The Road to Graduation

Two weeks prior to the first day of classes will begin math camp. It is very likely the schedule will be:
M-F, 10 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 3 pm
Your graduate coordinator will tell you where it will be.

GTA Workshop will be on the Tuesday before the first day of classes, usually 8 am to 12:30 pm.
Read more at the GTA Workshop website.

International Graduate Student Orientation takes place on the Wednesday before the first day of classes, usually between 8 and 9 am.
Read more at the International Graduate Student Orientation website.

Departmental Orientation takes place on the Thursday before the first day of classes, usually at 10 am and usually in Pamplin 1003.

Graduate Student Orientation takes place on the Friday before the first day of classes, usually at 9 am and usually at the Graduate Life Center.
Read more at the New Graduate Student Orientation website.

• Your graduate coordinator will enroll you in the course.
• You must complete the course within your first semester.
• The course contains two modules, On Being a Scientist and a section of the Faculty handbook. You will need to read the materials and then pass a quiz on each section at 70% or higher in order to achieve a passing grade.
• This is required training and you will not be able to make progress to degree without it.
  

By the end of the fall semester of your third year, you will need to have figured out who to work with in your research and solidified your avisor and graduate committee. These need to be in place by then because you will be defending your preliminary exam in the spring. If you don’t have a strong research direction and committee by this point, it will delay your studies and graduation.
The graduate coordinator will email you your plan of study form at the beginning of the fall semester, which you will need to verify for accuracy (in terms of classes taken) and complete (with committee member information and signatures of all approving parties).
The completed form will be due to the graduate coordinator before Thanksgiving break in November to ensure your committee is established well ahead of your preliminary exam defense in the spring. Committees can be changed, but it may affect your progress to degree. 
Failure to complete these tasks on time will impact future funding decisions and your enrollment in the program.

In the fall semester of your third year, your graduate coordinator will email you instructions that look very much like the following:

"Now that the fall semester is under way, the next step for you on the road to graduation is completing your PhD Plan of study, which will require the following:

- Review the attached plan of study and make sure the information is accurate.
- The most important reason that you are filling out this plan of study now is to finalize your committee. Figure out who you want to work with for the next couple of years and ask if they would be willing to be your committee chair and committee members. Think long and hard about this, because while you are free to change out either committee chair or member (via a “Change of Committee” form), these are the people that will guide your progress to graduation, so changing them out later on will create challenges for you later on.
- Once you’ve settled all of that, have each of your committee members and chair sign off on the plan of study form and, once everyone has signed, bring the form to me.
- This form must be completed this semester in order to prepare you to defend your preliminary exam in the spring. This plan of study and your spring preliminary exam defense mark your progress to degree, and failure to complete these tasks on time will impact future funding decisions and your enrollment in the program.

Please return this form by Wednesday, November 19th. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns."

To make sure that you are ready to defend your Preliminary exam in the spring, you will need to give a smaller, practice presentation in the fall to the graduate committee. This presentation will be along with all of the other third year students and will take place in the late fall semester, late November to early December.

In the fall semester of your third year, your graduate coordinator will email you instructions that look very much like the following:

"Third Year Students,
As part of your progress to degree, in the spring you are expected to defend your preliminary exam. Failure to do so will affect your future funding. In order to help you stay on track, you will be giving a brief presentation to the graduate committee and the audience (this is an open presentation, so others will be invited) on the current state of your research. 

We have scheduled McBryde 308 for Monday, December 1st from 5 pm to 7:30 pm for the presentations. You will each be allowed a half hour to make your presentation and answer questions. To sign up for your timeslot of choice, please go to https://doodle.com/sign-up-sheet/participate/2ad2bddb-efc7-4853-a5fb-499c819580bc/select and sign up, first come, first served."

In order to defend your preliminary exam:

1. Communicate with your committee and pick a time and date to defend. 
   • You are encouraged to defend before April 15th, but you have until the last day of classes to defend.
2. Once you have a time and date, reach out to your graduate coordinator to schedule a room on campus. 
   • The department requires that defenses be open to the public, in order to give you practice talking in front of an audience. Therefore, the room for the defense must have enough seats to accommodate.
3. Once the room is reserved, go to https://ess.graduateschool.vt.edu to submit your request to admit to preliminary exam. 
   • Your committee members will need to digitally sign off on the schedule before it can be approved by the graduate school, so make sure that this happens.
   • You must register no later than two weeks prior to your defense date.
   • The last day of classes is the last day to defend.
4. Defend your preliminary exam.

In the event that you fail your preliminary exam, you will need to wait 15 weeks (one semester) in order to try again. You will only have one opportunity to retake your preliminary exam.
Failure to make progress to degree can be grounds for dismissal from the program, upon departmental recommendation.

In the spring semester of your third year, your graduate coordinator will email you instructions that look very much like the following:

"Third Year Students,
Finalizing your PhD plan of study paved the way for you to defend your preliminary exam this semester. The dates and deadlines you ned to be aware of are:

- You have to be enrolled in the semester you defend, so you need to defend your preliminary exam no later than Wednesday, May 6th. If you want to earn departmental brownie points, you’ll defend before April 15th, before summer teaching decisions are made. 
- You need to register for your defense two weeks prior to your defense date, which is no later than Wednesday, April 22nd.
- I strongly encourage you to act well ahead of these deadlines as processing takes time and if an error pops up, you need time to sort them out.

Communicate with your committees to figure out when you want to defend your third year papers. Once you and your committee have settled on a date, go to https://ess.graduateschool.vt.edu and request to admit to preliminary exam. Defending your preliminary exam in the spring of your third year is a required measure of progress to degree; failure to make that progress to degree can be grounds for dismissal from the program, upon departmental recommendation."

When you are getting ready to defend and are actively in the job market, let your graduate director and coordinator know and they will put you in the job market group.

There will be an online dropbox made where you will need to upload your job market materials. All materials should be reviewed by your committee before being uploaded for review. The first round of materials, usually due by the second week of November, will be:

    a)    Name
    b)    Advisor and Committee details
    c)    Your research area
    d)    Type of jobs you are interested in (Industry/Academic, Research/Teaching)
    e)    Your location preference (U.S./International, or both)
    f)    The title, abstract, and the state of your job market paper.
    g)    Details of other complete papers.  

The second round of materials, usually due by the third week of November, will be:

    a)    Cover letters, for all audiences
    b)    CVs
    c)    Teaching Evaluations
    d)    Various statements (Teaching statement, Diversity statement etc.)
    e)    Job market paper and other papers
    f)    School Application Tracker Spreadsheet

Your packet will be reviewed by faculty members that will be aligned with your research insterests. You’ll be notified who is looking at your package so that you can initiate direct communication with the group members for feedback.

Usually in early December, you will be matched with 2-3 relevant faculty members to have a practice job interview.

Create your website before you begin applying for jobs. At a minimum, the site should have your polished CV and the links to your polished papers. 

You will be expected to give a job talk to the department faculty and fellow students before you start visiting campuses. In the job talk, you'll be treated as an external job candidate. Take the stage only if you are prepared.

At the beginning of the fall semester of your fifth year, your graduate coordinator will email you instructions that look very much like the following:

Dear All:
This is directed to students who are in the job market. Students' placement records are testaments to their research and training and indicate the quality of our graduate program.  Therefore we intend to take your placement seriously and must work together for good outcomes.  Preparation for the job market requires a lot of work and planning.  With this in mind, we would like to streamline the process by following the steps outlined below: 
 
Step 1: Create a Folder in your name 
(Deadline: November 13)
You already have received an email from the Coordinator asking if you wish to participate in the market and responded.  Please note that your decision cannot be unilateral for obtaining full departmental support.  You must communicate with your advisor and committee members to learn whether you are ready to hit the market or not.  You must have their full consent and approval, which we'll verify by directly talking to them.  Following this, the Coordinator will create a shareable folder in your name.  As a starter, the folder should contain a file with the following  information:
a)     Name
b)     Advisor and Committee details
c)     Your research area
d)     Type of jobs you are interested in (Industry/Academic, Research/Teaching)
e)     Your location preference (U.S./International, or both)
f)      The title, abstract, and the state of your job market paper.
g)     Details of other complete papers.  
As we move forward, You'll upload more materials in this folder to be shared with the faculty members for feedback.
If you feel there is a need to meet with me, you may get in touch to setup an appointment, otherwise proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Upload the first draft of job market materials 
(Deadline: November 22nd )
Your job market materials include
a)     Cover letters: Please remember that one cover letter does not fit all job types.  Please tailor your cover letter according to the job type.  Typically, you should have three "stock letters" for research/teaching/industry positions.  The letter should be further personalized based on institution-specific information. 
b)      CVs: Again, please tailor the CV according to the job type.
c)     Teaching Evaluations.
d)     Various statements: Teaching statement, Diversity statement etc. 
e)     Job market paper + other papers.  Please include 1-page" summaries of each paper on which you have made substantial progress.  This will help your letter writers and other faculty members who will help you to prepare for interviews. 
f)      The first set of schools and institutions to which you are applying.  This list will get amended with more openings.  Please compile the list of jobs in a spreadsheet, and include the deadlines and other key information about the job. 
Please note:
(1)   Before you upload the materials, your advisor and committee members should first vet them.
(2)   The same applies to the school list.  
 
Step 4: Solicit comments on the package and upload the final versions 
Your packet will be shared with a group of faculty members that will be aligned with your research interest. You’ll be notified who is looking at your package so that you can initiate direct communication with the group members for feedback.
 
Step 5: Mock Interview 
(December 2nd – December 18th )
You will be matched with a group of 2-3 faculty members in your research area. You will be notified about your mock interview schedule in advance.
Step 6:  Create your site
Please create your own site.  At a minimum, the state should have your polished CV and the links to your polished papers.  The site should be up by the time you start applying.  The department site will host you and will direct the employers to your site. 
 
Step 6: Job talk in the department 
(Beginning of the Spring Semester)
You are expected to give a job talk in the department before you visit campuses.  For now, we'll reserve seminar slots for you.  In the job talk, you'll be treated as an external job candidate.  Remember that your good performance reflects well on your advisor and your committee members. Therefore, take the stage only if you are prepared.  We'll solicit your advisor and your committee members' views to ensure that you are ready for the talk.  

In order to defend your final exam:

1. 
   
   Once you and your committee agree that you are ready to defend, go to your Hokie Spa and submit your application for degree. This will populate a graduation checklist. Also, let your graduate coordinator know that you are ready to defend.
2. Communicate with your committee and pick a time and date to defend.
   • You are encouraged to defend before April 15th, but you have until the last day of classes to defend.
3. Once you have a time and date, reach out to your graduate coordinator to schedule a room on campus.
   • The department requires that defenses be open to the public, in order to give you practice talking in front of a crowd. Therefore, the room for the defense must have enough seats to accommodate.
4. Once the room is reserved, go to https://ess.graduateschool.vt.edu to submit your request to admit to final exam.
   • Your committee members will need to digitally sign off on the schedule before it can be approved by the graduate school, so make sure that this happens.
   • You must register no later than two weeks prior to your defense date.
   • The last day of classes is your last day to defend.
5. Defend your final exam.
   • In the event that you fail your final exam, you will need to wait 15 weeks (one semester) in order to try again. You will only have one opportunity to retake your final exam, otherwise you will be let go from the graduate school.
6. Within two weeks of your defense, upload your completed ETD.
7. Send a copy of your abstract, complete with JEL codes, to your graduate coordinator for reference.
8. Return your keys to the department.
   
   

At the beginning of the spring semester of your fifth year, your graduate coordinator will email you instructions that look very much like the following:

"Defenders,
Since you’ve confirmed that you will defend this spring, here are some dates, deadlines, and to dos to be aware of:

1) Submit your application for degree - You can do this now, if you haven’t done so already. This is what signals to the Graduate School that you are ready to graduate, and it will populate a graduation checklist on your Hokie Spa. It is good for a year, so whether you defend now or in summer, go ahead and take care of this so you don’t have to worry about it.
2) Submit your Request to Admit to Final Exam - Coordinate with your committee members to pick a time and date to defend your dissertation. Dissertation defenses are required by the department to be public, so that others can attend, so once you pick a date and time, let me know and I can find a room for you to use. As soon as you have decided on a time and date, go to https://ess.graduateschool.vt.edu and submit your Request to Admit to Final Exam. Do this earlier rather than later, as it sometimes reveals an error or two that need address before your final defense, and you don’t want to be worrying about that when it’s exam time. The deadline for submission is two weeks prior to your defense date, but I recommend you register earlier rather than later. Two weeks prior is also the deadline to send your dissertation to your committee for review.
3) Defend - Wednesday, May 6th is the last day of classes, making it the last day to defend in spring.

I’ll be notified when you submit your Request to Admit to Final Exam, so I’ll be looking for that and following up with you later in the semester if I don’t see it. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and good luck as you make your final preparations."