How to choose a supervisor for your graduate studies

This is a very important decision and will greatly affect the quality of your graduate studies. For Ph.D. studies, the supervisor you choose may be more important than the university at which you study.

Start before you make your application to the university.

Are the topics the professor working on of interest to you?

Does the professor have recent publications in good SCI listed journals? (Remember that you need publications to get a job.)

Carefully look at the author list on the professor's published papers

  • Whose names are on the publications?
  • Do student's names appear first or does the professor place his name first?
  • Does the professor have publications in which he is the only author?

    Worldwide, there are two common ways of listing authors: a) the names of the students who did the work come first followed by the names of the professors or b) alphabetical order. Unfortunately, in Taiwan a number of professors either take the names of their graduate students off the paper (so they get all the credit) or put their name first and place the student's names last. I have heard numerous complaints from foreign students who worked on a paper only to find that the paper was published without their name occuring on the paper. If this occurs, this is a serious problem to you in your subsequent career.

    Talk with (email/msn) existing students and recent graduates.

  • Are they happy with this supervisor?
  • What do they feel are the positives and negatives of this supervisor?

    Does the professor have sufficient research funds to support you?
    If he does not have money to support you, then you may need to get provide your own living expenses.

    Don't be in too much of a hurry to get a supervisor.

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    © Jonathon David White
    - "With a Servant's Heart" -
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