How a graduate advisor undermined her student.
There are some serious problems with academia, and not just in the social sciences.
13 thoughts on “Imposter Syndrome”
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How a graduate advisor undermined her student.
There are some serious problems with academia, and not just in the social sciences.
Comments are closed.
The system is kind of like the old master-apprentice system. I’ve been through it when I was taking my PhD. You have to expect this sort of thing to happen. You should push back. In fact most of them expect you to push back. But push back while providing your own solid backing of why you are choosing a good research path.
The fact is the advisor, usually, wants you to have the best career possible because that also reflects well on them as advisors.
You chose a different path so they wanted more time to be convinced. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually did graduate after those 3 years (instead of 1) had she pushed her point of view successfully they would have accepted her. It’s not like the end of the world to drop out though. Especially when you had other important things you would rather do. Heck, sometimes I wonder if taking the PhD was the optimum use of my time back then, it was a great experience and I was working on stuff I actually cared about pushing the envelope of things. But my family life certainly took its toll. I’ve seen others manage to balance things better, so its not impossible I guess. Heck my own advisor described me as ‘cloistered’ once. After being advised to dedicate 100% of my time to the research with no distractions…
It’s better not to overdo things. I did some work for charities, helped organize events, attended things outside my area of study (do it regardless of what they say, being on campus allows a lot of this), worked on state projects, and did internships. But I dunno. Just don’t spend all your time on the research. It’s like the author said it degrades performance in the long term.
‘Zilla,
” But push back while providing your own solid backing of why you are choosing a good research path.”
I suspect (can’t really prove it) that the advisor =would have been unmoved. The advisor was dedicated wholly to the research. And I’ve found an incredible amount of control-freakery among that population. Freakery that runs from:
“I know a lot about this topic so therefore I know everything.”
to
“There is only One True Way.”
Lots of them are technologically and scientifically smart; but completely ignorant of humans
If a control freak (a better term would be “power addict”*) has power over you, the power to really hurt you, pushing back just gets them to demonstrate it.
Unless there’s an appeal to higher authority (and usually higher authority is too comfortable with their chain of command), the only option is to walk away.
* I’ve had this with my father, like addicts hooked on gambling or drugs they have to have their fix, and fighting back – if they really do have the power to screw you over, just makes the rush stronger for them when they crush you.
The difference between them and the Hitler’s of the world is only the size of the pond they swim in.
I once had a staffer at at suicide hotline where I volunteered tell me that I did everything right, but he just didn’t like me. It was crushing.
There’s also the route of Dr. Mann and his student Dr. Abednah (sp? maybe).
She re-cored exactly the same trees he did, 30 years later or so, and got results that largely counter his main points. He lets her graduate, but ignores her data in republications and refinements of his own work.
I’m sympathetic to her cause. But why, to this crowd, is this not just more SJW pandering? Sincere question.
Why would it be?
Getting help from science professors was always a chore for me. In fact, their apathetic nature dissuaded me from going to grad school. In a school of 16,000 students there were 2 physics majors. There was no encouragement nor any advice for us. I was too young to understand that it wasn’t my ability, it was their apathy. Is it due to the abysmal people skills in the sciences?
Most (99%) of college professors don’t care about their students, they went into grad school for a job, not the love of their. That is my personal experience. And it seems to be worse for those born in the 20s and 30s–perhaps because it was so easy to get hired after WWII.
Most (99%) of college professors don’t care about their students…
Really? What school(s) did you attend? My undergraduate years were at Ohio State (1980-1984) and graduate years at Georgia Tech (1984-1989) and I am hard pressed to name a professor that didn’t care about their students. Some were more approachable and more patient than others but I wouldn’t say any of them didn’t care about their students.
Well, different circumstances.
Some advisors use the advising as a weeding-out tool:
They want to identify those grad studs who can figure it all out themselves. From the tech to the politics of building a career as a PhD/scientist. So they care about those who are able to figure it out.
Not all are like this. Maybe not even most.
I thought from the title of this post, this would be an expose of President Choom and his sealed academic records.
Becoming a “research scientist”, by which most people mean an academic at a public institution, is akin to taking a vow of poverty. Becoming a scientist who does research, in industry, is a little known alternative despite the fact that we outnumber the academics by about 1000:1. When it comes to impostor syndrome, we’re the clear winners too – most of us call ourselves engineers.