Student/Faculty Advising
The most important relationship that a graduate student develops in his or her graduate career is probably the relationship with the adviser. In most cases, the student’s adviser is his or her intellectual mentor as well, typically providing guidance and inspiration for the scholarly/scientific course that the graduate student will ultimately pursue. The adviser may also serve as a professional role model, counselor, colleague, and friend, and is likely to be a key source for letters of recommendation when the student applies for grants and jobs. For all these reasons and more, it is very important that the student works hard to develop a good relationship with the adviser. It is equally important that the adviser work hard to develop a good relationship with his or her graduate students. Graduate students may provide the adviser with assistance in research and teaching, with intellectual stimulation that will enrich the adviser’s own scholarly/scientific program, and with an opportunity to have a positive influence on the next generation of psychologists.
When graduate students enter Northwestern’s Ph.D. program in Psychology, they are typically assigned an adviser. In most cases, the student’s research interests fit well with those of the adviser, and in many cases the adviser is the faculty member who was most active during the previous year in recruiting the student to Northwestern. Although students are assigned advisers at the beginning, students may switch advisers during their graduate career. There could be many reasons for switching: changing research interests on the part of the student, developing an especially good relationship with a different faculty member, incompatibility between the adviser and student, and so on. Because the relationship with the adviser is so important for graduate school success, the student should regularly monitor how well the relationship is working out. If there are serious problems in the relationship, the student may wish to discuss these with the adviser him- or herself, or with the Program Area Head and/or the Director of Graduate Studies. The adviser/student relationship, like any human relationship, is likely to be complex and evolving. Minor problems and misunderstandings are to be expected along the way. But students should be careful not to look the other way when serious problems arise, or when the student feels that switching advisers would be in his or her best personal or professional interest. Every adviser/student relationship is unique. However, each relationship should be built on common values of mutual respect, honesty, commitment, open communication, and the highest levels of professional and personal integrity.
The relationship between the graduate student and his or her adviser, as important as it is, represents only one of the many fruitful relationships a student may develop in graduate school. Students should seek to develop positive professional relationships with other faculty members, too. In many cases, graduate students end up conducting research and working closely with two or more faculty members in the Psychology Department. They may also collaborate on research and scholarly pursuits with their fellow graduate students and, in some cases, with faculty members in other departments and universities.
