Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Selecting a Dissertation Advisor

The doctoral completion literature suggests that choosing a dissertation advisor is perhaps the most important decision a graduate student can make; having the right mentor/chair can spell the difference between timely completion and endless ABD (All But Dissertation). I write this from the perspective of the US doctoral education system, where students undertake 2-3 years of coursework, engage in some kind of qualifying examination, then proceed to the dissertation phase. However, its possible that the advise below would be relevant to those in the European model that does not include taking courses, where the advisor one chooses during the admissions process is the primary/dissertation advisor throughout the process. So, how to choose? Carefully, I say...

Choose a professor who is enthusiastic about guiding your thesis/dissertation, one who is invested in your success and completion.

Choose a professor who has an interest in your topic. If he/she is an expert on your topic, even better.

Choose an advisor who works well with others, especially the others in your committee. Having committee members fighting while you are trying to get done can derail you. In most cases, your chair can help you in selecting other committee members, ensuring that you have people who can work well together (i.e. chemistry) and who bring complementary skills. 

If your chair is not a methods expert in your particular research approach, ensure that someone else in your committee brings that expertise to the table. In most cases, you most often still need to do extra work on your own to become an expert in the research methods that you choose to employ for your dissertation.

It is best to choose a dissertation advisor who has experience playing this role. Granted, in newer programs, there might not be any faculty who has played that role before. In that case, your choice would be guided by the other factors above, and off course by your experience with various faculty during the coursework phase.

Choose a professor who is willing and available to work with your time deadlines/time to completion. There is no point in choosing a chair who would be on sabbatical when you most need him/her, for example. Sometimes faculty believe that the process should take a certain length of time, based mostly on how long it took them to complete, which may be much longer or shorter than your own time to completion desires. Have that conversation about time to completion early, so that you are fully informed before making that choice.

Talk to other students in your program, especially those further along because they can give you 'the down low' on who amongst the faculty is time conscious, guides enthusiastically, provides critical and timely feedback, is collegial and generally works well with others (students included).

This may not be a comprehensive list of all the points to take into consideration in choosing a dissertation advisor/chair, but should serve as a starting point.  I strongly believe that the doctoral journey is a relational journey; therefore, I would urge you to choose your chair/advisor carefully, ensuring that it is someone with whom you share chemistry/ability to work well together. Your chair/advisor will serve as your mentor, will/should introduce you to the discipline (including appropriate academic conferences), most likely will write your recommendation letters, and, in many cases, his/her networks may be the starting point to developing your own (particularly for those who intend to join academe after doctoral completion).  

For those who are either in the dissertation phase, or who have long completed the process, what other factors are important in selecting the adviser? Kindly add those through the comment box below. Other feedback welcome too.

2 comments:

  1. Here is a question I have been pondering. I am conducting a comprehensive literature search on my sepcific topic to see what else has been done. To date I am finding very little on my topic or topics that are similar. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I have completed google searches, Proquest Dissertation searches and I am going to conduct Sage and Library Literature database searchers as well as post to some of the library list serves. Please comment.

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    1. Darci, That could indicate that you need to revise your topic area to make it research-able. If you are not finding any related literature it would be rather difficult to construct your chapter 2 (Literature Review). It could also mean that, you will use literature that is related to other types of organizations, and indicate the need for research in your specific context in order to contextualize leadership, and/or to create a 'grounded theory' - theory from the ground up. I'd have to see your draft concept paper to give more directed feedback.

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You are welcome to share your own experiences, point readers to other sources on the web, or ask questions that I will be glad to answer either in the comment thread or as new posts. Thank you!