowed to ask questions too! If this has already passed for you, you can still schedule a Skype talk with the excuse/reason being "I need to select an advisor and would like to talk to you about some projects/working with you". You're allowed to ask them questions about non-academic things! I usually ask my potential advisors about things like their hobbies. One person replied that [their field] is their only passion....yikes, huge red flag for me!

 

You can also gauge the tone of the conversation**--some of these meetings were strictly business and we only ever talked about research. This generally made me feel not like working with them. I feel the best connection personally when our conversation is more informal--it might start with just us talking about ourselves and move onto research, or it might start with research and then we go off on tangents about our own lives. For me, I like this second style better and even now when I meet with my advisor, we spend some time in our regular meetings talking about non-research related things. I personally need this to feel that I can connect / click with someone. 

 

**Note: Sometimes this is tough to gauge on an initial meeting, especially depending on how you set up the meeting in the first place. My method is to frame the request to talk as a "I would like to talk to you about starting grad school this fall" or something like that and then keep the flow of conversation professional but not rigid / limited to work only. I feel a lot more at ease if the prof is the one that makes the transition to talking about non-work related things! But that's just me

 

2. You can always talk to current students about the prof's advising styles. It might be tough to randomly ask this to someone you've never met though. Usually prospective student visit is a good time to do this. If that has already happened, did you go to your school's visit days and connected with some of the students? Maybe you can email them now and ask to have a chat or something!

 

3. I found it really helpful to find papers that the potential supervisor has coauthored with their graduate students. Do they let their grad student write the paper (i.e. and have first authorship?) or are they always the first author? (And compare to the norms for your field). What kinds of projects are their students writing up--are they new contributions to the field or did the prof write up the first paper about the method/model and the students just churn out data analysis / derivative works based on the first paper? How often do their students publish? Are the students doing the level of work you hope to achieve?

[NeurosciMRI]

Thanks everyone for all of the responses. They have been more than helpful!

 

I will be having a phone conversation with a potential advisor this Friday, which is good! Although prospective students day has passed, I have had a chance to talk with current students who have recommended that I also consider another faculty member to be my potential advisor. On prospective students day, this faculty member was really nice, funny and talkative and actually completed her masters degree at my alma mater which was really nice. This specific faculty member is also on my list of potential faculty members.

 

The last faculty member on my list is very accomplished and is notably an expert in the field that I am going into, however I was told to not go for the "big" names. I had a chance to communicate with this faculty member via email and he responded to one of my emails at 6 in the morning which I have never experienced before (I went to a large public university as an undergraduate). He not only talked to me about my interests, but he also talked to me about  things not really related to school as well.  He seemed very supportive early on, but I was told that because he is so accomplished that he may not have time for a masters student like myself, although this was not the impression that I got based our email conversations. My mind is all over the place and I have hesitated to submit my list to the program coordinator because I want to be sure that the potential faculty members that I will list (we are allowed up to three to list) will be somewhat of a great match for my personality. I have until next week to submit my choices and I just really want to be matched with someone who will help me develop into a competent masters student and investigator.  I apologize for the vague response.

 

In terms of personality, I am the type of person that goes after what I want. I am not hesitant to ask for help. I am very receptive to constructive criticism and don't mind criticism as long as it makes me a better investigator. Sometimes my morale might get messed up but I eventually pick my head up and continue. I continually seek feedback from individuals and strive to be better. I can work independently when I understand my responsibilities really well. I don't need regular feedback but if it is possible for me to schedule meetings on a biweekly basis that would be ideal. I have heard that some faculty members hold weekly meetings and I am not sure if that is commonplace. I was told by a prospective student at visitors day that this specific professor (the expert in the field) is busy, and that the students that he mentors are students that don't have to be coddled. You have to have a "go getter" mentality. I feel like I have this type of personality when it comes to my academics and I also really like the work that he is doing.

 

I have read countless of threads on GradCafe about "bad advisors" and I really don't want to have experiences like that if they can be avoided. That is why I am taking a long time to research potential advisors, their research interests and learn more about their personalities.

 

To answer the questions above: My graduate program does not have a rotation type of program. 

Edited July 9, 2014 by NeurosciMRI