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2005 Grad Handbook: Doctor of Philosophy Program

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Internships

First-year students complete a series of three internships with different faculty members. Central goals of the internship program are to help students learn new approaches and methods that might be useful in their own dissertation research and to help students and faculty decide on appropriate advisors/advisees. The individual internships are expected to consist primarily of hands on research activities, either empirical or theoretical. Occasionally, students may undertake internships that consist of independent reading and consultation with a faculty advisor. Most internships are necessarily rather limited in scope, taking about 6-7 weeks and 40-50 hours of work to complete. Otherwise, the subject is completely open, according to mutual interests. Students are encouraged to pursue internships that consist of actual research in the area of expertise of the advisor. Internship projects can be continued beyond the internship period under some other course number or as independent collaborations, by agreement of student and faculty member.

At least two of the three research internships should be completed with EEB Faculty or Joint EEB Faculty. At the end of the first year, students are expected to choose a Dissertation Advisor, and the internships should help students become familiar with potential advisors or committee members.

As part of the internship program, the first-year cohort also meets regularly with a faculty coordinator. The group meetings are intended to promote interaction within the cohort of students and to keep students on schedule in their progress towards the goal of choosing a dissertation and beginning their main research projects. Group meetings may be used to discuss internship choices, guidelines and issues that arise during the research projects, and to present practice talks. After each internship, each student presents a 10-15 minute research seminar to the Department as a whole.

Internships are completed under the following schedule:

Fall semester: two internships, 1 unit each, will be completed, one during the first half of the semester and one during the second half of the semester, as ECOL 610a and 610b. Regular meetings with the faculty internship coordinator constitute an additional unit of credit under ECOL 610c, for a total of three units.

Spring semester: one internship, similar to the above are completed during the first half of the term (ECOL 610a). Students will also meet regularly with the faculty coordinator to discuss and present research results (Ecol 610c), for a total of two units.

Students and each internship research mentor should reach an agreement regarding the scope and content of the project, keeping in mind time constraints. At the beginning of each internship, Departmental Form L should be completed and given to the faculty internship coordinator. The faculty coordinator will ensure that students complete internships on schedule. At the end of each term the faculty coordinator will give the Graduate Coordinator the names of students who have completed internships. Internships receive a letter grade, assigned by the internship research mentors and the faculty coordinator.