Advising Graduate Students: Mentor or Tormentor?

Graduate students have many important roles in our colleges/universities, from facilitating research and teaching efforts to being our hope for the future of academia. A graduate advisor and a faculty advisory committee that possesses an interest in the student, mentor today's graduate students. The focus of this paper is to compare and contrast the perspectives of an entering M.S. student, and a senior Ph.D. student with those of their graduate mentor in a point-counter point manner. The points raised by the students were from real-life situations. Comments made by their graduate mentor were in response to each student, and took into account each student's day-to-day performance and the student's degree objectives. In general, both students expressed concerns about writing, workload, and meeting expectations, while their graduate mentor supported a central focus towards the student's incorporation of the scientific method. Further, M.S. level students possess a different level of understanding of what is meant to be a graduate student when compared to senior Ph.D. students. Although not a formal presentation, we are hopeful that others, who may presently view a graduate advisor as being a tormentor, may actually alter their perspective to identifying with the advisor as a true mentor.