1. Communication! You will get a lot of emails as a graduate student within the Dartmouth community. Pay attention to your emails from Tressy Manning and Meg Whitlock, they are your department guides. For everything else, the department mostly uses Slack! If you are not added to the department Slack, please reach out to us and we can get you added.

2. The graduate students within this department are responsible to follow the Graduate Student Handbook. An updated version should be available here: https://physics.dartmouth.edu/graduate/degree-requirements. If it is not available or out-of-date, please contact our lovely department administrator(s) - currently Meg and Tressy.

3. There are two different "tracks" to receive a PhD through our department - the physics, and the astronomy track. The track you are on depends on what research you are hoping to do here. Anyone researching quantum, condensed matter, plasma, and cosmology (yep, I know this is also an astronomy field but this is how it be) follow the physics track. The galaxy, star, and exoplanet researchers fall under the astronomy track. The Graduate Student Handbook and the Degree Requirements Page lay out what is required of you depending on your track.

4. When do you start looking for a research group?

   • Astronomy graduate students typically start looking in the fall term of their first year, since it is a research heavy track.

   • Physics graduate students start searching during the winter break and winter term of their first year.

   • Once you start research, email Rowan Kowalsky to update your department profile with what you research! Maybe think about creating a personal website to link to or attach your CV.

5. You sign up for your courses before each term via Darthub (you will likely get a long email from Guarini Assistant Dean Gary Hutchins about this). Click the Add/Drop/Course Selection tile to get started. You need to be enrolled in at least 3 total credits per term. Each course you take counts as 1 credit. We strongly advise you to not take more than two graduate courses at a time because they can be ~ a bit much ~ to say the least.

   • Is this the fall or winter term of your first year? Congrats, you gotta take our "how to TA" course. Sign up for Instruction Teaching Grad Stud (PHYS 256).

   • If you are doing research for credit before your thesis proposal, sign up for Grad Research I: Level 1/2/3 (PHYS 137, 138, 139). The level depends on how much credit you need to fill to get to 3 total credits for the term.

   • If you are doing research for credit after your thesis proposal, sign up for Grad Research II: Level 1/2/3 (PHYS 297, 298, 299).

   • If you are a TA, sign up for Supervised UG Teaching (PHYS 257).

   • Unfortunately, you will probably not find out your TA assignment until very close to the start of the term/perhaps even once the term starts. We are working with the faculty to get advanced notification of TA assignments.

   • Grades are assigned as High Pass/Pass/Fail, instead of A/B/C. How these are tossed out is incredibly dependent on the faculty member in charge of assigning the grade. And yes, you do get graded for TAing and for research. It is okay not to high pass a class!

6. Information about each course once you've signed up will be on Canvas. If you are not added to a course that you should have access to, please reach out to the faculty member in charge of that course. For example, sometimes they forget to add you to the course you are a TA for and that's important if you are in charge of grading.

7. Course/research-work-unrelated requirements...

   • You are strongly encouraged to attend colloquium each Friday. We are working with the faculty to make the colloquium talks more accessible to folks who don't research that specific field. That way we can all stay sorta up-to-date on other research fields and bond over cookies...

   • Astronomy graduate students are required to attend and participate in Journal Club. The astronomers get together once per week (except summer term) and one graduate student leads a presentation or discussion (~30 minutes). All of this will be posted on the Journal Club Canvas page.

   • The other sub-fields (quantum, plasma) also tend to have weekly-ish seminar speakers. Look out for emails from Tressy to attend!

8. Graduate Academia Survival Program (GASP):

   • GASP is a grad student run peer-mentorship program designed to help integrate first-year grad students into our department. 

   • The program is still finding its footing, but expect to hear from Quinn Casey regarding important GASP information.

1. You can find the faculty, staff, graduate students and postdocs here: https://physics.dartmouth.edu/people. But, take it with a grain of salt, it may not be up-to-date. Here are several pillars of our community: 

   • Meg & Tressy, as previously mentioned ♥️ : department administrators and your general guide to anything and everything within the department, stop by the front office to say hi!

   • Alan Goldblatt: resident building and lab expert, knows where the extra monitors are, helps us maintain the telescopes, makes violins!

   • Marie Calapa: our lab manager, she's been revamping the labs and making sure grad student TAs are prepped and ready to instruct!

   • John Griffin: knows all about our department's computer resources, helpful with buying and managing new laptops/computers

   • Rowan Kowalsky: works with grads/faculty to promote and aide our research, in charge of the department website

   • Jean & Joe: the money gurus, they will help you or your advisor with grant stuff 

2. The department has a pseudo-hierarchy. There's a department chair that rotates every couple of years, and several faculty committees. They all meet once per month for a faculty meeting, where they discuss things, conduct votes, etc. The current chair and committee assignments can be found here: https://physics.dartmouth.edu/people/committee-assignments. As with many things, this may not be current, so feel free to reach out to your Grad Student Assembly Chair if you want to know more!

   • Committees relevant to graduate students are as follows: Graduate Admissions & Recruitment, Graduate Curriculum & Policy, Colloquia & Public Lectures, Diversity & Equity, Building (offices and stuff).

3. Graduate students have representation on the above committees! The current reps should be listed on the Committee Assignments page. The representatives and any interested graduate student in our department meet semi-regularly as the P&A Graduate Student Assembly. The assembly acts as a space for us to gather and discuss ideas, concerns, and sometimes fun stuff! Any graduate student is able to assemble the grad student body. Generally, we just post in the grad-students or grad-assembly slack channel with a meeting time and place.

   • We monitor concerns and suggestions submitted anonymously via our reporting form

   • In the past, graduate students within the assembly have advocated for a change to the physics qualifying exam and conducted exit interviews of past graduate students, among other things.

4. The Graduate Student Union (GOLD) and the Graduate Student Council (GSC) have representatives associated with several programs within Guarini, including P&A. You can find our representatives here: https://sites.google.com/view/goldartmouth/gold-ue/elected-officials and https://gsc.dartmouth.edu/council. Feel free to reach out to them or anyone within GOLD or the GSC if you are looking for support! They are here to help us 🥰

• Winter and snow are a big part of life up here, so it's worth investing in winter gear! Check out the GSC Handbook for suggestions on this and more.

• Graduate students are encouraged to reach out to senior graduate students, postdocs and faculty members to get a sense for what research a specific group is doing and, perhaps more importantly, the general health/vibe of the group. Definitely attend a few research group meetings to get a feel for if it's a fit for you! And it is okay if you decide to not continue researching for a specific group for any particular reason. It may delay your timeline, but your fellow graduate students will help you through it ♥️

• Consider not doing all your homework for a course! You don't need to high pass to be a good graduate student.

• Grads in P&A back each other up. If anyone bullies you or something worse, know that you will be supported if you open up to a peer.

• Are you a TA this term and don't know what to do? Feel free to post in slack or email other grads to ask for advice! We are all willing to share our answer keys, do's and don'ts, etc.

• The offices can get a bit dusty...the consequence of working in a historic building. You can ask Tressy to submit a cleaning request to Facilities Operations & Management!

Got some general advice to share with future grads? Let the Graduate Student Assembly Chair know and we'll update the list.

The GSC handbook has general information (e.g., important campus buildings, food options, childcare, etc) for all students within the Guarini School umbrella. Their Resource Guide has helpful information on Dartmouth reporting mechanisms, health & wellness resources, safety, Title IX, writing help, and more.

Housing & Transportation

• The GSC has put together some helpful resources for finding housing: https://gsc.dartmouth.edu/housing-resources

• And they also have a helpful site for transportation: https://gsc.dartmouth.edu/transportation

• The Upper Valley Tenants Union is a good place to learn about your tenants rights

Dartmouth has an Ombuds Office, which acts as an independent and confidential form of support for graduate students and employees of the college.

Interested in joining a club? Check these out: https://gsc.dartmouth.edu/active-organizations.

The department hosts somewhat regular events. Most of the time you will find them out via email from Tressy or Meg! But here are some things to look forward to:

• First Year Mixer - every fall term, the graduate students host a welcome party for our incoming first years! Keep an eye out for flyers and emails.

• Fall and Winter Gatherings - our seasonal department gatherings in the DOC House

• Wine & Cheese - every Wednesday at 5pm in the Blue Room, graduate students gather to partake in the finer things (aka wine & cheese, occasionally hummus), join the #wine-n-cheese slack channel, sign-up to host

• PandA Pub - anyone in the department is welcome to hit up a local food & bev joint for some chit chat, every Friday at ~5:15pm, sometimes at Dunks or Ramunto's, ask anyone to be invited to the panda-pub slack channel to stay updated

• EE Just - if you identify as a person of color, the EE Just Program provides a space and community to support students from minoritized backgrounds and help them thrive. Join them every Wednesday at 5:30pm in Wilder 113 for casual food and conversation. You can contact one of their grad fellows (currently, our very own Rayna Rampalli is one) or director of the program for any further questions.

• GEMS meetings - a community for minoritized genders in P&A, monthly-ish lunches and fun activities! sign-up to receive more info

• Absolute Zeros - are you itching to play ice hockey? Our department has an annual intramural team in the "green league" which is for those just entering the world of ice skating and hockey (you don't even need to know how!) Join the #hockey channel on slack! Here's a fun video of the team from a few years ago!

• Public Observing - a monthly(ish) outreach event to share our love of the stars! stay tuned here

• Astronomy Day @ Montshire - every year (typically sometime between January and March) the local Montshire Museum organizes an astronomy day with our graduate students, a fun time to interact with the community, especially children, about space!

More news & events can be seen here: https://physics.dartmouth.edu/news-events.