Advising

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 Initiative opens in a new tab website.

It is important to distinguish between master’s and doctoral advising. Master’s students are assigned academic program advisors. Students can request a specific faculty member in the same program to advise them.

Doctoral students and their faculty advisors are expected to discuss and agree on  a meeting format. The discussion should include meeting frequency and possible deliverables at the meetings. They should agree on how degree progress will be monitored, for example, through an annual review process or regular meetings with advisors and the GQE or dissertation thesis committee. 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, how and when to decide whether 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 possible problems with their studies or changes in their academic plans. If students have difficulty meeting with their advisor, they are encouraged to ask the student services team or the directors of graduate studies for advice or assistance.

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

Aligning with a Faculty Advisor
In most cases, students are admitted to the PhD program with an initial advisor for their first quarter but not a permanent faculty advisor. To help students explore the range of research activities in the department and facilitate their alignment with a permanent faculty advisor,  the department allows students without a permanent advisor to conduct research with a different CEE faculty member during subsequent quarters of the first year of the PhD. The advisor must agree before the student can move into their lab group. To remain in good standing, all PhD students must align with a permanent faculty advisor in the CEE department by the end of their fourth quarter in the PhD program (typically the Summer quarter).

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 with whom they have worked 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.

On occasion, some PhD students are admitted with a permanent advisor specified who will support the student’s funding and research upon enrollment and for the duration of the PhD. This arrangement will be noted in the admission letter. The letter will also specify any other explicit deadlines or requirements. The principal or primary doctoral program or doctoral dissertation advisor must be a CEE professor who is a member of the Academic Council.

The principal or primary doctoral program or doctoral dissertation advisor must be a CEE faculty member or CEE courtesy faculty member who is a member of the Academic Council.

Aligning with an advisor is an essential milestone in the PhD program and is required for making satisfactory degree progress and maintaining good standing. Upon aligning with an advisor, student support transitions from a department fellowship to advisor-provided funding. Therefore, students must align with an advisor who can financially support them. 

PhD students who do not align with an advisor by the end of their 4th quarter of study at Stanford are subject to dismissal from the program. A student who does not align with an advisor by the end of third quarter  is considered to be “on academic notice” as a warning of impending unsatisfactory degree progress. The student's progress and efforts will be closely monitored to ensure that they align with an advisor  during the quarter of notice.  There are no guarantees of extensions to the alignment deadline.  If a student has not aligned with an advisor by the end of the 4th quarter, students may be dismissed from the PhD program.

PhD students may need to change advisors after initial alignment due to unexpected circumstances. Since an advisor is necessary for continued funding and remaining in good standing, students should consult the Director of Student and Academic Services or Director of Graduate Studies as early as possible to ensure proper coordination and uninterrupted support. Additional guidance for students considering an advisor change is available in this resource opens in a new tab. If a student wants to change advisors, the Department can enforce a deadline by when this must happen. Although it is the student's responsibility to  actively seek and find a new advisor. If the student is unable to secure a new advisor by a communicated deadline, the Department will initiate procedures for dismissal per the “Guidelines for Dismissal of Graduate Students for Academic or Professional Reasons” in the Stanford Bulletin.