The Department of Music is committed to providing academic advising in support of graduate student scholarly and professional development. When most effective, this advising relationship entails collaborative and sustained engagement by the advisor and the advisee. As a best practice, advising expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed to ensure mutual understanding. Both the advisor and the advisee are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity.

Faculty advisers guide students in critical areas such as selecting courses, designing and conducting research, developing teaching pedagogy, navigating policies and degree requirements, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways.

The faculty program advisor is the primary source of information for a student’s graduate career. Program advisor assignments are based on the perceived best fit at the time of acceptance to a degree program. Only Academic Council Teaching Faculty (“ACTFac” – any tenure-track faculty, i.e., Assistant, Associate, and full Professors), are eligible to serve as graduate program advisers; however, non-ACTFac instructors may serve as co-advisers in conjunction with an ACTFac instructor. See the faculty listing on the Music website.

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 their graduate program. Graduate students are encouraged to meet with their program advisor at least once each quarter and are actively encouraged to communicate frequently with their advisers. Setting clear mutual expectations for the advising process and revisiting them periodically is valuable. While developing a proposal for the PhD dissertation or DMA final project, the student should invite a reading committee in consultation with the program advisor and other relevant faculty.

Each student is assigned a program advisor at the start of graduate study. Should a student feel it necessary to change advisers, the following procedure should be followed:

Discuss this with the current advisor. With their permission,
Solicit agreement from the proposed new advisor.
Email the Graduate Student Services Officer a notification of this change, copying old and new advisers.

If there are concerns with the advising relationship, please contact the Department Chair or the Graduate Student Services Officer.

Advising Expectations for Doctoral & Master’s Students

A student should be an active advisee and not wait for their advisor to email. Students should arrange meetings to discuss coursework, summer plans, quals preparation, language study, and, later, the dissertation topic, fellowship applications, and other aspects of professional development. Students should prepare for these meetings carefully, recognizing that the advisor’s time is limited.

Stanford Advising Documents and Resources

The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE) works collaboratively with Stanford’s schools and departments to enhance the quality of graduate education at Stanford University. A set of graduate advising resources is among the many resources at their site.

The Graduate Academic Policies and Procedures (GAP) section on advising is available on the GAP website.

See the Advising and Credentials for a university policy statement on graduate advising.

MUSIC-PHD - Music (PhD)

Program Overview