Graduate students will have an orientation meeting with the Department Head and Chairperson of the graduate committee the first week of classes. At the orientation, students will be introduced to department regulations and expectations. The chairperson of the graduate committee will orientate students regarding course selection and graduate school regulations. Graduate students on AERS assistantships will have their assistantship requirements explained by the Department Head as follows:

a.  Students will be asked to visit with each graduate research faculty regarding their research agenda and explore the possibilities of working with faculty members

b.   After visiting with each faculty member, students will visit with the department head regarding their selection of a faculty member or members as a mentor.  The graduate student will receive the department head's and faculty member's authorization to have the chosen faculty member direct their research.  The selected faculty member will be responsible for assuring that the graduate student is gainfully employed. 

Faculty's Responsibility:

Faculty are responsible to see that graduate students fulfill all assistantship requirements, including working the appropriate number of hours. They are responsible to see that quality research is accomplished by the students. This necessitates the faculty choosing appropriate research projects that will have a high probability of succeeding and then staying abreast of the research work to make sure it is properly accomplished. The faculty are responsible to see that the research is published in the appropriate outlets.

Graduate students are encouraged to do a two (2) paper thesis. This requires the graduate student to complete two (2) journal quality manuscripts ready and worthy of submission before the thesis is signed by the faculty. The thesis will have a common introduction and conclusion. The two manuscripts do not have to be related in subject matter. Graduate students are encouraged to have one manuscript that is worthy of submission to an Agricultural Economics supported journal. It is anticipated that the student will work on one of the articles upon arrival in the program. Authorship on the manuscripts that are submitted to journals will always include the student’s name but the student may not always be first author depending upon the involvement of the advisor and the amount of revision work after the journal review.

The two paper thesis will require faculty to maintain a list of journal quality research projects that will be appropriate for graduate students to work on during their first year in the program. The first research project will typically be lower quality than the final research project. The first manuscript will typically be sent to an interdisciplinary journal. It is anticipated that the research project will culminate in a manuscript worthy of submission to the summer regional (typically WAEA) agricultural economics meetings. This will allow graduate students to travel together to the meetings. Faculty members may send their graduate students to any meetings their grant funds will support.

At the end of each semester, the graduate student will submit a progress report on their research. The report will be reviewed and signed by the advisor and the department head before being forwarded to the Experiment Station Director. If the student has not made satisfactory progress in their research they will be given a warning. After two semesters of unsatisfactory progress, the student will be referred to the graduate committee, which, in consultation with the student’s advisor and department head, may revoke the assistantship.

Minimum GPA

To remain in the Masters Program, students have to maintain a 3.0 GPA. If a student scores below a 3.0 GPA in a semester, the student is placed on probation, which means the student can take classes the next semester, but the student has to earn better grades to bring their cumulative GPA to a 3.0 or above.