ABSTRACT
Faculty advisors perform crucial roles in the dissertation stage of doctoral work, but because advising is individualized and largely unregulated, roles and relations between advisors and advisees appear to be interpersonal and difficult to characterize. This chapter encourages PhD candidates to view these roles and relations as professional ones, with clearly defined responsibilities and expectations. It clarifies the underlying differences of power and attention in these roles, defines what graduate students can reasonably expect from advisors, and recommends strategies for choosing advisors, clarifying expectations, and eliciting constructive feedback on work in progress. The chapter concludes with advice for avoiding and solving misunderstandings and conflicts in these relations.
