Finding a Research Supervisor, What matters most?

When you are going to apply for PhD program, MS by research or MS leading to a PhD program, one important thing you need to decide before submitting application is potential research supervisor. Research supervisor can be some senior published researcher in your area of research and can be related to academia or industry professionally but mostly these are Professors at Universities. The importance of finding/contacting a research supervisor before applying to the graduate program is clear from the fact that more than 70% funding decisions are made by Professors. Few scholarships are managed by universities or other funding agencies. The most common way to fund PhD research is by contacting University Professors or supervisors from industry. 

In countries like Germany, Belgium, South Korea, Japan, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Luxembourg, Italy, and many other places, PhD admission and funding decision is made by Professor. In case of USA, you do not need to contact Professors a prior for submitting admission application but they do ask to fill in names of three potential supervisors, ultimately pushing you to find one. Here we will discuss how to find a Professor so that you may proceed with an effective contact with him.

In a successful search for a Professor, who is willing to supervise your research, you have to make strong first impression because you may get only one chance for each professor. If you fail to impress or convince him about your abilities in first contact, it’s probable that you can never do that again. Most common and formal way to contact a supervisor is through email.

Finding a Supervisor

Finding a right and “nice” supervisor can be a tedious task. It is not enough that you like his work or publications, to be able to perform well; you need to be at same page with him. We summarize some important points to keep in mind while searching for a research supervisor.

Search by Research Profile

To narrow down search, you have to first know what your interest/ambition is. I know it is not easy to know exact topic of research at such an early stage but you should know your area of research. One way is to search some latest survey papers related to your field, just skim through the content, do not expect yourself to understand everything at this point, look at the author profiles at the end of papers. After doing some literature review, you can see that leading professors in your area of research would be most cited and by this you can point to potential supervisors currently involved in your area of interest.

 Search by University

 

Another way is to further narrow down your search by universities; where you wish to pursue your degree, then visit university’s website and your program’s page. Here you will see couple of professors doing similar research, you must see their latest publications to finalize potential supervisor. Be careful, do not email to more than one professor at the same department simultaneously, because if a professor finds you suitable he will arrange an interview with more than one or two other professors and usually you end up with same professors you emailed, besides one who is interested in you and this raises a question about your commitment or seriousness because you cannot be equally ambitious about different research problems at the same time.

 Search by Country

 

The idea of studying abroad is very fascinating at first but all this charm has a price to pay. When deciding about a country to pursue your higher studies there must be a solid reason for your choice. Most of the universities ask for your reasons to apply for that particular university, program and the country. Your reasons must be of academic nature besides an importance of the fact that you are interested in their culture but this should not be your whole point as you are not going for tourism. The important things to highlight in this sort of question are the educational model, economic model, academic achievements/contributions, and how their environment is suitable for you.

Try to be honest and base your decision on some important issues, where language is top of all, it would not be easy to settle in a country whose language is completely strange for you. The cultural shock is another thing, try to go for a country whose language is familiar to you, it will help you learn more and enjoy more. If somehow, it’s not a win-win situation and considering multiple constraints like funding, your area of interest, research environment, post-study prospects; then try to learn about culture, language, and civilization of that country as much as you can. It will help you a lot. Once country is finalized, check for best universities and research centers there and then follow the procedure as explained in search by university category above.

Finalizing Ask Alumni

Your search and choice of supervisor is complete, before contacting him, why do not ask someone who has done this before. The Alumni is someone who had experience not only working with them academically but also know them well socially, their behavior towards students, lab environment and other related issues. Do not expect very honest answers from them. You can find a list of Alumni from Lab’s or Professor’s website. Try to find an alumni who comes from your country of origin, he is in best place to guide you. You should value their opinion but do not take that as a binding because in a social relationship, warmness come from both sides, nobody will tell you that their relationship was bad because, he himself was not good enough but to put burden on the other guy. But opinion from an experienced person will be helpful.

To summarize, first thing is finding relevant supervisor and then maximize chances of getting in top-class University and country. We hope these guidelines will be helpful for you to get best out of your search. 

Also See: [How to Contact a Supervisor]