New graduate students will be assigned first-year advisers who will review their course selections, familiarize them with the Graduate Program, answer questions, and assist them in their progress through the program, including helping the student choose an academic adviser.

After the first year, students regularly meet with their academic advisers once each term prior to registration to discuss course choices for the following term and to record the fulfillment of distribution requirements on a course work record form which is kept in the student’s file.  Other meetings may take place according to the needs of the individual student.

In the penultimate semester of course work, the regular advising meeting becomes a pre-orals advising conference.  This conference must take place within the first ten weeks of the student’s penultimate semester. For students entering with an M.A. and 9 transfer credits, the penultimate semester of course work may be the third or fourth semester; for all other students it may be the fourth or fifth semester. 

Participants in the pre-orals advising conference include the student’s academic adviser and a second faculty member chosen by the student – someone with whom the student would like to work, either on orals or on the dissertation or both.  Students will prepare an informal one- to two-page statement that includes a brief review of course work, ideas about research areas, and consideration of possible orals committee personnel.  The statement is not binding in any way.  It is produced so that students can reflect on past progress and discuss future plans. Copies of the statement will be submitted to the two faculty members at least one week in advance of the meeting. Copies of the pre-orals statement, along with the Ph.D. Pre-Qualifying Examination Committee Approval Form, must also be submitted to the Graduate Office within four weeks of the pre-orals conference.

The arc of graduate advising stretches from the arrival of students in the program to the pre-orals conference.  After the completion of course work, the orals committee chair and then the dissertation director take over the functions of the adviser. 

Students may change advisers at any point during course work.  They need only inform the Graduate Office of the change.  When students begin teaching they will also be assigned faculty mentors to help them with their teaching responsibilities.