Physics Ph.D. student perspectives on the importance and difficulty of finding a research group

Joining a research group is one of the most important events on a graduate student’s path to becoming an independent physics researcher and earning a Ph.D. However, graduate students’ perspectives on the experience of finding a research group are not well documented in the literature. Understanding these perspectives is crucial for evaluating whether departments are providing students with adequate support while they search for a research group, and how difficulties during this process contribute to attrition. Semistructured interviews with $N=20$ first and second year physics Ph.D. students reveal that incoming graduate students see joining a research group as a significant decision, and recognize that it may impact whether they will be able to complete the program. We found that students who struggled to find a group felt isolated and worried about falling behind their peers, whereas students who were able to immerse themselves in a positive group environment reported increased sense of belonging in their programs. The process of finding a research group often held differential importance for students identifying as women and nonbinary, who at times reported having to deprioritize their preferred research topic in order to be part of a more inclusive working environment. Although incoming graduate students characterized joining a research group as a significant decision, they often felt unprepared to make it. Moreover, they perceived an overall lack of guidance and structure from their departments, and characterized coursework as a barrier to searching for a group. Our findings suggest that providing students with better support during their group search process could help improve retention, particularly for traditionally underrepresented students, and improve students’ overall satisfaction in their graduate programs.

Figure 1

A major theme that emerged was the overall importance of the group search process in students’ doctoral experience. Students perceived choosing a group as a significant decision in their graduate careers. Interviewees who identified as women or nonbinary described finding an inclusive group as a particularly high priority, which we observed could restrict access to certain research opportunities. We also observed that navigating the search process could have major impacts on students’ sense of belonging in the program.

Figure 2

An overarching theme was that students experienced many difficulties while finding a group. Students sought more structure and guidance from departments, particularly regarding ways to connect with faculty and graduate students. Improved guidance from faculty might have helped alleviate several other difficulties, including feeling unprepared for the search process and perceiving that their coursework was in tension with their ability to find a group.

Figure 3

A summary of suggestions to address challenges physics Ph.D. students faced while searching for a research group. Items are sorted by approximate level of effort required by the individual stakeholder to enact, relative to the other items in their list. For instance, departments could adopt a policy to have first-year students complete an existing STEM-IDP with significantly less effort than enacting a formal research rotation program.