Lessons in Retrospect: Two PhD Co-Advisors

Introduction

Back in September 2020, I identified my advisors and a project for my doctoral study in the Mathematics Department at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. I had a very carefully thought out plan for how to identify an advisor(s) that would be a good fit for me given my interests, needs, and career goals. This plan was part of my larger idea of how to become a visible entity in the department as a graduate student relatively new to the Ph.D. program. I told this story here almost a year ago.

Now, I’m reflecting back on that process and realized that I made a very good decision, so I’m going to share some new criteria you might want to consider if you’re looking for a (Ph.D.) advisor of your own. Also, I’ll talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve realized come from having two co-advisors, rather than a single advisor that oversees everything you’re working on.

Image courtesy of dbderuiter via Pixabay

Advantages of two co-advisors

Each co-advisor will inevitably have their own research program, even though the process of being co-advised is effectively a three-way collaboration between you and the advisors. What this means is that the two advisors will have different — but likely overlapping — areas of expertise. This gives the student an exciting opportunity to work in an area where those two sub-disciplines merge into something that…