CEE-PHD - Civil and Environmental Engineering (PhD)

Refer to University policy on Transfer Work.

Faculty advisors serve as intellectual and professional mentors to their graduate students. They are expected to provide knowledgeable support concerning policies for graduate studies, help prepare their students to be competitive for employment, maintain a high level of professionalism, and establish expectations concerning advisor/advisee relationships consistent with university and department standards. General university policies on advising and the conduct of research can be found on VPGE’s Advising and Mentoring website.

It is important to distinguish between master’s and doctoral advising. Master’s students are assigned academic program advisors randomly, unless they explicitly request a specific faculty to advise them. The process by which a master’s student can change advisors is flexible and can be done without any paperwork, provided the change of advisor is made within the same program. The student, however, is expected to inform their old and new academic advisors and the department’s student services office of such a change. On the other hand, doctoral students are expected to be advised by the faculty who admitted them throughout their doctoral studies. Any change in advisor requires a formal admit letter from the new advisor that includes an explicit commitment to support the student financially throughout their doctoral studies.

Doctoral students and their faculty advisors are expected to discuss and agree on how regular meetings will be set up within a day or two of the student’s start as a PhD student. The discussion should include meeting frequency and deliverables associated with any of those meetings. They should discuss and agree on how the degree progress will be monitored, for example, through a department’s annual review process or regular meetings with advisors and thesis committees. They should also discuss all the requirements of the PhD degree, including expectations for the General Qualifying Examination, how and when to select and convene the dissertation reading or thesis committee, when and how to decide when a student is ready to graduate, and when to take the University Oral Examination.

See Graduate Advising for a statement of university policy on graduate advising. 

Selecting a Research Area & Principal Advisor  
In most cases, students are admitted to the PhD program without a permanent dissertation advisor. To help students explore the range of research activities in the department and facilitate their alignment with a faculty member who will supervise their dissertation, the department requires students without a permanent advisor to conduct research rotations each quarter. The initial research advisor is stated in the admission letter to the PhD program. By mutual agreement, students may continue subsequent rotations with the same advisor or with a different CEE faculty member. To remain in good standing, all PhD students must align with a permanent advisor by the end of their fourth quarter in the PhD program (typically the Summer quarter).

On occasion, some PhD students are admitted with a permanent dissertation advisor already specified who will support the student’s funding and research immediately upon enrollment. In these cases, this arrangement will be specified in the admission letter. The letter will also specify any other explicit deadlines or requirements.

It is the student’s responsibility to find a permanent advisor. Faculty members are more likely to accept the responsibility of supervising the research of a student whom they have worked with during research rotations and whose abilities, initiative, and originality are fairly well known to them. Agreeing to work together on a dissertation research project is a serious commitment between a student and an advisor.

The principal or primary doctoral program or doctoral dissertation advisor must be a CEE professor who is a member of the Academic Council. On occasion, a non-Academic Council member may serve as a co-advisor; however, this arrangement must be approved by the department chair.

Change of Advisor or Reading Committee Member  
If you wish to change your advisor or a reading committee member (see section below on Dissertation Reading Committee), email a Change of Dissertation Advisor or Reading Committee Member form to the CEE Assistant Director of Degree Progress. Failure to do so will result in a delay of approval for the dissertation until student records are correct. 

Note: This must be done before you apply for conferral of your degree so that your student records will be updated. Failure to file this form will result in conflicting information when signatures are being checked upon submission of your thesis or dissertation.

PhD Advising Expectations

Faculty advisors serve as intellectual and professional mentors to their graduate students. They are expected to provide knowledgeable support concerning policies for graduate studies, help prepare their students to be competitive for employment, maintain a high level of professionalism, and establish expectations concerning advisor/advisee relationships consistent with university and department standards. General university policies on advising and the conduct of research can be found on VPGE’s Advising and Mentoring website.

Doctoral students are expected to be advised by the faculty member they align with in their first year. Any change to the primary advisor requires a written formal letter from the new advisor that includes an explicit commitment to support the student as a primary academic advisor and to provide funding to the PhD student while they are making good academic progress. Doctoral students and their faculty advisors are expected to discuss and agree on how regular meetings will be set up within a day or two of the student’s start as a PhD student. The discussion should include meeting frequency and deliverables associated with any of those meetings. They should discuss and agree on how the degree progress will be monitored, for example, through a department’s annual review process or regular meetings with advisors and thesis committees. They should also discuss all the requirements of the PhD degree, including expectations for the General Qualifying Examination, how and when to select and convene the dissertation reading or thesis committee, when and how to decide when a student is ready to graduate, and when to take the University Oral Examination. PhD students are empowered to request an appointment with their advisor at any time to discuss any problems with their studies or changes in their academic plans. If they have difficulty meeting with their advisor, they can ask the student services team or the directors of graduate studies for advice or assistance.