Just curious, when do you meet with your supervisor? I mean do you set up a regular meeting, or you only meet him when you need to ask him questions, or you meet with him when you make some progress?:$

Think to some extent it depends on your super/s, you and the area of study. I am in social sciences and I met my supers pretty much one monthly for the first two years and then every two/three months after that. This was the programme that they suggested and it worked well. However, I know of other people who only met their supers once a year!

Don't be shy about asking them or suggesting whatever you think would work for you.

Hi, yes it differs! My Sup is the busiest of academics u know, but somehow we resonated so wonderfully well intellectually, when she was my masters sup, in a span of 2 months, we had 10 meetings..and I CANNOT express how much i gre intellectually..

now that my phd is starting with her, i guess i ll have supervision every fortnight or 3 weeks, whatever she decides, but honestly, the way I have really been academicaly guided is by way of exchanging emails! all through the summer hols!

I set my own targets and the 'project' at hand is just one of the things we discuss, the larger disussions are aroud concepts, the field, disciplines and so on, and its fantastic. It works with me..

I saw my supervisors about 3 times in 10 years and this is definitely not the way to do things. Even if they express no interest in seeing you, chase them when you have something for them to read or if you have questions. Even though the work has to be primarily your own, you must make sure that your supervisors take some responsibility for your work.

Hi Irene. I meet with my supervisors every 2 to 3 weeks. We decide the next meeting when we meet up and discuss what needs to be done for that meeting. I find it works really well and it gives me a structure to my work. The only negative side is that I tend to work to the short term objectives that were set for the meeting rather than thinking of the big picture. If you haven't already discussed meeting structure with your supervisor, I would try and have this conversation so you both know where you stand! Hope this helps!

every other week usually, whether there is progress or not, usually just so I keep her in the loop/need consolation or advice, but even if I don't see a practical point to the meetings, its always good to touch base on a regular basis. Things haven't always been that positive though, I used to have a supervisor who I would try anything to avoid and used to dread facing. I saw her often and we had regular meetings as well as unscheduled ones. I used to be so frightened to meet up with her if I had no new data or obvious progress, but I suppose it had to be done. Some people in my department only meet with their supervisor once a month or so, but this is sometimes unhelpful as he forgets things about the project and it just becomes laborious and they often don't get much help/advice/feedback. On the other hand it can be pleasant to have a bit of distance and space from your supervisor so that you are more likely to have something to present at a meeting.

I have had about 4 meetings with my supervisor since I started, which was a year ago. Its extremely irritating because he tells me to get on with something, so I do it, then I have a meeting and he tells me its all wrong and I shouldn't have been doing it. This is mainly beasye he has no idea what I am doing, so the 30 mins meeting we have is not enough time to explain - so he gives advice without knowing what I am really doing arrrgh - most of the time I feel like I might as well have my outlook calender set to give me a piece of advice every 3 months, it would be just as useful! :-s

I see my supervisor not quite every term. There is no prep or written feedback - it's very informal and never very long - although it's a bit longer now I am writing up and he reads drafts at the meeting. I do feel rather adrift and would have preferred a bit more interest and involvement. I've got used to it. I call for a meeting and sometimes it takes months to actually achieve this aim. I do it when I have specific issues or something to read. If you find yourself in this kind of situation do try to set regular meetings even if they are not frequent. I have also gone to other academics for specific advice/feedback (my sup has always encocouged that).