Finding a good academic advisor is important for a doctoral course or other similar higher education programs. The choice of the academic advisor determines the relevance of your topic of research and its success. If you personally know a professor or researcher who has a good reputation, and you have a good rapport with him or her, then you should not hesitate to approach that person.
But not everybody is that lucky. Most of us have to search for an academic advisor. Here are some tips that can help you in finding a suitable academic advisor.
Word Of Mouth Reputation
If you are planning to join a particular college or university, you may conduct an informal enquiry among the current students or former students of the institution. Word of mouth publicity is very reliable in this aspect. Usually, each professor will have a certain kind of reputation. Some may be strict taskmasters, some may be the very jovial type, and some others may have communication problems. It is always better to select reputed strict taskmasters than the easy go lucky types.
Use Your Research Skills
It is advisable to make a list of available advisors. You may want to study in a particular institution because of geographical or economical factors. In that case, you can select an academic advisor from that institution only. You can conduct a research on the advisors available. The internet is a good resource. You can check out the articles published by advisors in leading science journals. It also helps to understand whether the advisor has expertise in your area of interest.
But when you finally select an academic advisor, do not go for reputation or the number of published articles alone. Make sure that the advisor has sufficient time to spend with you and guide you.
If you have any interesting tips or anecdotes about academic advisors, feel free to share them with us.