Even in an ‘ideal’ research group, grad school is really hard.

In my humble (and biased!) opinion, the grad school experience is not worth going through unless you have found an advisor/group/research combination that clicks for you.

You need to be filled with much-needed motivation to return to school day after day, maybe night after night, for several years (5.5 years average in the US), to work the hardest you have ever worked on something.

If you don’t think you have met your match for a research group, then keep looking.

What to do with your current group? Well, most importantly, again:

NEVER BURN A BRIDGE.

You might want to switch for a number of reasons. I hope it is something like: you don’t feel passionate about the research or that you don’t like the particular advising style.

Hopefully, it is not more traumatic than that.. although, it can be sometimes and in that case, I am sorry and I hope you get help.

Actually, whatever the situation, get help! Talk to someone – seniors, classmates, administrators that you trust, other professors, counselors.

Share your experience to evaluate your experience.

Read the full blog post:

https://howtophd.org/2018/01/how-to-break-up-with-your-advisor.html