What is something you wished you’d asked your grad school advisor beforehand?

Ask A Biologist Monday 9/25/23

Answers from Biologists:

  • How long on average their students (not the program as a whole) took to graduate.

  • If this is PhD level work, can I just switch to the PhD?

  • Do your students complete their projects on time? If not, what contributes to project delays?

  • Learning more about a co-supervisor. They were 60% of my total grad school time.

  • What is the work-life balance like?

  • How to best utilize my grad committee?

  • How many students do they typically take on a year?

  • What percentage of their students successfully defend.

  • How do you give feedback and what is your communication style (weekend emails?)?

  • What is their philosophy for support during field season?

  • Do they advocate for non-uni courses (wilderness first aid training, hands on workshops)?

  • What are the expectations for publishing, if any?

  • How often did they stray from previous student’s thesis proposals?

  • Specifically how they fund their students.

  • How reachable they would be when I needed something?

  • Contact for current students.

  • Do you have funding for conferences or travel?

  • How much they valued getting it done over getting it done perfectly.

  • How much experience they had with the topic of my thesis.

  • Whether they expect students to TA to earn their stipend.

  • What it the diversity within their lab?

  • Do we have a plan if something goes wrong or comes up insignificant?

  • How in tune with the industry are they? As in do they know what the job market/employers are looking for?

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