Advising

The Department of Music is committed to providing academic advising in support of graduate student scholarly and professional development. When most effective, this advising relationship entails collaborative and sustained engagement by both the advisor and the advisee. As a best practice, advising expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed to ensure mutual understanding. Both the advisor and the advisee are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity.

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 advisor is the primary source of information for a student’s graduate career. At the start of graduate study, each student is assigned a program advisor based on the perceived best fit at the time of acceptance. Only Academic Council Teaching Faculty (ACTFac), meaning any tenure-track faculty (Assistant, Associate, and full Professors), are eligible to serve as primary graduate program advisors. However, non-ACTFac instructors may serve as co-advisors in conjunction with an ACTFac instructor. For a complete directory, refer to the faculty pages opens in a new tab on the Music website.

While the initial advisor pairing is intended to be a strong match, students may find it necessary to change advisors as their research or creative interests evolve. Should a student feel a change is necessary, the formal process is outlined in the Music Graduate Handbook opens in a new tab.

Graduate students are active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for their graduate program. Graduate students are encouraged to meet with their program advisor at least once each quarter and are actively encouraged to communicate frequently with their advisors. Setting clear mutual expectations for the advising process and revisiting them periodically is valuable. While developing a proposal for the PhD dissertation or DMA final project, the student should invite a reading committee in consultation with the program advisor and other relevant faculty. Students should arrange meetings to discuss coursework, summer plans, quals preparation, language study, and, later, the dissertation topic, fellowship applications, and other aspects of professional development.