Graduate Student and Mentor Resources
Find tools and guidance to support strong mentoring relationships, clear expectations, research progress, and career planning for CAHNRS graduate students and mentors.
Start Here
- Graduate Students: Start with communication expectations, mentoring agreements, and career planning tools.
- Faculty Mentors: Start with advising expectations, authorship conversations, and mentoring resources that support inclusive graduate education.
Guidance for Current Graduate Students
Clarify expectations early. Talk with your advisor or mentor about communication preferences, meeting frequency, progress updates, response timelines, and shared responsibilities.
Prepare for mentor meetings. Send brief updates before meetings so your mentor can review your progress, identify questions, and provide useful feedback.
Discuss milestones before they become urgent. Ask about authorship, draft review timelines, letters of recommendation, conference presentations, and other professional goals.
- Plan for your career. Use an Individual Development Plan to reflect on your interests, strengths, skills, and next steps.
- Strengthen your research questions. Refine your ideas through literature review, evidence, advisor feedback, and peer discussion.
- Use feedback actively. Apply constructive feedback to improve your research, writing, presentations, and professional development.
Resources for Graduate Students
WSU Policies, Programs, and Support
- WSU Graduate School Policies and Procedures: Graduate student requirements, expectations, and university policies.
- Graduate and Professional Student Association: Programs, events, research expo information, awards, and professional development opportunities.
- WSU Graduate Writing Center: Support for theses, dissertations, articles, proposals, and other graduate writing projects.
- Academic Success and Career Center: Career readiness, CV support, networking guidance, and mentoring resources.
Relevant Graduate Courses
- ENTOM 490/590 Graduate Career Preparation: Offered fall semester.
- ENTOM 511 / CROP_SCI 511 / SOIL_SCI 511 Science Writing Workshop: Offered spring semester.
- Anim_Sc 500 Seminar course: Offered spring semester.
- Anim_Sc 520 Preparation of Scientific Literature in Animal Sciences: Offered spring semester.
- SOE 501 Graduate Skills Seminar
Career Exploration and Individual Development Plans
- myIDP from Science Careers: Career exploration and individual development planning for scientists.
- ImaginePhD: Career exploration and planning for humanities and social science scholars.
- MIT Individual Development Plan resources: Guidance for using IDPs in graduate career planning.
- The Professor Is In: Career advice for graduate students, postdocs, and academic job seekers.
Graduate Student Success and Communication
- Strategies for Communicating with Faculty: Tips for clear, respectful communication with advisors and instructors.
- Graduate student success guides: Practical guidance on expectations, time management, communication, and graduate school navigation.
- Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement: Graduate student and postdoc resources for research, mentoring, and professional development.
- 10 Tips to Help Help you “Win” at Graduate School: 2019 Article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Guidance for Faculty Advisors and Mentors
Use a mentoring agreement. Document expectations for communication, participation, feedback, authorship, and professional development.
Make expectations explicit. Discuss lab or group participation, shared responsibilities, timelines, meeting norms, and communication practices.
Discuss authorship clearly. Review authorship criteria, contributor roles, and draft review timelines with students and research team members.
Resources for Mentors
Use these resources to clarify advising expectations, strengthen communication, and support inclusive, effective mentoring.
- WSU Graduate School Policies and Procedures: University policies and expectations related to graduate advising. Review section 1.4.9.
- Faculty Career Advising Resources: Guidance on supporting student career development.
- UW Graduate Student Success Faculty and Staff Resources: Resources for creating supportive graduate student experiences.
- Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement: Resources for research mentoring, teaching, and professional development.
- The Science of Effective Mentorship in Stem: National Academies 2019 written report.
- University of Pittsburg Mentoring Best Practices: Recommendations for effective and inclusive mentoring practices, annual reviews, and mentor networks.
- The Mentor Academy: Free online mentor training class.
- Council of Graduate Schools: Mentoring Resources For Mentors: Information on how (and why) to mentor, and how to do it well.
- Innovations in Graduate Education Hub
- Mentoring Agreements from the University of Arizona Mentoring Institute