Graduate advising

Your Graduate Program Coordinators can answer most questions and advise students on degree requirements, department procedures, or general issues about being a graduate student. All new students are encouraged to meet with a Graduate Program Coordinator upon arrival as well as several times throughout their graduate career in order to best facilitate your program. 

Schedule an appointment online

Current students in our programs should schedule their advising appointment online.

Advising appointments will be offered both virtually and limited in-person (by request). Students must have either installed the Zoom for Meetings Desktop App or the Zoom Mobile App in order to attend the virtual appointment. We recommend using the desktop app. Detailed installation instructions can be found on OIT’s website. General Zoom help documentation can be found here.

We do not offer drop-in advising. Quick or time-sensitive questions can be sent to csgradmn@umn.edu.

Graduate advising and mandated reporting

In the Computer Science & Engineering department, confidentiality is important to us, and most of your conversations (including email) with staff are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). However, University policy, state, and federal laws place some limits on confidentiality and may require CS&E staff to release information, without your permission, to designated authorities.

We are required to report if you:

  • Report a credible and imminent threat of danger to yourself or another person(s)

  • Report or describe, or we suspect, any physical abuse, neglect, mental injury, or sexual abuse of children within the last three years (this includes the occurrence of abuse or neglect to yourself if you were under age 18 at the time of the abuse)

  • Report sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, relationship violence, and/or related retaliation. In this case, a report will be made to the Office for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, which will reach out to you to share resources for personal support and information about how to initiate an investigation process or other responsive action if you choose.

In the case that we must report, our practice is to notify you either in-person or through email that the information you shared with your advisor has been reported to the EOAA office. If you have any questions, please contact csgradmn@umn.edu.