Finding an Adviser It is essential for graduate students to have at least one faculty member who will take responsibility for their training. Our study found that students’ ability to find an adviser quickly was related to their confidence in their own career prospects. Compared to other students, those who considered their career prospects to be below average were more likely to have had difficulty finding an adviser and more likely to be without an adviser at the time of our study. Specifically, among students who felt that their career prospects were below average, 32% had difficulty finding an adviser and 7% were without an adviser at the time of our study. By contrast, among students who felt that their career prospects were above average, only 11% had difficulty finding an adviser, and only 4% were without an adviser at the time of our study (Table 14).
TABLE 14: FINDING AN ADVISER CAME TO PROGRAM PROFESSOR IS
TO WORK WITH
DIFFICULTY FINDING
FORMAL ADVISER
THIS PERSON
AN ADVISER
ALL STUDENTS OVERALL 88.65 42.87 14.43 PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM 82.15 17.05 14.50 COMBINATION PROGRAM, NON-DOCTORAL SEEKING
87.22
30.00
10.62
DOCTORAL PROGRAM, NON-DOCTORAL SEEKING
83.05
49.15
12.07
DOCTORAL SEEKING STUDENT 90.56 52.19 15.87 DOCTORAL SEEKING STUDENTS ONLY ENGINEERING 95.91 61.05 17.82 SOCIAL SCIENCES 91.19 60.62 14.41 HUMANITIES 86.90 44.40 10.08 EDUCATION 89.47 37.88 19.37 PHYSICAL SCIENCES 90.23 43.14 21.85 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 96.88 51.04 12.77 CAREER PROSPECTS ARE BELOW AVERAGE 92.95 45.81 31.54 CAREER PROSPECTS ARE AVERAGE 91.20 49.50 16.21 CAREER PROSPECTS ARE ABOVE AVERAGE
91.48
59.26
11.31
88.22
47.97
16.62
ADVISER DOES NOT FUND STUDENT
ADVISER FUNDS STUDENT 95.05 59.32 14.38
REPORT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN GRADUATE SCHOOL CLIMATE STUDY
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