Tips for managing second year PhD students (or extending the freedom to learn).
Advising second year PhD students can be tricky.
Second years have survived the gauntlet of first-year courses, Know some of the literature, & started to form an academic identity.
Hopefully, they have formed an advice network - in their degree program & outside of it as well.
Strong second year students should brim with confidence.
Advising a student brimming with confidence who has an advice network is tricky.
Sometimes, they listen to faculty advice & sometimes they do not.
Often, they are more attentive to senior students and peers, than they are to their faculty mentor or advisor. More often, they are more attentive to charismatic early-career faculty than to later-career faculty.
These would be a mistakes when it comes to research.
While senior PhD students possess local knowledge, they often lack the field-based knowledge of the faculty.
While their immediate peers are supportive, they often lack a big picture view of how to complete papers & navigate peer review.
While early career faculty are charismatic, they often lack a view of the long game.
So how do you advise a second-year student? In a world of competing voices? Without undermining their support network? or their confidence?
First, recognize that second-year students talk to many people.
In the first year, students tend to depend on an advisor. In the second year, students tend to demonstrate more independence.
Your now second-year student should require less detailed advice & emotional support - if they do not - you are not doing your job.
Second, recognize that your second-year student should be encouraged to listen to many people.
Learning to listen to academic peers is an important skill for navigating academic life.
Learning to identify sound knowledge is an important skill for fulfilling future service & administrative obligations
.
Learning how to discern among good and bad advice is an important long game skill for career management.
So while you may feel some discomfort that the student has branched out, know it is for the best.
Third, understand that your role is to facilitate the second-year student's development as a scholar.
While encouraging your student to develop advice networks, you must ensure they take appropriate & method courses as well as pick up-to-date research topics.
So while stepping back, you need to stay engaged with the student & nudge when the opportunity presents itself & demand when you have to.
A great way to facilitate is to set up a regular coffee to discuss courses, research, and how their choices impact their career.
Finally, recognize that the goal is to develop independent scholars. If second-year advising is too heavy-handed, students may never develop the confidence necessary to do so.
Best of luck.
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