PhD | Reading Committee

Overview

After passing the qualifying examination, a student must secure the agreement of a Department faculty member to act as the dissertation advisor. Typically, this is the program advisor. In some cases, the dissertation advisor may be in another department. In addition, the student must form a dissertation reading committee composed of the principal dissertation advisor and at least two additional readers. The Reading Committee Form should be signed by all the members of the committee and submitted to the CS PhD Student Services (phdstudentservices@cs.stanford.edu) no later than one year after passing a qualifying exam.

Regulations Concerning Composition of Reading Committee

• The principal advisor and at least one of the other committee members must be academic council members. This is a University regulation.
• At least two committee members must be CS professors or joint CS professors (academic council members, such as, Stanford faculty). Courtesy and adjunct CS professors do not count. This is a Departmental requirement.
• The reading committee supervises the dissertation research, advises the student, evaluates the student's progress, and signs the final draft of the dissertation.
• These committee members often serve on the student's orals committee because of their knowledge of the students research.
• Readers who are not academic council members (limit 1) need prior approval from the graduate division to serve on your reading committee by filing a petition form.