Unable to find a PhD advisor: Questions about leaving the program and other options

Question

UPDATE: Lost funding and leaving the program. I continued my search and tried to establish contact with around 10 faculty of interest. Most did not even reply to my emails. Contacted gradutate coordinator and could only receive a rejection response after then. At the end of the semester they stopped my funding. To be frank, they did not even tell me that they will discontinue my funding. I heard from friends that they received TA offers. Emalied ask for my funding status to get a reply.

All in all, I realize that this was the best thing for me, as I got rid of that toxic, unresponsive, unsupportive and uncollaborative environment. Program expects me to find an advisor, but how could I get one if I doomed to failure from the day one. It was a mistake to go there. (I dont remember my Acad SE username, thats why updated anon).

---

I am an international PhD student at a top 50 computer science department in the United States. Due to COVID, I had to start in Spring which was a tough time for everyone. So I thought that the situation might change in Fall. Since then I have been trying to find a PhD advisor, but I can't seem to succeed on this. I have tried to reach a wide range of professors (related to my research interests) in order not to leave any stone unturned. Probably, I contacted around 10-15 professors. Some never replied after multiple emails with a range of more than a month or so between them. Some said they were out-of-capacity. Some were always asking to be convinced, while continuously accepting other students to their lab. Some say that they don't know me. Some vaguely mentioned if an opportunity arises in the "future", but also recommended me to check with other faculty. Here they used the exact word "future" without any certain dates etc.

My GPA in the program is 4.0 and I already have some publications from my Master's in my country. Master students with much lesser qualifications than mine get research assistantships, while I can't even find an advisor. I don't have the network of researchers known to faculty which might be a reason for them to be uninterested. My country is not as developed in research as countries such as India or China with lots of international connections.

I need to find an advisor ASAP because I might get unsatisfactory progress and lose funding. To be frank, I have totally lost my hope in finding some suitable advisor. I don't even mention funding issues and having to serve as a teaching assistant during all of the PhD.

My question is should I leave the program after this semester without wasting more time and energy and getting stuck in the end? Also, if I apply to other PhD programs in the US, will I be perceived badly by the programs, since I could not get an advisor in my current institution? How are students applying from other universities considered? Another option is completely forgetting about getting a PhD.

Answer 1

I doubt that switching schools will do you a lot of good. You will find the same issues at that new place. Instead, I'd recommend that you (a) think long term and (b) get flexible.

Talk to some prof who you think would be good to work with and who hasn't already indicated they won't take any student and ask them if they have a suitable project for your dissertation.

No, it isn't exactly what you want, but it is a way to burst through. Better if it is aligned with your main interest than otherwise, but you can, if you finish the degree, return to any thread of research that interests you at some later point. It may take a while of course, but it is possible.

Insisting on a particular research direction, with no known support, is costing you.

I think you are in the dilemma of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. There are a lot of "interesting" problems out there. But you need an advisor who is also "interested" in working with you.

At the very least, switching will cost you time and might leave you in an even worse situation.

Answer 2

This is rather sad. It is too late for the OP, but I am adding an answer in case any students in a similar situation find their way to this page.

From the original post, discussion in comments, and final update, my reading of the situation is this:

The student did well in a Masters degree, gained entry to a good PhD program, and did well in their classes, but failed to make any meaningful connections with potential advisors and did not understand how to go about finding an advisor. Establishing good connections may have been made more difficult by COVID, but the student's approach to this was a poor one.

Normally, students establish connections in PhD programs like this by working with the professors in their school, whether through assigned class projects and subsequent discussions, organised lab rotations at some schools, or by asking for opportunities to do smaller research projects or other work with potential advisors before completing their classes and exams. This does not seem to have been explained to the OP and she did not manage to work it out for herself. Perhaps this was due to the distance imposed by COVID in combination with a natural reticence, or perhaps it was due to not having seen it in action due to not engaging sufficiently with peers and professors while enrolled, or due to cultural differences compared with what she was used to before beginning at the school in question.

She approached many potential advisors in her school by sending emails outlining her background and in each case mentioning one of the professor's papers. This didn't give the professors in question much to go on, particularly if they didn't know her from active engagement in her classes, seminar discussions, etc. So some of them ignored her emails because they were too busy and others tried to prompt her towards a more useful engagement by saying "convince me" or explaining that they didn't (yet) know her.

A better approach would have been to ask to meet with these professors -- preferably in person, but if COVID made that impossible, by videoconference -- to learn more about their research and engage in discussions about the research and what opportunities there might be for her to join it.

It is not clear from the discussion here whether the student's emails asked for research opportunities aligned with the professor's current research or whether they did a good job of explaining why she was interested in being part of this work (if she was) or how she was a good fit for the group -- but she reports that some professors replied "convince me", which suggests that she missed the mark on this initially, but they were open to further discussion.

The student took "convince me" as a rebuff and rather than engaging with the opportunity, approached other professors, looking for someone who would agree to take her on before she put any effort into engaging with their work (when asked in comments how she had responded, she replied, "I can't hedge all my bets on a single person who says is not sure").

Ultimately, she failed to find an advisor and left the programme.

So to any other students out there in a similar position: you will need to put significant effort into building connections with potential advisors, show genuine interest in their research, take or create opportunities to gain experience working with them if you can before approaching them as an advisor, and make it clear that you are a strong candidate, an easy person to work with, and interested in and capable of engaging with and building upon their research and ideas rather than (at one extreme) doing your own thing and ignoring their research interests or (at the other extreme) leaving everything up to them and waiting for them to tell you what you need to do at every step.

Answer 3

Let me extrapolate: you have no one that can vouch for you, so you are casting your net wide. You are trying to contact big names, full professors and the like, without any connections to them.

That approach is bound to fail. They are too busy, they receive too many emails, they can spend 2 minutes on you, if your needs do not align perfectly with their needs in those 2 minutes, you are ignored.

Start small. Contact assistant professor, academic involved in opensource projects related to the tools you would use for your topic, get in touch even with other PhDs and Post-Docs ... and from there try to build your little network.

Answer 4

Based on my understanding, in the US, if you are a foreigner from a country known to provide sufficient funding for PhD students, supervisors are more likely to accept you quickly. However, if your country or students from your country typically lack sufficient funding, they may reject you, assuming you will face difficulties due to funding limitations. At the end, financial resources do matter.

I am speaking from experience. If you chat with foreign students from different countries at your university, you will find that what I am saying is true.