Focus on Human Qualities when Choosing PhD Advisor

Student and teacher

How to choose your PhD advisor? Below are recommendations based on my experience as a Machine Learning PhD student at Carnegie Mellon and now as a professor at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing. If you are reading this article, it likely means you have a PhD offer or multiple offers and are about to visit those schools for their visit days or open house. Congrats!!

1. My #1 highest level advice is to prioritize the human qualities of the people you will interact with every day during your PhD study —without the right people, research is not going to happen! Talk to as many people as you can to gather information that will help you make this important decision, and ask for concrete examples to support their answers. These people include your prospective advisor(s), their current students (at different stages of their PhD studies: junior, mid-stage, senior and close to graduation), recent alumni, students in the PhD program, alum of your current institution who are now at the institution you are visiting, etc. Different people may tell you different (or similar) information. In general, the more people you talk to, the more comprehensive view you may be able to get about what you care about.
2. Is your prospective advisor going to treat you well over the years and help you grow as a person?

• Will they have enough time for you? E.g., do they meet with you 1-on-1 every week? How about collaborative projects — do they join those meetings or will you be on your own?
• Do they provide the support that you may need (e.g., especially during more challenging times like life events)?
• Do they answer your emails? (Or Slack/Teams messages?)
• Do they provide timely feedback when you need it (e.g., for your first paper submission at a top venue)?
• Do their advising “styles” match what you need (e.g., is it hands-on, hands-off, or somewhere in the middle)?
• Are students “required” to work at specific times (you may be surprised by the answers)? Can students work from home?
• Is taking time off the norm in the group?
• Will you be able to talk to them about your plans and aspirations that may have an impact on your PhD?
• Do your personalities match?

3. Is your lab mates going to treat you well over the years?

• Are they friends — is it likely they will be friends with you?
• Do lab mates “compete” (e.g., how is authorship order determined in a collaborative project?), or does everyone get proper credit for their work and ideas (or does the credit disproportionately go to a few)?
• Ask them what they do outside of research. Ask them about what they do during weekdays (e.g., when they come to campus and when they leave) and weekends.

4. Assess the research fit between your prospective advisor(s) and you.

• Can they advise you on your general research direction? Will you have reasonable research freedom to explore your interest? Or will you need to work on whatever you are “assigned”? (You may be surprised by the answers!)
• Are research internships encouraged? Do they help you with internship opportunties?
• If you are interested in a career in industry/academia, will they be able to provide the support you need to help prepare you for your future?
• What do they consider as “success”? Do they only care about publications? Do they care about practical impact (do they know how to achieve it)?

5. [Bonus. For Polo’s own students :-)] Different advisors and research groups can operate widely differently

• The experience you have in your current research group may not transfer (at all!) to a new group. For example, if you have a lot of freedom and support in your current group, the new group may not offer the same level of freedom and support. Thus, it is important to ask questions and gather information about the new group!