Comments on: Trying to find Profs at a University? Just 5.4 clicks away…

By: Rebecca Dickson

Rebecca Dickson — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:50:16 +0000

Hi Chris,
My daughter has been struggling with this exact problem as she attempts to apply for her Masters. In fact, frustration with navigating universities’ websites to apply for her Bachelors eliminated more than one university from her application file.

By: Chris Buddle

Chris Buddle — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:42:28 +0000

Thanks everyone, for the comments – these have confirmed what my little project showed. So… can we do to make a change? Perhaps, at the very least, Departments/Unit need to have a VERY clear list of faculty with descriptions of what they do, so hopefully a google search will get people to that page. And it’s pretty clear that individuals also need to have their own profiles independent of a Uni website.

Finally, as was suggested to be move through twitter, “directories” can be important e.g., http://esc-sec.ca/direntomology.php and http://entsoc.org/resources/education/colleges (thanks Chris MacQuarrie for reminding me of those lists)

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:31:20 +0000

Collecting information for grad applications was so frustrating an experience that I could only resign myself to the idea that ferreting what I needed from university websites was part of the evaluation process. And it shouldn’t be.

By: PSYL

PSYL — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:26:41 +0000

Most of it all comes down to luck, I think, regarding to finding the most suitable project/professor as a new graduate student. Other parts of the process are networking and knowing the most appropriate places to search (e.g. society webpages, third-party sites with position postings, etc).

It certainly weeds out the less-passionate students if they easily give up at this very initial stage of their career.

That being said, I wish there is a Canadian version of http://www.findaphd.com/ because that’s what I am heading towards to in the coming part of my career.

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:55:05 +0000

I don’t know if you’ve seen this comic: http://xkcd.com/773/

By: TGIQ

TGIQ — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:16:05 +0000

It’s a real problem. I remember spending an incredible number of hours looking for labs for my PhD (I was in the position, as you’ve suggested, of not really knowing who/what I was looking for and so was using a shot-in-the-dark approach). Sometimes googling “entomology” was helpful but not always, as many practicing entomologists identify as ecologists, modellers, evolutionary biologists, etc. and as you know there are nearly no formal entomology departments in Canada. It was basically a matter of manually working through University web sites, one by one, (page by page by page by page by…) until I hit on something that looked appropriate. A very frustrating and time-consuming experience. (I’m lucky I managed to find YOU in all that mess, lol)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:52:37 +0000

I absolutely agree with your frustration as I have ‘been there done that’! Both while on search for my M.Sc. and Ph.D….. and currently again while thinking of post docs. Although there will always be a culture of networking and ‘who you know’ in academia, I am always at lost for an answer when undergrads come to me for advice about how to find potential supervisors. For those interested in my general field I usually sit down with them and give them a list of names to google, since its often easier to find someone’s website (personal or university) via a search engine than within the university’s website. Otherwise my best suggestion is for them to look in the literature and google names of people whose research they admire. Granted this can be a very time-consuming and often frustrating exercise if the people they are looking for don’t have a website (or a very poor one). The Google Scholar profile is a great idea but not one I have seen used very often.

By: terry wheeler

terry wheeler — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:17:10 +0000

Since universities started building a web presence back in the 90s I have felt that their websites are some of the worst-designed on the web. I do not understand why it’s SO hard to make a clear, attractive, intuitive interface with the world. We may be under the impression that the primary audience for university websites is students, but I think we’d be wrong. The front pages of most university websites are there to say “look how awesome we are!” They trumpet the accomplishments of the people who are already there, or who have been there in the past. This appeals to the media, the donors and the alumni, and it may make the place very appealing to potential students. But the next thing those potential students must do is Enter The Maze. Good luck, young searchers. I think many more potential students and collaborators find me through my blog or facebook or other more ‘friendly” gateways, than those who navigate the institutional labyrinth.