Selection of Major Advisor

It is highly recommended that at the start of their program each student identifies a major advisor who agrees to supervise his/her work and is responsible for overseeing the development of the student’s program of study. Each student must complete the selection of a major advisor form and send it to/or drop it off to the Graduate Program Coordinator (Lori Altenbaugh) and the Director of the Graduate Programs (Bailey Tobias). If a student has not identified an advisor upon entering the program, the Director of Graduate Programs will serve as the interim advisor for a MAXIMUM of the first two semesters.  At the conclusion of the first two semesters, a major advisor MUST be selected and the selection of a major advisor form must be submitted.  To serve as an advisor for a PhD student the faculty member must have graduate faculty status.  That status can be determined here: Graduate Faculty Dashboard. If a student identifies an advisor that does not yet have graduate faculty status, that advisor may serve as a co-advisor and directly mentor the student alongside a faculty member with graduate faculty status, who would serve as the Major Advisor.