Graduate School Newsletter

April 2023

Important Announcements

2023 GradCat Spring Summit

Monday, April 24 | 8:00 am – 12:30 pm | REGISTER HERE

The Graduate School invites graduate students to attend the 2023 GradCat Spring Summit! The GradCat Spring Summit is a conference-style, half-day event with several presentations and workshops geared specifically toward Grad Students. Join us starting at 8AM on Monday, April 24th in the SUB Ballrooms for breakfast and a day of engaging and informative sessions. Students may choose to attend any or all sessions. The Summit will conclude by 12:30PM. Concurrent session schedule available here. A bonus Compassion Project session will take place from 2:00-4:00PM.

Nominate Your Everyday Hero

For the "Celebrating the Role of Research in the Land Grant Mission" Event on May 2, 2023

Please take a moment to consider nominating an Everyday Hero. Submit your nominations by today, Friday, March 31. Who has served as your inspiration, your role model, or your mentor? Who routinely supports your successful research, creativity or economic development activities and rarely gets recognized? Nominate students, staff, faculty, or administrators. You may also nominate a pair or team if that seems more appropriate.

Student Clubs

MSU has a wide range of student organizations that graduate students can join, ranging from Queer Straight Alliance, to First-Gen Students Association, to Graduate Women in Science and Engineering. You are encouraged to explore these groups and connect with those that interest you. You can get a list by going to CatsConnect. Please note that to get the full list you will have to click on “load more” a few times.

New Computational and Data Resources from UIT's Research Cyberinfrastructure

MSU researchers and instructors now have access to a full suite of computational and data resources, including updated high-performance computing, large-scale storage, and virtualization systems, supported by UIT's Research Cyberinfrastructure, or RCI. More information on the new or expanded use of Tempest, Blackmore, Snowcrest can be found at the Research Cyberinfrastructure webpage. For additional questions, contact RCI at [email protected] or 406-994-1777.

Upcoming Dates & Deadlines

April 7 – University Day (no classes, offices open)
April 19 – Last day to drop classes with a "W" grade
April 28 – Last day for master's and doctoral comprehensive examination and/or thesis/dissertation defense if the student plans to graduate Spring 2023
May 5 – Last day for formattingapproval of thesis or dissertation if student plans to graduate Spring 2023
May 11 – Last day of classes. Last day to withdraw Graduation Application and file for One-Credit Extension
May 12 – Spring Commencement
June 2 – One-Credit Extension deadline

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Funding & Fellowships

Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA) Opportunity

The MSU Writing Center is hiring Graduate TAs to work as peer tutors for Fall 2023. A good fit for this position is a graduate student who is not only a strong reader and writer, but someone who enjoys collaboration and working with their peers. Applicants can be from any discipline—in fact, this job offers a great opportunity to practice interdisciplinary thinking! Applicants should not already have a TA or RA position. More information and the TA application link can be found on the Writing Center's website.

Fiscal Year 2024 Seed Grant Program

The Montana State University Outreach and Engagement Council (OEC) invites proposals for FY24 seed grant funds. Outreach and Engagement Seed Grant Proposals should strive to improve the quality of life and benefit the public good, test innovative solutions and applications with specified measurable outcomes, and more. MSU students, faculty and staff members may apply. The project team must include an MSU faculty/staff member and an external partner. The engagement of MSU students is encouraged.

Identify Scholarships and Research Funding for Your Graduate Education!

The MSU Graduate School maintains a Funding & Fellowships webpage listing various ways you may find funding throughout your time at MSU.

The University of Illinois has an excellent Fellowship Finder featuring awards that are open to grad students from any university. It features several filters to aid your search.

The National Research Council postdoctoral program is used by federal agencies across the country to support postdoc searches. This is a great place to look when you are close to finishing your PhD and the salaries are quite good. Quarterly application deadlines.

For more funding opportunities, visit MSU's Research Funding Opportunities and the MSU Graduate School's Funding and Fellowships webpage.

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Workshops & Events

Undergraduate Research Mentoring for Graduate Student Mentors

Wednesday, May 17 | 10:00 am – 12:00 pm | REGISTER HERE

Looking for some ideas on how to best mentor undergraduate students in research? This two-hour session will go over principles for undergraduate mentoring: aligning expectations and promoting mentee self-efficacy. We will suggest some tools and practices to help you and your students navigate the mentor relationship.

Professional Development: GradCat 360

GradCat 360 is a comprehensive professional development program for graduate students at Montana State University. It is a series of programs and events designed by the Graduate School and departments across campus that center around nine focus areas. These areas are tailored to help students cultivate a unified set of skills and knowledge for educational success and professional preparation.

Check out our GradCat 360 Event Calendar, specifically curated for Graduate Students. We are constantly updating the GradCat 360 calendar with workshops and events that are uniquely useful for graduate students.

MSU Writing Center

The MSU Writing Center offers ongoing support to students working on graduate-level writing.