Choosing a graduate advisor is one of the most important decisions as a graduate student. Below are some guidelines on how to choose a lab from my personal experience.
What a good advisor should do
What a good advisor should do
- Be a good boss. Same as in any industry. A good boss exhibits leadership styles that build their workers up and encourages them to reach their full potential
- Care about your wellbeing
- Have a track record of getting their students graduated at a normal pace (4-5.5 years on average)
- Help their students solve problems. When you talk to your advisor, you should feel better after meeting with them most of the time.
- Have a track record of students being research assistants and having research funding. This is not a requirement but teaching sucks up a lot of time and makes it harder for you to focus on your research.
- Encourage extra-curricular activities and hobbies
- Are flexible with vacations. It should be easy to ask for time off from your professor. Most graduate programs have a few weeks of flexible vacation time. It should be easy for you to cash in those days.
- Be organized. Is their desk a complete mess? Do they keep a calendar of their meetings?
- Set clear expectations
- Allow their student freedom. In my experience, the professors that allow their students freedom to set their own schedules and struggle through problems are the professors with a healthier work environment.
- Have a track record of students switching labs and mastering out consistently
- Have a reputation for yelling at their students
- Require students to work late and/or on weekends. Yes, this happens. I have friends that are required to work Saturdays
- Giving you work while you are on vacation or sending you mandatory response work emails unless it’s urgent. Checking emails should be a nice thing to do. Not mandatory while you are away from the lab. I check my email and occasionally work during vacation because I am invested in my project. It should not be mandatory that you bring your work on vacation with you.
- Leave manuscripts unedited for long periods of time. Your advisor should be interested in publishing your data as soon as you get a story and not leave your data in a drawer for long periods of time.
- Show that they are stressed and take it out on their graduate students. Being a professor is a stressful job. However, there is no excuse for taking their anxiety and stress out on their students.
- Is this professor tenured? A tenured professor tends to have less stress on their shoulders. This can translate to students not being pressured into publishing and working in the lab constantly. Also, there is less risk that your professor will switch universities or drop out of academia completely, leaving you without an advisor.
- Does your professor have a track record of publishing ~ 3 papers a year? This shows that your professor is staying relevant in the field. This also indicates an ability to get consistent funding
- Graduate students currently in the program usually have a good idea which professors have a reputation for healthy work environments. Listen for phrases like “difficult to work with”, “is very hands-on” and “can be tough to get along with” during your visitation and talking with graduate students. We are required to make our program look good to prospective students so we can’t say that a professor is toxic during your visit.
- Do alumni in the lab go to industries that you are interested in? This is an indication that your advisor has connections in these fields. These are also the most likely jobs that you will get once you graduate.
- PICK YOUR ADVISOR, NOT YOUR PROJECT! Interested in cancer research? Great, you can join a ChemE lab, BioE lab, Materials lab, Electrical engineering lab or a Civil engineering lab. Disciplines run together much more than you think. Who knows? Your advisor can pick up a grant in your area of interest that you can work on as a side project.You will also learn skills in your PhD that are applicable in many areas outside the goal of your specific project. But, if your work environment is miserable, you will be too.
Additional resources:
1 ."What matters in a Ph.D. adviser? Here’s what the research says" Katie Langin. April 5th, 2019
https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/04/what-matters-phd-adviser-here-s-what-research-says
2. "How to Pick a Graduate Advisor" Ben. A. Barres. Neuron. 80(2). October 16 2013. pg. 275-279. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627313009070
3. "Important Things Most Students Never Ask About Graduate School"Rob N. Candler. https://me.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj9736/f/advice_paper_web.pdf
