Overview of pramodsub on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of pramodsub

Signup date: 13 Sep 2008 at 9:37pm

Last login: 13 Sep 2008 at 9:37pm

Post count: 4

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How does (should) an advisor help you?

pramodsub 4 posts
16 years ago

@alicepalace

1-2 hours of contact time a week is a LOT. I never saw my supervisor for my master's (ever: funtimes!), and I see my PhD supervisor every three weeks or so for an hour or two.

The picking apart your work: I think you have to ask yourself whether he's usually right or not. If he's improving your work, then stick with him, even if he's not sugar-coating it for you.

Finally, the issue with him not giving him you specific guidance (which seems like the biggy). Have you asked him for this kind of help in person? You can frame it as, "So, after our talk last week I went away and searched the literature. I've read these three papers; is there anything further on the topic that you would recommend to help me solve problem x?" That way it doesn't look like you're trying to get him to research for you, you're just looking for his input, and you've made it clear you're already doing the work for yourself. I'd definitely try asking him before writing him off as a supervisor based on what other people have said about his teaching style. My own supervisor has never given me that kind of specific, detailed research advice but, from other people I know, it can be really, really counter-productive: wasting a bit of time and making your own mistakes is part of the process, and you learn so much more in the long run.

Thanks! This is good advice. Maybe, I'm was biased towards expecting too much help.

What do you mean when you say he's not approachable? Is he hard to contact? Because that is the biggest alarm bell for me in a supervisor, much more than making you research things from scratch and being very critical!

He's a very busy guy, and its quite difficult to get hold of him for a face to face meeting. I made up the 1-2 hours a week based on his other students, but the actual times might be a little lesser than that.

@phdbug

I get the feeling this is a US Programme? Anyway, here in the UK, 1 or 2 hours every week with a leading academic for a MASTERS, is more than enough, and i seriously doubt if you can rightfully expect more time than that, they have scores of masters students, lots of personal research, phd students, departmental duties, teaching duties and office hours to maintain.

This is actually in India. The M.Sc program here is slightly different - we do very little course, just one semester actually - and spend about 1.5-2 years writing a thesis. The criteria for passing out is a publication a top-tier conference. My advisor has 5 students.

The moral is, dont go to your Masters supervisor expecting PHD level of supervision. They have too much on their hands. And honestly, if you are getting 1 hr each week , for a masters, i think its more than enough. Go to the meeting "pro actively", instead of epecting to be told. Read journals actuvely, mark out scholars actievly, prepare an agenda, send it to him in advance of the meeting, ask specific questions, "inspire" and "motivate" him.

Ok, this is good advice too!

Thanks a lot folks! I really appreciate your advice.

How does (should) an advisor help you?

pramodsub 4 posts
16 years ago

======= Date Modified 13 01 2008 23:01:23 =======
Hi everybody,

I've just joined a Master's program, where the bulk of my work will be to write a thesis. Now, I need to pick an advisor for the thesis and have been talking to a few people.

There is one person who has an excellent publication record, is chair of the department and does what I was intending to do when I joined the program. Now, the problem is, his style of "guidance" is basically an hour/two of discussions a week where he'll poke holes in your work. I've been reading some papers and talking to him, and what frustrates me is that he won't tell me where to look for additional info or what exactly I'm saying wrong, leave alone explaining things to me. I am told that he believes that students should learn to think on their own, and that doing anything more than what he's doing now will interfere with the learning process.

I come from a software development background. I always thought the advisor was a tech lead type of person, and all the tech leads I worked with were people you could go and discuss problems with, and they'd share their wisdom, experience and insights. Here instead, this guy is restricting himself to just pointing out what I don't know, with very little specific help.

I'm a little confused. Is this typical of academic advisors? Is it really going to hurt me in the long term if I'm told: "Maybe you should read paper X and you'll understand the problems with what you're suggesting", instead of "Do you think this will work? Think about it."

I'm seriously considering giving up on this guy and talking to some other more approachable folks, but I'd have to compromise on my area a little. What do you all think?

I'd appreciate all input on this.

Thanks in advance,
Pramod