COMMITTEE: 5 members, does NOT include Dr. E
- Select your committee sometime in spring of your G1 year
- You’ll select people based on: Tory’s network/recommendations, for people who may overlap or collaborate on your project; people you meet
- “The student will consult with the Director of Graduate Studies to select a committee of faculty to conduct the Preliminary Examination. This committee must have at least five Program faculty members and cannot include the student’s Thesis Advisor. No more than three members of this committee can come from the home Department of the student’s thesis advisor; at least two must be tenured faculty; at least three must be full members of the Graduate College; and all must be approved by the Graduate College to serve as examiners. The Program will appoint a Chairperson for the Examination Committee; the Chair must be a full member of the Graduate College and will be responsible for ensuring the timely and appropriate administration of the exam.”
- The point that no more than 3 members can come from your PI’s home Department means that no more than 3 members can come from Psychiatry
- This includes people who have a double appointment in another department (example: Pauline Maki is faculty in Psychiatry, Psychology, and OB/Gyn - she “counts” as one of the maximum of 3 Psychiatry members)
- You will need to look in departments such as Psychology, Anatomy & Cell Biology, etc)
- You do need a few tenured faculty members (“full member of graduate college”) - this is helpful anyway since the more senior someone is, the more committees they have sat on, and they will have reasonable expectations
- Pauline Maki is a tenured faculty member who will serve on most of Dr. E’s trainees (and Dr E sits on most of Pauline’s trainee committees)
- Example committee (Jordan’s):
- Amy Lasek (Psychiatry; chair -- now gone)
- Olusola Ajilore (Psychiatry, full member of GC)
- Graziano Pinna (Psychiatry, involved in my project)
- Pauline Maki (Psychiatry; full member of GC, involved in my training)
- Kuei Tseng (non-psychiatry member; full member of GC)
- Megin Wardle (non-psychiatry member)
- Note that I had 6 members, because I really wanted to include Olu, Pauline, and Graziano, even though they were all in Psychiatry - so one of those just counted as “extra”
Sample Email to Schedule Prelim Exam:
(Anisha: I included the information about GPN requirements to give the committee more information)
Thank you everyone for agreeing to be on my prelim committee!
Below is the list of faculty on my committee:
- Dr. Alex Leow (Chair)
- Dr. Pauline Maki
- Dr. Kuei Tseng
- Dr. Anne Fink
- Dr. Colleen Stiles-Shields
I plan on taking my preliminary exam in October 2023. Below is a description of the exam from the Graduate Program in Neuroscience website (https://gpn.uic.edu/curriculum/phd/preliminary-examination/):
The oral examination begins with a brief (~30 minutes) presentation of the research plan by the student. At the pleasure of the Chair, examiners may question the student during the presentation or wait until its conclusion. While the initial focus of the oral examination is on the written proposal, the committee is expected to probe the breadth and depth of the student’s knowledge beyond what is presented in the proposal; i.e., committee members should ask questions that can be related to the proposal or to other aspects of Neuroscience. The experience allows the student to take what he or she has learned in formal course work and apply that knowledge to formulate research questions in light of prior research findings in the literature and with regard to technical feasibility. It also prepares a student to hone communication skills, deliver a lecture, and defend a scientific position. Students should expect that the oral examination will require two to three hours to complete.
The exam will take approximately 2 hours.
Two weeks prior to the exam date, I will provide the written component for your feedback. It will include:
(1) a critical review of the literature
(2) a proposal for dissertation research
The written component is limited to a total of 13 pages in length, single-spaced, margins at least one-half inch on all sides, with text font size of 11 points or greater; it must contain distinct sections as follows: critical literature review in the form of “Background and Significance” (not to exceed six pages), “Specific Aims” (not to exceed one page), and “Research Strategy” (not to exceed six pages).
Below I have listed some options for the prelim exam date. Please let me know which dates/times work for you! If multiple work, please let me know so I can ensure I find a time that works for everyone.
- Friday, October 13th 9am
- Friday, October 13th 1pm
- Tuesday, October 17th 9am
- Tuesday, October 17th 1pm
- Wednesday, October 18th 9am
- Friday, October 20th 9am
- Tuesday, October 24th 9am
- Tuesday, October 24th 1pm
- Wednesday, October 25th 9am
- Friday, October 27th 9am
Thank you so much for your support and guidance throughout this process!
Best,
Anisha
Scheduling Meetings with Prelim Committee
- A random note about scheduling committee meetings from Anisha: I started with listing dates as shown above, but unfortunately it did not work for me because I had 2 committee members with extremely tight schedules. I recommend starting with whentomeet if you have very busy committee members because it ended becoming very complicated and I needed to eventually send a whentomeet.
- A random note about scheduling committee meetings from Jordan: I hate whentomeet type polls and think they are inefficient. I have had really good luck sending my committee a list of times then asking for a reply of which dates or times definitely do not work for them. I’ve always been able to schedule my meetings within a day or two this way! Here’s an example email i sent for my G3 committee mtg:
- “As usual, I’ll list a few date/time options, but please let me know if you prefer a whentomeet type poll. I think it is most efficient to let me know which days or times you are definitively unavailable, then I can pick one that works best.
- All times are in CST, and we can plan to meet for one hour via Zoom.
- 2nd week of March:
- Thursday March 16th: 9am, 4pm
- Friday March 17th: 9am, 1pm
- 3rd week of March:
- Tuesday March 21st: 11am, 1pm
- Wednesday March 22nd, 11am, 2:30pm
- Thursday March 23rd: 1pm, 4pm
- Friday March 24th: 9am, 1pm
- I’m happy to send more options or a poll if needed.”