NCEPR: People with graduate degrees

[cattledogkisses]

After your defense when you were all done, did you do anything for your advisor as a thank you?

I'm not sure if this is expected in the culture of my department, but regardless, I'd like to do something to acknowledge my advisor as our multi-year relationship comes to a close. 

[downtoearth]

Yes, we were required to throw a kickass party with lots of alcohol and especially the alcohol of choice for you advisor(s).

Otherwise, no, most all of us were paid a stipend to do work with our advisor and so he/she knew exactly how poor we were at the time.

I stayed on as a research assistant for 4 months and got my advisor a gift card to a local restaurant after that.

[nsl]

I think I gave him a nice card and some chocolates he'd mentioned liking once. My department's culture really didn't encourage much more than a small token of thanks.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I don't think I did. She had me, another grad and our families over after graduation for a little party. I think we may have brought champagne? If I did it now, I probably would. But yeah, broke, young and dumb.

[nursecramer]

I'm glad you asked this, because I would have never thought about it and I defend in a couple weeks. I don't think it's standard our department or in our group. Usually the group goes together and gets a gift for the grad, though. Are there any of your peers who graduated in the past couple years you could ask? I think that's what I'll do.

[underwaterrhymes]

I have a Master's in Public Administration but had virtually no involvement with my advisor. Like, I don't even recall meeting with one ever. And I didn't have to defend a paper.

So I did nothing for mine, if I even had one.

[aurora]

As an advisor, I'd love a thank you note and for you to help with any paper revisions that come after you graduate, but I know how little you were paid to work for me and I definitely do *not* expect a gift.

[ttt]

No, because she sucked royally. I didn't even thank her in my acknowledgements, which I realize is a faux pas, but at that point, I was so pissed that I just did not care. 

[teatimefor2]

Mar 25, 2016 19:49:02 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I have a Master's in Public Administration but had virtually no involvement with my advisor. Like, I don't even recall meeting with one ever. And I didn't have to defend a paper.

So I did nothing for mine, if I even had one.

Same degree and level of involvement.
I also didn't have to defend a paper, but I did for my BA.

[bimbi284]

No. I included her in my acknowledgements, but that's about it. She delayed work on my project by several months for no good reason, so I didn't feel like I owed her anything above and beyond that and a gracious thank-you email after the fact.

It's not customary in my program to do much more than a card, though I'm sure some of the more brown-nosey types did a small gift.

[emilyj]

Nothing was ever stated as expected (in fact, our department told us to knock it off about 6 months before my defense because it was getting out of control). I wrote her a thank you, and we still co-author and travel together to this day, so I guess we are good?

As an advisor, ditto aurora 100%. I do NOT want students to spend their money on me.

[mrsukyankee]

I sent a thank you note and baked him some muffins (he'd enjoyed them in the past).

[compassrose]

Yes, a bottle of her favorite gin (gifts faculty could accept were capped at $35 by the university).
She was amazing, though, and she hosted a party for my defense (standard practice in the dept).

[LoveTrains]

No but I didn't defend. I had an oral quiz with my advisor and he signed off on my MA.

[irishbride2]

I didn't do anything for masters 1 or 2.

[penguingrrl]

H did not do anything for his advisor. We were a bit salty after his advisor complained to us about having to spend $35K on middle school for his daughter when that was more than H was supporting us on and he knew that. He gave him a card and thanked him. They're still in touch, so it wasn't a huge faux pas.

[ksun]

Nope. But we all went out for drinks.

[onomatopoeia]

Mar 25, 2016 21:34:05 GMT -5 teatimefor2 said:

Mar 25, 2016 19:49:02 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I have a Master's in Public Administration but had virtually no involvement with my advisor. Like, I don't even recall meeting with one ever. And I didn't have to defend a paper.

So I did nothing for mine, if I even had one.

Same degree and level of involvement.
I also didn't have to defend a paper, but I did for my BA.

Same here.

[asdfjkl]

I'm going to buy my mentor a book and give him a nice thank you card with it.  I'm glad to see that the answers here are so variable. I think this really just depends on your individual relationship with your mentor/advisor and the culture of your institution.