the truth said:
Hi,
I'm beginning the program in the fall, and I just got my registration packet in the mail yesterday. I was surprised to see that advisors and the advising system in general were only very briefly mentioned. How does one go about getting an advisor and can a specific person be requested?
Also, if you think a particular advisor is especially helpful in gaining admission to medical school...could you PLEASE PM me?
Thanks very much!!
You'll learn more about this in the fall, but there are no advisors, per se. Rather, several people can advise you. Drs. Franzblau and Broitman are extremely accessible, as are several professors, and all of them give good advice. Dr. Vaughan teaches Histology, and she is Asst. Dean of Admissions for the Med school, so her advice is quite good. Also, Dr. O'Bryan is pretty good, although he can be incredibly blunt and a bit gruff, despite the fact that he's usually right on target. Best go to see him with a stiff upper lip.
The GMS office will list professors who can give you good advice and who have agreed to serve as advisors, but this is not like the traditional grad school concept of being assigned an advisor. The bad thing about this is that it makes you go out and seek advisors. The good thing is that you get several opinions if you want, instead of just one.
For theses, you can select any advisor you wish who agrees to work with you. I decided to do a research thesis, so I went to one of my professors in January (she knew me pretty well), and asked her what I should do. We discussed my interests, I gave her my c.v., she gave me some names, etc. Then I started emailing people my c.v., they forwarded it to others or kept it, etc. Eventually, I found someone who I liked and whose lab I wanted to work in. Thus, I got a thesis advisor. That took a couple of months to get straight. Now I'm doing research in his lab. That person will be my first reader... second reader is anybody at BU of my choosing, I think. Broitman often does it.
Hope this helps.
