Meeting with a potential PhD supervisor

[Adelaide9216]

Hello,

I am meeting next week with a Prof to discuss a potential PhD collaboration for me. Any advice? I know I should maybe bring my CV but what else? What should I ask? 

[TakeruK]

I don't think you need to bring anything else, but be prepared to talk about your past research work, your current research work, what are your plans for your current work and what you would like to achieve in a PhD. It sounds like you are meeting this prof about working with this specific prof for your PhD right? If so, be knowledgeable about the work that they do. Have good questions about the collaboration.

If you haven't already, practice a 1 minute summary of all of your past projects. I find that when asked on the spot, sometimes I end up emphasizing the wrong parts of the summary or it goes in a direction I didn't want to highlight and then the rest of the discussion steers away from my strengths. Similarly, think about how to frame your future and practice how you want to say it. In my past experience, I feel that I understand someone else's work "enough" for something like this if I could summarize/explain their work/paper/result to a colleague. So if you can find someone to practice this with, that might help.

I don't think you will be intensely grilled on these details but it's better to be prepared than not. If the prof is in a different field than what you previously have worked in, be sure to tailor the 1-minute summary to the audience. And if there are any parts of your current project that are still fuzzy right now, either clear them up or have a plan to clear them up.

[Adelaide9216]

I met with her. She was nice and helpful but I felt embarrassed when she realized that I am a first-year master's student, I could see the shock in her eyes.  I think I was too early in my path to be asking her questions about a potential Ph.D. 

[Hope.for.the.best]

2 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

I met with her. She was nice and helpful but I felt embarrassed when she realized that I am a first-year master's student, I could see the shock in her eyes.  I think I was too early in my path to be asking her questions about a potential Ph.D. 

In my opinion, it is never too early to plan for a PhD if you are into it. I worked in a lab part-time over the summer during my bachelor years and that's how I met my current advisors. I mentioned to them on several occasions that I would like to pursue a PhD. At first, they seemed not to take me very seriously, but they knew I meant it when I still caught up with them regularly after the summer work. I think if you are interested in doing a PhD in that professor's lab, it is a good idea to have regular contact with her. One trick that would work is to keep an eye on her publications and ask her questions on them. Don't be afraid to tell her your thoughts and suggestions. That way you will demonstrate to her that you are indeed into her work and you will also have a good background on your project when you start your PhD.