Process
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 |
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Year 2 |
| Candidacy |
Year 3 |
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Year 4 | Annual Review |
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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.
Timeline
Deadline | Student | Advisor | Committee |
| Create Executive Summary and complete Annual Review Form |
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| Approve the Executive Summary and Annual Review Form |
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6 weeks before given deadline | Send Executive Summary and Annual Review Form to Committee |
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4 weeks before given deadline |
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| Submit feedback of student’s work to advisor via electronic form sent by Graduate Coordinator |
| Discuss feedback | Discuss feedback |
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If feedback is “needs improvement,” create Improvement Action Plan |
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| If feedback is “needs improvement,” approve Improvement Action Plan |
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2 weeks before given deadline | Schedule meeting(s) with Committee |
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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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Lynda.com
Lynda.com is an online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. You can login with your EID to learn a variety of skills, such as team management, that will help you through your career path. This link will take you to the UT portal.
Resources for creating an effective Executive Summary
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
- in addition to being a good resource for writing the executive summary, this document cites a great style guide, The Elements of Style, co-written by none other than E.B. White, the author of Charlotte's Web.
Resources for creating an Individualized Development Plan
Organized in the order of how I would recommend you learn about creating an IDP
Individual Development Plan Resources, Graduate School, UW-Madison
- A good overview of the goals and benefits of creating an IDP. Watch the video and read the tips.
My IDP, Science Careers, American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Probably the most applicable IDP self-assessment tool for Texas ChE grad students (and it's free!). They also have a series of articles explaining some of the steps to create an IDP here: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2013/05/myidp
Mentoring Resources, Graduate Mentoring Guidebook, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Although these are actually worksheets to draw the most out of a mentoring relationship, they will help you think through your strategy for thriving during and after graduate school.
Individual Development Plan, Department of Science, Purdue College of Science
- A worksheet designed to help you create your IDP.
Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering, National Academy Press (1997)
- I recommend chapters 3 & 4. While quite outdated and geared towards faculty, this resource is a fast read and can help you better understand some of the broader skills you need to develop during a graduate program.
S.G. Brainard and L. Ailes-Sengers, "Mentoring Female Engineering Students: A Model Program at the University of Washington," Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 1 (1994): 123-135
- Also geared towards faculty, this article, though old, can help to articulate some of the specific needs of women in the program.
Barbara E. Lovitts, Making the Implicit Explicit: Creating Performance Expectations for the Dissertation (Sterling, VA: Stylus), 2007.
- This is a great resource for understanding generalized faculty expectations. Available in the Grad Office Library!
Resources for creating reasonable tasks, timelines, and deadlines
SMART Goals from MindTools
- One of the best models for goal setting
"Time Management for Scholars," presentation offered regularly by the UT Austin University Writing Center
- In this presentation you will learn time management skills that you can apply to your performance improvement
Setting Meaningful, Challenging Goals from MindTools
Locke, Edwin A. and Gary P. Latham, "New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory," Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15/5 (2006).
- More of a literature review on Goal-Setting Theory. Don't fall down this rabbit hole, but know that there are indeed best practices for setting goals and that it is a skill you must practice
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books, 2008.
- Available in the Grad Office Library!
Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perserverance. New York: Scribner, 2016.
- Available in PCL, and coming soon to the Grad Office Library.
Resources for giving and receiving feedback
Zenger, Jack and Joseph Folkman, "Your Employees Want the Negative Feedback You Hate to Give," Harvard Business Review, January 15, 2014
- Crucial conversations can be difficult. This is a frequently-cited article that may alleviate some anxiety about giving a performance review.
- The Feedback Practices and Perceptions Assessment is a free assessment of your feedback style.
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.
- Although this article is geared towards medical professionals, it has a lot of general advice particularly useful for receiving feedback
Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar, "Graduate Students' Needs and Preferences for Written Feedback on Academic Writing," English Language Teaching 9/12 (2016).
- Good information on feedback about writing