On how a lack of mentoring can destroy your graduate life

Recently I had the unfortunate event of seeing bad mentoring around me. This is pretty common during the Ph.D.. Missing PIs that you see once every three months (if you are lucky). Paperwork that appears and needs to be fixed right away. Terrible thesis plans that are not doable and if things go wrong you are the only one to blame. And a long list of disastrous events that cause highly levels of depression among graduate students. While there might be some bad Ph.D. students out there, I think the root cause of all these problems are PIs that do not mentor. Mentoring should be task number one for PIs, and the happier their students, the better outcomes they can get. But this is not always the case. There are many Ph.D. students whose thesis plan was not well thought, and therefore, they reach their finally year unmotivated and without clear results. PIs should always have their students in mind. First, proposing a realistic plan for a thesis, that can be achieved during the time that the student has. Second, they should monitor their student, meeting regularly to adapt their way of doing to the strengths of the student. Finally, they should encourage collaboration between students. The old image of a lone wolf doing amazing research I feel is outdated. Collaborative research is the best, and when you have more fun!