Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Call for Graduate Student Award Nominations

The Graduate School would like to encourage nominations for the following student awards:

  • Outstanding Dissertation– two awards, one in math/science/engineering and one in social sciences/business/humanities,  $1000
  • Graduate Student Teaching Excellence– $1000
  • Graduate Student Service Excellence– $1000
  • Graduate Man and Woman of the Year- $500
  • Outstanding Graduate Student– one master’s and one doctoral student per college, $500
  • Outstanding Interdisciplinary Program Student– $500

All students will be recognized during the Graduate Education Week banquet in March as well as receive a plaque/certificate and monetary award. More information about criteria and process for nomination can be found on our web page at: http://www.graduateschool.vt.edu/academics/honors_awards/graduate_awards/

 

The deadline for the first four awards listed above is February 5 while the last two are due by February 19, 2009.

Posted on

Call for Proposals – Institutional Plan for Graduate Degrees

The Graduate School calls for new degree proposals for inclusion on the Institutional Plan for Graduate Degrees (IPGD). The IPGD comprises a list of degree programs approved internally for development to begin during the 2010-11 academic year. The intention is that these programs would be implemented no later than Fall 2013. We anticipate that colleges will review and select from proposals generated by their academic units. We would like to receive the college-approved proposals by December
15th so we can finalize the 2010-11 update to the IPGD by the end of the Spring 2010
semester.

Please provide the following information (in two or fewer pages) for degree programs
you wish to have considered for inclusion on the plan:
  Need and demand for the degree
  Target audience
  Graduate courses (existing and proposed) underpinning the degree
  Conformity with the VT Strategic Plan, particularly with regard to research emphasis and interdisciplinary nature
  Source of financial support
  Anticipated implementation date

The proposed degrees currently listed on the wish list will be considered for pre-approval in this review cycle. Please review the current “wish list”  and indicate those proposals that should be removed from consideration.

Guidelines and the current IPGD are available from Rosemary Blieszner, rmb@vt.edu. Please send proposals to Rosemary Blieszner, Associate Dean, Graduate School (237 GLC, 0325, 1-5645) by December 15, 2009.

Posted on

Diplomas – New Delivery Method

The Graduate School has joined with their vendor, The Michael Sutter Company, to have diplomas mailed from the company directly to our  graduates. 

Previously, the Graduate School ordered diplomas from the company, then had them shipped back to Blacksburg for packaging and mailing.  We are now able to provide faster service to our graduates.  Students will receive an email notifying them  that their diploma has been shipped, which will be within 2-3 business days from the time our order has been placed.  In addition to this new service, graduates will receive a larger diploma (11x 14).

Note:  BMES/BMVS diplomas are still ordered through the Office of the University Registrar and their normal time frame will remain at 4-6 weeks.

Posted on

Admissions

We would like to invite all graduate program directors and graduate program coordinators to our Admissions Summit to be held on Wednesday, November 4th at 3:00pm in Room F of the GLC.

The role of this meeting is for us to review the various admissions tools that are available through the Graduate School and to share information about the Online Application, transcript review, test scores, admissions recommendations through the Online Admissions Analysis tool, and decision deadlines.

Come join the conversation.

Graduate Admissions Summit
Sponsored by Graduate Admissions & Academic Progress
Room F, GLC
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
3:00-4:30 pm

  1. Overview of the online application via CollegeNet and available resources
  2. Transcript review, gpa calculations, and test scores
  3. Making recommendations for admission through the Online Admissions Analysis Tool
  4. Decision Deadlines
  5. Discussion of any questions, concerns, or suggestions related to the process
Posted on

Request for Information for CSVP program

In the interest of increasing the numbers of graduate students from underrepresented groups here at Virginia Tech, we have created the Coordinated School Visit Program (CSVP) which provides an opportunity for Virginia Tech faculty to: (1) network across disciplines, colleges, and universities; (2) unify various disjointed faculty or department efforts to connect to HBCUs, other minority-serving institutions, and high schools; (3) maximize the number of underrepresented student recruits to the university per year; (4) provide a pipeline of quality undergraduate and graduate students to assist faculty in research projects; (5) fulfill certain requirements outlined by external grantors and funding agencies in regard to research team composition and collaboration; and (6) foment a structured, multiyear program in which the administration can become invested, with possible external funding.

The purpose of the CSVP is four-fold: (1) to increase the overall number of applications from students who identify as members of underrepresented groups; (2) to specifically target promising students from underrepresented groups; (3) to implement effective retention strategies to integrate these students into the Virginia Tech community; and (4) to establish and maintain strong connections with other diverse universities and potentially, high schools.

Here is where you come in. In order for us to plan a more effective trip to universities for recruitment purposes, we would like to collect information about existing collaborations between VT and other institutions in the region.

Please complete the survey available at online, feel free to pass the link of this survey to someone else and feel free to fill out more than one if you feel there is lots of information to provide. This information will help us better plan our CSVP visits.

The link is:
https://survey.vt.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1256046874979

Posted on

Opening of the GLC Plaza & Amphitheatre

Friday was a very exciting day for the Graduate Community.  On an afternoon with perfect weather the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was effectively the kick off for our homecoming events.  We appreciate the contributions from the Parent’s Fund, the Class of 1959, and the Class of 2009, that made this project a reality.  We now have a wonderful space outdoors including cafe tables and chairs, stage, lawn seating, a fountain and a sculpture display area.  A number of new trees and shrubbery have also been added to the space. 
We’ve already had quite a bit of interest already in reserving this space. Thank You!  We appreciate your patience with us while we work out those details and the finishing touches are completed in the space.  We hope to have the mechanisms in place by the beginning of Spring Term.

Posted on

Master’s Thesis Awards announced

Three students have recently been recognized as winners of the William Preston Society/Conference of Southern Graduate Schools Master’s Thesis Awards. Nominees were required to have completed their thesis in the last academic year and fit under one of the three categories listed below. We had an excellent slate of nominees this year.  They were judged on the basis of contribution to the field, research methodology, and clarity of presentation.  The following students are the award winners:


Life Science category:  Karen E. Drahos.  Biological Sciences, advisor: Carla Finkielstein. Sulfatides mediate disabled-2 membrane localization and stability during platelet aggregation.

Social Science, Business & Education: Ge Zhang.  Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, advisor: Wen You. Incorporating food-away from home into the thrifty food plan.

Innovation Application of Technology to Scholarship William Robert Story. Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, advisor: Leigh McCue. Application of Lyapunov exponents to strange attractors and intact & damaged ship stability.

 

These students have been put forward to the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools to be considered for additional awards selected by that organization.

Posted on

Recruitment Summit

We would like to invite all graduate program directors and graduate program coordinators to our Recruitment Summit to be held on October 13th at 1:30pm in Room F of the GLC.

The role of this meeting is for us to brainstorm about how to improve our recruiting efforts at Virginia Tech. We will present some new recruiting activities that we will carry out this year (with your support). We also would like to initiate a dialogue among participants about your best-practices when it comes to recruitment, and what are your biggest needs.

Come join the conversation.

Graduate Recruiting Summit
Sponsored by the Office of Graduate Recruiting and Diversity Initiatives
Room F, GLC
October 13, 2009
1:30-3:00

  1. Snapshot of applications and yield for last academic year
    Ethnicity/gender, State by state, Universities, Nationality
    What is missing?
    Where should we put more effort?
  2. Presentation of current recruitment activities
    Graduate fairs
    Summer Pizza Party for MAOP, McNair, REU
    McNair scholars
    Undergraduate conference at VT
    Fellowship opportunities
    Application fee waivers
  3. Description of planned recruitment activities
    Coordinated School Visit Program
    Call for recruiting/diversity initiatives – how can we help you?
  4. Open Discussion Best practices? What do you do to recruit?
    What would you like to do but can’t afford or can’t do alone?
    How can we partner to recruit a better/more diverse graduate student population?
Posted on

Email Subscription Feature Addition for the GSB

We had a few inquiries about the potential to continue to receive new content notification from the Graduate School Blog. In response to those inquiries, we have added the ability to subscribe via email, in addition to the RSS and Atom feeds. You will be able to manage your email subscription to the blog individually. Near the top of the right side quick navigation area please note the updated “Subscribe” section that will allow you to choose how to keep up with the Graduate School Blog.

I have also fielded a couple of calls asking about RSS. Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, is a standardized “feed” of information. This allows you to use a feed reader such as Google Reader, or the reader you may find within Outlook or your preferred browser. These tools typically allow you to assemble any number of feeds to effectively create your own newspaper with the content you specifically want. Using RSS can save you time by narrowing the information you are looking at, and allowing you to skim content more effectively.
The Graduate School offers a number of feeds, and we hope to add more to our list shortly. https://secure.graduateschool.vt.edu/GSITWiki/Wiki.jsp?page=RSSFeeds