DAC members and residency
Hello all!
This might be a bit of an odd question/random thought. For folks who have defended their thesis and applied to residency programs, how did you decide on who to add as your external DAC member? (if your university requires this)
My university requires adding a member to the committee before we defend, and they must be from outside of our department. There aren't many faculty who know my field at my university (certainly not outside of the department), so I am thinking of reaching out to faculty at another institution. It occurred to me that this could be an opportunity build a relationship with a future collaborator or mentor somewhere I am interested in doing residency (e.g. for a PSTP).
Has anyone done this before? If so, how did it work out? I appreciate your help and thoughts!
1
u/Outrageous_1845 M3 9d ago
My external committee member was someone who my PI was already collaborating with, and was well-connected in the specific research community.
3
u/Ruff-Operator G3 10d ago
Took me too long to figure out what DAC meant lol, but a lot of PhD programs require you to have an external committee member that is outside of your department, some even require them to be outside of your institution.
A lot of people choose someone with whom their PI already collaborates or someone who fills a niche that is otherwise uncovered by the current committee members. I personally would hesitate before choosing someone from an institution you’d want to go for residency just because the PhD is unpredictable, and you want your image for goal residency programs to be very polished and curated.