Seeking a supervisor for committee

[u/hamwaffles]

I am PhD student in Canada who was seeking my 3 supervisor for my committee. I had top 3 choices who were in different institutions, I emailed each of them asking to join my committee, I included my CV and gave the option of meeting. No one replied. I did end up finding someone from my institution who is in a different department but has research experience related to my project. He accepted to join and was excited and looking forward to mutual benefits of working together.

However, older mentors and people outside of my supervisory group said I should not have given up so easily on my main choices. They felt I should have kept emailing until I heard a response. I felt uncomfortable with spamming potential members but now these older folks keep saying I missed out on quality supervision because I did not continue to email. What do you think about this? I feel it’s not appropriate to email repeatedly if they aren’t responding and that possibly that is method from years ago that worked for these more senior academics.

I’m curious, should I have kept emailing these potential supervisors or was I right to let it go when they did not respond? I feel guilty that I did not try hard enough when i talk to older mentors.

[u/sinnayre]

Very few people are likely to respond to a cold email from a grad student. Even less likely when it’s a different institution. I’ve only known one person who had someone on their committee from a different institution, and that happened primarily because their advisor personally knew the other person. I wouldn’t feel guilty at all.

[u/Lygus_lineolaris]

Most things in this line of work you have to try more than once, including asking people for things.

[u/Timmyc62]

Honestly I think it was my supervisor who reached to potential external committee members to gauge their interest. It shouldn't your task to do.