Developmental Academic Advising in FSoS

Family Social Science graduate faculty are committed to excellence in developmental advising with graduate students in our program. We do our best to match you from the start with an intake adviser who you may have identified as having similar research interests or we feel aligns with your research and career goals. Realizing that it takes time to get to know one another and develop a system for communication and working together, we hope that you and your advisor can establish a good relationship that will support your growth and development as a scholar as you move through the program. 

However, we realize that once you begin to work together, you, your advisor, or both of you, might find that the match isn’t optimal. This may also occur down the road in your program. We want to assure you that this is normal. If you or your advisor sense that a change would be good for either or both of you, please talk with each other first, if possible. If that doesn’t feel safe, please talk with the director of graduate studies about your situation. These conversations will be held strictly confidential. 

During your fall semester Orientation course, FSoS 8200, you will be encouraged to set up meetings with faculty or talk with them informally to learn about each other, your mutual research interests, your goals, and your working preferences. This will help you identify faculty to work with on directed research projects or who might serve on your committee. It’s important to build your network with faculty locally because each faculty member is connected to their own network of scholars across the University, nationally, and often internationally. They can be tremendous resources, advocates, and connectors for you - if they know you!