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Figure 1. Geographical distribution of visitors.

Figure 2. Number of daily visits to the website in the past 4 weeks.

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  1. Anonymous 5608 said

    My personal opinion is that to succeed in science one (even a gifted one) should have a MENTOR. Unfortunately, most of us are given a supervisor. These are not the same things. A mentor cares about you and looks at you as if you were his seed in a field of science. A mentor somewhat creates you, helps you to grow such that you could give juicy fruits. A supervisor only cares about himself and treats you as a resource. A supervisor gets as much as he/she can out of you and then he/she wastes you. Very few PIs out there are mentors nowadays. Overwhelming majority are just supervisors.

    October 17, 2011 link Reply
    • Mr.Copper Mr.Copper replied ↑

      This is an interesting comment. I wonder if there is a mentor out there in total synthesis! Any suggestions?

      October 17, 2011 link Reply
    • Cato Cato's Letters replied ↑

      If success is partly dependent on the quality of your advisor, then that undercuts the concept that they can evaluate you against your peers because you have the same resources. So, you lose the law of large numbers and can only evaluate you against your lab-mates (or equivalent) assuming your advisor doesn't pick winners (e.g. providing differential resources). We all know advisors don't pick winners, right?

      In reality, the purpose of the graduate student is to be sacrificed in the process of determining if a new advisor is or can become a good supervisor/mentor but only to the extent that that supports the overall goals of the department and obtaining grants.

      October 18, 2011 link Reply
      • Cato Cato's Letters replied ↑

        While absolutely true that mentoring would be fantastic, I also wonder if it is mythological to have a good mentor for the typical grad student. If I had to guess in my department I think there are about 10% of the advisors do a good job of advising (let alone mentoring). More likely, the way it would work is you go to grad school and after a couple years you decide if your advisor is good or not and if you not you leave and try to get a Master's out of the deal.

        October 19, 2011 link Reply