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<p>I don’t think that was the consensus. Master’s funding actually does exist in some STEM fields. We just said it was a lot harder to get than PhD funding, and offered various opinions on reasons why. If the prof likes your son and has a GRA position, he could hire him as a GRA and pay him that way. Or maybe there’s a teaching assistantship in the department that comes with a tuition waiver.</p>
<p>If your son is a social scientist, though, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Funding for MA programs is much rarer in the social sciences.</p>
<p>@jack63 I always wonder whether I am too long-winded, lol. But deeply idealistic? What do you mean? I often think I sound too cynical, lol. And yes, you are right about my research.</p>
<p>I think it might just be very field-dependent. A non-terminal master’s in my field would not be very useful or lucrative, so there’s little reason to try to get into a PhD program and get a free MA. Therefore, the majority of people there really do want the PhD, and when they leave, it’s typically because they have decided that the PhD is no longer for them In engineering, an MA might be so lucrative that it’s more common for students to go to a PhD program in the attempt to get a free/funded MA.</p>
<p>As for the second part…</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t expect a PhD to bend over backwards - and I, too, would not want to bend over backwards for a student, which is why I emphasized that independence is really important in graduate students. But I also think human empathy is generally a good quality for advisors to have. I don’t think that advisors should have to listen to a student’s struggle to stay in a program; when I struggled, I went to a therapist at counseling services and worked it out. Students who are struggling emotionally should see a counselor, or lean on friends.</p>
<p>But I did quite matter-of-factly share my concerns with my advisor, and he was sympathetic, very helpful and instrumental in getting me to stay in the program. As a result of the relatively minor level of effort he put in for this (we had one conversation about it), he was able to graduate a PhD student. I also had another professor who served as a mentor for me who I was able to go to and get support from in a professional way. So I think it depends on how much listening and conversation is happening.</p>
<p>Professors should never be their students’ counselors or therapists, and should recommend that they seek that kind of support elsewhere. But trying to understand your student’s motivations and being a generally encouraging mentor could potentially mean the difference between your advisee quitting and them not. First of all, they’re not just your employee - they are your student, and you’re supposed to be developing them professionally. But second of all, even good managers do that to valued employees: they find out why they want to leave and then, if possible, they do things to try to get them to stay.</p>
<p>Even from a purely selfish standpoint…let’s say that you have a superstar who’s helping you get out publications, worked on a grant with you, cleans and manages your data and helps recruit and manage the undergrad RAs your lab needs to run. They’re great and helping your productivity so much. Then they announce, in November, that they’ve been thinking about quitting the program and they’re fed up. Even from a self-serving standpoint, if they leave in December then it’s going to be at least 9 months before you can bring on a new doctoral student - perhaps even later, since the application deadline has passed and maybe you said you weren’t bringing on new students! Who is going to manage your RAs and clean your data and do all that stuff your Superstar PhD was doing? But if you show a bit of empathy and have a professional conversation with them to help them, maybe you save yourself that minor panic.</p>