Important Information for PhD Students

This document is most useful, if you open a web browser and follow along.  The items below that are underlined in blue are Internet links that should work if you click on them, while viewing this document in MS Word or OpenOffice.

1) LOG INTO MYFAU

Go to https://myfau.fau.edu/cp/home/displaylogin and bookmark that page in your browser. Type your User Name and Password in the box in the upper-left of your screen that has the title Secure Access Login. You should have received your FAU user name and initial password by email.

Log in and take a moment to familiarize yourself with this screen. Note, especially the e-mail link in the upper-right of your screen. Play around with this, and send a test email to yourself. Be aware that FAU's administrators and instructors have had bad experiences with third-party email systems in the past, and have instituted a policy of using only FAU.edu email addresses for official communications. Check your FAU.edu email regularly, even if your primary mode of communication is by some other means.
 

2) REGISTER FOR CLASSES

Contact your advisor to finalize the courses that you will be taking, once the schedule of courses is accessible.

The next screen that you see should look like the picture below. 

To see which classes are available in the term that you selected, click Course Listings under Courses toward the right side of your browser. Note the five-digit codes that appear beneath the course titles. You will need these in order to register. In the example below, one would make note of the code 12345.

ACG 8888 - SECRET ACCOUNTS 001  12345  30  15  3  BH 123  M  11:10-14:00PM Boca Raton  Instructor, Name

To register for classes, click on Drop and Add Classes under Registration in the middle of your browser. Type the course codes that you made note of into the fields near the bottom of your browser window, under Add Class. Type one five-digit code per field. Most likely, you will use only the first three fields, and not all ten.

You must be registered for classes, before you can get a parking decal (see Sec. 4, below).

Registering for 7000-level courses requires permission from the Faculty Advisor or the PhD Coordinator.

3) SIGN IN AT THE STUDENT EMPLOYMENT OFFICE

One requirement of your stipend contract is that you submit a set of employment forms to the Student Employment Office.

On the Boca Raton campus, go to the Financial Aid Office on the second floor of the Student Services Building. Walk past the line in front of the Financial Aid desk, and talk with the people at the smaller desk to the right, toward the back of the office. This will be the desk with the shorter line, most likely.

Have with you a) either i) your US passport, ii) your driver license and Social Security Card, or iii) other proof of eligibility to work in the USA that is an acceptable document for the completion of an I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification* form and b) a canceled check from the bank account that you would like to receive your direct deposit payments.

*If this link does not work, or if you have printed this document, you can download the form at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf.

4) GET YOUR OWL CARD AND PARKING DECAL

Owl Card

On the Boca Raton campus, get a temporary parking decal from the information booth at the main entrance and go to the Student Services building, in order to get your Owl Card, which is your student ID and pre-paid card for campus services.

On the Ft. Lauderdale campus, park in the public garage and walk over to the FAU buildings to the Southeast, on Las Olas Boulevard. They are labeled near their roofs. The guards in either of the FAU towers can direct you to the offices where you will get your parking decal and Owl Card.  Ask for your ISO number, when you are getting your Owl Card (see Sec. 5 below).

Parking Decal

PhD students are on a student appointment and receive student parking decals.  Park in Student lots only.  If you park in a Faculty & Staff lot or in a space with a parking meter, you will be ticketed and possibly booted (i.e., a large lock attached to one of your car's tires).

You must be registered for classes, before you can get a parking decal (see Sec. 2, above).

On the Boca Raton campus, get a campus map and find Building 69 on Florida Atlantic Boulevard (between NW 28th and NW 30th Streets. Florida Atlantic Boulevard is the smaller entrance about a half-mile to the East (toward the ocean and away from I-95) of the main entrance.

This map* shows the locations of the main entrance on Glades Road at Broward Avenue and the Campus Police building. The map indicates a route around the campus. Ignore this route. You can drive through the campus or directly up Florida Atlantic Boulevard from Glades Road.

Once you have affixed your parking sticker to the back of your car, drive back toward the main entrance to the Student Services building. This is the first large building on your right, as you enter campus from the main entrance on Glades Road (or, last large building on your left, on the way out the main entrance).

* If the “This map” link does not work, or if you printed this, try http://tinyurl.com/y5e3fe.

5) ARRANGE FOR ACCESS TO THE PHD LAB

You will need security clearance to access the PhD Lab (Room 428 in Fleming Hall).  When you are getting your Owl Card, ask for your ISO number.  Email your ISO number to your department's secretary, who can request clearance for you. The process usually takes one or two days.

You will know that you have clearance, when you can swipe your card through the black box on the wall next to the PhD Lab door, and the door unlocks automatically.

6) LOG IN TO THE PHDCON NETWORK

FAU has several computers that are available for remote login, so that you can work from home.  These provide access to the same databases that you can access from the computers in the PhD Lab, and will use in your program.  You access the remote computers from home using Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC). 

Windows users should go to Start and choose:

  All Programs

    Accessories

      Communications

        Remote Desktop Connection

Mac users should download the RDC client application from Microsoft's website (if this link does not work, or you have printed this document, try http://tinyurl.com/3vqv7)*, install it as per the instructions on the Microsoft website, and double-click on the RDC icon in the Applications forlder.

Linux and BSD users should download rdesktop from http://www.rdesktop.org/ if it is not included with their distributions.

* If the URL give above does not work, go to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/, then click on the Other Products link and follow the Remote Desktop Connection link.

A dialog box pops up asking for the IP address of the computer that you would like to log into.  Enter 131.91.96.220, 131.91.96.221, 131.91.96.222, or 131.91.96.223, then click Connect. 

Next, you should see a dialog box that looks like this:

Type your User Name into the User name: field, your PIN into the Password: field, and FAU into the Log on to: field. If the computer that you have selected is busy, go back to the beginning and and enter the next IP address in your list.  (Mac users might have to quit the RDC application and restart it, rather than simply enter the new IP address.)

The next pop-up window should look like this:

Type gradbiz into both the User name: and Password: fields.

The next window that you see should look like this:

This means that you are logged in, and in control of a computer that is on the FAU campus.
 

Before you can work with any of the databases or access your home directory on the remote machine, you must map the drives.  To do this, double-click on the Drive Mapper icon on the desktop (see above).

1) Make sure that the boxes are checked for all the drives.  2) Type your User Name and PIN in the fields at the bottom.  Include fau\ before your User Name.  3) Click on Map Drives.

Click on the pop-up that you should see within a few moments that indicates that the drives have been mapped, then minimize the Drive Mapper window, and proceed to use the applications and databases that are available on the remote computer.

To log off, reopen Drive Mapper, click on Disconnect All, and then select Log off gradbiz... from the Start menu.  Be sure that Remember my password is not checked.

7) FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE ONLINE LIBRARY

Log onto the Internet with your web browser and have your Owl Card in hand. After you log into MyFAU, as per above, you will see tabs in the upper-left of your browser window that read “Home,” “Library,” “Help,” etc. Click on the Library tab.

Your browser will take you to a page that has a box with the title FAU Libraries Electronic Collection in the middle-left of the window. Click on EZ-Proxy, just beneath this box.

In the log in field in the middle of the next window that appears, enter the 14-digit number on your FAU Owl Card that starts with 219. Do not type the letter "A" at the beginning or end of this number.

Your browser will be directed to a window, where you can access Electronic Journals, the FAU library catalog, Indexes and Databases, and Inter-Library Loan interfaces.

In particular, look at:

ABI/INFORM, under Indexes/Databases.

LexisNexis, under Indexes/Databases.

Journals in your field of study, under Electronic Journals.

Additionally, be sure to familiarize yourself with:

The Social Sciences Research Network, which archives working papers.

FindArticles, which has millions of current academic and news articles.

The websites of professional organizations in your field.

8. Ph.D. STUDENT CHECKLIST TO MONITOR EACH SEMESTER

Here is a checklist to remind you about some common deadlines/procedures that may apply to you in this or other semesters.  Please keep this checklist and monitor it periodically.

a.  Does the Ph.D. Office have your present email address, mailing address and phone number?  Please contact Judith Benson at Benson@fau.edu or (954) 762-5248 with any changes.

b.  Check with your respective Ph.D. Faculty Advisor in your department several weeks before the upcoming semester to determine what courses you should take next semester. Review the course schedule for the next semester, and then meet with your Faculty Advisor.

c.  If you are on stipend, you need to provide the Ph.D. Office with any changes regarding stipend/registration/waiver information weeks before the beginning of the next semester.  Otherwise, it will be assumed that you are planning to be a full-time student taking full-time credit hours.  If you are on stipend, you must register for full-time hours; 9 credits in the fall and spring, 6 credits in the summer.

d. If you are on stipend and are receiving tuition waivers, you must pay your fees when designated, usually the week after the regular student deadline for paying fees.  That is when the waivers are applied.  You may contact the Ph.D. Office for the exact amount of your waivers and the time frame for paying your fees.

e. If you have completed all course work and passed your Comprehensive exams, you should submit the form for Admission to Candidacy.  This means having your dissertation Committee and your dissertation title.  (Please note that you must provide original signatures for your faculty committee members on the Admission to Candidacy Form.) There is also a second form that you must complete which is described in (g) below.

f. If you have completed your course work but are not yet admitted to candidacy at the time you need to register for a new semester, you should sign up for the course in your department listed as #7978, for as many hours as are needed to retain your full-time status (9 hours in fall or spring or 6 hours in the summer). For example, Management students would sign up for MAN 7978.

g.  In addition to the Admission to Candidacy form, there is now a second form which addresses whether you are using human subjects in your research.  This form must also be submitted even if you are not using human subjects in order for you to be officially admitted to candidacy. You can obtain these forms from the Ph.D. Office or from the Graduate Studies Office, at Research Park on the Boca Campus.

h.  When you are ABD (All But Dissertation) but not on stipend, you must register for a minimum of 3 credit hours per semester.

i. When you are working on your dissertation, you should follow the guidelines for the dissertation, which can be accessed from the FAU website http://www.fau.edu/academic/gradstud/pp.htm,    

j.  As you anticipate defending your dissertation and graduating, you must pay careful attention to the various deadlines as established by Graduate Studies.  As you begin the semester in which you plan to graduate, you must fill out an Application for Degree Form within the first two weeks of that semester.

Your department may have requirements that are not listed here. Check with your Faculty Advisor.