PhD Horror Stories: You Won't Believe What These Supervisors Did!

In this video, we're sharing the worst PhD supervisors ever. These are the professors who ruin your chances of getting a PhD and making a successful career in academia.
If you're considering a PhD, then be sure to avoid these terrible PhD supervisors. These are the professors who will make you miserable and ruin your chances of getting a successful career in academia. By the end of this video, you'll know what to look for in a good PhD supervisor and what to avoid.
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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - introduction
0:15 - case one
1:59 - case two
4:13 - case three
5:40 - case four
7:14 - case five
8:24 - wrapping up
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[@BarryHemmings]

I was diagnosed with a grade 3 bowel cancer during my doctorate. I took a year off for treatment ( surgery, chemo etc.). My original supervisor moved on to another uni during that year. My new supervisor, in our first meeting told me that I clearly lacked commitment based on my lack of progress. Our relationship never recovered. Disgraceful human being.

[@tapashyarasaily1373]

it was so inconsiserate and unkind of him specially when you told him you had cancer. they are not even aware of what they are saying, they use words like' not serious' so casually.

[@olunet]

What do you expect them to answer? Do you have a named person to resolve misunderstanding? Do you have a special training in communication according to the university guides? Just asking to get a full picture. PS As you serve it from a personal perspective: Do you know whether that supervisor had cancer?

[@lukaszspychaj9210]

​@@olunetLooks like Barrys supervisor found his comment!

[@user-tp2fj9lz7u]

Comes down to power imbalance between supervisor and student. The supervisor’s behaviour in some of the cases of exploitation, lack of attribution to student and bullying should be considered academic misconduct by the supervisor. In extreme cases, they should have their professorship and grants removed, and their reputation should consequently suffer as like in case of academic fraud.

[@BarryHemmings]

@olunet I expected something more humane. Perhaps something like "Given the setback, what do we need to do to get on with the project"? The supervisor's partner was a cancer survivor in fact. Didn't help with the behaviour though.

[@sindhusekar1]

My God. As a PhD holder myself, none of these surprise me!

[@gongren2514]

Some professor is pure garbage. I just wonder how they were climbing to that position. Our society is really sick.

[@LogainLbue]

Some echoes from my experience: - Got into the Ph.D. in veterinary medicine, apparently because I'm big enough to handle the physical work of a project (my hypothesis). -Once the first project ends (6 months later) I'm left to dry with no purpose, funding, or interest from any member of the senior team. They bounce me for the rest of the year "landing a hand" to half of the faculty. - In my second year I'm able to publish a review article by myself (naming all the departments of course), which makes it worse because now I bypassed the established hierarchy. They leave me another year with no project, no funding, and no directions...cutting down any attempt on my side to an initiative of collaboration with external tutors. - I finally break with this approach and fund my own startup, winning a 20,000 euro prize in the first competition. It allows me to conclude the experiments using additional prizes, and self-funding almost the entire content of my thesis. - It doesn't sit well with the rest of the department, especially as I had the audacity to offer a collaboration between the startup activity and the faculty. They ghost me for the rest of the Ph.D., including thesis reviews. - In the thesis defense, the external reviewers are very interested and impressed with the topic, and my tutor and Ph.D. coordinator take full credit for the work. -My last communication from my tutor, was "Good work" on WhatsApp after the defense.

[@SuperAwesomedude20]

What the actual fuck. Reading that makes me so pissed off

[@kellirust5112]

I'm 7 weeks into a PhD program in Australia, and my primary advisor just held a Zoom conference with me to say she was pulling her support. I was completely blindsided, the Zoom call lasted about 5 minutes, and she didn't offer any reasoning. As a result, my entire PhD project has fallen apart. Her only advice was "the University has to help you find another advisor, and I'll e-mail you a link for counselling. Good Luck". The University's only advice was to e-mail other professors for support, but upon doing that, most of the responses are extremely negative and have impugned me for landing myself in this situation. I can't believe advisors can abandon their students with zero consequences. At this point, I will likely quit my PhD program; this entire situation has ruined my mental health and my life.

[@morimorian1437]

Let it go it is not worth it. I am also in the same situation in Australia, but I do not give a hack about it. as long as you can take your scholarship and apply for another program or a job. PhD programs in Australia are like a joke.

[@Xcalator35]

That's really sad Kelli. This kind of abuse really makes me mad. Lots of courage and all the best...

[@OmarOttoman]

You are lucky for being only 7 weeks old. There are people whom this happens to them after years!

[@sweetavocado7021]

😢 im still on process sending my dissertation proposal and got some rejections 😢

[@bluebelle_thenerd]

yikes. what university is this?

[@heidiheidi0]

These cases are pretty typical i think. I have also experienced one myself. It was so bad that I had to re-apply to programs and start all over again. For females, it seems the strategy is to put them down, socially isolate them, gaslight them, and distrust their work. At the end, I got a different PhD program, finished it in three years and landed a permanent position. Unfortunately, it is more common than not that PhD supervisors do not have adequate people managing skills. The biggest factor to success as a phD student is finding a supervisor who is not crazy.

[@RyuDouro]

There should be a way to report these and make them public. Just like product reviews.

[@michaelroussi7292]

These stories and more were the reasons for me to walk away from PhD and decided to become a lawyer and independent operator. Thanks to your videos, they opened my eyes and had a few interviews for supervisors. I realised the toxicity and lack of integrity in the profession due to the non-existence of accountability, a PhD student is at the mercy of a toxic ocean. In addition, all this hard journey for 3-5 years with a minimum scholarship to end up unemployed or a slave as a postdoc. Be smart and take control.

[@hideakipage8151]

I had a fight with my supervisor from the get go. We clashed on everything. I'd come from industry. The experimental procedures in their lab, particularly the electronics, were laughable and the measurements that they based their work on were plain wrong. However, he could not be questioned. My supervisor had no insight into his field. Regurgitating equations does not constitute knowledge. I was asked to set up a dangerous experiment that I refused to do ( I could cut in two by a very high pressure line whilst heating a 10kbar pressure vessel). I tried to change supervisor according to the Universities 'procedures'. That put the wind up him. I got my PhD. He wasn't even at the viva. During the viva, the external examiner was pressing a point so I described some measurements and the results that I had left out of the thesis following advice from my supervisor. The external couldn't believe that such vital information was not better received. I spent 8 years in post doctoral research. I travelled widely and worked with many European research institutes. Much of what I've described above has been repeated elsewhere. My experience has been that most academics are the scum of the earth.

[@staciweaver7801]

I'm also from industry and have similar views to you. "Laughable" says it all.

[@sadegharian3451]

I’m not sure about Australia, but here is the US you can find at least on of those cases in 9 out of 10 labs. The problem is the system that lets faculty get away with this level of abuse

[@boxeriain]

I know a supervisor, not my own, who constantly interrupts talks, who absolutely loves the sound of his own voice, interjecting every bloody talk the students are trying to present to the group.

[@heidiheidi0]

I know a guy like that too. Just loves to talk and interject but ultimately says nothing of substance.

[@JasperFromMS]

I'm not an academic. I'm a former police investigator with a lot of experience in paper crimes. In my state, some of this behavior could be criminal. If someone misrepresents a past or present fact to obtain something of value; that's a crime. I would definitely need to know more about these cases; but I would pursue it if these people walked into my office.

[@staciweaver7801]

You should team up with recent PhD graduates and help them find justice. There are SO MANY of these stories.

[@nickbrown8729]

Ive got a crazy story if your interested in hearing mine.

[@olunet]

You do not see all facts. Each university has a different policy. For example, in some the IPR on the PhD thesis belongs to the supervisor (no matter what). In most, the roles of students and supervisors are written in the PhD contract -- from that point some stories sound ungrounded. Etc. The video is provacative and missleading. Andy should have shown massive patterns of misbehaving that lead to serious consequences (like suicides) but also highlight measures of resolution.

[@vitorribeirosa]

The end of my phd was a nightmare. The last story is very similar to my experience in japan. Long journeys at lab and juggling multiple tasks to earn my salary. It was excruciating. I don't know if i developed a Stockholm syndrome, i kinda see my supervisor's reasoning afterwards. Although i totally disagree with this way to handle things, it's how most of works are run in japan. As i am still linked to the lab in a comfortable position now, i try to make newcomer's lives easier and provide a support that i never had in my time as a phd candidate. I am trying to break this cycle.

[@Ericlau1126]

God bless you

[@Xcalator35]

That's very noble of you. Unfortunatelly most people 'change' as soon as they get their hands into positions of power and replicate the worst things that happened to them! BTW, is there some 'cultural clash' in your story? You're working in Japan but your name sounds portuguese (I'm portuguese). We all know strange stories about Japan's work ethic.

[@AkosuaBiggles]

I'm in the same situation in China here. I already have 4 published papers that need to do more.

[@beccafranklin6683]

I just had flashbacks to the PhD I quit 😂😂. After all this years I feel validated. Tbh I did know it was my supervisors issue, the university and research council offered me and extra years funding to help me start over but I was past it at that point.

[@lindaabraham8715]

I was a student and lab assistant at a major public university in Florida for 30 years, and I must say that my experience with lousy research supervisors far surpasses yours, with all due respect. In the 80s, I was accepted as a grad assistant in botany. My research depended on a working electron microscope, which was continually in need of repair, and when it was working there was a long queue. My "supervisor" had no time to address my problems, or help me interpret the pictures I was getting because all his efforts were devoted to becoming the department chairman (which he never did). My funding source depended on identifying species of fungus that were submitted from around the state, but there was no one willing to teach me how. When I left, he was only angry because he had lost the funding. The experiences of others at this university include working for 8 years in the School of Medicine on a project with little or no supervision, only to be told that the work did not justify a PhD and the now 30-year-old student had to give it up. The student went to the supervisor's house and shot him. A foreign student in a similar situation could not face going home without a degree and committed suicide. In another case, a researcher in neurology was arrested for videotaping himself with a prostitute together with her daughter and it was in the newspapers. He was fired and his students... well, I don't know what happened to them, but I doubt they bragged about their mentor. In the Philosophy Department, grad students were required to attend faculty parties in the nude, and at least one professor had to pay for a student's abortion. Another prof kept his lab super cold because he believed that it kept the students more alert--they all wore coats. Another prof, and his assistant wife, refused to wear deodorant, rode bicycles to work in the Florida heat, and the reek hit you the moment you walked into the lab or his tiny office. Another scientist could not overcome his chain-smoking addiction, and because smoking on campus was illegal he kept the lab locked. You had to call him on the phone first to get in, and the smoke was so heavy inside that it make you dizzy and nauseous. I could go on...

[@raspian1019]

Whats the university's name?

[@morimorian1437]

HAHAH, please keep going lets people become aware of the shit things that are going on in academia.

[@Rats153]

Awful

[@lindaabraham8715]

@@raspian1019 UF

[@lindaabraham8715]

@@morimorian1437 OK, here is one: a Moslem prof in Mechanical Engineering purposely took on Jewish students. For about 2 weeks, he was extremely solicitous and understanding about any problems. Then, he was always too "busy" for any contact at all. After a few weeks he fired you, complaining bitterly about your gross incompetence, despite the fact that you had worked your heart out all on your own. Since I was not the first this happened to, I visited the department chairman and he paid me several thousand dollars to go away quietly. Apparently, department chairmen have funds to waylay scandals.

[@tifikocku]

I came to work with a supervisor who had all these red flags. Was and still is the worst experience I ever had. He doesn't even have a Ph.D.; he's only MD, but they are treated as equals in the USA. His science was so poor and he didn't understand his own "hypothesis". One day he said that I wasn't smart enough to understand his ideas. Nobody likes him in this university and now I know why. Now, I'm working for a new PI and every short win here is well-recognized. Escape ASAP from this egomaniacs psychos guys

[@sashanealand8315]

I am so glad you told these stories because nobody will believe me. I worked in a lab where none of the chemical fume hoods or ventilation worked. The advisors solution was to open the doors to provide ventilation which didnt really work as it 90 degrees outside. Most of the air conditions were broken in the lab rooms but one did work, we were were however not allowed to turn on thid air conditioning because the advisor wanted to "save money for the college."

[@Ah-jw7dv]

Oh boy, I wouldn't title the video 'You Won't Believe' but rather 'Get Used To What Some Supervisor Do'. I've gone through many of these red flags, plus other horrors such as Supervisors taking a consierable 'pinch' of a PhD Student Research Grant; Supervisor appearing suddenly (after months away and no interest in the project) in a research project of my own to emphasize everyone present that I am his student and this is his line of research; Supervisor pressing for co-director and authorship credit for a Thesis Research Product for which he has done nothing... I mean, I could write so many situations and red flags. I've seen and experienced so much corruption in my five years as an expat, I just long for the defense of my thesis and closing this chapter.

[@mamaguile7587]

Case 2 happened to me but something serendipitous happened that caused a change in supervisor. Now things are soooooo much better.

[@zemlya378]

Hello Andy. I just had an incident happen to me. Nine months in before my first milestone, my supervisor asked me what my project was on. Never read any of my work to the point they didn't even know my research gap. Then after found out, told me to go away for a month a rethink my topic. Did that, still said it wasn't good, gave no advices and then yesterday told me they no longer want to supervise me. Absolutely devastating. Has completely crushed me.

[@DisabledPeoplesProject]

What happened in the end?

[@zakaria3557]

My supervisors are toxic very much I don’t know what to do I stand up and face them but scared they will not graduate me, I am miserable because of them unfortunately

[@staciweaver7801]

You are not alone.

[@mackes3683]

I heard all these stories in on way or another. My PhD supervisor was good, but I experienced slave labor as a postdoc. Other experiences were incompetent supervisors and someone who changed the conditions after I started. I was neither allowed to apply for my own grant nor could I publish any results because the research was industry funded. I needed the job to maintain my visa, like most postdocs and students who weren't citizens or green card holders (most).

[@OmarOttoman]

I am living through a horror story now towards supposedly the end of my phd in a Russian university.

[@tiotsopkamouolivier3031]

Could you please share your experience? I will be very interesting to know as I am about to start my PhD in Russia too! TIA

[@OmarOttoman]

@@tiotsopkamouolivier3031 My short advice is don’t go. They will use you to get funding from the government (which pays their salaries) and also will use you to publish paper with their affiliation to enhance their bibilometric standing, then at the defense stage (if you ever reach it because most students are fired within 2 years if they don’t publish at least one paper), they will give you the cold shoulder and not care about seeing you finish. I recommend that you ask for the attrition rate and get in touch with several previous students (especially those that failed) to get a complete picture before you go there and waste your time and effort.

[@ttys0]

My advice to here. If you want to go for PhD the only things is matters is the Supervisor. Make sure you get a best fitting supervisor for you. Don't think about the topic, you will learn it. I didn't know anything about control theory at the begining, and I defended with 100%, because I had a best Supervisor in the World, and he teched me that topic in no time.

[@heisferdy]

I think you're about to get a bunch of stories in the comments. I know of a few horror stories that occurred with students.

[@mayaasrivastava23]

I can very much relate to the case 4 during my Masters program. He expected us to be in labs even on Saturdays and Sundays, working late like till 10 pm..

[@ch.k4580]

Really scary stories. But I have my own story. Just finished my PhD and now I am working as a PostDoc. I have to say, the first four stories were combined in my story and even worse. I had to run an entire lab on my own without help and shifting the entire lab with equipments. In these four years I was my own PhD/PostDoc/PI/Lab technician. I learned alot from a managing perspective but that is not how academia should be. On top of course some sexism stuff but also mental abuse and raising the voice against me. The former PI is doing fine by neglecting me and even not coming to my defence. He lives his life somewhere else and does not have to face any consequences. This really needs to change.

[@olunet]

Change it. Be a better supervisor to your students.

[@ch.k4580]

@@olunet thanks. I am doing this exactly and so far, every student went with a smile and was thankful to have me. Such a great feeling.

[@user-gl7yz7sn1y]

The first story resonated with me so much. I am facing almost the same thing with my supervisor. I am relieved to see that his actions would be classified as horrifying everywhere. And it gives me more strength to look for another phd supervisor .

[@TomasOlivaMusic]

I have a friend who was doing PhD in my country. While the recommended PhD time here is 4 years, most people tend to do their PhD for 7 years (cheap workforce). She was doing her PhD at a very prestigious research institute here. Her supervisor was trully an amazing guy - super smart, really helpful, the Richard Feynman type. Who wasn't all that amazing was the person who ran the whole division she did her PhD at (the boss of the supervisor). That person didn't like the supervisor all that much and was looking for reasons to get rid of him. That opportunity happened when the supervisor didn't publish a paper for over a year and his contract was up for an annual extension. He was given an ultimatum but his contract was never extended. My friend was left without a supervisor after 4 years of doing PhD. She left the PhD soon after.

[@mudong7407]

being at one of the top uni in Australia doing research, I was shocked at how rude my primary supervisor is. Despite having student reported being bullied by her, she got promotion by the organisation. She claim to empower women and the disadvantaged, but she is doing the opposite. Such as verbally abusing student, discourage scientifc discussion among the group, telling me don't ask questions, delaying and reducing experiments, saying they are busy, but in fact the actual test won't take an hour to do. For example, we already planned the experiemts, but the postdoc want to show that she is really busy despite having plenty time having moring tea and afternon exercise, so they came to an agreement to reduce my test after weeks of waiting while the equpiment was not in use. She then told me to have a meeting with other supervisor to discuss the experiemts, but she already made up her mind before the meeting and told me I am not going to do what is initially planned but what she and her postdoc see fit and received her postduc email about the testing before I have meeting with my other supervisors.

[@siamsama2581]

Man you demotivate me to do PhD and Academia so much with so many of your videos 😔🥺 I'm going into 3rd year now for my 4 year Msci program in the UK.

[@henduby]

I dont think so... he is keeping you informed so you will make the right decision when the time comes. I am in my 3rd year and hence I can tell you that U dont know how fortunate U are to be aware of these issues

[@joggerino3284]

Honestly, when you are an engineer or similar, there is no need for a PhD. If you are a chemist or phycisist, only do it, if it is good for your career in industry. Never ever plan your future in academia. Do not go for a PhD if you are a woman, you will only become less attractive and fertile.

[@OmarOttoman]

Ask about attrition rate and contact information of failed students before you join any PhD program.

[@yourboiaids4098]

@@joggerino3284What the fuck were you on about women being “fertile”? What a weirdo.

[@fabiancrespo9396]

I am a PhD candidate at University of Vigo, Spain with a Marie S. Curie Fellowship, after working 4 years developing a theoretical mathematical method( together with an external collaborator) and testing with simulated data, I received the first real datasets. When I received the real datasets; I already was out of funding and working for a private company. In this year(5th year of my PhD) my supervisor is blocking my thesis by telling that he is pulling his support. Now I am in charge to email potential supervisors to review my thesis. My academic background is different from my PhD supervisor and I have suffered bullying from him and the rest of students and postdocs in the lab. He has isolated me from the rest of the department which makes harder for me to look for another supervisor in the same university. Also, my PhD supervisor said that I cannot use the real datasets for my PhD thesis.

[@garystrittmater8258]

There was a case decades ago where a guy chased a PhD in Math and got the runaround for years until one day, he walked into his office and hammered his supervisor to death! He went to prison and at his parole gearing, he said he was sorry for his family but he deserved what he got! Upon release, he found many jobs in Aerospace! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@sahiljindal]

Rare PHD Student W 😂🔥🔥

[@sashanealand8315]

I love this story

[@simsimmoha7358]

My supervisor kept asking me to cancel my vacation ( knowing that in all cases i work from home with my family rather than staying alone ) and come to lab during summer to work with him, otherwise he wont have time to me. I canceled my flight, when i asked him to meet, he said that he is in vacation and he denied what he asked me, and i found my self all alone in an empty lab and an empty city because i was living in a student city, and then he disappeared during 1 complete year. He did this to me just because i corrected one of his mathematical equations, and instead of mentionning my name as a contributor or at least thanking me or even leaving me in peace, he started creating problems to me .

[@jhamdan2012]

I believe it 100%.... in my master's research project which was only six months, I had a few panic attack, so I can envisage with the PhD program working under the mercy of a professor.

[@vulpes6144]

How about the politics, gossip and extremely toxic environment? I have heard of supervisors who are EXTREMELY racist, xenophobic, and just expect you to validate this BS.

[@Shasen589]

I have a supervisor who basically condoned the racist remarks of one of his students because he sees that racist POS as an asset to some of his publications.

[@audreygurion642]

Where do I begin. We were part of a larger collaboration: - he stole my code, presented it as his own work, and used it with other students without my permission. - he isolated me from the other collaborators. He removed me from the group mailing list, saying, if there's an email that concerns you, I will forward it to you. - minimized his conceptual mistakes and amplified any of my minor oversights. - spent maybe 2 months out of the year in my institute, and expected me to reply during Christmas, New Years, and summer holidays. - the knowledge flow went only in one direction, from me to him. We never discussed results. If I asked questions, he'd say that I should find the answer myself. If I made hypotheses, he'd drain me to the bone to prove self-evident and established results in the community through my simulations. - he traveled to conferences to present exclusively my work because I was his only student and he didn't have a first author paper in years, and expected me to make last minute edits to plots to fit his presentations. - when I wrote my thesis, he said it was infantile and undeserving of a degree. I asked for specific feedback on how to improve my writing. He said it was too much work because none of it was salvageable. When I received my referee response, I cried because the referee praised my depth, breadth of knowledge, and meticulousness. - He literally made me s****dal. Once, just to combat the gaslighting, I copy/pasted a section from the review paper of a scientist he idolizes, and I pretended it was my own thesis writing. He could not even tell our writing styles apart and he said "come back to me when you've written something that makes sense and not still this garbage". - he gave me literal paralyzing anxiety and depression. The intrusive thoughts and negative echo of his words at one point became so strong that I struggled to formulate individual sentences. Getting out of bed in the morning was excruciating. - worst thing is, I documented all of this, reached out to HR, and they advised me for my own good to not push it further. But in the end they did help me out because he wanted to delay my graduation and they ignored him. - these are just the highlights. Many other abhorrent acts would require too much context and background. It took me becoming a supervisor myself to recover. Somehow, with the help of my supportive wonderful family and other collaborators, I'm tenure-track now. I know that without outside help, now I would either be out of academia or worse.

[@staciweaver7801]

Thank you for sharing your story. I have seen this behavior myself and it is beyond awful and unacceptable. HR is a joke when it comes to protecting students.

[@sahilsaiini]

But did he have any substantial consequences for harrassing you like that? Probably not, because academia covers for and enables such toxic harrassers and narcissists.

[@audreygurion642]

@@staciweaver7801 HR exists to take care of University interests and nothing else. They’re not out to fix issues, but to keep intact the image of the university. That’s what I’ve learned with my experience

[@audreygurion642]

@@sahilsaiini he faced no consequences whatsoever except losing my labor for an extra year.

[@sahilsaiini]

@@audreygurion642 Exactly. No consequences. I know many cases.

[@keikob.613]

I am still recovering from my PhD work in Denmark...My supervisor is used to sexually predate on his PhD students and junior researchers (at the age of his daughter),offering then extra help and authorships,grants in exchange..in the lab where his depressed wife works.Everyone suspected I am also his mistress from the start.Horribly toxic lab and almost whole research departemnt of the institute. He then took my first author project from me, later tried to take me another one so that I could not finish my PhD in normal time or at all and pushed me to burnout and depression.The colleagues in the lab were silent, because this was beneficial for them, due to grants etc.Also, crappy research work and no trouble to publish incorrect results for ego boosts... Total nightmare

[@missdm8137]

Wow, I thought that PhD in Denmark is so much better then in Czech Republc, but it is the same! Sexual predators, taking your first-author projects and unpurposely making it impossible to finish PhD, publishing incorrect results (which personally freaked me out how casual labmates are about it) and the silence of others. I really think something really bad needs to happen so it triggers demand for better treatment for PhD students. You are stronger then you think since you survive such a miserable environment. Remember that you are not alone - there are many others in similar situations like me. We should have some kind of support group.❤❤❤

[@sunb678]

My god what a creep, may I ask if this happened at DTU (top research university near copenhagen)

[@xinesita]

Not a PhD horror story, but I knew of a medical residency supervisor that made her residents buy her groceries and file her taxes for her.

[@sashanealand8315]

I know of one that made the postdoc give her haircuts.

[@Drganguli]

These situations are unfortunate. Most PhD advisors try to help their students.

[@timothyrday1390]

I don't feel so bad now having gone through a doctoral program in the humanities. We take our lumps and have some bad stories, but it's nowhere near the horror show that consistently unfolds in the hard sciences.

[@BlueGiant69202]

More than a decade ago, I heard the screechy horror movie strings being bowed when a person said that it was very common in his field for people to get a PhD as just a badge of authority and a way to see what was going on and then they would go into administration.Screech! Screech!Screech!

[@timothyrday1390]

@@BlueGiant69202 Sounds like an EdD to me. 😅

[@KazumiYuna]

I'm currently doing my master's thesis and thinking about doing a PhD. I love research but I hate the academic system. I had some really horrible lab rotations. During this lab rotation, we students were caught between two fighting project leaders. They (both were postdocs) fought for money, the PI's attention, and supervising us. It was a really toxic environment. For this reason, I thought about leaving academia. For my thesis, I joined another lab. The Pi is really old and will retire soon. So the group consists of one Ph.D. student who loves supervising me. There is no pressure. People are nice. It is a good learning environment and I enjoy being in the lab again. I wonder if I can prevent such horror stories by joining a lab at my hometown university. I like the PI's research topic and he is one of the few nice PIs who somehow made it through this system. He takes care of his Ph.D. students and protects them from harm. Of course, there are other more interesting research topics but I wonder if this is maybe the safer option. As a PhD student, you are so extremely dependent and vulnerable What I also noticed in the Master's program is that Ph.D. students are very different. Some Ph.D. candidates are independent from day one and manage very quickly on their own, others need help from their advisor or technical assistants until the end. As a Master's student, I was often not allowed to work independently. I was often micromanaged by Ph.D. students. It was so frustrating. Could you make a video explaining what level of independence is expected of a Bachelor, Master or Ph.D. student?

[@mohsine_m965]

I love how you make the content very clear, rigorous and rich!

[@becavallazzi]

Wow loved this video topic! Keep doing them!

[@anneshleah3626]

Not really a horrible stor,y but still somewhat revealing of the lack of proper organization in our lab (Europe): We had a new Ph.D coming over from China to start in our lab. On the day he's scheduled to arrive, I walk through the lobby during lunch time, spot him purely by chance, as I had seen him briefly during his interview, and when I ask him what's up he tells me that he'd been sitting there the whole morning, waiting for someone to take him in (you need a badge to enter). Turned out his supervisor was not there that week, and nobody else had a clue that this guy was arriving. Well, some in the administration might have had, but perhaps just didn't bother to check. If I hadn't recognized him, God knows how many days he would have spent in that lobby...

[@ohaharsir]

This is the story of "Lulu" (pseudonym, but a real story) Lulu works hard in their 1st yr, got the topic they wished for and keeps working hard even on holiday. The energetic Lulu helps the faculty with many chores, the typical 'please do this poster for me' and so on. Lulu is just that versatile! capable! dependable! At the end of the year, Lulu could not be happier. Then one day, the head of faculty called him in to personally inform him that he has to change his topic (to keep it frank, let's just say a musician asked to work on a sculpture). It's not really negotiable because Lulu's dad is one of the prof in the university and happens to be a close friend with the head of faculty. "It would benefit you if you change your topic." (The truth behind this trajectory is because Lulu's dad has a studio, there are left over materials post-production, Lulu's dad and the head of faculty have a chitchat one day, they realizes how cool would it be if one could transform those left over into something something KNOWLEDGE!) At that time inside the head of faculty's office, Lulu doesn't know the causes behind the change until later on. Months passed. "Lulu is cool with it" said Lulu who is sitting opposite myself at a café. "For Lulu's family, it's the right thing to do." I wishes all the best in Lulu's life and all the supports in the world. (Sorry for grammatical errors and typos T_T)

[@ioneliabuzatu5019]

You mean her dad played her out all this entire time? What? How is she now?

[@ohaharsir]

@@ioneliabuzatu5019 Sorry I could not tell whether it's a he or she. Regarding your questions: - "You mean her dad played her out all this entire time?" - Yes and this person believes that it's for the greater good (family's recognition n fame). So its questionable to say whether this person got 'played' or not, but surely manipulated to a certain extent. - This person is still enrolled and in few months will be in the 3rd of yr of their PHD.

[@abbodali3167]

Dear Andi, I have suffered from a horrible situation with supervisors who have been practicing Stelling students efforts and sell it as private projects. I used to speak up and I am still fighting to get my rights back and make an example for students who have been victimised to speak up ,and we stop these kind of corruption in academia. I hope I can contact with you. My story got viral in the media and I am still fighting. I will do share links related to my story here.

[@abbodali3167]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jH2ceGhtbM2ei8U

[@vortanoise.2625]

Fortunately I'm a math student, so I would rarely have anything to do with a lab.

[@decaien]

In my case it was a double nightmare. My old male supervisor was inexplicably beholden to a female PI next door, such that they were completely inseparable and took to unofficially co-supervising their pool of students. The female PI was a complete fraud and an overt bully who made life miserable for most students, while my PI would pretend to be a voice of reason to soothe things over. We all wondered why such a reasonable and seemingly honest full professor would bend over backwards for this associate prof who couldn't generate a thought on her own or even string together a coherent sentence when discussing science. It took years to understand that he was complicit in the abuse while reveling in his image as a gentleman. Among their crimes were: - Bullying certain students to generate fraudulent data for grant submissions. - Male PI gifting BOTH co-corresponding and first authorship to the female PI despite having no real input, while stripping students away from their due credit. - Exploiting students by prolonging their thesis submission date, such that they lose their stipend and had to work for free. One poor guy couldn't afford to rent an apartment and spent a year living in the server room in the lab. - Being insanely jealous of young tenure-track talent. They'd have discussions and agree to pursue promising new projects, but when it became evident that the young PI would outshine them, they'd throw a hissy fit and bury the relationship and project regardless of how much work their own students have put in. In a rare instance, we were avenged. Male PI is close to retirement age, and he was set to get a powerful emeritus position at a neighboring institution, and once again propping up the female PI to also get a powerful position there. A close friend of mine is faculty at this institution and made it his mission to torpedo the transfer and succeeded.

[@zray2937]

I love revenge stories.

[@decaien]

@@zray2937 Felt pretty damn good, ngl.

[@phyarth8082]

From five horror stories 3 are: 1) Macromanagment (supervisor have no impact of students work or lost for couple of months from view and in the end expects results) 2) Micromanagement (supervisor meticulously nags' about every details of thesis and breaths over students shoulder) 3) Workaholics (supervisors same as in school to work in groups do all jobs listen no advice from group knows everything and thinks that everyone around him are lazy or stupid not allow play in his "sandbox" and thinks about himself very highly). By rules of average Micromanagement is worst horrors' story from all :)))))))))))))

[@musicmixtube6882]

The last example looks like my current Lab

[@llbodlearning8591]

From API score, number of successful supervised Ph.D.s must be removed.

[@grahamhilton3110]

Just about 5 months into my PhD and find it difficult to get any help even after asking my supervisors. Annoyed them over my last meeting I accidentally missed but when I ask it’s always we are very busy 😮 not sure if I am even making any progress. Any advice ?

[@znohm5376]

Hey, in case you cannot obtain sufficient support from your advisor, try to build your inner circle: casually connect with post docs, other PhD students working on related subjects or with similar equipment, or even other professors. The idea is essentially to obtain the needed information elsewhere and lead the project yourself. This is also an opportunity to investigate if any other student had the same issue with your supervisor, and how to address it. This can be super challenging especially in the first few months, but the basic work flow I would recommend is what do I need to study? Why is it important and what is the added value? What are the different steps I need to follow to get all the information needed? What are the blocking points that prevent me from getting that info, and how to address those? I highly recommend you read "managing your mental health during your PhD" by Zoe J.Ayres, and "starting a new job, a trusted guide to survival and get rid of the first day shakes" available on Amazon.

[@nazlinakeeb6503]

Thanks!

[@DrAndyStapleton]

Thank you so much for the super thanks!

[@galveston8929]

I know a "superwiser" who forced a graduate student to do house sitting for him, run his errands and clean his pool while he was doing his conference tourism.

[@jessicalynnewelton]

I don't understand - if you accepted a supervisory role you should have the qualifications ! I am thankfully now in a new PhD position. But in my previous lab, I had started in the Master's program (this is at University of Toronto - a very reputable university in Canada, which is why I was so confused on the inadequacy and negligence of this PI). I was left to learn everything myself after our post-doc left because my PI was irritated by any questioning. I was originally warned by previous faculty to not join the lab but didn't listen because I found his work interesting. I originally had drafted a whole proposal only for it to be rejected by my PI even though he had told me I could work on anything which interests me. We wanted me instead to finish the project of a past Master's student who had just left after 3 years. My PI painted a horrible picture of this last student but after my experience I'm pretty sure this guy was forced out. I worked my ass off, pulling 13 hr days, mentoring 2 students in the almost 3 years I was there with no recognition. I had completed the transfer exam and was then in the PhD program. Shortly thereafter, everyone in the lab didn't get paid for 3 months. I was then working one day at 10pm - after mentoring his students, I was going for 5 straight hours up and down between the flow facility and my lab. I was wearing gloves at the time, which was my fault as this was a breach in biosafety (you have to wear only one or no gloves through the hallways but I was replating cells so I was worried about contamination at the time). I ran into the wrong person at the wrong time (biosafety officer) and got in trouble for breach of biosafety. This should have been a slap on the wrist. My PI then went to the head of my department relaying I was unfit to continue because of biosafety concerns.... I had been working with him for almost 3 years, and he let me train every student that came through the lab... It was clear to me this was a funding issue. I was forced to declassify back to the Master's program, and graduate. Throughout all my experimentation and new ideas which I presented to him, he constantly fought with me telling me they were not likely going to work, not good ideas and I shouldn't waste my time; All of which ended up being the most novel and publishable work. He is now having a colleague in Sweden continuing the work and ideas in which I had discovered and carried out 100% on my own and taking credit for the work... All's well that ends well since another 3+ years in that lab would have been torture. I am grateful I am now in a MUCH better lab doing work I am much more passionate about ! But as you said, do your research before jumping into a lab !

[@stanleeleo9019]

Thanks a lot for your story, really light shedding. I really admire your strength and just letting it "slide" attitude. I'm very unsure how I would have coped with such a loss (both Degree && Intellectual Property).

[@msab657]

You have to be a pushy person. If you’re laid back and waiting for your chair to give you deadlines and push you, and set the pace to move you forward, you can forget ever finishing. Think about it, they have no motivation to get you through because they have no incentive to get you through. Just the opposite. They get teaching credit from the school for each student they have, so the doctoral students they have, the less they have to teach, and they have doctoral students to teach whatever’s left. You have do thinks you’d never think you’d do, like complain to the Dean about your chair and cc, your chair the complaint. It’s awkward, but you can’t worry about that. I actually loved my chair, but she was going half a semester without giving me feedback, so I had to do that several times, until I became more of a nuisance than a benefit. You’ll be shocked how quickly they get you out of there then!

[@johnfranklin8147]

I can do “better”. Not my PhD supervisor, but an academic staff member who was “in charge of” a liquid helium dilution refrigerator that I needed for my work. I did something that pissed him off (I can’t even remember what, but it was a technical flaw). What he did, still astounds me, was quite simply attempted murder that I was unable to prove. To re-fill the fridge, you need to blow helium gas into it, which in this case comes from a helium diving cylinder at 75 atmospheres, through a regulator, then valve. Since I’m the only person using the equipment for months on end, it’s normal practice to keep the regulator on super-low pressure and just open the valve to fill. But because I’m super careful, every time, I would first shut the regulator then crack a side-valve to check the pressure, open the regulator slightly to check pressure, then open the main valve. If you were to put full 75 atmospheres into the the fridge direct, it would shatter, drop several hundred litres of liquid helium over you, which would instantly freeze you, but also dump all the oxygen out the air and you would asphyxiate in the enclosed space. There is no doubt whatsoever, that if you get this one wrong, you won’t survive. So I check, although none of the other people would. The fact this all goes on with no official safety procedures, is another issue entirely. So one day, comes to me to fill, I check as usual, even though I shut it previous day…..and the regulator is wound *full open*. Nobody has had any reason to be in there, other than me, for two months, and nor had they been. So, who opened it? Except, as I stood there in shock as I realised just what a near miss it was, I remembered that only an hour before I had found James in the room for zero reason, and he had pushed past me rudely without explanation. What could I prove? Nothing. But we both knew what he’d done. And his vendetta against me stopped from that day onwards, without a word being said, probably because he was worried that I might indeed have some evidence and would go to the police.

[@johnfranklin8147]

One thing. Taking a step back, which is easier 30 years later than in the moment, I suspect James probably didn’t actually mean this to result in death. I suspect that he sabotaged this to make it look as if my incompetence had caused expensive damage, and expected me to be injured by flying metal of the exploding pressure vessel and end up in hospital from flash freeze. However, he probably didn’t think through that I would have been unlikely to make it there, breathing in large quantities of vapourised helium at 4 degrees above absolute zero will flash your lungs and leave nothing to save for the ambulance crew when they arrive eight minutes later. After the incident, I discussed the “accident” with my head of department, explained my safety process and that it definitely wasn’t me. I asked my HoD to tell all lab members not to mess with the valves, although named no names as I had no evidence, and went through with him exactly the list of the various causes why survival was *extremely* unlikely. The HoD agreed with me, and I think was slightly in shock that this had occurred. I know he called James into his office as “responsible” for the equipment, and although no blame was assigned, I expect going through that list of likely causes of death probably rocked James back on his heels a bit, as he realised what he had done. Having said all which, his overt verbal bullying of the cohort of PhD students one year below myself, did not abate in the slightest.

[@Vlad_a450]

'm not in academia myself, but things that you say are also thru here in Ukraine. I know this for my friends who are working in universities. They really suffer from all the things you have mentioned so people are the same all around the.

[@hedleypanama]

Love and respect to my supervisor!

[@pamw47798]

Everything on the channel seems to be limited to STEM - would love to hear some stories from the humanities or social sciences. Maybe it's not possible - maybe it's only supervisors within STEM who have enough power to derail their students.

[@vladi1475S]

Bering a supervisor is a huge responsibility!!! I think bad supervisors should be fired!!!

[@flyingbird5727]

I am facing same situation like case three

[@uvineskithsenadheera7050]

I failed into Paper bait. I was asked to write 2 papers and 2 book chapters promising that i will be a co- author . ..Those got published, but without my name.

[@arsalansaeed5418]

Those are bad cases, but nowhere near the worst

[@birhane7433]

It would really mean a lot if u responded to this comment. A potential supervisor responded to my email and said the next step would be for an interview .but it has been 2 months since I heard from her. I really want the masters program and if I get the interview ( I know for a fact that I will impress her) so should I email her full on detail information of how am intersted in her work. Or should you just leave it and continue searching for other supervisors?

[@gustavoramirez9602]

THe book you sell could be opened on a kindle device?

[@zigzaglychee7324]

I've been super lucky with all my supervisors so far😂 they've always been really good

[@benhaenraets4369]

First one sounds like my one!

[@jnb1856]

The second PI is the worst , by far!

[@cptmcrni]

do your research! if you go into a graduate department, look at the important metrics: how much professors publish vs. how many publications grad students produce, average age of professors, specific age of professors, average duration to graduate, placement of students post graduation, etc... My advisor hid my dissertation for three years, while claiming that I hadn't turned it in. I produced a physical copy (that weighed 4.7 kg.) after dropping out of my department by email. I actually graduated after my advisor accidentally emailed me a paper he had plagiarized from my dissertation! I said I didn't want the degree after nine years and I was bullied into graduating, anyway! sometimes you have to finish what you shouldn't have started.

[@dr.merlot1532]

My postdoc supervisors were the worst.

[@olunet]

Andy, you are sending a wrong signal. Foremost, the issue must be addressed systematically. Instead of individual examples, better promote Responsible Conduct of Research principles. Or, to be fair, give some anecdotal examples of PhD students misbehaving. Definitely, do not encourage PhD students to complain about any obstacle they experience. I do not make them think that a superviser is a nurse -- that is not written in the PhD contract.

[@DSScully]

How about a supervisor who resigns.

[@DSScully]

I won't go into the rest of it. But it involves disability discrimination and Case 3 and 2.

[@ALog-lz7nn]

I wish I could tell mine, African collaborative PhDs. People are enduring abuse.

[@runrunrun6517]

My supervisor tell me he will go to another university in another place after l accept offer, arrange visa appointment, and sign a leasing contract 😢

[@runrunrun6517]

All of these are scary 😢

[@putinsgaytwin4272]

Welp, these comments have solidified my idea at not doing a phd

[@takiyaazrin7562]

Case 1 - Asian University

[@shathaabu-alnadi6579]

you should hear my story!

[@tiotsopkamouolivier3031]

Could you please share?

[@shathaabu-alnadi6579]

@@tiotsopkamouolivier3031 I changed her after a year because she is lazy and disrespectful she checked my writing just once! And I edited to her suggestion and at the next meeting she yelled at me about why I changed it to her suggestions! "she forgot her suggestions"!! She wasted one and a half years of my life .. and the big conflict that happened and make me take the step to change the supervisor is she want me to pay part of the search fund! why the hell should I pay money that the university should pay?!!!

[@dinashakhmet8634]

My friend was a phd student. Her supervisor was russian male (at the US uni) who also had other russian phd student. After some time she realized that the supervisor was giving the job of other russian phd student to her. When she confronted the supervisor about that he just blamed her for being lazy, not team work etc. She had to quit her phd and transferred to another school. Unfortunately the new school couldn’t keep her cause the russian supervisor changed all her grades to F. So she had to leave USA. Also she was asian. So apparently the supervisor was racist (which is not new among russians).

[@Pandora234able]

I have 2 stories, excluding a story where I was blatantly lied about from one supervisor to another in undergrad. 1. One advisor, when I first attempted my PhD, shot down my demands for a living wage. I only made $700/month net and I was drowning, financially. I had 0 contact with him and I wasted 4 months of literature review on nothing. I even got grant applications pulled together citing our failing budget. 2. My supervisors were husband and wife. I made even less money: $250/month, and they were verbally abusive and never present. The lab culture was so individualistic that no one would let me shadow them so I’d go home. They’d yell at me that I was never there but I couldn’t be doing nothing on the clock. It took me 3 months to start shadowing and half the shadowing was almost completely unrelated research. Also rampant misogyny and selfish behavior was seen especially with COVID precautions being ignored. It’s ironic considering virology was our strong suit. I will say this, I had some great advisors along the way that helped me regain my confidence as a grad student. I think you just have to do your homework before you get into these positions. I plan on gathering references for the particular schools I want to do a postdoc in before I even inquire. Past employees, most importantly. These people on LinkedIn or Glassdoor could be PAST employees for a reason.

[@JohnEpto-ng6ml]

4

[@JohnEpto-ng6ml]

8

[@jj041995]

I have a situation currently where I am picking up a project from a student that left early (two years into the project) because she has a child (not a newborn, but toddler). She has notes where I could follow the method that she used, but have had trouble replicating what she got. I’ve tried to troubleshoot myself and with people in the lab, but still haven’t been able to get anything consistent. I’ve worked in a lab previously for a couple of years where I learned the methods in that lab and I would at least get some results to at least make a guess on what happened and what to do next. Before that, I volunteered in another lab and was able to get results using their methods (and I was a greenhorn scientist atp, mind you). In this lab, I don’t get almost anything and it’s super frustrating. What bothers me as well is that some of the notes and results she has at times show trouble of getting consistent results as well and that she apparently has some bad blood with my supervisor. I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to her that it was probably because my supervisor deemed her a quitter. I’ve even proposed if I could contact her to possibly get some clarification from her on her notes and the people from the lab acted odd when I asked. I’m now a little over a year into working in this lab and we’re still troubleshooting a lot of things and I’ve got little results with oral comps coming soon. Possibly thinking of quitting the program. I’ve never quit anything before and I even hate to think of it as I’ve done a lot to get to this point, but I’m noticing my health being more and more affected as time goes on in my PhD. I’ve been set on going into industry afterwards anyway, so maybe I should just accelerate the process…

[@samsonsoturian6013]

A few of these horror stories are likely embellished or straight up falsified. Don't take these guy's word for it. The irony with me is I haven't had as much trouble with professors as I have with peers... Primarily since the professors generally don't realize it that I ignore their emails when they're annoying. But I've also had other another student get angry because I called him dude.

[@DSScully]

Academia and the culture it cultivated needs to be held responsible. That same attitude and culture is in places like Stackflow and Stackexchange.

[@andreanavarro2341]

You need to know our stories in China. It is terrible