Graduate School Newsletter

August 2025

Important Announcements

Message from the Dean

Dear Graduate Students,

Welcome back to Fall Semester 2025! Some of you have been working diligently all summer, but some of you have had a break or are new to the Graduate School. In any case, we in the Graduate School are here to welcome you and to help you through your advanced degree coursework and research.

Please stop by our office in 104 Montana Hall any time, pick up a snack, and say “hi!” We want to know you!

~Dean Haynes

Graduate First Year Communities Program

The Graduate School is seeking senior (2nd year or greater) graduate students as mentors in their programs/departments as part of the Graduate First Year Communities Program. Mentors connect first-year graduate students and senior departmental peers in a mutually supportive manner. Please see the link for more info. Online students are welcome to participate.

Mentors will receive a fellowship stipend in the amount of $500 for the academic year.

The application deadline is August 22nd. 2025-2026 Mentor Application Link.

Welcome/Welcome Back!

Join The Graduate School for food and drinks on the Jabs Hall Patio Friday, August 22^nd, 3:30-5:00pm. Welcome new students! Welcome back, returning students!

Message from Grad Student Leadership Council (GSLC)

The Graduate Student Leadership Council (GSLC) is always looking to gather feedback regarding the graduate student experience so that our group can best advocate for the interests of the graduate student body. We’d love to hear your feedback through our GSLC Feedback Form on topics ranging from housing to resources and everything in between!

Please visit the *NEW* GSLC Website for more GSLC updates.

Office Hours:

We also encourage attendance at our GSLC Strategic Meetings; fall meetings TBD. If you'd like to find another time to meet, please reach out to the GSLC Chair Michaela Johnson to set something up.

Upcoming Dates & Deadlines

Full List of Grad School Dates & Deadlines

August 20- Fall classes begin.
August 26- Last day to self-add fall classes online.
September 1- Labor Day (no classes; offices closed)
September 3- Last day to self-drop classes online.
September 5- Last day for master's and doctoral comprehensive examination or thesis/dissertation defense for the one-credit extension.
September 10- Last day to drop fall classes without a "W" grade.
September 12- One-credit extension deadline; last day for formatting approval of Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) by the formatting advisor. 5PM deadline.
September 20- Last day for graduate students to file for graduation in MyInfo or via a Graduation Application (only used when a student has applied for the same degree in a prior term).

Funding & Fellowships

Identify Scholarships and Research Funding for Your Graduate Education!

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.

Workshops & Events

Graduate Wellness Champions

The Graduate School is accepting applications for the 2025-2026 academic year. To support the well-being of graduate students, department-level initiatives are key – both in running local well-being events, but also to help change culture and practices. A $500 fellowship ($250 per semester) is available for graduate student wellness champions who will advocate and organize well-being events in their departments. This fellowship is to support the student for organizational work during the academic year. For more information, please visit the GradCat Wellness Champion Program website.

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 provides ongoing support for students working on graduate-level writing. Our team of graduate tutors come from diverse disciplines and offer several types of support to meet students’ varied needs:

• Looking for individualized writing support? We offer one-on-one sessions with a graduate tutor, online or face-to-face. Our tutors can help with everything from planning and organizing to citing sources, restructuring sentences, and proofreading. Writers are welcome to set up recurring appointments.

• Looking for accountability, camaraderie, and feedback? We offer facilitated interdisciplinary writing groups for writers looking for consistent, ongoing support and community.

• Looking to get some writing done? We offer “Focus Friday” every Friday 9 a.m.-noon in our Wilson Hall Writing Center (Wilson 1-114) as well as weekend writing retreats for writers seeking dedicated writing time.

For more information about the Writing Center’s graduate programming, visit https://www.montana.edu/writingcenter/graduate-students/index.html