When to tell supervisor that I'm applying to graduate school?

May 6, 2023 5:38 AM

Plot twist: my supervisor knows my potential PhD advisor, but I don't totally trust my supervisor

Hi all,

I'm interested in applying to PhD programs this fall. For reference, applications are due in December and I wouldn't hear back until next April.

My instinct is to say nothing to my employer until I've got an acceptance letter in hand, but this is kind of a unique situation:

- My supervisor knows the advisor of the program I'm most interested in, and we also work tangentially with other professors and doctoral students in that program. I'm worried word will get out somehow and it'll reflect poorly on me for being secretive. FWIW, my supervisor is well-connected in our small community and it would behoove me to maintain our good relationship after I move on from this job.

- Supervisor knows I am interested in going for a PhD as a future plan, but not my timeline. When it came up that I was interested, they seemed happy for me and offered to help, but I don't 100% trust them... I think they are genuinely supportive, but ultimately, they do what is best for their organization, even if it comes at the expense of the employees. Supervisor expressed that they would hope to keep me nearby, and even mentioned me to a potential advisor in a program here, which would actually be a good fit for me interest-wise, but I don't want to stay in the geographic area. I don't think my supervisor would necessarily sabotage my other applications (so that I'd have to stay here), but the paranoid part of me makes me question it.

- We are undergoing a lot of (bad) change at work right now and I'm worried I'll be screwed over because I'm "leaving anyway" if I reveal it too early. I think these changes will push me out of this position next year no matter what, but if they don't and if I don't get into any PhD programs, then I feel like I wouldn't want supervisor to know that I applied at all...


If I don't reveal it when applying, then when? If I receive an invitation to interview?

If I do reveal it when applying, do I mention all of the programs I'm interested in or keep some info to myself?

Is this something that one would bring up to potential advisors? "Hey, please don't tell my boss I'm applying," feels like it would make me sound weird and secretive.


As always, I appreciate your insight. Thank you for your advice!

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (14 answers total)

Are you going to need your supervisor to write one of your letters of recommendation? If so, it's going to be hard to keep it a secret.
posted by heatherlogan at 5:56 AM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sounds like you are a tech or something in an academic or academic adjacent organization? Applying to grad school and leaving is entirely normal and expected- these are not expected to be career positions. An announcement of “I have been accepted to Dr X’s lab, my last day here will be August 15th” is going to be met with congratulations, not retaliation. Tell your supervisor so they can start the process of recruiting a new grad now, rather than at the end of the summer.
posted by rockindata at 5:57 AM on May 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

OK you are almost a year away from having an acceptance letter in hand, right? The actual specifics of what you are going to want to do are very situation-specific, and field-specific, and job-specific so I would basically put this out of your head completely at least until you're interviewing.

Since you want/need to keep a good relationship with your current supervisor even if/when you do enter the PhD program, I think you're probably going to want to tell them before you have an acceptance letter in hand. And if you're telling them at all, you might as well tell them about all the programs they're applying to; they might have useful information and/or connections at those programs that you don't know about.

But on the other hand, if you're even imagining your supervisor sabotaging your applications, that implies a pretty wild level of distrust in your supervisor, so maybe you do need to conceal for longer. If they're that kind of person, you probably can't maintain a good relationship regardless.

If I were you I'd try to have some discreet conversations with folks who used to work with your supervisor and have left to get a read on where you are on the "being reasonably cautious with an untrustworthy boss" to "letting anxiety run riot" scale.

I wish we knew a little more about your career stage and field!
posted by mskyle at 5:57 AM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Sorry, I misread. You are applying. Still, you should let your supervisor know. A personal recommendation from a supervisor who is known to the prof whose lab you’re applying to is the golden ticket. You need that letter, it would be weird to apply and not get one.
posted by rockindata at 6:00 AM on May 6, 2023 [12 favorites]

PhD programs usually require multiple letters of recommendation. Would your supervisor be a natural choice for one of these letters? It sounds from your description that they're working in a closely related field, have met people doing research in your area, and could meaningfully speak to your abilities to do research as a PhD student.

If yes, then the situation is more complicated. If you want your supervisor to write a letter for you, then there's no way around letting them know that you're applying to grad school, and precisely which programs you're applying for. But having a recent, positive letter from someone in "the field", even if they're not in academia per se, would very much be to your advantage in the application process.

If you choose to not have your supervisor write a letter for you, then you can avoid telling them about your applications until later; I would think that you could basically wait until a few weeks before you start in the program. But if you do that, your application will be relying on letters from former professors, etc. whose impressions are not as current and might not be able to paint as full a picture of you and your accomplishments. And if a letter from your supervisor would be conspicuous in its absence ("this candidate's been working in a job that would give them relevant experience for the past two years, why didn't they get their supervisor to write something for them?") then it might even count against you.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:01 AM on May 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

And one other point, building off what rockindata said: if your supervisor has personal connections to the local university, you'd be ill-advised not to take advantage of them. Grad school applications are highly competitive and having this option as something of a "safety school" would be really helpful.

This doesn't mean that you can't apply elsewhere and go elsewhere if you're accepted! But unless you truly think it'd be worse to go to grad school locally than to not go to grad school at all, then you should strongly consider applying locally.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:06 AM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

The normal thing is to tell your supervisor but then again the normal thing is to not sort of suspect your supervisor might sabotage your applications.

I have no idea if you are paranoid or your supervisor/workplace are highly toxic. Probably somewhere in between but I'd be hesitant to announce this super early when a big theme of your question is that you do not trust your supervisor.

I also think more info on your field and current job would help, there are lots of different cultural norms at work and what's right in one area could be wrong in another.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:17 AM on May 6, 2023

You have to tell them I think, and ideally get a letter of recommendation from them. When to have this conversation? October/November should work, if applications are due in December. You're in a tricky situation but not having a recommendation from your current supervisor who is known to the department you're applying to will hurt your chances of acceptance. Academia is a small world, they will likely find out you're applying and it's a lot better if they find out from you.
posted by emd3737 at 6:45 AM on May 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

Do you have a specific reason to think supervisor would go so far as to sabotage your future? Or is this more of a general anxiety type of thing? It’s definitely something that some people would do, but it’s fairly extreme and you didn’t give any concrete reasons you’re worried about it in this case specifically.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:42 AM on May 6, 2023

Yeah, I think you are being paranoid here, and should ask your supervisor for a letter of recommendation - they can speak to your most recent work, and they have a personal connection to the faculty member you want to work under - it would be weird not to ask them, especially since they've offered to help you! You even say you don't think they would sabotage you, so I'm really not sure what you're worried about here - as others have mentioned, it's normal for people to apply to grad school, nobody is going to read that as "disloyal" - you're just trying to further your career.
posted by coffeecat at 8:38 AM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Unless you have witnessed your supervisor sabotage others in the past, I think your concerns may be overblown. That’s not to say it never happens, but it’s pretty rare. If your supervisor is an otherwise reasonable person it seems unlikely that they have a secret sociopathic side and would go as far as to sabotage your application.
posted by mekily at 8:47 AM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Even if I was best friends with my supervisor I would not tell them until close to the due date of the application if I needed a letter of reference or until after the application is in. Who knows what will happen between now and December. Telling them next December that you might leave in April seems like plenty of lead time.
posted by MadMadam at 12:32 PM on May 6, 2023

Even if I was best friends with my supervisor I would not tell them until close to the due date of the application if I needed a letter of reference or until after the application is in.

This is probably good advice for non-academic situations, but is not great for academic letters of recommendation, which are significantly different than professional references. If you are going to ask your supervisor for a letter--which I agree that you should, unless you have significantly more concrete reasons for being concerned about sabotage than you've given us here--you definitely need to give them substantial notice (a month is good). You want a strong and specific letter, and those take time; asking for a letter of rec at the last minute is a sure-fire way to annoy any academic, and might lead to a weak or late letter.

And if they say no, you need to ensure that you have a backup option, and that you've asked and been turned down early enough that you can give that person plenty of lead time. Also, it's worth noting that if they say no or act non-committal or say that they couldn't write you a "strong" letter, you should accept this and move on to your backup option, because you do not want a letter from anyone who is not enthused about writing one for you.
posted by dizziest at 2:33 PM on May 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Mod note: From the OP:

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I wrote this when I was feeling on edge about the changes at work (that I alluded to my post), so it's probably more paranoia than anything, lol. I'm glad I checked in with you all -- I had assumed programs wanted LORs from former professors only, but it looks like some prefer more recent contacts, so I might take up my supervisor on their offer. Thanks again!

posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 7:50 PM on May 7, 2023 [2 favorites]