Advising

When you enter the M.A. graduate program, you will be assigned to the Graduate Director, the departmental general graduate adviser. It is the Graduate Director’s responsibility to advise you before your first registration and to help in the selection of your permanent adviser and supervising committee. You should select a committee prior to the completion of fourteen hours in the department and, preferably, before the end of your first year as a graduate student.

The choice of your committee involves several considerations. Your committee ought to be faculty members with whom you have taken (or will take) at least two courses in your graduate program. The committee consists of two graduate faculty members from your major area of concentration, and one from your minor area. The chairperson, your permanent adviser, must be a specialist in the area of your major concentration. If you write a thesis, the professor chosen to supervise the thesis should be the chairperson of your committee. If you do not write a thesis, ask a member of the graduate faculty with whom you will have several courses, including a seminar or proseminar, to serve as your committee chair.

The function of the committee is to supervise your progress toward the degree. Your committee will examine and approve your Advisor Approved Program of Study and any departures from the program outlined there. It will review and approve your seminar or thesis paper and will administer your comprehensive examination.

Advisor-Approved Program of Study

You can access the Advisor Approved Program of Study form at the forms page at the Graduate College website. You need to submit this form to the Graduate College before you have completed fourteen hours of graduate work in history. Your committee and the Graduate Director will approve your Advisor Approved Program of Study that lists the courses you need to take in the graduate program.