The most important relationship that a thesis student will have will be with their adviser. If you’re a student seeking a thesis adviser, you should work carefully, strategically, and early to find a good adviser.
The process of finding an adviser will depend on your discipline.
In some science disciplines (chemistry, much of physics, psychology, biology, and so on), students may join a formal research group (“lab”) run by a professor. The professor, as “principal investigator” or PI, will direct the research group, while individual projects are run by postdoctoral research fellows (“postdocs”) and implemented by graduate students who are in turn assisted by undergraduates. Students in a hierarchical system may have relatively little autonomy in what they choose as a thesis subject, as their project may be a contribution to a larger project of the lab. (Joining the lab, in other words, may do a lot to determine thesis topics.) On a day-to-day basis, the faculty adviser might be a rather distant figure who signs forms and the real adviser might end up being a Ph.D. student.
The other end of the spectrum will be one more familiar to students in other disciplines, including many social science and humanities students (who may have found the pervious paragraph bafflingly distant from their own experience!). Students seek out professors with whom they will work in relationships of varying degrees of familiarity. The project will likely be self-initiated, although faculty members may also sometimes suggest projects to a promising student. This model more closely approximates a master-apprentice relationship rather than the small-business model of the lab disciplines. (Rumors that this is the same model the Sith employ are only rumors).
Getting to Know Professors as People
As different as these experiences may seem, they are similar in one big way. Whether you’re joining a research group or finding someone to oversee your apprenticeship, you’re going to forge a relationship with someone else. That means you need to be clear about with whom you’ll be working.
Not all professors are alike! Some of us are harried. Some are kind. Some are critical. Some are too forgiving. Some can be mean. Some can be going through some personal stuff right now, you know? Some are busy and some are deservedly ostracized. Some styles will work for you, and some won’t. And in our experience, you can’t force a relationship to work.
Finding an adviser, in other words, is a very human process. You should go through steps similar to those that you would when you’re beginning another professional relationship, including doing your homework and, ideally, meeting in low-stakes situations before making a big ask.
How can you do that? Well…
Go to panels and other events in your department, starting as early as you can. See who shows up and how they behave.
Take a class with potential advisers.
If the adviser has a research group or other research opportunity, join it!
Ask for an informal meeting (probably during office hours) well in advance of the deadlines for creating a thesis proposal to talk about potential ideas and to suss out whether this is a potentially good collaboration.
Talk to other trusted faculty members or advisers and ask for their advice.
If you don’t think you can work with someone—if you have a bad gut feeling, and other evidence points that way—then don’t. Just stop there.
Finding What Professors Know and Do
Another fundamental step, however, is researching whether a professor’s research and interests make them a good fit for you. Professors have a range of expertise, but they tend to cluster in substantive and methodological elements.
Scholars differ in what they know and also in the tools they use. What does that mean? Well, imagine two political scientists—like the two of us! We both study politics, but if you want to work on a substantive topic involving religion and American politics you’d be a fool to ask Paul to do it—and if you wanted to do a project about foreign policy, you’d probably be misguided to ask Nick to chair it. Our substantive interests are really different. Our methodological expertise is a little less different, though: we both work with some forms of public opinion data and experiments, for instance. But it’s probably fair to say that if you wanted to really specialize in public opinion data, Nick has a comparative advantage, and that if you wanted to work with historical or qualitative methods, Paul would probably be your better choice.
Ideally, your adviser would be able to work with you on both the substantive and methodological areas. That’s not always the case, though. Happily, most schools require or request that students work with two (or more) thesis committee members. As long as one member can cover the substance and the other can cover the methods, you’ll be okay.
How do you learn what a professor knows and does? Well, the first step—again—is to get to know them. Then you should also make sure you research their background. What classes do they teach? What areas do they work on in their own research?
This isn’t hidden knowledge. It’s not some set of arcana you can only master by summoning demons using spells known only to the Ancient Ones. Just use Google (or Bing, if you’re like that) to find professors’ web pages. Most will have two: one on the department’s web site which is sporadically updated and another personal site that’s more active. For instance:
You should be able to tell pretty quickly what these professors specialize in—and why, if you’re interested in doing, say, field work on Botswanan aid workers, neither of us would be a good choice for you. But if you’d like to know about the politics of US public opinion toward foreign aid, either of us could probably help.
The takeaway: Doing a thesis isn’t like going shopping. It’s an intensive, very human process. You need to make sure you know what you’re getting into and how you’re going to work with particular people.
The practical: Do your homework—and start getting to know faculty in your department as soon as possible.