This page is intended to provide information on graduate field procedures and policies to faculty, but is maintained as a public page so that students can also see the guidance provided for their PIs.  You may always get support on any of these topics by emailing maegrad@cornell.edu and mae-adga@cornell.edu.

Table of Contents

Forms
Online Storage and Data Sharing
Mailing Lists
PhD Funding
PhD TA Assignments
Student Matching
Admissions
Student Progress Review (SPR)
Degree Milestone Exams
Joining the Fields

Forms

You will need to interact with four different systems on a regular basis to sign off on various graduate student forms and to provide information.

Dynamic Forms

The vast majority of forms are handled by the Dynamic Forms portal.  This includes all exam scheduling forms, exam results forms, petitions, leave of absence requests, conference grant applications, SPRs, and more.  You will receive an email every time a form is ready for your signature, but can also access the system at any time to check on the status of routed forms and to look up completed forms. For the latter, click on ‘My Forms History’.  You can then scroll to find the relevant form, or use the search box to search by keyword or student name.

Students can find the links to all Grad School forms here.

Graduate Special Committee Request

All special committee requests are handled via the committee request portal: https://gsc.gradschool.cornell.edu/.  As with Dynamic Forms, you will receive an email any time you need to sign off on a committee request, but can also access this system at any time to check on pending and completed requests. To see completed committee change requests, select ‘All’ from the Status dropdown menu and click the ‘Apply’ button. Clicking on the request number will show you who has signed off on a given committee change, and whose signature is still pending.

Students can find the MAE committee requirements and processes here. There is also more info for faculty below.

ProQuest ETD Administrator

The ProQuest Electronic Thesis or Dissertation is used for approval of all PhD dissertations and MS theses. Unlike the other two systems, ETD does not allow you to access requests via a general portal.  All access is based on links directly emailed to you.  These emails show as coming from ETD Administrator <etdadministrator@proquest.com> and typically have subject lines of: “Dissertation assigned for committee review—Author: [Student Name]” or “Thesis assigned for committee review—Author: [Student Name]”.  Because the system does not provide a search capability for requests, any issues must be handled by the Thesis and Dissertation Coordinator, whose contact information can be found on the graduate school staff directory: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/about/staff-directory/.  The current point of contact is Phil Sroka (thesis@cornell.edu; 607-254-2316).

Students can find Grad School thesis/dissertation requirements and processes here. 

Field Votes and Funding Surveys (Qualtrics)

All electronic field votes and funding information queries will be conducted via Qualtrics surveys.  There are two types of survey distributions: via anonymous link and via personal link.  The vast majority of these surveys will be distributed via personal links, which will typically be emailed directly to you.  Reminders on surveys distributed via personal links will only be sent to people who have not yet completed the survey – if you receive a reminder email about a survey that is addressed to your email specifically, this means that you have not completed the survey.  Surveys distributed via anonymous link will typically use Cornell’s SSO (authenticated login) to gather your user information (name and email) so that you do not need to enter this information manually into the survey.  Surveys that are intended to be anonymous will be distributed as anonymous links with no sign-in required.

Online Storage and Data Sharing

There are three systems commonly used by the MAE graduate field office for online storage and data sharing.  Please note that Cornell licenses additional cloud storage services, and each has specific restrictions on the type of data they can be used for.  A complete table of licensed services and regulated data capability is available here: https://it.cornell.edu/regulated-data-chart.  Cornell SSO refers to single-sign-on – the unified authentication mechanism used by the majority of Cornell licensed services, also known as CUWebLogin.  For more details, see here: https://it.cornell.edu/cuweblogin.

Box

All Cornell faculty can automatically access box via Cornell SSO at http://cornell.box.com/.   Box support is available at: https://it.cornell.edu/box.  Box is largely used in the admissions process for data sharing and collection, and to share materials for field meetings and votes.

Google Workspace

While faculty email is handled by a Microsoft Exchange server, all faculty have the option to activate a google workspace account linked to their netid.  Details are available here: https://it.cornell.edu/gsuite.  Once activated, you will have the ability to log into all standard Google services (e.g., Docs, Sheets, Drive, etc.) with your Cornell netid via Cornell SSO. The graduate field office uses a shared Google Drive folder for internal data sharing and archiving, and occasionally for faculty communication.   All faculty are strongly encouraged to activate their Google workspace account, which can be done here: https://it.cornell.edu/gsuite/activate-your-cornell-google-workspace-account-faculty-and-staff.

Cornell Secure File Transfer

Secure File Transfer (SFT) is a fully secure method for transferring files between members of the Cornell community.  It is most frequently used when transferring FERPA-protected student data, and is primarily used by the undergraduate program office.  The graduate field office may use this transfer method where appropriate, but will largely rely on Box, which is also fully FERPA compliant.  FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which governs access to student records. Details here: https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/ferpa.

Mailing Lists

The graduate fields associated with the MAE department utilize four different mailing lists:

• aefieldfaculty-l  – All Aerospace Engineering field faculty
• mefieldfaculty-l – All Mechanical Engineering field faculty
• tamfieldfaculty-l – All Theoretical and Applied Mechanics field faculty
• maefieldfaculty-l – All faculty from all 3 fields

These lists are kept up to date based on the field rosters. In addition, most faculty will likely want to be subscribed to one or more research mailing lists. For details, see here: https://researchservices.cornell.edu/resources/research-mailing-lists-list-servs.

To see which mailing lists you are currently enrolled in, follow the instructions given here: https://it.cornell.edu/lyris/which-e-lists-have-i-joined-lyris

PhD Funding

There are three yearly funding cycles for PhD students for the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms.  For each cycle the process is largely the same:

1. All field faculty advising PhD students will receive a funding survey soliciting information on funding plans for the next term.  Surveys for department faculty will include all PhD students they advise, including those from graduate fields not associated with MAE (that is, if your line is primarily in MAE, your survey will include all of your PhD students including those who are not in AE, ME, or TAM).  This is because the department is ultimately responsible for the funding guarantee for all students, regardless of field.  This also makes it important to immediately notify us (by emailing maegrad@cornell.edu) when you recruit a PhD student from a different field.  We have mechanisms for identifying your students, but these are dependent on students actually updating their committee memberships in a timely fashion, and this process is not strictly enforced by all fields. Spring funding surveys will typically be sent out in early October (before Fall break), Summer surveys will be sent out by the end of February, and Fall surveys will be sent out in late May.  In all cases you will have 3-4 weeks to return your surveys.
2. If you receive a survey, you must complete it. It does not matter if you believe you have already provided the relevant information.  It does not matter if you are not an MAE department member, and have already communicated funding decisions to the GFA of the field associated with your home department.  If you get a survey, just complete it. You will spend more time arguing with us than it takes for you to fill out the survey.  You are strongly encouraged to schedule an appointment with the finance staff (a signup link will be provided for scheduling meetings each cycle) and to fill out the survey during the meeting.  Finance staff cannot complete the survey for you, and this is not their responsibility.  They are there to advise you, but you are the only person who can make funding decisions for your students. You should also discuss funding decisions with your students to ensure that they know your plans.  This is especially important when requesting TAs, as students on TA must be on campus the week before classes start and must plan travel accordingly.
3. Spring and Fall surveys will indicate whether a student is eligible to TA, and will include a ‘Request TA’ option as one of the funding options.  If a student is not eligible to TA, please do not request a TA for them. Summer surveys will not have this option. You may request a TA for students who have already TAed twice.  If granted, this will count as an ‘extra TA semester.’
4. The undergraduate program office will circulate the number of planned TA assignments for the following academic year term midway through the previous semester to all course instructors.  If you wish to modify your TA allocation, you must engage with the undergraduate program office and ADUA at the time this information is sent out. Do not wait for TA assignments to be made to start requesting extra TAs. 
5. Once the surveys are returned, the GFA and ADGA will compile a potential TA pool, including all eligible students for whom a TA was requested and all students in the fourth year of their program and beyond who have not yet completed their two required TA semesters. A survey will be sent to all students in this pool soliciting their course preferences. Students will generally have one week to return this survey.
6. Once student TA preference surveys are returned, the ADGA will generate preliminary TA assignments.  These will be emailed to all advisors and course instructors. These faculty will typically have two days to respond and request assignment modifications.  Please keep modification requests to a minimum.  Please do not ask the ADGA for extra TAs for your course – the ADGA does not control the number of PhD TAs assigned to a course – that is done by the ADUA/undergraduate program office.  Also, please do not share the preliminary assignments with your students – these are subject to change.  The final assignments will be communicated to students directly by the GFA/ADGA once they are confirmed.
7. All funding information will be passed to finance staff, who will then process the appointments.  Students will receive their offer letters no later than 30 days prior to the start of their next appointment.

In Fall semesters, newly matriculated students have until December 1st to match with an advisor, and so Spring funding information for these students is collected separately, as part of the matching process.

If circumstances change and you need to update any of the information submitted in your funding survey, just email maegrad@cornell.edu and mae-adga@cornell.edu. We are also always happy to answer all questions about the process.

PhD TA Assignments

PhD TAs are assigned as follows:

1. Each semester (typically shortly before pre-enroll), the graduate field and undergraduate program office faculty and staff meet to determine the TA allocations for courses for the next semester.  Allocations include PhD TA allocations, undergraduate/MEng TA allocations, and hourly grader allocations.  The allocations are then communicated to all course instructors.
2. The graduate field office collects funding information from faculty (as described above) which includes TA requests.  Once the surveys are returned, the ADGA and GFA compile a PhD TA pool, which consists of all students for whom a TA was requested, and all students beyond the fourth of their degree programs who have not yet completed their two-semester TA requirement.
3. All PhD students in the TA pool are surveyed for their course preferences.
4. Based on the student preference survey results and advisor and instructor requests, the ADGA assigns PhD TAs to all available PhD TA slots.
5. Draft PhD assignments are communicated to advisors and instructors for comments. Once finalized, they are shared with students.

Extra TA Semesters

Each AE/ME/TAM PhD student is required to TA twice, and is guaranteed two TA assignments throughout their degree program.  Students may serve more than two TA semesters, but these will count as ‘extra’. Any MAE department TA spots assigned to an out-of-field student (e.g., to any non AE/ME/TAM student advised by an MAE department member) will also count as ‘extra’.  Extra TA semesters will be evaluated when considering requests for matching and significant numbers of recent extra TA requests may require more detailed funding plans to be submitted for new students.

MS/Out of Field PhD TA Assignments

In rare instances, there will be fewer PhD students in the TA pool than there are available PhD TA slots.  When this happens, the graduate field office will consult with the affected instructors, and then will advertise available TA positions to the ME MS students and/or out-of-field PhD students.  Applications will be solicited with whatever information the instructor thinks is relevant, and the final selection will be done in consultation with the instructor.

Student Matching

Student matriculating in the Fall have until December 1st to match with an advisor and record them as their special committee chair.  MS student matching will open to faculty in late September, and PhD student matching will open to faculty in mid-October (typically immediately after Fall break).  In both instances, field faculty will receive an email with a Qualtrics survey link.

For MS matching requests, the survey will ask you to state how many MS students you are looking to recruit, and will allow you to enter up to 3 names at a time.  You may provide more names than your stated goal (e.g., you want 1 student but provide 3 names) or you can provide just one name.  You can also submit as many survey responses as you wish throughout the remainder of the semester.

For PhD matching requests, you will need to submit one name at a time, but can also submit as many times as you wish.  In addition to identifying the PhD student you wish to be matched with, you will also be asked to provide funding information for the Spring semester, and a general funding plan for the remainder of the student’s degree program.

All students will be periodically polled as part of the MAE 6949 first-year seminar as to their advisor preferences.  Once a matching request from a faculty member is received, the ADGA will check whether the student has listed the faculty member who initiated the request in their latest survey.  If they have, the ADGA will email both the student and faculty member to confirm whether they are ready to formally match. Once both student and faculty respond, the ADGA will notify them both (via email) that the match has been formalized.  The student will be instructed to immediately update their committee information, as described here: https://gradhandbook.mae.cornell.edu/degree-programs/selecting-an-advisor-and-forming-a-special-committee/.

Faculty who are interested in recruiting students will be given the opportunity to have their names advertised to students and also to give a ten minute presentation during a meeting of the MAE 6949 first semester seminar. All field faculty will receive a survey prior to the start of the Fall semester to provide this information.  Presentations in the seminar are not required, but are strongly encouraged. If you are unable to present at the seminar, you are also welcome to record a brief presentation and share it with the ADGA, who will post it to the MAE 6949 Canvas. All slides used in faculty presentations will also be shared with students (you will have the opportunity to provide a separate slide deck for posting if you wish to do so).

Content you are encouraged to include in your presentations:

• Your contact info and group site url
• What your group does (focus areas, etc.)
• Who’s currently in your group (grad students, postdocs, undergrads, key external collaborators, etc.)
• Where past students have gone on to
• What Q exams students in your group usually take
• Current projects in need of staffing
• Pending/future projects students might work on
• Whether students in your group typically spend their whole PhD on a single project or multiple projects
• Group policies/expectations (e.g., one-on-one meeting cadence, group meetings, conference travel policy, publication policy, authorship, etc.)
• What you expect from students interested in joining your group (e.g., one-on-one meeting, attending group meetings, presenting at group meetings, working a toy problem, working a part of an ongoing project, shadowing other group members, etc.)
• Date/Time/Location of group meeting if prospective students are welcome to join

Admissions

All field members advising graduate students recruited during the previous two admissions cycles, and all field members seeking to recruit new students in the next cycle, are expected to participate in graduate admissions. The admissions process will typically proceed as:

1. In November, all field faculty will be emailed a survey link to provide information on whether they will be seeking to recruit students the following Fall (and how many), and whether they are willing to read graduate applications.  Faculty with significant administrative positions (e.g., director, associate director, dean, etc.) and those on sabbatical will have the opportunity to opt out of reading, or to request a diminished reading load.  The number of desired students provided at this point is non-binding and used for planning purposes only. The survey will be due by December 1st.  If you do not return this survey, we will assume that you are not looking for students for that cycle.
2. PhD applications will be due by December 1st.  We will not make any exceptions for late applications, but will accept supporting materials (official exam scores and letters of recommendation) past the deadline.  The final candidate pool will be constructed over the first 1 – 2 weeks of December, and will include all students who meet graduate school minimum language proficiency.
3. Faculty participating in the admissions process will be assigned their initial reading assignments before the end of the second week of December.  Initial reviews will be due by early January.  Faculty will typically have on the order of 30-50 applications assigned to them for initial review.  The reviews will require completing an evaluation rubric provided to all readers, along with any additional notes the reader provides. Please note that the initial review round is the ‘service’ round – you will be evaluating students for their overall qualifications and fit with the degree program, rather than for your group specifically. Every application will be read by at least two faculty members, and any faculty can provide additional reviews for any number of applicants beyond what they are assigned.
4. All returned reviews will compiled and made available to all faculty who indicated an interest in recruiting students. Faculty will then have approximately two weeks to return ranked lists of applicants they wish to admit.  Faculty will be asked to supply a multiple of the number of students they actually wish to recruit for their group (typically 3x – that is, if you wish to recruit 3 students, you must supply 9 names). Faculty may include any applicant from the entire pool, but must provide a written justification if the candidate does not fall into the top 25% of the pool based on the initial reading round.
5. The ADGA and GFA will take all of the faculty requests and will generate an initial admit list.  The admit list will be constructed to prefer applicants identified for admission by multiple faculty members over those identified by only one faculty member, but will strive to ensure that students are admitted from all participating faculty lists, when possible.  The initial list will be circulated to all DGSs and discipline leads for review.
6. A final admit list will be circulated to all faculty participating in the admissions process.  Any student identified for admission by any faculty member who is not on the initial admit list will be automatically placed on the wait list.  Faculty will have approximately one week to review the admit list and request modifications.
7. Students on the admit and wait lists will be notified in early February.

The MS review process will follow the same basic steps, and will commence as soon as the PhD process is completed.

Student Progress Review (SPR)

SPRs are mandatory for all graduate students and their advising faculty.  Students in AE/ME/TAM are required to submit their SPRs by April 1st of each year, including their first year in the program (the short form of the SPR is used for the first year only). Faculty must submit their SPR responses by May 30th.

The graduate school provides detailed information on SPRs here: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academic-progress/degrees-fields/research-degree-requirements/student-progress-review/

If you rate a student as ‘Unsatisfactory’ or ‘Needs Improvement’ in their SPR, please note these additional requirements:

1. The student must receive explicit, written, and reasonable expectations that, if evaluated as successfully fulfilled, would return them to good academic standing. A reasonable timeline to address the expectations will be defined.  The expectations and associated timeline are best communicated in the SPR itself, but can also be sent to the student, in writing, separately.  If sending additional materials to the student outside of the SPR, please send copies to maegrad@cornell.edu and mae-adga@cornell.edu.
2. The expectations, timelines, and accompanying documentation must be shared with the full Special Committee, if it has been established.
3. The expectations and timelines can be reasonably adjusted upon agreement of the full Special Committee and the student.
4. The student shall be entitled to monthly check-ins with their Special Committee Chair during the established timeline. It is up to the student to initiate these check-ins, but the committee must make itself available, given reasonable notice, and the chair shall strive to facilitate such check-ins.

The SPR represents the minimum expected annual feedback you must provide to your students.  We strongly urge all committees to have much more frequent contact with graduate students, and for advisors to provide written feedback to students on a regular basis, especially in cases where an advisor assesses that a student is not making good progress in their degree program.

Degree Milestone Exams

The Q exam is governed by our field rules.  The current AE/ME field rules only recognize a pass and fail option for the Q exam.  The committee may communicate recommendations to students who pass the exam, but these will not be binding.

The A/B/M exams are governed by the Graduate School Code of Legislation and allows for pass, fail, and conditional pass outcomes. In the event of a conditional pass, the committee must clearly communicate to the students the conditions under which the result will be turned into a full pass and the specific timeline for completing these conditions.  This communication must be in writing (email, preferably), and the student must be given the opportunity to discuss the conditions and ask questions about them to the whole committee.

The graduate school also recognizes two different fail results, as described here: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academic-progress/degrees-fields/research-degree-requirements/taking-exams/.  A regular fail outcome allows for a retake of the exam, with the unanimous consent of the the committee.  A unanimous fail requires that the student petition the General Committee of the graduate school to remain in their degree program.  More details are provided here: https://gradhandbook.mae.cornell.edu/degree-programs/accountability-and-due-process/.

Students can find additional info about MAE Q Exams here. Additional info about A/B/M Exam is here. 

Joining the Fields

MAE department members will be contacted by the ADGA upon their arrival to Cornell to discuss field membership.  All three fields also welcome non-department members to apply for field membership.  Non-MAE faculty may be nominated by a current field member, or self-nominate.  Nominations will be approved by the relevant DGS(s) and then put to a vote by the full field(s).  A nomination consists of:

1. A statement of which fields you are interested in joining.
2. For each field, a list of the concentrations you’d like to represent.  See the graduate school field listings for the available concentrations.  Please note that AE and ME have two subjects (one named the same as the field and Robotics).  If you wish to have robotics listed as a concentration, this will need to be approved by the robotics program.
3. For each field, a field-specific statement describing the relevance of the field to your research.
4. For each field, a list of research interests. These are listed on the graduate school field rosters.  Most faculty use the same research interests for all fields, but you can vary these by field if you wish.
5. Your CV (can be the URL of an online CV).

Please send all materials in one email to maegrad@cornell.edu and mae-adga@cornell.edu.  Once approved by the relevant DGS(s) and program leads, the nomination will be put to a vote of the field faculty.  Successful votes are then communicated to the Graduate School for final approval.  The process typically takes on the order of 1-2 months, and we will do our best to keep you updated as to where we are in the process.