Finding a Supervisor
Finding a supervisor might be the most important but challenging part of the admission process. As a graduate student, you will work under a supervisor for the selected program (M.Sc. and Ph.D.). The supervisor plays a crucial role in proposing and guiding your research project.
Only Faculty members and Associate members at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology may serve as a supervisor. The list of Professors who are eligible to supervise graduate students can be found at the Faculty Members and Associate Members pages. As per McGill policies and guidelines on graduate student advising and supervision, adjunct members may not act as sole supervisors but may serve as co-supervisors, with the unit's and GPS's approval. If problems arise, the McGill supervisor will be held accountable to McGill policies and regulations. The Graduate Program Director may serve as co-supervisor if needed.
When looking for a supervisor, start by carefully reading the information on the Professors’ pages. After that, you should be able to determine who is working in the field that interests you. If you cannot find sufficient information on the McGill website, look up some of the Professors' publications. Once you narrow your list down to a couple of researchers, please contact them directly by e-mail. In your email, you should specify your experience, educational background and your achievements in a brief Curriculum Vitae. Describe what type of research you would like to do and why you have chosen them for your supervisor. Explain why you would be an excellent addition to the lab and demonstrate which points from your CV prove that you can succeed in an academic environment. You may add your scanned transcript to demonstrate that your grades fulfill the Departmental admission requirements.
Professors receive many requests. If someone does not reply, it most likely means that they are not recruiting graduate students for this term. Our spam-protected messaging system works fine and all e-mails sent through this system are delivered directly to the intended recipient. It is the applicant’s responsibility to find a supervisor and obtain their agreement to supervise their graduate research.