Applying
to graduate school is a serious career decision. This is a commitment
of many years, both on your part and on the part of your supervisor.
Put simply, completing your PhD is a life-changing process. In this
part of the world (Canada & USA), it is a commitment of four years
at the very least, and probably more like five or six. For
a Master's thesis, expect a minimum of two years (most students
need more than this). Finding
the right graduate program and the right supervisor is instrumental to
this process and to your success in your graduate education. No
pressure, right?
The upshot is that you should think very carefully about what kind of
graduate supervisor is best for you, since this is the person that you
will work most closely with throughout your graduate career. For
example, you should know something about your prospective advisor's
mentoring philosophy (if they don't talk to you about this upfront, you
should ask them)!
There are different strategies that supervisors take on mentoring, and
no two supervisors are the same. To describe an overly simplistic
spectrum, I'll paraphrase my PhD mentor, Doug Levey, who puts it
brilliantly. On one extreme, you can find the supervisor who will have
a project lined up for you upon your arrival to grad school (or
beforehand) and who is eager to "plug you in" to their system. They
prefer to hold your hand every step of the way, "Here is your question
(which you should find interesting, because I do), here is the study
design for your project, here is how you will collect the data (only
these data, please), you should use this kind of analysis, and let's
write the manuscript(s) together." This is
the micro-manager. On
the other end of the spectrum, we have the hands-off supervisor,
"Welcome! Here is your lab and desk. Let me introduce your office
mates. I'm sure you have lots to do, so I'll leave you to work. Let me
know when you need me for committee meetings or qualifying exams, and
I'll sign the necessary forms. Good luck!" Neither of these extremes
comes recommended, and of course this is an exaggeration, or should be!
But the kind of supervisor who is best for you may lie closer to
one end of this spectrum than the other, and in part, it's up to you to
know where you fall, and whether your prospective supervisor is a good
match. A versatile mentor
will also be able to recognize what your academic needs are, and with
your help and a good platform for communication, should be able to
adjust his or her strategy, to some extent.
My goal is to be a versatile mentor. Our development as scientists and
critical thinkers takes a good deal of time (years), and we all have
different strengths and speeds at which we advance. Because we do not
become independent overnight, some level of hand-holding is
appropriate, especially at earlier stages. At the same time, having
opportunities to succeed (and fail) on our own builds the scaffolding
of our self-confidence and character as scientists. I aim to help
my students use their strengths and improve upon their weaknesses and
to make sure that each has the resources and guidance needed to advance
and succeed.
Now, placed between the extremes above, my tendency is to be more
on the "hands-off" side than on the "micro-manager" side. I
expect students to develop their own interests and generate their own
questions. I
do not expect students to work on one of "my" projects, but the options
are there, if your interests are so compatible! As my student, I
will encourage you to make me a sounding board for your ideas (this is
largely what weekly meetings are for), but I will also encourage you to
seek other perspectives, especially in areas outside my expertise (this
is largely what your committee is for). Much of our critiquing
will come from our lab meetings and interactions, and accordingly, I
encourage my newer students to ask lab mates for help. Likewise, I
encourage more senior lab members to offer their guidance (i.e. to
think of themselves as mentors in training). These are the intellectual
resources available -- the "hands-off" part means that much of the
process of nailing down your project begins with you, from the construction of
hypotheses to choosing a study system and focal species, from figuring
out which methods will work to field site logistics and research
permits. I take the responsibility for helping you to choose the best
path given your goals, sorting out the alternative routes, and if there
are unexpected pitfalls, providing the safety net.
If you think I would be a compatible supervisor for you, please contact
me. Please understand, though, that getting a position in
the lab is highly competitive and depends upon some things that are out
of your control, such as the availability of lab funding or fellowships. If you can secure your own
funding, it will greatly improve the chances that I can offer you a
spot in the lab. If you are a Canadian citizen, you have the option to
apply for NSERC
graduate fellowships
early in the fall of your last year of
university. If you are an international student from the US,
unfortunately, you no longer have the option of bringing NSF graduate
fellowships to work at a university in Canada. All international
students, however, have some options in applying for fellowships at UBC
-- you are placed in the running for these fellowships automatically by
submitting your graduate application before the deadline (usually in
early January). If all looks promising from your application and our
correspondence, we may be able to arrange an interview to UBC for you
to meet with me and others in the department.
You should look far and wide for different graduate programs, and you
should talk to as many prospective supervisors as possible. It is a
long process, but also one that is deserving
of the time that you invest!