New Students

This session is specifically designed for new graduate students who have fellowships in the 2018-2019 academic year. Information will be provided about the rights and responsibilities you have as fellows. Topics will include: your pay schedule, tuition and seg fees, health insurance eligibility, full-time study and satisfactory progress, income tax issues, concurrent appointments, and funding beyond the fellowship years, and more.

Representatives from more than 40 campus and community services answer your questions and provide assistance. Visit their tables and talk in person with informative individuals.

NOTE: Both 35-minute sessions have the same content, so plan to attend either at 11:45 or at 12:30.

Hear directly from staff about the ways their offices can help you find and apply for funding, use databases and other tools to gather information related to your research, write better and smarter, and develop your professional and career-related plans and skills. Presenters include:

• Office of Professional Development, Graduate School
• Writing Center
• Libraries and Grants Information Collection
• Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Funding, Graduate School
• Division of Information Technology (DoIT) and Software Training for Students (STS)
• University Health Services (UHS) End Violence on Campus

A panel of seasoned graduate students will answer the large and small questions you have about everything from what can make your graduate student life easier and less stressful to establishing and maintaining relationships with faculty and staff in your program.

Campus leadership will welcome graduate students and kick off the reception.

• Dean of the Graduate School, Bill Karpus
• Provost, Sarah Mangelsdorf
• Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer, Patrick Sims
• Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Lori Reesor

Enjoy refreshments at this informal reception as you get to know people from the Graduate School, from your own program, and from across campus.

2:00 – 3:30 pm (Reception with refreshments to follow at 3:30 pm)
1310 Sterling Hall

Register here.

When Soyeon Shim was a young girl growing up in Korea, at dinner every day her dad would ask his children if they had done anything to earn the food set before them. This challenge, and the sense of purpose it instilled, has guided Soyeon ever since, helping her to design her life, and prototype and build the kind of career and personal relationships needed to achieve happiness and fulfillment. She has learned first-hand that a successful design for living must balance personal and professional interests and nurture the collaborative bonds with family, friends and colleagues. In this talk for UW-Madison graduate students, with design thinking as a framework, Soyeon will describe her ongoing life-design project and the lessons she’s learned along the path to achieving it.

Dean Shim will conclude the session with a Q&A. Please plan to join us for refreshments at a reception after the talk.

This event is sponsored by the Graduate School Office of Professional Development.

1:00 – 2:30 pm
Union South (Check TITU)

Register here.

Want to make graduate school a time to thrive and not just survive? This workshop will focus on promotion of psychological well-being in graduate school. Topics covered will arm graduate students with strategies to thrive through the challenges of graduate school, including managing the transition/adjustment process, coping with stress, promoting work/life balance, and establishing habits to maintain or improve mental health.

This event is co-sponsored by the Graduate School Office of Professional Development and University Health Services.

4:00 – 5:30 pm
1310 Sterling Hall

Register here.

In this interactive workshop, you will learn tips and techniques for staying on track and managing your time. We’ll cover goal-setting, minimizing distractions and staying focused, and overcoming some of the most common challenges to staying on task. Participants will leave with strategies that they can apply immediately. The strategies we’ll cover are appropriate for students in any discipline.

This event is sponsored by the Graduate School Office of Professional Development.

3:00 – 4:30 pm
Location TBD

Register here.

Prepare to maximize your time and energy this semester by taking advantage of software available to UW-Madison graduate students that can help streamline your workflow. This hands-on workshop, presented by Software Training for Students (STS), will introduce you to both basic and advanced software tools, including cloud storage services, notetaking apps, mobile scanners, research tools, tasks managers, password managers, lifestyle apps, and more.

This event is co-sponsored by the Graduate School Office of Professional Development and Software Training for Students (STS).

5:00-7:00pm
Sonata Room, Gordon Dining and Events Center

The Multicultural Graduate Network, through the Graduate School at UW-Madison, kicks off the start of a new school year with a large celebration to invigorate the vibrant community of graduate students on campus.

Friday, August 31, 2018
Check-in: 7:15am
Doctoral Derby: 8:00am
Master’s Mile: 8:30am
Library Mall (located just west of Memorial Library)

See the race maps and register on the Degree Dash 2018 page.

Get your semester off to a fast start! Join fellow graduate students, faculty and staff for the 2nd Annual Degree Dash hosted by the Graduate School at UW–Madison.

Set your goal for 5.7 miles for the Doctoral Derby (no, you don’t have to be in a PhD program to participate), or for 1.75 miles for the Master’s Mile (for those who need to “graduate” early). Race distances are based on average time-to-degree.

You will meet fellow students, faculty and staff, tour campus, have your photo taken with Bucky, come away with a t-shirt or water bottle, and gather information that will help you to start your semester off quickly. And the best part is, whether you come in first or last place, you’ll get a diploma at the finish line.

All are encouraged to participate in this event – new and current graduate students, faculty, staff and family members. Teams are encouraged and eligible to win prizes.

11:00 am – 12:15 pm
Union South (Check TITU)

Register here.

Building cultural competence is critically important for graduate students and professionals across all disciplines. This interactive talk introduces graduate students to the concepts of implicit or unconscious biases and assumptions about diverse groups of people by treating the application of such biases as a habit of mind. Students will learn how to uncover their own biases, discover the underlying concepts and language used in the psychological and social psychological literature to describe such processes, and learn evidence-based strategies for reducing the application of these biases as they cultivate relationships with people from different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures.

This event is sponsored by the Graduate School Office of Professional Development.