Advising Team Updates

April 2024

Happy Spring – officially! Below is the April Advisor Update – which will hopefully confirm some information, and/or answer questions you may have regarding upcoming happenings.

As a reminder, the Graduate Advising Team has been hosting open Advising hours the 2^nd Wednesday each month from 12-1pm. The last one of the Spring semester will be on April 10. We would love to have you drop-in!

Meeting ID: 923 6035 2534

Password: ADVISING

Especially as the semester wraps up, please stay in communication with your Instructors and/or Advisor if you are need of assistance, guidance, and/or support.

For those continuing in the program

We hope what we have sent previously regarding registration has been helpful as you navigate the upcoming semesters. To confirm a few things:

Regular program students need to complete at least 6 credits of electives to meet graduation requirements.

Advanced Standing students need to complete at least 10 credits of electives to meet graduation requirements.

Students who have chosen the OCL concentration need to take an additional 3 OCL focused elective credits. (Regular students = 9 credits total; Advanced Standing = 13 credits total).

Registration is open now for Summer and Fall.

Remember, you are able to take courses (to count for elective credits) in other departments at MSU (400+ level).

You may need to get approval from that department. Please reach out to someone directly (not the School of SW) for this request.

If there are multiple sections assigned to your program option, these are on a first come, first served basis.

All electives are on a first come, first served basis

The waitlists are not active, and not utilized. Please do not put your name on the waitlist with the expectation of a seat if/when it comes available.

For those graduating soon

We are excited to be in the homestretch with you!

To make sure that your degree is conferred, be sure that you have completed your GradPlan and applied for graduation (correct semester). (Note: The deadline to have your name in the ceremony program has passed. If you have not applied for graduation as of yet, please do so as soon as possible.) Do not worry if your GradPlan is still in the review process. You will be notified if something on it needs to be changed.

If you plan to attend the graduation ceremony, make sure to register to attend and get your regalia! The expected deadline to register to participate is April 12.

https://commencement.msu.edu/

Regalia - https://commencement.msu.edu/graduate/cap-gown

We are the College of Social Science (citron)

Social Work Interview Workshop

This week we were able to partner with Healthwest to go over resume tips for students getting ready for field placements and those who are graduating. We had some interesting dialogue about best practices and what is recommended. Please use the link below to access it.

Link to Video

Please note that the the video begins a little after the presentation begins.

SPOTLIGHT OF THE MONTH

GradPlan

The new GradPlan, which now encompasses both master’s and doctoral (Ph.D.) students, is currently live at student.msu.edu; all graduate students graduating in fall 2021 or after will use the new GradPlan.

GradPlan helps master's and doctoral students create and store their degree plans and subsequent graduate program activities. It is where students form their guidance committee (if required), create and update a course list, track RCR, and view and complete their annual research activity guide.

At this time, for MSW programming, the only required portion (to be completed by students) is the course list. Anytime changes are made to programming (ex. taking a different elective than originally planned), an update (cancellation of plan and submission of new one) needs to be made.

Administrative and support staff will access GradPlan to view/approve course lists and committee information, track/approve RECR, view activity guides, and upload students’ annual reviews. This is a multi-step review process including the Graduate Office (at the School of SW), Advising, and College of Social Science. Please note, the School of SW/Advisors cannot access your GradPlan until a direct link is set to the assigned reviewer.

There are a number of resources available online, including a self-paced training for both students and staff, as well as job aids and overview material, which can be found within the GradPlan section of

https://sis.msu.edu/training/index.html