Information for Incoming Graduate Students
This page contains information of interest to new graduate students. If you are a new graduate student and have further questions, please contact the department administrative assistant Arvana Edwards at Arvana.Edwards@indstate.edu for assistance.
Graduate Transition Team
A few returning graduate students have volunteered to answer questions and assist you as you move to Terre Haute and begin classes. For clarifications of any of the information on this page, or to ask about any other matter, you can contact Subu Pendyala or Nihar Padal
Applying
The instructions and application for applying for a master's of Mathematics or Computer Science are on this webpage at the College of Graduate and Professional Studies' website. They will process your application and route it to the Math and CS department for consideration. After we have decided on whether to admit you to the program, you will be contacted by the College of Gradate and Professional Studies.
Important: It generally takes about about 4 weeks to process an application and come to a decision on admittance. If all required documents have been submitted and you have been admitted, you will recieve an email and an official acceptance letter in the mail. If this is being mailed to an international address, the standard mailing system can take up to 4-6 weeks of shipping time. In this case, we recommend that you choose the expedited shipping so that your acceptance letter arrives sooner - giving you more time to schedule for a visa interview. For information on expediting your I-20 shipment, see this link.
Important: Make sure to submit all required documents when applying (according to the application instructions. If you do not submit all required forms, this will delay a decision on your admittance. You will not be admitted until all required forms have been recieved.
ISU Id
You will recieve your ISU Id and instructions for logging onto the ISU website when you receive your acceptance letter. The website for logging into the ISU portal is https://isuportal.indstate.edu/.
Signing up for classes
You are not officially enrolled in your program here until you have signed up for classes. Once you have decided to enroll at ISU, you should sign up for classes. You can sign up for classes by logging into the ISU portal, clicking the "Student" tab near the top of the page, and click on "Add/Drop classes" under the MyISU Quick Links. From that point, the webpages should be self-explanatory.
Please see the information on the Graduate Programs page for information about which classes to sign up for during your first term.
Important: ISU has just implemented a new system for checking that prerequisites have been met when signing up for classes, and the bugs are still being worked out of the system. At this time, you will get a prerequisite error when trying to sign up for some of the department's courses. If you get this error, you can fill out this form, including signing the form where "Student Signature" is indicated, and have it faxed to the department or scanned and emailed to Arvana Edwards.
Housing/Apartments
Students tell us that many students choose to live either at University Apartments, on-campus dormitory, or with a relative. Newly admitted students should have been contacted by a current graduate student who can answer any questions you have about advice on housing.
International students (I-20 and visa)
As indicated above, if there is any concern about being able to schedule a visa interview in a timely manner, we recommend you choose expedited shipping for the I-20 shipment. See the information above. You can also ensure there are not delays by reading all information on the application pages very carefully and making sure to submit all required documents.
New Student Orientation, Arriving On Campus
ISU requires students to be on campus at least one week before classes start. This in particular is required for international students entering the US. The College of Graduate Students and the Math and CS department also have mandatory orientation programs for new graduate students. These orientation programs take place the last business day before classes begin. You must be on campus at least two days before classes start so that you will be able to attend these orientation programs.
Removing your Weaknesses
If you know you are weak in some area (e.g., programming, algorithms, math background), you should work to remedy this right away. You will get more out of all of your classes by refreshing any material that you do not know as well as you should. You can get much help online (from wikipedia, course lecture notes, MIT opencourseware, thenewboston.com, etc.), and you can also sit in on the introductory courses to learn material that you still need to master. Each year there are students who drop out of the program because their grades are too low; most often this is because they were not properly prepared for the master's level courses and did not take steps to learn the background material that they needed.
On Campus Jobs
You can view available on-campus jobs by visiting http://jobs.indstate.edu and clicking on the "Graduate Assistant" choice. Make sure to check back regularly because jobs might not all be posted by the beginning of the semester. To apply for a position, you need to apply online; it will normally not do you any good to contact the department in person as well. Make sure to submit all documents that are asked for (e.g., resume, transcripts, cover letter). A cover letter should briefly explain your background and interests, and indicate enthusiasm for the position you are applying for. For the resume, you can find examples online to get ideas for the appropriate format and contents; as a general philosophy, you should be very positive about yourself, but do not ever lie (e.g., do not say you know Java if you do not). For additional help in writing your resume and cover letter, you can contact the Career Center or the Graduate Transition Team.
Note: the Math and CS department does have a few graduate assistantships and fee waivers, but these are almost always awarded to returning graduate students (students in their second year).
Planning Ahead
You should begin to think about applying for jobs at least one year before you will do so. If you wait until you graduate to think about how to get a job after graduation, you will not be as successful. Some of our graduates have decided to complete an industry certification program (e.g., from Microsoft, Oracle, or Cisco) to increase their chances of getting a job after graduation; we have been told this can take about one year from when you begin.
For both on campus jobs and jobs after graduation, you wil benefit by doing well in your classes - (i) doing well better prepares you, (ii) having a higher GPA looks better to prospective employers, and (iii) your professors can give you good recommendation letters if you have done well in their classes. It really does pay off to do your best in your classes.