PhD advisor is an asshole
My PhD advisor is being a total asshole. My dissertation is due in a matter of days, so I’m almost done with him. But he still manages to push my buttons. He treats me and the other students like children, even though he acts immature himself. He is constantly condescending, and clearly expects little from us. But on the flip side, whenever we hand writing in to him, he gives unconstructive, unprofessional, MEAN feedback. For example, he’ll say, “your writing is very poor” or “this is so bad I can’t understand it”–a gem my fellow student got from him. But I read the guy’s paper and it was perfectly understandable, even if it did have a few grammatical errors. At the same time, my advisor offers no explanation for what’s so bad about the writing, and no tips for improving it.
Then, when I do something very minor and/or trivial considering my training and experience, he’ll say, “great job!” He thinks that’s a nice way of balancing positive and negative feedback, but together it just gives me the impression that he thinks I’m an idiot. On the other hand, he’s constantly telling me that I’m smart. It leaves me the impression that he has no idea of my abilities or what I’m truly capable of. I fear the letter of recommendation from him, even if is completely well-intentioned.
Honestly, I think he just likes exert his power, as he is a newer professor. I think he is insecure, because a) most people agree that HIS writing is below-average for a professor with his training, b) he can be quite slow to understand the concepts behind my research and the other students’, and c) he’s having trouble getting his own research ideas funded (whereas several of his students, including myself, have had no trouble winning our own private grants.)
I just wish he’d act like an adult and a professional so that we could actually learn something from him rather than feeling constantly put down.
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I think you’ve probably hit the nail on the head in that third paragraph. Some people can’t face up to their own failings and need to take it out on others. Console yourself with the likelihood that he’s going to end up bitter and alone!
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Dude, he sounds just like my advisor! I would never get any technical feedback, only grammatical errors. Constant belittling attitude and telling me “I’m a foreign national”, so my English sucks (by default). A classic was “you have a comma everywhere there shouldn’t be one and missing one where there should be one”. I was flabbergasted!. That’s it??? Is that all you have to say about my work? LOL…
I really, feel for you. From personal experience these scars can take a few years to heal, but the anger stays. I’m sure you’ll do well, move on and forget him.
Mine dilly-dallied on my recommendation letters, and would not recommend me to his industry contacts because he wanted to keep me around as a post-doc (read slave). I got 2 offers both without ANY of his freakking help.
Take a deep breath, think of it as a character building exercise. You are bound to meet and work with better people as you move ahead in life.
In my opinion Profs are given excessive control over a (grad) student’s life. This can end up being misused very easily. Universities should be VERY careful hiring these “hand-wavers”.
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How about having a list of Prof’s where people can post names and Univs?
It sounds a little corny, but can’t think of how else I can save other students from this kind of mental torture.
Future grad student’s look up the list and then decide for themselves.
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I agree about the list but how can one set up a list from anonymous contributors and can be credible. It would be nice if there are some objective fields to fill-up in the list and a field for remarks about the good and/or bad points about the advisor. Good advisor should also be acknowledged.
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I’ve just launched a website for students and postdocs to rate and review their research advisors: http://www.myevilprofessor.com
If your PI is a prick or a saint, and you wish to let others know, do submit a review. As more reviews are posted, the site will become increasingly useful for everyone.
Cheers~
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Wow, I think you just described my advisor:
“Honestly, I think he just likes to exert his power, as he is a newer professor.” So is mine, and he does the same thing.
“he can be quite slow to understand the concepts behind my research and the other students’” Mine gets a glazed look in his eyes when I start talking about my research in detail. Or he just eats lots of donuts.
“my advisor offers no explanation for what’s so bad about the writing.” No useful feedback? Same here.
Are we working in the same lab?
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Quote: “I really, feel for you. From personal experience these scars can take a few years to heal, but the anger stays. I’m sure you’ll do well, move on and forget him.”
I did take me a few years to heal. The hatred was always just below the surface, and it was directed at myself and my friends.
Quote: “Mine dilly-dallied on my recommendation letters, and would not recommend me to his industry contacts because he wanted to keep me around as a post-doc (read slave). I got 2 offers both without ANY of his freakking help.”
Me too. And during my PhD there was no help looking for internships; during my masters there was strong discouragement to apply to other graduate schools for a PhD ( note: I was accepted to the department as a MS student with funding).
Quote “Take a deep breath, think of it as a character building exercise. You are bound to meet and work with better people as you move ahead in life.”
Seconded.
What sucks is that the shitty treatment of graduate students is par for the course, and encouraged by departments (publications! publications!). I’ve been in industry 5 years and we don’t treat junior/new employees like shit as a a matter of policy.
Research Engineer
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Many people in science (particularly those who hold academic positions) are extremely vain. They long for the love and admiration of their peers and their research community. Shortcomings and inadequacies do lead to insecurities… and as you (and many people in academia) are well aware, graduate students and postdocs often end up suffering psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse disguised as “academic freedom.”
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I had this advisor for my senior thesis who I might have spoke to on rarest occasions (possibly once a month). Since we did computational biophysics he would just give us an experimental paper and ask us to replicate the results. Not once was he actually involved in the research and when trying to explain to him why the computational results were erroneous, he told us that “[he] does not do the computer stuff. Don’t even try to explain it …” He is a university computational physics researcher who doesn’t do computer stuff. As it turned out, after going to square one and trying to replicate some results he had in a paper he published with a postdoc 6 months prior … my co-worker and I started getting the same questionable results. It turns out that the person he published with, had the same problems but tweaked the results to publish and never told my advisor. Yep. My advisor is an idiot to.
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Compared to mine, it sounds like your advisors are saints to me. Just know that there much worse than that. A person who would mislead you, steal your ideas and claim the awards, urge you to work while you’re recovering from a life-threatening surgery, blackmailing you that he will haunt your career, running away from some ex-students and asking you to call the police if we see them, should I keep going ?
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The only time that I have to update my advisor on the status of my research is by chance encounters. I think too that he is jeolous of my achievements. I used to have a crush on him until I found out who he really is, a very condescending and base person who seems to take pleasure in torturing my mind. So you can imagine the emotional stress. Now I wish I could make an efegy of him, lol. As much as I find myself hating him I do cherish my research and can’t imagine myself doing anything else.
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