Choosing an advisor

Although, this is not really related to NLP i am putting this out in the hope that it will help all those students who go through the quandry of choosing the right advisor.

Choosing the right advisor sometimes can make the difference between completing your Ph.D and not. Therefore, when one chooses advisors they need to be very careful and its best that when one chooses their advisors they choose them right.

Steps to consider
------------------
1) Make a list of areas that you are interested in doing research in. Make a list of the faculty members that work in those areas.
2) Find out the students who work under these professors. They would be the ones who would actually tell you how the advisor works and his advising style. Ask them questions in particular:
1) How is his funding? Does he have many grant proposals in the pipeline? When is his funding going to end? If the professor is not working on any grant proposals you will be paying for your PhD course yourself !
2) Does the professor have significant progress in the last two years. If he hasnt published papers in the last two years, its quite likely that he either just does not work towards publishing papers or does not advise his students enough. There may be rare cases where the advisor may be very particular about the work. However, two years is definitely enough time to publish one paper.
3) Does the professor have any students? Have students left this advisor? If so, steer clear of the professor. The fact that the professor did not manage to retain any PhD student means something is wrong with him.
4) Find out the attitude of the professors - does he bother to be available for his students, does he bother to answer questions, does he bother to review students work? Beleive me, i have had the worst experience working with a professor who never bothered to find out if his students made progress, worked at all. This feedback is something that you would normally get on the grape vine - get in touch with other PhD students preferably many and someone would have heard of it.
5) How often do the professors students graduate? It would give you an idea of the amount of time required to do your PhD under the professor. Also, look at the quality of journals and conferences that the professor has published in. That will give you an idea of the quality of work that you would need to survive with the professor.
6) Find an advisor who works with your style - close supervision etc. I always think that having an advisor is kind of like getting married. The decision should be given a lot of thought.

Now just like marriages go bad, what do you do when you end up with a bad advisor? Do you stick around or look for another advisor. In most situations, one can come to a compromise and still complete PhD. Theres no advisor who is totally perfect.

However, if you see the warning signs i mentioned about the best time to switch would be immediately in the second semester and at the most by one year. If switching to another advisor by yourself does not walk, get the Department Head or the Dean involved. After all your aim is to complete your PhD.