There is a three-tiered advising system for AHMA students.
(1) The AHMA Student Affairs Officer (SAO) counsels students on campus policies, regulations and procedures, helps to monitor students’ degree progress, and assists students with bureaucratic problems. The SAO also maintains the master AHMA graduate student record and program files, housed in the program's offices; schedules student examinations and reviews; and prepares graduate student placement dossiers and student funding forms.
(2) The AHMA Graduate Advisor takes responsibility for general academic counseling; offers suggestions on programs of study and advisory committees; monitors the student’s overall academic progress; and helps maintain student records, especially those relating to the Advisor’s interactions with the student. The Graduate Advisor meets with each student at least once a semester to review and approve the student’s proposed course of study for the next semester by signing the student’s class schedule (the form is available from the SAO), and to discuss the student’s general progress through the program. The Graduate Advisor also attends each student’s mandatory third semester review (see Section IV.C). Only the Graduate Advisor is authorized to sign most of the forms and petitions submitted by or for AHMA students to Graduate Division. New graduate students should first check in with the SAO and then consult with the Graduate Advisor as soon as possible after arrival on campus.
(3) Advisory Committees selected by the student directly supervise the content and progress of his or her individual program of study at each stage of the AHMA curriculum. The student should select the first member of the Advisory Committee for Stage I as early as possible in his/her first year in the AHMA program, and the other two members by or at the beginning of the third semester in the program. With the advice and consent of the Graduate Advisor, the Advisory Committee may be reconstituted as necessary or desirable as the student progresses through the program. Its chair takes primary responsibility for directing the student’s work and is chosen by the student in consultation with Committee members and the Graduate Advisor. Advisory Committee members meet with the student to conduct a mandatory third semester review of each student’s progress (see Section IV.C); to help determine the student’s major and minor fields; and to recommend a suitable program of study leading to the PhD degree.
It is essential that students maintain regular and consistent contact with their faculty Advisors. The Graduate Advisor will not sign class schedules unless they are first approved in writing by all the student’s faculty Advisors who are in residence.