1. PREPARING FOR SUCCESS
A Complete Overhaul of
New Student Orientation
Brittany Naylor & Matt Painter
McCoy College of Business
Office of Graduate Programs
2. 2
• ~ 39,000 students overall
• ~ 3,800 graduate students
• ~ 400 business graduate students
• Four programs, now six as of Fall 2019
• MBA (FT & PT)
• Master of Accountancy
• MS Accounting/IT
• MS Human Resource Management
• MS Data Analytics
• MS Marketing Research
Overview of Texas State/McCoy
3. 3
Enrollment Trends
• MBA PT: Declining
• MBA FT: Slight Decline
• Master of Accountancy: Flat
• MS Accounting/Info. Tech: Flat
• MS HR Management: Flat
• MS Data Analytics: New/very popular
• MS Marketing Research: New/popular
4. 4
New Student Orientation (NSO)
GOAL:
Empower new students with
resources for success in
graduate school
6. 6
McCoy Graduate Bootcamp
• Vision of new Associate Dean for
Graduate Programs (2014)
• Entirely new structure
• Coincided with first MBA Cohort class
• Implemented Fall 2015
7. 7
Bootcamp: Expanded Goals
• Establishing relationships with peers,
faculty, and staff
• Enhanced self-awareness
• Attempt to address known areas of
weakness that are not currently a part
of the academic curriculum
8. 8
Planning & Prep
• Starts early…really, really early
• Many hands make for light lifting
• First time is more of a challenge
• Risk too much communication
• Charts! ☺
14. 14
Budget
• Can be done for $0 (or close to it)
• Leverage existing resources
• Faculty
• Staff
• Student volunteers
• Other campus departments with a vested
interest in grad student success
• Estimated budget for our event:
• Appx $2,500 (excluding staff time)
15. 15
Post-Event Survey
• Good touchpoint for new students
• Gauge pre- and post-event attitudes
• Be brave: Subjective comments make
future events better
• How to get relevant feedback
16. 16
Best Practices
• Use volunteers
• Be generous with swag
• Don’t feel like you have to be super
creative or reinvent the wheel
17. 17
Best Practices
• Really leverage on-campus
resources/other departments
• VIP invites
• Don’t apologize if framed as “mandatory”
• Little failures don’t matter if it leads to
future improvements…have a long game
18. 18
WHY??
• Invest in your students at a critical time in
their graduate journey
• Sets the stage for next ____ months
• Preempt the questions you hate
answering over, and over, and over, and
• Reduced attrition (?)