By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: It’s time for me to find a dissertation chair. I’m panicked. How?

—Chairless

A: You’re right to have at least a little trepidation. Here’s what a new “doctor” said in a study of how the choice and behavior of chairs affect doctoral students’ satisfactions:

It is impossible to overestimate the significance of the student-advisor relationship. . . . This is both a personal and professional relationship that rivals marriage and parenthood in its complexity, variety and ramifications for the rest of one’s life. (Zhao et al., 2007, p. 263)

That student echoes what many doctoral candidates learn, with ease or agony, during their dissertation years. Your relationship with your chair (sometimes called advisor or supervisor) is absolutely the most important in your entire doctoral trek. In my many years of coaching and advising doctoral candidates, I have seen too often how the “wrong” chair not only delays dissertation completion and graduation but creates much frustration.