I was barely 22 when I started my doctoral program. I was a direct admit, straight from undergrad, into a top program in my field and with my first choice for an advisor. It really was a dream come true.
But it was also terrifying. My seminars were crammed with students with very impressive academic credentials. My professors were the actual scholars whose work had inspired me in the first place. My workload spelled out by the syllabi panicked me as much as it excited me (especially in regards to the number of texts I would be reading weekly). And, for the first time in my life, I lived more than a thousand miles away from my parents and siblings.
I also had no idea how to interact with my advisor. She was a top scholar at a top university and, from my perspective then, knew everything. She was very efficient, very organized, and very prompt with all of her feedback. I, on the other hand, organized my research by building piles of books and notes around me (I still do this, by the way…). I pushed deadlines to the last possible moment, which often made me late with my work (I sometimes still do this too….). I had only a rudimentary knowledge of my declared field and was very weak on theory. I also took constructive criticism personally, which meant my husband (we had only been married 10 days when I started graduate school) often found me at night sitting in our living room crying over comments on my work.
But something happened that first semester which changed my graduate experience. I don’t remember exactly when it was during the semester, but I think it was around October. I had written a preliminary research prospectus, focusing on a primary source in my chosen field, and I was required to defend it during seminar. My advisor was invited to attend.
While my memory is fuzzy on some points (it was a long time ago….), it is crystal on others. It is crystal on how I felt that presentation day: small and overwhelmed.
I was sitting at the seminar table waiting for seminar to begin. My advisor walked into the room. She was holding a stack of papers. She sat down next to me and proceeded to pass out the handouts. It was a page from the Middle English text I had been working on. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but she spoke to the entire seminar. Her words underscored how difficult my primary source was and defended the value of my research.
This is the moment graduate education changed for me–the moment my advisor sat down next to me and defended my work. It was then that I realized she was on my side. She wasn’t in that room to critique me (even though I knew there were several areas of my prospectus that she wanted me to improve); she was there to stand with me.
It was at this moment I began to trust her.
Indeed, I began to experience exactly what an anonymous graduate student expressed in a 2014 study on graduate student mentoring: “When professors respect me I work a lot harder because I don’t want to let them down.” Simply knowing that my advisor supported me spurred me to become a better student. Because she took time to encourage me, I became more receptive to her critique. And when she suggested I revise part of my thesis to submit for a paper prize, I took her advice and did it–despite all of the other deadlines I had looming. I won that award. My advisor was invested in helping me succeed, and my confidence grew.
My experience matches research. As the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan explains, when graduate students have effective mentors, they are “more productive in terms of research activity, conference presentations, predoctoral publications, instructional development, and grant writing. The well-mentored students’ academic success is evident in higher completion rates and a shorter than average time to degree.” Students who trust their mentors and feel supported by their mentors do better in graduate school.
So how do you mentor graduate students effectively? Start with building trust. A 2018 article on “Transforming mentorship in STEM by training scientists to be better leaders,” underscores that trust is essential to mentoring graduate students. “Trust in mentoring relationships is a crucial factor in student success and retention. Trust takes time and patience to develop, but is ultimately essential to the establishment of a collaborative, productive, and mutually beneficial relationship between mentor and student.” One more time: students who trust their mentors and feel supported by their mentors do better in graduate school.
So how do you build trust?
- Be realistic about your expectations (especially in the beginning). Graduate students are not here because they know how to do it; they are here to LEARN how to do it. They need you to help them, not to shout at them when they get it wrong or stop working with them when they make a mistake. Expect that they will get it wrong and make mistakes, and then show them how to do it better.
- Make time for your graduate students within your weekly schedule. Building trust only happens over time. Learning to work with your graduate students and how best to help them can only happen if you spend time with them. I try to schedule weekly or bi-monthly meetings with my graduate students. I also try to schedule 2 or 3 social lunches throughout the semester, just to talk with them in a more casual environment
- Communicate regularly with your graduate students. I am sure your life is every bit as busy as mine. But that doesn’t give us the right to ignore our students. They are here to work with us. They need us to answer their emails regularly; they need to meet with us consistently; they need to receive our timely feedback on their research and papers. Set expectations with them about how soon you will respond to emails and how soon they can expect feedback. If you know it takes you 1-2 weeks to respond to work, just tell them that up front so they know what to expect. Clear communication can head off a lot of potential problems. Timely evaluation of graduate student work can also help us steer them in the right direction before they get off course.
- Recognize that graduate students are whole people who have lives outside of academia. They need to spend time with their families; they need to get regular sleep (we all need this!); they need to have a social life beyond the lab or library. Help your graduate students stay emotionally, physically, and mentally healthy by making sure they don’t work all the time.
- Respect their collaborative work on research. If they provided the research for your latest article, make sure they are included as an author. If they presented an idea in seminar which you incorporated into your current research project, give them credit in the footnotes or acknowledgements. If graduate students help in your writing and editing, or if they produced a substantial portion of the research and/or evidence for the article, give them credit as an author.
Mentoring is MORE than monitoring a student’s research or overseeing their course schedules. It is building a relationship that advances both the academic and professional goals of a student while attending to their well-being. It is caring about the success and satisfaction of our graduate students as well as for ourselves.