Building a Research Program: What Students Look for in a Professor

BUILDING A RESEARCH PROGRAM: WHAT STUDENTS LOOK FOR IN A PROFESSOR? If a professor is the brains of a research group, his graduate and postdoctoral students are his hands. Stevenson, an English editor with Enago based out of the USA by William WHAT DO GRADUATE AND POST DOCTORAL STUDENTS LOOK FOR IN A PROSPECTIVE ADVISER? *#1. Interesting Research Projects This is the most important factor.' Students want a program that they can get excited about, one which will justify the Tong hours they will be working. A professor's reputation in the field is not as important as might be imagined. Most graduate students don't pick advisers based on their reputations; they pick has a research idea that intrigues them. adviser who #2. Funding Grad students don't like to teach. They like to do research. Professors who have no grant money have problems getting študents to join their groups. Before I'went to grad school a recent graduate took me under his wing and ran down all the professors. Of one he said, "He's a very nice guy, really knows his stuff, does interesting research. But don't work for him. He doesn't like to write grants so he never has any money. If you join his group you'll teach for four years." 2 #3. Personality Grad students expect to work long hours and can put up with a lot when they are doing it. But they don't like being disrespected. And they don't like being treated like machines. One gifted graduate student I knew almost quit his abrasive adviser for another group. © enago