Dear postgraduate students

Everyone says selecting your supervisor(s) will make or break obtaining your degree with a sound mind. This is true. So here are a few of my own tips on just how to do that. I hope it helps.

(Thread)

1. Know what you need from the get-go. As people, and as students, we need different things to succeed. Ensure you know what this is for you and make your search and eventual selection of a supervisor based on that.
2. How do you know which academic does what? Either email a number of potential academics or organise a quick in-person/online meeting with them to discuss their respective research interests. You can either align yourself to these or ask if they’re willing to take you on but...
...supervise a topic outside of their own research interests. It’s not unheard of but just depends on them.
3. Ask them about their supervision style, what works for them and assess whether that sounds like it would work for you. You can love their research topics but if you feel like they won’t be a good enough supervisor, find someone else. Remember you’re going to be spending...
...anything from 1 to 4 years with this academic. Be deliberate and steadfast on what you want. If you sense a weird vibe, trust your gut. Please.
4. Find out who else they have supervised. You want to make sure that whatever the academic describes is actually true. You can ask them to refer you to some of their current or previous students or ask them to link you to their students’ work so you can find them yourself.
5. If you’re already at the institution you’re planning on doing the postgraduate degree, NEVER assume that just because an academic is a great lecturer, that they’ll be a great supervisor. I made this mistake and I’m still paying for it. Do the digging, don’t assume.
6. You ideally want to have one supervisor. I have three and it’s extremely painful. Sometimes you’ll have a co-supervisor/advisor to help with an area of the research so make sure you know about how they work and supervise too. Ultimately, your primary supervisor is in charge.
7. Very often students feel like supervisors are doing them a favour. Not so. You’re giving them a potential publication from your work so they benefit too. Make sure you communicate what your expectations are of the relationship from the get-go and see how they respond.
8. In the event you choose an academic who turns out to be from hell, know who you can go to to either mediate the relationship or help seek out new academics. Sometimes powering through does more harm especially for your mental health and will to finish the degree. Help...
...may come from a research coordinator, head of department (if they aren’t your supervisor), a course coordinator or even the head of school. Additionally, the SRC or PGA can be great sources of help too.
Please feel free to add any other tips in the replies 🤓

More from Education

I held back from commenting overnight to chew it over, but I am still saddened by comments during a presentation I attended yesterday by Prof @trishgreenhalgh & @CIHR_IMHA.

The topic was “LongCovid, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis & More”.
I quote from memory.
1/n
#MECFS #LongCovid


The bulk of Prof @Trishgreenhalgh’s presentation was on the importance of recognising LongCovid patient’s symptoms, and pathways for patients which recognised their condition as real. So far so good.

She was asked about “Post Exertional Malaise”... 2/n

PEM has been reported by many patients, and is the hallmark symptom of ME/CFS, leading many to query whether LongCovid and ME/CFS are similar or have overlapping mechanisms.

@Trishgreenhalgh acknowledged the new @NiceComms advice for LongCovid was planned to complement... 3/n

the ME/CFS guidelines, acknowledging some similarities.

Then it all went wrong.
@TrishGreenhalgh noted the changes to the @NiceComms guidance for ME/CFS, removing support for Graded Exercise Therapy / Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She noted there is a big debate about this. 4/n

That is correct: The BMJ published Prof Lynne Turner Stokes’ column criticising the change (Prof Turner-Stokes is a key proponent of GET/CBT, and I suspect is known to Prof @TrishGreenhalgh).

https://t.co/0enH8TFPoe

However Prof Greenhalgh then went off-piste.

5/n

You May Also Like

I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.