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Famous supervisor or not?

lorrybeep

Okay. So location (eg. town + your peers) vs supervisor. which one would you choose?

Supervisor. There is nothing more frustrating than having a supervisor who will not meet with you regularly, has little in your research topic and is generally unavailable. While it's nice to live somewhere you like, you will be at a serious disadvantage if you do not have a good relationship with your supervisor.

Well, that's my opinion from observing others go through the whole DPhil/PhD saga. And my own experience of dissertation writing.

Reply 21

lorrybeep

OP

13

Great advice from you all. At least I've learnt something today.

But I guess the difficult part is how to tell whether a supervisor cares about his student or not from the first meeting with him?

Reply 22

ba_mhaith_liom

5

I think that the thesis students need to chime in on this one, but I suppose your supervisor should

(i) Have a list of suggested reading for you.
(ii) Have a general schedule in mind for meetings and submission of work, aside from university requirements.
(iii) Display a willingness to maintain regular e-mail contact, or appear available to a reasonable extent.
(iv) Be professional - it's a simple thing but not necessarily common. If you make an appointment, it should be kept. S/he should not rush you in and out, and should provide constructive criticism. Neither a 'yes-(wo)man' or a 'nay-sayer' will be helpful in the long term.

Do such ideals of academic integrity exist in reality? I'm not sure.

Reply 23

apotoftea

19

ba_mhaith_liom

I think that the thesis students need to chime in on this one, but I suppose your supervisor should

(i) Have a list of suggested reading for you.
(ii) Have a general schedule in mind for meetings and submission of work, aside from university requirements.
(iii) Display a willingness to maintain regular e-mail contact, or appear available to a reasonable extent.
(iv) Be professional - it's a simple thing but not necessarily common. If you make an appointment, it should be kept. S/he should not rush you in and out, and should provide constructive criticism. Neither a 'yes-(wo)man' or a 'nay-sayer' will be helpful in the long term.

Do such ideals of academic integrity exist in reality? I'm not sure.

You've described my current UG dissertation supervisor down to a T, so god knows what she's like at PG level

Shall I clone her?

In response to OP: supervisor over anything else

Reply 24

apotoftea

19

why would a famous supervisor want to work in a lesser known uni

Freedom of modules they can do; possibly more teaching over being stuck in a broom cupboard writing all day because of high research demands

Reply 25

Alan Smithee

vickytoria77

Freedom of modules they can do; possibly more teaching over being stuck in a broom cupboard writing all day because of high research demands

Are you taught by Lisa Jardine at all?

Reply 26

apotoftea

19

Pernell Whitaker

Are you taught by Lisa Jardine at all?

Nope - think she's based in London

Reply 27

Alan Smithee

vickytoria77

Nope - think she's based in London

I thought you went to QM.

My bad.

Reply 28

ba_mhaith_liom

5

vickytoria77

You've described my current UG dissertation supervisor down to a T, so god knows what she's like at PG level

Shall I clone her?

Yes please.
:smile:

Reply 29

The Boosh

17

**** the university brand name and go for the supervisor.

the best departments are not always in the brand named universities. academics are human beings with families and needs. removing a wife from her job or children from their schools and leaving friends behind and a ditching a department which values you highly to work in a brandname university, and moving from the gorgeous uk country to live around the outskirts of london is not always the desired option, even if you could afford to live/commute in london with 3 kids. the best minds are dispersed around the world and not located in ivory towers.

Reply 30

lorrybeep

OP

13

Do you guys socialise/hang out with your peers much?

Reply 31

The Boosh

17

nope. most are from asia/middle east and have buckets of cash from their governments and hang around in groups based on race and talk in their native languages. either that, or they are british and around 20 years older than i am and live in neighbouring towns/cities with families and part time work.

i suspect science departments will be different since they work in research clusters.

Reply 32

lorrybeep

OP

13

you dont make new friends on the lonely road of PhD?

Reply 33

The Boosh

17

it depends. i met lots of new friends as a taught postgrad (3 years - 2 masters and a pgce) because (a) i lived in postgrad halls with other newbies to the university and (b) the courses i chose happened to be populated by people i associated with (age/similar tastes/sense of fun etc). i even met my partner on my first day at the university and we have been together for nearly 5 years. my problem was that i didn't want to/couldn't join societies as a phd student (during the first year or so i lived 50 miles away in a different town) and my friends from previous qualifications all got jobs/moved away. i could have made friends from the postgrad societies, but having done all that for 3 years before hand i was tired of meeting new people for 12 months then saying goodbye to them as they moved universities/jobs. now, its extra difficult to make friends because groups are established and people have a tendency to stick to their own ethnic/religious groups of which I belong to none (being white, male, athiest, in my 20s without any foreign languages - there is literally no-one around).

this probably wont be the same for you if you are a first year - your context will be different to mine.

Reply 34

ChemistBoy

16

The Boosh

i suspect science departments will be different since they work in research clusters.

Yes, very different, although we do have the problem that many asian and middle eastern students don't socialise outside their racial or religious groups. However, science departments are generally very social due to the group research mentality and many PhD students are european (or australisian/american) and socialise together well, also they tend to be in their mid-20's too.

Also you see your supervisor a hell of a lot more too and I would definitely class me supervisor as a friend (of course I wouldn't go out on the piss with him as he's in his late 50's and not into drinking, but at a conference in Paris we socialised together away from the conference setting), we often meet up on campus to have a chat etc. (I think he feels responsible for my fledgling career).

Reply 35

The Boosh

17

ChemistBoy

Also you see your supervisor a hell of a lot more too and I would definitely class me supervisor as a friend (of course I wouldn't go out on the piss with him as he's in his late 50's and not into drinking, but at a conference in Paris we socialised together away from the conference setting), we often meet up on campus to have a chat etc. (I think he feels responsible for my fledgling career).

100% my experience too - most of my tutorials are either in the student canteen where my (1st) supervisor can have a fag and a coffee, or in the pub where he has several ales and a pub lunch. we both use the tutorials as a social and a break and ive had loads of opportunities arise because of our relationship (it's who you know!) from research assistant projects paying good cash, to publications and funding opportunities, to testing out european courses all expenses paid. my supervisor also feels responsible for my development - i think when i finish he will retire and i have to fly the flag on his behalf (was it kuhn or popper who openly accepted that the strength of a research tradition depended on how many students the tradition was handed down to?).

Reply 36

ChemistBoy

16

The Boosh

(was it kuhn or popper who openly accepted that the strength of a research tradition depended on how many students the tradition was handed down to?).

Fits more with Kuhn I think, although Popper did revise his views later on, so it could be him.

Reply 37

yeung3939

1

Shady Lane, are LSE's IR professors that bad? Most of them only care about their research?@@"

Thank you...... Just want to know more.

Reply 38

ChemistBoy

16

yeung3939

Shady Lane, are LSE's IR professors that bad? Most of them only care about their research?@@"

Thank you...... Just want to know more.

How academics regard their teaching commitments seems to be an entirely personal thing. You will get academics in all research-based departments who regard teaching as an inconvenience and those that regard teaching as something of great importance (I subscribe to the later view).

Reply 39

yeung3939

1

Haven't all academics been taught? Why do some of them regard teaching as an inconvenience?

Famous supervisor or not?

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