Saturday and Off-Campus Programs

As a graduate student in MSIS you have been assigned a faculty advisor. This is a member of the teaching faculty who helps you to understand the courses and options available to you. Your faculty advisor does not handle financial or visa matters. Please use the following links for information:

Financial aid: Student Service Center - www.stevens.edu/ssc/

Visa matters of International Students: ISSC - www.stevens.edu/iss/

Assistantships: contact the assistant of the Associate Dean: alasalle@stevens.edu

Your faculty advisor depends on which program you are in. The following chart lists the programs and their associated faculty advisors.

General Support

The following people will be able to assist you:

• Dr. Jerry Luftman is the Associate Dean of the MSIS program: jluftman@stevens.edu
• Angela Lasalle assists Dr. Luftman and will be able to answer administrative questions about program (e.g., fees, schedule, and location): alasalle@stevens.edu

What You Need to Do IF You Are A New Student

1. Wait until you receive your official letter of acceptance with all the details about your admission.
2. About three weeks prior to classes starting you will receive a telephone call or email from Theresa Rubino, giving you the details about the location of your classes and the starting date. In general the fall lock-step program begins the Saturday after Labor Day and the spring program begins a week after New Year’s Day. This means that if you are in the Saturday Lock-Step program, this would be your first day of classes. If you are in a corporate lock-step program or at one of the off-campus locations (Hanover or Ramsey), your classes will begin in the following week.
3. You do not need to prepare a Study Plan. The Study Plan will be provided to you in the first class that you attend.
4. You do not need to register. Your enrollment forms will be provided to you in the first class that you attend. These include information about the tuition and fees.
5. If you do not attend the first class and therefore do not receive your Study Plan and enrollment form, you must contact Theresa Rubino at 201-216-8167 as soon as possible.
6. Materials for Saturday lock-step classes will be available for purchase at the Stevens Campus Store.
7. Corporate and off-campus lock-step program material should be obtained from the Campus Store or from a web-based book store. Your instructor will provide the necessary information in your first class.
8. Check the date your classes begin, and then simply attend your first class.
9. Let your friends know about the opportunity to take classes with you.

Academic Requirements

When you receive your formal letter, there may be a section titled Academic Requirements where there are pre-requisite courses or grade requirements that are conditions applied to your acceptance. These are the possibilities:

• MIS501 is a pre-requisite course for the MSIS program for students who do not have undergraduate courses in information systems or computer science with grades of B or better. Work experience can also be used to fulfill this requirement. The course is web-based and should be taken as soon as possible and definitely prior to your second semester of courses.
• MIS502 is a pre-requisite course for the MSIS program for students who do not have undergraduate courses in accounting, economics, and statistics, all with a grade of B or better. This course may be taken at any time since it is an on-line course, but must be taken before your Finance class.
• The requirement to earn B's in your first two classes is added by Professor Luftman when he believes that new graduate students do not have a strong history of good grades in their previous academic experience. It is his way of guaranteeing that when you go on after the first two courses you will be prepared for the rigor of the work.

If you have any questions about these requirements, you should contact your faculty advisor.

Important Information About Course Schedules

There are three different course schedules/calendars at Stevens. This can be confusing for students, therefore the following provides a summary of the schedules:

On Campus Evening Program

Fall: Begins in the last week of August and ends by third week in December.

Spring: Begins in the middle of January, (about 1/15) and ends by the middle of May, (about 5/15).

Summer: There are two summer terms, Summer 1 and Summer 2. These are shortened terms and therefore the classes meet twice a week, on a Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday schedule. Summer 1 begins in the middle of May (about 5/15) and ends in the first week of July. Summer 2 begins the second week of July and ends the third week in August.

Saturday and Off-Campus Locations (Lock-Step Programs)

Fall: Begins the first Saturday after Labor Day and ends in the middle of December (about 12/15).

Spring: Begins the first Saturday after New Year's and ends in the first week of April.

Summer: Begins one week after Spring ends and ends by the end of June or first week in July.

Web Campus

Fall: Begins the second week in September and ends by the middle of December (about 12/15).

Spring: Begins the end of January (about 1/22) and ends the first week of May.

Spring 2: This is a very limited course offering period that starts the second week in April and ends the second week in July.

Summer: Begins the end of May (about 5/21) and ends the end of August (about 8/24).

Summer 2: This is a very limited course offering period that starts in the middle of July (about 7/15) and ends in the middle of October (about 10/15).

The current academic calendar can always be found on the Registrar's site at:

www.stevens.edu/registrar/

On the menu at the left, the first item is "Academic Calendars" - look here for actual dates.

Additional information about all MSIS programs may be found at: http://howe.stevens.edu/academics/graduate-programs/information-systems/home/