March 26, 2019 Events and Deadlines
This newsletter is distributed to department heads, graduate program directors, graduate program contact staff, and graduate faculty.
Graduate Program Directors
GO LIVE! Electronic Form Submission – Decisions Workflow
Graduate School student forms can now be submitted electronically via the student forms dashboard on the Graduate School website. Forms submitted electronically through the forms dashboard will be sent through an approval workflow using Decisions which is a business workflow and rule platform administered by the K-State Office of Mediated Education. Students, faculty and staff can access the forms dashboard by navigating to “Academics” on the Graduate School homepage and selecting the “Form Finder”. The direct URL for Graduate School forms is:
https://www.k-state.edu/grad/academics/forms/
After opening the form finder page, click on “Electronic Form Submission” to get to the forms dashboard. You will be required to log in/authenticate with your K-State eID and password in order to access the forms dashboard:
These forms are not savable and must be completed and submitted in one session. Students may want to use current forms available in WORD or PDF format as a worksheet to review with their advisor or major professor and collect the information that must be entered on the electronic form for submission. After filling out all required fields on the electronic form and submitting it, the form is sent through the approval workflow based on the committee members listed on the form.
Most forms will be routed to the major professor, committee members, and department head or graduate program director for review. Each of these individuals will receive an e-mail from <grad@k-state.edu> with a link to the form to be reviewed in Decisions. After clicking the link to the form, the reviewer must log in/authenticate with their K-State eID and password to open the form. The reviewer can either approve the form or return it to the student for suggested changes.
After all required committee member approvals are complete, the form will be forwarded to the Graduate School for final review and processing by the appropriate degree analyst. If approved, a copy of the final form will be e-mailed to the student, major professor and program contact/coordinator after graduate school processing is complete.
The Graduate School will conduct training sessions for graduate program directors and support staff in Eisenhower room 121 at the following times or by appointment if you cannot attend one of the scheduled times:
Wednesday, April 3 – 9:00 am to 10:30 am
Thursday, April 4 – 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Monday, April 8 - 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Tuesday, April 9 - 9:00 am to 10:30 am
Thursday, April 11 – 9:00 am to 10:30 am
The training sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes but should not last longer than an hour with time for questions and testing if individuals would like to go through the form completion process.
Please send an e-mail to Scott Schlender <scottsch@ksu.edu> to register for the session you would like to attend. If none of the available sessions is convenient for you, you can contact Scott Schlender to request a separate training session. It may be helpful to bring a laptop or tablet to the training session to follow along with the form navigation.
Tips to assist Admissions to the Graduate School
When making admission recommendation for a graduate application, you can help us expedite the process for the applicant by determining whether the applicant requires English proficiency test scores and providing a completed assistantship form (for International applicants being offered an assistantship).To help determine if an applicant should provide English proficiency test scores, a list of countries is available on the department resources website. For those countries in the list with an asterisk (*) the test scores are not required as they are official English speaking countries. For all other countries, test scores are required. If the applicant has completed a U.S. degree in the last two years, test scores are not required. Assistantship forms and details of the minimum test scores are available on the International information website. Note that the department information site is password protected. If you do not have access, please contact the Graduate School (785-532-6191, grad@ksu.edu).
Faculty
Attend the K-State GRAD Forum
The annual K-State Graduate Research, Arts, and Discovery (GRAD) Forum, be held today and tomorrow, March 26 and 27, 2019. All are welcome to interact with poster presenters in the K-State Student Union Courtyard between 1-3pm today and attend oral sessions throughout the day tomorrow. A full abstract booklet with session schedules is posted on the GSC Research Forums webpage.
*A few more judges needed for tomorrow*
The GSC is still in need of a few judges for tomorrow’s oral presentation sessions. Assistance is sincerely appreciated from faculty and post-docs who are able to volunteer their time for the following sessions:
- Engineering, Math, and Physical Sciences – time commitment is 8:45am-12:35pm
- Biological Sciences (Ecology focused) – time commitment is 1:45pm-4:05pm
- Interdisciplinary Research – time commitment is 1:45pm-3:50pm
- Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education – time commitment is 2:00pm-4:05pm
University Distinguished Professors Graduate Student Award
The Graduate School is accepting applications for the University Distinguished Professors Graduate Student Award. Eligible graduate students must be admitted to candidacy at the time of application, in their last year of his or her doctoral degree program, be enrolled in the fall of the academic year of the award. The award is available to eligible students who meet the above criteria in any K-State college, department or program. Students may nominate themselves. K-State faculty may also submit nominations. Application materials should be submitted as one Word or PDF file to udp@k-state.edu by April 1, 2019.
Commerce Bank and WT Kemper Foundation Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award
The Graduate School is accepting nominations for the Commerce Bank Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award. The award honors current members of the graduate faculty who are recognized nationally and internationally for their outstanding scholarly achievements and for their contributions to graduate education at the university. Recipients of the award will receive an honorarium and will be recognized during the fall Graduate School commencement ceremony and during a public lecture to the campus community. The link provides information to be submitted as one Word or PDF file to dgf@k-state.edu by May 3, 2019.
Graduate Students
Master’s and Doctoral Degree Check Walk-In Sessions
March 25-29, 9:00-11:00 am and 2:00-4:00 pm
Masters and doctoral students planning to graduate in Spring 2019 are invited to attend degree check walk-in sessions. Degree analysts will be available to answer questions about graduation and commencement requirements and make sure students are on track to graduate this semester. Students are encouraged to review graduation and commencement information, especially their appropriate requirements and deadlines checklist, prior to visiting with a degree specialist.
The Library and Your Research – Getting A Head Start on Using the ETDR Writing Template
Monday, April 1 at 1:30 pm | 1053 College of Business Administration
This workshop will help you get started using the ETDR Template for your electronic thesis, dissertation, or report, which meets the Graduate School's formatting requirements. Use of Word special features and some citation management and copyright will be covered. Don't wait until the last minute to learn the ropes on using the template documenting all your hard work. Those who are unable to attend in person may join by Zoom.
Graduate students invited to participate in Big 12 Virtual Career Fair
March 27, 2019, 10 am – 5 pm
Big 12 Virtual Career Fair will be entirely online and will only involve Big 12 schools. Over 100 companies will participate, of which 44 are looking for graduate student talent. Students will upload their documents as part of registration, which will allow employers to reach out to them before the fair. During the fair, students will be able to chat with companies of their choosing. The K-State Career Center staff will also be creating several, 10-minute long advising videos to help students prepare for this unique format. A list of participating companies can be filtered to only include graduate-level degrees under “Select degrees…” Students should visit the K-State Career Center website to register and find more information about the fair, including a tutorial is to show students how to register and learn more about the virtual fair will function.
Spring 2019 Graduation and Commencement Deadlines
Masters and doctoral students planning to graduate this semester should be familiar with graduation and commencement requirements and deadlines. Graduates who would like their name to appear in the spring 2019 commencement program must complete the KSIS graduation application form and submit the Approval to Schedule Final Examination form to the Graduate School by March 29. All other requirements (submission of final exam ballot, ETDR ballot, and ETDR) must be completed by April 19 for a student to be a spring 2019 graduate and to participate in the spring commencement ceremony on May 17. Students should refer to the appropriate Deadlines for Graduation and ETDR Submission Checklist for instructions on completing all graduation requirements.
Graduate Student Council Travel Awards
April 1 is the deadline for graduate students to apply for GSC travel awards for travel to academic and professional events that begin anytime in June.
Accepting Applications for May Graduate Student Writing Retreat
The Writing Center and Graduate School are hosting the annual Graduate Student Writing Retreat May 20-24 and 28-29. The retreat provides graduate students time and space to write in a supportive atmosphere and promotes effective writing practices to boost the dissertation- and thesis-writing process. Application deadline is April 5. Learn more
