Advisors 

The word "advisor" is used to designate a lot of people and here is an attempt to disambiguate them!

• You have a major professor, PI, or guiding professor who is often called your Advisor, but let's not call them that anymore, because it confuses things. 

• There is also the Head Graduate Advisor (currently Ian Wang), a faculty member who leads the graduate program. Most forms need to be signed by the Head Graduate Advisor. 

• You have a staff advisor, also known as a Graduate Student Affairs Officer. We refer to these members as GSAOs.

You also want to have a Guiding Committee formed (you will do the forming) as early as possible. They will eventually approve your coursework and are likely to evolve into your oral Qualifying Examination (QE) committee. For masters students, these will likely be the same thing.

Committees

Guiding Committee

During the first semester in the program the student must meet with their PI and two more members who will make up the student’s guiding committee. This committee will all meet together to plan coursework, and generally talk about progress. ESPM 201A-C and any other course work (breadth, Area of Specialization, and Methods)) required by the committee must have been taken, or be in progress, before the oral qualifying exam may be taken. The program should be approved by the guiding committee. All courses designated by the guiding committee as fulfilling requirements of a student’s program must be taken for a letter grade unless only offered on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Oral Qualifying Exam/Committee

For PhDs, the qualifying examination is conducted by a four-member committee. (For Masters of Forestry and Masters of Rangeland, please check their wiki pages). At least two of the four-member exam committee must be ESPM faculty, with one of these serving as committee chairperson. At least one member of the committee must be from outside the program and be a member of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate. The student is expected to demonstrate a broad and deep knowledge of the field in the program of study. The student should consult with the examiners in advance to be certain that there is agreement on the scope of material to be covered during the examination.

S & E division graduate students are required to submit an orals Reading List Approval form before taking their orals. The timeline for submittal is normally 4 to 6 months depending on your orals date. The Reading List Approval form must be signed by all members of the orals committee, as well as the Graduate Advisor and submitted to the student GPC divisional representative before the deadline date listed on the approval form. This reading list should cover the field of examination as a whole, and include major theoretical approaches. The list should not simply be a subset of the field that is narrowly tailored to the student’s planned research.

 Approximately two weeks before the qualifying exam, students taking their exams should distribute to the qualifying exam committee members a three-page prospectus/outline describing the proposed dissertation research project. During the first part of the qualifying exam (approximately 20 minutes) the student will present and discuss the proposal.

The following steps should be taken to appoint the qualifying examination committee:

a. Obtain an oral examination form from the Graduate Student Service Office,

b. List the committee on the form with areas of responsibility and email address,

c. Obtain the approval signature of the graduate advisor,

d. Contact the committee members to schedule the examination, and indicate the day and time on the form,

e. Submit the form to the Graduate Student Service Office at least four weeks before the date of the exam.

Students must submit a proposed QE committee through CalCentral. The student must also notify the Department of a QE committee formation three no later than the third week of the semester the student intends to take the Qualifying Exam. Once notified of the QE formation, the GSAO will prepare your administrative transcript, committee authorization letter, and Qualifying Examination Report and email those documents to your committee at least one week prior to your examination date. After you take the QE, your QE chair will contact the GSAO with the necessary updates to the QE report. The GSAO will then submit the QE report to the Graduate Division. 

Advancing to Candidacy

Once a student passes their qualifying examination, documents will be presented to the Graduate Division for confirmation. After your CalCentral portal has been updated to show that you passed your QE, you will need to create a higher degree committee to formulate your dissertation committee. This process is called advancing to candidacy. In order to advance to candidacy, you must have a valid dissertation committee prepared. 

Dissertation Committee

The dissertation committee be made up of at least three persons, two of whom must be faculty members in the ESPM program, termed “inside members.” The guiding professor (PI/faculty advisor) serves as chair of the dissertation committee. One member of the dissertation committee must be from outside the ESPM program and be a member of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate, termed the “outside member.” The Graduate Division no longer requires an outside member, but ESPM Department has continued to require an outside of ESPM member of the committee.

If desired, upon approval of the Graduate Division, you may add a fourth member of the committee who is not a member of the Academic Senate. 

S&E has also instituted a policy regarding the dissertation prospectus. Please see the Student Handbook. 

To finalize your dissertation committee and advance to candidacy, you must submit the electronic Application for Doctoral Candidacy form in CalCentral. To find the form, go to your Dashboard in CalCentral (the homepage, essentially) and look under Student Resources at the bottom right. The "Higher Degree Committees Form" should be listed under "Submit a Form." (info current as of April 2021).

If you need to change your dissertation committee after your original application, you will need to file a "Request for Change in Higher Degree Committee" form with the Graduate Division. It is available through CalCentral.