Counseling

Each student is assigned an initial advisor who will counsel the student on his/her program of study, special classes, and offer academic guidance. Students may decide to change their initial advisor after meeting the faculty. If the student is funded on a research assistantship or fellowship, they must discuss their contractual obligations with the advisor providing financial support before initiating the process to change advisors. All change of advisors must be coordinated through the Civil Engineering Graduate Programs Office and changed on the Plan of Study filed through myPurdue (mypurdue.purdue.edu).  Until the time a Plan of Study is filed, an email with updates to the CCE Grad Office and advisor will suffice.

Selecting an Advisor

All students, particularly those pursuing a thesis option, must identify an advisor (major professor) to direct the student’s work.  Civil Engineering requires that the major professor (chair or one co-chair) be from the student’s Civil specialty area. It’s highly recommended that the advisor be identified and communicated to the Civil Grad Office no later than the end of the second academic semester of the student’s graduate program of study. If no faculty advisor is identified to serve as a major professor, the student may be asked to leave the program. 

In conjunction with the Plan of Study expectations, master’s students should have their advisor identified by the end of their second semester of study; PhD students should have their advisor identified by the end of their third semester of study.