Sink Or Swim: Choosing A Lab Or Research
Advisor...
I want to say hello and send out a word
of encouragement to many of you who have join my on-line summer
thesis/dissertation writing group.
My inspiration for each newsletter comes
from a variety of sources. This one came from a graduate student,
in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University
of Louisville, who wished she had had more information about choosing
a lab and research advisor when she began graduate school.
As a new or prospective graduate student,
what you need most is frank advice about what steps to take to
ensure you complete your degree and become a successful scientist/researcher.
Unfortunately, such advice is rarely available. That’s why
this edition of our newsletter is dedicated to YOU, and to providing
the advice you need to achieve your post-graduate goals
As a new graduate student, you’ll
be making a significant transition from simply consuming knowledge
to actually generating and disseminating knowledge. Though your
strong academic performance in undergraduate coursework is most
likely what got you here, from this point on what matters most
is conceiving, conducting, and documenting research.
The most critical aspects to achieving
success in these areas are:
1) Selecting an advisor who can serve
as a mentor and appropriately train you to meet your goals; and
2) Selecting a research project that is substantive but can still
be completed in a reasonable length of time.
Selecting the Right Advisor
All graduate students are required to
select a research advisor who, in turn, must agree to serve as
a mentor to the student. This agreement must be made either before
you enter graduate school or soon after enrollment.
Your advisor will serve as your primary
teacher, critic, coach, supporter and supervisor during your graduate
school experience. You will become a research “apprentice” to
the advisor, who will be responsible for providing timely, constructive
feedback on your attempts to understand the nature of your academic
field. It is your advisor who will help keep you on track to meet
your goals, and who will also play a vital role in helping you
secure resources such as office space, equipment, supplies, and
coveted assistantships, fellowships, and summer employment. Once
you earn your degree, it is also your advisor who will write those
vital letters of recommendation.
Clearly, this is a person who will assume
a high degree of responsibility for your graduate-level success.
As such, the decision should not be made lightly.
Important Considerations
Many graduate students make the mistake
of choosing an advisor solely on the basis of race, gender and
or a comfortable working relationship. While these are certainly
key elements in selecting an advisor, there are also many other
factors to consider.
Invest the time and effort into acquainting
yourself with all of the faculty members in your department. In
addition to reviewing all of the information included in your enrollment
packet, make a strong effort to get to know each of them personally.
Make one or several appointments with each to discuss their research
interests and current projects, as well as your own interests.
You are meeting with them to find an advisor/mentor that seems
to provide the “best fit.”
Ideally, you want to work with a mentor
and research group whose goals are most similar to your own. However,
when reflecting on the information you uncover, take care to look
at the “big picture”: rather than making a selection
on one particular project, be sure to make your final choice based
on the mentor (and others who work in the lab) and their overall
research interests. Keep in mind that individual projects can often
fail or change direction as they evolve.
While it is relatively rare to encounter
a truly “bad” mentor, there are a wide variety of mentoring
styles and environments; some may suit you better than others.
Finding the optimal graduate training environment for YOU is balanced
by your own interests; the interests and style of your mentor;
and how you function in a particular mentor’s lab environment.
You can get some feel for the interests
and style of a potential mentor by inquiring among other graduate
students, and an even better sense if you choose to do a rotation
in that lab. If your school offers lab rotation, be sure to take
advantage of this opportunity. Lab rotation offers the opportunity
to explore different fields (in depth) that you might find interesting
(e.g., biology vs. molecular biology, computer science vs. information
systems). Knowing how you function in a given lab environment requires
some degree of self-knowledge as well as experience.
The following are some questions you
may want to consider as you search for an advisor or try to make
a decision to join a particular faculty member’s lab.
1. Has the faculty member
previously mentored other graduate students? Previous
mentoring experience can be helpful, although it is not absolutely
necessary. Find out how many other students the faculty member
has mentored. If possible, try to talk with them directly to
get their opinion of the mentor, both individually and in terms
of the lab progression under his/her tutelage. You can learn
a lot from their firsthand view of the benefits, challenges
and requirements of working in the lab. Attempt, as well, to
discover the success rate of students who have already graduated
from the group. How long did it take them to finish their research?
Where are they employed? What career options were made available
to them via this field?
Mentoring Style. Also
be sure to ask about the faculty member’s mentoring style.
Some mentors are very “hands on”; others are extremely “hands
off.” Do you feel more comfortable with a “micromanager” who
provides extensive supervision and regularly scheduled meetings,
or do you prefer more autonomy in determining the direction of
your work? Both styles have advantages and disadvantages, and
only you know what balance will work best for you.
Support. In
addition, find out if the faculty member has a reputation for
helping his students gain visibility and recognition in their
field. For example, does he make sure that his students attend
conferences? Introduce students to other investigators? Promote
beneficial collaborations such as co-authorship of journal articles?
Is there funding available for travel? This type of support can
be invaluable to your success.
Accessibility. A
key question to ask during your conversations is how accessible
the faculty member is to people working within the lab. If he
or she is not frequently in the lab, what other resources are
available? If, for example, you find yourself in a large lab
with little access to the faculty member, are there research
scientists or senior post-docs in the lab who can help you navigate
through both the lab and the Ph.D. process, and with whom you
can “talk science?” This is important, not only
for your own growth as a scientist, but also to ensure that you
are not left floundering should you experience problems with
your project.
2. Where and how often has
the faculty member been published? An excellent way
to get a feel for a mentor is to review all the papers published
by his or her lab over the previous three to five years. People
who love science and the research they are conducting tend
to make sure that their work is well documented in respected
journals. Ask for copies of all such publications. Numerous
invited articles and presentations to professional societies
suggest that a researcher’s work is well received. In
addition, the number of publications and the quality of the
journals in which they appear can be a good measure of science
in a faculty member’s lab.
3. Where is the faculty member
in his/her career path? How established a faculty
member is in his field may also affect his availability for
mentoring, priorities, and the types of questions and projects
that his lab is exploring. While extensive experience is always
attractive, keep in mind that younger or less famous faculty
can make excellent advisors, as well, and may also have more
time to spend with you. In the absence of substantial grant
funding or a lengthy publication list, someone with an active
and growing research program has a great deal to offer. Note
that it is possible to benefit from access to both: you can
choose an advisor with more time than experience, but also
include renowned researchers in your department on your research
committee (with your advisor’s consent). In that capacity,
you can still seek their advice, and their letters of recommendation
and “connections” can greatly benefit you down
the road. That said it is still better to have an advisor who
has tenure than one who does not.
4. How well funded is the faculty
member? While there are always a variety of funding
options to pursue in graduate school, working for/with a faculty
member who is adequately funded will make your graduate life
much easier … from ensuring that you’ll have sufficient
funds to purchase resources and supplies for your experiments---
to being able to travel to and register for conferences. It’s
also noteworthy to add that poorly funded faculty members often
don’t remain long at their appointed institution.
Grant support from major research organizations
such as the National Science Foundation indicates that other
scientists judge this person to have made significant contributions.
Obtaining grant support is a highly competitive process, one
that is much more difficult to achieve than earning space in
a major journal. A history of grant support from major foundations
is, therefore, very impressive. Most impressive is a researcher
who holds a special position where a university or a foundation
has granted the person a lifetime of research support. Keep in
mind, however, that there are potential problems in working with
renowned researchers. Faculty whose research costs require a
lot of grant support are often limited in the amount of attention
they can devote to you because they are busy writing grant proposals,
justifying grants, administering grants, and supervising post-doctoral
students.
5. Do the size and dynamics
of the faculty member’s lab suit your style and project? Some
students prefer larger labs; others prefer smaller labs. The
size of the lab may reflect and/or determine how much access
you will have to the faculty member, how well funded the lab
is, and the extent of resources and expertise that will be
readily available to you. A large lab, for example, may be
very well funded and also employ many post-docs and research
techs who may have skills and experience that are useful to
your research project. On the other hand, the faculty member
may also have a number of other responsibilities and not have
much time for mentoring students.
Lab Staff/Experience. Is
the lab predominantly staffed by graduate students, post-docs,
technicians, females/males, Caucasians, minority students, international
students, or is there a mix? The people who constitute the lab
help to determine the lab environment and the extent of technical,
career and life experience on which you can draw. Does everyone
in the lab spend over 40 hours in the lab? Do they socialize
with each other outside of the lab? Are they excited/engaged
in their work? It is important to feel enthusiastic about your
research experience if you are to
be successful in your post-graduate work. Nearly every graduate
student encounters some difficulties with a project. If you don’t
care deeply about what you are doing, it can be very difficult
to sustain yourself during those challenging periods.
Environment. Is
the environment collaborative, competitive, or neither? Are the
people in the lab aggressive or easy to get along with? People
will come and go during your tenure in the lab, but if the faculty
member has a track record for recruiting professional people
who do quality work, that pattern tends to repeat itself.
Email Question
of the Month:
Q:
My advisor meets with the students in
our lab once a week. Most of the students give a quick “check
in” about what is going on with their research. This quick
check in does not allow me to get my research questions answered
because the culture dictates that you check in and then shut up.
If you talk too long, students start looking at their watches as
if you are taking up their valuable time. How can I ask to meet
with my advisor on a one-on-one without appearing too needy and
less independent?
A:
This is a common question especially for graduate students who
are involved in large laboratory settings. The fear of appearing
too needy and less independent is real especially for women and
minorities who carry an extra burden of trying to fit into a
competitive male dominated environment.
My recommendation is that you schedule a meeting with your advisor.
The focus of that meeting should not be a complaint about the
value weekly meetings but a meeting about the progress of your
research. You should treat meetings with your advisor like a
formal business meeting complete with an agenda. Come to the
meeting prepared with a list of questions you need answered in
order to move your research forward. Your agenda and list of
questions let’s your advisor know that you value his or
her time as well as your own time. Be prepared to answer questions
about what alternative solutions you have already tried. Professors
like to see that you have thought about some possible solutions,
before they have to throw you a life vest.
In that initial meeting you might ask about scheduling future
meetings and about what is the best way to get your future questions
answered in a timely manner. He or she might suggest that you
ask some of your more senior lab partners for help or he/she
might suggest other alternatives to the weekly meetings.
What TA-DA!™ Users
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email: drcarter@tadafinallyfinished.com
www.tadafinallyfinished.com
About the Author: As a single mother, professor
Wendy Y. Carter, Ph.D., completed three masters' degrees and a
PhD. Her motto is a Good Thesis/Dissertation is a Done Thesis/Dissertation.
She is the creator of a new innovative interactive resource tool
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Volume
2, Issue 7 
