Current Graduate Students

Reimbursement, Purchasing, and Travel

• Please read the UVA Travel Guide before traveling. 
• Reimbursement Form - Submit completed form to Briana Dandridge

If you have any questions please refer to the below links:

• Information on Traveling
• Travel and Expense Resources
• Rate Page for America and International Travel Limits - choose the one that applies to you.
• Compliance and Immigration Services – Visa issues.
• UVa Procurement Website - quick links and general information on travel and reimbursement at UVa.

SE Graduate Student Travel Fellowships The Department of Engineering Systems and Environment (ESE) awards student travel fellowships on an ongoing basis. These fellowships provide students with financial support to attend and present their research at conferences. All ESE PhD students are eligible to receive up to $1500 one time during their academic career. Awards are subject to the availability of funds. Preference is given to papers accepted at conferences with published proceedings. 

• SE Graduate Student Travel Fellowship Request Form - Submit completed form to Briana Dandridge

• Curriculum - Our dynamic education includes over 26 core and elective courses in Systems Engineering, and the ability to take graduate elective courses throughout the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and other schools across the university, including the School of Architecture, School of Education and Human Development, School of Medicine, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. These electives may be tied to collaborative research between SIE and these other schools. The department also partners with SEAS to offer competitive PhD teaching fellowships so students can experience crafting and co-teaching a course with a supervising member of the faculty. Students also have access to the resources of the Center for Teaching Excellence to enhance their teaching skills.

• Academic Requirements. - School of Engineering and Applied Science Graduate Record Academic Requirements.

• Systems Engineering Degree Program Handbooks - These contain specific courses and requirements for each degree plan in Systems Engineering.
  • ESE Graduate Handbook
  • PhD Coursework - Systems Engineering
  • Systems Engineering Coursework Petition Form

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only.  The Graduate Record represents the official repository for academic program requirements. This publication may be found here. 

Required documents: A Doctoral Advisory Committee Form and Plan of Study signed by your committee must be submitted before scheduling the exam.

1. Prior to your exam make sure you have completed and submitted an up-to-date Doctoral Advisory Committee Form. If you have added a new member, you will need to fill out and submit a new committee form.
2. You also should be sure you have submitted a Plan of Study signed by each of your committee members. The Plan of Study should list all courses beyond the BS degree, icluding courses you intend to take in the future.

Scheduling your exam. A doodlepoll is a great way to find out the availability of your committee. Be sure to confirm the dates with your committee once they have all responded to the poll. Once you know your qualifying exam dates let your graduate coordinator know so he/she can record the dates.

You will need to determine 3 dates:

1. The date you will receive your written questions from your committee.
2. The date your answers are due to be turned in. This will be exactly 10 days after you receive your answers.
3. The date of your oral exam. This needs to be at least 5 days after your answers are due. Reserve a room for your oral exam.

Exam tips

• Confirm with your committee once the dates have all been agreed upon. Send you committee reminders that your questions are due by xx time on xx day. Ask them to send their questions to the graduate coordinator. He/She will compile them and send them to you.
• If your questions are due on a weekend or holiday, ask your committee to send you their questions and copy the graduate coordinator so your questions are on record.
• Return you answers to your entire committee and copy the graduate coordinator. You should prepare one .pdf with all the questions and all your answers so other committee members can see what you were asked.
• On the day of your oral exam, there is some paperwork that your committee chair must fill out. Your graduate coordinator will prepare the paperwork and make sure your committee has it.

Here are the steps to proposing your PhD thesis:

Be sure you have submitted an up-to-date committee form if your committee has changed. 

Doctoral Advisory Committee form

A doodlepoll is a great way to find out the availability of your committee. Once they have all responded to the poll, confirm the date with your committee and reserve a room for your proposal.

Two weeks prior to your proposal:

1. Send your graduate coordinator your complete and exact announcement so she can email it out. Take one that’s been sent recently and model yours after it.
2. Before your announcement can be sent out, send a soft copy of your proposal document to your entire committee and CC the graduate coordinator.
3. Print out a hard copy of your proposal and bring it to 114 for public display. 

On the day of your proposal there is paperwork that the graduate coordinator will fill out for your committee to sign.

If a committee member cannot be physically present for the proposal, they can call or skype in to one of the conference rooms. Another committee member may sign your proposal paperwork on their behalf as long as the non-present member gives written [email] approval and sends the graduate coordinator proof of it.

Formatting your proposal. There are no specific guidelines. You are welcome to look at past proposal documents stored in our library.

Sources for forming your proposal.

NSF Proposal Guidelines While this may not be an exact fit for your PhD proposals, it gives guidance for the general concept and purpose of a proposal: “The Project Description should provide a clear statement of the work to be undertaken and must include: objectives for the period of the proposed work and expected significance; relation to longer-term goals of the PI's project; and relation to the present state of knowledge in the field, to work in progress by the PI under other support and to work in progress elsewhere. The Project Description should outline the general plan of work, including the broad design of activities to be undertaken, and, where appropriate, provide a clear description of experimental methods and procedures. It must describe as an integral part of the narrative, the broader impacts resulting from the proposed activities. . .”

Research Writing UTS Library

1. Apply for graduation in SIS

2. Make sure you are enrolled. The University requires you to be enrolled in “something” in the semester you are graduating. Students who have finished all coursework and requirements except their defense often choose to be enrolled in “Affiliated Status" [AF]. To request AF enrollment, write to Barbara Graves, tell her you are graduating this summer and ask to be enrolled in AF. 

3. Submit your “Final Examination Committee Form.”

This form must be approved by the department and the Dean's office one month prior to your defense. It’s fine to list an approximate defense date on the form. 

 The rest of the process is the same as it was for your proposal: 

4. A doodlepoll is a great way to find out the availability of your committee. Once they have all responded to the poll, confirm the date with your committee and reserve a room for your final defense.

4. Two weeks prior to your defense:

•  Send your graduate coordinator and your committee a soft copy of your dissertation or thesis document.
•  Print out a hard copy of your dissertation/thesis and put it on the table in 114. If you are not on grounds to do this, ask another student do it for you. 
•  Send your graduate coordinator your exact announcement to send it out. 

On the Day of Your Defense

Your graduate coordinator will fill out your final defense paperwork for your committee to sign and submitt it once they do.

Changes to dissertation or theses titles. If your title changes between the time your announcement is sent out and your defense, it MUST be approved by your committee, via their signatures. You may either prepare new final defense paperwork, or write your title, neatly, on your paper work. Be sure the committee signs the form.

 After Your Defense 

• After the final version of the dissertation or thesis is approved by the examining committee, the student must prepare Thesis/Dissertation Cover and Approval pages, which then must be scanned and inserted in front of the dissertation or thesis in one consolidated .pdf. Please use the University of Virginia Registrar’s Dissertation Title Guidelines for capitalization and punctuation.
• Complete your Libra upload. 
• PhD's. Fill out and submit the Survey of Earned Doctorates [SED] in SIS.
• Pay any remaining tuition or fines.
• Keep in touch! We love hearing from and being visited by former students.