Once Accepted
As soon as all five items are in your file, you will be considered at the next regularly scheduled faculty meeting, which are held regularly throughout the academic year.
Upon acceptance by the Department faculty, a recommendation is made to the graduate school for acceptance. The graduate school will notify you of your acceptance.
Students will be immediately assigned a temporary advisor who will help you get started with course work. If you are pretty sure about your research topic and whom you want as a possible chair of your master’s committee, you can select a faculty advisor from the faculty in the department. However, if you do so be sure that this person has expertise in your area that you want to do your master’s thesis or project. You should notify the Director of Graduate Studies to discuss this preference for a faculty chair so we do not assign you a different faculty advisor.
Selecting Your Chairperson and Committee
- As early in the program as you would like but at least by the end of your second semester, you should identify a chairperson for your committee. You are encouraged to visit with faculty members as you finalize options for the chairperson of your committee. Before asking anyone to chair your committee, discuss the options (a simple email will suffice) with the Director of Graduate Studies in order to assure the compatibility of your interest with the faculty members’ expertise. If this step is skipped, the Director may not sign your request for a chair.
- Upon approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, set up an appointment with the desired graduate committee chairperson to discuss chairing the committee.
- Work with your chair to complete the rest of your committee. You should have three members on your graduate committee, two of which should be faculty or adjunct faculty (see list posted outside the department secretaries’ office) from the Department of Health Promotion and Education.
- Complete the Master Supervisory Committee Form available on line from the Graduate School webpage.
- For the thesis options, your chair should be a faculty member who has expertise in your area of interest. See list of areas where our faculty have expertise on the department web site.
- For master’s projects, if there is any faculty member in our department with expertise in your area, they should be invited to at least serve on the committee if not chair the committee. This will insure greater quality of the master’s projects and also assure you are more aware of recent advances in that area.
1st Committee Meeting
After the committee has been selected, you should have your first committee meeting with the following recommended agenda items.
- Prepare a brief written proposal (1-3 pages) and a PowerPoint for your presentation of what you would like to do for your project or thesis to receive tentative approval to pursue the area of interest. These should be sent out to the committee members after approval by your chair and prior to the committee first meeting.
- Complete, with your chairperson, a preliminary version of the Application for Admission to Candidacy form and get verbal agreement from your graduate committee. The final form will be filed at a later time.
- Have a discussion of the format, timeline, and expectations of committee member’s responsibilities for the comprehensive examination.
