How did you pick your grad school supervisor?

[lovestruck]

I'm starting to research potential supervisors and I'm having a hell of a time deciding what I want to do! How did some of you pick and do you have any advice??

[bloh]

Pick a supervisor with a healthy amount of funds and a decent publication record in the last few years (which will secure funding for the next application cycle).

[BRD]

Here's a list of things that I either asked my supervisor or wish I had thought to find out before I made my choice:

 

- Does your supervisor have funding to pay you? You'd be surprised how many prospective supervisors will say 'I'd love to have you, but I just don't have the funding right now'.

- Does your supervisor support your desire to go to medical school? You need to be upfront when you meet supervisors that your ultimate goal is medicine. I know of several investigators who will not take med school wannabes in their labs (including one MD/PhD, which I think is very peculiar). You also need to make it clear whether you are committed to finishing your grad degree or whether you'd consider abandoning it if you get into med school.

- How good is your supervisor's other funding? (i.e. operating grants, salary grants). Things can get pretty tense around a lab if your supervisor is about to run out of funding. It's hard to do experiments when you aren't allowed to order things because of a money shortage.

- What is your supervisor's publication record? Had I known that my supervisor was a slow publisher I might have re-considered, since I am desperate for a publication.

- Is the research interesting or at least potentially interesting? Are the preparations you'd be using interesting?

- Is your supervisor aware of how long you want to take to complete your degree? Grad students are cheap labour. If you don't firmly state that you want to finish your degree in x number of years you'll likely stick around for longer than you had initially intended.

- Does the program allow you to transfer between MSc and PhD? Even if you think you want to do a PhD it might be wise to register in a MSc program. Then if you hate the research or your supervisor you'll only be miserable for 2-3 years instead of 4-6. If you love your research and your supervisor you can transfer to a PhD.

[Dr.Henderson]

While the questions others have posed are pertinent, the first concern I had in choosing my graduate supervisor was who he/she was as a person. You could have a potential supervisor with a great project, great funding, and time to spend with you but if they're going to make your life miserable for the next 2+ years its far from worth it.

 

The way you find out what the supervisor is like (outside of meeting with them) is meeting with and talking to other grad students that are currently or formerly under his/her supervision. If you can talk to those who were formerly supervised by him/her then you're in great shape as those people are going to give you the straight goods because they don't have to worry about displeasing their supervisor (not to the same degree anyways). My supervisor was excellent, and even gave me the contact information of his former graduate students so I could ask them whatever I liked.

 

This worked great for me because I've had an excellent relationship with my supervisor and it has made things go very smoothly. There's a paper somewhere about how a graduate supervisor / graduate student relationship is like a marriage somewhere (haha, I know)- its a bit extreme imo but they draw some very real comparisons.

[leap87]

While the questions others have posed are pertinent, the first concern I had in choosing my graduate supervisor was who he/she was as a person. You could have a potential supervisor with a great project, great funding, and time to spend with you but if they're going to make your life miserable for the next 2+ years its far from worth it.

 

The way you find out what the supervisor is like (outside of meeting with them) is meeting with and talking to other grad students that are currently or formerly under his/her supervision. If you can talk to those who were formerly supervised by him/her then you're in great shape as those people are going to give you the straight goods because they don't have to worry about displeasing their supervisor (not to the same degree anyways). My supervisor was excellent, and even gave me the contact information of his former graduate students so I could ask them whatever I liked.

 

This worked great for me because I've had an excellent relationship with my supervisor and it has made things go very smoothly. There's a paper somewhere about how a graduate supervisor / graduate student relationship is like a marriage somewhere (haha, I know)- its a bit extreme imo but they draw some very real comparisons.

 

+1. Also, I would suggest meeting a whole bunch of them and choosing the one that appeals the most to you. Don't put all eggs in one basket.