MA Advisor Won't Return Thesis Edits

[Paloma]

My advisor will not give me substantial feedback on my thesis.

I've been sending him chapters and portions of chapters since spring break, meeting with him as often as he will let me (about once or twice a month), and I've gotten a total of 10 pages of text edits out of him. In most meetings, it is clear that he hasn't read any of it, and will give me very vague advice about making sure that I'm asking the right questions or that I'm not letting the topic get too "big". Other times, he will have read the first couple pages with edits focusing mostly on word choice or formatting, and then nothing else. I'm not looking for line-by-line edits, but I'd like for him to actually read what I've written. I've heard nothing about the actual content of my thesis; I have real questions about the "meat" of this project.

Now, it's getting to be crunch time. I need to have this out to my committee by the end of next week. I've leaned on some other colleagues to help with my edits regarding grammar and clarity, but my thesis topic is quite specialized and I need my advisor (who is the only other person who has done this sort of work in my department) to address questions I have about my content. Plus, he has to approve the draft before it can be sent out. That's pretty hard to do when you don't read it.

Scheduling a meeting with him is impossible as of late. He will either cancel for some mysterious reason, go out of town, or show up to the meeting having read nothing that I've given him. He then spends an hour talking vaguely about my overarching topic, dodges my specific questions (because he hasn't read the portions I'm discussing), or spends an unnecessary amount of time reiterating how he would like my data tables to look. He will ask me to correct things that have already been corrected or point to a suggestion that he made and tell me that it was no good. I want to pull my hair out.  

I've been aware of his tendency to be a "hands off" advisor (to put it nicely) since I arrived at this program, and I found ways to alter my behavior to work around it in the past. However, he has gotten worse and worse as time has gone on. It's getting to a point where I cannot do anything else on my end to help myself. I'm also not the only student having this problem, either. There are at least two other students of his attempting to graduate this summer that are getting the same treatment. There are also students of his in the past that have had these same issues, many of which had to stay extra semesters because he neglected to read and approve their work by the required deadlines.

My largest concern is that I start a PhD program in the fall. I am under the impression that my MA is required to enter the program, although my admission letter states that I have unconditional admission. I am worried that I will not graduate on time, and my position and funding at this PhD program will be revoked. I've already put in a notice to move from my current apartment. I won't be here in a month, no matter what happens.

What should I do in this situation? At what point should I and the other students go to the dean? What is the most professional way to discuss my situation with my PhD advisor if I cannot make the deadlines? 

[fuzzylogician]

Three thoughts: 

- Content-wise: if he is not reading and you need feedback, stop sending him dozens of pages to read and expecting that this time, unlike all others, suddenly he will read everything. (Yes, he should, but it doesn't seem to be happening.) Come to your meetings with a short handout, be able to summarize in words what you are doing, and ask your questions about whatever you're uncertain about. Yes, you'll spend part of the meeting discussing something that he could have come prepared for if he'd read the chapter, but if that isn't happening, stop counting on it and help yourself by teaching him what he needs to know in the meeting. 

- Format/writing-wise: make use of colleagues and the writing center as much as you can. Are there other committee members who can help with the writing (and content)?

- Complaining-wise: I am not sure that's the best way to get what you want. If you do choose to go down that route, going to the dean skips one or two important steps along the way. (1) you need to explicitly tell your advisor that you need more feedback/are unhappy with the level or frequency of the feedback you've been getting, and have a conversation about how to improve it. There need to be documented attempts to solve this problem before you go over his head. (2) you need to talk to someone inside your department, e.g. the DGS and/or the chair. At this point I'd concentrate on the concern of not finishing in time, and try to get assurances on that front. (3) complaining openly might be the right thing to do on some level, but your career is more likely to suffer because of it than your advisor's. The ombudsperson can sometimes be a good resource for anonymous complaints and getting things to change without directly sticking your neck out there, especially if this is a systematic problem. A conversation with him/her can also give you perspective about whether your expectations are within reason or whether you are expecting more of your advisor than you should. You might be able learn tools for managing your expectations and the communication with your advisor to help you get the feedback you need. 

[TakeruK]

I want to second everything fuzzy wrote here. 

I did a Masters program before going to a PhD program too (in Canada, this is the normal route). Although I can't say for sure what your case will be like, typically when a student is defending a Masters thesis and is going to start a PhD program then the Masters thesis is just a formality. And remember, a Masters thesis is just graded as pass or fail, there's no difference between minimal pass and pass with flying colours. Accordingly, your advisor and your committee may feel the same way and they might not really care about making your thesis perfect, just good enough to pass. With my own Masters thesis, I don't think my committee read it carefully past Chapter 2 because all of their notes to me after my defense (and all of the questions they asked) were about the content in Chapters 1 and 2 only (there were 6 chapters in total).

I'm not saying this to advise you to not care about your Masters thesis. You should definitely not just "let it go" because it might become a problem later! But the reason of sharing this is to say you might not have to worry as much as it sounds like you are worrying. If you follow the advice in fuzzy's post, you should be fine.

[St Andrews Lynx]

Make use of your committee members. Even though your thesis topic is a niche one, don't underestimate the ability of your committee members to (i) understand it (ii) be able to make useful critiques of it. At the very least, they should be able to tell you if your argument(s) make sense to a non-niche-specialist. 

In most fields there is the opportunity to carry out edits (sometimes substantial ones) as an outcome of the thesis defence. The draft you hand to your committee isn't always your FINAL draft.  Don't let a lack of feedback from your advisor make you miss the submission deadline. 

[anniesmith]

I really suggest that you document this carefully via emails etc, as you can demand an extension and reexamination etc if things go against you.

Speak with the student union. I feel for you as this has happened to me more than once and I have done the above and my supervisors lifted their game.

The university must have a policy document you can refer to. The Univ of London has a policy document that stipulates that edits must be returned in 30 days at all times of the year even during shutdown, as in theory you have two supervisors and they should not take leave or they can answer emails on leave. Once I showed my supervisors this policy document I was never messed around again.

Hope this helps :-)

Annie

[juilletmercredi]

Before you go to making any demands, I would definitely advise doing the things that fuzzy, TakeruK, and Lynx pointed out - especially summarizing your topic and making it easier for your advisor to give you the feedback you want and leaning on your other committee members. Since the whole committee has to pass your master's thesis, they should be able to understand it at least on a base level. Even if they don't 100% understand the topic they should be able to evaluate whether or not you've made your arguments adequately and point you in the right direction. (In fact, I wouldn't demand anything; even if things get hairy, I would ask for an extension.)

Many U.S. schools don't have a student organizing union, and while the student union may be able to help you with things like work arrangements they can't necessarily help with something like this. And lots of U.S. universities don't have a policy document stipulating a timeline for the return of thesis materials (even if they give general guidelines, they aren't requirements. And there's no incentive for professors to adhere to them anyway.)

At the beginning of each meeting, give him a summary of each chapter, a summary of the changes that you've made since the last draft, and a list of the specific concerns that you currently are trying to solve. Write it all down - it'll maybe be 2-3 pages long.

Try being clear and direct. If he wanders onto the topic of your data tables, change the conversation back to your thesis. If he doesn't get a gentle hint, give him a stronger one: "Thanks for that Professor Smith, but my primary concern is Topic Z. My specific question is [insert here]. What do you think?"

If things still haven't improved by now - and you need to graduate soon - talk to your DGS. This is the kind of thing a DGS is there for. Be direct and unemotional; just lay out the facts of your case, and leave out the other students' (not your concern). Ask for help.

[Paloma]

Hi all!

I know I'm crazy late responding to your advice, but I wanted to come back and say thanks for the help. I took a lot of the advice given to me here and managed to get everything done and graduate on time!

 

Thanks again!

[rising_star]

@Paloma, that's fantastic news! Congratulations and thanks for the update!