#dos's

If the college page doesn’t make it as clear as this, eg it just lists all the fellows, you have to kinda detective around. You can google the people and find their pages within their Cam department, which will sometimes tell you (like “X’s speciality is in ____ and she is also the St. Catz DoS” or something). If you can’t find it anywhere, you’ve basically got to guess. Discount anyone who is called like ‘The __________ Fellow’ those will be special associated people, pretty much never DoS’s. Then just look for whoever seems the most senior. 

There’s no reason to drop, even if this person is going to be supervising you. Why would you be scared? Clearly they’re an idiot who was wrong about you. Supervisors have no effect on your grades, having one that hates you won’t dash your chances of getting a good mark. And if their supervising is really bad or they’re not treating you properly in supers, that’s what you have a DoS for. Your DoS is on your side, that’s their job. If this does become an issue (which it really shouldn’t, they probably won’t be teaching you and even they are, they should be able to remain professional) your DoS will sort it out. DoS’s are like fairy godmothers. Don’t underestimate them, don’t underestimate yourself. This is going to be fine. Deep breath. 

Sorry, there’s not a whole list up anywhere as far as I know, you just have to search within the college websites!

No definitely not necessarily. I know a lot of people get scared about this (their DoS interviews them, is terrifying, they think all DoS meetings will be that scary) but most DoS’s are fairly nice, especially once you get to know them. And when you’re terrified in interview, people can come across as much more intimidating than they actually are. So don’t worry about it too much!

Have fun this year!

They’re generally fairly stable but Cam academics often get months/whole years of leave if they come up with a cool project or get good grant money so yeah, it does happen. You old DoS will probably be back at some point during your degree, usually they switch back to that person but sometimes the current person will keep doing it. So to recap: yeah, it does happen, usually for good reasons. The person originally listed as DoS will probably come back at some point but you may or may not stick with the current person, it really varies. 

My dept was very casual, we went with a first name basis for pretty much everyone. So my DoS was just Jay, my diss supervisors was Peter, etc. But other DoS’s/depts are more formal, my boyfriend always calls his DoS “Dr. McCombie.” When I would write to a member of staff, I would also say “Dr. ____” in my first email and then I’d use whatever they signed off with when they replied from then on.