SPECIAL SECTION FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS
Dear Advisee:
What your advisor wants
you to know
BY SADIE DINGFELDER
All student names changed
to protect privacy.
Mentor, supervisor, colleague, drill sergeant — advisors play a cast of characters in the eyes of graduate students. But though the advisor-advisee relationship isn’t always simple, one thing’s for sure: “Your advisor plays
a huge role helping you get through a program and setting you up for your career,”
says Lewis Schlosser, PhD, a Seton Hall University psychology professor who studies
advisor-advisee relationships. And recent grads agree: 80 percent of new social science
PhDs say that their advisors were one of the main factors they made it through grad
school, according to a survey by the Council of Graduate Schools.
Clearly, it’s in students’ best interest to keep their advisor relationships running
smoothly, but how? Here’s what some advisors have to say:
Stay in touch ... Don’t be afraid to email or visit outside of scheduled meetings, says
Janet Gillespie, PhD, a psychology professor at The College at Brockport of the State
University of New York. Gillespie actually enjoys it when students drop in to share
their ideas. “Our schedules don’t allow much ponder time,” she says. But don’t waste
your advisor’s time with questions you can answer yourself, says Anisa
Goforth, PhD, a school psychology professor at the University
of Montana. “I expect my graduate advisees to use their
problem-solving skills to figure out some things for
themselves,” she says.
... but don’t overshare. “I’m not your
therapist. I don’t want to know all about your
personal struggles, and I won’t pry into your
life,” says Schlosser. That’s an important
boundary to respect, because advisors
aren’t just mentors — in the research
lab, they are also your bosses. “It’s smart
to be concerned about impression
management,” says Schlosser. However,
if your advisor also serves as your clinical
supervisor, be sure to let him or her
know if your personal issues are seeping
into your therapy sessions, adds Jennifer
continues on page 74
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MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY • JULY/AUGUST 2012
