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The Graduate School

Build an Advisory Committee

All students in programs that require a thesis or dissertation will select a graduate advisory committee in consultation with their graduate advisor(s). Some non-thesis programs require a final oral exam (“defense”) with a committee, and some require a project, for which students may enter a “project advisor” in the Committee section of their MyPack portal. The project advisor must be from the student’s home department. If your program does not have a committee/project advisor requirement at all, you will see a message in the Committee section of your MyPack portal saying that a committee is not required.

Committee requirements may be found in the Graduate Handbook. You may also contact your Graduate Services Coordinator for guidance regarding any program-specific committee requirements.

As you speak with faculty members about adding them to your advisory committee, you may add them in your MyPack Portal and save your progress until your committee is complete:

MyPack Portal > Student Homepage > Planning & Enrollment tile > Graduate Degree Planning > Committee

  1. Log into MyPack Portal using your Unity ID and password
  2. View your Student Homepage
  3. Select the ‘Planning & Enrollment’ tile
  4. From the left-hand navigation menu, select ‘Graduate Degree Planning’
  5. Select ‘Committee’

To begin adding members, click the button next to “Add to Committee”:

Slate screenshot

When you add someone to your proposed committee, you will select from multiple “Graduate Committee Member Types.” The member types are summarized below, but please refer to the Graduate Handbook for more information.

  • Chair – Your faculty advisor/PI
    • Note: You may not have a Chair and a Co-Chair, so if you have co-advisors, please give each one the “Co-Chair” member type.
  • Co-Chair – You may have co-advisors who would each be designated as Co-Chair.
    • Note: If you have been approved to have a co-major, you must have a co-chair from each major.
  • External – Someone from outside of NC State (or NCSU faculty/staff without graduate faculty status) who will be a voting member on your committee. This person will not count toward the minimum number of members required for the committee (four for doctoral and three for master’s). A current vitae must be uploaded when adding this member type, as external members require approval from the Dean of the Graduate School.
  • Graduate School Representative (doctoral committees only) – If a doctoral graduate committee has no representation outside of the student’s graduate program, a Graduate School Representative (GSR) is required. Co-chairs can never be considered unbiased, even if they are from outside the student’s graduate program, and would therefore never be able to substitute for the GSR. If needed, the Graduate School can assign a GSR when a preliminary oral exam is requested. GSRs are non-voting members who must be present at both the preliminary and final oral exams.
  • Inter-Institutional – A member of the graduate faculty from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or Duke University may serve as one of the required committee members when appropriate.
  • Member – NC State faculty with graduate faculty status.
  • Technical Consultant – Someone from outside of NC State (or NCSU faculty/staff without graduate faculty status) who will be a non-voting member on your committee. This person will not count toward the minimum number of members required for the committee (four for doctoral and three for master’s). A current vitae must be uploaded when adding this member type, as Technical Consultants require approval from the Dean of the Graduate School.

When you are finished adding members, you must submit your committee for approval. There are two buttons to use to complete the submission process:

  • “Validate” button (optional) – You may click this button to confirm that your proposed committee meets the general Graduate School requirements (found in the Graduate Handbook) before clicking the “Submit” button.
  • “Submit” button (required) – You must click the “Submit” button to submit your valid committee for review. Clicking “Submit” will send an email to each committee member so they can accept the role on your committee. Once everyone accepts, your committee will be routed to your DGP (Director of Graduate Program) for final approval. If you do not click “Submit,” your committee members and the DGP will not be aware that your committee needs review.
Slate screenshot

Note: Any committee members from outside of NC State (or NCSU faculty/staff without graduate faculty status) will require additional approval from the Dean of the Graduate School before your committee is routed to your DGP. When the Graduate Dean approves an Inter-Institutional member, an external member, or a technical consultant, that member will receive an email to confirm that they are approved to serve on your committee.

Overall Committee Status: As seen in the screenshot above, your committee will have an “Overall Committee Status.” The various statuses are:

  • “Creating” – Your committee is still being created; it has not been submitted for approval.
  • “Awaiting Committee Acceptance” – The “Submit” button has been clicked and NCSU graduate faculty members received an email request to review/accept their role on the committee.
  • “Awaiting DGP Approval” – All members have accepted their role and the DGP must now review the committee.
  • “DGP Approved” – The committee is now considered to be completely approved. At this point, you still have access to make changes to your committee, but it will require DGP approval. After making any changes, you must click the “Submit” button again to initiate the approval process.
  • “Locked” – An approved committee will be locked once you request to schedule an oral exam. If you need to make changes to a locked committee, please contact your Graduate Services Coordinator for assistance.