You made it! The end of your second year is almost here. By now we hope you will have finished most if not all of your classes. This is a good time to assess what required courses remain and make a plan to switch more fully to independent research.

Gradually, as you progress through the PhD program, you will take fewer and fewer classes and focus more on research. Instead of signing up for regular seminars and courses, you will sign up for more and more hours of COGS 299: Individual Study. Even when you are not enrolled in a directed study course, research activity is expected, including over the summer.

The Individual Development Plan

Before the end of Spring, you should schedule an annual feedback meeting with your primary adviser. To do so, you must complete your Individual Development Plan (link), which you can use to discuss summer research expectations if you haven’t already.

The third-year talk

The third-year talk, officially known as the pre-advancement talk, is one of the major milestones of the graduate program in Cognitive Sciences. Sometime early in your third year, the Graduate Director will invite you to a department-wide academic event – a one-day mini-conference we call the Cognitive Sciences Graduate Student Presentation Bonanza – during which you and other graduate students will present your research. This event typically takes place in the Spring Quarter of your third year.

Note that the third-year talk must be completed before the advancement to candidacy.

Format of the third-year talk

The format for the third-year talk varies slightly from year to year, but will always adhere closely to the format of the major conferences in our field (Society for Neuroscience, Psychonomic Society, etc.). That means your talk is expected to be around 15 minutes, followed by a few minutes of question time by the audience.

The slide deck you will use for your third-year talk must be officially submitted (via email) to the Department Office no later than two days before the event is scheduled to take place.

What the UCI Catalogue has to say

The UCI Catalogue is the sole authoritative source on academic requirements. About the third-year talk, it says this:

Pre-advancement talk. Prior to advancement, usually in the third year, each student is required to give a talk to the department faculty and students. Each student is expected to carry out theoretical/empirical research during the first two years. By the start of the third year, each student should have completed a research project of a scope and nature that is potentially publishable in a professional journal. This talk is required prior to the student’s advancement to candidacy.

Plans for this summer

Of course, all of this does not mean you can’t take a break over the summer – you absolutely should! Make sure your advisers know well in advance if and when you are planning to take time off or be away, and make plans to complete the requirements for the third year talk while accommodating some time away from work. Like last summer, this is a good opportunity to hone time management and project management skills, including making progress in small steps and setting intermediate milestones for yourself. Work with your adviser to set a plan that ensures you’ll stay on track while also taking personal time.