Faculty Advising

Making the Most of Faculty Advising

The Role of the Associate Dean of International Programs
The Role of the Faculty Advisory Committee
Choosing Faculty Advisors
Asking a Faculty Member to Serve As Your Mentor/Chair of Your Committee
What Kinds of Support Does a Mentor Provide?
Serving on Your Thesis/Project Committee
Serving as a Disciplinary Mentor
Writing Letters of Recommendation
Advice for Faculty Advisors

The Role of the Associate Dean of International Programs

Through your first semester in the Master’s Program, the Associate Dean of International Programs will serve as your advisor. Once you begin to settle into course work, however, you will need to create a three-person faculty advisory committee, with the assistance of the Associate Dean. At least two of the three faculty members must be from different disciplines since this is an interdisciplinary degree. Throughout your pursuit of the ISMA, the Associate Dean will provide your registration number each semester (required to enroll online for courses) and will be available to help you navigate through the degree.

A list of faculty members available to work with students in degree programs sponsored by International Programs is available on the International Programs website and is searchable by focus area: Mentor Directory.

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The Role of the Faculty Advisory Committee

Faculty advisors play a crucial role in the ISMA degree. Most practically, your faculty advisors will direct your final project, whether it takes the form of a written thesis, research project, or creative project. Your advisors can also help you to plan your course schedule each semester. Your advisors will be happy to discuss the relevance of specific courses to your goals; issues in your field; appropriate Study Abroad programs; as well as internships, graduate, or professional training; and career opportunities.

Relationships between advisors and students vary a great deal, depending on the two people involved. However, there are things that students can do and that advisors can do to ensure that whatever form the relationship takes, the mentoring relationship will be useful and productive for both parties involved.

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Choosing Faculty Advisors

Your goal is to find three faculty advisors who are knowledgeable in your fields of study, are accessible, interested in your work and your future plans, and will provide helpful resources and readers as you prepare your thesis or final project. Therefore, it makes sense to develop a short list of faculty members who meet the following criteria:

Teaches and conducts research in your interdisciplinary areas
Is someone with whom you have already taken a class so that you know each other’s interests and abilities
Has shown he or she is knowledgeable and helpful when you have been in his or her class
Will be working on campus during the semester when you’ll undertake your thesis or final project
Is a person you find intellectually engaging and inspiring

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Asking a Faculty Member to Serve as Your Mentor / Chair of Your Committee

Think of approaching a potential advisor as part of your professional preparation. When someone comes to you and asks you to serve in a position of responsibility—whether that involves coaching a Little League team or chairing a volunteer committee—what do you want to know before you answer? Most of us are willing to take on responsibilities as long as we’re assured that the people we’ll be working with are serious, committed, well-organized, hard-working, willing to answer questions and help solve problems, and capable of “following through.” If you communicate that you are this kind of student, you’re likely to get an excellent response when you ask a faculty member to serve as an advisor or mentor. So how do you communicate that you will contribute as well as receive when it comes to an advising/mentoring relationship?

Try to choose an advisor from the professors with whom you’ve taken a class or two since you already have a working relationship with this person.
E-mail ahead to tell the professor that you would like to meet with her or him to discuss the possibility of serving as your International Studies M.A. advisor. Be sure to ask when the professor’s office hours are (since this is the time faculty members reserve especially for students) and to ask what day and time would be most convenient to meet.
Be punctual. If you must be late (or miss) an appointment, call well in advance to inform the professor of your change in plans.
If you’ve already started a project with this professor in a previous class that you would like to develop into a thesis (the ideal scenario), bring along a copy of the paper or project to discuss with your professor.
Be prepared. Sit down ahead of time and make a list of your objectives, your questions, your plans, and your expectations.
If you are still in your first year of the degree, bring a copy of the courses you’ve taken so far, a list of questions you have about the professor’s field of study and a tentative topic for your thesis project.
If you are getting ready to focus on the thesis (or final research or creative project), do some reading on the topic you’d like to propose before the appointment so that you’ll have a stronger sense of the research questions you’d like to ask and of the research that has already been done on the topic.

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What Kinds of Support Does a Mentor Provide?

When you approach a mentor, be as clear as you can about your expectations and your needs. Be reasonable in those expectations, of course, but try to clarify what kind of support you hope to receive from an advisor. Faculty members enjoy working with motivated students, but they are usually juggling teaching, advising, research projects, multiple deadlines, and many committee responsibilities locally, nationally, and internationally. They will find it very helpful to know what your needs and expectations will be so that they can honestly tell you whether they have the expertise and the time to assist you.

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Serving on Your Thesis/Project Committee

Minimally, a faculty advisor will need to agree either to direct or to serve as a committee member of the three-person advisory committee supervising your thesis or project. Directing a thesis will entail:

Helping you to shape a strong topic, set of research questions, and a reading list
Meeting with you several times (perhaps bi-weekly) during the semester in which you will work most actively on the thesis to advise you through stages of research, writing, and revision
Reading and evaluating your final thesis

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Serving as a Disciplinary Mentor

Since each of your advisors will be knowledgeable about different areas of expertise (at least two of the three must be from different disciplines), they will be excellent resources when you seek information about course work, appropriate plans of study, research strategies, and paths to future educational or career goals.

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Writing Letters of Recommendation

If you seek fellowships, internships, or, later, employment, you will need letters of recommendation from several faculty members. You can help your faculty advisors (or other letter writers) write a strong letter for you, again, by being prepared. Therefore, if you need letters of recommendation, these suggestions will help:

Request letters of recommendation WELL in advance of deadlines (a month in advance, for example).
Put together a clear, accessible, and tidy packet of useful information for your letter writers. Be sure to include your contact information (email, address, phone, home address).
Provide clear information about the purpose of the letter. If you are applying for a fellowship, provide a description of the fellowship (with criteria) along with any necessary instructions and forms the letter writer will need. If you are applying for a job or for further education, again, provide a copy of the advertisement, job description, or graduate or professional program (with a web address for the business or program if available).
Provide clear information about yourself, your abilities, and your accomplishments. For example, provide a transcript and a resume (include jobs you’ve held, rewards you’ve received, volunteer activities, positions of responsibility, special courses or training).
Include a copy of your own application letter so that your professor can see which details you wish to emphasize.
If the application requires a “personal narrative” or any other statement of your abilities or goals, include a copy for the professor.
Make this process as easy as possible for all your letter writers! Fill in any forms that you must submit (with your name, address, etc.) and provide addressed and stamped envelopes.

Eventually, you will also need to decide which of your faculty advisors is best positioned to serve as the director of your thesis and, therefore, the chair of your committee. This decision will depend on whose interests align most clearly with the direction your research takes (and on whom you suspect will be your strongest advocate as you apply for further education or employment).

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Advice for Faculty Advisors to International Studies M.A. Students

Students may wish to provide copies of this section to potential mentors before asking them to serve on their committee.

International Programs is deeply grateful to the many faculty members across campus who have expressed willingness to serve as advisory committee members to our International Studies M.A. students. To avoid overburdening faculty members, we also want to clarify what being a faculty advisor for the International Studies M.A. involves.

We value your time and encourage you to limit your commitment to no more than two graduate advisees in International Studies in one semester.
We ask that you be available to meet with M.A. advisees during your office hours or during appointments the two of you schedule at mutually convenient times.
One of the pleasures of the mentoring relationship is the opportunity to welcome new students into one's own discipline. Whether in discussions of your field or as a member of an advisory committee, we encourage you to help students:
- Form provocative research questions
- Plan strategies to make the required eight weeks of international research most productive
- Learn the process for conducting interdisciplinary research related to your field (for example, standard reference works, bibliographies, major journals and web resources, kep concepts and thinkers, methodologies)
- Learn useful steps in developing a research or creative project by sharing your own steps in generating an idea, conducting research, developing an argument, using and documenting sources, and revising your work
- Understand the criteria for evaluating projects in your field
We hope that you will also be willing to meet with your advisee once or twice a semester to discuss courses that would be useful to the student's own particular objectives, international research options, internships, future graduate or professional training, and career opportunities.
We also hope that you will be willing to write your students letters of recommendation when necessary.

Please contact the Associate Dean of International Programs to discuss any questions or concerns.

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