Student Handbook: Third Year and Beyond
Third Year and Beyond Checklist:
Once you've passed your General Exam, you should sign up for GENOME 520 (Seminar), GENOME 522 (Journal Club), GENOME 523 (Research Reports), and GENOME 800 (Doctoral Dissertation) for a minimum of 10 credits each quarter (any amount between 10 and 18 is fine) except for Summer, when you should sign up for 2 credits of GENOME 800. You may sign up for additional courses during the Summer if they are vital to your research.
Faculty codes used to register for research courses (Genome 501, 600, 800) are now available online.
Insurance:
The Graduate Appointee Insurance Program is administered by the UW Benefits Office. Insurance enrollment is done online at the WPAS website. Students must re-enroll online each Autumn Quarter or after any break in UW-paid coverage (e.g. if you are without funding for a quarter). You might consider confirming with WPAS that you are enrolled, if you don't receive any sort of indication from them.
Those needing short-term coverage after graduation might consider The UW Alumni Insurance Program.
Committee meetings should be held twice a year, approximately every six months. At least one of these meetings should be scheduled in conjunction with your Research Reports presentation. It is the responsibility of both the student and the advisor to hold these meetings. The role of the faculty members on the committee is to provide guidance concerning course work, constructive criticism on the student’s thesis research, and help in planning for the timely completion of requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
Before each committee meeting the student should prepare a summary / outline of completed work and proposed experiments. This write-up provides a useful basis for the committee meeting, even if an oral report has been given recently. It should be 2-3 pages in length and needs to be given to the committee members at least three week days prior to the meeting.
You should prepare a short synopsis (e.g. 15 minutes) to present orally in the meeting. This should be informal and should emphasize your data -- what's working, what isn't. The goal is to get constructive feedback from your committee members. Note that not all members necessarily have to attend all meetings. Having the meeting is important, even if not all can attend. The GSR is not required to attend unless s/he wishes to do so.
After the meeting, the chairperson of the committee writes a brief report (this form is available online in fillable pdf and Word verions ) which is discussed with and signed by the students and then by all committee members. One signed copy is given to the student and the other is placed in the student’s file. This report should include specific research goals for the near future that the committee members agree are appropriate. It helps keep those goals in clear focus and reduces ambiguity about decisions made at the meeting.
Third year Genome Sciences students and others supported by our training grants are required to take Ethics Training (aka Genome 580), generally offered Winter or Spring Quarter each year.
Asbestos Training :
The UW now requires all staff and students to complete asbestos training each year. This can be done online in a few minutes at: http://www.ehs.washington.edu/pubcookie/train/asbestosg/index.shtm
Please be sure to read through this entire section before making any travel arrangements.
1. Determine who pays:
If you are:
a) currently supported by a training grant or other UW fellowship, or
b) an international student currently receiving departmental funding
then funding is available to you to travel to a conference where you are presenting a poster or giving a talk. Please check in with Brian Giebel ( bgiebel [ a t ] u.washington.edu, Foege S-340) to determine the amount available to you.
Students supported by training grants accrue travel funding as follows:
Genome Training Grant: $800 per year
Genetics Training Grant: $300 per year
Departmental or other UW support: $300 per year
Please note that training grant travel funds can only be used while you are supported by the grant. They cannot be accessed thereafter.
If your funding is coming from your mentor's research grant, your travel funds will need to come from that source. In this case, you do not need to check in with Brian - the person in your lab responsible for purchasing can make your travel arrangements. If for some reason it is easier for you to continue to have Brian make your travel arrangements, you are welcome to do so - just provide him with the lab budget number.
The UW Graduate School also offers very limited funding: $300 for domestic travel, $500 for international. Please see Brian to apply.
2. Book your travel:
The department must pay for flights and conference registration up front. Please do not pay for these items on your own and then ask to be reimbursed.
Once you have checked in with Brian Giebel (if your travel is being paid by a training grant) and are ready to book your travel, please follow the steps below. Please be aware that if you take personal time before or after the conference and this results in a higher airfare, you may be asked to reimburse the difference to the university.
Contact the current agency of choice, Tangerine Travel (http://www.vacation.tangerinetravel.com/group+and+corporate+travel/). Please be sure to let them know this will be paid by UW Genome Sciences. Once you’ve been emailed an itinerary, please send this to Brian - or have the travel agent include him on the initial email - so that he may fill out the purchase order paperwork.
To pay for your conference registration, provide the registration info needed (either to fill out a form or enroll online) to Brian.
3. Reimbursement:
Please note that we will need a copy of your flight itinerary and conference schedule in order to process any reimbursements.
Lodging and meals will be reimbursed after your return from the conference.
Meals will only be reimbursed if they are not provided by the conference, and will be reimbursed at standard per diem rates (http://www.washington.edu/admin/travel/contracts.html#meal.lodging.rates). Since per diem rates are used, you do not need to save meal receipts. If you choose to skip a conference dinner, etc, you cannot be reimbursed for that particular meal.
If your lodging costs are higher than the allowable per diem rate, please include a brief explanation (e.g. it was the designated conference hotel, only place you could find space, etc) along with your receipts.You will need to provide receipts for ground transportation.
You'll gain teaching experience by serving as a Teaching Assistant for two courses. You can complete this during your third year, or do one course during your third year and the second course during your fourth year.
Please plan to attend the Teaching Assistant Conference if this will be your first course (attendance is optional for experienced teaching assistants). You are free to attend any sessions that interest you.
Serving as a teaching assistant is an important part of your training. Course instructors will discuss expectations of you at the beginning of the quarter and will be in contact with your thesis advisor to provide an evaluation of your performance. Please be aware that an unsatisfactory performance as a teaching assistant may result in your being required to re-teach the same course or an equivalent during a future quarter.
The Graduate School has posted a handbook for teaching assistants that you might find helpful.
Insufficient Academic Progress:
You should meet a minimum of once per year (twice per year recommended) with your supervisory committee. If the committee is concerned about your research progress, they will suggest ways to get back on track.
If problems persist, your mentor may opt to put you on academic probation. This involves notifying the
Graduate
School
with documentation of the circumstances. It does not normally affect your funding or registration.
If problems continue past this point, you may be put on final probation. Students are normally on final probation for one quarter only. After that point, the department will either recommend that you be removed from academic probation or that you leave the program.
First year students who do not reach faculty expectations in coursework or lab rotations may also be put on academic probation.
Make sure that you keep up on your committee meetings. It is really crucial in these years. You need to be making sure that your are making steady progress on your project, and if you aren't, then you need committee input to help you and your advisor to plan a more productive course.
As you accumulate data, put it in final figure form. You will never have a better grasp of the data and how you generated it than you do at the time, and it is really painful to reconstruct the details later. This is the most time-consuming part of writing your thesis. If you do it as you go along, it's pretty straightforward to produce a good thesis.
By this time, you would hope to be at least part of a publication. If so, get involved in the writing, in the presentation of your data in figures and the final preparation of the manuscript. This is a skill you need! Writing your work with publication in mind makes your thesis writing straightforward, and you need publications when you finish, whatever you decide to do after your Ph.D.
By the middle of the 4th year, you need to be looking ahead to your next step -- a post-doc, a job in industry, a change to another application of your degree? Talk to your advisor, your committee, anyone else who might be helpful -- but begin to make plans!
Graduate School Doctoral Degree Requirements:
Doctoral Degree checklist
Be sure to read over the Graduate School's extensive Style and Policy Manual for Theses and Dissertations. Do yourself a favor and do this early in the process...you won't want to be surprised by their requirements the week before you plan to turn in your thesis...
Work closely with your advisor and committee to plan the culmination of your project. What needs to be done to make a complete story? Begin to create a thesis outline well before the work is complete, as this will help you to prioritize. This outline is feasible and acceptable. You don't need to have completed all of the work, but you need to propose what will comprise your thesis. In general, this critical meeting should be about 6 months before you plan to finish.
Set immediate goals, e.g. getting a particular chapter written by a certain deadline. This will break a big task into manageable pieces and assure that you move along at a reasonable pace.
Basic Checklist:
1. Turn in a complete version of your thesis to your reading committee six weeks before you plan to defend. This isn't a hard deadline, but rather, a suggested courtesy to your reading committee members before you ask them to sign your Request for Final Exam form. The exact timing is between you and them.
2. Turn in your Request for Final Examination form to the Graduate School a minimum of three weeks before you plan to defend. This a hard deadline -- please don't miss it.
The fine print:
Please read through the following info -- it's worth your time.
At least two months before you expect to finish writing, make sure that your Supervisory Committee members will be available at the time you plan your defense. At least four members of your committee, including your advisor and the Graduate School Representitive, must be there.
At this point you should choose a Reading Committee, comprised of your advisor and two other members. Send their names to the graduate program assistant, who will file the paperwork with the Graduate School.
Once you (and your advisor) feel your thesis is complete, submit this completed version of the thesis (with all figures and references...not a draft) to your reading committee at least six weeks before you plan to defend your thesis. It's a good idea to give yourself even more time than six weeks. The readers have three weeks to read your thesis before being asked to sign the request for final examination form (which should also be signed by your other committee members, then turned in to the graduate program assistant). The Graduate School must receive your request for final examination form at least three weeks before you plan to defend. Please don't wait until 4:55 the day of the deadline to submit this form.
After the Request for Final Examination Form has been turned in to the Graduate School, if all Graduate School doctoral degree requirements have been met (as will almost certainly be the case, since you have met most of these by passing your General Exam), a warrant authorizing the Final Examination is issued to the department and the exam may proceed as scheduled. The student must successfully defend her/his research before the Ph.D. degree can be granted. If the examination is unsatisfactory, the Supervisory Committee may recommend that the Dean of the Graduate School permit a second examination after a period of additional study.
If the Final Examination is satisfactory, the Supervisory Committee signs the warrant and returns it to the Graduate School by the last day of the quarter in which the degree requirements are completed.
Following a successful defense, you must incorporate any appropriate recommended changes into the final version of the dissertation. You have 60 days from the date of the defense in which to submit the dissertation to the Graduate School. If you fail to submit your final dissertation during this period, you will be required to re-take the final examination. The Graduate School requires that students have their dissertations microfilmed and bound. Microfilming the dissertation doesn't preclude publication in any other form (e.g. a journal).
In addition to the copies required by the Graduate School, you'll also need to provide 3 copies to the department grad program assistant. The department will have these bound and keep one copy for the dept library, returning one to you and one to your advisor.
Registration as a graduate student is required the quarter the dissertation is defended. However, if you successfully defend but are not able to submit your thesis until the following quarter, you can pay the Graduate Degree Late Fee of $250 rather than be forced to register for the following quarter, as was previously the case.
And finally, please discuss your post-graduation plans with your mentor and decide ahead of time whether you will leave the UW immediately after you graduate, or whether you'll stay on in your mentor's lab for a while. Your mentor should contact the department fiscal manager to make salary arrangements, if need be. An important payroll consideration is that you must be on payroll for at least 5 of the 6 pay periods in a given quarter in order for your tuition waiver to remain in place.
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