# Academic Advisor Entering students are assigned a graduate faculty advisor who will handle student questions about courses, rotations, or problems that surface throughout the first year. This faculty advisor is generally from the first choice MTA on the student’s application to the Graduate Program. In cases where the student is unsure about their choice of MTA, a second advisor from another MTA may be assigned. Once a student selects a dissertation advisor and a Multidisciplinary Training Area, with the help of the research mentor, he/she/they selects an Advisory Committee. Also available to MD/PhD students are the Physician-Scientist Career Advisors, and peer networks, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Office of Well-Being and Resilience. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://ismms-gs.gitbook.io/graduate-student-handbook/chapter-1-1/phd-in-biomedical-sciences-and-neuroscience/advising/academic-advisor.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.