Annual Review

An annual review is a requirement for all graduate students.  These instructions apply to post-candidacy students. The only exception for not completing an annual review will be if you have filed your “Application to Graduate” form on gradforms.osu.edu to finish in the current term. If you do not graduate this term, you WILL then need to complete your Annual Review by January 30th.   The deadline to contact your committee members to schedule your review for 2023-24 is December 20th. Reviews for 2023-24 academic year are due by January 30th. If you have already completed your review with your full committee earlier during Summer or Autumn 2023, please contact Kris Dunlap at dunlap.151@osu.edu for further instructions.  

STUDENTS:

Download and complete the Physics Graduate Studies Annual Review form found on the Carmen course “Physics Annual Review for Post Candidacy.” Next, please schedule a meeting with your advisor and all of your advising committee members.  Please contact your committee by December 15th to set up your meeting between December 1-January 30. These meetings typically should run about 15 minutes for students in their 3rd and 4th years and 30 to 45 minutes for students in their 5th and 6th years. Please note that most faculty will likely have these annual review meetings scheduled back-to-back in some cases and therefore if additional time is needed then a follow up meeting may need to be scheduled for later.  

Prepare a 3-to-5-page progress summary in Power Point, PDF, Word or your preferred document program for a 5 minute talk that should be a high level overview. Save or print the document to PDF. See Appendix below for more details for the recommended contents and suggested order. 

Update your C.V. or Resume with your accomplishments over the last year or more and save as a PDF.  The C.V./resume document is a good place to summarize some of the things you put on your review form about your recent activities. Before you meet with your full committee for your annual review, email each member the 3 PDF files (form, progress summary, CV) so they can review it prior to the meeting. For the actual meeting with you committee, bring paper copies of the 3 PDF files for each committee member who will meet in-person. It is not recommended to use a projector for in-person participants since this tends to take more time, unless your committee prefers that format. Please check with your advisor for the preferred presentation format.

 The Physics Graduate Studies program requires that students meet with all 4 of advising committee members at the same time, which can be on Zoom or a combination of in person and on Zoom (hybrid) or all on Zoom. If you need to meet with 3 out of 4 members of your committee and then later meet with the 4th person, that sort of set up is OK with the advanced approval of your advisor.  Your review will be considered “complete” after you have met with your full advising committee, your advisor has approved the annual review (see below), and you have uploaded your 3 documents to Carmen. Incomplete information on the form or missing assignments will need to be updated and uploaded. You should contact your committee no later than by December 15th to schedule your Annual Review for no later than January 30, 2024. 

After meeting with your advising committee, upload your 3 PDFs to the Carmen course “Physics Annual Review for Post Candidacy” as 3 separate homework assignments. No paper copies will be accepted. Preferred file name format is: Last name, first name -C.V.; last name, first name -form; last name, first name -summary.

Your advisor will approve your Annual Review form to confirm that the annual review meeting was completed, and it will also serve as approval of your research progress toward your Ph.D. See instructions under THESIS ADVISOR below for the advisor to approve the form. Your C.V. and Research Summary will be graded by the Grad Studies office awarding a point to check in these 2 documents.  Later, your annual review document will be reviewed by the Graduate Studies office then it may be assigned to a Graduate Studies Committee faculty member. If needed, any issues or concerns will be discussed by the Graduate Studies Committee.  Should any follow up with you be required, we may contact you to have a meeting with the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies and/or the Co-Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee to discuss.  You are also welcome to contact the Physics Graduate Studies office to discuss your review should you feel that is needed.

 

THESIS ADVISOR:

You should meet with or have an email conversation with your student before the review meeting with the full advisory committee to discuss the contents of the filled-out annual review form and the student’s research summary.  Please be sure to both discuss and provide information for question 6 about financial support for your student(s), and please include comments on current/future funding if you feel that would be appropriate. 

You must approve the Annual Review form after the meeting. You can approve the form in one of two ways: (1) sign a paper copy of the form, which your student with then scan and upload to the Carmen course, or (2) go to the Carmen course “Physics Annual Review for Post Candidacy”, look up your student’s assignments, and award 1 point as a grade for the Annual Review form assignment. Using Speed Grader is the best option for grading. The point serves to confirm that the meeting with the committee was completed and that progress toward a Ph.D. is approved. Should there be any concerns you may request a meeting with the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies for discussion.

The Graduate Studies office will grade the other 2 assignments to confirm that all 3 documents have been uploaded.

ADVISING COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Please work with your advisees to schedule the annual review meeting and include your meeting format preference of in person, hybrid, or all on Zoom. We require that students meet with their full committee if at all possible.  If you cannot be present for the full committee review, please do schedule another time with your advisee for an individual meeting. 

Suggested topics to cover during annual review meeting:

  1. Review milestones accomplished over last year.
  2. Review funding plan/student support for coming year.
  3. Review plans for future presentations, conferences, workshops, summer schools, and publications.
  4. Review career goals post Ph.D. and the plans to achieve them.

Before the annual review meeting ends, the Graduate Studies Office asks that the Advisor leave the room (or go to breakout room) to allow the student to talk privately with the rest of the Advising Committee in case there are issues that the student or the advising committee would like to discuss without the advisor present.

      Suggested questions to ask students in the private section of the annual review meeting:

  1. What are you concerned about?  (eg. working conditions, climate, your future, etc.)
  2. Are you clear on expectations for progress and graduation?
  3. Are you satisfied with your progress?
  4. Do you get adequate feedback?  (Can include feedback from advisor as well as group members and collaborators.)

At the end of an annual review meeting, please have the student note any comments or concerns on the student’s copy of the form. If you think private communication is needed, please send email to the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies and/or the Program Coordinator with any issues or concerns you have.

The Advisor will be approving the Annual Review form on Carmen on behalf of the committee thus confirming the student’s review material and their progress toward finishing a Ph.D.  Advisor will use Speed Grader to award 1 pt for completing the review. If you have any questions or concerns after a review, you are welcome to contact the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies for further discussion.

APPENDIX for 3 documents and Overview preparation:

  1. Graduate Studies (GS) Annual Review Form saved as PDF with the file name as your “Last name, First name -form; -CV.; -summary. Examples: “Buckeye, Brutus -form.pdf; Buckeye, Brutus -summary.pdf; Buckeye, Brutus -CV.pdf”  
  2. The 3 to 5 page PDF document with your progress summary/overview.

Page/Slide 1-2: Your name, area of research and year you started in program. Summarize or bullet-point your research progress/accomplishments made toward your degree in the past year.  Please include such things as:

  • Highlights of your research activity/project(s)                   
  • Any scholarships or awards you received. (ex: poster competition awards or a fellowship)
  • Conferences or workshops you attended                
  • Published or submitted papers (including name and full authors list (if fewer than 10 authors), noting whether or not you are first author, and journal)
  • Presented or were a named contributor to a poster or talk (please indicate title of the talk, name of the conference, and whether you presented the poster or talk                
  • Participated in outreach events (GRASP camp, State Fair, Breakfast of Science Champions, school visit, etc.)
  • You are an officer or serving member of an OSU student organization. (Includes SWiP, PGSC, CGS, etc.)
  • Other activities related to progress toward your PhD

Page/Slide 2-3: Remaining objectives for completing your research and dissertation and give a time table for achieving them.

Page/Slide 3-4: High level work plan. Please specify both student and advisor’s input where appropriate.

3.   1 to 2 page C.V. or resume in the style or format of your choosing.  

 

Annual Review meetings must be completed no later than January 30, UNLESS prior permission for delayed submission from the Graduate Studies Office (Kris Dunlap) is received before January 30.