Your Advisor

Your faculty advisor can help you select courses, prepare for qualifying examinations, develop a research project, submit research proposals, publish your research, hone your ideas until they become feasible dissertation questions, and understand Department and University requirements. Your advisor can also offer career planning advice. Both you and your advisor are responsible for arranging frequent meetings to accomplish these tasks. You are encouraged to consult with and seek advice from your course instructors and other members of the faculty. The Ph.D. Program Director is also available to assist in advising.

You will be assigned a faculty adviser upon admission into the program. Most matches continue throughout a student’s degree program and for years thereafter, but you or your advisor may request a change to serve your needs better. You might develop new interests and choose a dissertation topic in which the original advisor has no interest or expertise. Another faculty member may offer multi-year financial support on a new project if you agree to write your dissertation as part of the project. Your advisor may have other responsibilities that suggest someone else might serve you more attentively. Sometimes student and advisor find themselves incompatible in research style, skills, interests, or personalities. You are free to approach any other member of the Planning faculty about becoming your advisor, but you should be sensitive to responsibilities and commitments you may have incurred to an original advisor who provided you financial support and on-the-job training in anticipation of doing advanced research with you.

Although advisors, the Department, and the University can assist you, you ultimately are responsible for decisions affecting your academic progress. You should expect to rely largely on your own effort for your success. Admission into the graduate program does not convey an obligation on the part of advisors, the Department, or the University to ensure that you successfully complete the requirements for a graduate degree.