How does the mentor system work?
The graduate course advisor assigns you a faculty research mentor soon after you first begin the program. You should go to see this person soon after the assignment is made. The roles of the research mentor are to provide general advice, to explain how the research process works (in part by using examples from his or her own research), and to provide advice on how to choose a dissertation area and dissertation advisor and eventually a dissertation topic. You should take the initiative in meeting with your mentor and with getting the most you can out of the mentoring relationship.
