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[advunc]

I went through a horrible time with my advisor and I was really upset that I didn't find all the truth about him during my visit day. The former grad students were afraid of telling the truth. So, after suffering through an advisor change, I decided to make a website to provide grad students an avenue to post (anonymous) experiences that they have had working/interacting with their grad school advisors. I would like this collection of posts to serve as a reference for prospective grad students to learn much more about prospective advisors qualities - all the stuff that isn’t necessarily apparent from their well manicured CVs.

If you can, please write a post on your advisor so that together we can help the new generation of grad students.

The website is:
http://www.advisorsunclassified.com/

Thank you

[wet_blanket]

While there are certainly a lot of terrible advisors who deserve some naming-and-shaming, and I applaud you in trying to do something practical to bring it about, I'm not sure setting up an anonymous website is going to have the desired effect, for two reasons.

Firstly, I don't think it is possible to really anonymize experiences with bad professors and still give useful information.  If the identifying details are taken out, the description becomes very vague.  And even if that were not the case, the writing would probably be recognizable to someone who is familiar with the author's style - like, say, an advisor.  I don't think the supposed anonymity offered would be enough incentive to get genuinely aggrieved grad students, especially those who are one of only a few advisees of a particular prof, to give a candid account or description of the advisor.

Secondly, there's a lot of potential for abuse.  Rate My Professor is a good example.  This may reduce the site's credibility among those trying to do due diligence in finding information on a potential advisor.

There are probably features of the design of the website that could get around the second problem, but I can't see anyway around the first.

[ewiger_student]

... this looks a bit spam-ish to me...

[laurel_knx]

I agree with all of the above. I would not review my great advisor on that site for a number of reasons.

But I'm also curious about the design. Who is able vote "agree" or "disagree" with the reviews? Why are there so many "disagrees" for some profs but without negative reviews to offset the nice ones?

[ptarmigan]

I would never give a review of my advisor on an Internet site like that if I had anything negative to say at all.  Unless they had dozens of students, they'd be able to identify you in a heartbeat.  You'd have to be so generic that it wouldn't be useful at all. 

If someone hates their advisor I want to know why.  Maybe what they don't like it something I want (for instance, maybe they hate being micro-managed, but I need that kind of help to stay on track).  It's all in the details, which is exactly what a sensible person wouldn't post.  And who wants advice from someone who isn't sensible?

[scampster]

If someone hates their advisor I want to know why.  Maybe what they don't like it something I want (for instance, maybe they hate being micro-managed, but I need that kind of help to stay on track). 

This. Besides the fact that there is no way for it to be useful and anonymous, the whole thing is relatively useless. Yes, there are a few bad egg advisors out there who are uniformly horrible. But most of the time, bad student/advisor relationships are not entirely the advisor's fault. Some students are a PITA to work with. Sometimes they just have completely different working styles and neither is doing anything particularly wrong, they just don't work well together and both can go on to have happy productive working relationships with other people.

[indirectquote]

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with the others posting on this thread. I have a great advisor who is an excellent fit for me and my research, but I would not review them on the site, both because I would be easily identifiable because my advisor has very few advisees, and because the format doesn't allow you to be very specific.

As Ptarmigan says, the right advisor/advisee relationship is very much about fit --- there's not necessarily an objective measure of what a "good" advisor is (though there are certainly some people who just can't work with anybody or who are perpetually clueless). I've worked happily and successfully with several faculty members who have not clicked with some of my grad school friends. Likewise, I dislike and could never imagine myself working with some people who many of my acquaintences love working with. The website's yea or nay format doesn't really take this into account.

My advice to prospective grad students choosing an advisor would be to instead:

1. Contact the advisor's former or current advisees and talk to them, promising confidentiality, about what the advisor is like. You might ask questions like: What are their expectations of graduate students under their supervision? What are their strengths as an advisor? What are their weaknesses as an advisor? Some former or current students may be reluctant to leave a record of this conversation, so talking on the phone or in person might be preferable to e-mail.


2. Try to meet your advisor before you decide on them, and make the most of it by asking them direct questions. What are their expectations of their graduate students? What is their supervisory style? What help are they willing to provide while you research and write their dissertation? Will they read drafts and discuss ideas with you, or will they only want to see fairly polished work after long periods of time? How will they help you on the job market? Will you get the opportunity to help them with their research (as an RA, for example)? Will they be providing or advocating for funding for you? What do they like about advising, and what do they hate? What areas of your work are they most familiar with, and what areas are they least familiar with? In short, ask lots of questions. If you've talked with former advisees of theirs, compare the advisee's impressions with the impression that the prof and his/her answer gives you.

For the record, my impression (judging from my own experience and from talking with friends about their advisor relationships) is that if your advisor asks you the same sort of questions before they take you on (What do you want to get out of your degree? What do you think of these expectations? Why this direction in your research? etc), they take advising seriously. That doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be a great advisor, but it is a good sign, I think.

[lyndonparker]

Seeing as there is only one advisor on that website with a negative appraisal, we can assume he was your advisor. While I admire the spirit behind this endeavor, I agree with the other posters that this seems impractical at best and foolhardy at worst.

[imawakenow]

All the posts seem very similar, as if they were written by the same person (even though they are spaced out over time).

If I had something negative to say about my adviser, I'd hope that I'd have the guts to say it to his face. Similar with my grad students now. It's called being a grown up.

[ptarmigan]

All the posts seem very similar, as if they were written by the same person (even though they are spaced out over time).

If I had something negative to say about my adviser, I'd hope that I'd have the guts to say it to his face. Similar with my grad students now. It's called being a grown up.

That's not always at all wise. Advisors are in positions of power over us. Think about it. An advisor having a problem with a student and a student having a problem with an advisor are not equivalent situations.

I like the ideas about talking to the advisor ahead of time. Most people have a sense what their characteristics are and what types of advising relationships work for them, so it seems like that conversation could be very productive.

[corvus_caurinus]

Cute that the first advisor reviewed (positively, no less) is Marc Hauser.

[rnphd]

I concur with previous responses.  I have a good advisor but I will not even post there about her.  She will definately know its me and I would rather keep my positive thoughts private between us and look in her eyes and say "Thank you".  I still wouldnt post on the site even if all I will be writing is positive.  Perhaps, I could write the positive posts after I finish with my PhD and have a job already.  One thing I found helpful with my supervisor was that at the beginning of my doctoral studies, she gave me a rating scale on my expectations for the student/advisor relationship.  This was helpful as some of our expectations were very different.  We reviewed our ratings together and discussed it.  This helped in laying down the expectations of our relationship. 

[imawakenow]

Advisors are in positions of power over us. Think about it. An advisor having a problem with a student and a student having a problem with an advisor are not equivalent situations.

No doubt true.

However, what the OP is advocating is using a grad student/adviser version of ratemyprofessor. Rather than going to the trouble of creating a Web site and adding some fake posts, I suggest a better route is to address the differences directly with the adviser, even if this creates some risk for the advisee.

And for the record, if a grad student asked me what it was like to work with my adviser, I would give him or her an honest assessment based on my experience, as I would hope my grad students would do about working with me.

[lyndonparker]

My advisor was awesome--kind, a great teacher, a mentor, and very supportive. Her first words to me were, however, "If at any time you feel you would be better served by another advisor, please let me know and I will help you switch." I completed an outstanding doctoral program, and never had the least desire to switch, but I know many people who did so. Really, if you don't get along with your advisor it's no big deal. Just switch to someone else.

[tuxedo_cat]

Eventually someone is going to post something extremely negative, possibly defamatory about a faculty member who is going to come after you with a pitbull lawyer.  Is this really how you want to spend your energy and time during your graduate studies?   But perhaps you've already done your research about how your own anonymity could never possibly be exposed as the creator of that website and how you will never be legally liable for what has been posted.  Good luck with that.

OP, there is a reason why RMP is a site for undergraduates.  This is a very "undergraduate" way of responding to a very common experience in academia.  Guess what?  You're going to meet people in your field who don't like you or respect your work or don't treat you fairly -- in your view.  Get over it.  The fact that you have spent any time at all on this enterprise does not bode well for your future in this profession.