An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a tool to help develop long-term career goals. At least annually (before or in conjunction with Spring Evaluations each year), each student should develop a draft IDP or update it, and meet with their mentor(s) to get feedback. See myidp.sciencecareers.org for the online IDP form and further information. Also see this UCSD-wide site about the IDP, but don't use the older form there.
The IDP form should be reviewed by
- The academic advisor for first year students.
- The qualifying exam committee for students who do not yet have a thesis committee.
- The thesis committee for students who have advanced.
Each year, after the form has been approved by the mentor(s), the student should submit the form to the Graduate Coordinator, and the mentor(s) should check off that the IDP is done on the student's Spring Evaluation.
The form was introduced to comply with an NIH requirement. However, the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology Graduate Program requires all students to complete the form annually, regardless of funding source.