Advisor who keeps adding more work?

Graduate School
1

I’m doing a master’s thesis in STEM. For my master’s thesis project, I’ve been primarily working for an advisor in dept Y. However, I was admitted by dept X, so my coadvisor is in dept X. My main advisor has looked at my draft thesis and gave critiques, but the coadvisor hasn’t read it yet

When my advisor last spoke with me about my draft, he said it was awful and insulted it and seemed to mock me. He also hasn’t made it clear when are the goals and hasn’t given me many chances to ask him questions

In addition, a few months ago, he said that I had to work on one more projects that should only take several weeks so I could graduate by May. However, this project has taken a few months and I’m guessing I won’t be done for at least another month. I thought I was finished several weeks ago because I finally got my research group’s huge mess of code (that often crashes if you make even one tiny change to it) to produce some results and my advisor then suggested I write up the thesis. However, he recently said my results weren’t thorough enough and can’t be verified because I need more results. Since the program crashes after a certain number of calculations, I would probably have to devote another few weeks at least to fix it so that it runs longer. Another grad student in the group also was frustrated with the advisor as he had trouble locating and using the code, the advisor misled him into thinking the project would take much shorter than it really did

I then recently had an appointment with both the co-advisor and the graduate director. The co-advisor said that he hasn’t read my draft yet and doesn’t know the project that well, so he can’t help much. He suggested I give a presentation

The director said he can’t do much regarding the advisor’s demands. However, he said I could hire a freelance editor to judge the quality of my draft thesis.

I’m not sure what to do. I think my thesis already matches the format requirements of a master’s thesis and might be good enough as it is. Could I just submit it as it is now, or at least wait for my coadvisor’s feedback? Or just go along with the presentation? Should I even bother trying to fix the program so that it generates alot more calculations without crashing?

2

This kind of depends on the guidelines of your department and how much control your advisor has over you being finished. In doctoral programs, your advisor is the final arbiter of whether you are done - he has to arrange for your defense, and he has to sign-off stating that he approves of your thesis. Therefore, you can’t be finished until your advisor says you are. It sounds like in this case There’s a bit more leeway, since you are asking whether you can just submit it. That said, if you want to go onto a PhD program or plan to work in academia later, I advise against this unless absolutely necessary, as it can sully your relationship with your advisor and lose you a recommendation.

What you need to do is establish the goals and boundaries and finish point of this thesis and then get written agreements from your advisor about what “done” means. I don’t mean that you should draw up a contract and have them sign it. I mean this:

  1. Schedule a meeting with your advisor. Should be at least 30 minutes; 45-60 is ideal.
  2. Explain, in matter-of-fact language (no emotions), that you are unsure of the final endpoint of this thesis and what measure of work will make the thesis finished. Emphasize that you do want the thesis to be good, but you are also concerned about finishing.
  3. Give your advisor you vision of the thesis and your purpose for it. Then ask him what he thinks about that, and what he believes will be evidence that you have achieved your goals and are ready to be finished.
  4. As your advisor speaks, TAKE NOTES. Write down everything he says, paying specific attention to any statements about what would constitute a finished thesis acceptable to him that would allow you to graduate.
  5. Make sure that you clarify any points that you don't understand. Repeat back his statements to him to be sure that you are on the same page.

After this meeting, write up your notes in an email to your advisor and send it to him and your co-advisor, with the statement that this is your understanding of what needs to be done in order to finish the thesis per your discussion. Ideally he will respond back “Yes,” or with minor modifications. Even if not, though, having the paper trail is the important part.

Your co-advisor sounds…odd. Either he can advise the work or he can’t, in which case he should excuse himself and allow you to contact someone else. Still, if he needs a presentation to understand the work, ask him if he has 30 minutes for you to show him 10 slides and then give you some feedback on the thesis as is. If this occurs, write that down too, and send him the notes back as an email.

You don’t need a freelance editor. First of all, it always irritates me when academics suggest this as if graduate students are made of money. I priced freelance editors for my dissertation and not a single reputable one was going to be less than $700 for a work of that length. More importantly, though, your advisor is not holding you back because of the quality of your writing; he’s holding you back because of concerns about the quality of your science. Editors can’t fix that. (Also, your university’s writing center might offer this service for free.)

The point of this is that once you start working on your thesis again and reach the agreed-upon “done” phase, you can take your work to your advisor. If he tries to say that you need more done, bring up the email, your written record of your discussions on the matter. Is it a magic talisman that will make him back down? No. In fact, he may double-down, saying that it doesn’t matter and he’s adding new requirements now. The point of the written record is 1) to remind him of what he said in case he forgets or “forgets,” so he can’t use that as an excuse/reason to add more work. That will work on many professors; and 2) in case you do need to go to the director again, now you have a paper trail showing that you agreed upon facets of the work and Advisor is not holding up his end of the bargain.

3

Thanks for the detailed reply. I tried to speak to the coadvisor about why I have to give a presentation, but he just said it helps him to understand and it helps us come to an agreement as to whether my work is good enough or not.

I actually digged up an old email from my main advisor a month ago. I had asked him what additional steps I need to complete after I got my initial results. He clearly said I just needed the calculations, he never said anything about needing a certain number in order to verify it. He also doesn’t say anything about me needing to take images of what I’m dealing with (even though he said last week that I needed more calculations so the changes would be noticable in the images). He also said in the email I need to writeup the theory and include tables and charts of my results (but he doesn’t say anything about me needing a certain number of results)

4

It may help if you could give us some more background on why your advisor could be behaving in such a manner. Do you feel there is some reason or situation that could be clouding your advisor’s judgement, or introducing bias?

However, if there is no such ulterior motive, then it could be that your advisor simply wants you to submit a better quality thesis, or wants to write a publication on the topic and is hoping get all the nitty-griity details finished by you. This way after you graduate and leave, your advisor can submit the work without giving you credit, and no one would be the wiser.

These suggestions should be viewed in addition/optional to the earlier respondent’s advice, and should be used with proper judgement. If you feel this is the case, you could email your advisor and ask for justification for the newly specified number of calculations saying that it is beyond the agreement between the two of you for the thesis, and could be done as extra work after your final thesis if submitted.

If you know your thesis topic well, you could probably provide a convincing argument against requiring the newly specified number of calculations, unless it is a critical requirement for the investigation. Communicate this convincing argument via email to your advisor. I am assuming that you are more knowledgeable about the thesis than your advisor. If this is not the case, your contribution is probably not that significant to warrant a thesis submission.

In these situations, the Co-advisor is usually a bored bystander or spectator. They are simply waiting for the game to finish.

Your Graduate Director’s advice is to basically go on a wild goose chase.

Ask your Graduate Director why he/she suggested an expensive option of a freelance editor? Is the Graduate Director planning on paying for such services, or simply trying to dissuade you from seeking inexpensive measures that can protect and reward your effort in the program?