Student services information for incoming students
Please mark your calendars. More information will be posted at a later time.
New Students Day/Orientation
Thursday, August 23, 2018
10am to 4pm
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
New York, NY
Dining Commons
Specially priced student meals are available (with CUNY I.D.) in the Dining Commons Cafeteria, 8th Floor, 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. during the semester and, on a limited basis, during the week preceding the start of classes.
When you come to visit New York as a tourist, it’s important to see the big historical sites like the Statue of Liberty and the September 11 Memorial, or you might want to eat at famous restaurants like Ess-a-Bagel and Carnegie Deli. When you come to live in New York, however, you’re probably looking for local favorites that are less crowded than Times Square. Here’s a list of ten things to do that you might consider your first week getting acquainted with the city.
Make sure you bring cash with you everywhere because you’ll find that many places do not accept credit cards and only take cash. Also, bring a subway map with you—not only to navigate the subway but also to help you navigate neighborhoods. You can use Google Maps or HopStop on your phone for help with directions, but most people on the street are kind and helpful if you ask them for directions. Find another pedestrian like yourself who isn’t in a hurry on the sidewalk or perhaps stopped and waiting for the light to change at a crosswalk. Whether you’re interested in walking or biking outside in a park or doing something indoors on a rainy day, there’s always something to do in New York City. Part of the fun is getting lost and finding a hole-in-the-wall with great food and good people.
Christina Katopodis Second Year English PhD StudentAlthough getting your Ph.D. might seem like enough work (for a lifetime…), the GC offers several unique opportunities for additional bells and whistles to add to that fancy degree, like Doctoral Certificates! These certificates allow you to engage in interdisciplinary research in areas that are related, but outside, your home discipline. These doctoral certificates are approved by the state and give you the experience to work and teach in interdisciplinary fields for which there is no Ph.D. degree at the Graduate Center.
You can earn a doctoral certificate in the following areas:
Each of these programs consists of about five classes, or 15 credits: two or three core courses and two electives from anywhere at the GC (often these come from your home discipline, but don’t have to). Depending on the courses taken and the certificate program, you might even be able to use a cross-listed course twice for two different–yet applicable–certificates! This means that your New American Cinema class might count for both the Film Studies elective AND the American Studies elective! Use the links above to contact the Certificate Program with any questions or for more information.
So why bother? The certificates give you a theoretical and practical foundation through core courses in an interdisciplinary field of interest. In addition, because they are recognized by both the GC and the state, they appear on your transcript, which may come in handy when you’re on the market [for a *fingers crossed* tenure-track job]. Some of these interdisciplinary subject areas are also ones that are difficult to find in doctoral programs (although not impossible), so the doctoral certificate is an excellent way to demonstrate your interest in multiple areas at a doctoral level while earning your Ph.D. in one of the 30+ programs available at the GC. Consider it an enhanced non-related minor in a different discipline.
The upshot: If you have the time and desire, the certificate programs are a great way to broaden your knowledge and credentials to cover a wider range of interesting, interdisciplinary work. You’ll meet people from many different programs at the GC in your core classes, and learn new perspectives and methodologies.
Ask me; I’m earning five certificates, both for my own edification and research, as well as for my future job prospects. It does increase time-to-degree: I’m taking an extra year of coursework to finish everything (plus I came in without a M.A., so I am not as pressed for time as some of my colleagues who entered with one). That said, if you can spare the extra couple of classes, the certificate programs are a wonderful way to interact with colleagues from many different fields and work on complex problems with new, different, and exciting tools.
Gwendolyn Shaw is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Art History Program at the Graduate Center.
We’d like to take the time to encourage you to join the CUNY Commons (the site that is hosting this blog.) As soon as you have registered for classes in August, you will be assigned an @gc.cuny.edu email address which will allow you to join the Commons and either become a contributor to an existing blog or group or begin your own blog or student group. Before then, you can read most pages and comment on some.
Interested in why you should blog? Take a look at From Tweet to Blog Post to Peer-Reviewed Article: How to be a Scholar Now by GC’s own Jessie Daniels or take a look at The Virtues of Blogging as a Scholarly Activity at The Chronicle.
Some active blogs on the Commons (that you can read now even though you aren’t yet a Commons member) are:
GC Students of Anthropology – https://anthropology.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
GC English Students blog – https://gcenglish.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Le Hub (French students’ blog) – https://french.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
GC Marxist Reading group – https://capital.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Collaborative Seeing Studio – https://collaborativeseeingstudio.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Zines at the Brooklyn College Library – https://brooklyncollegezines.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
If you are a US Citizen living in NY for the last year, but not at one continuous address since August 28th, 2017, then you need to document your residency with the registrar’s office. There is a form to fill out that can be found here.
If you are a US citizen but not a NY resident for the past year, you may also want to look at the form to make sure that keep the necessary documents starting on August 27th of 2018 in order to qualify for NY State residency in your second year of study.
Questions about residency should be directed to the Registrar’s Office by email at registrar@gc.cuny.edu
We look forward to seeing you in the Fall!
This site is part of the CUNY Academic Commons, an academic social network for the entire 24-campus CUNY system.
Unless otherwise stated, all content on the CUNY Academic Commons is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
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