I had a pretty rough advisor meeting today. And to be fair, my research has definitely stalled a bit over the last couple of weeks, and my advisor has noticed. He has emphasized several times that he wants me to take more ownership over my research, but I still am not entirely sure what that actually means in practice.
In today’s meeting, he said “I don’t need another paper, I’m here to help you get through prelims and graduate,” and he also said he sometimes isn’t sure how to help me. He mentioned that he feels like we’ve been going in circles, that my progress hasn’t been great, and that what I’m working on right now doesn’t seem like a particularly hard problem. He also suggested that I’m probably not spending enough time on my research.
At one point, he said “If you want to do a PhD here, then you may as well spend time on your research, right? Otherwise, you could be doing more fun things, relaxing, or whatever.” And he again recommended that I spend more time on my project over this next week.
Now I feel really anxious about disappointing him, getting fired, etc. I also feel overwhelmed because I don’t fully understand how our advisor meetings are supposed to function, what I should be bringing to them, or what kind of help I should be asking for. I think part of the issue is I'm stuck on what independent research means. I am only a first year, but I feel like ive really disappointed my advisor already. Thoughts?
Location: USA
Field: Biostats