Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone has any last minute tips on what to prepare for my first meeting with my new supervisor (Well, hopefully he will be my new supervisor). I'm basically going to meet up to have a chat about pursuing a research masters degree this year but I'm not too sure how far I should go with proposal preparation - whether or not it will be expected of me to turn up with a detailed proposal, or if it is ok to just turn up to initially discuss my interests. Do we even have to do a research proposal for an MRes?
Also, although I am quite familiar with the topic, I don't have a wide knowledge on the subject - is this normal at this stage? Once I am registered on the course I know that I will be fine and get stuck in to the research, but I am so nervous and worried that my tutor will ask me lots of questions that I won't know the answer to.
I would really appreciate any advice that you could give me - even about things that I haven't mentioned. I am completely new to all this stuff! It took quite a lot of courage for me to make first contact with the tutor in the beginning, just because I had such lack of confidence and fear of rejection - so I need all the help I can get!
Many thanks.

Hi Cobweb

I have recently been in a similar situation, I had two meetings with prospective supervisors. Both meetings where in-formal and centred around my background, why I wanted to do a PhD, a general discussion of my research idea, how the university system worked, how often we would meet, their background and experience etc.  For both meetings all I only took a writing pad and pen with me.

I would not worry to much about taking a proposal with you, just ensure you jot down some of your ideas to talk around with the prospective supervisor, they will no doubt advise you of what a proposal should contain and how to write and structure it.

Good luck with the meeting and don't worry.

Hi Tester,
Thank you so much for your reply - you've put my mind at ease! I've got a couple of ideas so I guess that would propably be enough at this stage. The only problem is that they are JUST ideas at the moment. I haven't developed them enough yet to confidently have a full blown conversation about them, but I suppose that's what the research masters year is for. The thing that is very daunting is the fact that my tutor is a very reputable scholar and seems to know everything there is to know about the subject, which makes me wonder whether or not it is actually possible to come up with anything original!
Out of curiosity, were you applying to do a masters or a phd? How did it go?
Thanks again

======= Date Modified 25 Aug 2009 12:12:05 =======
Hi, I was applying for a PhD, like your prospective supervisor, mine was a leader in the field and the university was the best in the country for my field of research.  The conversation went very well and yes he is now my supervisor and I start in September, studying part-time.



Don't worry to much about only having ideas, I entered the meeting with exactly that and came away with a topic which I could happily research and I know to be original. I then did some further reading and e-mailed him a proposal which he was more than happy with.



Good luck, and don't worry. (up)

ask to record it - my supervisor rattles of various ideas for studies and I can never keep up - I just nod and look stupid. I lost about a year like this, until I used a dictaphone and now I can go home and listen to what she has said and make sense of it!