Monthly Archives: May 2015

Career Advice, Student News

Congratulations on the 2014-15 school year

I just want to congratulate each of you on the completion of another semester of graduate study, and on the completion of the 2014-15 school year here in the Mercy MA program. I hope that over the past year each of you has experienced something profound, read something fascinating and new, discussed something you’d never have discussed had you not been here together. I hope that each of you has experienced moments of awe, wonder, reflection, and epiphany over the course of the semester and school year.

In the next week or two we’ll be announcing the Thesis of the Year award for 2014-15 theses projects, and we’ll soon be starting up the summer session for those of you who have decided to take a summer course or two. Some of your are gearing up for your final semester and your final 599 Thesis Tutorial course. If you’re at all unsure what you’re supposed to be doing for this, or when, check out the blog posts related to the Comp Exam and the Thesis Tutorial, and read up on those sections in the Graduate Student Handbook. As always, if you’ve got any questions just ask me at cloots@mercy.edu.

To Sarah, Josh, and Nicole: it was great to  see you walk the stage at commencement this year. I hope you heard me and the other MA English faculty clapping our little hearts out up on the faculty bandstand as you walked past. Sarah it was wonderful talking to you when you found me before the ceremony. I’ll say to everyone what we talked about then: you are all a part of Mercy College, and you should always know that I and the faculty are here to help and guide you as best as we can, while you’re in the program and after. Don’t hesitate to contact me or other faculty with whom you’ve taken courses for advice or letters or recommendation or anything else of the sort. I hope each of you will take a moment now to congratulate yourself, treat yourself to something nice, here at the end of a year of graduate study and scholarship. I leave you with a shot from before the School of Liberal Arts and School of Social and Behavioral Science Commencement of our president Tim Hall with the keynote speaker JuJu Chang from ABC news. You can see a brief video she uploaded from the stage at the end of the ceremony on her Instagram account (it’s dated May 20, 2015).

JuJu Chang and Tim Hall

Useful Program Info & Tips

End of Semester things:

Hi all, as we end the spring semester I’d just ask everyone to keep in mind things such as the way an incomplete “I” works as a temporary grade replacement (follow the link to the earlier blog post). That isn’t just for people who might be incurring and I now, but for those who incurred one recently. Those must be corrected within a year, or there is no way to remedy the incomplete.  For those planning to take the 599 final tutorial course in the fall, now is the time to secure your thesis mentor from the faculty in the program, and to take your comprehensive exam. Read up in the Graduate Student Handbook or around this program blog for more on all of those. Reach me at cloots@mercy.edu if you have any questions or need help.

Useful Program Info & Tips

Just a word about the Graduate Student Handbook.

To any current students, or curious potential students checking out the program blog, please just note that the program’s Graduate Student Handbook is available for download right there in the left-side menu of the screen. It’s the second item down beneath the link to the College’s official program webpage. It contains tons of information about the program, about the requirements, about the courses you need to take, about how you enroll in the 599 final thesis tutorial course, about how and when you take your comprehensive exam, etc. Check it out!