LING-PHD - Linguistics (PhD)

Refer to University policy on Transfer Work.

The department is committed to providing academic advising supporting each graduate student’s scholarly and professional development. The advising relationship should entail collaborative engagement between the advisor and the advisee. Faculty advisors guide students in critical areas such as selecting courses, designing and conducting research, navigating degree requirements, exploring academic and professional opportunities, and preparing for their post-PhD careers. Graduate students are active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for the PhD program. An essential part of the advisee-adviser relationship is that students learn to advocate for themselves; this includes discussing expectations for the advisor/advisee relationship with the advisor and revisiting these expectations periodically to ensure mutual understanding.

Advisors and Advising Meetings

A department faculty member is the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). Typically, the DGS keeps track of the general degree progress of all PhD students, offers advice on meeting department and university milestones, coordinates departmental advising and TA assignments, and approves special petitions.

Each student has an individual advisor (also referred to as a second advisor in the pre-candidacy stage), usually chosen based on shared research interests, who advises on coursework, training in research methodologies, research projects, and professional development. Entering students are assigned a second advisor for their first two quarters in the program. The second advisor helps first-year students transition to graduate school and take the initial steps toward their long-term goals.

To meet the department’s advising expectations, each student and their advisor meet twice a year for a holistic, structured discussion of the student’s recent progress, short-term plans, and longer-term academic and professional goals. They also discuss the steps the student should take to meet these objectives. The DGS usually joins the discussion with students in the earlier stages of the PhD program. Students who receive department summer quarter funding are also expected to discuss their activities, priorities, and goals for the summer with their advisor.

Students are expected to meet regularly with their advisors and to keep them informed about their academic progress. Each student and their advisor should mutually agree on the frequency of these meetings when the advising relationship begins and reassess their frequency at the start of every quarter.

Additional resources

The Department of Linguistics PhD Handbook provides additional information on advising expectations in the program.