Ph.D. Advisor/Committee Chair and Special Committee Minor Selection

Advisor / Committee Chair Selection

  1. All ECE Ph.D. Students are encouraged to make their formal selection of their Advisor / Committee Chair from the members of the ECE Graduate Field Faculty by the end of their first semester of enrollment.
  2. All ECE Ph.D. Students are required to make their formal selection of their Advisor / Committee Chair from the members of the ECE Graduate Field Faculty by the end of their first year of enrollment, in order to be considered making the necessary academic progress as determined by the Field.
  3. The Advisor / Committee Chair must be a member of the ECE Graduate Field Faculty.
  4. ECE Ph.D. Students must nominate their Advisor / Committee Chair via the Student Center. (https://studentcenter.cornell.edu/)

Minor Committee Membership Selection

Special Committee Membership will consist of Three (3) Faculty Members. The First will be the Advisor / Committee Chair. The Second Two will be considered the Minor Committee Members of the Committee.

  1. The Advisor / Committee Chair must be selected from the ECE Graduate Field Faculty membership
  2. The Two Minor Members may be selected from any of the current Cornell Graduate Faculty.
  3. ECE PhD Students must nominate their Advisor / Committee Chair and Minor Committee Members via the Student Center. (https://studentcernter.cornell.edu/)

The selection of the Two Minor Members and the completion of the Special Committee Membership nominations must be done no later than the end of the Third Semester of Enrollment.

Choosing a Minor / Selection of Minor Committee Members

All Ph.D. Students at Cornell are required to participate in Two Minors that will be overseen by the Two Minor Members of the Special Committee. They will each represent the Field and its requirements to satisfy the Minor.

Go here to view or download a list of all Cornell Graduate Fields and their subsequent Concentrations. 

In ECE, many Ph.D. Students will opt to nominate an ECE Graduate Field Faculty Member as one of their Minor Members, representing the Field ECE on their Special Committee. (Note, this is not a requirement, but it is fairly common.)

Choosing a Concentration in ECE

When selecting an ECE Graduate Field Faculty Member to serve as a Minor Member on a Special Committee, Ph.D. Students will also need to select which specific Concentration within ECE they will represent. 

The four Concentrations available for ECE are: 

  • Computer Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Electrophysics
  • Electrical Systems

Since ECE is such a broad field, in many cases, the Concentration of Electrical Engineering is one of the most commonly chosen. 

Satisfying the Minor Requirements

Since all Ph.D. Students are required to have Two (2) Minor Members as part of their Special Committee, which means that the Minor Requirements for each of the Two (2) Graduate Fields of each Minor Member must be specifically satisfied.

Students will need to inquire from the Faculty Members that they ask to join their Special Committee as Minor Members what their requirements are in order to effectively satisfy the Minor for each of their Graduate Fields.

There is no level of consistency in the ways that Minor Requirements are to be satisfied. They are “Field specific,” in that they are determined by each individual Graduate Field. Some have very specific requirements that must be adhered so, while others leave the requirements up to the judgment of the Faculty Member themselves. After speaking to the Faculty Member, it is advised to contact the Graduate Field directly as well, in order to be certain.

In many cases, the Minor Requirements will consist of specific courses that will need to be taken and a particular Letter Grade that must be earned as a result in each course.

Be aware that the Graduate Field of ECE has no specific Minor Requirements. The Minor Requirements are left up to the individual Faculty Member to determine what is most appropriate in each individual student’s case and what should be done to satisfy the Minor.