Clip 'n' Save: Snagging an Adviser

Not quite ready to choose your own junior tutorial leader or thesis advisor for next year? FM has some sound advice to guide you through the daunting process.

First comes your own window shopping. Ensure that your advisor is someone with whom you can tolerate spending some serious quality time. A practical consideration: while being easy on the eyes doesn’t hurt, excessive good looks may be detrimental if you are as easily distracted as FM is.

Once you have nailed your target, here is how to snag him or her as your very own:

1. Not all department members are required to accept the responsibility for an overambitious and overextended Harvard undergrad. Hey section guy, it’s time to suck up your overconfidence and pride and remember that the professors may actually know more than you do. On the other hand, if you do have some semblance of a social life, here are things to avoid: drunk dialing potential candidates, letting your friends drunk dial them, or arriving red-eyed to a meeting with them after many drunk dials.

2. Outshine the competition. Be aware of their current research, remember the names and ages of their children, and always, always agree with their opinions. Stalking is a form of flattery. Another good method: allow your target to become inebriated at a concentration party (hey, it’s been known to happen)—while, of course, declining to partake yourself—and then make your move. Odds are they will be in a better mood and agree to be your personal babysitter for the next year.

3. Should you fail at achieving your goal (or simply be too lazy to find your own advisor), some departments will be nice enough to play matchmaker rather than screw you over. Or at least that’s what FM would like to think they are doing.