PhD Comps

A detailed description of the purpose of comprehensive projects - and of what the student is expected to demonstrate - can be found in the related section on the Graduate Student Handbook.

In general, it is expected that students enrolled in the PhD program draft and submit a detailed plan for their comprehensive project by the end of their first year. Needless to say, your supervisor and the Graduate Program Coordinator are two most important figures if you need some help (as most student do in their first year) crafting a comp around a particular skill or topic you want to master, and most importantly to arrange a set of comps that complements your thesis project nicely in giving you a wide breadth of experience and skills.

Besides, it is also advisable to take the time to:

• Chat with senior graduate students about their experience with comps (i.e. how to calibrate the objectives in order to finish in a timely fashion, what kind of expectations a given prof has for comp students, most frequent roadblocks that pop-up on the way etc.)

• Engage with professors that do things that excite you. Over a brief chat you might discover that they might already have comp-sized projects that fit your needs; you can pitch an idea and then figure out how to spin a comp out of it; or, not less important, you might realise that after all it not the right fit for you, and you can focus on other options instead.

• Departmental seminars are a great opportunity to expand your horizons and can be a great source of inspiration when it comes to decide where to invest your time. Don't miss them!

  Invited speakers typically do research that is strictly tied to what someone in the department does, so they might help you identifying potential labs to do your comp in.