Part of the problem is that institutions, colleges, departments,
programs, etc. do not do a good job (or do not do at all) of
pre-screening faculty to determine who should and who should NOT be
allowed to serve as "mentors" (I use the term very broadly here).
The entire onus should not be placed upon the students. They are fresh
out of undergrad and know little if anything about grad school or "the
system", whereas faculty and admin, it's their JOB to know AND to inform
the students.
Think about a student entering a Ph.D. program like you walking into the
store picking out an orange, or toothpaste. You take for granted that
there is no mercury or cyanide in these products when you buy them. If
there is and you fall ill, you, all of society and the courts place the
fault on the business from whence you bought them, not on you for 'not
being more careful about which one you selected from the stack'. The
products were all offered up by the store with the presumption of safety
- our entire retail system is based on that assumption. Otherwise we
would all live in a primitive brutal nightmare (libertarian paradise?)
and never feel safe. Picking a "mentor" is very similar. When you get
a list of available "mentors" in a graduate program, or however the
selections are presented to you, the program should have screened for
bad apples so that students can more or less assume that they won't be
abused or taken advantage of during the experience AT MINIMUM, and
really should expect that this person has vowed to dedicate a
substantial amount of their time, efforts, energy and intellectual
capacity (yes, even in LIEU of other activities that may be more
beneficial to their own careers, God forbid) in order to foster the
career of the student.
On 10/17/2012 3:24 PM, Ryan McEwan wrote:
There are many overgeneralizations in the points made by Aaron (and in the
article linked above). Graduate school is HARD, no doubt about it, but I
would guess that, in the field of ecology, the vast majority of graduate
students are valued and respected members of communities within their
program. That was certainly the case in all of my experiences. Graduate
school can be an extremely fulfilling time and a very direct stepping stone
into a rewarding career.
The generalization that faculty members are oligarchs who steal the
student’s intellectual property is absurd. Certainly there are instances
where a faculty member mistreats graduate students, but they are
*extremely* rare in my experience, and can be avoided if the students are
careful in the application process.
In particular, for students considering graduate school- meet the potential
faculty member before you take the position, and talk to other people in
the lab. **Interview on site if at all possible.** Contact students who
have left the lab and ask about their experience. If you do these
things(especially an on site interview) then you will have a very good idea
about your prospects. Take a professional approach to the application
process, be careful and selective, and you are likely to end up with a
faculty mentor who truly cares about YOUR success and will do all they can
to help you advance in your career.
Happy Hunting.
Ryan
Ryan W. McEwan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
The University of Dayton
300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-2320
Office phone: 1.937.229.2558
Lab phone: 1.937.229.2567
Office Location: SC 223D
Email: [email protected]
Lab:
http://academic.udayton.edu/ryanmcewan<http://academic.udayton.edu/ryanmcewan>
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://allthingsbugs.com/about/people/
http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
