Graduate Program Advising

Advising Roles

Graduate Faculty Advisor

Your faculty advisor is your most important point of contact with matters related to research, academic progress, concerns, and problems within your program. Communicate regularly with your faculty advisor (and committee members for MS and PhD students) and request clear guidelines of expectations on courses and research activities, including timetables for deliverables.

Graduate Program Coordinators

Your program’s Graduate Coordinator is also an important person for you to become familiar with. In addition to your faculty advisor, this will often be the first person you should go to with questions. The Graduate Coordinator is your primary point of contact for approval forms (degree milestones), inquiries regarding enrollment and funding, and many of the common questions that graduate students have.

Director of Graduate Programs

Each academic program has designated a faculty member who is the Director of Graduate Programs (sometimes also called Director of Graduate Studies). This individual is the primary liaison between graduate students and the Department and School. You should contact your Director of Graduate Programs with questions or concerns that cannot be resolved by your advisor, and is the primary point of contact for students who may need to make special requests regarding academic requirements or to change your program or degree.

VEO Contacts

Students in the Virginia Engineering Online program have a designated Graduate Online Programs Administrator, and each program has a faculty member appointed as Academic Advisor.