PhD Application Red Flags | PhD Tips

In this video, I talk about all of the red flags you should look for when you are applying for a PhD.
▼ ▽ Sign up for my FREE newsletter
Join 19,000+ email subscribers receiving the free tools and academic tips directly from me:
andrewstapleton.com.au/newsle...
▶ Become a Master Academic Writer With AI using my course: academy.academiainsider.com/c...
▶ Use my Ultimate PhD Kickstart: 12 Point Success System for Aspiring PhDs to start your PhD strong: academy.academiainsider.com/c...
▶ My best KZbin advice curated into an an easy to follow course, Effortless Academia: academy.academiainsider.com/c...
▶ Applying for a PhD? Get my FREE PhD application resource pack to apply with confidence: www.subscribepage.com/freeapp...
▶ Learn what I wish I had known before starting my PhD in my ebook bundle: academiainsider.com/ebook-bun...
................................................
▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - bad communication from the start
1:17 - the publication rate of the supervisor
2:40 - access to supervisor
4:09 - recent large-scale restructure
6:42 - no recent PhD graduates but many students

[@CAME18471]

Good to hear the "pyramid scheme" comment. Helps to know I am not the only one with this kind of thoughts.

[@yana.rya_____]

Great tips! One piece of advice someone told me regarding publications is checking to see that an academic has more first and last author papers compared to middle author - this suggest that the academic leads much of their research or produces student-led work.

[@DrAndyStapleton]

That is an excellent tip. Thanks for sharing!

[@juansolis8891]

what would each name position mean?

[@yana.rya_____]

@@juansolis8891 normally the order of authorship depends on the amount of contribution someone makes to the paper. First authors do most of the work. Last authors however are generally the most senior author - the PI/supervisor.

[@juansolis8891]

@@yana.rya_____ Thank you

[@adithya4993]

my supervisor checks all the points.. lured me in with the sweet talk

[@dr_kreative]

Why does no one talk about red flags in a supervisor!?

[@thatsacademic-withstephent2204]

Great video! What you said at the beginning fascinated me: that without PhDs and postdocs, supervisors just don’t do any research. As you mention the lab I am guessing this is a scientific perspective. Fortunately in my discipline (law) this is not the case at all, and most PhD research is curiosity-driven. I’m pleased to say that I have never relied on a single PhD student or postdoc for any of my research BUT I have seen situations developing even in my field where PhD students can only be assigned to supervisors if the supervisor has a grant to pay their fees and stipend. That is all wrong as far as I’m concerned and I worry that even non-sciences could go in the direction you are referring to. PhDs and postdocs definitely should not be some kind of dispensable commodity.

[@yvonneross8244]

Regarding publication rate, I'd also add an unusually high rate of publications. My (toxic) supervisor had a very high publication rate. Nothing obscene, but high and constant enough to be suspect for their position and expected workload at the university.. felt too good to be true... I found out 2 years into the PhD that it was because they are a "publication piggybacker". Apart from being very mean, pushy and manipulative, they rarely do any work for any publications but after the students and lecturers write the papers and collect/analyse the data, they berate the young collaborators to gain first author until all the author's just give up arguing and give them what they want (also found out once I began analysing my results that they literally do not know how to do a single statistics test outside frequencies which confused the heck out of me considering our field and the types of papers they "had written"). A tip I give any new students I meet now is to look at past dissertations of past students that the prospective PhD supervisor has had. The quality of the theses is telling. I also find the acknowledgements speak a lot more subtle truth than expected...

[@thatsacademic-withstephent2204]

The point about an unusually high rate of publications is excellent. One former colleague springs to mind, published a ridiculous amount of publications, every single one of them co-authored or co-edited, usually with more junior colleagues or PhD students - surprise surprise - guess who was doing all the work? Quantity over quality. Junior colleagues and PhDs were in awe of that person, largely through naivety, but those in the know had no respect for him at all because they knew he was a fraud.

[@knowsherwan]

Very helpful insight

[@Dentist_on_Youtube]

'Publication piggybacker' is an epidemic in healthcare academucs

[@mahejabeen1543]

Whenever I have doubt, I come and watch your videos. Thanks Andy!

[@ultankearns6689]

Thanks for the great advice Andy! I found your channel during my masters in Artificial Intelligence research and found your advice extremely helpful in completing it. I'm currently thinking of doing a PhD but I'm pretty lost on the ins and outs of applying, this video was a great help!

[@alexanderwang2632]

I avoided academia because the game; I can't get over the politics, seeing Ph.d students as a corvée class, and institutions ironically being less open-minded and innovative than corporations and banks. Nevertheless, I'm switching from a investment/corp finance education to neural bioengineering and want to go ALL in, so your videos have been a great help thus far. Just discovered your channel literally 2 hours ago.

[@knowsherwan]

That is a strange career shift I think.

[@chanelcooper6613]

Hi Andy! I’m not sure if you’ve done a video on this already but could you do a video on how to keep a lab book throughout your PhD? I’m just starting mine and I feel this could be really useful to hear your tips! 👍🏻

[@MyLife4Aiur]

Thanks for the great content. :)

[@DrAndyStapleton]

My pleasure!

[@Drganguli]

Must do background check on supervisor through sources at the university like current and graduated students

[@pratikshapise1]

Your all videos very informative,thank you so much sir for sharing your experience, your videos motivating us , please tell me sir ,if I persived PhD from deemed University , is this PhD bad influence for get a job R&D sectors please ans

[@sunb678]

I'm currently experiencing the 1st red flag😅 complete non communicado from 5 potential supervisors 🙃

[@Natketty]

Me and the other post-doc of the lab are leaving our toxic lab soon, with more than one year left of funding, including our own research fundings for materials lol It is absurd to me how a prof. Can treat so poorly even his post-docs with own fundings and think we will stay put and continue with his abuse. And he does not learn, because he Lost a post-doc in a similar way last year, unbelievable.

[@nohafouad7916]

Now is the time for filling out applications for PhD scholarships/fellowships for the academic year of 2020to 2023. Could you please let us know your thoughts about how to fill out a winning successful application that can win such a worthy opportunity?

[@runrunrun6517]

Hi Andy, I have got three Ph.D. offers now but I am still waiting for the reply from my top choice program. The professor from my top choice said he is trying hard to help me get the offer, but he can't guarantee it. Now it is approaching the April 15th deadline. I am unsure if it is ok to accept one offer and decline it later. So, I hope to seek advice from you. Thank you! Hopefully, you can see this comment.

[@VladyslavKL]

🕊️

[@colleenstuart190]

Oh Andy...you are so funny...the pyramid scheme makes me laugh every time!!!!