An Individual development Plan (IDP) is a tool to help graduate students assess and plan around their goals and needs. These include the student’s skills, interests, and strengths; and developing their research, academic, and career goals. The IDP is used to communicate about these evolving goals and skills with the faculty adviser during mentorship conversations.

The UW Graduate School has prepared an IDP Template that can be modified based on student preference. Students are encouraged to read the instruments/information on the first page and follow the AAAS link on the template for more science-oriented examples.

All graduate students are encouraged to employ the IDP at least annually at one of their regular meetings with their faculty adviser. Graduate students entering the program in autumn 2020 or later are required to use IDPs at the following times:

• End of autumn quarter in the first year of the program
• The quarter following acceptance into the PhD program

IDPs are not connected to evaluation towards degree progress and will not be stored in the student’s academic file. However, students are required to notify the Graduate Program Adviser (GPA) about completion of the IDP and associated discussion thereof with their adviser at the above times, copying their faculty adviser, as record of completion.