Graduate Studies Practical Information

Arrival Information
About Syracuse
Degree Programs
Financial Support
Practical Info
General Advice
The Advising System
Finding a Research Advisor
Travel Support
E-Mail
Additional Confusions

Some General Advice

Here are a few things to keep in mind during your graduate career at SU:

It is to your advantage to participate in as many activities as time allows. Consider attending seminars and journal club meetings (the journal club meetings are generally better for beginning students) as well as visiting faculty to talk with them about their research. See Finding a Research Advisor below.
As a TA or a fellow, you will receive a certain number of tuition credits. It is to your advantage to use all of these. You will need a certain number of credits to graduate. Later in your career, you are likely to be supported on a Research Assistantship from your advisor who will not wish to pay extra for course credits. Note that it is possible to transfer some tuition credits received during the academic year to the summer session. Independent study courses, thesis, etc. are good ways to use these credits. Talk to your academic advisor about the possibilities.
Suppose you would like to particpate in a course but either a) you do not have the tuition credits to pay for it or b) you will not have time to complete the homework. In this case, consider "auditing" the course. According to page 8 of the Fall 2001 Time Schedule of Classes [I'm not looking up the exact page again in future years, but it is probably close by], ``Graduate students, who have appointments as graduate assistants, graduate associates, and graduate fellows are eligible to audit courses during the Fall and Spring Semesters at no additional charge.'' (This must be on the web somewhere too, but I don't know where! If you do, please tell me!) An audit is simply an official record that you particpated in the class -- no grade is assigned. Audits are good for the department as well as for you. Records of auditing students combined with those of fully registered students document student interest in a course, helping the department to justify the teaching of smaller enrollment advanced courses to the University administration.
If you have an idea for how to improve graduate life in the department, please contact the graduate affairs committee (Mark Bowick, Joe Schechter, Paul Souder) or the GSO. Consider becoming involved in one of these groups, or with the colloquium committee. Active participation in the life of the department is the best way to feel at home.

The Advising System

Students will have two types of faculty advisors during the course of their studies. The most important of these is the Research Advisor who will guide the student through the original research that leads to the Ph.D. The Research Advisor is chosen through a process of negotiation between the student and a faculty member with whom the student wishes to study. The student should approach a variety of faculty and explore the various options during the first and second year of graduate studies. Students are expected to have found a research advisor by the end of the second or the beginning of the third year of graduate studies. Depending on the students' preparation, a student may find advisors and begin research earlier. See the departmental research page for a description of some of the research activities underway in the department. Click here for a list of faculty who describe themselves as currently looking for new graduate students and/or research assistants.

The second advisor is the Academic Advisor. New graduate students are assigned an academic advisor to help them choose appropriate coursework, to consult on various issues, and to allow them to form a personal relationship with one of the faculty. The academic advisor will follow the student's progress and assist of difficulties arise. Academic advisors may or may not have expertise in the particular field in which the student wishes to study, but should be able to help the student make contacts with those who do. A student's academic advisor typically does not become their research advisor, although this may happen from time to time.

Students may also contact members of the Graduate Committee for help and advice. Faculty members serving on the graduate committee are Mark Bowick, Joe Schechter and Paul Souder . The role of the Graduate committee is to monitor and improve the graduate student environment and experience in the department, as well as to advise individual students as the need arises. Do not hesitate to contact any member of the committee with a comment, suggestion, or question.

Finding a Research Advisor

As described above, this is a negotiated process between the student and the potential advisor. The student should take responsibility for this process and actively seek out potential advisors. Faculty are happy to talk to students about available positions and opportunities long before any firm commitments need to be made. Although some students may not enter into a formal relationship with an advisor until the beginning of their third year, students should begin exploring the various possibilities soon after their arrival in Syracuse. When exploring research groups, most students find it beneficial to speak to other graduate students and/or postdocs working with the group in addition to talking with the faculty member directly. An independent study, graduate lab, or summer research assistantship are good ways for a student and potential advisor to get to know each other before either commits officially to a long term relationship. Feel free to ask faculty members about such opportunities at any time. It is a good idea to explore a number of fields, as students often discover a new field that they find more appealing than their original declared interest. Students are in no way restricted to the fields declared as initial interests during the application process.

Travel Support

If you plan to present a paper at a conference, you should apply to the graduate school for travel support. They typically provide up to $200. You can also receive an equal amount in matching funds from our department. It is important to apply for the graduate school funds early as they often run out of money before the semester is over. The forms are available from the Physics General Information page.

In addition, you can apply for the more competitive Fredrickson Travel Grants(pdf).

E-mail

New graduate students in the physics department are given two e-mail accounts. Syracuse University gives every student an address on the SUNIX system (mailbox.syr.edu), and the department gives every student an account on the physics server (phy.syr.edu). The University may contact you at your SUNIX address, but the department will always contact you at your physics account. You will probably decide to use only one of these accounts. Please set the other account to forward your mail!! If you use some other account (e.g., yahoo, hotmail, etc.) for your regular e-mail, please set your physics account to forward your mail there. Otherwise, you may miss many important things happening in the department. In the modern world, we assume that students check their e-mail regularly.

Additional Confusions: Your PHYSICS email address may be written either as PhysicsAccountName@phy.syr.edu or PhysicsAccountName@suhep.phy.syr.edu. These two addresses denote the same e-mail account. The SUNIX email address may be written either as SunixAccountName@syr.edu or SunixAccountName@mailbox.syr.edu. These last two addresses denote the same e-mail account, but this account is different than the PHYSICS account mentioned above.

Finally, your PHYSICS and SUNIX accounts will typically have different userid's and passwords.

This web page prepared by Don Marolf. Edited & revised by Diane Sanderson ( July 9, 2003) and Mark Bowick (Nov. 15, 2005).