The Graduate Advisor Handbook: A Student-Centered Approach

By Bruce M. Shore

You’re advising students to help ensure their success—but who’s going to advise you?
 
With university budgets shrinking, graduate advisors find their workloads increasing. A professor emeritus of educational psychology at McGill University with more than forty years of advising experience and several teaching awards, Bruce M. Shore provides a practical guide here that demystifies the advisor-student relationship and helps both parties thrive. Emphasizing the interpersonal relationship at the heart of this important academic partnership, he reveals how advisors can draw on their own strengths to create a rewarding rapport.

The Graduate Advisor Handbook moves chronologically through the advising process, from the first knock on the door to the last reference letter. Along the way it covers:
 

• transparent communication
• effective motivation
• cooperative troubleshooting
• touchy subjects, including what to do when personal boundaries are crossed and how to deliver difficult news—with sample scripts to help advisors find the right words for even the toughest situations
   

A valuable resource, The Graduate Advisor Handbook has the cool-headed advice and comprehensive coverage that advisors need to make the advising relationship not just effective but also enjoyable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9780226011783

Book preview

1

BEGINNING THE ADVISORY RELATIONSHIP

Supervisory relationships formally begin in different ways and at different times, depending on the discipline and the university. The prospective student should be alerted to confirm what this process is before applying, then respect it. Faculty members might or might not choose their own advisees, and if they have some say in the matter, the decision may be informal and may be made months or more into the program. Many programs, for example, admit graduate students in cohorts and require the completion of numerous courses before supervision is addressed. Among these programs, students may seek an advisor, or one might be assigned—although some mutual choosing might be tolerated or encouraged. Other programs, perhaps less commonly, require students to arrange a supervisory commitment when they apply. This information should be prominently available on the department website so that students do not make inappropriate cold calls to professors about supervisory places, or fail to arrange supervision when that is expected. In some but not all program applications, students may be asked with whom they might want to work or to express research interests, but without guarantees of a match. At some point, though, the advisor-advisee question arises, and a very powerful relationship begins. It is important to begin on the proverbial right foot. On a recent visit to Las Vegas I was amused by a new version of the classic taunt What happens in Vegas stays . . . The new ending is on Facebook and Twitter! The same applies to graduate advising. What happens at every stage matters in many ways, and it is not private.

The relationship might start with a knock on the door, an e-mail, or a question posed in the hallway. Because of the particular nature of my own program, it’s autumn, the graduate application deadline is looming, and unfamiliar senders’ names appear in my inbox. The subject line often contains a variation of this question: Are you accepting new students next year? Anyone who has ever sold cookies for a soccer team or done telemarketing knows that cold calls are emotionally difficult—at least initially—and they are usually carefully scripted. The question usually follows a few lines about the student’s first degree, experience, and general interests, occasionally the name of the person who suggested that she or he contact me, and sometimes a sign that this is not a form letter sent to everyone in the department. The prospective student may have done some serious preparation by having read something I recently wrote or speaking with one of my current graduate students or a recent graduate. If there is any prospect of my adding another advisee, I welcome further exploration, whether in person, by e-mail, or on Skype. If not, I so reply. If I were not the matchmaker, I’d explain how it is done (and probably keep on hand a short boilerplate I could paste in, whether the gist was Apply, get in, then we’ll talk, or This is a program decision and our graduate committee assigns advisors to students at some specified point in the program).

Whether early or later, by mutual choice or arranged marriage, at some point there is a first contact. Handling it in a friendly and informative way makes a difference. Whatever level of control advisors have over the situation, how can we maximize our chances for a good match?

Working from Strengths

When I meet a student for the first time about the prospect of working together, the conversation follows a rather predictable path. The context of this discussion is, of course, that the student perceives himself or herself as being in the less powerful position and seeking a service that is often in short supply, especially if she or he is also looking for financial support. After introductions and social courtesies such as trying to find out whether we have any common acquaintances in the department or university they previously attended, I make two circles with my thumbs and forefingers and bring those circles together so that they overlap (as a former mathematics teacher, I hope to be forgiven for a digital Venn diagram). This circle represents my interests and expertise, and this one represents yours. The overlapping area, which can vary in size, is where we can look for our common interests. I then ask them what topics they are knowledgeable about, what special skills they have (e.g., editing, interviewing, analysis, graphics), what they really want to know more about, and in what parts of my background or interests they expect to find the overlap. My goal is to make it clear that I learn from my students; I want real dialogue and look forward to mutually rewarding interactions.

I ask them to carry the conversation for a while. Please tell me about your responsibilities on any past research projects. When and how did you become interested in research in this area? Then I tell them how I and my graduate students work, and I suggest a list of our recent publications to read. The central questions I ask each of them at that point or in the next conversation is how their working with me will build on their strengths and take them in the direction they presently want to go, and how and to what extent these will also serve my research interests and commitments. Plans change, but we begin with a sketch of a plan—a plan that, from the outset, benefits both of us.

Another topic that needs to be part of the initial conversation is how students plan to finance their graduate studies and especially whether they hope for support from research funding that I might or might not have in a given year. If I have funds to entice a student who seems very promising, given that I do have discretion in choosing graduate students who are successfully admitted, that is a strength in my favor. Graduate students who hold a major fellowship from the outset should certainly make this known and count it as a strength in their favor (both for admission and for building a relationship with a supervisor). Next, I tell all potential advisees that they can count on me to work with them to try to obtain a competitive external fellowship, regardless of their financial situation. These awards are kudos for both of us. I indicate what this will entail on their part (e.g., what they will need to do to get published—and I describe how I will help them do this) and what kinds and degrees of success other students and I have had in the past.

These conversations also give potential advisors a sense of the language skills of prospective students, especially but not exclusively students with a different mother tongue. Advisors invest in the writing and presentation skills of all our advisees, and many graduate students will be expected to contribute to teaching or tutorials, so we may find ourselves guiding their spoken language or understanding. There will always be an investment, but as advisors we differ in the size of the investment we are willing to make. Active, live interactions with prospective students—at whatever point our program welcomes this connection—helps us decide whether or not the entry level is acceptable in absolute terms, or in balance with the other strengths a student can bring.

ADVISORS’ STRENGTHS

Some advisors are well connected organizationally to their fields, others have exceptionally unique expertise, some are masters at grant writing, others are prolific writers or institutional leaders. Some are proactive in their interactions with their students; others are more aloof or reserved and wait for students to appear with work in progress.

There are several questions that advisors should reflect on every year or so. The answers will change over time, but given publication lags and other circumstances, prospective students might contact us hoping for supervision in an area of declining commitment. Advisors should be ready to answer the following questions every fall:

• What are the advisor’s current research or scholarly interests? These may have evolved since the publications a prospective student might have located.

• What kinds of research methods or techniques are we most knowledgeable about and do we currently work with?

• What kinds of equipment or professional staff do we have?

• Do we help students develop their writing and speaking skills?

• In what circumstances do we direct students elsewhere for primary or backup consultation, such as statistics, editing, or translation?

• How frequently do we expect to meet, how formally, and does this vary and adapt? A student might very much want to know that the advisor welcomes drop-in meetings at the office, text messages, or phone calls. Or not.

• What do we not like to do? Sometimes students come to our discipline from another very different advisory relationship or institution and do not know about the traditions that apply in our situations.

STUDENTS’ STRENGTHS

Students bring strengths in many forms, from knowledge of the same or a complementary discipline to languages and cultural variety, as well as energy and enthusiasm. Students need to know from the outset that they are not merely empty vessels lining up to be filled and then tested for the quality of their contents at the end of an assembly line. Their success includes the value of their ongoing contributions. In all disciplines faculty members have common expectations about what base knowledge a student beginning graduate studies should have. For example, nurses have studied physiology, teachers have taken child development, and economists know some mathematics.

Expect that each graduate student brings unique expertise that can be a special asset to an advisory relationship, whether that knowledge is within the discipline or from employment or even recreation experiences. I ask students if they have any such relevant talents or experiences, such as work or web skills. An occasional reply, after some hesitation, is bartending; to this I reply that it likely benefits economic independence, but if the weekend hours are long, then the student may need to plan three years to complete what other graduate students might accomplish in two.

As students meet different potential advisors—at whatever stage our program makes this match—their priorities might even shift. Through personal meetings or taking courses and seminars, students can become aware of new ideas that capture their curiosity or meet a faculty member with whom the personal interaction strikes a welcome chord. Students’ most valuable strengths may be somewhat different from or more nuanced than what they have written in their application forms. Ideally, their interactions with potential advisors should help students learn more about themselves and their strengths.

Advising Takes Different Forms

When talking with prospective students about working together, whether the link is made for us or we are in charge of the decision, we should use the terminology of our current institution, not the institution from which we or the student graduated or at which we previously worked. I prefer the term advising but use it interchangeably with supervision in this book. I also use dissertation and thesis interchangeably, but in some institutions only a master’s dissertation is referred to as a thesis. I also use research and scholarship interchangeably; for me, both refer to processes for advancing knowledge in or among disciplines, whatever the