Advisor horror stories

[bgk]

Hey guys,

Not that I want to scare off potential grads, but I thought it would be funny/interesting to hear of any advisor horror stories? I know of some students who see their advisor only once per semester, that's bad enough. On the other side of the coin, some advisors demand several meetings per week, sometimes at weekends.

Personally I've had a good relationship with my advisors so far. But what do you do in these situations where they demand too much or offer little support?

[rising_star]

What do you do? You find a new advisor/committee until you get the support you need.

[Historylover]

I'm currently in a psych masters program, and they assigned me to an advisor, who is on a year-long sabbatical for my first year of studies. I had to register for fall semester over the phone, and he didn't even tell me anything about the program or advise on how I should plan my semesters. He only told if I really want to get into a PhD program to be a prof, I just had to pull up my GRE scores. Then for spring semester registration, I had to beg the department secretary to get a hold of him so I could register. He wanted to see how I planned to do all my courses up until I graduated when we never even discussed which track I should pursue given my widespread interests, which I tried to ask him when I registered for fall classes.

[bgk]

Hmm. I've heard a few other stories about having to deal with profs who are on sabbatical. Sounds like a nightmare. I hope you make the best of this situation and get out of there with some good grades .

Isn't there another professor you can talk with whilst you're there?