The 15th annual Graduate Preview Weekend is scheduled for February 18-21, 2010. Prospective students, please contact your future department to ask to be nominated to attend this event. Nominations to be submitted at www.graduateschool.vt.edu/preview_weekend.
HBCU Connect Lunch
HBCU Connect Lunch
The Graduate School Office of Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives is hosting a lunch on Thursday, December 8, 2009, for HBCU graduates. Have lunch, meet and greet fellow HBCU grads and faculty and visit with the Graduate School deans. This is also an opportunity to share ideas and discuss issues relating to the African American community at Virginia Tech.
When: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Where: Graduate Life Center – Room B
Time: 11:30 – 1:00 P.M.
Where: Graduate Life Center – Room B
Time: 11:30 – 1:00 P.M.
For more information, contact Jane Rorrer
Coordinator of Graduate Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives
#115 Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown
Phone: 540/231-2494 • E-mail: jrorrer@vt.edu
Winter Break Closure
The Graduate School’s offices in Blacksburg will be closed from Thursday, December 24, 2009 through Sunday, January 3, 2010 for the winter break. Normal business hours will resume at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4, 2010. The public areas of the Graduate Life C enter, including the computer lab, will remain accessible to current graduate students with a valid Hokie Passport.
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
The deadline for the first four awards listed above is February 5 while the last two are due by February 19, 2009.
International Education Week observed November 16-20, 2009
The Graduate School will celebrate International Education Week November 13-20 with a variety of events and activities to showcase how international education promotes learning and builds understanding and respect among different cultures.
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.
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.
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
Come join the conversation.
Graduate Admissions
Sponsored by Graduate Admissions & Academic Progress
Room F, GLC
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
3:00-4:30 pm
- Overview of the online application via CollegeNet and available resources
- Transcript review, gpa calculations, and test scores
- Making recommendations for admission through the Online Admissions Analysis Tool
- Decision Deadlines
- Discussion of any questions, concerns, or suggestions related to the process
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
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.