Graduate Advising

Every Stanford graduate student is expected to be paired with a faculty advisor. Advisors assist students in planning a program of study to meet degree requirements.

Establishing and Maintaining Good Relationships

Faculty advisors, particularly for doctoral students, play an important role in students' intellectual development. Good communication is crucial for productive working relationships.The following resources may be helpful to both students and faculty in this regard [pdf files]:

• Guidelines for Good Practices in the Graduate Student-Faculty Advisor Relationship
  Describes practices that the great majority of faculty and students, here and elsewhere, routinely follow as a matter of common sense, courtesy, and basic honesty.
• Annual Doctoral Student Degree- and Career-Progress Meeting Worksheet
  This worksheet is intended to facilitate an annual conversation between a faculty advisor and doctoral advisee, focusing on the student's progress to degree and career plans. It can be used to help the student and the faculty advisor:
1. take stock of the student's accomplishments in the past year
2. discuss near- and long-term plans, and
3. develop a strategy for realizing those plans
• Student-Advisor Expectation Scales
  A assessment tool to assist in establishing clear and realistic expectations in the advising relationship.
• What Departments Can Do to Promote Successful Doctoral Degree Completion
  Departments play an active role in fostering students’ successful completion of the PhD. This document suggests some guiding propositions and some specific strategies.
• Resources on Doctoral Student Advising
  This document lists some electronic resources and readings on doctoral student advising. It was prepared for the November, 2009 meeting of the faculty Directors of Graduate Studies

Setting Expectations and Communicating Effectively with Your Advisor

Sometimes faculty-student relationships can become strained or conflicted. Students are encouraged to communicate clearly and often with their advisors. It is important to set clear expectations early on, and revisit expectations periodically. Learning to resolve conflicts and advocate on one's own behalf are important skills everyone should learn.

VPGE offers a workshop for graduate students designed to teach interest-based strategies for setting expectations and resolving conflicts. Click the link below to learn more.
Setting Expectations and Communicating Effectively

When direct communication with your advisor does not work, the next step in resolving a conflict usually involves talking with the Department Chair, the faculty coordinator of graduate studies, or the graduate student affairs administrator. Most schools have deans who can also help solve problems or resolve conflicts.

• Ombuds Office
  Ombudspersons assist with resolution of disputes and redress of wrongs, while maintaining impartiality and confidentiality. Available to talk through a problem.

  • Main campus
  • Medical school

• School Dean's Offices

• Contacts in each school with expertise on graduate academic policies.

Changing Advisors

There are circumstances under which students seek to change advisers: a mismatch of personalities, working styles, or academic expertise. Direct communication is advised. In some cases there are funding implications. Consulting with the school dean’s office can be helpful.

If a faculty member leaves Stanford, the department should help students identify a new advisor. For advanced doctoral students, the former advisor can continue to serve on the dissertation committee, and can act as dissertation co-chair with a current Stanford faculty member.

• Change of Adviser or Reading Committee Member form (pdf)
• Doctoral Dissertation Reading Committee Membership form (pdf)