Graduate Program

Bad advisors cost students thousands of dollars, many months of unnecessary toil, and in too many cases, the graduate degree they are seeking. Graduate students are abused by unscrupulous advisors, some of whom may be ignorant of their responsibilities toward the student, some who are deliberately abusive because graduate students represent an unwanted annoyance, or worse, advisors who enjoy the feeling of empowerment over another human being.

Students should be aware of red flags when choosing an advisor, such as:

A faculty member new to the department can make a bad advisor. Also, they may never have managed a graduate student, and lack the skills to do so. Advisors do not take a class in how to be an advisor. An advisor who insists that the student call them

An advisor who fails to apprise a student of 1) the ground rules of the departmental graduate or graduate school processes, or 2) the ground rules of their personal process for moving a student through research and writing a thesis or dissertation. The omission of information lays traps students.

The unspoken rules of the graduate process keep students blind from the beginning. When in graduate school the Dean of the graduate school is the Dean presiding over the graduate student, not the Dean of the college. This arrangement is one of the checks and balances in place to protect graduate students from abuse. Consequently, the graduate school Editor, or an Assistant Dean are charged with the responsibility for solving student problems, and bringing those they cannot solve to the Dean’s attention.

In large part, departmental value to the university is based upon how many students they graduate per year.

Choosing an advisor should be easy after a student has taken a few classes from each member of the department, but it is not. A “nice” instructor may be the worst advisor in the department. A bad advisor has one or more of the following characteristics after they accept a student for advisement:

I know of two cases where the graduate student shot the advisor between the eyes for this last scurrilous behavior.

If the student could read the advisor’s mind, this would be reasonable advice. If the student knew what the advisor wanted, it would have been done right the first time.

The dissertation represented four years of research. There is no “perfect” thesis or dissertation.

When I was the graduate school editor I read an appalling dissertation from a very nice student. She had an advisor and three committee members. The dissertation looked like the work of a seventh-grade student.

The Cost of a Bad Advisor

Count the cost of a bad advisor.

Students should choose an advisor as carefully as choosing a partner in life. The student should interview graduate students a year or two ahead in the program, or better, some who have graduated who had the same prospective advisor. Some departments assign an advisor in an effort to level the work load, and the student has no choice. Advisors tend to repeat themselves student after student.

If a student has an advisor with any one of the bad behaviors listed previously, or another behavior that is delaying forward progress, the student should seek help immediately. Following are three Websites that specialize in assisting graduate students, or contact this author for a reference.

A. features consultants who have experience assisting students throughout the thesis or dissertation process including advisement about 1) choosing a research topic, and 2) writing the proposal to do research. In addition, consultants will edit all that the student writes. These consultants can also prepare the student for the defense.

Keep an advisor informed constantly. Advisors like to know students are working hard and should be impressed with your enthusiasm and dedication, real or not. Keep all emails from the advisor. These records are for the graduate Dean if needed.

If your advisor assigns tasks that are outside the thesis or dissertation process, or are personal in nature, refuse politely. Students pay semester hours to work on their graduate degrees, and nothing else.

If your advisor fails to acquaint you with

A reasonable amount of time for an advisor to hand work back is 2 weeks. If your advisor riddles your work with hundreds of corrections, hire an editor to help. Never, ever, tell an advisor that an editor has been hired. In writing, request a change of advisor. Good graduate Deans will monitor your progress.

Problems with advisors at online institutions are extremely difficult to manage. Advisors commonly work for online institutions on a part-time basis. There are no checks and balances in online institutions to help a student in trouble with an advisor. The best advice for a student is to hire a professional editor who deals with graduate students on a regular basis, has sat on graduate committees, and can help make the best of a bad situation.

Surviving a Bad Graduate School Advisor

Read above book and solve example problems and also solve chapter wise basic prolems

2) Nagrath and gopal book is also very good book

Read this book and solve only Example problems no need to solve exercise problem (if you are interested then it is good)

1) All shyam series books