How to Be a Graduate Advisee

Successful graduate training benefits from committed mentors and motivated students. Because scientific research involves investigating unexplored territory, however, each student’s experience will necessarily be unique, making it rarely possible to conform to an idealized training sequence. To approach this inherently uncontrolled situation constructively, students are encouraged, first, to become aware of their own learning patterns and to apply this knowledge to selecting a thesis laboratory, and second, to cultivate an educational philosophy that helps them adapt to many circumstances.

Neuron 2014