Students will meet with their committee in the fall no sooner than 1 year after passing candidacy. The graduate office will communicate a calendar of staggered deadlines to serve as the timeline for completing the submission of all paperwork for the Annual Review process.
| Fall Semester | Spring Semester |
Year 1 | Coursework GPA requirement |
|
Year 2 |
| Candidacy |
Year 3 |
|
|
Year 4 | Annual Review |
|
Year 5 |
| Oral Defense |
The student will complete an Executive Summary that includes an Individual Development Plan and the Annual Review Update Form. The advisor will approve of the materials and then the student will send these documents to the rest of their committee, in whichever format the committee prefers, such as over email. The committee will review these documents and submit feedback to the advisor. The advisor will collect the feedback and discuss it with the student. The student will then schedule meetings with the committee and send a follow up email to the committee summarizing the discussion. The student will then submit all documents to the graduate coordinator, who will file the annual review in the student’s file.
Deadline | Student | Advisor | Committee |
| Create Executive Summary and complete Annual Review Form |
|
|
| Approve the Executive Summary and Annual Review Form |
| |
6 weeks before given deadline | Send Executive Summary and Annual Review Form to Committee |
|
|
4 weeks before given deadline |
|
| Submit feedback of student’s work to advisor via electronic form sent by Graduate Coordinator |
| Discuss feedback | Discuss feedback |
|
If feedback is “needs improvement,” create Improvement Action Plan |
|
| |
| If feedback is “needs improvement,” approve Improvement Action Plan |
| |
2 weeks before given deadline | Schedule meeting(s) with Committee |
|
|
Completed by given deadline | Meet to discuss student’s progress. Individual meetings should last approximately 15 minutes. Committee member signs the Annual Review Signature Page. If initial feedback was that the student needs improvement, a group meeting lasting no more than 45 minutes should be held. In the group meeting the student presents their Improvement Action Plan with concrete metrics and clear timeline for 10-15 minutes. The committee then provides feedback on the Improvement Action Plan. After all comments, the committee signs twice on the Annual Review Signature Page, once to confirm meeting with the student and again to approve the Improvement Action Plan. Committee members should rank the student’s work as “exceeds expectations,” “meets expectations,” or “needs improvement,” based on the original review of the Executive Summary and Annual Review Form. That is, the committee should rank the student’s work consistently with the feedback originally submitted to the advisor. | ||
| Send a single summary email of meeting discussion to committee. If meetings were individual, email should contain a summary of all meetings. If student created Improvement Action Plan, email should summarize discussion and any additions to Plan. |
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Submit all paperwork (listed below) to Graduate Program Coordinator |
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| |
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Abstracts and Executive Summaries, Engineering Communication Program, University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Writing the Executive Summary, Effective Writing Center, University of Maryland-University College
Executive Summaries, CSU Writing Guide, Colorado State University
Guidelines for Writing an Executive Summary, Plant Science Center
Individual Development Plan Resources, Graduate School, UW-Madison
My IDP, Science Careers, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Mentoring Resources, Graduate Mentoring Guidebook, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Individual Development Plan, Department of Science, Purdue College of Science
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SMART Goals from MindTools
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Setting Meaningful, Challenging Goals from MindTools
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Style Under Stress Assessment, Crucial Conversations by VitalSmarts
Receiving and Giving Effective Feedback, Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo
Hardavella, Georgia, Ane Aamli-Gaagnat, Neil Saad, Ilona Rousalova, and Katherina B. Sreter, "How to give and receive feedback effectively," Breath: The Resperatory Professional's Source for Continuing Medical Education 13/4 (2017): 327-333.
Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar, "Graduate Students' Needs and Preferences for Written Feedback on Academic Writing," English Language Teaching 9/12 (2016).