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Approaching a supervisor


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Hm, when I approached mine, I e-mailed her first, with some basic details about myself, including relevant courses I've taken, research experience, and my future career plans (not med, lol, I personally opted against mentioning it); when she didn't reply after 2 weeks, I called and we spoke on the phone for about 5-10 mins and scheduled an in-person appointment. I pretty much asked her everything I wanted to know about the program - funding, potential research topics, reputation of the program as far as going for a PhD or in the industry afterwards is concerned, expected hours of work, support, etc.

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Hm, when I approached mine, I e-mailed her first, with some basic details about myself, including relevant courses I've taken, research experience, and my future career plans (not med, lol, I personally opted against mentioning it); when she didn't reply after 2 weeks, I called and we spoke on the phone for about 5-10 mins and scheduled an in-person appointment. I pretty much asked her everything I wanted to know about the program - funding, potential research topics, reputation of the program as far as going for a PhD or in the industry afterwards is concerned, expected hours of work, support, etc.

 

Did you interview only one supervisor or did you interview more than one supervisor? Did you ask for a tour of the lab in which you would be working in? Did you ask to talk to other graduate students who were working in the lab?

 

Also, when is a good time to start looking for a supervisor?If I want to start my MSc in September or December, when should I start contacting potential supervisors?

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Did you interview only one supervisor or did you interview more than one supervisor? Did you ask for a tour of the lab in which you would be working in? Did you ask to talk to other graduate students who were working in the lab?

 

Also, when is a good time to start looking for a supervisor?If I want to start my MSc in September or December, when should I start contacting potential supervisors?

 

Woah, if you wanna start in Sep, you're kinda screwed right now. December, you might still be able to find people. The problem here is not so much with finding a supervisor, but with meeting the dept of graduate studies' deadlines. Often, the deadline for a Sep start is Jan or Feb.

 

I only interviewed one supervisor, because there was only one prof at my uni who worked in the field I was interested in. If there were more, I'd definitely interview more.

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Woah, if you wanna start in Sep, you're kinda screwed right now. December, you might still be able to find people. The problem here is not so much with finding a supervisor, but with meeting the dept of graduate studies' deadlines. Often, the deadline for a Sep start is Jan or Feb.

At the university I'm interested the deadline for September start is July 31st, for December start is November 1st.

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You should make contact with potential supervisors as soon as possible. In my lab we have already decided on students for Sept start.

 

Is it U of T you are applying to?

 

No, I'm applying to UWO. I need some guidance on this. What/how should I ask the supervisor over email? Do they ask you to come in for an interview and what do they usually ask during the interview? Does anyone have any advice for me? Can someone maybe explain on how the process work?

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Ok it's really not all that stressful at all.

 

Basically as everyone has said, you are cutting it really really close for the sept admission. It's one thing to say the grad application deadline is in July,but it's another to find a supervisor. Most people begin to scout out supervisors a year in advance (in my case, I even did it earlier). However, you obviously don't have time for that now. I would recommend not getting disapointed if proffs say no to you. It's likely because they have already filled up the spots.

 

In regards to the email, just as everyone has said. Introduce yourself, tell a bit about your academic background, and why you are interested in the proffs research. You will likely email more than one proff (and you SHOULD), and probably narrow down which ones you like from there. After that, they will contact you and evantually have a phone interview. For mine, it was pretty casual. She asked me what kind of research i'd done, what are my future plans, etc etc etc. Casual. If you live close enough, you'd probably go meet them in person after/see the research environment. If not, the phone is usually sufficient.

 

Good luck!

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If I were you, email a lot of profs and keep a wide open net, particularly at this time of year. It is getting a bit late but then again, people who applied/were accepted into MSc's for the fall may have gotten a med school acceptance and are bailing as we speak, leaving some excellent professors and labs open for another student! :D

 

An in person meeting would be of utmost importance to me. I would not accept a position in a lab until I have spoken to all the lab members/technical staff in addition to the professor. Graduate degrees are gruelling degree, so you want to do your best to scout out your environment for the future. Frankly, I think a healthy lab environment is almost as important as the topic you choose/the supervisor you choose. In fact, from my experience, I would go as far as saying that it is more important that you and the supervisor/lab click than if you click with the subject matter.

 

Let's just say, I've had some positive and negative experiences and I've learned a lot about graduate school and how this process works. Feel free to PM me :)

 

Good luck!

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I agree.

 

Having good people around you during a grad degree is clutch.

There is no doubt that fecal matter will hit the fan at one point or another during the process, and having people who will support you is extremely important.

 

It's also important to have at least a weekly meeting with your supervisor (even if it's a 10 minute one) in order to make sure things are running smoothly. You don't want to be in a situation where the supervisor doesn't know/care about you or your project. Trust me, It'll spare you ALOT of stress.

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yeah I'm pseudo-knowledgeable about all of this as well. I'm looking for supervisors now as well (but for fall 2010--might seem early but the deadline of the specific program i want is THIS sept/oct)

 

step 1 - find out what you're interested in and narrow down to a list.

step 2 - read some abstracts. Not only will you notice what they are studying, but also the methods in which they do it, which is important. If you're interested in doing X, you're gonna hate to find out it's all Y.

step 3 - ask around. The blurb they put on the internet for their lab description may sound awesome, but they could potentially be total D-bags. Here's a few starters to look out for:

 

-recent publications

-who they are funded by

-other interesting fun tidbits like awards

 

you're going to want a direct opinion from the grad students/tech staff that are in the lab. When you email the supervisor, ask for the emails of some of the students to get their perspective on how the lab is, etc. (i can't see that being a problem, one of my potential supervisors offered a list of emails without me even saying so). You see soooooo many people who say "yeah I tried research but ended up hating it". I honestly believe the majority of that crowd just got stuck in a ****ty lab/with a ****ty supervisor/****ty grad students.

 

newer is, for the most part, not a good thing. Labs take a few years to get up and running, so while this person may be the next upcoming Nobel Laureate, its' gonna take a bit to get off the ground. I also find when supervisors have "GRADUATE STUDENTS WANTED" plastered on their site, it's probably not a good thing.

 

However, where you're applying late, you may have no choice. Either way, just don't screw yourself over by ending up in a bad lab. There's not too many people who talk intently about research on this site, so feel free to PM/join flashchat (im there a lot) to talk about it

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