Why this site exists, and what it’s meant to be (and not be)
RateMySupervisor exists because there is a gap most academic systems never acknowledge.
If you are a PhD student, postdoc, or prospective graduate student, you are often told that choosing a supervisor is one of the most important decisions you will make.
You are also given surprisingly little information to make that decision.
Official websites describe research interests.
Lab pages list publications and grants.
None of them tell you what it actually feels like to work there.
RateMySupervisor was created to document those missing experiences.
Not to judge.
Not to rank.
And not to turn academic mentorship into a popularity contest.
But to make the invisible parts of supervision visible.
What RateMySupervisor is
At its core, RateMySupervisor is a platform for anonymous, experience-based accounts of academic supervision.
It focuses on questions students actually struggle with, such as:
How clear are expectations in this lab?
What does day-to-day supervision look like?
How responsive is the advisor in practice?
What is the lab culture like during difficult periods?
How do students experience interviews and onboarding?
These are not questions that appear in official evaluations.
They are usually answered quietly, through private conversations — if at all.
RateMySupervisor aims to collect these experiences in one place, so patterns can emerge over time.
What RateMySupervisor is not
This site is not a place for accusations or public disputes.
It does not verify claims, assign blame, or adjudicate conflicts.
It does not represent institutions, departments, or individuals.
Reviews are written from the perspective of the contributor’s own experience.
They reflect how supervision was perceived, not an objective or complete record of a person or lab.
RateMySupervisor also does not encourage emotional venting or retaliation.
The goal is description, not escalation.
Why anonymity matters here
Academic supervision involves strong power asymmetries.
Funding, visas, publications, recommendations, and career trajectories are often controlled by a single individual or a small committee.
In that context, even honest feedback can feel risky.
Anonymity is not about avoiding accountability.
It is about making it possible to speak at all.
Without anonymity, many experiences — especially subtle or ambiguous ones — would never be shared.
Why the focus is on patterns, not single stories
One review rarely tells you very much.
But when multiple students describe similar experiences — across time, roles, or labs — patterns start to form.
RateMySupervisor is designed to support this kind of pattern recognition.
Not to reduce people to scores,
but to surface recurring themes that prospective students might otherwise miss.
Who this site is for
RateMySupervisor is intended for:
Prospective PhD and master’s students evaluating offers
Current graduate students trying to make sense of their environment
Postdocs navigating transitions or lab changes
Anyone seeking context about supervision beyond publications and rankings
It is not intended to replace mentorship conversations, institutional processes, or personal judgment.
It is one input — not a verdict.
How to use the information here responsibly
Experiences shared on this site should be read with care.
Context matters.
Supervision styles vary.
Labs change over time.
A review that resonates may still not apply to you.
A lab that seems challenging for one student may be supportive for another.
RateMySupervisor is best used as a starting point for questions, not an endpoint for decisions.
Why this site will remain deliberately small and quiet
RateMySupervisor is not optimized for virality.
It does not push content aggressively or encourage mass participation.
Growth is intentional and slow.
That is a design choice.
Trust in this context is fragile, and scale without care would undermine the very problem the site is trying to address.
A note to contributors
If you choose to share an experience here, you are contributing to a collective resource that many people quietly rely on.
Clear, specific, and measured descriptions help others far more than extremes.
You are not required to write everything.
You are not required to write at all.
The site exists whether you contribute or not.
Closing thoughts
RateMySupervisor was built because many of the most consequential parts of academic life are discussed only in private — or not at all.
This site does not promise answers.
It offers context.
Sometimes, that is enough to ask better questions.
Sometimes, it helps someone feel less alone in an experience they could not previously name.
That is the entire point.