Questions to Ask an Advisor
Questions for an early meeting with an academic, thesis or research advisor, covering how often you will meet, who decides what, how feedback and funding work, and what happens when a project stalls.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How often do you like to meet with your advisees?
Why ask it
A standing weekly or fortnightly slot is a different relationship from "come find me when you need something," which in practice often means twice a term. This one answer predicts most of how much attention you will get.
What is the best way to reach you between meetings, and how quickly do you usually reply?
Why ask it
Some advisors answer email within the hour and some take three weeks. Knowing which lets you plan around the gap instead of reading silence as displeasure.
What should I bring to a meeting so it is useful for both of us?
Why ask it
The answer tells you whether they want a written update, a rough draft, or a list of decisions to settle. "Nothing, just turn up" usually means unstructured meetings that drift and leave you with no record of what was agreed.
How many advisees are you working with right now?
Why ask it
A number in the teens means you are competing for their calendar, and that much of your day-to-day training will come from senior students rather than from them. That is not automatically bad, but it changes who you need to befriend.
What are you working on at the moment that interests you most?
Why ask it
Advisors give their sharpest feedback on work close to what they are already thinking about. If your project sits far from that, expect broad encouragement rather than detailed help on the parts that decide whether it works.
Which parts of my project do you expect me to decide, and which should I run past you first?
Why ask it
This draws the line between independence and overreach before you cross it. Most advising conflicts start here, with a student who thought they had permission and an advisor who thought they would be asked.
What does a strong first year look like from where you sit?
Why ask it
You want concrete markers: an exam passed, a draft submitted, a rig working. If the answer is only about effort and attitude, you have no way of telling whether you are on track until someone tells you that you are not.
How do you usually give feedback on drafts, and how long does it normally take?
Why ask it
Turnaround time on a chapter is the turnaround time on your dissertation. An advisor who is honest about taking six weeks is easier to work with than one who promises a week and disappears.
What deadlines and milestones should I have on my calendar this year?
Why ask it
Departments bury requirements in handbooks nobody reads. Asking surfaces the ones your advisor actually tracks, and shows whether they keep any record of your progress at all or expect you to.
Where does the funding for my work come from, and how long is it secured?
Why ask it
Funding decides what you can attempt and for how long. If the answer is vague, or the money runs out before your degree does, you want to know now rather than in your third year.
If my project stops working, do we change direction or push through?
Why ask it
Every project fails somewhere. Their answer shows whether they treat a dead end as information or as your fault, and how many months they will let you sit in one before intervening.
How much of my time do you expect to go to your projects rather than my own?
Why ask it
The split between their agenda and yours is a common source of quiet resentment. A stated ratio, even an unwelcome one, is more workable than a generous-sounding "we will see how it goes."
Who else should I be talking to, inside or outside the department?
Why ask it
Advisors with live networks name people immediately and often offer to introduce you. Hesitation can mean they are isolated in the field, which shows up later in your letters and your job search.
How do your advisees usually handle it when they disagree with your advice?
Why ask it
You learn how disagreement actually goes rather than how they hope it goes. An advisor who cannot recall ever being argued with may simply not be told the truth by their students.
How do you decide authorship order on work we do together?
Why ask it
Authorship disputes are common and almost impossible to fix afterwards. You want the rule said out loud now, while no specific paper is at stake and nobody is defending a position.
What do you do when an advisee falls behind?
Why ask it
This shows whether they notice trouble early and what follows. A specific story, including one that ended badly, tells you more than "that has not happened here."
How do you feel about advisees taking on teaching, an internship or work outside the project?
Why ask it
This is where advisors quietly differ. Some see outside work as training, others as time stolen from the lab, and you would rather hear which before you commit to something and have to explain it.
What have your last few advisees gone on to do?
Why ask it
Placement history says more than anything an advisor will tell you about their own mentoring. A run of people who left without finishing is worth asking about directly rather than inferring.
Are there stretches of the year when you are usually unavailable?
Why ask it
Sabbaticals, field seasons and conference travel can remove your advisor for months. Knowing the gaps lets you front-load the work that needs them and plan the rest around their absence.
If I am struggling and not sure how to say so, how would you want me to tell you?
Why ask it
This gives you a route back when things go badly, before you need it. Their answer also shows whether bad news is safe to bring them or something you will end up hiding.
Working with an advisor
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the meeting
Find out how they actually work before you ask them
Talk to two of their current advisees first, ideally one senior and one junior. They will tell you about turnaround times, availability and temperament far more accurately than the advisor can about themselves, and it means you can spend your meeting on the things only the advisor can answer.
Send an agenda the day before
Three or four lines is enough: what you have done, what you are stuck on, what you need decided. Advisors who see many students arrive with no memory of your last conversation, and a short agenda rebuilds it for them in ten seconds.
Pick two or three questions, not twenty
A first meeting will not cover this whole list. Decide which answers would change what you do next month, ask those, and leave the rest for later meetings when you have context to judge the answers against.
Getting answers you can use
Ask for the last instance, not the general policy
"How do you handle authorship?" gets you a principle. "How was authorship decided on your last paper with a student?" gets you what happens. Swap the abstract version for the most recent concrete one whenever an answer sounds too smooth.
Write down what was agreed and send it back
A two-line summary after the meeting costs you nothing and gives you a record. It also gives the advisor a chance to correct a misunderstanding while it is cheap, rather than six months later when you have built on it.
Ask about time in weeks
"Soon" and "shortly" mean different things to a person with fourteen advisees. Ask for a number of weeks on anything you depend on: a draft returned, a signature, a decision about equipment.
Signals worth taking seriously
- They cannot name what their last three advisees are doing now.
- Every answer about support is about attitude and none is about a scheduled meeting, a deadline or a named person.
- Current advisees describe reaching them as a matter of luck.
- Funding for your work is described as something that will probably be sorted out.
- They cannot describe a time an advisee disagreed with them.
- The project they want you on is one no previous student finished.
Common mistakes
Treating the first meeting as an audition only
You are also deciding. Advisors expect to be assessed by anyone serious, and a candidate who asks about turnaround times and funding usually reads as more professional, not less committed.
Waiting for them to notice you are stuck
Most advisors run on interrupts. Silence from you reads as progress, so a month of quiet struggle looks identical to a month of good work until a deadline exposes the difference.
Leaving money and authorship until they matter
Both are easy conversations in month one and hard ones in year three. Ask while the answer is hypothetical and neither of you has anything invested in a particular outcome.