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Graduate Student Information

Section 2 Advising

2.1 Graduate Advising Roles

2.1.1 Director of Graduate Studies

The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) or Faculty Graduate Advisor is a faculty member who is appointed each year to oversee the graduate policies in the department. The DGS approves petitions and acts as a representative of the department in signing forms. The DGS works on Teaching Assistant Assignments as well.

Questions regarding departmental policies and requests for exceptions can be brought to the DGS.

2.1.2 Graduate Program Assistant

The Graduate Program Advisor (GPA) is a staff member who handles the administrative duties of the graduate program, including student records, admissions, textbooks, cubicles, website, etc. They are often responsible for getting graduate students on the payroll, as well as filing petitions with the university.

Graduate students should bring administrative questions to the GPA. They can explain departmental as well as university policy. It is a good idea to sit down with the GPA at academic milestones which require submitting paperwork to the university: Advancing to Candidacy, Dissertation Defense, or filing to complete an MA degree. You can email with any questions you may have.

2.1.3 Graduate Advisors

The Graduate Advising Committee includes 3-4 faculty in the department who work on decisions regarding graduate students and graduate policies. Members of the committee will often divide up the advising of MA students, first-year PhD students, and students in the financial mathematics and data science areas.

These advisors are the best source of information regarding which courses you should take, and what you should be doing to make progress towards your degree. It is a good idea to talk with a Graduate Advisor before making a big change in your plans, or if you find yourself struggling.

2.1.4 Dissertation Advisor

PhD students that are preparing to begin their research will choose a Research Advisor to work with. This can be any faculty member (within the guidelines set by the Committee Nominating guidelines.) A research advisor will provide individual advice about the scope and direction of your dissertation research as well as advice on beginning your research career.

PhD students who have advanced to candidacy are expected to meet regularly with their research advisor. Graduate Student Research Assistantships for advanced students are most often administered through Research Advisor’s grants.

2.2 Annual Evaluations for Graduate Students

In the Spring quarter of each year, all PhD students (unless they are planning to defend before the beginning of Fall quarter) must prepare an evaluation of their academic progress. There are three components to this evaluation. Each of these forms will be made available as an online form.

  • Self Evaluation Form Every student should fill out the form which outlines their progress towards completing the requirements for the degree and plans for the coming year. If you are early in your career at UCSB, then you may not have much to report in some areas. This is to be expected, so take it as an opportunity to think about moving in those directions in the future.

  • Research Advisor Evaluation Your research advisor also has an evaluation form to complete regarding your progress. For the purpose of the evaluation, the research advisor is your research committee chair if you have already formed a committee. If you have co-chairs then you may designate any one of your co-chairs as advisor for this purpose. Please schedule a meeting with your advisor to review your Self Evaluation and their responses in the Research Advisor Evaluation. Early career students are not expected to have a research advisor yet and can opt out of this part of the evaluation. However, even if you have started to have early conversations with a faculty member regarding research, we recommend that you have them complete this evaluation and meet with you to form a plan for the year ahead.

  • Graduate Advisor Evaluation All students will also meet with one of the faculty from the Graduate Advising Committee to discuss their progress. This is a time to review progress and the time to degree. These meetings will also discuss funding and teaching assistantships for the next year. In addition, this is an opportunity to give feedback to the committee about the department or discuss any aspect of your

2.3 Petitions

Departmental approvals and requests for exceptions to department policies can be made by emailing the Director of Graduate Studies (). You should include any relevant information, reasoning, or documents in your email. It is also important to cc directly the faculty members that may be involved in the decision (including the faculty addresses of the appropriate Graduate Advisors.) Most requests can be granted by the DGS, but major exceptions may require approval by vote of all the department faculty.

Major issues like Leaves of Absence or Change of Degree Status require approval of the University Graduate Division. The GPA can assist you in setting up forms in DocuSign and collecting the signatures from the relevant faculty members. See Graduate Division Forms & Petitions page.