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Summary Description Our chemistry department has 5 subdisciplines (or divisions) which have different requirements and strategies
for promoting effective advising of Ph.D. students. Mandatory or
voluntary rotations through laboratories in the first year, advising
committees which meet annually, and opportunities for students to
present their research outside their primary research groups or areas
(at "super-group" meetings, divisional seminars, and inter-divisional
student-run seminars) have been adopted by some or all of the
divisions. Students also have opportunities to obtain certificates in
optics, science policy, and other interdisciplinary programs, work in
groups outside the department (in physics and molecular and cell
biology, for example), work collaboratively with other groups both
within and outside the university, and do semester- or year-long
industrial internships. To help promote and reward effective mentoring,
annual faculty merit evaluations depend on the successes of students
graduated over the past five years.
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Goals for Advising Advising
is a very individual process--students have different needs and
advisors have different mentoring styles. Our goals are to help new
students choose a suitable advisor, provide all students with
opportunities to seek out mentors in addition to their primary research
advisor, and to direct students towards timely completion of the Ph.D.
(or Master's degree, if necessary) and a successful career.
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Program Context Mandatory
rotations in biochemistry and voluntary rotations in analytical and
physical chemistry help first-years in these divisions choose an
advisor. Advising committees and opportunities to present research at
divisional and inter-divisional seminars can provide students with
valuable feedback on their progress towards the Ph.D. and help students
meet and stay connected to faculty in addition to their primary
research advisors. Working in other groups, through collaborations or
industrial internships, also provides students with mentors in addition
to the primary advisor. The department is trying to identify funding
sources that would allow students to do research at the interface of
chemistry and education, public policy, and/or law as part of their
dissertation work, as many of our alumni pursue careers in these areas. In
general, formal requirements in our department are kept to a minimum to
allow students to pursue their research along with the
interdisciplinary opportunities described above. We have experimented
with optional programs or changes in mentoring as suited to particular
subdisciplines of chemistry. This strategy fits with our efforts to
foster interdisciplinary research.
Rotations Program
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Reflections on Advising Committees "During
the third and subsequent years of graduate school, biochemistry
students meet on a yearly basis with a faculty committee to evaluate
progress. The monitoring committee consists of at least three
biochemistry faculty including the thesis advisor. Students present a
formal seminar on their research which is attended by the monitoring
committee members. After the research talk, the committee meets with
the student to discuss progress and outline goals for the next year.
Problems or obstacles that interfere with progress of the dissertation
are noted. The monitoring process provides valuable support and advice
for students who may be encountering problems with their work, and
enables students to formulate and prioritize their research aims." -Faculty Members Drs. Jim Goodrich, Art Pardi, and Deborah Wuttke "I
think that these meetings are helpful for two main reasons: 1. I think
it's always good to evaluate your own work on a yearly basis. 2. For
the most part I think if you are coming along fine these meetings don't
make a huge difference, but if you need help, they help. So it's either
neutral or positive, but not negative. And they don't take too much
time if you don't really need them. Also, if there's a conflict between
a student and an advisor it's helpful for both the advisor and the
student to have a couple of people to back either one of them up." -Kristi Kincaid, 4th year Biochemistry
Advising Committees
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How Do We Know? We
know advising is effective when Ph.D. alumni succeed in their
subsequent careers. We are still developing our ability to track this,
perhaps through formation of an alumni network. Upon
graduating, students are invited to fill out an "Outcome Survey" to
evaluate a number of aspects of our program including the quality of
mentoring by their faculty advisor. Feedback from students indicates
that changes to enhance advising for advanced Ph.D. students have been
well-received. In
a recent survey on rotations and advising committees, all respondents
who participate in mandatory rotations and who have advising committees
felt they were beneficial. A large majority of survey respondents who
do not do mandatory rotations or have advising committees were either
very supportive of or open to them, but expressed a number of concerns
over how these would fit in with other divisional requirements.
Rotations and Advising Committees Survey
Results of a Spring 2004 survey of students on whether they think they
have (or would have) benefitted from rotations and advising committees.
Graduate Student Outcome Survey
A survey all graduating students from our department are invited to complete.
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Unanswered Questions How
do we adapt advising committees to divisions where faculty expertise
may not overlap and projects may not be separable into steps readily
monitored by other faculty? When formal requirements are already at a
minimum, how do we make room for rotations? Where do we find the
resources to develop an alumni network which can help us track the
career success of our graduates and help advise and mentor our current
students?
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Contact Information Contact person(s): David Jonas, Veronica Vaida Email address: david.jonas@colorado.edu, veronica.vaida@colorado.edu
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