Anindya Chatterjee

Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur

 

On choosing an institute and PhD guide

 

These are just some obvious things that many students seem to overlook, so I thought I would put them here.

 

When you buy something big or important (a car, a house) you do some background checks. Do the same for a PhD advisor. What sort of person is he? What kind of problems does she work on? What level of ability, independence, and commitment does he expect from his students? How many PhD students has she guided? How long did they take to finish? Where are they now? How do they feel about their PhD experience? I think these are legitimate questions, and it is acceptable to contact past students of a potential advisor and seek their opinions (in an open, honest, and polite way).

 

It may happen that you cannot contact the prior students of the person you are considering. Then look at his or her prior work. These days it is easy, using things like scholar.google, to find out about the papers that a given professor has written. Try reading some of those papers. You may possibly find these papers hard to read; but you could consult somebody you respect and trust, and seek their opinion on one or two papers.

 

The PhD advisor is more than merely a source of information and funding. Ideally, your PhD advisor will profoundly influence not only how you view your subject, but how you view the world.

 

Good luck.

 

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