Overview of Mentoring & Advising
When students enroll in the Ed.D. program, they are supported by a team. Most of your direct support will come from faculty, staff, and peers in the College of Education (CoED), but the Graduate College and numerous other offices are involved in your doctoral journey. All are committed to encouraging you, giving you constructive feedback, helping you with various and sundry forms, providing a listening ear, and doing their best to attend to your well-being.
At the start of your studies, the following people (or groups of people) within the CoED are involved with you:
The Program Advising Team: Consist of the CoED Graduate Student Success Coordinator (K. Batten) and the Research & Doctoral Programs Coordinator (Dr. Perkins).
Faculty Mentor(s): These are faculty who looked at your application to the Ed.D. program and specifically chose you as someone who they believed needed to a student and colleague. One of the faculty mentors may wind up eventually being your research advisor and/or a member on your supervisory committee (aka ‘dissertation committee’), but that relationship will evolve with time.
Research Committee Chair: Also known as the “Dissertation Advisor” or “Major Advisory” or just “Chair,” is the CoED faculty member who leads you through the research and dissertation process. In most cases, you will not have a sense of who their RCC is until you’re at least a year or more into the program. Students can have a co-chair if it makes sense to have one.
Supervisory Committee Members: The “Supervisory Committee” (aka, “dissertation committee”) is a group of three faculty members (sometimes four, but very rarely) who work with you and the RCC as your research topic and method(s) take shape. The degree to which the ‘SupComm’ members get involved with your work will be a function of how roles are defined early in the relationship and what your needs are.
Senior Peer Mentors: You’ll connect with other students in your classes who at the same stage as you (or close to it), and many form smaller groups who can encourage each other, share insights, etc. However, starting in 2026, we’ll be piloting a “senior peer mentoring” network, where students who have completed the Comp Exam (aka, “Comps”) will be asked about meeting at least once per semester with a small group of newer doctoral students. The meetings will not be facilitated by faculty (and not recorded), allowing students to speak freely. Peer networks within the program have proven to be incredibly helpful to students as they navigate courses, relationships with faculty and their advisor, and work toward other milestones.
Your mentor(s) will be a full-time faculty members in Boise State University College of Education. Mentors select the student based on a number of considerations in their application, the foremost of which is close alignment of the student’s research or career goals with their interest.
The advisor’s primary role during the initial part of your studies is to provide advice about courses, providing feedback on research ideas, negotiating the topic and format of the comprehensive exam, co-authoring publications, and providing formative feedback during the development of the dissertation.
Once a student is eligible to complete the Comprehensive Examination, their mentor (or one of them) can become their research advisor. Two other faculty members will join the exam committee. All three members of the exam committee then form the core of the dissertation supervisory committee. It is possible for there to be co-chair of the committee, and even a 4th member (this is negotiated after the Comp Exam).
A student may request a change of advisor at any time before they complete the comprehensive examination. A student is not allowed to change a thesis advisor after the comprehensive exam has been submitted except in exceptional cases (for example, the advisor leaves the university or is no longer able to provide guidance).
Given the fact that the program is entirely online, and since serendipitous meetings with a sponsor/advisor are not likely (e.g., walking down the hall and being able to “pop into an office”), faculty in the College of Educational suggest that all students talk with their sponsors/advisor about program progress, etc. at least once per semester (this can be via phone or web-video, etc.)
Who does What?
First – remember that if you have any question whatsoever and you’re not sure who to contact, please send an email to coed-rdp@boisestate.edu and we’ll provide an answer OR help find the answer for you. You do not need to memorize “who does what,” but we explain how faculty and staff are involved in advising and mentoring below. The text is found in visual form in one of the links below.
N.B. The lists below and the table are not exhaustive; the mentors and advisors can and do engage in other activities to support and guide you.
The Program Advising Team
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- Communicate program news, deadlines, and policies through email and the RDP Hub in Canvas
- Plan your sequence of courses, how to enroll in classes, etc.
- Help figure out how carry-over or transfer courses might be applied to your plan of study
- Help you choose which cognate and/or elective courses you might take
- Provide “permission numbers” for courses that require them
- Do on-boarding for graduate assistants
- Providing assistance for enrollment
- Help you adjust your plan of study as necessary
- Gather data for program planning & reporting
- Help you find your research advisor /chair & committee faculty
- Ensure readiness for Comps and help with Graduate College forms
- Assist with defense logistics, paperwork, & graduation info
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Faculty Mentor(s)
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- Be an early connection for you to talk about your research interests, etc.
- Be there for regular check-ins with respect to program progress
- Help you choose which cognate and/or elective courses you might take
- Talk to you about any questions you might have about your plan of study
- Provide an orientation to the academic field of study, and insights about professionalization, etc.
- Help you find your research advisor /chair & committee faculty
- Career coaching & networking
- Collaborate and engage in scholarship
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Research Committee Chair
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- Collaborate and engage in scholarship
- Provide advising about research ideas, theoretical framework & research questions
- Helping the student identify and develop a cognate
- Be there for regular check-ins with respect to program progress
- Provide an orientation to the academic field of study, and insights about professionalization, etc.
- Getting students involved in their research whenever possible (including writing and revising manuscripts, preparing conference presentations, reviewing manuscripts, and writing grants)
- Assisting in the selection of supervisory committee members (two others are required)
- Helping students develop their program of research
- Helping student navigate the program requirements (i.e., selecting a Doctoral Committee, completing the comprehensive evaluation, the dissertation proposal, and the dissertation)
- Ensure readiness for Comps
- Help you plan for the Comp Exam; lead the assessment of it
- Advise you on the development of your research proposal; help with IRB submission if necessary
- Give feedback on dissertation chapter drafts
- Conduct final oral examination and determine dissertation defense outcome
- Provide career coaching & networking as needed
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Supervisory Committee Members
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- Support the student in the identification and development of a cognate area
- Provide support and feedback to the student during the dissertation process
- Collaborate & Engage in scholarship
- Support the research chair to assess the Comp Exam
- Support you as you prepare your research proposal
- Give feedback on dissertation chapter drafts as necessary
- Participate in the final oral examination and determine dissertation defense outcome
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Senior Peer Mentors
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- Discuss the program flow
- Talk about which elective or cognate courses you might take
- Provide “tips and tricks” that can help with coursework and research
- Give pointers about how and where to find research to read
- Collaborate and engage in scholarship
- Provide feedback on writing (if time permits)
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View our mentoring and advising table
Frequent Questions
Do I have to email every mentor / advisor?
We suggest that you might do this initially, but then as you are finding a growing relationship with one, or if one is more aligned to the things in which you are interested (or you develop an interest in what they are doing), then you are of course free to start limiting communication with them about research ideas and questions.
How did a given faculty mentor become my mentor?
It was a combination of the program coordination team looking at who you indicated might be helpful for your research, combined (and heavily weighted by) indications from a faculty member about the students they feel are connected to their research. It’s done very thoughtfully by all involved.
What if one or more of my mentors is not a fit? Can I switch?
That’s OK. In some cases, a faculty member who used to align with your particular interest no longer aligns after you change topic or perhaps methodological orientation. You are free to approach any faculty member and ask them to serve as a mentor or perhaps your research chairperson. The faculty member’s answer may sometimes depend on their current advising load. In any case, you should definitely make any changes to your supervisory committee and its chair BEFORE you schedule the negotiation for your comprehensive exam, which typically will happen in the fourth semester (end of Year 2) of the program.
Can my mentor(s) act as a tutor and counselor?
Well, maybe … it depends on the personality of the person and your needs. Be honest about your needs and be clear (well, as clear as possible) about your ideas. This makes for a better relationship.
Some advice
This online world is often text-based, but we HIGHLY encourage you to schedule a short video conferencing meeting with your mentors. It need not be long, but it benefits all.