<p>One of the schools I'm interested in has an assistant professor who was hired in 2011. I am hesitant to work with that professor on the off chance they don't get tenure.
If that were the case and I was working with that professor, what would happen to me?
I've heard of students going wherever the professor goes (that is, if they're going to another academic institution). Would I also have the option of staying and finding a new adviser?</p>
<p>It’s often the student’s choice whether to stay at the same institution or go with the advisor, and it often depends on where they are in their studies – students who are close to defending might prefer to stay and complete their projects under the supervision of another faculty member, while students who have just started might prefer to go to the new institution. </p>
<p>The tenure process often takes a long time, though, so even if your advisor doesn’t get tenure (in 2018? how long is the pre-tenure process at this institution?), he or she might not leave immediately.</p>
<p>Depending on how close you are to the end of your project, you could stay and finish with the project and a new advisor would be your nominal advisor while the former advisor could come in as an outside member. If you are not so far along then you could either change advisors and change projects or move to the new school. My S did the latter when his advisor was lured away to another school. I had to do something similar when my advisor died suddenly.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that there are a number of ways your advisor could leave the university and it happens more often than you might expect. In these cases, the university usually tries to work out a reasonable solution.</p>
<p>My advisor is an assistant professor who had only been here for 2 or 3 years before I came. I’m going to finish this year and he’s still here (I think he goes up for tenure this year). Also consider the fact that senior professors can and do leave, too. The senior professor I also wanted to work with left in my third or fourth year, even though he’s still on my dissertation committee.</p>
<p>You do have both options. I think most students in the dissertation phase (or who have already passed quals) decide to stay unless their advisor negotiates that they don’t have to retake classes at the new institution. Students before that can do either.</p>
<p>Make sure (as you would anyway) that this is a department in which more than one person could feasibly advise you, just in case that does happen.</p>