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Beyond Fame and Funding – Part 2: How do I hunt down intel about my future mentor?

2025-09-17 11:57
Ph.D. advisors are abundant with reputations.
They can be known as highly-ranked, highly-cited, amazing, intense, laid-back, fair/unfair, supportive/dismissive, coach-like, ghost-like, micromanaging, witty, flitty, and/or a downright a**h***… and each student’s reality will be a bit different.

Simultaneously, their research groups can embody a range of cultures from club-like to cult-like to cut-throat to team-like to cat-like (territorial). The reality is probably somewhere in between.

And, how do you know if they are abundant with enough money to support you and provide the resources you need for your research?

How do you know that, if funding becomes a challenge to them, they’ll be fair and resourceful with you?

You can’t. Not the full story, at least, and certainly no one can predict your future exactly. But by asking some of these questions and holding others at the top of the mind, your radar will be activated to pick up on signals.

This blog explores how we can learn more about our prospective mentors, how we can approach people to speak about them, and what other resources we should pay attention to.

Let’s dive in.
Ways to get information
Ideally, visit the department on their graduate recruiting day OR, if that date doesn’t work out, try to spend at least a day there to meet people in the department you’re applying to.
Being there, touring the campus and facilities, and having both planned and unplanned meetings maximizes your chances of interacting with people who have experiences you wouldn’t otherwise learn about. Plus, you’ll detect verbal and non-verbal clues about what life will be like there.

A visit is often not possible for many good reasons.
That doesn’t bar you from reaching out online to interact with the professor, group members, or members of their community who might give you some insight into what you’re getting into.

The following ways of getting information work well whether or not you can visit.
1) Talk with the professor directly.
Of course, ask them the questions for which you seek answers. Ask them about projects they’re excited about, their management style, meetings and expectations, funding situation, etc.

For more details on these topics, check out Part I: & Critical Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing Your Ph.D. Advisor
If you’re visiting, have them show you their lab, facilities, where students regularly work. Find out everything you can so you can picture, “What will life be like here?”

2) Talk with people who know them and know of them.
These include and are not limited to group members, group alumni, current colleagues (other professors, technicians who run shared facilities), and current students in the same department.

New PI’s will have less of a track record in the program to which you’re applying (or starting), so if you can, seek recommendations from their former colleagues. If they were recently a postdoc, there will be people who worked with them or were mentored by them in their previous lab.

If the idea of approaching someone to speak about someone else raises itchy feelings and question marks, see the section below, “How to approach someone to talk about someone else”.

3) Find information about their funding, if you can
Many countries and regions have a publicly accessible database of recent and active projects funded by their government research-funding agencies. You can often find the project titles, the amount awarded for what time period, and the names of PI’s on the grant.

In Hong Kong, you would look at the General Research Fund, University Grants Council, and the Innovation and Technology Commission.

For the US, check out grants.gov for information from 26 federal grant agencies including the National Institutes of Health, and National Science Foundation. You may find research councils serving multiple countries, e.g. European Research Council or sites that conglomerate information to multiple country agencies e.g. Africa’s Science Granting Councils Initiative.

4) Look at their websites
There are heated debates online about the importance of academic research group websites. Many contend that they are “low value”, that PI’s are too busy doing more important things, and that people who want to find information about the PI will do so directly.
Indeed, websites do not tell the full story, but they can tell part of a story about the group’s culture.
Here are a few common archetypes:

A. The Demagogue – It’s all about the PI.
They’re a big deal. You’ll find:
  • Their biography front and center on the home page, written in third person.
  • Under “Members” – a list of their group members sorted hierarchically by role, with no pictures or additional information except perhaps an email address.
  • Most of the website focuses on the PI or group’s achievements. There is little or no mention of any individuals. There’s lots of press about the PI.
  • Perhaps a group photo with 30-80 people. You can barely make out their faces and you question whether the PI knows all their names.

This person is famous, influential, and well-connected to resources and other people. You could thrive if you find the people you jive with in the group.

B. The Stretched Team Leader – Everything is there, including acknowledgment of individual members, but it might be out of date.
You’ll find:
  • A decently written and general research section
  • Under “Members” – a photo (or a place for a photo) and name for each member of their team. They might be grouped incorrectly, e.g. someone under “Ph.D. students” might have graduated a year ago.
  • News from the past year

This PI might be updating their website once a year or less, only when there are big changes to personnel and they (or one of their group members) gets to it. They probably value the website as an online home where prospective students and collaborators can gain insight into their research priorities and contributions. You won’t be able to find up to date information about who is still there, recent funding, or whether they are accepting graduate students at this time. Those are questions you’ll have to answer another way.

C. The Web Savvy, Personally-Branded Leader – Everything is there and up to date within two months.
You’ll find:
  • A homepage with a gallery about a variety of research projects
  • A clear ‘Call to action’ for people interested in joining the group.
  • Under “Members”, you’ll find the name, photo, and role of each group member, as well as a short bio describing their research focus, previous education, ‘home’ country, and/or hobbies.
  • Updates about who just published a paper, who presented at a conference, who defended their thesis.
  • Additional statements, links, or photos demonstrating their interests, beliefs, and values. Examples include initiatives supporting underrepresented groups in the field, sharing their pronouns, and/or acknowledging if their institution is built on land of indigenous peoples.

This person is interested in sharing who they are, what they do, and celebrating the progress of their mentees. They want to inform website visitors about their work and their culture, and if they’re making a good impression, they could be selective. That being said, they may have a different story about funding, which you’ll want to find out.

D. The Institutionally-Branded Leader – This leader might have a webpage on the department’s website, but no research page.
You’ll find:
  • A photo of the PI from the past 5-20 years
  • A brief description of their research area and where they obtained their Ph.D.
  • A list of select publications

This person is either not interested or has no bandwidth to have a website right now. You’ll have to find out just about everything in other ways.
As with all archetypes, most people demonstrate a combination of traits from different archetypes rather than falling into solely one category. For example, there is a very well-cited chemistry demagogue professor who also uses their website to invite visitors to their Sunday Bible studies.

Websites certainly can give you a glimpse into your prospective mentor’s personality and group culture, and many academics post on social media as well.

Their online presence won’t tell the full story, but notice your reactions. Your reactions to how they talk about their members, share updates, and showcase themselves give you a trailhead for further inquiry into their style and priorities, as well as your own.

How to approach someone to talk about someone else
The first reservation that might come up is, “Why would they talk with me?”
Humans, in general, are inclined to help each other, at least in little ways if not a lot.

Most people who have had bad experiences don't wish the same on others and are therefore eager to share eye-opening experiences in some way. (Have you ever read a detailed, scathing review on a restaurant in Yelp or OpenRice, or a prospective employer (such as a university) on Glassdoor?)

In the same vein, people who have had great experiences tend to wholeheartedly recommend them and will therefore willingly answer your questions. Furthermore, healthy graduate students and postdocs generally want good people to join their labs and become their colleagues and collaborators.

Of course, there may be a lot at stake when speaking of one’s current or former advisor or colleague, so you can also understand if they are careful about what they say and to whom, as they may still have a lot at stake for finishing their Ph.D.

You can still reach out though. Here’s one way that worked well for someone who recently changed their Ph.D. advisor and was approached by an incoming graduate student who wanted to learn about that first advisor.

Here’s how that request unfolded:
Requestor: "Hello ___, my name is ___. I am a __ ___ rotating in/considering Prof/Dr X's lab. I was wondering if you would be willing to share your experience in the lab?"
Tip: Introduce yourself, be transparent and direct with your request, and phrase it in a way so that it's very easy for your counterpart to say no.
The Ph.D. student first asked how this person found them and whether the requestor knew they’d just left Prof. X’s lab. The student was willing to share, but it was a sensitive subject and they urged the requester to keep an open mind. The student named days and locations that would be convenient.

Requestor: “Thank you so much for ____. I completely understand your position and am grateful for your willingness…”

Express gratitude and understanding, then suggest times (and locations if relevant) for the meeting. A phrase like, "There's no obligation to do anything," reminded the student that they could change their mind at any time.
If you can, meet in person. If it is not an in person meeting, make it a phone call. If you speak through a web meeting, consider it confidential. Do not record it, and do not share any sensitive information with attribution to anyone else.

Regardless, frame your questions and reactions through the lens of curiosity. If we're not part of an experience, it's impossible to know the "ground truth" about it.

After such a conversation, take time to reflect on what you're thinking and feeling based on what you heard. Reactions result from a blend of what we hear and our existing experiences, values, and biases. Use the same curiosity to distill out some truth about what's important to you and how you can take responsibility for getting what you need.

What if I can’t get in touch with anyone?
This is a highly likely outcome of your request. Check online forums such as Reddit, GradCafe, and Quora. Many platforms like Slack, Discord, and Facebook host open and private groups.

You can find lines of questioning (or start your own) about your prospective programs and advisors. Just be careful about what you publish on the internet, respect the rules of these groups, and evaluate your sources of information carefully.

Many professional groups and societies are also eager to support and mentor students, such as the STEM ConnectHER program by the Asia Society, Society for Women Engineers, and many country-specific science and engineering societies.

What if I am later not happy with my choice?
It’s not the end of the world.
It will cost you some time and energy to adjust your expectations or change your situation. Colleagues and clients of mine have changed advisors, changed programs, taken breaks, or quit altogether and moved onto a better situation.

Ideally, you won’t have to change, or if you do, you do it early. In the next installment of this blog, we’ll talk about some of those red flags that should send your alarm bells ringing. Sometimes, no deal is better than a bad deal.

For more insights on PhD success and advisor relationships, don’t miss these recommended readings:
“Questions to Ask a Prospective PhD Advisor on Visit Day, with Thorough and Forthright Explanations” published by the Carnegie Melon University Machine Learning Blog.

“The Control Freak, the Ghost, and the Rare Gem” Dr. Thivani Senathiraja, 2025.

“What Makes a Productive PhD Student?” Corsini A, M Pezzoni and F Visentin, Research Policy, 2022,104561.

Enjoyed this post? Stay tuned for Part III, all about red flags.
Need a sounding board for your PhD planning? Fill out my contact form to book a free 30-minute chat.

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