Committees

For graduate school, a committee is a group of people who oversee the work you do and provide a final judgment on the work you produce -your thesis. These people should be related to what you are studying and generally consist of your supervisor and two other people who are usually from you department. Sometimes if your department is small or your topic covers more than one discipline then you might have one person from your committee come from another department. An example of this would be a thesis on geoarchaeology, where perhaps a geologist or soil scientist would be helpful to your committee. A fourth committee member is also added, but not until you are about to defend. This fourth person is called an 'external'. It depends on your university, but this person is usually someone completely unrelated to your field, with the purpose of bringing forward questions that you and the department may not have considered. Further, this person is normally not chosen by the student but rather the supervisor, so there is little to worry or do about this person.

I have found it fairly common to have one of the committee members to be an older faculty member. Beware! These people are very wise and can offer great advice, but are also not very helpful in regards of new conceptions or technologies (think of you grandparents here). One of my committee members was such a person and did not have an e-mail address. She was rarely at the school and hence pretty hard to reach; in total, I think I had about 3 conversations with her in 3 years!

Choosing who is on your committee may not be easy or entirely in the student's hands. In my case, and many others too, the decision was made within the first week or two of graduate studies. I did not know many of the faculty members and my supervisor suggested names to me as though I should automatically approve. I recommend that new graduate students instead ask their supervisors to hold off on making this decision. There is really no need to have this decision made right away, unless it is a university regulation. I would suggest leaving it for at least one month, where you can actually meet the faculty members and see who is the most appropriate for you studies and seems to be the one who would actually help you. My experience may have been a little more negative than some, but my two committee members were completely worthless. However, they are still the people who read the final copy of your thesis and determine if it is good enough for graduation -big responsibility there.


Until next time, keep your nose to the books and your lips to the beer!
~archaeomatt