Questions tagged [advisor]

The one who helps students to select courses or an academic major, engages in short-term and long-term educational planning, assists in preparing the thesis necessary to obtain the degree; or a person who advises internship students on training in industry.

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11 votes
5 answers
2k views

Who is the PhD student to their supervisor?

I do not fully understand which interest a supervisor has in their student's work. Is the Ph.D. student somebody who the supervisor should teach, a colleague, an employee, or an independent researcher ...
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1 vote
1 answer
209 views

How do I get better feedback from my PhD advisor and when I do move on if I can not?

I am a PhD student and the next milestone in my program is my thesis proposal. I need to present what I plan to do for my thesis including specific aims, major contributions, timeline, etc... to my ...
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1 vote
3 answers
134 views

Do I need to have a well defined PhD Research proposal before contacting a supervisor?

I am in the UK and I am looking to contact a supervisor about starting a PhD. First, I know the area that I want to focus on but I don't have a defined research project just yet. I'd like to define ...
  • 173
0 votes
1 answer
137 views

how to deal with unengaged supervisor MSc thesis?

I am MSc student, data-science, and a senior student - I mean, I invested on a degree in later age of my life with desire to get into research roles. I was assigned a supervisor for my MSc Thesis who ...
30 votes
7 answers
5k views

How much technical / debugging help should I expect my advisor to provide?

My supervisor said to me that a supervisor isn't expected to help a student with such problems as errors in statistical packages (R, etc). I suppose it refers to all sort of data managing questions. I ...
  • 317
1 vote
1 answer
121 views

PhD Admissions Decline/ Accept

I have been admitted to three PhD programs but I am leaning to program A. Program B is attractive and simply only with the admission letter and fellowship letter I'm not sure if it's the right school ...
  • 21
0 votes
1 answer
111 views

How do you decide whether to let a student asking for a (professor-level) advisor to be apart of their senior/junior undergraduate thesis? [closed]

What are your expectations for a student asking for an advisor for a senior/junior undergraduate thesis and what do students need to have to write a approvable junior/senior thesis? Is there some ...
  • 109
1 vote
0 answers
168 views

How to communicate with my former co-advisor and professors I want to decline a PhD offer to re-apply next year? [closed]

Recently, I got accepted into a very top PhD program in humanities will full-funding in the UK (Cambridge). On paper, my situation seems ideal. However, I strongly doubt whether or not I should accept ...
  • 37
0 votes
2 answers
542 views

Do I need to sign ex-advisor's PhD dissertation?

This post is an extension of this previous situation that I discussed a few years ago here: Supervisor has said some very disgusting things online, should I pull my name from our paper? That advisor ...
3 votes
0 answers
127 views

How do I handle a conflict with my former mentor about a potential paper correction?

During my postdoc, I published two research papers as the first author, with my mentor (a Professor at an Ivy League institution) as the corresponding/senior author. Months after publishing the papers,...
6 votes
1 answer
366 views

Does telling people that I (undergrad) want to stay in academia come across as naive and/or big-headed?

I am an undergrad planning to apply to MA-PhD cognitive neuroscience programs either this year or next. I've decided to try to approach grad school in a way that will maximize my chances of getting a ...
4 votes
1 answer
145 views

Help with navigating a publication related conversation with my PI

I have been working on a research study remotely with my PI for over two years and we finally submitted our paper early last year. We received some promising feedback from the reviewers and had most ...
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1 vote
2 answers
354 views

My assigned postdoc mentor is not a good fit. How to proceed?

I finished my Ph.D in applied mathematics in a US institution last May. I have now started my postdoc position at another US institution last Fall. My post-doc is funded by the department of ...
6 votes
4 answers
840 views

Advisor published some of my ideas (that I am working on in my master's) without informing me

My advisor gave me a broad topic to research. I found a really good question and have done a big part of the work answering it but, have not finished yet, then applied to a prestigious conference to ...
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16 votes
4 answers
6k views

My supervisor is suggesting implementing an idea that they previously rejected

I am in a very confusing situation. I am almost 3 years into my PhD project, and just today my direct supervisor suggested to me to read a paper in the best journal a PhD student would want to publish ...
  • 169
1 vote
1 answer
160 views

How can I deal with being overwhelmed with large/not very concrete tasks and little support as an undergraduate?

I'm an undergraduate doing research and I have some friends in a similar field who also started in a close timeframe. While my friends have very detailed and concrete tasks (e.g. watch X lecture, do X ...
  • 113
4 votes
2 answers
365 views

How to deal with depression due to changing PhD advisor?

Previously I was working with professor A. During that time I feel lost: progress moved much slower than I expected and it's quite difficult to learn new skills required in the lab, which cannot ...
  • 61
19 votes
5 answers
7k views

When citing your advisor's past work, how can I proceed when their papers are poorly written?

I am reviewing the MsC. dissertation of a friend of mine before it is submitted to the evaluation board. I started looking for formatting errors, badly written parts, malformed citations, typos, ...
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Supervisor taking first authorship after student has left university

(I am posting this for advice regarding somebody else’s problem, but for simplicity, let me pretend it's me. To clarify misunderstandings in the comments: I am asking on behalf of my partner and can ...
  • 215
1 vote
1 answer
224 views

Advice to get new PhD opportunities

I have a master's degree in Mathematics in a specialty X. I got a scholarship to do a PhD thesis in a specialty Y in another country. I have started working on my thesis and I have devoted most of my ...
  • 401
3 votes
2 answers
259 views

Guide won't let me publish research that supersedes his own work

This is a follow-up from Patching things up with advisor? He has been avoiding me since I found a simple answer to a problem he thought would be challenging I'm a math PhD student in the western world....
1 vote
1 answer
333 views

What to do if my former master’s advisors gave my PhD topic idea to other students?

At the beginning of the year, I sent an email to my former advisor to ask him for advice on PhD topics. I sent him several ideas, one of them was a four pages research proposal (with methodology and ...
  • 77
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

Potential grad school advisor and GPA for admissions

Does your GPA matter if you already have a potential research advisor in the wings? I ask because I realize that I may struggle when applying for graduate schools. It looks like I will do a masters ...
1 vote
1 answer
424 views

After almost three years of research, I am at my wits' end. What should I do now?

After I got my masters, I started my PhD project three years ago. My start coincided with the start of the pandemic. I spent many many months all on my own with little to no help and no equipment at ...
18 votes
2 answers
4k views

PhD supervisor with cases of scientific misconduct

I started my PhD with my present supervisor a couple of years back. Her profile looked interesting. However, suddenly her previous work started receiving comments on publicly available domains (...
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1 vote
1 answer
272 views

Are my expectations unprofessional about my graduate advisor?

I am in my first year of MSc program and I have some concerns and I would appreciate it if you could let me know whether these expectations are unreasonable. Before I start my work with my advisor, we ...
19 votes
5 answers
5k views

Travel reimbursement for grant: The lab doesn't want to provide bank account details

I am a PhD student, who has been awarded a young researcher grant, which I intend to use to work at another (host) institute which my home institute is collaborating with. In order to accept the grant ...
  • 361
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

changing lab during PhD [duplicate]

I have started my PhD recently (4 months back). I did not enroll at university yet due to technical reasons. From the start I was having second thoughts about the institute and place and it feels like ...
  • 11
2 votes
2 answers
169 views

What impact does a potential advisor have in Phd admissions?

Sorry if this question has been asked before. I recently reached out to the advisor I want to do my PhD with. This is a person that I have corresponded with in the past (I wanted to collaborate with ...
  • 29
2 votes
1 answer
129 views

Is it possible to switch advisor if I am already behind in progress?

My professor has recently told me she might need to fire me because I am very behind in progress, unless I switch to a different lab and advisor. Because of the pandemic and everything, I've been ...
1 vote
1 answer
125 views

How exactly should I change research groups during the PhD? [closed]

I am a PhD student in physics at a US university. I am currently in my third year and I do not feel that my research interests are perfectly aligned with that of the group. Besides a mismatch of ...
1 vote
2 answers
134 views

To what extent can good Honours marks and research experience make up for middling undergrad grades?

I am halfway through my Honours at an Australian University and am wanting some advice about grad school admissions and acceptance. Last year I got accepted into an honours program at one of the top ...
0 votes
2 answers
339 views

What do PhD supervisors think when their senior graduate student makes mistakes? [duplicate]

If a senior math PhD student makes mistakes or gives a wrong mathematical argument that illustrates some misconception in the understanding of the concept, do the PhD supervisors think less of him? ...
  • 2,116
0 votes
2 answers
532 views

How to deal with my former MA advisor behavior

I graduated last year with a Master’s degree in history at a top institution in my field and received a very good grade for my dissertation. Unfortunately, my relationship with my advisor was not very ...
  • 37
48 votes
9 answers
11k views

Advisor getting involved in semi-pseudoscience

I am a final year PhD student and recently my advisor started collaborating with some people engaged in what I would call semi-pseudoscience. For the sake of anonymity, I won't give the details but ...
  • 491
4 votes
1 answer
3k views

Is my PhD application for a famous university over for a bad letter of recommendation?

This year, I decided to apply to a top program in my field in a very good university. Part of my application needed to include 3 to 4 letters of recommendation, one of them from my advisor / co-...
  • 77
25 votes
5 answers
6k views

How to spot abusive/incompetent supervisors in advance

I would wish to have some summary advice for the specific scenario of looking for a new postdoc position and trying to avoid ending up with a terrible supervisor. Let me narrow this question down by ...
  • 375
7 votes
3 answers
473 views

Asking Advisor to Augment Stipend to a Livable Wage

The company I work for is funding a project led by a professor at an engineering department in a US university. I was recently accepted by the university and they offered me a departmental fellowship ...
  • 79
7 votes
3 answers
977 views

How should I talk to my advisor about changing the research topic after already choosing one?

I started an engineering PhD program this year with an excellent advisor that I get along well with. I just finished my first semester where students are mostly required to focus on coursework with ...
  • 73
4 votes
4 answers
353 views

Is it plagiarism if my PhD Supervisor uses my graphs and animations (without asking me) in funding proposals and presentations to companies?

I keep seeing my graphs all over presentations and proposals that is presented to companies for funding. There is no part that cites my name, and it looks like it is my professor who is doing this ...
  • 49
1 vote
1 answer
73 views

Should I do an exam-focused study or a complete learning based? [closed]

I've completed a Bachelor's degree in engineering and I plan to go for a master's next. To get admission to one of the top universities in my country, I need to take a standard exam, which is highly ...
2 votes
3 answers
383 views

Jealousy with my Labmate

I am a second-year PhD student in an American university. I am having an issue with relationships in my lab. Right now I am very jealous of another student in my lab, and I start to hold grudges ...
18 votes
6 answers
4k views

Advised to decline co-authorship on prior work

I am a first-year PhD student in computer science and caught in a political dilemma. My master thesis project was supervised by a researcher at my university, let us call him Dr. Anderson. There is ...
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3 votes
3 answers
514 views

Is it better for a PhD student not to publish than to publish in non-Q1 journals (as I've been advised)?

I've completed 2 years of my PhD and now have a few ideas which I would really like to work on and publish, but though they are novel, their scope is quite limited (i.e. they aren't ground-breaking). ...
  • 61
3 votes
2 answers
351 views

How does working with other people in math actually look like?

I'm about to finish an undergraduate degree in mathematics, and I want to do research in mathematics, so naturally I'm looking into postgraduate study options. I'm quite stressed about this, and I was ...
17 votes
6 answers
7k views

How would you handle a colleague offering your PhD student a postdoc position?

How would you handle a colleague offering your PhD student a postdoc position? I had applied and received fund for him to continue with me as a postdoc immediately he graduates. We had this discussion ...
  • 1,093
-2 votes
2 answers
399 views

What was wrong in my reply that my research guide changed his mind?

During my masters I spoke with my research guide and he seemed to be interested in taking me as a PhD student afterwards. I joined a job and want to start my PhD after a year. My research guide mailed ...
21 votes
5 answers
12k views

My wife got some serious issues with her PhD advisor: how should I get involved in the situation?

I am an assistant professor in an engineering field, and my wife is a PhD student in a physics-related field. We live in an eastern European country and work in different institutes. I am quite happy ...
3 votes
3 answers
188 views

Would it offend my advisor if I wanted to work outside her lab, with a co-PI for a brief time?

I'm a Ph. D student. I have been fortunate to have an extremely supportive advisor against whom I have only positives and literally no complaints so far. She offers me sound technical guidance, almost ...
  • 1,089
15 votes
4 answers
4k views

Can I include a solution my advisor came up with in my PhD thesis or be a co-author for a paper?

I'm a PhD student in math and currently I'm stuck at a problem. But my advisor has some idea and it seems to me that he might even solve it soon. Earlier I had an idea which seemed to be working, but ...
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