Sink or Swim

As part of an assignment for one of our first-year core courses, our cohort is responsible for interviewing each faculty member in the department to assimilate information on the types of research they do, the people and organizations with which they collaborate, and how they fit into the structure of the department as a whole (read: we're doing departmental grunt-work).

To try and make this task manageable, we split ourselves into groups and divided the faculty amongst ourselves, so each group only has to interview a handful of the professors in the department. I had the strange experience of interviewing, with one other first-year student, my own adviser. (This wasn't supposed to have happened, but with scheduling issues, it's the way it worked out).

My cohort-mate led the interview, and I transcribed. One of the questions we've been asking is related to each individual faculty member's perceptions on mentoring students, or how they see their role as an adviser. Paul's response to this question was (paraphrased) as follows:

"I wouldn't say I have a mentoring philosophy per say, but in general I'm very hands off-- sink or swim. Not all students are meant to succeed in grad school, and not everyone should be a scientist. If you're not going to make it in grad school, the sooner you get out, the better, so I expect my students to be self-sufficient. The earlier you can act like a scientist, the better off you'll be, and real scientists don't have any strict guidelines or guidance. If the student is doing well, it would probably be annoying for them if I were constantly checking in on their progress. If they aren't doing well, then any hand-holding I do will keep them from developing any motivation towards working out issues on their own."

Yikes!

Let me start of by saying that I completely agree with him. I don't think everyone is cut out to do science, and I also don't believe that grad school is for everyone. I am an extremely independent student as-is, and I would probably get annoyed if my adviser were on my back all the time and constantly checking in on me. However... it did make me a little nervous, the 'sink or swim' part.

Although I do have a decent amount of research experience, I haven't done a master's degree like many of the students here have. I'm not exactly sure yet what this grad school thing is about, except that it involves meeting some course requirements and doing a giant, multifaceted research project over the span of several years. And although I'm more than capable at coming up with my own research questions, what about making contacts with potential collaborators, finding a study site, applying for grants, and general problem-solving? Does he mean that will all be up to me, solo, as well? Because honestly, the thought of doing everything by myself is a little intimidating, and I could really use some guidance in, say, finding a good study area to work in that will be the appropriate size and location to collect the data I need to collect, or determining whether or not the specific method I'm considering is the one most suitable for the analyses I need to do.

I need someone in my corner, someone looking out for me, even if they're not continuously involved in what I'm doing. I expect (and prefer) to be doing things on my own, but I need someone to go to if I'm having trouble or need advice. And I'd like a resource with a better network than my own to be able to help facilitate the contacts I need to get things done. When I spoke with Paul before applying to WCU, he made it clear that he expects his students to be independent, but he made it sound as if he was going to be more involved in the process than he suggested during his interview. And admittedly, some of the things he said did make me wonder about the role he'll end up playing in my graduate school career.

I'm really hoping by 'sink or swim' he meant, 'I'm going to throw you in the deep end, and if you can swim, I'll help you get to shore.'