Advising

The Department of Music is committed to academic advising in support of graduate students’ scholarly and professional development. The advising relationship entails collaborative and consistent engagement between advisor and advisee, and the parties should periodically discuss and review expectations to ensure mutual understanding. Advisors and advisees are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity in their working relationship.

The advisor is the primary source of information for a student’s graduate career.  Advisors 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 department assigns a program advisor to each incoming student upon acceptance. The student may request to change program advisor or dissertation advisor as interests and goals evolve. Only Academic Council Teaching Faculty (“ACTFac” – any tenure-track faculty, i.e., Assistant, Associate, and full Professors), are eligible to serve as graduate program advisors opens in a new tab; however, non-ACTFac instructors may serve as co-advisors in conjunction with an ACTFac instructor. Should a student feel it necessary to change advisors or work with an additional research/dissertation advisor, the student should contact the department's doctoral student services officer. A student may request that a different faculty member should be the research/dissertation advisor, and communicate this to the Graduate Studies Committee. See the faculty listing on the Music website opens in a new tab.

Graduate students should proactively seek academic and professional guidance and take responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for their program. Graduate students are encouraged to communicate frequently with their advisors and to meet with their program advisor at least once each quarter.