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Common Questions Answered Without Email!

General Advising Questions

Engineering Building
You're my undergraduate faculty advisor, what does this mean? The CS department has two types of advisors available to you. A "faculty advisor" and an "academic advisor" (I know that's confusing). The roles of these are explained here: Your Advisor: Faculty vs. Academic
I have an urgent advising question, should I email you? If you have general registration questions, degree questions, or anything administrative, you usually want an academic advisor, and you can either email csug@gmu.edu for help or book an in-person meeting with an advisor (instructions are on the Undergraduate Student Advising page).
I need to get into [class] this semester, can you make that happen? Unfortunately, due to departmental policy, I cannot override anyone into the introductory or core courses (such as CS112, CS211, CS310, CS483, etc.). Please contact the CS office (csug@gmu.edu) if you want to request an override.
Can I just stop by to introduce myself and/or chat? Yep! Feel free to swing by office hours, they're listed on the homepage. If you stop by randomly, I might not be in my office or might not be able to chat right then, but you can always try :)
330 Advising Questions

Flockbot robots from GMU's Autonomous Robotics Laboratory.
I need to see you for CS330 advising, how do I do this? I always do CS330 advising in person, so just check out the homepage section above for how to meet with me.
What should I bring for CS330 advising? You need to bring a printed-out and completed CS330 advising form. Please write down the course names not just the numbers!
How long will CS330 advising take? If you don't have any questions and you've planned your next two semesters carefully, it can take as little as 15 minutes. However, in my experience, most CS330 advising takes around 30 minutes.
My faculty advisor doesn't answer their email, will you be my advisor? Advising duties in the department are distributed amongst the faculty to avoid hundreds of students asking the "one professor who answers emails" to do everything :) If you're having trouble contacting your faculty advisor, especially for CS330 advising, please reach out to the CS department (csug@gmu.edu) and let them know. Usually they can track down your wayward advisor for you, but if you have some other issue with your faculty advisor, it's best to get that mediated by someone in more authority than me, so also let the CS department know if that's happening. If push comes to shove, you can ask the CS office to reasign you to another advisor, but you probably won't be able to choose (and I can't "ask for you").
Serious Situation Questions
Weird art display from a conference I was at one time.
I have [a serious situation] affecting my semester, what should I do? The first thing (and this is very important) is that you need to remember that you are almost certainly not the first student to be in your situation. Depression, anxiety, financial issues, loss of a loved one, basically anything that can happen to a person has happened to many, many other students before. This means that there are lots of people who can help you on a college campus.

As a person who suffered from severe depression for a long time, the best general advice I can give is to reach out as soon as you realize you need help, that way you can get support as soon as possible. Don't try to tough it out by yourself, that isn't necessary, you're going through enough already.

See below for specific situations, or use this list for general help:

  • Student Support and Advocacy Center (SSAC) - offers one-on-one consultations and resources in the areas of interpersonal violence, personal wellness, and alcohol/drug abuse. They also can direct you to many, many other campus resources. If you don't know who to contact, these people can help!
  • Counseling and Support Services (CAPS) - offers individual and/or group counseling, workshops and community education programs
  • The Office of Disability Services - handles short and long term disability accommodations.
  • First-Gen+ Center - offers a lot of support options for first-generation students and students with issues that commonly affect first-gen students
  • University Ombudsperson - offers an independent, informal, and confidential resource for discovering university resources and providing informal mediation and conflict resolution.
  • Learning Services - offers a lot of support options for things like time management, test taking skills, college reading skills, etc.
I'm not sure who to contact, what should I do? My #1 recommendation is SSAC. They're a great group of people who know all the university resources and can quickly direct you to what you need. Other resources I specifically know about are below:
Financial Issues Food Pantry
Crisis Support Substance Recovery
Discrimination LGBTQ+ Support
Taking Time Off Questions
Robotics lab in chaos after too much stress.
How can I take [a few days] off to handle something? [Examples: car accidents, very sick relatives, going to a funeral.] For this type of situation, the most common thing to do is just (1) document what is happening and (2) talk to your individual professors. Your professors will almost always be easier to talk to if you do (1) before (2).

That said, keep an eye on your "short-term" issue in case it begins turning into a long-term issue, e.g. managing a broken arm a car accident, becoming a long-term care provider for a family member, greif and depression after a loss, etc. See next question if that happens.

I need to take [a week or more] off, what should I do? There are several options, but the first thing you need to decide is if you want to continue your studies while dealing with your situation. It's often a relief in some cases to remember you don't have to do both! Many students take a semester off, or even a leave of absense because of outside circumstances. That's not strange!
  • If you want to also continue your coursework... sit down and discuss the situation with someone (I'm happy to do this with you, and there are also organizations on campus such as SSAC and CAPS). Either way, explain to someone you trust (1) the situation and (2) your plan for how to continue school. Next, talk to your professors about your situation or talk to one of the campus organizations about talking to your professors for/with you (many of them will do that!). Listen to their advice about getting through the semester.
  • If you want withdraw from the semester... If you are having any sort of medical situation (including mental health) or other extreme circumstance that affects your semester, CEC has a semester withdrawal policy for such situations ( "withdraw from a course due to a non-academic, extraordinary circumstance that is verifiable with documentation" . Scroll down to "Withdrawal Request". There are two PDFs with full instructions. This type of withdrawal is different from selective withdrawal; it doesn't get entered into your transcript as a W, and it can be used for some (or all) of your classes in a semester.
  • If you want to take even longer... If you do decide to go with a leave of absence, it works a little differently for international students and domestic students, here is some information on it:
Recommendations
Robot looking.
Will you write me a recommendation for a UTA position? If you (1) took and completed a class with me recently, (2) did well in that class (generally an A or A+), and (3) want to be a UTA for a class I regularly teach, then "yes" if you do the following things:

(1) Complete this form which gives me information on how to submit the recommendation, permission to discuss your grades, etc.

(2) Email me to request the recommendation and attach the completed form

(3) Meet with me in-person (during the semester) or on Zoom (over break) to discuss the recommendation and make sure you know what you're getting into :)

Note: You can submit UTA applications before my recommendation goes in, so it's ok if you need to do your paperwork out-of-sync of our conversations.


Will you write me a recommendation for an internship? If you have worked for me, usually the answer is yes! Please follow the steps below:

(1) Complete this form which gives me information on how to submit the recommendation, permission to discuss your grades, etc.

(2) Email me to request the recommendation and attach the completed form

(3) Meet with me in-person (during the semester) or on Zoom (over break) to discuss the recommendation and make sure you know what you're getting into :)

If you have only been my student, then the answer is "maybe". First, you need to have completed the class with me, I cannot give recommendations to "active" students in my classes. So, if you are currently taking a class with me, you'll need to wait until after the course grades are submitted. Second, like with recommendations for UTA positions, you need to have had a class with me recently and you have to have done well in that class (generally an A or A+). If that sounds like you, follow the steps above!


Will you write me a recommendation letter for a job or provide a professional reference? If you have worked for me, usually the answer is yes, shoot me an email! But I can't do this for people I have only known as a student. Professional references should always be from people you've worked with "professionally", and that usually isn't the case for students unless they have also been a teaching assistant or taken some other paid position with me.

Will you write me a recommendation for the accelerated MS at GMU? I don't need to! Your "recommender" is listed on the CS Department's Accelerated Master's page under "How to apply".

Will you write me a recommendation letter for grad school (at GMU or elsewhere)?

Maybe... I'm always flattered when students think of me for this, but I want to make sure you get the most out of your graduate school recommendations. When applying to grad school the general preference order for recommendations is:

  • [Best] Someone who knows you well, is in your intended subject area, and has worked with you outside the classroom.
  • Someone who knows you well and is in your intended subject area (but maybe hasn't worked with you outside the classroom).
  • Someone who knows you well and has worked with you outside the classroom (but maybe is in a different subject area).
  • Someone who knows you well (but hasn't worked with you outside the classroom and isn't in your intended subject area).
  • Someone in your subject area who you've been working with recently (though they may not know you well yet)
  • [Least-Best] Someone in your subject area.

And then to complicate all this, when applying to graduate schools, you want to look for someone who is a "tenured" or "tenure-track" faculty member (that's faculty that don't have "instructor" or "teaching" after their title here: CS Faculty Page). Those faculty are research-oriented (rather than teaching-oriented) and their recommendations "look much better" to most graduate admission committees.

So the first thing we need to do is brainstorm better options than me on this scale before deciding that I'm your best option... So you ask yourself:

  1. Do I know any of my professors well? (For example, worked with them on a summer project. It's not uncommon for undergrads to say "no", so don't worry if that's your answer.).
  2. Do I know any of my professors in my subject area somewhat well? (For example, you took multiple classes with them.)
  3. Have I taken any "interesting"/"advanced" classes in the last semester or two? Were any of those faculty in the area I want to work in?

Now, after all that, if you think I'm your best option:

  1. Complete this form which gives me information on how to submit the recommendation, permission to discuss your grades, etc.
  2. Email me to request the recommendation and attach the completed form
  3. Meet with me to discuss the recommendation either in-person or over Zoom (let me know which you'd prefer in your email)

I'm also happy to meet just to discuss the above advice or help you brainstorm options!