Biannual Review of PhD Graduate Students

Each semester, graduate students will review their goals and expectations for the semester with their advisory committee chairs. At least three meetings are required: one at the beginning of the semester to identify these goals and expectations, a mid-semester check- in, and a discussion at the end of the semester to evaluate whether sufficient progress has been made. These meetings will be documented by forms sent out by and returned to the Graduate Coordinator, and the end-of-semester review will form the basis of the student’s grade in POL_S 702/800.

The Graduate Coordinator reviews all graduate student files each semester for academic deficiencies (as tracked by your grades in POL_S 702/800; see General Program Requirements). If any deficient students are identified, the advisory committee chair will send the student a letter of notification outlining the improvements needed to progress in the program. The first deficient letter a student receives serves as an initial warning and has no impact on the evaluation of student performance if the deficiency is resolved. More than anything else, this letter serves as a heads-up for student and faculty alike. A second letter is much more serious, in that it is a result of the student’s failure to resolve the deficiency in their record; as such, the student may be dropped from the program. All letters will be sent to students and placed in their graduate files, along with their POL_S 702/800 evaluation forms.