I came into grad school straight out of undergrad having had much academic success, but no undergraduate research experience of which to speak. During my first year of grad school, I was searching for a single research topic and advisor amongst my many interests. Much of this exploration was meetings with professors to discuss their core research areas. However, I thought that one could gain a much deeper understanding of their areas of expertise by taking course offerings taught by the professors in their core research area.
I took one such class in an area of research in which I was interested from a new professor who still didn’t have any grad students. It seemed like a good opportunity. It was classified as a 4/500 level class, and thus appropriate for senior-level undergrads or early-level grad students. In such classes it was usually assumed that the content was partially open-ended, but that there would be a fair amount of guidance.
For this class in particular, 50% of the grade was a single “project” in the topic. We were to propose a project ourselves, with no guidance given regarding of what a project should consist. After proposing our topics everyone had individual meetings with the professor to discuss. During my meeting, the professor simple told me that (s)he didn’t like my project. I received no criteria for basis of his/her judgment, no explanation of the merits of a good project proposal, just simply, “No”. As I was searching for what the professor wanted, I stated that “I really just… I don’t know what you expect of me.” To which (s)he curtly responded, “You should have high expectations of yourself.” I tend to think that I *do* have high expectations for myself, but in this context “high” was such vague and ambiguous language that it was of no assistance in constructing a project proposal that aligned the expectations of the professor.
The meeting ended shortly thereafter with no resolution or direction as to a project proposal. I didn’t ask for further help, nor did (s)he offer. After that meeting, I pretty much “phoned it in” for the rest of the course and only did the bare minimum that I needed to get by. After that term, I made sure to not have any meaningful contact with that professor again, despite our potential shared interests.
It’s hard to say what would have fixed my motivation after the fact. If I have to outright ask “What are your expectations?” that should make it clear that something is up. In fact, I never did come up with different project proposal, so I just did the project to which (s)he had told me “no”. This should have been an obvious cue that some follow-up was required, but (s)he never bothered. If the professor had offered some guidance (before, during, or after our meeting) about what constitutes original research, how to look for and evaluate prior work, what was the scale and scope of the projects that we were to do for the course, it would have gone a long way towards motivating me. Indeed, these were the kinds of things that I learned from the people who *did* become my research advisors over the following years. Having clear expectations led to good working relationships.