Choosing the Right Research Adviser

"The adviser is the primary gatekeeper for the professional self-esteem of the student, the rate of progress toward the degree, and access to future opportunities" says S.E. Wednall, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"Choosing a research topic and finding an adviser are clearly linked, although generally speaking the first precedes the second", says Richard M. Reis of Stanford University's Teaching and Learning Lab in his recent article, Choosing the Right Research Adviser. Dr. Reis goes on to give the following advice:

• Look at the styles of various professors, how they treat their graduate students, how many students they have and their track record in graduating students.
• Consider how much direction and supervision you want and need. Be willing to push your boundaries, but not to an extreme. You need to be somewhere in your comfort zone, but not too comfortable.
• You will want at least one adviser who will be demanding. In the words of a graduate student in biology, "you want your anxiety level to go up a little when you get an e-mail message from your adviser."
• Talk to the students and post docs of potential advisers. Ask a lot of questions. Are any doing compelling work? What is the level of expectation in the lab?
• Plan to attend one or more research group meetings and pay attention to the interactions. Consider what your relationship will be with other students and postdocs in the group. What is the relationship of these post docs to the professor and the graduate students? Who will mentor you?
• Where are recent graduates and former post docs now working?

It is important to think about what environment you learn best in. Dr. Joanne Martin, professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University has studied the adviser-advisee relation in some detail, likes to classify advisers into three types: authoritarian, coach and laissez faire.

"The authoritarian advisor is likely to set the goals and lay out tasks for the research, usually in some detail. Such advisers generally welcome conflict, expect you to speak up and are active throughout the research process.

"The Coach generally will seek to set goals jointly with the student. There may be a lot of guidance in the beginning or planning phase, but not much during the research itself. The coach becomes very active again during the evaluation stage.

"Laissez-faire advisers are friendly and constantly supportive but it is not certain you will learn much from them. They generally will be relatively inactive on the research task unless you take the initiative, but will generally be supportive throughout and generally available to his/her students. Working with a laissez-faire adviser works best if you have strong research skills, are independent, and know what you want."

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