>I will say, make sure your supervisor is a nice person who does not place their career above all else. I was lucky with that, and I think finding such a person in academic is increasingly difficult. Never do a PhD with a supervisor you are unsure about.
This is a great point. A bad supervisor will make your time miserable, and universities generally have no interest in weeding out the bad ones.
There's an academic whisper-net where this knowledge is spread, but undergrad or MSc students generally have no access to the net. Which is a shame as it would protect them from terrible supervisors who look good to the world.
If you're in that position, see if you can find a Prof who you can trust and explicitly ask them about colleagues in a 1-on-1 meeting; at least you'll get some access then.
I agree with the whisper net comment. You learn about who's good and bad pretty quickly once you get into a department, but everyone is hush-hush otherwise. We need a glassdoor for academia.
This is a great point. A bad supervisor will make your time miserable, and universities generally have no interest in weeding out the bad ones.
There's an academic whisper-net where this knowledge is spread, but undergrad or MSc students generally have no access to the net. Which is a shame as it would protect them from terrible supervisors who look good to the world.
If you're in that position, see if you can find a Prof who you can trust and explicitly ask them about colleagues in a 1-on-1 meeting; at least you'll get some access then.