Choosing a graduate advisor is one of the most important decisions for graduate students. Students should consider an advisor's availability, track record of graduating students, funding availability, reputation in their field, and whether they will be a good fit. An ideal advisor meets regularly with students, has experience successfully advising students through to completion of their degrees, can provide financial support, is well-respected in their area of research, and accepts the student. Considering these factors will help students select an advisor well-equipped to advise them successfully through their graduate studies.

1. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2002 21
Choosing a
grad school advisor
The decision to attend graduate school to work on a
Masters or a PhD degree should not be taken lightly. It
involves a potentially long time commitment as well as a
substantial financial outlay. Aside from deciding on a disci-
plinary specialty/degree at a particular university, perhaps
the most important issue is the choice of a graduate advisor.
Indeed, this latter choice may be intimately tied up with the
selection of a university as well as the degree. This is espe-
cially true when seeking a PhD. If the MS degree is your
goal, the choice of graduate advisor may not be so critical,
at least initially. But it can still very much affect the long-
term outcome of your graduate studies.
Besides looking for an advisor whose interests, expecta-
tions, and work style are most likely to be compatible, the
advisor’s track record in seeing to completion previous MS
and PhD students is quite important. There are a variety of
attributes that comprise that track record and several aspects
that should be considered in deciding with whom you’d like
to work. Some of them are discussed here and may more-
or-less overlap. But they are included individually because
of the differing perspectives they provide.
Availability: By definition, an advisor is someone with
whom you can meet fairly regularly to receive advice and
direction, exchange ideas and otherwise be kept on track
towards a degree. Advice on elective graduate courses,
identification of potential research topics, and suggestions
for conducting your research are examples of what an advi-
sor should provide. An advisor who keeps only irregular
office hours, is often away from campus, or is inclined to
keep rescheduling meetings, is not a particularly promising
prospect. You may not be able to rely on getting the advice
you need in a timely fashion.
I should note, however, that some of the more effective
faculty advisors that I have known are away from campus a
great deal. But, everything else being equal, seriously con-
sider what effect a potential advisor’s frequent inaccessibili-
ty might have on progress towards your degree.
Former students: Among the most reliable sources of
information about faculty advisors are their former students.
Contacting one or more recent graduates should be invalu-
able in getting up-to-date feedback about their own experi-
ences with a particular advisor. Once safely awarded the
MS or PhD degree, former students are likely to be willing
to share that experience without sugar coating it.
Number of students graduated: If a prospective advisor
has seen none, or just a few, students through to their MS or
PhD degrees, this could be a red flag. It might indicate that
they’re overly demanding of, or otherwise not very efficient
and helpful to, their graduate students. Of course, this is
dependent on the opportunities this faculty member has had
to guide students to degree completion. A just-graduated
PhD starting at the level of Assistant Professor will, under-
standably, not have had time to turn out any students. Thus,
their potential as an advisor needs to be evaluated from
other perspectives.
Edmund K. Miller
PHOTOCREDITS:©ARTVILLE/PHOTODISC/G.SCHNITZER,COMPOSITE:MKC

2. 22 IEEE POTENTIALS
Pros and cons of newer faculty: There are various factors to
keep in mind with respect to choosing a relatively new
Assistant Professor as an advisor. On the one hand, this person
is likely to have little history of advising to use for evaluation
in terms of your own situation. He or she is also less likely to
be well known in his or her area of specialty. This fact might
reduce this advisor's ability to find funding to support your
research. Eventual publication of your research results might
also be somewhat diminished because of this.
On the other hand, a newly minted Assistant Professor may
bring a greater degree of enthusiasm to the job. He or she
might be more highly motivated than someone better estab-
lished because of the need to develop a strong record of advis-
ing, teaching and research to achieve promotion and tenure.
Furthermore, having recently graduated, this person may be
more sensitive to the problems confronting someone in your
position. Finally, also because his or her dissertation research
has been recently completed, this individual could be more
knowledgeable about the "state of the art" in the area of your
anticipated research.
Average time to
graduate: You may
later look back on
attending graduate
school as one of the
more enjoyable and
productive periods in
your career. But this
time is also generally
one of financial depri-
vation and other pres-
sures. The time need-
ed to earn a PhD,
especially, can be very
dependent on your
advisor. Thus, what is
the average/range of
time it takes for an
advisor's graduate stu-
dents to receive their
PhDs? The numbers
can be a strong hint
about what you can
expect. Faculty who
turn out higher-than-
average numbers of
PhD graduates for
their particular school
usually have devel-
oped a rather methodi-
cal approach to advis-
ing that might expedite
your graduate studies.
If the students of a
prospective advisor take significantly longer than average to get
their degrees, or there is a high degree of variability in this
regard, you should factor this into the decision-making process.
Area of specialty: Clearly, your intended research area
should match well with the disciplinary expertise of your
prospective advisor. However, maybe you’re not exactly sure
what you want to specialize in, or financial support is
unavailable for a topic that you have tentatively chosen.
Also, one or more faculty has projects for which they’re
seeking student researchers.
Being flexible about the specifics of your dissertation topic
will likely lead to a wider variety of opportunities, not only for
the degree research but, also, for future professional develop-
ment. Also, whatever research you do while working towards
an MS or PhD degree is not necessarily the kind of work
you’ll eventually end up doing after leaving school. For
among other things, degree-oriented research tries to teach you
how to do research and to help you develop some basic tools
needed to succeed. These tools can range from developing
expertise in computer programming and data processing to
learning the rudiments of numerical analysis and hands-on lab-
oratory experiments.
How many students does the advisor handle? While some
advisors may limit their advising responsibilities to one or two
students, others may have a dozen at any given time. Neither
situation is necessarily better or worse, depending on how the
advisor organizes the work involved. It might be expected,
other things being equal, that having fewer students translates
into the advisor having more time per student. This is not nec-
essarily the case. The advisor may have chosen to spend that
time in other ways, of which the university environment offers
numerous possibilities.
An advisor with many students is likely to carry them only
because their research and teaching responsibilities mesh well,
and the advisor has developed a very organized approach. The
advisor will probably have teams working on related research
that provide an opportunity for collaboration among the students
and enhance their progress. Obviously, the student load an advi-
sor carries eventually becomes evident in how many MS and
PhD degrees their students earn over a given period of time.
Funding availability: Some lucky students may have their
own sources of support from fellowships, work-study pro-
grams, co-op arrangements or similar programs. Thus, they
will not need significant financial assistance from an advisor.
However, most graduate students will probably be in the situa-
tion where some kind of funding is needed to cover at least
part of the time needed to work on their dissertation. This is in
addition to their working part time as teaching or research
assistants, i.e., it’s likely that their degree research will be only
fractionally supported. As a result, an advisor who can offer a
paid position for doing degree research, say at least half time,
can be invaluable. The more successful advisors at a university
will generally be faculty members who can provide this sup-
port. When seeking an advisor, it’s a good idea to keep such
financial arrangements actively in mind.
Reputation in the discipline: This attribute is related to
some already discussed, but the emphasis here is on how the
advisor’s reputation might affect you in both the near and far
term. Everything else being equal—working for someone with
a good reputation and who is well known in the field will gen-
erally be helpful to the students whose work he or she super-
vises. For one thing, these individuals will be more familiar
with what are likely to be worthwhile research areas and the
present status of the work being done. Another is the likeli-
hood that this person will have, or can find, sponsors for such
work. A third consideration is that the results of your own
research will be more likely to be publishable in reputable
journals, assuming that the advisor’s name will be included as
a co-author, as will usually be entirely justified. This advisor
will not only know what questions are worth asking, but those
for which an answer is not only worthwhile but achievable in
the context of a dissertation. Another aspect of a good reputation
Choosing the university
Deciding on a particular university can
involve a number of factors, depending
on your circumstances. If courses are to be
taken while working part- or full-time, geo-
graphical proximity might be given the
highest priority. Then again, with the grow-
ing number of opportunities afforded by
"distance learning," this doesn’t have to be
the case, especially if your employer sup-
ports this option. (See Mastering e-
learning, pgs 33-35.)
Probably, however, most graduate stu-
dents still follow the more traditional route
of taking classes on site at a particular uni-
versity or possibly at another location such
as their workplace when a course is given
off campus. If classes are made available
during normal work hours, then the need
for taking time off during the work day,
and possibly making up the missed hours,
will not be a problem. The particular
arrangements that are offered will
depend both on the employer and the
university in question.
For example, some employers will not
require hours spent taking classes to be
made up or taken as vacation, at least up
to some limit. Many universities gladly
cooperate with the employers in their
vicinity since the pool of potential gradu-
ate students can be vastly increased. A
good rapport can also provide an oppor-
tunity for research support for both profes-
sors and students. —EKM

3. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2002 23
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is having high ethical standards and integrity. This may not be an
easy issue to evaluate, but word about potential problems usually
does get around among students and should be considered.
But, as already mentioned, there are other considerations
that can be influenced by an advisor's reputation. That person
will probably be more involved in a variety of activities that
will reduce the time available for his or her students. Included
here is the time spent away from campus, the number of stu-
dents being advised, the research commitments, and other
responsibilities on campus.
The expectations these advisors have of their students can
be higher because of the status their own research has reached.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but something to think
about. If you’re working on a key area of the advisor’s research
project, it could happen that completion of your degree
depends on satisfying goals in that project that wouldn’t other-
wise be needed for your dissertation. These are tradeoffs that
need to be considered, with the prospective advisor’s reputation
one of the more important factors. Some of the better-known
members of IEEE are known by the number and quality of the
students that they’ve advised, and conversely, by the professors
who have advised them.
Finding an advisor who’s compatible, supportive and
who’ll accept you: Finally, the single most important issue in
choosing an advisor is finding one who’ll accept you as a stu-
dent. If your grades are marginal and you’re barely or not
known even at all to a particular faculty member, the chances
that he or she will agree to become your advisor may be small.
So, if you aspire to an MS and especially a PhD, get acquainted
with several faculty members, as an undergraduate if you plan to
remain at the same university for graduate work. But, double this
effort once you get there if you plan to move to another school.
One way to do so is to take courses from potential advisors.
Another good possibility is to work at one of the laboratories
that are usually found at a university. Besides offering financial
support, you will usually have a chance to work with one or
more faculty members. Attend seminars given by faculty to
become informed about their work and interests, and to see if
you might feel comfortable with their style.
As one personal comment along these lines, during my first
graduate year while working for a MS degree in nuclear engi-
neering, I just scraped by with the minimum GPA to qualify for
my degree. After a year away, I returned to the same universi-
ty, but to the EE program. I also joined one of the EE laborato-
ries there which gave me a chance to work with several faculty
members, some of whose courses I also took. Eventually, the
person I worked with most closely during this time agreed to
become my advisor in spite of my previous GPA problems.
(My grades improved substantially when back in the EE neck
of the woods.) In the same way, I also go acquainted with other
faculty members who eventually agreed to serve on my com-
mittee. Without having worked at that particular laboratory, I
probably wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity that I did, and
things could have turned out quite differently.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank Patricia Miller for her topic
suggestions and for her insightful comments regarding the ini-
tial drafts for this column. [Editor's note: this column usually
appears as On the job.]
About the author
Edmund K. Miller is an Associate Editor of IEEE Potentials.