How to Choose a PhD Advisor | Applying to Grad School Series

---

Hello and happy spring, my friends! If you were just accepted to a graduate program, congratulations! This is SUCH an exciting time but I know there are also likely lots of things running through your mind - one of which might be choosing the right PhD advisor! As a PhD student, your advisor is one of the most important decisions you will make and it has the potential to make or break your experience as a student - or at the very least it has the potential to make your life a lot easier or a lot harder. So in this post, I’m sharing the tips that helped me choose my current PhD advisor. 

First - a caveat from me - I’m going to mention some of the standard reasons why you might choose a PhD advisor, but a lot of my advice will also be coming from a wellness focused perspective. At the time that I started my PhD, I was (and still am) focused on creating a sustainable lifestyle as a PhD student. Since I’d come from a corporate job where I was very unhappy and had received many warnings about the way graduate school can really harm mental health, my choices were driven by creating a lifestyle where I could get the degree while also maintaining my mental health. Not all of you may share those challenges, but hopefully understanding my perspective at the time is helpful! 

Work Style Fit

One thing that was especially important to me when choosing and advisor was work style fit. For me, the ability to work autonomously on my own schedule is extreeeemely important. Working a corporate 9 to 5 was pretty soul crushing because I felt like I was being tied to a chair and was being evaluated on my butt in the seat time rather than the actual work I was producing. So, seeking a mentor who gave me the freedom to work independently and did not micro manage my time was at the TOP of my priorities list. This one might take some self-reflection, so, think about times in your life where you’ve been in different work environments - whether it be a part-time or full-time job or as a student. Think about what expectations were placed on you and what expectations did not gel with your personal work style. 

Historically, I’ve always crumbled in the face of micro-management. To me, it feels like a lack of trust and typically I end up hating the job and slacking off A LOT. But, if I’m in a job where I’m tasked with completing a project but given pretty full freedom to do that projet on my own time and the expectations of WHEN that project is due are clear, then I flourish. Knowing this about myself, when considering mentors, and even to this day when I consider collaborators, I always look for a team of people who are comfortable with independent work and can give me the space necessary to complete my work without needing to constantly be hovering over my shoulder. This isn’t necessarily the best fit for everyone (I know some grad students who love to be in office and having constant everyday contact with their mentors) but it was the best fit for my personal work style! 

Mentorship Style 

Another thing to consider is their mentorship style and what your preferred mentorship style is. Do you prefer someone who checks in frequently and walks you through each new process? Or do you prefer to figure it out on your own and ask questions as needed? I think it’s important to be honest with yourself about what you need as a mentee at this time. Even if you are someone who typically prefers to work independently, if you are new to research, perhaps you want someone who can walk you through the process so that you can learn. In academia, there’s not a lot of oversight or guidance and oftentimes the next step is unclear. If you’re someone who is comfortable navigating that on your own - great!- if you’re someone like me whose Type A-ness needs a plan for everything, consider what your potential mentor’s plan is for you and how that fits with your plan.

It’s also worth noting that your mentor/mentee relationship with your advisor may change over time - as it should! In my first couple of years, I met frequently with my mentor to plan next steps and work towards research projects together. Now, our meetings are far less frequent and much of our communication is ad hoc and through email. Though I tend to prefer the latter, it was actually very helpful to have more frequent touch points at the beginning of my program because it was such a wide, unknown world. Meet and chat with other students to understand better what that person’s mentorship style is like. 

Who are they as a person? 

This might be a very “touchy-feely” one but honestly, I can’t HELP it y’all. I am a touchy feely person! There are tons of cases where people don’t even like their advisors. I’m not saying you have to be buddy buddy best friends with your mentors but hey, you should at least like them a little bit and have some of the same values, right? This might not be a make or break situation for you, but for me, it was a huge consideration. I wanted to feel like I could discuss things outside of work with a mentor and that I could at least understand them on a human level. Though my current mentor and I may not be bestest of friends - and realistically shouldn’t be given inherent power dynamics between advisors and advisees - I like her as a person and I think that is important to working well with someone. 

If you’re not able to figure out who they are as a person from asking around, I suggest meeting with them one-on-one if you can. Whether that’s through grabbing a quick coffee or hopping onto Zoom, I think you can learn a lot about a person just by chatting with them casually. If they are aware that you may be paired up as advisor/advisee, they should be making time for you to make sure that you are a good fit for one another. 

Will they advocate for you? 

The best advice I ever received when going through the process of choosing an advisor was the following: “choose someone who will be your advocate.” I’ll never forget the senior PhD student who gave me that advice because her advice was influential in tipping the scales towards my current advisor. This is especially important for PhD students who are women or part of underrepresented groups. Academia is still predominantly male and White, especially at senior levels, and as a junior person in academia, having someone to advocate for you is HUGE. At the time that I was deciding on an advisor, I already had quite concrete evidence that my current advisor had and likely would continue to advocate for me. 

Other standard reasons you might consider: 

• Funding Ability: This is going to vary from program to program, but in some programs, you are largely dependent on your advisor to provide funding for your stipend and research. Though in my program we are not dependent on the advisor (we depend largely on the department itself), even in these scenarios, having an advisor who is able to fund you through multiple means is helpful. It could mean that you have to do less teaching work for your funding and may be able to spend more of your time working on your dissertation or other research.

• Research Interest Fit: I think this is like the TOP mention for why you should pick a PhD advisor. And I get it. But I also think that when it comes to research fit, you also have to realize that your own research interests may change, and that, eventually, you will be able to work on projects with other researchers outside of your mentor. All of which is to say - should you have some overlap in research interests with your advisor? Yes. Does it have to be perfect and can you have research interests that are outside of those you share with your advisor? Also yes.

• Prestige attached to their name / network & connections: I’m not even going to go about denying that there is a certain level of prestige attached to any advisor’s name. This matters and I won’t belabor the point since it’s belabored in many a PhD advice post. BUT I would argue that it shouldn’t be the only thing that matters. Also consider their willingness to open doors for you, to introduce you to collaborators, and to advocate for you. Someone with a prestigious name who isn’t that interested in helping you out isn’t going to get you that far anyway.

Reminder: No advisor will be the perfect fit

Another great piece of advice I received while choosing advisors was that no advisor would be the perfect fit and that you can seek additional mentors along the way. I think we tend to frame our advisor/advisee relationship as this end all be all type of thing when in reality, we can have multiple mentors. Is your advisor the most influential one? Yes probably. But if there is some topic or area for which you need mentorship that you do not feel like you can get from your advisor, you can always reach out and seek other mentors. And there is nothing wrong with that. 

I hope this was helpful! If ya have any other questions about choosing an advisor, grad school, all of the above - drop me a comment or send me a message. I’d love to help! 

How To Decide Which PhD Program is Right For You | Applying to Grad School

---

Hello, friends! It’s that time of year - grad school application/interviews/admissions time! Since it’s likely a topic that’s on your mind if you decided to apply to grad school this cycle, I thought I’d take some to share what were some of the determining factors when I was deciding what grad school was the best fit for me 3 years ago!

To start, a little about what my perspective was (and still is) before starting my PhD program. My primary focus has always been long-term well-being and happiness. My belief is that you have to work on cultivating a life and mindset that bring you joy and that it ultimately cannot come entirely from a career, a place, or a person. I came into my graduate program from this wellness perspective because I had experienced many workplaces that I didn’t enjoy and wanted to create a career for myself that focused on what brought me joy.

Though there’s a lot of advice out there that focuses on the prestige of a program or the reputation of an advisor, my perspective will be a little different because my focus has never been on the highest pay, the highest prestige, or “getting to the top” of any career. So, as always, take my advice with a grain of salt and make sure that you know what’s important to you in a graduate program!

(1) What’s the vibe of the department and/or the program? (aka the culture)

Admittedly, I’m very much a person who goes by the “vibes” of a place - which may not be the most rational thing in the world. But, what I mean by that is checking in with how you felt about a place! Were the people nice to you? Did it seem like a competitive environment? A nurturing environment? Did it seem like people were genuine? If you’re someone who thrives off of competition, maybe a program where you felt competitive vibes is a good thing! For me, I usually try to get a sense for whether an environment is nurturing and genuine because that tends to be a good fit for me personally.

(2) Are there people there who study things you want to study? What is the relationship between faculty and students?

Since the researchers in your program are likely going to be the ones who serve as your mentors and advisors throughout your PhD, it’s important to have people in the department who do research on topics you could actually see yourself studying. Now, this doesn’t mean that they have to study exactly what you want to study but oftentimes, faculty may move to other universities, or your personal research interests may change, so it’s nice to have options within your own program should you need to change direction.

Alternatively, if there are very open, highly communicative relationships between students and faculty members, you may not need to have people there who study the things that you’d like to be studying. If they’re open to studying the things you’re interested in and open to supporting you in your own research interests, that can work, too!

(3) Who will your advisor be? Or how will your advisor be determined?

For me personally, this was priority number 1 when I chose a PhD program. It’s listed at #3 here because I know that it’s actually not top priority for everyone! In my personal experience, my mentor or direct manager has a HUGE effect on my happiness so I knew that who my advisor was and whether or not we connected was a VERY big factor for me. I was also very particular about having a mentor who understood my work style, what I needed as a mentee, and would be an advocate and friend to me throughout my program. So much so that who my advisor was slated to be ended up being about 75% of my program decision.

However, that’s just my story based on how important a mentor connection is to me. A specific relationship or work style may not be what is most important to everyone - for some it may be a mentor’s reputation, their connections, the funding they might provide - but it’s worth thinking about what kinds of mentors or managers you’ve worked with in the past and what kind of mentor you think you’d work well with for the next 5-6 years of your life. Your advisor has a lot of power over you and your career so it’s important to find someone who is a good fit for you. They don’t have to be the perfect mentor for every aspect of your life (you can always find support in faculty members who are not your advisor as well!) but they will serve a very big role in your life for this next chapter.

(4) How will your physical and mental health hold up there? What support do you/would you have outside of the program? Do you like the location?

What kind of support do you have from the university? Are there opportunities to meet and connect with people and resources outside of your program? Also consider the general area - do you have people you know in the area? Friends or family - or even social groups, networks and organizations that could support you outside of the program?

I also advise everyone who asks to seriously consider whether they like the location of their program. There is A LOT of pressure in PhD world to go to whatever school is the “best” (subjective in my opinion) and to forsake your own happiness to commit to your career and education. Frankly, life is too short for that shit. If you know that you get depressed when it rains (hello, it me!), maybe a program in seattle isn’t for you. If you are miserable in the cold, maybe a program in the north isn’t for you. There should be no shame in choosing a program that allows you to get the degree you want while also not making you miserable 🙂

Personally, I chose to get my PhD in a location where I was familiar with the resources available to me. I’ve moved for jobs in the past where I knew very few people in the area and had to figure out what was available on my own. There’s nothing wrong with an experience like that - in fact, it can be quite exciting! - but for the start of a PhD program - which I knew might affect my anxiety levels - I wanted to reduce my stress levels as much as possible and knowing that I had social support and local knowledge was extremely helpful in making the transition.

(5) What are your goals after the program? Will your program get you to those goals?

This might seem like a silly thing to ask yourself before you even start a program but I’ve found that having your reasons WHY you want to start a PhD program are important to determining what program is right for you and how you distribute your time once you are in your program! Do you want to teach? Is research your priority? Are you aiming to go back to industry after your time in your program? Do a deep dive into what you want and, if your program can get you there, that’s really all that matters.

My last piece of advice is always to TRUST YOUR GUT and BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. Be honest with yourself when no one is watching and no one is in your ear telling you what they think you should do. We often have these little voices inside of our heads that are echoing societal pressures, what our families want us to do, what we think others will think of a choice we make. If you can, try and quiet those down and determine what matters to you and only you. There is more to this life than your PhD, and there is more to your life than this career. What matters to you matters - because it’s your life and no one else’s. Maybe that’s just a reminder to myself, but I figure maybe you need to hear it, too 😊

I hope this was helpful! Have any other questions about PhD programs? Let me know in the comments or send me a message - I’d love to hear from you!

How I Study for Final Exams as a Grad Student | PhD & Productivity

Good morning, my friends! I hope you all are surviving the end of your semester okay - you've got this! Today I'm excited to share my study strategy as a grad student taking final exams. It's actually the same strategy I used in college (albeit a more sophisticated version) and the same one I used to study for my preliminary exams so it's a system that works for me at every level of education - And one that I hope will help you study for your upcoming exams, too!

MY STUDY STRATEGY

I'll break it down further in this post but at a baseline, my study strategy consists of just THREE pieces.

1. Review the materials and pull out things that I think will be important

2. Cement that important stuff in my brain in as many ways as possible.

3. Sleep 🙂

1) REVIEW THE MATERIAL + PULL OUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT

For me, the best first step is to review the material I've learned over the course of the semester and pull out what I think is most important. This is usually the most time consuming part of studying, but part of the reason I go through the process of reviewing it and compiling the important parts of the course is because the actual process of evaluating what's important is already one way of studying the material.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Reviewing Articles

In grad school, most of the class material is peer-reviewed journal articles so I make sure to ask the following questions when I'm deciding what is most important to remember from an article (because frankly, you CANNOT possibly remember all of it!)

• What were the article's main findings and contributions to existing research?

• How does it relate to other articles in this area?

• What method did they use to answer their research question?

  • (e.g., what was the type of sample, research methodology, and analysis strategy?)

• What did my instructor want us to GET out of this article?

  • (especially in grad school, there's usually a reason that your instructor wanted you to read that article - was it a historically significant piece? did it create controversy? was the method incorrectly done? etc.)

By asking myself these questions during the review process, what it actually does is that it makes sure that I'm not studying everything. As idealistic as you may want to be in your studying goals, there are only so many hours in a day and your brain can only hold so much information, so the most important part of studying is being able to efficiently boil down your notes to the most important pieces.

Make a Study Guide

As I'm reviewing the material, I'm also simultaneously making a study guide where I compile all of the most important notes. To do this, I like to use Notability or OneNote on my iPad because it allows me to type notes, insert photos, and write on/highlight anything I want. This level of flexibility is so, so nice because I can make whatever notes are needed to help me remember the information better.

For my favorite iPad apps and how I've set up my iPad check out these posts below:

2 ) CEMENT IT IN YOUR BRAIN IN AS MANY WAYS AS POSSIBLE

One of the most effective ways to learn something is to try and learn it through multiple different methods through as many of your senses as possible! That's why you often find that in classes you are not only reading concepts from a textbook but also listening to a lecture and applying those topics to a discussion or activity. Having those multiple input methods allows you to learn and memorize that information more effectively.

The same thing can be said when you're studying. One of the crazier things I do to study is I read my study guides out loud to myself, record myself, and then listen to those recordings on repeat. Is it a little cringe to listen to myself? Absolutely. Has it paid off on my exams? Absolutely. Here are the 5 input methods I utilize in studying:

1. Reading - reviewing the material and pulling out what is important is already a method of reading the material and visually inputting it into your brain

2. Writing - by creating a study guide as I'm reviewing the material, I'm physically writing out the concepts or typing down the concepts.

3. Speaking - I usually record myself reading the study guides out loud and this both serves as another input and allows me to catch things in the study guide that I'm not as familiar with or things that I have to revisit that don't make sense! This can be time-consuming but it is so, so worth so that you can listen to it later as well.

4. LISTENING - This might be #4 on the list but it is my TOP TIP for studying in less time. I get easily exhausted constantly looking at a screen when I'm studying but guess what you can do while you're listening to a study guide? Pretty much anything! I find that this is so, so powerful because it allows me to continue to process and memorize the information in my head while I'm taking a walk, preparing dinner, getting ready for bed, working out, cleaning my home, or when I'm simple resting. A lot of space during the day that I normally would not be able to use for studying can now be spaces where I can continue to encourage my brain to process the information.

5. Drawing - Last but not least, if there's some info that I'm really struggling to memorize or understand, I'll usually draw out the information in some kind of creative picture. You do NOT have to be an artsy person to do this! This has helped me SO much because even if I don't remember every concept perfectly, I find that I'll often remember the ridiculous picture I drew and that usually allows me to remember a whole host of other things about the topic! It's much easier for us to remember an image than a huge list of items so try to use that in your favor.

3) SLEEP

Since I'm not the cutest when I'm asleep, please enjoy some adorable photos of my foster cats sleeping the day away 😊

BUT in all seriousness. PRIORITIZE SLEEP! I know I might sound like your mom right now but damn does it make a difference. I was a migraine sufferer for most of my teens and early twenties and the main thing that ended up causing those migraines was lack of sleep. Nowadays, sleep trumps nearly everything else in my life because the level at which I function without sleep just does not compare to how I function when I've had my full 8, 9, or 10 hours of sleep. I totally empathize with the fact that you often feel pressured to stay up to study more but after having a good night's sleep your brain is able to make new connections and is sharper the next morning - which I think ultimately shows in your performance (at least it does for me!)

I hope this was helpful as you're studying for your final exams! Leave me a comment down below if you have any other study recommendations for our little community here - I'd love to learn from your experiences! Good luck with your exams - you've got this!