It promises to be another awesome year. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you await the opening of the fall semester.
1. Please follow all instructions as provided by the Office of Admission, the Registrar's Office, and the Provost's Office. Get your passwords, email accounts, and so forth set up. All the information you need on health insurance, financial aid, assistantship payment (i.e., tax forms), and so forth will be on the websites or emailed to you or sent as hardcopy mail.
2. You can register at this time, but you can wait if you want. We will discuss curricular options at the orientation meeting tentatively scheduled for Monday, August 26, 2-5 pm, in room 303 CHS (Exercise Physiology lab). After the meeting you can register or add/drop. A curriculum worksheet will be mailed to you over the summer. The exception is if you have some prerequisite courses you need to take at Ithaca College, such as statistics. If you have undergrad prereqs to take, you should register for them now. Please also keep in mind that you may audit some of these prereqs for cheaper tuition. You may deal with the audit paperwork when you arrive on campus in the fall. Contact the ESS Grad Chair for more information about registering for the prereq classes.
The Fall 2019 academic calendar can be found here:
https://www.ithaca.edu/registrar/calendars/fall19/
3. Be sure to have your FINAL official transcripts that show conferral of your bachelor's degree sent to Ithaca College. Send to the Office of the Registrar by October 15, 2019. You may not be able to register for a second semester without them. If you are taking prerequisite courses during the summer, please have those transcripts sent as well.
4. The ESS Graduate Program Orientation is tentatively scheduled for August 26, 2-5 pm, in CHS 303. Check back periodically to see if the date changes. You must be at this orientation, but there may be a few graduate assistants that are working. If you are a GA and this means you, if you can come to part of the meeting that would be fine. If not, you must set up a time to see the graduate chair on this day.
5. If you are on a graduate assistantship is is YOUR responsibility to contact your supervisor prior to the start of school. Athletic trainers and fall sport coaches, especially, must be in contact with the supervisors during the summer. Teaching and research assistants can wait until orientation day to meet with their supervisors. Pay for GAs is in the form of a bi-weekly salary over the fall and spring semesters. The tuition waiver is applied directly to your bill. That is, those tuition costs simply do not appear on the bill.
6. All student workers, including graduate assistants, MUST attend a new employee workshop. There a several scheduled and student employment will inform you of these times. You cannot be paid until you attend a workshop. I believe you must present your Social Security card or Taxpayer ID if international. Follow instructions!
7. The all-college grad orientation/lunch should be posted on the Office of Admissions webpages. Plan to be there.
8. We often have an informal grad & faculty picnic during the first or second week of class. You should plan on attending this as well.
9. Classes start August 28. You will hit the ground running. Get ready for the ride of your life!