the committee

[nibot]

According to some flyer I recently received from the department:

The dissertation committee can be one of your most valuable sources of advice, mentoring, scholarship, and professional development.

As far as I can tell, grad students in this department communicate with their committee exactly four times:

1. to schedule the general (oral) exam
2. at the general exam
3. to schedule the defense
4. at the defense

Grad students of LJ, what is your experience?

Comments

[pielology.livejournal.com]

In my dept at Berkeley, you had to do two projects for your qualifying exam, one with your advisor and one with someone else; the someone else almost always wound up as one of your committee members (if they weren't already a co-advisor). So there was more of a chance to establish a real working relationship; not everyone continued that after quals but it was common enough.

Also, there were no defenses, so steps 3 and 4 were replaced by some back and forth about dissertation drafts.

[vortexshedding.livejournal.com]

i have an unusually large committee (8!!!) because i insisted on 2 coworkers being on the committee. so i communicate with my coworkers almost daily as we are working on projects together at the moment.

i communicate with my advisor a few times a week, at least (lately).

[gstef.livejournal.com]

In my committee Prof. Teitel didn't remember who I was. I had As in his classes and I was his TA for one of his graduate classes... therefore, no communication with them, except with my advisor (as you know!) with whom I "communicated" on a daily basis...

[clevermynnie.livejournal.com]

It's the same in my department, with the same four meetings. I am the only person I know who has gotten significant input from a committee member, and it largely happened because I wasn't happy with the level of input I was receiving from my advisor.

[vyncentvega.livejournal.com]

My experience also was very hands-off. I met with Adam weekly, chatted with Eric (Blackman) once or twice, even less with Alice, and introduced myself to the fourth the month or whatever before my exam, when I gave him my thesis, because my original fourth became unavailable and I had to scramble for a replacement.

The second—last—time he saw me was at the defense.

[emidala.livejournal.com]

I do not yet have a committee despite having 50% of a dissertation. In my department, the grad student is not supposed to communicate with the committee at all, except for the advisor, of course. The committee is formed by the director of graduate studies at the suggestion of the advisor (who ideally has received some suggestions from the dissertating graduate student), and all communication is done via the advisor and the DGS until the defense. The committee is not formed until almost the entire dissertation is done.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Nice capybara! (Sorry for the irrelevant icon comment.)

[janviere.livejournal.com]

We have a "general" exam in our second year, a "pre-FPO" (FPO=final public oral=defense) six months before finishing, and then the FPO. General and FPO committees are different.

For my thesis, I communicated with my committee to:
1. Schedule the pre-FPO.
2. Hold the pre-FPO.
3. The two "readers" on my committee and official advisor each sent me a list of typos and suggestions on my thesis draft.
4. Schedule my final public oral.
5. Only the two "non-readers" have to show up to my FPO. One of them can't come. One of my readers is my advisor in practice who I communicate a lot with, and he is coming.

[tomtomtomtomtom.livejournal.com]

I probably could have done that, but I chose to meet with each member of my committee more than that to actually discuss my work. They're there and willing to talk to you, so might as well take advantage of them.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

That seems like the best idea, of course.

[jholomorphic.livejournal.com]

the analogue is my experience. but he hasn't yet answered my email about reading my thesis, which is due in two weeks, so maybe it would have been good to drop him a line once in a while.

much the same.

[lert.livejournal.com]

My inside committee member I talk to often, as I'm working with her and, besides that, since she likes to know how all the graduate students are doing (she is also dept chair).
The outside committee members I only see at official events, to wit:
1. prelim exam
2. prospectus meeting
3. thesis defense
& I only talk with them, really, to coordinate those.

HowEVER, a prof who was on my committee, but isn't anymore (logistics), does send me info about relevant calls for papers, etc. Which is great.

[aepfelx.livejournal.com]

It's certainly _possible_ to have a useful relationship with people on your committee (as per some of the above), but I certainly didn't. One thing committee members can be useful for is providing that third or fourth letter of recommendation required for academic job apps if, like me, you didn't manage to do real work with enough distinct grownups while in grad school, and need a warm body who can at least pretend to be familiar with your work.

People who were better at the grad school thing than I was (e.g. janviere) will surely not need that bit, though.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

As a committee, I think that's right. But of course my advisor I communicated with very often, and a few other members of the committee were also people that I saw and talked to quite often. There were a couple people that I only very intermittently talked with, and probably never about my work except at the defense.

[shamster.livejournal.com]

At U of Oregon chemistry:
Annual reviews - 1 per year + once at the defense.