"I've got to make my decision about an advisor today or tomorrow," she said, after a long silence. She got up from the rug and walked over to the nightstand, taking a handful of Kleenex from the box there for mopping up operations. "I simply can't wait any longer. It's either going to be Bertrand or Velasquez."

Paul turned over on the rug. "Dammit," he exclaimed, giving her a concerned look, "why those two?"

She made a face at him. "Because all the other professors already have their assistants lined up," she said.

"You don't need to take a job," he told her. "Like I said before, you can stay here as long as you want, rent free."

Joselyn was fully intending to take him up on his offer, even if she did get an assistantship… assuming, of course, no better offer came along. The money involved in the job wasn't the only motivating factor, however. Her first year at grad school had been underwritten by the Chem Department. In return for correcting papers on the undergraduate classes, she received a small monthly allowance. Now that she was starting her second year at Mira Pavo, that source of funds was dried up. It was department policy only to give aid during the first year, after that it was up to the individual student to find a faculty sponsor who would pay him or her to perform menial tasks, repetitive laboratory procedures, and assistant teach the lecture classes. More often than not, the sponsor ended up being the student's thesis advisor or the thesis advisor ended up being the sponsor. Regardless, the advisor-sponsor was the key figure in determining what happened to the student after he or she received a doctorate degree. Simply speaking, it was the sponsor's pull, connections both in academic circles and in academic publishing circles that made or broke a career.