Potential advisor on leave first year?

[thinkingandthinking]

I recently went on a visit, met with a potential advisor who seemed very excited about my work, and very excited about the prospect of advising my project--to the point of saying "so, if you come here, you'll clearly work with Prof. X, Prof. Y, and me." (Which could come off, I suppose, as problematic/arrogant, but considering how big a name they are in the field, how excited I am to work with him, and the tone of his saying it: it's a good thing.) Yet, he'll be on leave, or at least won't be teaching, my first year. My initial idea of how to go about forming a working relationship with an advisor was to take courses with them, so I'm a little worried about committing to somewhere where I wouldn't have that clear a path to access to a POI for the whole year. Presumably, he'll be teaching again the following year, and, again, he seemed pretty set on advising my project or at least being part of my committee, so I'm not overly worried that I just wouldn't end up able to work with him. But, then again, I have a pretty limited idea about how this whole process of finding and selecting an advisor even exactly goes, so, essentially: any advice in this situation? Is this a normal thing to deal with? What are some other good ways to maintain contact with a prof between admission and the 2nd year? Any help at all is welcome.

[fuzzylogician]

You didn't say anything about your field or the structure of the program so this may vary. The first year is actually probably the best year for your advisor to be gone (and note: not teaching is not the same as gone!). You take a pretty heavy courseload, you might be TAing for the first time -- it takes time to adjust and usually you do less research than in subsequent years. You should also not have a problem starting to discuss a project with the two other individuals who are around and beginning to meet with this professor in your second year. I don't think there should be any problem at all. 

[thinkingandthinking]

Sorry - I'm in English Lit. The first two years are coursework, then 3rd for exams, then dissertation. With this particular program, at least, the advisor in the first year is just the DGS for everyone, so this wouldn't be an issue for that purpose, I guess, though I was mostly just worried about making sure to start building a relationship early (also I'm just very excited to work with this person--and a tiny bit disappointed when I saw the course list!) But: what you say here definitely makes sense, thank you!

[TakeruK]

I want to echo what was said about "not teaching is not the same as gone". They may still be around in the department, which means you can still interact with them. Some example ways of doing what you asked about is:

1. Attending department seminars and then talking to the prof before/after the seminar (usually there is tea/cookies or some sort of refreshment).

2. Dropping in on office hours to discuss relevant things. For example, a seminar related to the research that you would eventually work with this prof on.

3. Other interactions of your own planning. Maybe when you start, you can express your interest in working with this person again and perhaps you can discuss some relevant papers together (by email or Skype). This can happen even if the prof is out of the country!

I admit that a lot of this thinking is coming from a STEM field, where we start research almost right away and there is rarely such a big difference between "coursework" and "research" stages. This means that almost all of my interactions with my research advisor(s) have not been classroom related so I never thought of courses as the only way to get to know a professor. So, a lot of my thinking here is that you just start doing small research tasks with the professor on the side. But maybe this is not possible. I would hope that the prof would still be interested in discussing a paper with you something like once a month if they are just on a research sabbatical elsewhere or something similar. 

[rising_star]

You know, I think people put too much emphasis on building a relationship with one's advisor through taking courses with them. The only reason I took courses with my advisor was because he was teaching the core departmental courses in my first year. But, he didn't pay any more attention to my work in those courses than he did to the other students. I actually think it was more useful to students wanting him on their committee than it was for students actually being advised by him, mostly because he had different expectations for his advisees. At any rate, my point is that the relationship I built with my advisor didn't really come from taking classes with him. It came from interacting with him in office hours, at individual meetings, at departmental events, etc.

[Humulus_lupulus]

I am coadvised, and my one advisor taught two of my courses in my first semester, and I have never had a course with my other advisor. While my relationship with both professors is very good, I've developed a great rapport with the advisor that I haven't had any courses with simply from lab meetings, seeing him in the lunchroom, regular weekly meetings, and passing him in the hallway. He even had to leave for ~6 months unexpectedly. It's a little easier to get to know your professors in class, but a lot of that is your personality and their personality and both of you making the best of time outside the classroom.

[AP]

I have two advisors. 

One of them was on leave during my first year. He is my go-to person now. 

The other one was on leave this year, when I was doing exams and prospectus. He wasn't even in the US. Nonetheless, we skyped/emailed/met when he came. 

Bottom line, I doubt five years would have gone by without any advisor taking a leave... 

[Sigaba]

On 3/7/2016 at 6:15 PM, thinkingandthinking said:

Sorry - I'm in English Lit. The first two years are coursework, then 3rd for exams, then dissertation. With this particular program, at least, the advisor in the first year is just the DGS for everyone, so this wouldn't be an issue for that purpose, I guess, though I was mostly just worried about making sure to start building a relationship early (also I'm just very excited to work with this person--and a tiny bit disappointed when I saw the course list!) But: what you say here definitely makes sense, thank you!

If you want to get a running start at building a relationship with this person, you can begin by studying everything she has written, reading the scholars who have influenced her, and becoming familiar with the POVs she finds controversial/objectionable. 

[bhr]

I've never had a course with my MA advisor (and likely won't during my PhD either, as he's now an admin), and agree with everyone else that there are other ways to build that relationship. Little things, like going to their talks or reading their publications, are great, but don't be afraid to engage them either. If you know you are going to be at a major conference, ask them if you can tag along with them for a bit. They get to show you off to their peers, you find out about the big conversations they are a part of, and other people associate you with your advisor.

You are in the humanities, as am I, and I think we have a less-formal relationship with our faculty. Obviously, every program/advisor is different, but I would even consider asking them to coffee/beer occasionally. Particularly if you are moving to a new city for school, I don't see any problem with you reaching out to this potential advisor and saying "hey, I'm going to be moving to town on XXXXX, would it be possible that we could grab lunch before the semester stars and make some plans for the year?"  (If that's something you would want). I know everyone wants different types of advising, but I like that I can have a beer with my committee a couple times a month, just to informally discuss things.