Definitions

The key person(s) in a graduate student's program and to whom the student consults with and reports to regarding program progress. In most cases, the Advisor refers to the student's supervisor; however, depending on the graduate program and progress in the program, the Advisor may vary. See the table below for details:

In Arts and Science, a committee associated with a Department plays a role in managing graduate programs, including making admission and funding recommendations, and designating Chairs for certain student committees.

For each graduate program, or appropriate group of graduate programs or majors, there is a Graduate Program Committee (GPC), acting on delegated authority from Graduate Council, for general supervision of the program. See the School of Graduate Studies Governing Principles for details.

For program-related assistance, all graduate students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contact the appropriate graduate program office (e.g., School of Graduate Studies Office, Graduate Studies & Research in Education, Dhillon School of Business Graduate Programs Office). See the School of Graduate Studies website for details.

A project is generally intended as an application to an existing methodology or procedure. Often, people will use the project as a demonstration or as an implementation of something that does not currently exist in their system. Thus, it is more practice oriented, even though it still must have a solid grounding in the literature. Students engage in systematic inquiry of a topic relevant to their educational practice. This inquiry is grounded in theory and research. Methods of inquiry may be qualitative and/or quantitative.

A thesis is theory oriented and begins with the posing of a question that will in some way contribute to the building or validating of theory. Considerable depth is expected in the review of literature, the application of a discipline and clearly described methodology for dealing with the research question, a thorough description of the results of the work (both descriptive and connotational), a synthesis of the research findings with extant literature, and implications of the research for both theory and practice.

Table 2: Program-specific definitions of Thesis