GRADUATE STUDIES blog

In case you’re having trouble figuring out how to register for winter quarter please use the following instructions to assist you along the way.

1. Talk or email with either your faculty or academic adviser about what to take next quarter and refer to SCAD PRO ADVISER to view your current degree audit.

2. Once you’ve figured out what to take, log on to MySCAD and go to the Student Workspace tab.

3. In Student Workspace scroll down to Registration Tools. There you will see the following options: Registration status (tells you when specifically you can begin registering), Look Up Classes (which allows you to see what is being offered and it allows you to register), and Add or Drop Classes (like the previous link, this allows you to see what’s offered–however, this is where you’d go if you want to adjust your winter schedule before the end of winter drop/add which will be January 8th.

4. Click “Look up Classes” and select the term (Winter 2010), then select the campus (Savannah, eLearning, etc), and then choose the department (GRDS, ARTH, etc.).

5. You should see a complete matrix of all classes offered by whichever department you are searching including seats available and maximum capacity. On the far left there should be a check box for you to “select” and therefore register the class.

6. Be mindful that full-time status is defined as being registered in THREE classes and that financial aid is only pulled as long as you are in at least TWO classes.

If you have any questions, contact the Graduate Studies Office (912.525.6315) or click your adviser’s name in SCAD PRO ADVISER to send him/her an email question.

-Office of Graduate Studies

Click HERE to see a screen shot of the Registration Tools. registration-tools3

Address to New Graduate Students

Fall 2009

September 12, 2009

SCAD

            I know you’ve heard this several times over the last few days, but let me say it again:  “Welcome to SCAD!”  I want you to know that you join an elite group of students by virtue of your graduate admission.  Each year about one of two, 50%, of applications for our graduate programs is turned down.  So let me say not only welcome, but congratulations as well.  The simple fact that you are here sets you apart and you should be proud of that accomplishment alone!

            Now that you are here, you are in for a treat!  Look around you!  You see students from India, China, Japan, Europe, Africa, Taiwan, Guatemala, Brazil, Thailand, and of course, the United States.  And these are just a sampling of the countries represented here. I mean no offense in not mentioning your homeland.  My only point is that SCAD is an international university of art and design, not only because we have a campus in the sleepy Provencal town of Lacoste, France, and the bustling economic center of Hong Kong, but because of you.  You are a large part of what makes SCAD what it is.

            Another large part of SCAD is of course the faculty and staff.  You are in for a treat in your classes because you will have the opportunity to learn from and work with some of the world’s leaders in art and design education.  Academy award winners, Emmy award winners, industry leaders, scholars, writers, all dedicated to the mission of preparing you for professional careers.  On the staff side, too, we are here to make your time as efficacious as possible.  And so we are determined to serve you and help you where we can.  Of course, I have to say a brief word about the Graduate Studies Office, located in beautiful Smithfield Cottage at 118 W. Hall Street.  There, we have advisors who will help you navigate the waters of your degree requirements and guide through policy requirements.  They are also well connected to other offices of the college, so if they don’t know an answer to one of your questions, they will quickly find it out for you or steer you in the right direction.  We have a coordinator of graduate activities, whose goals are to make it possible for you to meet one another, share idea informally and formally and to put you in touch with unique and insightful speakers.  In short, we are here for you.  Please take advantage of the tremendous resources we can offer.

            As much as we can help, I have to say, too, in very plain terms, that graduate study is hard.  You will at times feel overwhelmed.  You will have nights with no sleep, tight deadlines, uncompromising professors, and days when you wonder whether it is all worthwhile.  Without seeming trite or engaging in cliché, let me assure you that it is.  A graduate degree will open doors to you that a simple bachelor’s degree will not or cannot open.  But you have to plug away.  Part of the value of graduate education rests in your confronting seemingly impossible time constraints and yet getting the job done—day-by-day, project-by-project, paper-by-paper.  You will hear in a bit that we set a five-year limit from today, your first day at SCAD, to the time when you must complete all requirements for your degree.  That may sound like a long time, but let me assure you I have seen in my two years at SCAD several instances of students putting themselves in the precarious position of not finishing their work in five years’ time.  Don’t let that happen to you! 

            Finally, let me say that you are part of a grand tradition.  While you have a unique vision and voice in art and design–and while you will hone your vision and voice during your time here—you are also part of the history of art and design.  It is not at all surprising that the roots of the word “curriculum” share in English the same roots as “current.”  Our curricula at SCAD strive to make you current in your field, of course, and that is why we put a five-year limit on your time here.  But you also enter, if you will, the great current (the stream) of art and design, a river that has been fed by all those who have come before you.  You may not be Ansel Adams, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keefe, or Yves St. Laurent (not yet anyway!), but you are here partly because they have fed the currents of photography, painting and fashion.  And so you, too, will feed the great current of your disciplines.

            I congratulate you once again as you undertake this awesome challenge.  And again, welcome!