Advising

The Program in Biomedical Data Science is committed to providing academic and research 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.

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. The program’s student services staff is also essential to the student advising team. They inform students and advisors about university and department requirements, procedures, and opportunities and maintain the official records of advising assignments and approvals.

Academic Adviser—Each new student in the Program in Biomedical Data Science is assigned an academic advisor (a member of the core or advising faculty or Executive Committee of the program). Academic advisors guide students in critical areas such as selecting courses, discussing research rotations, developing teaching pedagogy, navigating policies and degree requirements, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways. Usually, the academic advisor serves for the duration of the student’s study; the DBDS Student Handbook  opens in a new tabdescribes a process for formal advisor changes. In addition, the program director is available during the academic year by email and during office hours.

The program director and student services staff monitor academic progress and student completion of program requirements and milestones. They are discussed by faculty during periodic meetings devoted to assessing graduate student progress. A detailed description of the program’s requirements, milestones, and advising expectations are listed in the Biomedical Data Science Training Program Student Handbook, found on the program website opens in a new tab, opens in a new tab as well as in the section on the Biomedical Data Science Program (BMDS-MS: Biomedical Data Science (MS) and BMDS-PHD: Biomedical Data Science (PhD)).

Research Adviser—Each student in the PhD degree program must also have a research advisor chosen by mutual agreement at the end of their research rotations (typically by the end of their first year in the program). This research advisor is a core or advising faculty member for the DBDS training program. The research advisor may not be the same person as the academic advisor. Research advisors and the students should have a clear, shared understanding of the scientific objectives of the student’s work and how it fits into a research program that will lead to an MS or PhD degree. They should focus on developing novel, generally applicable, and well-grounded methods in the informatics literature. In select cases, the research advisor may be a member of the collaborating faculty, in which case the student must have a co-adviser from the DBDS core or advising faculty. When there is a secondary or co-adviser, the primary advisor and co-adviser should clearly understand their mentorship roles.

Each PhD student is required to fill out an annual Individual Developmental Plan (IDP), usually in the Summer. The IDP is then discussed with the research advisor as a way to facilitate advising the student, both during and beyond the PhD; establishing clear expectations on both sides concerning degree progress and timely graduation; and emphasizing the importance of wellness in graduate school, together with access to university wellness resources.

Each PhD candidate must establish a reading committee for the doctoral dissertation by late in the third year or early in the fourth year. Students should consult frequently with all committee members about the direction and progress of the dissertation research and must meet annually with their whole committee. The detailed process, including Stanford and DBDS policies, such as the composition of the committee, process toward the dissertation, defense, submission of the final dissertation, and readiness to graduate, are described in the DBDS Student Handbook. opens in a new tab

Additionally, the program adheres to the university policies, guidelines, and responsibilities that apply to all faculty-student advising relationships. See Graduate Advising for a statement of university policy on graduate advising.