How to win over a prof you want to work with

[bjnartowt]

Hey all, I'm going to start PhD studies next year. I hope to do research in theoretical condensed matter physics. I have picked out someone I might be interested in working with. I asked if he wanted me to work for him. However, he said,

"I'd be happy to talk to you after my return to campus
on May 2. In general I'm discouraging students right now;
while I've just had one person graduate which will leave me
with a 2-student group, I don't have $ to support more than
one and am reluctant to take anyone on. Just to warn you..."


So it looks unlikely I'll work with him. However, is there a way to make myself into someone the profs want to work with? Doing well in core coursework is probably first and foremost, but I'm wondering what I can do beyond that.

BJN

 

[matonski]

I'm very interested in this topic as well. There's lots of advice out there on choosing an advisor, but I would like more tips on how to become a desirable advisee once you've identified a potential advisors.

 

[Simfish]

Depends on the nature of your work. Is your work mostly analytical or computational? If computational, is it mostly simulations?

Sometimes, you can first try unpaid volunteer work to prove yourself.

 

[bjnartowt]

Depends on the nature of your work. Is your work mostly analytical or computational? If computational, is it mostly simulations?

Sometimes, you can first try unpaid volunteer work to prove yourself.

Good question: all I know is that it's "superconductor theory". I'm not sure what specific projects this guy has right now.

Also, I was under the impression that stuff in condensed matter theory was 95% computational?

 

[Choppy]

It sounds to me like it's not so much an issue of this professor wanting to work with you as it is an issue of him not having financial support and thus not wanting to put you into a situation where you won't have funding.

It would be worth investigating how financial support for graduate students works at this institution. One option, if it's available to you, is to apply for external funding. In Canada that would come in the form of an NSERC scholarship, for example.

 

[eri]

It wasn't uncommon for grad students at my university to be paid on a teaching assistantship the entire time they were in grad school if they were working with someone who either didn't have much funding or wasn't willing to financially support them. So it might be an option to work with him the first year while being paid to teach (which means you'll have to devote your free time to trying to impress him in the lab). You can also apply for your own funding, such as through the NSF.

 

[Frion]

Also, I was under the impression that stuff in condensed matter theory was 95% computational?

I have this impression too, but my concern is that I can't imagine how an undergraduate could contribute to this stuff.