Help Your Advisor Help You | Arizona State University

Learn what you can do to help build a strong and effective relationship with your advisor.

“Good advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience.” — R.J. Light, Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr. Professor of Teaching and Learning at Harvard

Your Role in the Advising Relationship

In the CareerWISE module What You Want in an Advisor, you learned how to assess what you need from an advisor to be successful in graduate school. In What You Want in a Mentor, you considered the qualities and assistance you would like from your informal relationships with faculty or others in your support system.

Remembering that any relationship is a two-way street, it is important to pay attention to the role that you play in making the relationship work. In this module, we cover how you can best guide your official advisor (i.e., the individual who is your academic advisor, research supervisor, dissertation chair) in aiding your success.

As you move through the different phases of a doctoral program, your needs will change (Pifer & Baker, 2016). When you enter a doctoral program, you’re in the knowledge consumption phase. Then you move to a knowledge creation phase where you take fewer classes and engage in research with your advisor. In the final phase, you are developing a dissertation and orienting yourself toward a post-doc or position (knowledge enactment).

Identifying and taking the initiative to discuss with your advisor what they can do to help you in each stage is a cyclical process.

Being a Good Advisee Helps Your Advisor Be a Good Advisor

The following are lists of Do’s and Don'ts that relate to your side of an advisor-advisee relationship. Many points also apply to any committee or faculty member with whom you work.

Check the items that apply to you to assess your strengths and weaknesses in being an effective advisee.

Ways to do your part:

Seek out opportunities for learning and growth.
Initiate contact with your advisor.
Be responsible.
Focus on your strengths.
Be open-minded and receptive to feedback. (Remember that feedback is an opportunity for growth.)
Focus on shared interests.
Be respectful.
Ask questions.
Keep your advisor informed.
Be clear regarding roles and expectations.
Remember that your advisor is human.
Give feedback to your advisor on what is helpful to you.
Come prepared for scheduled meetings.
Acknowledge receipt of notes and requests.

What Won't Work to Your Benefit

Assume that if your advisor does not teach you something, it is not important to know
Wait for your advisor to contact you
Show poor work habits
Be unreliable
Be self-deprecating or presumptuous
Be defensive or take things too personally
Pass up every research opportunity that is not perfectly in line with your interests
Cross boundaries (For example, do not expect your advisor to respond promptly to an email sent late at night.)
Be afraid to look stupid
Fail to update your advisor on your academic or professional plans
Assume that you and your advisor are on the same page
Expect perfection from your advisor or yourself
Expect your advisor to anticipate your every need
Allow yourself to be taken advantage of (Remember that you can say "no" to doing tasks outside your job description, like making coffee or picking up dry cleaning.)

Beyond the Do's and Don'ts

In addition to the general guidelines above for being a responsible advisee, you likely have quirks and preferences that your advisor might benefit from knowing about. Your advisor is not a mind reader, so fill them in on how you learn and work best.

The criteria you use for selecting an advisor may not be related to how they interact with and support you as an advisee. For example, selecting an advisor on the basis of reputation in the field, availability of grant funding, or a shared ethnic identity has little bearing on how you work together.

Similarly, if your advisor does not demonstrate some of the characteristics you value, such as having industry experience or a similar personality style, you have no control over changing them.

However, you can shape many areas of your working relationship with your advisor by letting them know about your preferences. Consider these examples:

Most Doctoral Students Want	What does this mean in your case?	What could you tell your advisor?
Constructive feedback on written work	How can you “hear” feedback? Should it be direct or sandwiched?
Accessibility	How do you define accessibility? Do you prefer a weekly meeting with your advisor? Are you asking whether they are comfortable with emailed questions?
Feedback on your performance in the program	Do you want a general assessment, as in “You’re doing fine” or more specifics about strengths and weaknesses?
Help with troubleshooting	Can you work with high-level guidance or do you need hands-on help?
Interesting Work	Do you want your advisor to give you difficult projects or ones that are incrementally challenging?
Patience and understanding	Maybe for you this means giving you some time to figure out an issue on your own. Or, instead, maybe you need an afternoon off every now and then.
Support	A common term, but what do YOU mean? Tangible help or emotional support?

You get the idea. You can best help your advisor help you by giving them information about how to work with you to maximize your learning, your progress, your satisfaction with the program, and your persistence.

CareerWISE Tip on Helping Your Advisor Help You:

Think of guiding your advisor as sharing your unique traffic signals. Let your advisor know what constitutes for you a red light (please, no), yellow light (approach with caution), or green light (go for it).

References and Readings

Bernstein, B. L. (2011). Managing barriers and building supports in science and engineering doctoral programs: Conceptual underpinnings for a new online training program for women. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 17(1), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.1615/JWOMENMINORSCIENENG.V17.I1.40 

Boswell, J., Stark, M. D., Wilson, A. D., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2017). The impact of dual roles in mentoring relationships: A mixed research study. The Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, 9(2), 14. http://dx.doi.org/10.7729/92.1175 

Brunsma, D. L., Embrick, D. G., & Shin, J. H. (2017). Graduate students of color: Race, racism, and mentoring in the white waters of academia. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 3(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649216681565 

Fries‐Britt, S., & Snider, J. (2015). Mentoring outside the line: The importance of authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability in effective mentoring relationships. New Directions for Higher Education, 2015(171), 3-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20137

Iraniparast, M. (2020). The importance of advisor-advisee relationships in graduate school. IEEE Potentials, 39(5), 14–16. https://doi.org/10.1109/MPOT.2020.3003546

Knox, S., Schlosser, L. Z., Pruitt, N. T., & Hill, C. E. (2006). A qualitative examination of graduate advising relationships: The advisor perspective. Counseling Psychologist, 34(4), 489-518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006290249

McCoy, D. L., Winkle-Wagner, R., & Luedke, C. L. (2015). Colorblind mentoring? Exploring white faculty mentoring of students of color. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 8(4), 225–242. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038676 

McCuen, R. H., Akar, G., Gifford, I. A., & Srikantaiah, D. (2009). Recommendations for improving graduate adviser-advisee communication. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 135(4), 153-160. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1052-3928(2009)135:4(153) 

Pifer, M. J., & Baker, V. L. (2016). Stage-based challenges and strategies for support in doctoral education: A practical guide for students, faculty members, and program administrators. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 11, 15-34. https://doi.org/10.28945/2347 

Primé, D. R., Bernstein, B. L., Wilkins, K. G., & Bekki, J. M. (2015). Measuring the advising alliance for female graduate students in science and engineering: An emerging structure. Journal of Career Assessment, 23(1), 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072714523086 

Rohlfing, J. E., Kube, E., Yabko, B., Yabko, B. A., Murguia, E., Bekki, J., & Bernstein, B. (2009). Improving STEM doctoral students' relationships with their advisors: Web-based training in interpersonal problem-solving skills. In ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings. AC 2009-914. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--5063 

Tompkins, K. A., Brecht, K., Tucker, B., Neander, L. L., & Swift, J. K. (2016). Who matters most? The contribution of faculty, student-peers, and outside support in predicting graduate student satisfaction. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 10(2), 102. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000115 

Wilkins, K. G., Bernstein, B. L., & Bekki, J. M. (2015). Measuring communication skills: The STEM interpersonal communication skills assessment battery. Journal of Engineering Education, 104(4), 433-453. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20100  

Apply our problem solving method

Learn problem solving skills: Help Your Advisor Help You