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I recently started to supervise a student writing his bachelor thesis. While he was about two weeks late in contacting me (which was apparently normal according to my colleagues; he also explained to me that he was busy), he seems to read the papers I recommended carefully before contacting me.

My professor (my boss) asked me whether I consider that student as good. I just told her that the student seems to read papers carefully. Now I wonder whether I did it correctly.

In general, when my superior ask me about the impression of my new subordinate, should I emphasize the good aspect or the bad aspect? (Some people told me that I should emphasize bad aspect so that if that subordinate turns out to be an incompetent one (i.e. yielding bad results), I would not be the one to blame.)

Should I mention something that is already normal e.g. in my case, the student contacted me about two weeks late?

Would there be any cultural differences in dealing with this (I am in Germany)? (Would the answer be different if I am in a non-academic field?)

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    Be moderate and honest.
    – Alchimista
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 11:19
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    You should give your professor your honest assessment.Don't continue with the evasiveness appropriate in Asian culture. In comparison to that culture, Germans are insultingly open and direct. "the student seems to read papers carefully" While that is an objective fact, that's not what your professor expects from you. They want to know if the student is good enough to further invest in them. For this they need your honest appraisal.
    – user9482
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 11:32
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    I don't think we can abort a bachelor thesis (the worst case would be giving the student a "no pass" grade). So "if the student is good enough to further invest in them" should be irrelevant for his objective of asking me.
    – Aqqqq
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 13:20
  • @Roland Do you think I should mention to the professor that the student contacted me about 2 weeks late? It seems to be normal.
    – Aqqqq
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 13:23

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Reply honestly, especially if the supervisor is in a position to help the student overcome any deficiencies. It is fine to give facts, such as the lateness issue. But don't give either overly-positive or overly-negative interpretations of the facts.

Your statement that they seem to take care in reading was the right approach. Saying that they were late would also be fine, especially if you also ask whether that should be expected generally.

But the question "is the student good" is pretty hard to answer, as most everyone has both good and, shall we say, less good aspects to their observed behavior.

Honest. Objective.

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  • I do not think that the professor was in a position to "help the student overcome any deficiencies" in my case. I asked my colleagues (not the professor) about the expectation of contact promptedness before this incident of my professor asking me, so I thought that it was normal to be two weeks late and hence was not worthy of mentioning to my professor.
    – Aqqqq
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 15:15
  • That seems fine.
    – Buffy
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 15:16

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