Graduate Student Advisement
Excellence in graduate education and research requires respectful, productive, professional relationships between faculty advisors and graduate students. The College of Engineering promotes best practices for advisor/advisee relationships. These steps include establishing clear expectations at the outset which should be reviewed periodically. A set of advisement tools, developed through an initiative undertaken by the College of Engineering working group on graduate student diversity and inclusion, are available and continue to be supported by the COE Graduate Affairs Office.
Advisement Services
Academics
- Academic Calendar 2022 – 2023
- Course Search
- Dissertation Retreats
- Dissertation Defense Cert.
- Steps to Graduation
- Graduation & Diplomas
- iThenticate: Students should practice responsible conduct of research including proper citation of references. iThenticate offers an easy way to check manuscripts for originality and is available as a tool for faculty, staff and students (other tools are also available, including learning how to recognize plagiarism, testing your understanding, and earning a certificate). Please note that while completing an iThenticate report is recommended by the Graduate College prior to submission of theses and dissertations, it is not mandatory.
- Orientation from the Graduate College
- Recommendation for Doctoral Candidacy form (qualifying exam)
- Register for Courses
- Transcripts – Unofficial
- Transcripts – Official
- Writing Center workshops
Advising Tools
The purpose of these tools is to help faculty and graduate students in the College of Engineering make the advising relationship as productive and positive as possible. Many of the difficulties in the advisor-advisee relationship stem from unclear communication or a discrepancy in expectations. These tools are designed to help set clear expectations for both the advisor-advisee and assist with clear communication and goal-setting. The tools and/or their mode of use may be tailored to individual situations as desired. Use of the tools is strongly encouraged for all faculty and graduate students.
A. Individualized Development Plans
When to use: Every six months-one year
Goal: To assist with long-term planning and progress evaluation.
How to use: This document will ideally be used once or twice per year. Detailed instructions are provided with the document. In brief, the student and advisor both fill out the document separately detailing accomplishments since the last meeting, research goals for the upcoming timeframe, personal and professional goals, and feedback. This is one of the few clear opportunities for students to give feedback to the advisor, so faculty are strongly encouraged both to use these documents and to accept feedback from the students graciously. Both parties comment on each other’s documents and create a yearly plan together.
- How to use an Individualized Development Plans
- Download the Goals and Planning Worksheet
- Sample of Completed Goals and Planning Worksheet
B. Student-Advisor Expectation Scales
When to use: Advisor selection (if applicable) and new student onboarding
Goal: To set clear expectations between the advisor and advisee. This helps the relationship get off to a good start and helps the advisor and advisee determine if the student is a good fit for the research group.
How to use: Both parties should fill this document out separately. There are no right answers. The student and advisor can then discuss points on which they differ. This will help set mutually-agreeable expectations from day one.
C. Research Group Expectations
When to use: Advisor selection (if applicable) and new student onboarding
Goal: To outline policies and procedures in the lab/research group as well as the expectations that the advisor has for the student. This will also help students assess their potential fit with a research group.
How to use: Faculty are strongly encouraged to create such a document for their labs/research groups and to share it with new and prospective graduate students. They are free to modify the example document or write their own.
D. Weekly or Biweekly Individual Meeting Template
When to use: Weekly/biweekly individual meetings
Goal: To help both parties keep track of the student’s progress and assist with short-term goal setting and accountability for both the student and advisor.
How to use: The graduate student should fill out the template before the meeting. During the meeting, the student and advisor can modify the document as needed. We recommend either printing out these sheets and keeping them in a folder or creating a shared Google doc. This will allow both parties to keep track of progress.
Department Advising
Advisors begin engaging students as prospective students, regularly interact with them throughout the admissions process & new student orientation and have frequent contact thereafter in the form of academic advisement and problem-solving support through their graduation. Alongside a department’s faculty, department academic advisors are a graduate student’s first point of contact for questions and concerns around program procedures, contract questions, administrative steps toward degree completion, and can refer the student to either the College of Engineering Graduate Affairs Office or University entities.
Biomedical | Cynthia Papettas | cpap@udel.edu | 590 Ave1743, Rm 411 |
302-831-6592 |
Chemical & Biomolecular | Cinda Younce | cyounce@udel.edu | 238 Colburn Lab | 302-831-0517 |
Biopharmaceutical | Judi Smith | jkpsmith@udel.edu | 590 Ave 1743, Rm 664A | 302-831-6742 |
Civil & Environmental | Jacquee Lukawski | jacquee@udel.edu | 301-1 DuPont Hall | 302-831-6570 |
Computer & Information Sciences | Mesha Carey | careyc@udel.edu | 101D Smith Hall | 302-831-2713 |
Bioinformatics | Karen Hoober | khoober@udel.edu | 205 Innovation Way | 302-831-6173 |
Electrical & Computer | Gwen Looby | glooby@udel.edu | 140 Evans Hall | 302-831-2406 |
Materials Science | Kathy Forwood | kforwood@udel.edu | 201 DuPont Hall | 302-831-7183 |
Mechanical | Junadah Lindsey | jlindsey@udel.edu | 126 Spencer Lab | 302-831-2423 |
COE Graduate Affairs
The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in the College of Engineering develops and implements policies and programs to foster successful graduate student outcomes. We offer a diverse engineering environment with specific emphasis on recruitment, retention, and training of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in engineering and computer science.
Jill Higginson Associate Dean Coordinates collection vision of departments and dean to support all COE graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and programs. higginso@udel.edu |
Jacqueline Washington Senior Assistant Dean Implements professional and career development opportunities and prepares a diverse community of graduate students for leadership roles in industry, government and academia. jawash@udel.edu |
Louise Bank Senior Academic Advisor Advises and implements best practices in recruitment, enrollment and retention. bankl@udel.edu |
Lisa Katzmire Academic Program Coordinator Point of contact for all incoming and outgoing news and student support services. katzmire@udel.edu |
COE Communication Pipeline
The organizational communication pipeline was developed by the College of Engineering to help navigate contacts, roles and responsibilities within the University for graduate student educational needs.
Who Does What?
Contracts and Funding (examples below):
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Department Academic Advisor |
Course requirements (examples below):
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Department Academic Advisor / Graduate Director |
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Faculty Advisor. Don’t know who your faculty advisor is? Check UDSIS. |
Questions, concerns or grievance with faculty advisor (examples below):
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Chair / Associate Dean of Graduate and Post Graduate Education |
Dean’s approval of thesis/dissertation | Lisa Katzmire |
Graduate College Council (GCC) | Council Members |
Graduate Student Government (GSG) | Senators, Committees, Officers |
Graduate College
Established in 2019, the University of Delaware Graduate College is an expression of the will of the faculty and administration at the University to dedicate itself to the needs and aspirations of our graduate students and postdocs. We will advocate for our graduate students’ and postdocs’ success and well-being in all parts of their lives on and off campus.