How closely do the faculty members work with individual students? Does a doctoral student work with a faculty supervisor from the outset, or is one assigned later by the school?
Because of our small class sizes, our students work very closely with our faculty members. In fact, the student faculty ratio is often less than 10:1. Also, students can have as many as three different advisors. All first year students receive group academic advising by a designated faculty member (typically the Graduate Program Director). This year-long advising orients new students to the field of public policy and to doctoral study, in general, and allows students to make connections to University colleagues as well as to researchers at McCormack Graduate School policy centers and institutes. Through these networking opportunities, students can identify future academic and dissertation advisors. During the second year, students will choose their own advisors to assist in academic advising and other research, mentoring and career development activities. A student’s academic advisor need not be the same faculty member who eventually becomes his/her committee chair for the dissertation
