New Student Orientation Resources from the Graduate College

The Graduate College offers services, training, events, tools, and other resources to graduate students throughout the year. Here’s what we have planned for the weeks preceding the start of fall 2021 classes, and services that will be useful to new students in the future. 

Use any of the resources to complement your communications to your incoming graduate students and faculty.

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Welcome and Orientation Events

• International Student Orientation
  Newly admitted international graduate students will receive invitations to learn more about ASU resources and engagement opportunities, and hear from current students and college representatives.

• Grad15 Mini-Webinar Series
  Grad15 15-minute webinars provide helpful advice and information on professional and personal development topics. Free and open to all ASU graduate students.

• New RA/TA Training
  The Graduate Assistant Training program is provided for all graduate students who have been hired as either a Teaching Assistant/Associate or Research Assistants/Associate. It has four main elements:

• Graduate TA/RA Pre-Service Training. Mandatory for all new TAs and highly recommended for RAs prior to their first day in the classroom or lab and is administered through ASU Career Edge.
• This is a resource for new and returning TAs.
• New TAs are expected to attend the virtual session on August 13.

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Resources for welcome materials

• Graduate College orientation video
  A 3-minute overview of Graduate College resources available for students.
  You can include this in your presentations as an introduction to the Graduate College, in lieu of having one of our staff present.

• Graduate College new student welcome webpage
  New students get at-a-glance view of the support and resources available from the Graduate College.
  Direct students to this page as a first step to learning about the Graduate College.

• Interactive Plan of Study (iPOS) video
  iPOS tracks student progress and provides students a roadmap to success. Students are required to submit their iPOS by the time they have enrolled in 50 percent of the minimum credit hours required by their degree program. Feel free to include the video in your welcome packets.

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Ongoing Initiatives from the Graduate College

• Mentoring Initiatives
  Several programs for students to find mentors and connect with peers and faculty beyond their academic unit.The PFx program helps graduate students and postdocs explore careers in and outside of academia, build career confidence, and critically engage with an interdisciplinary group of peers and mentors.

• Knowledge Mobilization
  In today's world, it is critical that scholars make their work usable and accessible beyond traditional academic disciplines. Knowledge mobilization presents opportunities for students to engage in impact-based research through courses and awards.

• Two hybrid PFx seminars are offered during fall 2021, and in the spring, students can attend a series of open session talks.

• Training for Graduate Students
  Graduate College Field Guide addresses common challenges for new graduate students & offers solutions and resources
  • RA Field Guide provides an overview of the experience of being a new RA 
  • TA Field Guide is a resource for new TAs to help them get started, prep for Day 1, and adopt inclusive teaching and active learning strategies. 

• Distinguished Awards
  The Graduate College can help graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to find, apply and compete for widely-recognized distinguished fellowships and awards.

• Funding for graduate students
  The Graduate College provides funding and support to a number of awards, fellowships, training and development opportunities for entering and continuing students.

• Graduate Faculty Finder
  PhD students can search a database of nearly 2,000 graduate faculty who can serve as dissertation committee chairs or members.

• Academic Integrity
  All Arizona State University graduate students are required to complete the Graduate College Academic Integrity Tutorial in the first semester of their graduate study. Students will find this in MyASU.

• Graduate Policies and Procedures
  It’s the graduate student’s responsibility to be aware not only of your program’s requirements, but also of the policies set in place by the Graduate College.

• Format Wizard
  A free tool that aids students who must produce a thesis, dissertation or equivalent document by generating a properly formatted template, making the format review process as painless as possible.