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Bulletin Archive

This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Advising

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Advising and Credentials

By the start of their first term, students should be paired by the department with faculty advisers who assist them in planning a program of study to meet degree requirements. The department should also ensure that doctoral students are informed in a timely fashion about procedures for selecting a dissertation adviser, reading committee members, and orals committee members. Departments should make every effort to assist doctoral students who are not admitted to candidacy in finding an appropriate adviser.

Students are obliged to follow department procedures for identifying advisers and committee members for their dissertation reading and orals examinations.

Occasionally, a student's research may diverge from the area of competence of the adviser, or irreconcilable differences may occur between the student and the faculty adviser. In such cases, the student or the faculty adviser may request a change in assignment. If the department decides to grant the request, every reasonable effort must be made to pair the student with another suitable adviser. This may entail some modification of the student's research project.

In the rare case where a student's dissertation research on an approved project is in an advanced stage and the dissertation adviser is no longer available, every reasonable effort must be made to appoint a new adviser, usually from the student's reading committee. This may also require that a new member be added to the reading committee before the draft dissertation is evaluated, to keep the reconstituted committee in compliance with the University requirements for its composition.

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