PhD Advisors: A Primer About Advisors in Doctoral Programs

We talk a lot about how confusing graduate school can be, with unstandardized procedures and vocabulary, varying dissertation requirements, and an excess of specialized jargon. Figuring out how to be a graduate student could be a degree all on its own. Nowhere is this clearer than the uncertainty surrounding academic and research advisors. How do you get a PhD advisor? Is a PhD advisor, thesis advisor, dissertation advisor, and dissertation chair all the same thing? Do you get to choose your advisor? If so, how do you do that? What should you expect from an advisor?

With student-advisor relationships being one of, if not the, strongest predictor of graduate school success, it’s vital to learn the ins and outs of doctoral advisors before applying to graduate school.

In this multi-part series, we’ll teach you the vital information you need to know before applying to graduate school, so you don’t get burned.

Graduate School Advisor Terminology

As if graduate school wasn’t overwhelming enough, academic terminology is convoluted, unstandardized, and confusing. Different universities use different words for the same thing and sometimes a word at one university means something slightly different at another university. It’s so confusing that we put together the Slightly Snarky, Likely Incomplete, Graduate School Glossary to help new and aspiring graduate students get a handle on the language. The terms used for ‘advisors’ in graduate school are one example.

General Terms for Advisors

Let’s start by defining some common terms. First, PhD advisor and doctoral advisor are terms generally used interchangeably for any formal advisor you have during graduate school. Graduate student advisor is also a term commonly used in graduate school, but it can refer to either doctoral or master’s students.

Specific Terms for PhD Advisors

Doctoral advisors typically fall into two types based on their role in a graduate student’s life: academic advisors and research advisors. Understanding the difference is crucial for navigating grad. school effectively.

Academic advisors guide doctoral students in completing coursework, understanding degree requirements, and navigating institutional policies. In general, they serve the same role for graduate students as they did for undergraduates. Academic advisors are usually just called advisors, which can make things confusing when considering the second type of advisor, research advisors.

Research advisors are focused on guiding doctoral students through the research process, including thesis or dissertation development. Research advisors may also be called dissertation advisors, PhD thesis advisors, thesis advisors, or dissertation chairs.

Your academic advisor may or may not be the same person as your research advisor.

How Doctoral Students Get Advisors

Because graduate school has to be unnecessarily difficult, there are several ways PhD students get advisors, and different schools have different customs. Here are the main avenues through which doctoral students typically acquire advisors:

1. Assigned Academic Advisors: Many institutions assign academic advisors to newly accepted doctoral students based on administrative convenience and program specialty. These advisors often serve as the initial point of contact, helping students navigate the complexities of program requirements, course selection, and academic policies. These assigned advisors may become the student’s research advisor if their research interests align, but there is no expectation of that happening. Instead, a student selects their research advisor as they refine their research interests and advance through their degree.
   
2. Assigned Research Advisors: Some universities assign research advisors based on the student’s stated research interests from their personal or research statement. While important for all prospective doctoral students, for the universities with assigned advisors, it’s vital to research the potential advisors you might be paired with before applying to the program and, when possible, reach out to them in advance [see Part 2 of All About PhD Advisors coming next week]. Sometimes, a student’s research interest changes throughout their studies, or the pairing is a poor fit. When this happens, it’s not uncommon for the student to change dissertation advisors. However, changing advisors becomes more difficult the further a student progresses in their research, so changes need to be made early.
   
3. Student Selection: Some doctoral programs allow students to select their academic advisors from a pool of faculty members affiliated with their discipline. This method enables students to align their academic interests and career aspirations with the expertise and mentorship styles of potential advisors. Under these circumstances, the student has often reached out to potential advisors ahead of time and note the faculty they would like to work with in their admissions statements.

The Importance of the Ph.D. Advisor

The doctoral student-advisor relationship is the most important academic relationship in a graduate student’s life. Not only do they support the student throughout their time in graduate school and determine if the student has progressed enough to graduate, but they also play an important role in the student’s professional development, networking, and job searching.

Unsurprisingly, the student-advisor relationship is one of the strongest predictors of graduate student success, which is why you should join us next week for the second installment of the All About PhD Advisors series. In part two, we will be going over why, when, and how you should contact prospective research advisors before applying to graduate school.