Advising

Social Technologies, M.A. - Advising

Staff Advisor

We are here to help!  E-mail ncgradadvising@asu.edu with questions related to policies and procedures to help you navigate graduate school successfully.

Faculty Advisor

Forming a relationship with a faculty advisor is one of the most important elements of graduate college.  Your advisor can help you in selecting the proper courses, in developing a capstone project, and, more generally, in understanding the complexities of graduate-level education.  Each MA student must identify two faculty advisors.  When you submit your plan of study, you will be required to list a Chair (primary advisor) and, prior to graduation, you will be required to update your plan with a second committee member (secondary advisor).

For tips on finding your faculty advisor see the MAST/CDS Program Handbook.

How and When to Apply

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Important Policies and Procedures

Required Courses (33 credit hours)

Culminating Experience

Program Portfolio

You will have multiple opportunities throughout the program to create work that you will include in your digital portfolio. This work will serve as evidence that you have mastered particular skills, competencies, and knowledge expected in the program. In your final semester of the program you are expected to select from these works a public showcase of your best work in the program, work that demonstrates that you have mastered the breadth of the material in the program, and excelled in some subset of these areas.

You will be introduced to the portfolio process in your first course and guided through the process throughout. You should take the opportunity to meet with your faculty advisor periodically to discuss the work in your portfolio. More specific requirements for the portfolio are available in the Portfolio Requirements document. The acceptability of this portfolio will be determined by the instructor of the Social Data Projects (STC 570) course, in consultation with the core faculty of the program.

Thesis Option

If you are interested in producing a research thesis, you should speak with your faculty advisor early in your program about your interest. Once you identify a topic and a faculty committee to work with, you must submit an approved thesis proposal no later than two weeks prior to the start of your third semester. You also must complete STC 551 before your proposal may be accepted--this may extend your program to two years in some cases, depending on when you enter the program.

If approved, you will work on the thesis during your final semester of coursework, enrolling in six credits of thesis supervision rather than the Communicating Data Science (STC 528) and Social Data Projects (STC 570) courses.

If students have already completed 6 hours of STC 599 before completing the thesis they must register for 1 hour of STC 595 Continuing Registration in subsequent semesters. Students must be enrolled in a minimum of 1 hour of STC 595 for each additional semester necessary for completion of the thesis. Students must complete their thesis within 3 hours of STC 595 Continuing Registration. This equates to either 3 additional semesters or 2 additional semesters and a summer session. In the event that there are extenuating circumstances that prevent students from meeting this deadline, students may petition their graduate committee for an extension. When necessary students should consult the Director and their thesis advisor for more information about petitioning for an extension to complete the thesis.

Students should also, as necessary, amend their iPOS to reflect thesis credits. Please refer to the program handbook for more information.

To complete a thesis, students must:

●      Incorporate the feedback of their graduate committee

●      Complete any necessary human subjects protocol

●      Collect data

●      Write the manuscript and complete revisions

●      Follow the submission guidelines and calendar

●      Schedule an oral defense via MyASU with Graduate College and submit the thesis for format approval at least 10 working days before the defense

●      Participate in a public defense of the thesis

●      Publicly archive the thesis